After the three witches died, the residual power left behind was assimilated by [Touring Concert], replenishing Lu Yinxi’s consumption.
The Wind witch turned around and happened to see the miserable state of the other three witches… Perhaps dying cleanly wasn’t such a bad ending after all?
After collecting the Witch’s Hearts, the group continued exploring.
The other witches in the basin silently restrained their auras.
When the group approached, they even actively moved aside, fully embracing the strategy of “knowing when to yield.”
Unfortunately, after searching the entire outer area, they still found no trace of Absolute Spirit Sand.
“Should we go check the center?” Su Xiaocheng suggested.
“Do we have to? I feel like we’ve been tricked,” Desert Fox said with some irritation.
Given the level of danger in the Eye of Yellow Sand, ordinary explorers shouldn’t even be able to reach this place.
Finding Absolute Spirit Sand on the outskirts was barely believable, but in the central area?
Since when did such a powerful explorer appear in this region?
“We’ve already come this far. Let’s take a look. There shouldn’t be any S-rank witches here anyway,” Li Yanyan said indifferently.
With their luxurious lineup, there weren’t many places that could make them fail.
S-rank witches weren’t cabbages you could find everywhere.
As they approached the edge of the central pit in the Eye of Yellow Sand, they could clearly feel that the death aura here was several times denser than in the outer regions.
Looking down from above, they could only see a section of rugged cliff in the shallow layer.
Deeper inside was pitch black — nothing could be seen clearly.
An Li released a portable mini drone. The drone slowly descended, gradually sinking into the pit.
A few minutes later, the drone reached the bottom of the pit. Under her control, it turned on a weak light and began exploring the surroundings.
An Li looked at the small screen connected to the drone’s perspective. “It’s about three hundred meters deep. Also… wait.”
She maneuvered the drone closer to one of the pit walls. There, a small piece of translucent crystalline mineral was attached.
“There really seems to be Absolute Spirit Sand?” An Li, who had already given up hope, said in surprise.
“Oh? Then let’s go down and take a look.”
Before she even finished speaking, Li Yanyan leapt forward and jumped into the pitch-black pit.
The others quickly followed.
An Li turned on the lighting equipment, and bright lights dispelled the darkness.
Finally, everyone could clearly see the scene at the bottom of the pit.
Embedded in the cliff walls at the bottom of the pit were pieces of translucent Absolute Spirit Sand.
Since only a small amount of Absolute Spirit Sand was needed in materials to achieve magic-nullifying effects, the reserves here — roughly estimated — were more than enough to arm an entire army.
However, setting the Absolute Spirit Sand aside for now, at the very bottom of the pit, there was also an ancient bronze gate.
The patterns on it were exactly the same style as the ruins Su Xiaocheng and the others had found previously.
The only difference was that this bronze gate had no empty slots where gems should have been embedded.
There was only a six-pointed star pattern, making it seem impossible to open.
“What is this? Another ruin of the same type? Is a bronze statue going to suddenly jump out and start chasing us?”
Su Xiaocheng looked around.
Fortunately, the space was fairly open, giving them room to maneuver.
Li Yanyan took out the six-pointed star gem and even tried pressing it against the pattern on the gate.
She tried various other methods as well, but the bronze gate remained completely unresponsive.
“Let’s forget about this door for now. We can think of a way to open it later. For this trip, let’s focus on collecting the Absolute Spirit Sand first.”
The Absolute Spirit Sand on the cliff walls was scattered very sparsely, making collection extremely troublesome.
Even with the help of magic, they wouldn’t be able to gather everything in a short time.
To improve efficiency, everyone summoned their Contracted Clan partners to help.
Although they weren’t particularly useful, free labor was free labor.
Xiaotuan couldn’t fly, so it could only scratch at the small pieces of Absolute Spirit Sand on the lowest parts of the cliff.
Before it realized it, it had already scratched its way near the bronze gate.
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
A complex six-pointed star pattern appeared on Xiaotuan’s forehead — exactly the same as the pattern on the bronze gate.
The two patterns resonated with each other.
Under everyone’s shocked gazes, the bronze gate — which had remained completely unresponsive no matter what they tried before — slowly began to open.
Inside the gate, dazzling light illuminated the entire pit.
Before anyone could clearly see what was beyond the bronze gate, they felt their vision go black.
In an instant, everyone present lost consciousness and was sucked inside by the bronze gate.
***
Far above in the sky, beyond the atmosphere, a sky island two kilometers in diameter slowly floated in synchronous orbit.
Surrounding the sky island was a thin magic barrier that protected the island in space, allowing everything on it to exist as if it were still within the atmosphere.
On the small sky island, countless flowers of various colors bloomed freely, layering upon each other to form a brilliant sea of flowers.
At the center of the sky island was a small, mirror-like clear lake, reflecting the starry sky above.
By the lakeside stood a beautiful wooden house.
A girl lay on the bed inside, her dreamlike, star-like long hair spread out as she quietly gazed at the stars through the skylight.
Suddenly, she seemed to sense something.
Her figure instantly vanished from the bed and appeared at the edge of the sky island.
“Ten thousand years… Galan Ancient City has actually been opened by a living royal descendant? Are there still descendants of the Galan royal family in this world?”
A few months ago, Galan Ancient City had been opened once before.
She had paid attention to it back then, but like always, the medium used to open the bronze gate had merely been a token left behind by a royal family member.
Using royal bloodline as the key to open Galan Ancient City — this was the first time it had happened in ten thousand years.
“Have you… returned?”
Her eyes were filled with reminiscence.
In the vast starry sky, a wave composed purely of negative magic power surged toward this planet.
A pitch-black tide of magic power covered everything, obscuring even the bright starlight.
The sudden wave interrupted the girl’s memories, and a look of displeasure appeared on her face.
Without any visible movement from her, the stars that had been obscured by the dark tide suddenly shone brilliantly.
Endless starlight descended, and the massive black wave was instantly crushed.
“I have matters to attend to recently, so you’d better not come and disturb me.”
A breeze blew through the sea of flowers, lifting countless petals into the air.
The petals of various colors wove together into a longbow and fell into the girl’s hands.
The girl reached out and grasped at the air. Endless starlight followed her movement and condensed into a radiant arrow in her hand.
Starlight formed the arrow.
The flower bow drew like a full moon.
The string sang, and the arrow flew.
A streak of starlight shot into the depths of the universe.
In an instant, the dark cosmic space became bright.
“Stars… Sky!”
A voice filled with resentment spoke one word at a time from the depths of the universe.
The flower bow in the girl’s hand dispersed, returning to the sea of flowers as petals.
“Alright. Now, let me go see whether an old friend has truly returned.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.