Caroline was the sharpest of the lot—she turned back all of a sudden and locked onto the charging Qianye. But how could the giant crocodile allow any distractions? A barrage of crystalline arrows shot out at this point, inflicting another wound despite her frantic defense.

As the key character in their formation, Elder Wei’s position looked easy but was actually the most crucial since he had to adapt and compliment everyone’s deficiencies. He never attacked all this time and only relied on weakening enemies or strengthening allies to affect the battle.

Such a strategy increased his origin power efficiency, and it wouldn’t be a problem for them to fight for an entire day. On the other hand, though, it was highly taxing on his mind and there was no leeway for mistakes.

He actually failed to discover Qianye immediately and only looked up after hearing Caroline’s warning.

Qianye whipped out Cui Yuanhai’s origin gun and unfurled the pair of wings on his back. With the addition of the Wings of Inception, the gun’s firepower quickly reached the peak of grade-seven.

Qianye took aim at the old man and fired! Amidst a thunderous roar, Qianye was pushed back over ten meters by the recoil. This went to show just how powerful that shot was!

Elder Wei’s expression changed drastically as flames appeared at the muzzle. This was the first time he had lost his composure since coming into the cave. He tossed the book in his hand and produced an ancient envelope, which he tore open at lightning speed. A red barrier appeared around his body with faintly discernible runes floating around on its surface.

But the bullet arrived before the barrier could stabilize!

The red barrier lit up under the fierce explosion and then shattered along with the bullet. However, Elder Wei wasn’t in good shape, either—his face was pale, he was coughing up blood, and the origin arrays around him were all tottering on the verge of collapse. This sharply increased the group’s casualty rates. Cui Yuanhai’s gun had abandoned everything fancy in exchange for pure firepower and its value had finally come into play here.

At this moment, Qianye had fallen into grave danger as Anderfel and Keimor flew away from the wavering soldiers to launch a pincer attack on Qianye. Meanwhile, the old man produced yet another envelope and whipped out the letter within. This was his third ancient envelope—the first one was used to injure the giant pegmat.i.te crocodile and the second was used to defend against Qianye’s ambush. Whatever the third one’s function was, it was bound to be astonis.h.i.+ng.

On the other end of the battlefield, Caroline screamed, “It’s you!”

Ignoring the threat of the giant crocodile, she raised her whip and lashed out from afar, sending a bolt of lightning streaking toward Qianye. The letter in Elder Wei’s grasp unleashed a beam of light that went straight for Qianye’s abdomen. This silver beam wasn’t as fast as the golden one from before, but the moment it appeared, Qianye could sense that he had been locked onto. The argent radiance adjusted its course according to every little movement of his.

Judging from how serious the elder was in its handling, Qianye knew that it wouldn’t be easy to escape.

At this critical juncture, Qianye suddenly revealed a mocking smile. His figure flickered for a brief moment and actually disappeared!

Caroline cried out, “He’s going inside!”

Elder Wei glanced up hurriedly only to find Qianye’s figure flicker and vanish into the door.

Having lost its target, the silver beam flew several times around the area before landing in a group of pegmat.i.te crocodiles. A halo spread out quietly from the point of contact, and all the creatures in its coverage lost their lives at the same time.

Elder Wei sighed, “My Seal of Tyranny!” before coughing up a mouthful of blood.

With everyone’s attacks missing their target, the battle situation took a turn for the worse. Caroline was struck several times by the crystal arrows and had to take out her trump cards to avoid getting killed. Elder Wei looked withered and listless—the drain from using two powerful killing moves was significant, and the damage from Qianye’s shot was greater than it seemed on the surface.

Casualty rates among the soldiers soared in this short period. Anderfel and Keimor jumped back into the fray, sparing neither blood energy nor origin power to stabilize the situation. Both of them also sustained numerous wounds during this ordeal.

Finally, Elder Wei caught his breath and began boosting them once more. It was just that his boosting state had weakened quite a bit and the effects were far inferior. The high-ranking warriors were fine since they were considered expendable in critical situations, but Caroline’s situation became quite perilous without those powerful buffs.

At this point, they were only a couple dozen meters away from the giant door, yet this short distance seemed like a thousand miles and no one knew when they would finally arrive.

After pa.s.sing through the door, Qianye felt his vision pa.s.s through a kaleidoscope of mottled colors and realized that this was a spatial transformation. In his astonishment, he quickly withdrew his blood energy and origin power so as not to interrupt the process.

In the blink of an eye, Qianye had appeared in a new world.

Dazzling sunlight showered down from the sky above. Qianye, who had gotten accustomed to the darkness of the underground world, couldn’t help but squint his eyes. Beneath his feet, a gentle slope stretched slowly into the distance, and the gra.s.s was like a magnificent verdant carpet dotted with wildflowers.

There were forests, peaks, lakes, and rivers in the distance. If it wasn’t for the dark void at the ends of one’s vision, this place would be comparable to an immortal realm.

At this moment, Qianye was standing on top of a hill and he could see the half-opened giant door floating in the air behind him. Through the crack therein, he could see the vague imagery of the world on the other side.

The hill gradually sloped downward to the other side of the continent, beyond which was the boundless void.

Beneath Qianye’s feet was actually a floating continent no more than a few hundred kilometers in radius. Usually, small landma.s.ses like this wouldn’t form any natural barriers or support life, but Qianye could breathe naturally here and didn’t feel any pressure at all.

Looking upward, he could see a floating landma.s.s far away surrounded by little floating islands. That was the neutral lands, and the one he was standing on was a small isolated island on its borders.

The view here was exceptionally open and afforded the spectator an un.o.bstructed view of the region. Yet, Qianye couldn’t find any traces of Claudia; who knew where she was hiding right now?

It was at this time that a m.u.f.fled sound—akin to the beat of an ancient drum—shook the entire island. Qianye felt numb from head to toe, and his blood energy was thrown into an extremely uncomfortable turmoil.

Qianye’s gaze landed immediately on a distant peak where the sound had originated. In his ears, that sound was not the beat of a drum but that of a heart!

A heartbeat capable of shaking an entire island!

Qianye sped toward the peak without the slightest bit of hesitation. Such a terrifying heartbeat couldn’t have come from anything else but the Earth Dragon. The tall peak stood out like a sore thumb on this lone island and was most likely the objective of Elder Wei’s group.

Qianye reached abnormal speeds during his all-out dash, leaving numerous afterimages along the way. He traversed the vast gra.s.sy knolls in the blink of an eye and ran into the forest. For someone with the Bloodline Concealment ability, the forest was the best hiding place. The leaves in the treetops were great for obstructing vision, making up for his inability to turn invisible.

While Qianye was moving stealthily through the forest and toward the peak, some movement appeared around the giant door. In a flash of rippling light, Elder Wei, Caroline, and a dozen soldiers charged onto the island.

All of them were covered in wounds—Caroline had two crystal arrows stuck in her back and only half of her Thunderous Whip remained. Elder Wei’s beard was now scorched, and his robes were tattered, exposing half a withered leg.

Anderfel and Keimor also survived, but their auras were weak and the former had lost his left arm. The remaining soldiers had it better, most of them sustaining only light injuries, but only a dozen of them were left out of a hundred. The high-ranking soldiers were quite limited in their power and could no longer pa.s.s through the door once injured. The ones left behind had likely turned into bug-food by now.

Caroline turned back cautiously after charging through the door. “Elder Wei, can you close the doors?” After seeing the many tricks up his sleeves, Caroline’s address had undergone a subtle transition from old man to Elder Wei.

Elder Wei laughed wryly, “I don’t have the strength for that.”

“Then, prepare to fight!” Caroline roared decisively.

Nonetheless, there was no movement from the door. Neither the insects nor the pegmat.i.te crocodiles appeared. The guarded group finally heaved a sigh of relief. Caroline said, “It seems those things can’t pa.s.s through the door. Is that good news or bad news?”

“Both, I guess. If we can’t lure it in and destroy it, that means we can’t go back out, either,” Elder Wei replied.

Caroline retracted the lightning around her. “Elder Wei, what do we do now? Is there a path back from here?”

The old man laughed wryly, “This old man has only heard about the world behind these doors. How am I supposed to know the way back? We can only play it by ear now.”

“Didn’t someone from your empire come here before? How come you don’t know?”

Elder Wei appeared somewhat awkward. “Someone from the empire did explore the underground lair and this door is also related to him. It’s just that this person’s status is special and even I cannot disturb him without good reason. Hence, I only know bits and pieces about this place. The details are yet to be investigated.”

As someone who had reached the divine champion realm, Caroline was also a smart person. She immediately realized that the power behind Elder Wei and the aforementioned person were likely not on good terms and that the current project was being carried out in secret. To be completely frank, he was probably trying to steal the fruits of the other party’s labor. Just by looking at this giant, monument-like door, it was easy to imagine just how powerful that mysterious person was. Offending such a character was related to one’s survival, so there was no longer a need to ask more at this point.

“Is that Qianye person related to that man?”

“Of course not. Actually, Qianye committed a grave and unforgivable crime back home and the empire has already dispatched a.s.sa.s.sins after him. No one can protect him anymore.”

Caroline let out a sinister laugh. “Since that’s the case, don’t fight with me later on! He killed my only brother, so I must have him suffer eternally in my lightning!”

Elder Wei nodded. “This old man wasted two sacred seals because of him, I naturally won’t let him go.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”