Tang Dynasty Demon Suppression Division

Compared to last time, the nameless blade is absorbing the energy much more slowly; it probably won't be a matter of a short while.

Li Yuan carefully put away the Fire Crystal, a smile appearing on his face: "Let's go, let's leave here first."

After groping around for a quarter of an hour, they finally emerged from the cave and looked around to find that they had reached the edge of the desert.

In the distance, undulating mountains can be vaguely seen, within which there seems to be a very large city.

"Great, let's go!"

Everyone perked up immediately and hurried towards the foot of the mountain.

Upon entering the outer perimeter of the city, intense magical energy fluctuations lingered in the air, and the ground was littered with the remains of many demonic beasts.

"It seems they've all gone in already." Chu Yunhe crouched down, examined a fresh sword mark, and said in a deep voice.

"Captain, let's go in quickly, we don't want them to steal all the good stuff."

Upon hearing this, Yu Ling'er raised an eyebrow and urged him on.

At this moment, in the heart of the secret realm.

The Taixu Squad was the first to break through the outer defenses of the demonic beasts and enter the towering city. Inside, there were ruins everywhere, and hidden demonic beasts would attack from time to time.

As they made their way to the city center, a wide square came into view, with a giant statue, several dozen feet tall, standing in the very center of the square.

The material of the statue is unknown; it is a dark bluish-gray color, and its surface is covered with traces of erosion over time. Its shape is extremely strange, with the lower half being a winding, coiled snake and the upper half being humanoid, with blurred and distorted facial features.

The hands seemed to be holding something, but now they are empty, and the entire statue exudes an ancient and wild aura.

Leng Ningshuang looked around. The square was very empty. Apart from the statue, there was nothing else. The stone slabs on the ground were cracked and engraved with some discontinuous runes that were difficult to recognize.

"Everyone, spread out and look around. Pay attention to the patterns on the stone slabs and look for any mechanisms," Leng Ningshuang ordered. Taixu and the others immediately dispersed and began to examine the area inch by inch.

Leng Ning Shuang then walked towards the sculpture and used magic to search little by little. However, after searching for a while, she found nothing. The statue was a single piece of stone.

Soon, the group regrouped, shaking their heads. Just as they were about to split up and expand the search area, Zhao Lingyun rushed over, his team members all wounded and exuding a murderous aura.

Seeing that Taixu was already investigating, Zhao Lingyun's eyes sharpened, he snorted coldly, and waved for his team to search the other side of the square. However, he kept glancing at Taixu's group, clearly hoping to find something to steal.

Tian Ce's search was brutal and direct. They kept striking the stone slabs with their weapons, and some even tried to climb to the top of the statue to take a look, but were bounced back by an invisible force and fell down in a sorry state.

Of course, the result was the same: nothing was gained.

When Wanxiang arrived at the square, both teams regained their hope, since Wanxiang was the most professional in terms of formations and mechanisms.

Wen Ruoxu nodded to Leng Ningshuang from afar, and then the group formed a circle, took out their magical artifacts, and began to carefully study and deduce the astrological signs.

"Senior Brother Wen, why does this statue look so familiar? I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, but I just can't remember where." Qian Junlin fiddled with the copper coins, frowning in thought.

Wen Ruoxu looked up at the statue and murmured to himself, "Snake body and human head, supporting the void... This posture doesn't seem like it's guarding, but more like it's offering a sacrifice, or summoning something."

"Judging from the direction of the ground, it should be some kind of sacrificial formation."

The sound of their discussion reached Leng Ningshuang's ears, and her beautiful eyes flickered slightly as she looked at the giant hand hanging in the air above the statue.

Offering? Summoning? That's quite possible, but what exactly is the offering?

She observed carefully again, her gaze falling on the eight broken stone pillars at the edge of the square. At the top of the pillars, she felt that there should have been statues, but they had all been damaged and lost.

"Perhaps the key lies not in the statue itself, but in these eight stone pillars," Leng Ningshuang said as she walked over.

Upon hearing this, Wen Ruoxu turned to look at the stone pillar, a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

Zhao Lingyun had no patience to slowly unravel the mystery here. He fiercely scanned every corner of the square, seemingly wanting to force it open by brute force.

Below the stage, everyone couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh. The Taixu Third Team was clearly in the lead, but now they had to stop and wait for Shenwu.

"This Shenwu is just so lucky!"

"That's right. They ranked the highest in the first two rounds. As long as they don't make any big mistakes in this round, the championship is theirs."

Outside the city, Li Yuan closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings. For some reason, ever since he entered this place, he had been restless and had a vague sense of foreboding.

Especially in the city center, there was a chaotic and mixed atmosphere, as if something dangerous was lurking there.

"Right now, everyone is rushing to the heritage center."

Li Yuan opened his eyes and looked toward the east of the city, where an indescribable aura also emanated, but unlike the strong sense of danger in the center of the square, it seemed more obscure.

It seems that even amidst the crisis, there is still a glimmer of hope.

"Let's go over there." Li Yuan made the decision, pointing with his hand. "I always felt that the heritage center might not be the only option, or rather, it might not be the best option."

Everyone was already convinced of Li Yuan's judgment. Although they were puzzled, no one questioned it. They immediately turned around and quietly sneaked eastward.

This caused an uproar among the crowd in front of the screen.

"Huh? What is Li Yuan doing?"

"Did they discover something?"

"What a pity! Shenwu's decision this time was absolutely wrong!"

But Shenwu was completely unaware of their comments. They had successfully arrived at their destination, which seemed to be a former annexed district. Everywhere there were broken walls and vines, and ancient patterns were carved on the collapsed stone buildings.

The group quickly cleared out several waves of low-level demonic beasts that were entrenched there, and harvested some spiritual herbs that were not particularly valuable.

When they finally reached the ruins of a large building, Ji Fanghua suddenly stopped and frowned as she looked at a huge, collapsed stone pillar deep within the ruins.

"There's a strange spatial fluctuation here, very faint and very ancient," she whispered.

Li Yuan's spirits lifted, and he immediately called to the others. Most of the stone pillar was buried in the soil, and the exposed part was as thick as several people could hug. The runes on the surface were already blurred, but it could still be vaguely seen that it was a broken array node.

"Clean it up."

The five people quickly got to work, moving away the rubble and clearing away the loose soil. Soon, a broken array about three zhang in diameter was revealed.

Most of the formation has been destroyed, and its energy has long been exhausted. Only a few core runes still retain faint spatial ripples.

"It's an ancient teleportation array, but it's too badly damaged," Chu Yunhe concluded after inspection.

"Can it be repaired?" Yu Ling'er asked.

Ji Fanghua stepped forward, gently placed her hand on the runes, closed her eyes to sense them, and after a moment, she opened her eyes and shook her head: "These runes are too ancient, I can't understand them."

"Perhaps, forcibly injecting spiritual power can still activate it, but the destination is unknown."

The group looked at each other, the risk was too great, but the opportunity was equally huge. Where would a hidden ancient teleportation array lead?