Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse
Chapter 140 - 139: The Ring on the Altar Table

Chapter 140: Chapter 139: The Ring on the Altar Table

After blocking the mine, Xu Xin didn’t dare to stay by the edge of the hills. He immediately mounted the Silver King and commanded it to dash into the resource area surrounded by hills, starting to loot the blue-grade resources as quickly as possible.

It’s basically similar to the resource area on the other side of the treehouse.

There weren’t many fruit-bearing trees or shrubs left here either. The blue-grade resources only consisted of a few poplar trees and a blackwood tree, but he did find some blue-grade herbs, which were useless to him but could be used by Qi Xuefei to make blue-grade pills.

As for food, there was only a regular green-grade apricot tree and a small patch of green-grade mushrooms. Upholding the principle of not wasting anything, Xu Xin still harvested all of these and stored them in his backpack.

After exploring the entire resource area, Xu Xin rode the Silver King to the altar of the beast statues.

Last time, the Silver King was very scared of this altar and trembled even when stepping into it. But this time, it didn’t feel afraid at all and easily stepped into the beast altar.

Perhaps it’s because after becoming a mutated beast, it was no longer one of the altar’s sacrifices.

"Ka."

The moment Silver King stepped into the altar, that strange sound came from beneath the altar again, and then Mimi also stepped into the altar range, but without causing any sound.

Xu Xin had expected this and wasn’t scared. He looked at the four stone pillars at the four corners of the altar.

"So it is like this." He was lost in thought.

Originally, two of the four stone pillars had been resolved through sacrifice by Xu Xin. They should have been empty, but now, new statues had appeared on the pillars.

The spot where the rabbit statue was originally had been replaced by a mouse statue.

Despite its body being smaller than other statues, its front teeth were very frightening, like two sharp guillotines, as if a single bite could directly sever the heads of other creatures.

The fox statue replaced the wildcat statue.

The size of the statue wasn’t much different from that of the wildcat, but the tail’s proportions were extremely exaggerated. The bushy tail was raised high, twice the length of the body, and much larger in volume than the entire body. However, Xu Xin couldn’t tell at a glance what powerful abilities this tail had.

The wild boar statue and the wolf statue hadn’t changed, and even the progress of the blood-red patterns on them hadn’t changed.

When he left last time, the pattern on the wild boar statue’s pillar had nearly covered the statue. Now, its progress was still stuck at the same spot. It seemed that sacrificing four or five more tusks might summon the mid-level mutated wild boar with terrifying tusks from the statue.

Unfortunately, now that all the beasts in the jungle had disappeared, to make sacrifices to the altar, they would have to wait until the beasts returned.

Xu Xin suddenly thought of something.

The last time this altar’s floor was scratched by the rabbit ears of the Blood Pattern Rabbit, the scratches were quickly repaired, making the floor automatically restore itself, similar to the situation in the salt mine just now!

... Damn, could it be that this altar is also a living thing!

The thought that he might be standing on top of a giant creature made him shiver.

No, no, no, no, it shouldn’t be.

Every time he stepped onto this altar, a "ka" sound came from below the altar’s floor. This sound clearly resembled some mechanical device rather than the sound a living creature would make.

It’s just unknown, every time he stepped onto this altar, what kind of mechanism he triggered.

"Ying!" Keke, who had been looking around on Xu Xin’s shoulder, suddenly saw something and squeaked, pointing its little paw towards the altar’s center table, indicating that there was something there.

Xu Xin looked over, and sure enough, there was a very small object on the altar table.

"What is that..."

Riding the Silver King forward, Xu Xin saw clearly the small object placed on the altar table, and his expression changed immediately.

"... How could this thing be here?!"

Looking at the ring on the altar table, Xu Xin showed a puzzled expression.

He was all too familiar with this ring, having worn it for some time.

Isn’t this the ring he returned to the Chang Yin family? The ring personally made by Chang Yin and given to Xue Lan!

Why would this ring appear here?

Has the Chang Yin family... been here?

Xu Xin looked at the ring. The original ring was a blue-grade item, emitting a blue glow. However, the ring on the sacrificial table had now become an ordinary ring, and according to Xu Xin’s identification ability, the ring was emitting a white glow.

Has the blue-grade ring turned white-grade?

Xu Xin picked up the ring from the altar table.

[Damaged Mutated Beast Ring (White): A ring that once possessed impressive abilities, but after being sacrificed, it has been completely damaged, turning into a very ordinary ring.]

This ring was sacrificed to the altar.

Chang Yin mentioned that the ring contained materials from a high-level mutated beast, perhaps that’s why it was able to be sacrificed to the altar.

But why did the Chang Yin family come here to sacrifice?

Could it be...

Xu Xin suddenly realized what would occur after making a sacrifice to the altar table here.

Isn’t it to transform the beast statues into real beasts!

Could it be that the Chang Yin family intends to sacrifice here to revert to human form?

Very likely, extremely likely.

They said they came to accomplish something significant on the surface, promised by that mysterious voice. They also mentioned that the next time they met, they would give him an unexpected surprise.

Moreover, Xue Lan was eager to leave, so much so that she didn’t even want to visit his small treehouse.

In hindsight, they probably wanted to quickly reach this altar, make sacrifices, and then transform back into humans.

This is most likely the promise that mysterious voice made to them, assuring them that once they returned to the surface, they could transform back into humans again.

But... did they succeed?

Xu Xin observed the surroundings of the altar. Apart from this ring, there was nothing else related to the Chang Yin Xuelan family.

He thought of the process of the beast statue transforming into a beast.

Blood-red patterns covered its entire body, then the statue cracked open, red light burst forth, and finally, the statue shattered. A mid-level mutated Blood Pattern Beast emerged from the broken stone statue, as if shedding a layer of stone skin.

If this is also the process for the Chang Yin Family to become human...

Xu Xin took a deep breath.

The first step in transforming a statue into a creature is to let blood-red patterns cover the entire statue.

If this is true, they might have already turned into mutated humans. Just like the first survivors in the underground city who grew blood-patterned fur all over their bodies, becoming mutated monsters.

Of course, this is just Xu Xin’s guess, but it’s not entirely impossible; the possibility is even quite high.

"Could it really be so..." Xu Xin was now extremely worried about the Chang Yin Family, as they were his life-and-death allies. He had helped them reach the surface, and likewise, without their help, he might not have returned to the surface either.

He truly didn’t want anything to happen to the Chang Yin family. They not only possessed the contract-making skills he lacked but were also his recognized partners.

Aside from his worries, he recalled a sentence the maid had said to Xue Lan.

"Madam, there’s no hurry for that matter. It’s no use going now; we can wait until it gets dark to set off."

This sentence was said when she persuaded Xue Lan to visit Xu Xin’s treehouse.

It’s no use going during the day, only at night is it useful.

Could it be that the altar at night is different from the altar during the day?

On careful thought, he had indeed never seen the altar at night. The latest he had been there was early evening, with the sunset still visible, and it was a while before it got dark. Not wanting to be outside in the dark, he hurried back to the treehouse.

"...I’ll come tonight to take a look." Xu Xin planned to come fully equipped tonight to take a look here.

If something were to happen to the Chang Yin family, he could lend a hand.

Xu Xin checked the altar knife in the altar again and unexpectedly found that the altar knife was no longer in the altar. The stone drawer was empty.

"...Did Chang Yin’s family take it?" Xu Xin murmured to himself, "Could it be they are still operating in this resource area?"

Last time, Xu Xin took the altar knife back to the treehouse, leading to the appearance of the Blood Pattern Giant. Now that nothing has happened around, does it mean the one with the altar knife is still nearby?

But Xu Xin had just explored almost every place around and found nothing else moving.

The map showed no red dots either. Of course, the Chang Yin Family, like Keke and the crocodile, did not appear as targets on the map, which he had confirmed after coming out from the underground city.

No, there is still one place unchecked.

The lake in this resource area, the bottom of the lake.

"Let’s go, Silver King, Mimi, let’s go to the lake." Xu Xin mounted the wolf, and the Silver King immediately dashed forward.

Arriving at the lake, the state of the lake was completely different from when Xu Xin last came.

Last time, there were many beasts drinking water by the lake, and there were some red dots indicating crocodiles in the shallow water area. Now, both the lakeside and the lake were very tranquil, with no red dots showing on the map.

Xu Xin could vaguely see a few fish swimming in the lake; they were likely the only remaining fish in the lake.

Xu Xin patted Keke’s small head on the Silver King’s neck and instructed, "You wait on the shore; I’ll go take a look."

"Ying!" "Awoo!"

He was wearing a purple-grade scale armor set, which allowed him to move freely underwater. Although he hadn’t consumed the newly obtained blue-grade fish bladder that could enhance resistance to water pressure, short diving wouldn’t be a problem.

He didn’t intend to eat blue-grade resources here. His dining table, stove, and grill could maximize the effectiveness of the resources, so eating them here would be a waste.

This lake shouldn’t be that deep, right? Let’s go down and have a look first.

Xu Xin hadn’t consumed water grass, took a deep breath, and dove into the water.

Opening his eyes underwater, he could see the entire lake view.

A very ordinary lake, with depth gradually increasing from the lakeside to the center, reaching about six to seven meters deep in the center, much more normal compared to the lake near the treehouse.

While wandering under, he found there was hardly any resource in the lake.

Hmm?

Before he reached the center, Xu Xin saw several footprints on the sediment at the lake bottom.

Three adult prints and one child’s footprint. They were heavy, deeply embedded in the mud.

These are the Chang Yin family’s footprints!

They walked underwater!

Xu Xin quickly surfaced, inhaled water grass, dove once more, and swam following the footprints’ direction.

The footprints didn’t lead straight but twisted and turned at the lake bottom as if searching for something.

Finally, the footprints stopped near the center of the lake.

Before them was a deep hole the size of a well. Looking inside, it was pitch black, and no end could be seen.

Again?

Did they jump down?

... Have they returned underground again?!