Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1483 - 714:

"Are you talking about this key?"

He slowly raised his right hand, displaying the silver key in midair.

The metal edges shimmered in the light with a cold, hard, and hypnotic sheen.

"Yes."

Zheng Hongxin pressed his lips tight, his voice strained.

As he spoke, he braced his hands on his cane and knee, using the leverage to quickly push himself up from the ground.

Seeing this, Chen Jiandong immediately stepped forward, half his body shielding his teacher from the front.

At the same time his right hand pressed down on the hilt at his waist, both eyes locked on the uninvited guest atop the altar, in case the other side suddenly struck.

The newcomer looked down at the two people below, who were fully on guard, and replied calmly:

"A friend gave it to me."

Hearing this, Zheng Hongxin’s frail body jolted violently.

"You... say that again!"

The old man’s voice carried a clear tremor, his chest heaving, even the arm holding the cane was shaking uncontrollably.

Chen Jiandong hurriedly reached out both hands to support the old man’s arm, his heart full of astonishment.

Ever since he had become the teacher’s disciple, weathering countless storms with the Guild, he had never seen this world-worn Vice Chairman show such an intense emotional fluctuation.

On the altar, Fang Cheng stood before the stone monument, silent and speechless, giving no answer.

He looked at the white-clad Believers prostrating themselves below the altar, then at the leading elder who seemed unusually agitated, and couldn’t help feeling a bit unnerved.

This location linked by the remnant coordinate was strange in every way.

A massive stone monument built from countless white bones, the underground cavern studded with primitive torches, and this group of people whose behavior and expressions were bizarre beyond words...

Had he accidentally barged into some cult’s sacrificial ritual site?

Zheng Hongxin seemed to realize his own loss of composure as well.

He raised the back of his hand to his mouth and coughed hard, forcibly pushing down the surging emotions.

"May I ask, young man."

Zheng Hongxin then lowered his voice, changing his tone as he asked:

"How exactly did you obtain that key in your hand? And what is the name of that friend of yours?"

Seeing that the old man’s mood had settled and his attitude was relatively polite, Fang Cheng rolled his fingers, closing the key back into his palm.

"I don’t know his name."

Fang Cheng’s expression didn’t change as he said casually:

"I ran into him by chance while traveling some time ago. I saw he was in a bit of trouble, so I lent him a hand. He felt I suited his temperament and took a great liking to me, so before we parted he gave me this item as a keepsake."

Of course, all of this was something he had just made up on the spot.

He couldn’t very well say that he’d picked the key up from ruins ten thousand meters under the sea.

The original owner of this key, having recorded the coordinates of this ritual site, very likely belonged to the same group as these Believers before him.

If he honestly laid out how things had happened, these people might trot out some lofty pretext and forcibly demand that he return the token.

While Fang Cheng was turning all this over in his mind, Chen Jiandong, having heard the story, also turned his gaze to the metal key.

As Fang Cheng’s fingers moved, the blue light radiating from the stone monument happened to sweep across the special emblem at the end of the key.

Chen Jiandong’s eyes slowly widened, as if he finally saw the thing in its entirety.

He snapped his head around, looking at his teacher beside him with a face full of shock.

Meeting his incredulous gaze, Zheng Hongxin slowly and solemnly nodded, his expression incomparably grave.

Chen Jiandong’s heart pounded, his Adam’s apple bobbing once, and the hand that had been resting on the hilt loosened quietly.

The two exchanged a quick look.

It was a complex gaze, mixed with excitement, joy, and reverence.

Then, it was as if the two of them had made some major decision.

Zheng Hongxin pushed away Chen Jiandong’s supporting arm and discarded his cane.

Chen Jiandong promptly stepped back half a pace, straightening his clothes.

Then, under Fang Cheng’s bewildered stare, the old man and the young man bent their knees; with a dull thud, they knelt in perfect unison at the foot of the altar steps.

"Zheng Hongxin!"

"Chen Jiandong!"

"Paying respects to the Chairman!"