Chapter 485: Chapter 485: Activating the Altar
 

“Oh, God, have you abandoned your people? Why do these outsiders defile your temple yet your divine punishment does not befall them?” The outpost leader, watching as his soldiers decreased in number, spoke with indescribable grief and anger.

The steel monster obstructing the entrance was simply monstrous; their arrows would only raise sparks before being deflected.

Runes’ glow constantly flickered, making the inky monster fur even odder.

When the half-horsemen launched melee attacks, their black, almost tentacle-like monster fur entwined around their weapons and then drained their health.

As the half-horsemen’s health drained, the Spider Tank’s health kept increasing.

Adding to the threat was the Iron Stone Demon, summoned with a purple object, which was also extremely powerful.

The Iron Stone Demon’s mobility was cumbersome, but it was invincible in a positional battle. The deflected damage also inflicted great pain on the half-horsemen.

Li Yao’s turret, the Arrow Tower, Dumdum’s totems were all ideal for positional war. In such a defensive battle, they could display extraordinary combat abilities.

Furthermore, the Starfire members were not to be trifled with. When the half-horsemen charged at them, many would be killed.

Ignoring their idle chat, Li Yao wanted to continue triggering task clues and said, “This is the fate of those who worship the Evil God.”

“No, God is great, how could it be the Evil God,” the leader roared, simultaneously swinging his weapon as another squad of half-horsemen launched a charge towards the entrance.

“Great, how laughable. Your tribe has been worshiping this Evil God for generations, what have you gained from it? Your forefathers were noble descendants of the nature demigod, your bloodline carries divine blood from the nature demigod and Mother Earth. But look at you now, even your bodies have been corrupted by the darkness.”

Seeing the leader’s expression change wildly, Li Yao continued, “You abandoned your divine bloodline, not knowing that the Evil God you are worshiping is deceiving you because of your divine blood. How sad.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. You are but a mortal, how could you discuss Gods? It’s disrespectful. The altar behind you holds God’s will. Your insolent words will incur divine punishment.” After finishing his speech, the leader ignored Li Yao and started to gather more half-horsemen, aiming to regain control of the area.

Meanwhile, system alerts started appearing to everyone.

“System: You learned from the outpost lieutenant about the Evil Hoof Tribe’s worship of the Evil God. This hall seems to have hidden secrets. The altar appears ordinary, with no power fluctuations. Still undeterred, you started to probe. The key to activating the altar might be on the lieutenant.”

“System: Triggered temporary task, activate the Outpost Altar; explore the secret hidden by the Evil God”

Activate Outpost Altar

Task description: The Evil Hoof Tribe’s six outposts seem to hide a secret. What are they planning? Who is the Evil God they worship? It’s all a mystery. Even the other half-horse tribes, those of the same race, are in the dark as well.

Task requirement: Activate the six altars

Task reward: For each activated altar, everyone’s damage, healing, and health increase by 2% within the instance. Completing this task at the Master level will earn the title, ‘Altar Opener’.

“Wow, brother, you are amazing. You stimulated a task.” Dumdum admired with great awe.

The others were speechless. They were chatting casually, yet Li Yao and an instance monster had been mumbling for a long time.

At first, they wondered what Li Yao got from talking to the instance monster. Now they finally understood. Many members started admiring him.

“Looks like we’re on the right track,” Unparalleled Enchantress said.

Dumdum nodded continuously, saying: “Definitely, it’s equivalent to all of us gaining 10% additional attributes.”

Sister Li shook her head and said: “Although attributes are important, the task description proves one thing – the Evil Hoof Tribe is linked to this ‘Evil God'”

Feng Yi also agreed: “Definitely. Maybe the final boss of this instance is the Evil God. Since we are on the right path, the other guilds…”

Sister Li sighed and said, “Let’s not talk about it now. After all, they skipped this part and did kill the first boss, didn’t they?”

“Hard to say. Since we are correct, it is impossible for them to achieve the first kill,” said Unparalleled Enchantress.

Despite their discussion, they didn’t reach the final conclusion. They asked Li Yao, and all he said was that they were on the right path.

When the half-horsemen’s melee was nearly exhausted, Li Yao took the initiative to attack. After a few hours, they finally cleared the outpost.

When Dumdum took a crystal with an eerie black aura from the the leader’s body, Unparalleled Enchantress said, “Marked as the key to open the altar, the Fel Crystal affirms my belief that the other guilds have strayed…”

The others were also silent. There should only be one correct path in the main instance. If they were right, it would be extremely difficult for other guilds to secure the first kill.

The key point was that they did not realize they were off track. Even if they found out later and wanted to turn back, that would be a matter of days later.

Moreover, even assuming some guilds made the correct judgment like Starfire, it wouldn’t be easy for them to secure the outpost like Starfire did.

Even with Li Yao, they took nearly a day to capture the outpost. One could only imagine how many days the other guilds would take.

After distributing the equipment, Li Yao entered the hall, with the Starfire members following him in.

Inside the hall, the Fel Crystal floated directly to the center of the altar.

A combined beam of green and golden light shot through the sky. The black crystal was instantly purified into a crisp green color.

It then floated back to Li Yao’s hand, and its name changed to Nature Crystal.

“System: You have released the bloodline power of the half-horse tribe captured by the Evil God and received nature’s blessing.”

Along with the system’s prompt, the Starfire members found that they had an additional buff.

Nature and Earth’s Blessing: Health, Attack, and Healing increased by 2%.

“As expected…”

Everyone exited the hall, noticing that the beam of light didn’t fade away but cast in a wider direction.

However, the light pillar was not straight; instead, it pointed diagonally in a particular direction.

“Looking at the map, it should be pointing towards the first boss’s direction. Activating the other altar should start some sort of Array,” said Feng Yi.

“Next outpost, then,” stated Sister Li.

Having confirmed their judgment, Starfire Guild’s members were filled with enthusiasm.

Li Yao shook his head, saying, “No rush. Everyone log off and rest. We’ll continue in half an hour, make the most of this time.”….