Guarding the River of Time-Chapter 299 - 290: Golden Toad Statue, Inverted Altar, Su Mu in Danger!

Chapter 299: Chapter 290: Golden Toad Statue, Inverted Altar, Su Mu in Danger!

Above the waterfall lies a platform, square-shaped, with a side length of exactly one hundred meters.

Beneath the feet is hard rock, covered by water flowing upstream from the waterfall, forming a layer of water about three centimeters deep.

"What is this?"

Su Mu looked toward the center of the platform and discovered a statue standing there.

Upon getting closer, he found that it was a statue of an animal.

It appeared similar to a toad, with its limbs crouched on the ground and its head raised high, glistening with hints of golden light. This was a Golden Toad Statue, ten meters tall, positioned right at the center of the square platform.

The location of the Golden Toad Statue was dry, with no water on the ground. Looking closely, one could see pitch-black runes drawn beneath the statue, resembling an array.

Notably, in front of the Golden Toad Statue sat a gray incense burner, roughly the same size as a regular incense burner, appearing somewhat small in front of the massive statue.

On the incense burner, a yellow incense stick had burned out, leaving behind only a bare stick with faint traces of charred marks.

Su Mu sensed something was awry and rose into the air, looking down from above.

He saw that the water surface on the square platform, centered on the Golden Toad Statue with the black runes as veins, formed a natural altar.

The layer of water on this altar flowed along the rune veins, as if encircling the center Golden Toad Statue.

With the placement of the incense burner and this configuration, this place should be an altar.

However, in this vast, desolate area with no signs of human habitation, who established this altar? And who is being worshiped?

Su Mu descended to the ground, standing before the Golden Toad Statue, looking up to examine it carefully.

Reaching out his right hand to touch the statue, he could feel faint pulses emanating from within, akin to a human’s heartbeat—very weak, yet very rhythmic.

Strangely, however, the Golden Toad Statue contained no signs of life, so where were these pulsations coming from?

Su Mu turned and began to study the incense burner in front of the Golden Toad Statue.

This incense burner looked quite ordinary, emanating no spiritual power fluctuations.

Su Mu spread his Divine Sense, covering the entire altar, focusing intensely, slowly untangling each thread following the altar’s veins.

Suddenly, Su Mu located a crucial array core.

This array core was none other than the incense burner before him!

Though not an expert in arrays, Su Mu had researched them enough to analyze that moving this incense burner would trigger the silent array of the altar.

The key problem was how to set it in motion?

Su Mu’s gaze fell upon the burnt-out incense stick in the burner.

With a wave of his hand, spiritual power transformed into a Spiritual Fire, igniting the remaining half-stick of incense.

As the incense was lit, a wisp of white smoke rose, turning into fine lines that coiled around the Golden Toad Statue.

The next second, the tightly closed eyes of the Toad suddenly opened.

These were blood-red pupils!

The Toad slowly lowered its head, staring at Su Mu beneath.

The sudden change startled Su Mu. As he prepared to leap away, the Golden Toad Statue opened its large mouth and swallowed Su Mu whole.

The entire altar array activated, and a powerful force of confinement enveloped Su Mu!

This caused Su Mu to freeze for half a second.

In that half-second, the Toad directly swallowed Su Mu into its belly.

Instantly, Su Mu felt as if he was spinning in darkness, as though entering a deep abyss with countless strong suction forces crazily absorbing his spiritual power and life force.

Noticing this, Su Mu quickly adjusted his state, sitting cross-legged, activating his cultivation technique to resist.

After a ten-minute stalemate, Su Mu finally managed to completely fend off the overwhelming suction.

Su Mu felt a surge of anger.

You dare to absorb me?

Watch me drain you dry!

Su Mu activated the Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique, a cultivation technique obtained from a woman in white that he had cultivated to the Seventh Layer of Perfection through enhancement.

With the Heaven-Devouring Demon Technique running, he started to ravenously absorb everything from the Golden Toad!

He could sense the Toad’s panic as it bounced frantically around the altar, twisting crazily.

It opened its mouth, trying to spit Su Mu out.

Asking me in is easy, but sending me away is hard.

Now you want to spit me out after swallowing me?

Too late!

Today, if I don’t drain you dry like a shriveled toad, I’m not Su Mu!

The energy poured into Su Mu’s body in torrents as the cultivation technique ran.

Dong—

A shattering sound came from the dantian.

The bottleneck was directly shattered, and his aura began to soar!

Su Mu’s cultivation directly broke through the barrier to the Quasi-Immortal Emperor Realm!

Moreover, his cultivation continued to surge upward!

It rose to a point infinitely close to the Immortal Emperor Realm before slowly calming down.

At this moment, Su Mu felt lightness throughout his body, an indescribable clarity, with a feeling of omnipotence, as if he could roam the world and control everything.

It was the first time he genuinely felt the invincible sensation brought by strong cultivation.

The surroundings quieted down.

Su Mu slowly opened his eyes, finding himself out of the Toad’s belly, sitting cross-legged at the center of the altar.

At this moment, Su Mu’s cultivation was infinitely close to the Immortal Emperor, just one step away. Could his realm now be called a "Half-Step Immortal Emperor" stage?

Taking several deep breaths, he calmed the rampant spiritual power within his body and composed his agitated mind.

He slowly stood up, searching for the shadow of the Golden Toad.

Upon looking around, he discovered that the Toad had disappeared, leaving only the incense burner, with the altar’s ground showing cracks like a spider web.

The black array runes had completely shattered.

Su Mu stood at the edge of the altar, looking down at the waterfall, finding that the water flow had returned to normal.

Initially, the water flowed upstream against the waterfall; now it flows normally from top to bottom.

Evidently, it was the altar’s influence that directly caused the reversal of the three tributaries below, resulting in the unnatural "Inverted Waterfall" phenomenon.

The next second, the system’s voice broadcasted in his mind:

[Congratulations to the host for triggering additional karma reward, with a completion remarkably beautiful, Favor Points +200000]

Hearing the system’s reward, Su Mu was shocked. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This is... two hundred thousand!!

He anticipated the reward might be substantial but didn’t expect it would directly grant him two hundred thousand Favor Points!