A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 954: Pentagonal Crater

"You think far too highly of me, City Lord Sun. I've only been in these Great Ruins for a short time, just like everyone else, so how could I have possibly gathered all four of the other keys. At the moment, I only have two," E Kuai replied with a smile as he flipped a hand over to produce a pair of crimson keys.

"So that means we only have three keys in total. In that case, how can we open these gates?" Sun Tu asked as his brows furrowed slightly, and Fu Jian and Qin Yuan also turned to E Kuai to hear his answer.

"Rest assured, everyone, all five keys have already been assembled. Fellow Daoist Chen, Fellow Daoist Li, I believe it's time for you to show everyone your keys," E Kuai said with a faint smile.

Everyone immediately turned to Han Li and Chen Yang with surprised expressions upon hearing this.

"I was just about to bring out my keys," Han Li replied with a composed expression, but internally, his mind was racing.

E Kuai had led everyone here without any hesitation, seemingly completely unconcerned about the prospect of having insufficient keys, and that had already tipped Han Li off the possibility that he was somehow able to find out who was carrying the other keys and how many they had in their possession.

With that in mind, Han Li pulled out two keys from the front of his robe, while Chen Yang also revealed the single key in his possession.

"So the two of you had three keys all along! As expected, City Lord E always has everything under control," Sun Tu praised with a faint smile.

Chen Yang took an apologetic glance at Sun Tu, then cupped his fist in a salute toward E Kuai as he said, "These keys are extremely important, so Fellow Daoist Li and I have been holding onto them this entire time for safekeeping purposes."

"It's fine. The Puppet City cultivators are still yet to make an appearance, so it's better to be safe than sorry," E Kuai replied with a dismissive wave.

"Thank you for your understanding, City Lord E," Chen Yang said with a relieved expression.

"Seeing as all five keys have already been assembled, then hurry up and stop wasting everyone's time!" Fu Jian harrumphed coldly while glowering at Chen Yang and Han Li with a disdainful expression.

"Hold on, I have something to say before we open the gates," Han Li suddenly said.

"Li Feiyu, you're nothing more than a mere gladiator of Green Goat City, so just keep your mouth shut and hand over your keys! There's no place for you to speak here!" Fu Jian sneered.

"It's fine, let's hear what Fellow Daoist Li has to say," E Kuai said.

"Thank you, City Lord E. I just wanted to ask how we're going to split the treasures in the restricted area among ourselves," Han Li said with a smile, and everyone immediately fell silent upon hearing this.

"City Lord E has already said that everyone gets a share of the treasures in the restricted area, and that they'll be split evenly among everyone," Fu Jian said.

Han Li turned to Fu Jian with a derisive sneer upon hearing this.

Shao Ying also turned to him with a disdainful expression as he scoffed, "Fellow Daoist Fu Jian, you haven't made any contributions on the way here, yet you want to get the same split of treasures as City Lord E? How incredibly optimistic of you!"

"I was only relaying what City Lord E had said earlier! If you think this method of distribution is inappropriate, then you can make your own suggestion, Fellow Daoist Shao," Fu Jian countered with a furious and embarrassed expression.

"City Lord E was the one who led all of us here, and he also acquired two keys, so I think he should get half of the treasures in the restricted area, while we split the rest among ourselves," Shao Ying declared.

"So you suggest that we distribute the treasures based on the merit of our contributions? I suppose that's reasonable. City Lord E has indeed made the greatest contribution out of all of us, but Fellow Daoist Li has also secured two keys, so how much should he get? And what should I be getting for my one key?" Chen Yang asked.

Shao Ying had no response to this.

"I don't think there's any method of distribution that can ensure absolute fairness. In my opinion, we should split the treasures inside into ten parts and distribute them among our five cities. Profund City gets three parts, Green Goat City gets two, and the remaining five parts will be split evenly among our three cities.

“As for how the treasures are distributed among the cultivators of each city, that'll be up to them to decide," Qin Yuan proposed, and everyone fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

"I think this is a reasonable proposal," Chen Yang declared after some contemplation.

Meanwhile, Shi Chuankong was looking a little concerned.

After entering the Scalptia Spatial Domain, he had stayed in Green Goat City, but was then quickly sent to Profound City, so he didn't know which city he belonged to.

Right at this moment, Chen Yang's voice rang out in his mind through voice transmission.

"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Shi, even though you didn't stay in our Green Goat City for long, I still count you as a citizen of our city."

A relieved look appeared on Shi Chuankong's face as he gave a grateful response.

Fu Jian and Sun Tu considered this arrangement momentarily before also expressing their approval.

Shao Ying still seemed to be displeased, and he was just about to say something when E Kuai declared, "Fellow Daoist Qin's proposal is quite reasonable, so let's adopt it for now."

With E Kuai making his decision known, Shao Ying naturally couldn't raise any further objections, and everyone began to discuss the method of opening the gates.

According to E Kuai it was quite simple, and all that had to be done was to push all five keys into their corresponding keyholes at once.

E Kuai handed one of his keys to Shao Ying, while Han Li gave one of his keys to Sun Tu, and before long, E Kuai, Shao Ying, Chen Yang, Han Li, and Sun Tu had positioned themselves in front of the gates, with each of them holding one key.

"Go!" E Kuai yelled as he pushed his key into the hole, and everyone else immediately did the same.

As soon as the five keys were pushed into the keyholes, the stone gates instantly began to tremble, and all of the crimson patterns on their surfaces began to glow radiantly, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

Right at this moment, a string of mechanical clicks rang out from within the palace, and the five keys disappeared into the holes.

Immediately thereafter, a burst of viscous crimson light erupted out of each of the five holes, then twisted themselves together like rope to form a massive crimson rune.

In the next instant, the crimson rune vanished into the stone gates, and all of the crimson patterns on the gates faded away.

The gates then swung open inward, revealing a wide and dark passageway.

"Let's go," E Kuai said as he led the way inside, and everyone else immediately followed along.

After everyone had stepped into the palace, a burst of rumbling rang out from behind them as the stone gates swung shut again.

With E Kuai leading the way, everyone made their way through the passageway before arriving on a plaza.

The entire area was shrouded in darkness, but right at this moment, a series of giant orbs began to light up on the ceiling overhead, much like stars on a dark night sky.

Han Li looked up and was greeted by the sight of radiant starlight cascading down from above alongside bursts of starpower fluctuations that spread in all directions.

Immediately thereafter, a flame lit up on each of the two walls on either side in the distance, then spread over the entire length of the walls as lines of fire, illuminating everything within the area.

The white stone plaza that everyone was standing on wasn't very large, and there was a line of railing no more than a thousand feet up ahead.

Everyone strode over to the railing to discover that there was a bottomless black abyss on the other side, out of which gusts of cold wind were blowing incessantly.

At the center of the railing were three stone arch bridges that were each over a hundred feet wide and roughly a thousand feet in length, leading all the way to a giant circular white altar.

The altar was over ten thousand feet in radius, and it was also surrounded by white railing, giving it the appearance of a lone, circular mountain standing at the center of the abyss.

E Kuai led everyone down the middle stone arch bridge onto the altar, and as soon as everyone set foot onto the altar, they were stunned by the unimaginably formidable bloodline aura that suddenly swept over them.

Only then did Han Li notice that there was a pentagonal crater at the center of the altar, and that was where the incredibly powerful bloodline aura was coming.

Standing on each of the five corners of the pentagonal crater was a strange-looking black scaled beast stone statue. They resembled incredibly rotund toads, each with a pair of wings on their backs. Their necks were disproportionately thin and long compared with their bodies, and connected to each neck was a giant lizard-like head that extended out into the air above the crater.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly at the sight of these stone statues, wary of the possibility that they could be puppets that could spring to life at any moment.

Right as everyone was hanging back, unsure of how to proceed, E Kuai strode over to the edge of the pentagonal crater on his own, and only then did everyone else hurriedly follow along.

Han Li peered down into the crater to discover that was an enormous pond of blood, and there was an unfathomable volume of blood inside that was undulating like the tide, while a layer of dense crimson mist was present over its surface.

However, regardless of how violently the blood in the pond and the crimson mist above it churned and surged, both remained strictly within the confines of the crater.

What was even more surprising to Han Li was that among the churning waves of blood, he could make out pieces of white bones that were as translucent as jade, all of which were giving off tremendous bloodline auras.