Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Mysterious Altar

Xu Xin decided to use this beast tendon to make a blue-tier heavy crossbow, after all, his treehouse only had one heavy crossbow, and several directions lacked protection.

But these pork...

Xu Xin had a headache. Three pigs, totaling nearly six hundred kilograms of pork, even if he put it in his current blue-tier backpack, it would still weigh nearly sixty kilograms.

His body could withstand the weight, but in this beast-infested jungle, heavy loads would significantly impair his performance, and adding this much weight would also be unbearable for the Silver King beneath him.

He couldn’t use the previous method now; Li Wenxi couldn’t be in the treehouse now.

Forget it, let’s leave it here for now. Although it’s easy for beasts to eat, it’s not a big deal, pork isn’t exactly a prized possession.

Xu Xin flipped onto the wolf, and Keke also climbed onto the wolf’s back.

Xu Xin looked at the map. Around the general vicinity of the blue glowing building, there were several bright red dots, not as bright as the brown bear Xu Xin first encountered, but significantly brighter than wild boars and his mount, the Silver King.

”Could it be a tiger?”

The last time Xu Xin came here, he saw a tiger. That large orange-yellow tiger made him break into a sweat back then; there were indeed tigers in this jungle.

Even though compared to the previous brown bear, a tiger is just a 300-kilogram small creature, the agility and explosiveness of felines are undeniable, definitely the king among its weight class. Even if the Silver King grew to 300-400 kilograms, it wouldn’t be a match for a tiger.

Tigers and brown bears are the top predators in the jungle, basically leaving each other alone because they both know the other isn’t easy to deal with.

Even brown bears are cautious of tigers, and Xu Xin has no intention of dealing with them now.

Of course, an ordinary tiger naturally isn’t a match for the massive brown bear he just encountered; on Earth, brown bear subspecies living alongside tigers weigh around 300-400 kilograms, which is why they don’t interfere with each other. That big one earlier was tons in weight, undoubtedly the ruler of this jungle.

But Xu Xin doesn’t believe the tigers in this world are ordinary tigers.

He had to bypass those red dots.

Felines mostly hunt using stealth, followed by a burst of speed. They won’t chase if you run far enough in advance.

”Silver King, head in that direction. No need to rush, just go slowly.” Xu Xin instructed Silver King on the route, and Silver King let out a ”howl” and proceeded at a leisurely pace.

Xu Xin didn’t dare to take out the blue-tier resources anymore, after all, if he attracted a tiger, it would be over.

Small animals occasionally darted by, but without the lure of blue-tier resources, these little animals wouldn’t foolishly approach him. Xu Xin’s crossbow accuracy dropped significantly, but it was a good chance to practice moving targets.

”Whoosh!” The crossbow bolt hit a rabbit leaping from the grass.

[Hunted a wild rabbit, points gained: 1 point.]

Xu Xin dismounted the wolf, went over, skillfully pulled out the crossbow bolt and put it back in the quiver, then disassembled the rabbit and put it in the backpack.

This was the tenth shot, only three hit, but despite the low hit rate, Xu Xin was very satisfied. He’s not a professional crossbowman, and this moving target hit rate was already high. No hunter hits every shot.

Constantly keeping an eye on the map, Xu Xin rode the Silver King through the bright red dots, getting closer and closer to the blue glowing stone pillars.

At this distance, Xu Xin could already see the statues on the stone pillars.

”These are... beast statues? Silver King, increase your pace, let’s head to the pillar’s location.”

”Howl!” Silver King responded, instantly speeding up.

In just a few seconds, they traversed the jungle, and the view opened up, the entire structure fully presented itself before Xu Xin.

”It is indeed an altar!” Xu Xin muttered, looking at the structure before him.

This altar occupied hundreds of square meters in the jungle, surrounded by the entire forest.

The altar’s floor wasn’t dirt but paved with dark green bricks, with countless scratches, and the color turned somewhat dull under exposure to the elements, adding some age to it.

The altar was square-shaped, with nearly a meter thick stone pillars at each corner, each about ten meters high, inscribed with peculiar patterns and topped with unique beast statues.

In the center of the altar was a stone table with an uneven surface, with bloody red patterns on its sides, resembling veins, seemingly flowing slowly under the sunlight.

Seeing these red patterns on the tabletop, Xu Xin’s heart skipped a beat.

These patterns were very similar to the blood-red filaments on the vines earlier, reminding him of those underground creatures.

This altar must be related to those creatures!

Riding on the wolf’s back wasn’t ideal for dodging, Xu Xin dismounted. Keke immediately jumped onto his shoulders.

”Keke, this altar, can you sense any danger?” Xu Xin asked Keke for input.

Keke tilted its head, staring at the altar for a long time, seemingly puzzled, then nodded and finally shook its little head: ”Chirp.”

”You can sense something unusual, but it’s not dangerous to you, is that what you mean?”

”Chirp!” Keke’s response was affirmative this time.

Xu Xin exhaled, choosing to trust Keke, steadied his nerves, and stepped into the altar’s vicinity, stepping on its stone surface.

”Click.”

At the moment both his feet landed inside the altar, Xu Xin seemed to hear a sound, very subtle, but it caught his tense attention.

”Seriously...?” Xu Xin winced slightly at the corner of his eyes, hoping he hadn’t triggered any mechanism.

He swallowed, pulled an orange from his backpack, quickly ate it, and looked at the map, relieved as those bright red dots were not attracted by the orange. It seemed the range of attraction for blue-tier materials wasn’t too large.

Finishing the orange, Xu Xin’s mind cleared up considerably, the fatigue from earlier hunting vanished completely.

Taking a deep breath, he crouched and touched the stone floor with his hand, but no prompt appeared.

He approached one corner of the altar, where a bulky stone column stood, topped with a beast statue.

The beast had a large body, sturdy short limbs, and two exaggeratedly large tusks, even longer than the statue’s body.

”This is a wild boar statue?” Despite the statue’s imposing masculine and abstract design, Xu Xin immediately recognized it as a wild boar.

He glanced at the other three stone pillars, each topped with a different beast statue; although the statues were all extravagant and abstract, Xu Xin identified them as a wolf, a wildcat, and a rabbit.

Looking back at the pillar before him, he reached out and touched it.

The stone pillar was warm from the sun, and its surface was a bit rough.

[Altar Stone Pillar (Blue): ”Deities” will carve the required offerings on the pillar for the sacrificers to choose from.]

Deities? Offerings?

These words made Xu Xin’s heart race.

Indeed, when talking about an altar, there must be a sacrificial entity, which is this so-called deity.

But why were the words ”deities” in quotes in the description?

”Deities...” Xu Xin thought of that mysterious voice in his mind, ”Could it be this mysterious voice? Or...”

Xu Xin looked towards the stone table in the center, the bloody patterns seemed more vivid.

”Or are they the creatures underground?”

”Who exactly is this altar dedicated to?”