Chương 753

Fisher tries to follow after Monk, but every footstep closer to the black bones he takes, the colder his body gets. It is not like the icy cold aura that envelops Lydia. Her ice actually feels full of energy, as Fisher can sense the mana creating it. This aura that seeps into his mind and body as he takes another step feels like the absence of energy itself. Even the demonic energy swirling around this world does not flow into the skeletal structure of this dead monster.

The imagery of the demonic beasts he just killed, slamming their soul weapons against the rib cage of this creature and their full-force strike being deflected back, repeats over and over as he tries to step even closer. However, the water-wielding swordsman stops, as his mind feels as though it's becoming dull, and his grasp on the system slightly wavers. The dominance of whatever creature once lived and left these bones behind lingers...

and he takes a step backward out of respect, wondering how strong it must have been when it was alive to make him feel inferior even in the presence of its corpse. Both Luna and Lydia feel a very similar emotion, as they have stopped their steps a few meters behind Fisher when their minds and systems dulled. The three of them cannot even see where Monk has gone, as their senses cannot pierce the vibrating barrier. Luna summons her buff to create thirteen massive eyes in the sky above the skeleton.

After a blast like that, any additional aura put out into the world will be negligible. Her range at full power easily spans the entire desert, and she whispers under her breath for Fisher and Lydia to hear.

"You may have cleared the area out here, but that put an even bigger target on our heads... I sense hundreds—no—thousands of them." Luna sees countless enormous sandworms erupting from the desert, and every stray wolf and orc turns their heads to the center of this flat terrain. Not only are third- and second-class beasts attracted to the shockwave, but many first-class monsters of a similar stature to the ones killed just now feel the powerful exchange—but know this is not the work of the Kings.

To the eroding brains of demonic energy-infected monsters, where there are fights, there must be rewards worth fighting over. From all of the surrounding regions, their strongest warriors begin wandering this way. While for some, it may take a few days to arrive, others can get here in a matter of hours or minutes. Though, with thousands of beasts attracted to a single point in the desert, many more fights are sure to break out along the way.

Luna's many eyes widen as she watches all-out war break loose, and the main forces slowly drift toward them in the center of the desert. Fisher and Lydia turn, and their auras begin to glow brightly again. The icy swordswoman pulls her blade from her sheath, and the water wielder's weapon glows blue.

"Looks like we have more work to do."

"Indeed. We'll hold them off until Monk is done inside." — This is exactly what they do. Ava watches a sped-up holographic feed from Fisher, Lydia, and Luna as this massive battle in the desert rages on for days. No feedback is shown from Monk, but Ava's mind is racing with questions. The skeleton looks exactly the same as Seraphel's body structure. The only difference is that this ancient corpse is multiple times larger...

Ava speeds through the holograms as she watches the ice- and water-sword wielders take out thousands of demonic beasts. The woman keeps a cool head and uses that dome-like ability three more times when she runs into more strong True Cores. However, the water wielder seems to be a bit more unhinged. He continuously uses his ranked-up buff that he calls the "Thousand Serpent Strike" and obliterates countless armies of demonic monsters that emerge from the regions surrounding this massive desert land.

— Visuals of Monk walking out from under the wyvern's corpse come back in the last hologram message, followed by the group of four deciding to trek further into the Demonic World, closer to the tower far away. On their way through the rest of the desert, hardly any demonic beasts attack, as all of the strong monsters in this portion of the world have been killed off by the yellow cored commanders.

Their soul weapons and armor are brought along as they continue their journey, even though most are frozen, shattered, or badly damaged. — [Minute 3][Ava]: Daily updates received. Incredible progress on prospecting... If you have extra time, those wyvern bones—I'm sure Jay would be very interested in a sample. And—nice base tour... Like clockwork, the moment Ava sends this response back, Bri's messages reply in rapid succession.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. [Day 19 Update][Briana]: Additional requested footage—from Day 17—[Hologram Attached] [Day 20 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Prospecting footage, new region. [Day 21 Update][Briana]: Arie consolidated his yellow core today. Additional Generals' cultivation progress. [Hologram Attached] [Day 22 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Nothing additional to report.

[Day 23 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Nothing additional to report. — The first message back is an old visual of the day Monk walked out from underneath the wyvern. His eyes look as though he's seen something spectacular, yet frightening at the same time. Though, his next actions are even more strange. The orange-robed man lets go of the small slab of originator stone, and his holographic feed reconnects to the system, as whatever the strange artifact he was using suppressed it completely.

He turns around and uses the item storage skill borrowed from the Rising Emperor and even pulls a large amount of borrowed stats to increase its size to kilometers wide, attempting to let the skeleton drop inside. However, the black bones do not move, and the portions of the white portal that get close to the old bones disappear. He cannot drop the skeleton into his storage. Monk doesn't try for long, as if he expected this, and nods.

"Interesting... Well, I've gathered everything I can from the tomb. We will analyze them further when my master and The Saint can translate everything. My knowledge only goes so far." — More footage picks up days later as the four of them trek past the desert and into a new region full of far deeper caves and mountains with fossilized black trees. They look like they've been soaked with demonic energy and preserved for millennia.

Many of the stronger beasts from this region left to attack earlier after the commotion Fisher and Lydia created, but there are still large populations of second-class demonic spiders covering this land. Monk and Luna send out many perception waves, but it appears as though there are no more artifacts left behind here. Monk is not particularly talkative in the days that follow either, as his mind seems to be consumed by a puzzle that has stumped him.

Though, they do have a vantage point of a massive black tree that peeks out of the demonic atmosphere itself, about 4, 000 kilometers away. Luna's last pulse of perception found that large amounts of Qi are present there, and that most likely means more artifacts. It is located on the direct path toward the throne, so they are making good time. Though, the Kings of Kelfar are not too far either, and their dueling path has become quite chaotic.

— As most of the footage in these five days is just of the group trekking through the old petrified forest, Ava skims through it and sends a message back. [Minute 4][Ava]: Message received. No change to the time distortion yet. Though, her eyes widen as the new messages she gets back are far more filled with action. [Day 23 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] I consolidated my Orange Core. [Day 24 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] General's cultivation updates. Raven claims she is halfway to saturation.

Plus, a few observations. [Day 25 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Nothing additional to report. [Day 26 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Prospecting trouble... [Day 27 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Unexpected update. — Sped-up footage of the generals cultivating is shown, all four of them now only using yellow fragments. Raven's progress looks the most impressive, but in reality, she's done the majority of the work years ago back on the human world.

For her, this is all on autopilot, taking advantage of this superior technology and using the potions and stabilization systems built into her setup. Arie's progress to a yellow core already is quite fast too, but he started far behind the others. Both Maria and Abby have weeks of concentrated, uninterrupted yellow fragment absorption ahead of him. Though, for some reason, it appears Abby's core is much larger and closer to the True Core collapse point.

In every other cultivation timeline in the past, Maria's natural talent was superior. However, for some reason, the holographic footage coming back is partially corrupted every time it zooms in too far. Though, from the pure divine energy radiation readings, on the surface it appears her absorption process is consistent but slow.

Bri has left a few notes behind about these peculiar readings and believes maybe it has something to do with Abby's new physique, but none of the data coming her way is perfect, so there's no definitive answer as to why the speeds are different than expected just yet. — Though Ava knows little of these generals' pasts and only has seconds to read each report, she skims by these words and opens up the more demanding news... The prospecting party has run into trouble.

— Visuals of the team making it through the entire petrified forest come through crystal clear. Ava even takes her time to watch an epic battle where Fisher handles eight first-class saturated True Cored spiders at once using his newly ranked-up buff at the base of the massive tree they set out to find. At the same time, Lydia takes on an absurdly strong spider queen at the top of the tree that has been watching them approach for days. It takes her full focus and the full power of her domain to subdue this monster.

It is far stronger than the cyclops she faced in the desert. Even once the dome of white ice is shut, some of the spider's legs still twitch and send tendrils of black thread toward her. The white swordswoman has to send dozens of psychological attacks into the spider's many eyes before it gives up. Lydia's limbs are hit by the dying spider's black demonic strings, and when she's hit, her arms and legs become petrified just like the spider she is freezing solid.

The bright white eyes of the tiger manifestation battle against the arachnid's mind, and both of their limbs shatter before each other. However, Lydia's grow back, as she has a mythic-grade version of self-regeneration, while the demonic spider loses its mobility and crashes to the domain's floor. An explosion of white and yellow light erupts from the tree, showering down on it like snow, just seconds after Fisher has eradicated its underlings.

— In the same moment, the massive tree, rising over 30 kilometers high above the planet's surface, crumbles too, as its creator ceases to exist. Many of the other trees in this forest shatter and fall to the planet's ground like sand. Beneath the center of where the largest tree once stood, another strange sight can be seen that shocks the senses. Monk's eyes widen the most, as another burial of sorts is left behind. Though it is not as awe-inspiring as the wyvern, nor does it give off the cold, unexplainable aura.

Beneath this tree, over a hundred originator artifacts sit in an unorganized pile, like the spiders were hoarding them and had no true use for them at all. Just like the other demonic beasts in this strange world, their minds are programmed to do illogical things. The orange-robed man immediately begins examining the loot and dropping them one by one into his item storage.

Some are just like the ones found in the desert—massive black rocks that a normal hunter wouldn't think were special unless sending a pulse of Qi through them. However, a far higher number of these artifacts look like they have been kept in better condition. Massive walls of text can be seen on some, and even etchings that look like lizards and birds. — Ava knows this isn't the point of the hologram she's scrolling through, as it's titled [Prospecting Trouble...] With not much time before she has to send an update back herself, she skims through it faster and is disturbed by the result of what she sees, considering the amount of power witnessed in Fisher and Lydia's prior battles. The team of four is about to venture out even further into the world, but the blue-haired swordsman who leads the party stops them with a yell before they move any further.

"G-Get back! No—Retreat! Stray arrow!" Is all that Ava hears from Fisher's hologram before it flashes with a blinding yellow and white light, then becomes corrupted, forcefully shutting off in a similar fashion to Monk's when he entered the Wyvern's tomb.