380: The first artifact

Su Han wiped the blood from his mouth, looking at the constantly trembling barrier, a taste of rust in his throat.

Bi Yao's fingertips traced the moss-covered stone tablet, the light from the lit runes reflecting off her face, making her as pale as paper.

From a distance came the grating sound of the Monster King's claws scraping the ground, each scrape like a saw on their taut nerves.

"This way!"

Bi Yao suddenly grabbed Su Han's sleeve and ran towards the corridor on the east side of the relics.

The damp ground was covered in dark green moss. As Su Han took two steps, a click suddenly sounded from beneath his feet, indicating a mechanism had been triggered.

Countless arrows shot out from hidden holes in the wall. He instinctively spun around and swung his blade, the sound of metal clashing exploding in the confined space.

Bi Yao took the opportunity to feel along the wall. Under her cool touch, she found a slightly recessed stone. The moment she pressed it hard, the arrows stopped abruptly.

At the end of the corridor was a massive bronze door, its knocker carved with twisted serpentine patterns.

The moment Su Han reached out and touched the knocker, the snake eyes suddenly burst with crimson light, and the entire door began to shake violently.

Dozens of bronze snakes emerged from the door. Their bodies shimmered with a faint blue venom, and their open mouths revealed barbed fangs.

Bi Yao grabbed the scattered stones from the ground and threw them at the snake group, but saw that the stones turned into green smoke upon contact with the venom.

"Burn them with fire!"

Su Han remembered the tinderbox at his waist and hastily lit the hemp cloth he carried.

Flames danced in the darkness. The group of bronze snakes let out a teeth-grating hiss and retreated back into the door.

But the crackling of the burning flames also alerted the mechanisms deep within the relics. Spiderweb-like cracks began to appear on the ground, and viscous black liquid surged from the fissures, corroding the stone slabs it touched into pits.

The two were forced back to the center of the corridor. Bi Yao suddenly noticed the rhombus-shaped recesses embedded in the wall.

"Runes! The shape of these recesses matches the outline of the runes on the stone tablet!"

She took out the broken stone slabs she had picked up from the altar and fitted the matching fragments into the recesses.

When the last stone slab was embedded, the cracks in the ground began to heal, and the black liquid also stopped spreading.

Passing through the bronze door, they entered a secret chamber filled with bones.

White bones were piled into small hills on the ground, each bone carved with tiny runes.

Bi Yao knelt down to examine them carefully and found that these runes formed a map, marking the location of three Divine Artifacts.

"The first one is in..."

Before she could finish speaking, the ceiling above her head exploded, and the Monster King's giant claw swept down with a foul wind.

Su Han swung his blade to block. The immense impact knocked him back several steps, his hand splitting open, blood dripping down the blade.

Bi Yao seized the opportunity to rush towards the corner of the secret chamber, where a stone coffin stood. The lid was carved with a relief of a warrior holding a sword.

As soon as she touched the lid, the stone coffin suddenly opened by itself, and a skeleton clad in armor slowly sat up, tightly grasping a rusty longsword in its hand.

A faint green light flickered in the skeleton's empty eye sockets. It raised its hand and struck down with a sword.

Bi Yao dodged sideways and found that the skeleton's attack trajectory was remarkably similar to the rune movements on the stone tablet.

She tried mimicking the rune trajectories in her movements and unexpectedly broke the skeleton's offensive.

The longsword in the skeleton's hand clattered to the ground, transforming into a streak of light that vanished into Bi Yao's palm.

"It's the first Divine Artifact!"

Before Bi Yao could finish speaking, the roars of the Monster group were already close at hand.

Su Han shielded her behind him, but saw that the Monsters did not immediately attack. Instead, they formed a circle around the entrance to the secret chamber.

The Monster King watched them from above, letting out a low roar from its throat, seemingly waiting for something.

The floor of the secret chamber suddenly flipped over, and the two fell into the dark river below.

The icy river water swept them forward. Around them were rugged stalactites, and sharp stalagmites like inverted blades.

Su Han swam hard, grabbed a protruding rock, and pulled Bi Yao close to him.

A faint light shone from the end of the dark river. They drifted along with the current and found a cave covered in glowing moss.

In the center of the cave stood a crystal altar, and a bronze compass floated above it.

The surface of the compass was covered with astrological charts, and the needle spun wildly, pointing towards the depths of the cave.

When Bi Yao approached the compass, a transparent barrier suddenly rose from the altar, trapping her within it.