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Chapter 2686
"Hmm?"Grace whipped around, staring at Dustin with confusion written across her face.He wasn't admiring the breathtaking view like the others. His sharp eyes swept across the valley like a predator searching for weakness, cold and penetrating."Don't believe everything you see," he said. "While the spiritual energy here is abundant, it feels scattered and lacks a solid foundation. The music is too flawless to be natural. And the air, the flowers, and the mist… Don't they feel too artificial, as if they only exist to trick your senses?"His words made Grace and a few guards with higher cultivation levels focus their senses. Indeed, they noticed something was amiss.After lingering in the air, the floral fragrance carried a cloying sweetness that faintly clouded the mind. The sound of flowing water maintained an impossibly perfect rhythm, lacking the natural variation of a real stream. Even the drifting mist and clouds seemed to move in a fixed, patterned way."It's an illusory f
Chapter 2685
"Stay focused and take them down!" Grace shouted. Her dagger gleamed with a cold light, and a stream of sword aura slashed at a charging gray shadow. The attack made the wraith waver and thin out, its form growing fainter. It let out a piercing shriek but didn't vanish. Instead, it surged forward with renewed fury.The other guards weren't faring any better. Their sword aura proved pathetically ineffective against these mist-wraiths. It took multiple strikes to break apart a single one.However, the wraith's attacks were deadly. They could easily penetrate the guards' protective armor energy. The moment one made contact, a deep, soul-chilling cold set in, and the victim's life essence began to drain away at an alarming rate.One guard's attention slipped for just a second. A wraith grazed his arm, and his limb instantly turned pale gray and shriveled, as if every bit of moisture and vitality had been sucked dry. He groaned in pain and staggered backward, face pale as death."We c
Chapter 2684
A massive bronze gate towered majestically before Dustin and the others. Behind it might lie the fabled Aether Garden, or perhaps a far deadlier trap.Dark gold vines twisted through gaps in the doorway, looking brittle and dead. But they felt like forged metal to the touch and were unnaturally tough.The cloud-scripted runes on the gate pulsed with a faint light, forming an ancient and powerful seal. Forcing it open would be no simple feat and could trigger unforeseeable consequences.Dustin spent considerable time examining it with his divine sense before finally shaking his head. "This gate is sealed intact and anchored deep into the bedrock," he said. "Forcing it open could be disastrous. There's probably another entrance, or a specific condition required to open it."Coming so close only to hit a wall left everyone frustrated. Grace studied the misty fissure along the mountainside and reasoned, "Since this path is currently blocked, why not explore along its edge? We might
Chapter 2683
At the same time, Dustin's right fist shot out in a simple, direct punch with crushing force. His fist drove straight into the cyclop's weak point—the crimson eye at its center.The cyclop's body stiffened, and the glowing blue patterns across its body flickered and died. As if the earth and rock that formed its body had lost cohesion, it crumbled to the ground with a loud crash, leaving only a cracked, dull red crystal eye rolling free.Seeing that, the remaining two cyclops seemed to sense Dustin's overwhelming power. The red light in their eyes flared. Instead of attacking, they scrambled backward and tried to burrow into the ground."Trying to escape?"Dustin let out a cold snort. Using the tip of his boot, he flicked a piece of armor fragment from the ground into his hand. He infused it with true energy and snapped his wrist forward.The fragment split in midair, and the two resulting shards streaked toward the crimson eyes of the fleeing cyclops with deadly precision. With t
Chapter 2682
"It's one of the people who reached the island before us," a guard muttered.An older guard with more experience stepped forward to inspect the body. His expression turned grim. "He's been dead for less than a month," he said. "But these wounds… It doesn't appear to have been killed by an ordinary weapon or a wild beast. Looks like he was instantly pierced by some kind of incredibly fine, sharp energy beam."Suddenly, Dustin's head jerked up. His sharp eyes locked onto something behind a half-buried, cauldron-like bronze structure."Watch out!" he shouted.Before the warning finished leaving his mouth, several thin, translucent gray energy beams shot out from behind the wreckage with a sharp hiss. Their speed dwarfed that of any crossbow bolt as they aimed at the guards who had cried out in alarm earlier.Dustin reacted instantly. After sensing the danger a split-second earlier, he formed a sword finger. A curved blade of sword aura shot forward, intercepting the gray streaks wi
Chapter 2681
For Dustin and the others, passing through the five-colored light cocoon in the canyon was like leaving one nightmare only to find themselves trapped in a far older one, heavy with primordial dread.The stench of decay lingered, now mixed with the sharp tang of rusted metal and the dust of countless centuries. Faint light filtered through cracks in the towering rock walls above, casting patchy illumination that was enough to see what lay ahead. It was a battlefield long abandoned, stretching endlessly into shadow. There were no banners or fresh corpses, only crushing silence, worn down by ages beyond counting.Enormous ivory bones littered the landscape. Ribs curved overhead like archways, while skulls sat as large as buildings. They'd belonged to extinct colossal beasts, now resting among broken weapons and collapsed pillars. Despite the passage of time, the bones still radiated an oppressive presence.Rusted, fragmented weapons and armor lay among the relics of war. Their design
