Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 353 Offerings
"What are you doing?"

Pei Nian was quite surprised by Shen Jichi's actions.

Even if it's just to escape, one shouldn't so resolutely give up their powerful superpowers.

Shen Jichi did not answer, a smug smile on his tired and pale face, and turned to walk out.

He staggered, looking disheveled yet calm.

Pei Nian wanted to chase after him, but she was worried about Gu Jingnian, so she turned around and supported him.

“Chase,” Gu Jingnian said.

In the short time the two hesitated, Shen Jichi had already walked far away.

Gu Jingnian was weaker than Shen Jichi. He dragged his feet and chased after them for a short distance until he reached the end of the beam of light around him. He was tightly bound and could hardly move.

Pei Nian helped him up and stopped too.

Over there, Shen Jichi went even further, almost disappearing from their sight.

"You go after them first," Gu Jingnian murmured. "We need to stop this furnace."

"What about you?"

"Only by stopping the furnace can I be saved."

Pei Nian knew this was true and said, "You must hold on."

After saying that, she let go of his hand, glanced back at Gu Jingnian, and chased after Shen Jichi.

As soon as grief subsided, Gu Jingnian collapsed at the bottom of the furnace.

He felt the beams of light constantly draining his life essence from his blood, making him dizzy and increasingly weak.

The moment he fell, his skin appeared extremely fragile. A piece broke off and turned into dust. There was no flesh or blood beneath his skin; instead, it appeared dry, cracked, and sand-like.

He didn't tell Pei Nian that he was actually too weak to continue. At this moment, weariness washed over him, and his eyelids felt as heavy as if they weighed a ton. He finally couldn't help but close his eyes.

Pei Nian chased after Gu Jingnian for a while, wanting to turn back and take a look at him, but before she could turn her head, she caught a glimpse of Shen Jichi climbing on the furnace wall.

From a distance, the furnace wall appears smooth and flat, with no footholds to climb. However, upon closer inspection, one can see that it is covered with a lot of black residue, resembling a pot that has been used for many years and is full of soot.

If you grab the ashes with your hands, you can easily scrape off a lot of dust, and if you step on them, they will easily become loose.

But Shen Jichi actually climbed up the furnace wall little by little, and finally reached the opening above.

Meanwhile, strange beasts were still being sucked into the furnace, accompanied by fierce winds and roars. Shen Jichi glanced back and jumped out without hesitation.

Pei Nian ran to the furnace wall, where the drifting dust covered her head.

As she watched Shen Jichi leap out of the furnace, a sense of doubt arose in her heart. She thought to herself, perhaps Shen Jichi did all this just to escape from his predicament.

If Shen Jichi doesn't know how to stop the furnace, then chasing after him is pointless.

If they end up with nothing, and Gu Jingnian has already turned to ashes... Thinking of this, Pei Nian felt a sharp pain in her heart, as if she had been stabbed.

She wanted to go back to find Gu Jingnian, or escape from Jusai City with him at all costs, or die together—anything would be better than parting at this moment.

Despite her chaotic state of mind, Pei Nian still managed to maintain a sliver of composure.

"wrong."

She muttered something to herself.

One thing she was certain of was that Shen Jichi would never cripple his martial arts just to escape.

Gu Jingnian was not a man of his word. Since he had promised to release Shen Jichi, there was still a chance to fight back. Moreover, retaining his superpowers would make it much easier to escape than giving them up.

Shen Jichi must have other motives for doing this today, and now is the only opportunity to capture him and find out the truth.

Once he understood this, Pei Nian cleared his mind of all distractions and began to climb up the furnace wall.

She was lighter and more agile, and climbed faster.

"Click."

Shen Jichi leaped off the furnace wall and crashed onto the cold, icy rocks. One of his feet broke off with a sharp crack.

His face contorted in pain, and he rolled on the ground, landing in the crack where the ground had broken, where he fell onto a pile of glowing spirit stones and closed his eyes.

After a short while, he managed to stand up and limped toward the stone platform.

The stone platform continued to tilt, breaking the rocks beneath its feet and raising blades of light. Yet, Shen Jichi walked calmly and composedly through this chaotic scene, as if he were in the middle of a grand performance.

"Lord...Lord Marquis."

A faint call, tinged with painful groans, suddenly rang out from ahead.

Shen Jichi looked over and saw Xun Yan.

Xun Yan fell off the stone platform, landing awkwardly in a crevice in the rock, where he was sensing the spiritual energy of the Gathering Spirit Jade below.

"This old man has not disappointed the Marquis's expectations." Xun Yan's voice was soft, but his tone was somewhat excited as he said, "After more than ten years, this old man has finally opened the altar again."

"You did very well." Shen Jichi walked over, picked up the cane that had fallen beside Xun Yan, and continued walking forward with the cane in hand, without stopping for Xun Yan for a moment, without comforting him about his injuries, and without caring about his life or death.

The stone platform collapsed, making the already steep steps even more difficult to climb.

Shen Jichi crawled on all fours, and halfway there, he looked back and saw Pei Nian still chasing after him in the distance.

He ignored them and resolutely climbed the stone platform.

The red mist still lingered on the stone platform, and the divine beasts on the four pillars grew larger and larger, constantly roaring.

In the center of the stone platform, the blood pool was already full, but Wei Chan, standing in the pool, was still full of energy, with an excited look on her face.

Shen Jichi walked over slowly, tapping his cane on the ground with a thud.

"you?"

Hearing the noise, Wei Chan looked up and saw that it was Shen Jichi. She was first surprised, then wary, and then a look of madness appeared in her eyes.

Before Shen Jichi could get close, Wei Chan shouted, "You're too late, you can't stop me now."

"is it?"

Shen Jichi's voice was weak and low, and it certainly didn't sound as imposing as Wei Chan's.

Wei Chan raised her hand, and the scattered starlight gathered together as she moved, forming a wall of light that blocked the way between her and Shen Jichi.

She had only just learned this ability, and her movements were clumsy, so the wall of light was very low and thin.

Shen Jichi completely ignored the light wall, bypassed it, and walked towards the last pillar.

The pillar is carved with a Bixiong, which is somewhat similar to the stone carving in the Zhenfu Hall of Kaiping Division. It has a tiger's back and a bear's waist, short and thick limbs, dragon horns on its head, and a dragon tail behind it.

Shen Jichi took out a dagger and slashed his palm.

Blood splattered on the stone carving of the Bixie, the thin stone shell peeled away, its nostrils opened and closed, emitting thunderous sounds, the tiger fur around its mouth stood up, and the dragon scales on its body shimmered.

The Bixie had awakened, but Shen Jichi was still clenching his fist tightly, continuing to feed it with his blood, and so it quickly grew larger.

The originally crumbling stone platform stopped collapsing and gradually began to stand upright again.

Shen Jichi then withdrew his hand.

He walked towards the pool of blood.

"What are you doing?" Wei Chan asked, a hint of unease in her voice.

She had already stood on the two stone spikes, and she would absorb all the essence refined by the furnace. So why would Shen Jichi help her?
Wei Chan couldn't understand this and felt that Shen Jichi was definitely trying to take her current position.

She became increasingly wary, constantly using her newly learned supernatural abilities to try and block Shen Jichi with walls of light, but no matter what she did, Shen Jichi still reached the edge of the blood pool.

"Don't come any closer!" Wei Chan shouted, "This princess orders you not to take another step forward!"

Shen Jichi actually stopped.

It seems that he, a loyal subject of the Great Rui Kingdom, still obeys the orders of the Rui princess.

He turned around, his back to Wei Chan, knelt down by the blood pool, raised his hands as if burning incense and praying, and muttered incantations.

Wei Chan asked, "What are you doing?"

Although she was puzzled, she was at least relieved. As long as Shen Jichi didn't interrupt her, she would be able to successfully refine a powerful superpower today.

Suddenly, a deep and mysterious voice rang out, echoing throughout the entire valley.

"Who offered this?!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Jichi bowed down and loudly replied, "Shen Jichi pays respects to Gun Gong!"

"A nobody, I don't know you."

Shen Jichi was renowned throughout the Central Plains, yet he was called an unknown nobody. He did not disagree in the slightest and respectfully said, "This humble one is willing to serve you at your service."

Wei Chan looked around but saw no one. She was very puzzled, wondering where the so-called Gun Gong was.

She felt the entire stone platform floating upwards, and at the same time, she felt the blood flowing out of her body faster, and the drifting red mist no longer entered the soles of her feet.

But then the mysterious voice rang out again.

“Very good, I am very satisfied with your offerings.”

Shen Jichi then replied, "It would be my honor to satisfy Your Excellency."

As he spoke, he seemed to turn his head slightly to look at Wei Chan.

Wei Chan felt Shen Jichi's gaze, her heart skipped a beat, and a strong sense of fear began to rise within her.

She had a terrible thought—could the so-called "tribute" refer to herself?

The position I'm standing in may not be for drawing power from the furnace.

It was an altar.

(End of this chapter)