The four of them stepped into the abandoned mine, gravel rolling into the abyss beneath their feet.
The evil god’s pressure had condensed into a tangible weight in the air.
Xue Yin leaned close to Jin’s side, the whispers in her ears now sharpening into shrieks:
“You can’t escape… vessel… vessel… go home… go home…”
She tried to focus her mind.
The Moonstaff glowed faintly, but a sharp pain pierced from her brow through the back of her skull.
“No, I can’t chant. The evil god is watching me and disrupting everything. Every time I try to channel mana, it gets broken.”
Jin immediately tightened his arm around her.
Black flames rose from his feet, forming a warm barrier.
“Master, rest well. Leave the rest to me.”
He Lian walked at the front.
Gravel pattered down from above, but it was deflected by invisible force before it could touch his shoulders.
As a pure physical cultivator who didn’t rely on mana, the pressure affected him the least.
Bai Li walked forward using the tip of her tail for leverage.
Her face was pale.
“Ahead, through the old miners’ rest area, then down to the lift shaft. That leads straight to the crystal core chamber.”
Before her words faded, two black figures struck silently from the crevices in the rock wall.
“High left!”
Xue Yin shouted urgently.
The Strings of Silent Domain caught the trail of intense killing intent.
The first priest teleported into a thrust, a blood blade aimed straight at Bai Li’s throat.
He Lian let out a fierce shout.
His body moved like lightning, cutting in.
His left hand seized the priest’s wrist, locking the pulse point, five fingers gripping the hand that held the blade.
His right elbow struck the temple.
The sound of bone cracking rang sharp.
The priest’s head twisted at a strange angle, but he didn’t fall.
Instead, he swung the blood blade backhand toward He Lian’s neck.
“Careful!”
Bai Li’s tail curled around a rusted iron chain on the ground and yanked hard.
The chain tangled around the priest’s ankle, dragging him half an inch to the side.
He Lian used the momentum to spin.
He took the blade on his shoulder and back.
With a grunt, he exerted force in both arms, lifting the priest off the ground and slamming him into the rock wall.
The priest collapsed to the ground limp.
Before blood could even seep out, it burrowed into the cracks in the stone.
Within the forbidden curse, all death became sacrifice.
The second priest dissolved into a mist of blood.
Jin held Xue Yin’s waist with his left arm, pulling her even closer to his side.
With his right hand, he turned black flames into a net, forcibly dragging the priest from mist form back into solid.
The instant the priest materialized, Xue Yin pulled a cyan blue sphere from the leather pouch at her waist.
She pressed her thumb against the rune on its bottom and hurled it with all her strength.
Frostbomb burst with chilling cold.
The priest’s movements froze. His mask was covered in white frost.
The dark red liquid on his blood blade crystallized into icicles, snapped off from the blade’s edge, and clattered to the ground.
He Lian stepped through the frost and lunged forward.
He slammed a palm onto the priest’s mask.
Internal force penetrated the ice.
Cracks spread from the palm print in every direction.
The priest shattered entirely.
Bai Li pointed her tail tip into the depths.
Her voice cracked from urgency.
“The evil god’s pressure… it’s getting stronger!”
The four moved quickly.
The closer they got to the ancient god’s core region, the heavier their steps became.
The mine tunnel opened up wide.
This had once been the old miners’ rest and eating area.
The long table was decayed, the iron pot rusted through.
Twelve priests in silver masks all turned toward the entrance.
“They’re… waiting for us.”
Xue Yin looked ahead with difficulty.
Her voice came out in broken fragments through the pain.
He Lian rolled his neck.
His joints gave a low, steady crack.
“I’ll clear the path.
Everyone, stay close behind me.”
He Lian shattered one priest’s mask with his left fist, broke another’s ribs with his right knee—
But found that several priests had turned into mist and circled behind the group.
Jin spun his hand, turning black flames into a blade.
He swept it backhand, sealing the flanking route.
Two priests who tried to get around He Lian were forced back by the black flames.
Xue Yin pulled two crimson firebombs from her waist pouch.
In the gap when Jin turned, she threw them with all her strength.
Three priests were swallowed by waves of fire.
The wall of flames formed a temporary barrier in the narrow tunnel, cutting off the pursuing priests’ formation.
The four fought and retreated, rushing toward the deepest area.
The lift platform lay ahead, and the crystal core was a hundred zhang below.
But at that moment, dozens of priests emerged slowly from the surrounding rock walls, blocking the direct path.
Bai Li’s tail curled around a broken pickaxe and hurled it.
It pierced one priest’s eye socket, but another blood blade stabbed into her side from the flank.
She grunted, her body going limp.
He Lian caught her.
Xue Yin tremblingly pulled out a silver-thread-wrapped seed and crushed it.
Vines burst from the shell, growing wildly over the abyss.
Silver-white stalks spanned the fissure of the shaft.
Below was bottomless darkness.
“We can… go around…”
Jin picked up Xue Yin and leaped onto the vine bridge.
He Lian carried Bai Li on his back and followed close behind.
The priests charged.
They surged forward wave after wave.
He Lian roared.
He blocked with both arms, using his bare fists to smash the foremost priests flying.
With every block, a blood blade embedded itself in his arm.
When he pulled it out, it tore a spray of blood mist.
Jin’s black flames flared up, incinerating the priests who tried to get around He Lian.
Xue Yin threw her last two icebombs.
Frost condensed on the vines, forming an ice bridge to reinforce the path.
They arrived at the lift platform.
The four stood back-to-back in a circle.
The invisible weight in the air pressed down on their bodies from all directions.
He Lian’s left arm was broken.
Bai Li had lost too much blood and was unconscious.
Jin’s black flames were nearly extinguished.
Xue Yin had to lean on her staff just to stay standing.
The priests slowly closed in.
They raised their blood blades high.
The tips reflected the faces of the four, stained with blood.
‘All may be sacrificed… except the vessel.’
—
A hundred zhang above, Ryan and Ailia led the army at full speed.
They finally reached the outer perimeter of the dark purple barrier around Cloud Ruins Bazaar.
The barrier hung like a curtain of heaven, rising from the edge of the earth and sealing the entire depression inside.
Cavalry reined in their horses.
Mages chanted spells.
Sappers lit fuses—
The arrows turned to fragments the instant they touched the membrane.
Fireballs burst against the barrier’s surface for a moment, then died out.
The charge of the horned demon heavy cavalry was rebounded.
Knights tumbled from their saddles, coughing blood.
All attacks collided with the barrier and silently annihilated.
“Lord, it’s having no effect at all!” a sapper yelled, the torch in his hand trembling. “Every attack is being converted by the barrier!”
Ryan stood on a high slope.
His gaze pierced through the dark purple glow, as if locking eyes with some more ancient power.
“Even if it’s a forbidden-level barrier, it still has to consume mana to maintain itself. It isn’t breaking only because we aren’t hitting hard enough or long enough. Even if we can’t break it in the end, every bit we consume buys a moment of respite for the people inside Cloud Ruins.”
His voice was loud and unyielding.
“All troops, listen! Three shifts, rotating attacks. Do not stop!
First shift:
Archers volley.
Sapper teams lay mines and ignite!
Second shift: mages charge.
Horned demon heavy cavalry ram the barrier!
Third shift: engineers stack explosives on the barrier.
Chain detonate the fuses! Attack, then retreat.
The next shift takes over.
I want this barrier to have not a single moment of rest!”
The first shift of a hundred archers loosed together.
A rain of arrows covered the sky, a ceaseless stream that seemed never-ending.
Thirty sappers bundled mining explosives into sheaves.
Fuses ignited at the same time.
The blasts roared. Fire shot to the sky.
The barrier rippled in barely perceptible waves.
“It’s working!”
Ailia’s pupils contracted.
The symbiotic rose at her neck lit up suddenly.
“It’s consuming energy!”
“Second shift, go!”
The mage corps chanted in unison.
Ice spears, fire arrows, lightning chains poured down like a waterfall.
The horned demon heavy cavalry roared and charged, slamming their flesh-and-blood bodies into the barrier.
“Third shift—stack explosives! Chain detonate!”
Engineers rushed to the barrier’s edge.
They piled the remaining explosives layer upon layer.
The fuses crossed and ignited.
—Boom! Boom! Boom!
After the chain detonations, the dark purple barrier trembled violently.
Its light flickered unsteadily.
Every explosion blasted a ring of ripples onto the barrier.
Layer upon layer stacked up, spreading wider and wider.
Ryan and Ailia exchanged a glance.
Their fingers intertwined.
The symbiotic contract ignited with twin flames of gold and red.
Ryan shouted low:
“With my bones as the guide—”
Ailia continued:
“With my blood as the medium—”
Their voices joined like thunder:
“Realm-break: Twin-Born Blazing Sun!”
A pillar of gold and red light burst from their palms, piercing straight into the barrier.
In that instant, the entire wasteland was torn in two.
Half was the dark purple sky.
Half was gold and red blazing flames.
Wherever the light pillar passed, stone slabs on the ground lifted inch by inch.
Gravel melted into red-hot droplets in the high temperature and splashed across the sky.
In that single moment, the entire depression shook.
Flames illuminated every face.
But no one took a single step back.
“Keep hitting!”
Ryan shouted, his voice hoarse.
“Don’t give it any chance to recover!”
The three shifts continued rotating.
Arrows hadn’t stopped before explosives were already ignited.
Magic hadn’t dissipated before the heavy cavalry charged again.
A hundred zhang above, the earth trembled.
Someone was hammering at the walls of the cage with flesh and blood.
A hundred zhang below, the abyss stared back.
The priests raised their blood blades high, step by step closing in.