At this moment, the spider demon in the cavern hall was exhausted from battle. As soon as it stopped moving, countless vicious beasts and small native creatures flooded over like a gray tide, tearing apart and devouring its massive body in an instant, leaving only a dozen or so white bones.
Some of the beasts, still unsatisfied, began to gnaw on the spider demon’s skeleton. With a series of cracking sounds, the steel-hard skeleton was shattered and devoured piece by piece.
The werewolf was still fighting, but the fierce dark origin power had become extremely weak, and it seemed that it could not last much longer.
The number of vicious beasts and small native creatures in the hall did not seem to have decreased significantly. Those that had been circling outside, unable to join the fight, grew restless at the prospect of missing out on the final prey and began to turn their attention toward the nearby passages.
They soon discovered Li Kuanglan, and with bloodthirsty roars, they surged forward like a gray tide.
“Looking for death!” Li Kuanglan’s seductive eyes glinted with killing intent, and a cold smile played on her lips as she drew and sheathed “Cold Moon Sand Cage.” A blue light flickered, and a wave of cold air spread out, covering half the cavern hall.
The leading gray hounds were suddenly covered in a thin layer of ice. Their leaping movements froze mid-air, and they flew nearly ten meters before hitting the ground, their postures still fixed in the instant they were hit by the freezing air.
With a shattering sound, the gray hounds broke into pieces like glass.
Not only them, but the following beast tide also froze solid after the cold air swept through. Many of the vicious beasts, propelled by inertia, slid and collided, turning into a pile of fragments.
In an instant, wherever the cold air of “Cold Moon Sand Cage” reached, all the vicious beasts and small native creatures, except for a few of the largest, were frozen through, their bodies becoming extremely fragile and breaking at the slightest touch.
Even those several-meter-long, six-legged, lion-headed beasts, though their movements slowed to a crawl, were eventually frozen by the continuous flow of cold air, turning into statues.
Most of the vicious beasts that had been wreaking havoc in the hall were annihilated by Li Kuanglan’s single sword strike. Yet, he was not satisfied; instead, his brows furrowed, and a hint of gravity appeared on his face.
According to his intention, that sword strike should have extinguished all life in the hall. However, the resistance of the natives and beasts was exceptionally strong, reducing the sword’s power far more than expected. He also noticed that the origin power, transformed into a frosty chill, weakened at a rate far faster than usual once it left the sword, as if the residual will of the void beast in this peculiar world was affecting the power of the origin skill.
Li Kuanglan raised his eyebrows and struck again with “Cold Moon Sand Cage,” finally exterminating all life in the hall, including the barely surviving werewolf viscount, who was indiscriminately turned into a pile of ice shards. He scanned the hall and the numerous passages around it, ultimately choosing the direction Qian Ye had taken.
However, his pursuit was destined to be fruitless, as Qian Ye had changed directions multiple times in the maze-like passages and was now deep underground. Qian Ye’s ability to conceal his aura and remain invisible would elude even seasoned veterans skilled in mountain tracking.
Qian Ye was speeding through a relatively wide and gently sloping passage when he suddenly sensed something and hid in a small, adjacent cave. In a matter of breaths, a putrid wind blew through the passage he had been running in, and a group of large, heavily scaled lizard-like beasts thundered past, their heavy footsteps causing the ground to tremble.
Each armored giant lizard was only about level eight or nine, but they were clearly unaffected by the will of the behemoth and appeared in packs, amplifying their destructive power in the narrow spaces of the underground caves.
There were nearly a hundred armored giant lizards, and it took some time for the entire group to pass through the passage. After waiting a while, Qian Ye emerged from the small cave and moved towards where the armored giant lizards had come from.
It was a branch path near the one he had come through, and after turning a corner, several more branches appeared. Without hesitation, Qian Ye chose one of the paths and entered a slightly smaller cavern hall.
As soon as he stepped in, he felt a cold, deep gaze upon him, followed by a sensation of water flowing over his body. This was just an illusion; in fact, that gaze had greatly reduced his concealed state.
Less than a hundred meters away, Aiden’s vertical pupil emitted a faint, greenish glow, locking onto Qian Ye. Beside him, Yating held a sniper rifle, the dark barrel aimed in his direction.
Ambush! Qian Ye’s first reaction was to move away from his original position, crouching to the side.
In his enhanced vision, two formless dark origin power clusters appeared in the dim, misty hall, but one was so familiar that he could picture her silhouette in his mind, even though the origin power was shapeless.
Uncharacteristically, Qian Ye lost focus in the middle of a fight, then heard Aiden shout, “Fire!”
Yating seemed startled, and with a slight tremor, the sniper rifle fired. The origin bullet, trailing a hazy bloodlight, corrected its trajectory over the short distance and shot straight towards Qian Ye’s forehead.
For a split second, Qian Ye’s mind went blank, but his combat instincts and the intense threat of imminent death made him react as best he could.
With a thunderous boom, Qian Ye was struck by a colossal force, flying backward and crashing into the cave wall. Dazed and disoriented, he could not gather his scattered consciousness, and his vision was filled with fragmented, colorful blocks, the world twisting, and a hand of death reaching out to him.
At the brink of death, Qian Ye snapped back to reality, and all illusions vanished. A figure with a chilling aura was approaching fast. He leaped up and dived into the nearest passage, throwing two origin grenades behind him.
Aiden had already reached the entrance and, seeing the incoming grenades, sneered and kicked them back. This kind of tactic, used against a master with a piercing eye, was clearly ineffective.
But at that moment, Qian Ye glanced back at Aiden. In the depths of his suddenly deep-blue eyes, Aiden saw his own reflection!
Aiden’s core twitched painfully, as if pierced by an invisible needle. This pain was almost unbearable for a demon, and the sudden agony made his body tremble. His kick barely nudged one grenade a few meters away, while the other fell right under his feet.
This was the heart of the blast zone! Aiden roared and curled up, desperately protecting himself with dark origin power.
Two deafening explosions merged into one, their force amplified in the confined space. The shockwave, fire, and shrapnel repeatedly buffeted Aiden, pushing him dozens of meters back and slamming him into the cave wall.
Just before he hit the wall, Aiden’s balled-up body unfurled, and with a step on the wall, he landed gracefully. His movements were effortless, indicating that the close-range explosion had not seriously injured him.
However, his origin defense did not stop the smoke and dust. Aiden’s head and face were covered in cave debris, his skin black and white, and his demon battle suit was torn in several places, revealing the black armor underneath.
On his back, the armor was lifted, and a piece of shrapnel had cut through, lodging itself in Aiden’s body.
Aiden snorted, and his demonic energy spread, rapidly corroding the shrapnel. The same energy that could corrode metal instantly had a healing effect on demons. The wound healed quickly, leaving no scar.
Still, Aiden’s face was pale, and his aura weaker, the exertion of healing taking a toll in a world where the will of the behemoth suppressed their powers.
Furious at being reduced to such a state by mere grenades, Aiden turned to Yating and sighed, “You were a bit slow on the trigger.”
Yating’s expression remained unchanged as she slowly lowered the sniper rifle, reloaded, and then slowly raised her head to look at Aiden. Her eyes were bottomless, giving no indication of her thoughts, as if they were endless, empty voids. But the slowness of her movements hinted at something off.
“What’s wrong?”
Yating raised the rifle to aim again, then lowered it, and suddenly, everything returned to normal. “I was thinking about something.”
Thinking during a fight? But Aiden wisely did not press the issue. Yating clearly did not want to talk about it, and pressing her would yield nothing.
Aiden looked in the direction Qian Ye had fled, saying regretfully, “A powerful imperial warrior, but he got away. Though, with that kind of bullet, he probably won’t last long. Let’s go, we can’t stay here. We need to keep going deeper.”
Yating followed Aiden, remaining silent. She rarely spoke, and Aiden did not pay much mind, constantly scanning their surroundings with his piercing eye, which was invaluable in the complex, hiding-friendly terrain of the underground battlefield.
Qian Ye sprinted through the passage, finally encountering a downward-sloping cavern a kilometer away. Without hesitation, he jumped in. The passage inclined downward, fortunately free of vicious beasts and natives. Finding a small natural stone room, he set up some rudimentary defenses at the entrance and then slipped inside, leaning against the wall, gasping for breath.
Qian Ye swallowed two solid-state potions, rested for a moment, and regained some strength. Then he pulled down his collar and opened the chest plate of his combat suit. The armor, issued by the Zhao Clan to their direct descendants, was made of fine entwined gold. The chest plate, which could withstand a level-five gun’s direct hit, now bore a menacing hole.
Yating’s sniper rifle was more than just a level-six weapon; it had special effects like armor-piercing and penetration, making it exceptionally powerful at a hundred meters. It not only penetrated the armor but also easily broke through Qian Ye’s origin defense.
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