Chapter 137: The Giant Python and the Ancient Castle

Wang Jiao watched as gray figures constantly flashed through the drifting air currents in the sky. Her pale complexion looked somewhat grim, but slowly, she seemed to resign herself to fate and returned to normal.

Everyone's attention was focused on Wang Jiao. "Earth Dragon Guardian" was what Wang Jiao had uttered after waking up. Until now, apart from hearing a high-pitched roar, all anyone could see were the figures hidden within the gray sky.

Suddenly, a fierce red light lit up in the gray sky, followed by a red blade darting back and forth across the air.

Bai Wan'er was the first to react. That direction was where Ye Bai was standing, the leader of the same group as Yaoling. Although she usually didn't pay much attention to him, he had left a deep impression on her.

However, the moment Bai Wan'er turned around, she saw a white crystal core. It looked much smaller, however, than the white crystal cores found within the three-dimensional bodies of the four-dimensional creatures they had hunted previously. The red light on the blade held in Ye Bai's hand was only then gradually fading away.

"What is going on?" Bai Wan'er asked Ye Bai, seeing that he still wore a deeply vigilant expression even after delivering that single strike, the blade in his hand glowing with a faint red light that had not completely dissipated.

Without turning back to look at Bai Wan'er, Ye Bai took the white crystal core floating in mid-air into his hand and said, "The figures hidden in the gray air currents should be four-dimensional creatures. I was just attacked by one."

Ye Bai could be said to be the first to notice the anomaly in the sky. Everyone had been startled by the high-pitched roar, and immediately afterward, their attention was drawn to Wang Jiao, leaving almost no one paying attention to their surroundings—and this was precisely when the spatial anomaly in the sky occurred.

The gray shadows appearing in the sky rapidly moved toward Ye Bai's direction and suddenly launched an attack. Unaware of the true nature of the hidden figures in the gray sky, Ye Bai had no choice but to use the upgraded version of the Fire Bodhi skill, Blazing Skies.

In an instant, the battle marks of the stunning rainbow blade appeared. The fire attribute power in the air began to form a miniature version of the blade. Before the attack of the gray figure could arrive, the red light of the blade flashed, and all the miniature blades converged together, sweeping through the air like a red dragon and instantly annihilating the gray figure on its path of attack, leaving behind only the white crystal core.

"What? You killed the shadow in the sky?" Wang Jiao's eyes were filled with horror. She immediately grabbed Bai Wan'er and said, "It's over, it's over! He has poked a hornet's nest! Let's run, if we don't leave now, it will be too late."

In an instant, scenes from the time she was unconscious flashed continuously through Wang Jiao's mind: the gray sky, the drifting shadows, and the billowing mists.

During her unconsciousness, she had also attempted to kill the shadows that attacked her. These shadows were not strong, possessing roughly the strength of an entry-level beginner, and she had easily slain them, after which the white crystal core—now held in Ye Bai's hand—had appeared.

However, the nightmare began less than half an hour after killing those gray shadows. The entire sky underwent a transformation, as if the sky itself was composed entirely of gray shadows.

And then there was no more then. All the gray shadows swarmed forward and tore her to pieces.

"Langxin, take a look." Tianxin watched Wang Jiao's fuss with a hint of disdain.

He had also seen the white crystal core Ye Bai was holding earlier; it clearly belonged exclusively to the three-dimensional bodies condensed by four-dimensional creatures. He believed this was an excellent location to collect attribute-less crystal cores.

"Hmm." Langxin's Horn-Pupil Eyes immediately manifested.

"No, let's run! If we don't leave now, it'll be too late." At this point, there was already a tone of entreaty in Wang Jiao's voice as she tightly grasped Bai Wan'er's hand and pulled her in another direction.

"What on earth is going on? Did you see something just now?" Those who desired to grow stronger seemed to think alike; Bai Wan'er's thoughts were much like Tianxin's. Both Dao and Tianxin had made it abundantly clear how rare attribute-less crystal cores were, and she did not know if she would ever have another chance to encounter four-dimensional creatures after missing this opportunity.

Meanwhile, however, the fear within Langxin's red pupils grew increasingly intense. "Tianxin, I think we should leave."

Langxin spoke in a low, hurried voice first, then let his Horn-Pupil Eyes disperse and shouted to everyone, "Run! A drastic change is about to happen here."

"What? Langxin, what did you see?" Tianxin locked his gaze on the gray shadows drifting in the sky. The milky-white energy condensed in his hand instantly burst forth, scattering the gray shadow, after which the attribute-less crystal core seemed guided by an invisible traction and landed in Tianxin's palm.

Yet, the moment Tianxin slew the three-dimensional body of the second four-dimensional creature, the entire space seemed to cave inward, producing a dull, rumbling sound. Following that, everyone witnessed an incredible sight.

Across nearly the entire sky, as far as the eye could see, house-sized convex indentations appeared. The entire sky was densely packed with them, making it look less like open space and more like the interior of an unknown beast's nest.

At that moment, everyone sensed that something ominous was afoot, but with such protrusions filling their entire field of vision, where could they possibly flee?

"Lang, where?" Tianxin formed a strange hand gesture, and all the members of the Earth Core tribe gathered toward him.

'Lang.' This was a title Tianxin used only at the most critical moments; had it not been a matter of life and death, Tianxin would virtually never use his moniker.

At this moment, Langxin's eyes were blood-red, and bloody tears streamed endlessly from his eye sockets, instantly lending a sorrowful air to his handsome features and making him look like a vampire count from a dark castle.

Langxin's eyes were filled with anxiety, but almost everywhere he looked, five-colored elemental energies were blooming—this was the anomaly released by the attribute-less crystal cores within the three-dimensional bodies.

'Could it be that there is no way out?' Langxin asked himself in his heart. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain between his eyebrows, and a drop of purplish-red blood seeped out from his glabella, looking utterly bewitching.

"Langxin, quickly retract your Horn-Pupil Eyes! Your body can't take much more. If you keep going like this, you'll fall into depravation." Huixin looked back at Tianxin, then anxiously pulled on Langxin's sleeve.

"Quickly, follow Wang Jiao! She knows where to go."

Suddenly, Bai Wan'er's voice reached everyone's ears. Ye Bai glanced at the sky and quickly followed Wang Jiao.

At this moment, the sky was completely filled with gray mist. Vision, hearing, and all sensory organs were filled with a buzzing sound. Suddenly, all the mist began to coagulate, and a pair of unimaginable black eyes hung in the sky.

"Run!"

Yuxin, running at the very rear, swore that since birth he had never witnessed a monster larger than this. The entire space seemed incapable of containing the beast's body, leaving only a pair of eyes rivaling the sun and moon hanging high in the upper atmosphere.

"Wang Jiao, have you seen these before?" Wang Jiao had already roughly recounted the visions she witnessed during her coma to Bai Wan'er earlier.

Wang Jiao did not look back at all; she feared she lacked the courage to face those things a second time. During her coma, she didn't even know how many times she had died. For an ordinary woman, this would have been enough to cause a complete mental collapse.

"No." Wang Jiao's pace grew increasingly urgent. Although she didn't turn to look, the pressure exerted upon her by the entity behind her was greater than any she had experienced during her previous comings-to in her unconscious state.

Gradually, the surrounding gray mist began to dissipate—or rather, rather than dissipating, it was being entirely swallowed up by the monster behind them. The group finally caught a glimpse of the true face of this bizarre space.

The ink blade in Dao's hand had been continuously emitting ink-colored threads ever since the space began to transform; by now, those ink-colored threads resembled a waterfall, endlessly wrapping around the ink blade.

'High-tier demon.' Dao knew better than anyone that the monster behind them was a high-tier demon; the changes happening to the ink blade explained everything.

Ye Bai also noticed the changes in the ink blade. The stunning rainbow blade in his hand was likewise trembling slightly, portending ill fortune.

"Rumble."

Suddenly, everyone felt the earth shake violently, and instinctively wanted to look behind them to see what was happening.

"How is this possible?" The stunning rainbow blade within its scabbard was now devoid of any human control; battle marks appeared one by one, only to vanish one by one.

"I remember Yaoling once said that when she was little, a mutated beast capable of covering an entire primeval city appeared in the Green Forest Main City." The words Yaoling had spoken suddenly surfaced in Ye Bai's mind. Back then, he had thought that type of mutated beast was enormous, but compared to the monster before him, it seemed completely insignificant.

A towering giant python. Ye Bai could only see a pair of colossal eyes and the front half of a monster whose body rivaled the pillars holding up the heavens; beyond that, nothing else could be seen.

"Run, we're almost there!"

Wang Jiao's legs felt somewhat weak from terror at the sight of the giant python behind them. She wasn't entirely certain whether that place could withstand such a monster that blotted out the sky and sun, but at present, this was their only option.

At the edge of the sky, stained a blood-red hue, a dilapidated ancient fortress stood tall. It was only then that everyone realized the abnormality of this space: half of it was gray-white, and the other half was blood-red.

Suddenly, the long hair behind Wang Jiao fluttered backward, and she felt a tremendous force pulling her rearward.

"Where is it? Where is it?" Disregarding the sudden pulling force, Wang Jiao kept her head lowered as she searched for something.

"Ah—!" Huixin suddenly let out a sharp shriek, her entire body lifting off the ground as she drifted toward the sky.

"Huixin!" Langxin, closest to Huixin, reached out and pulled her into his embrace.

Behind everyone, the towering giant python opened its maw—a mouth capable of swallowing the moon and spitting out the sun—and sucked toward the people below.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz." The stunning rainbow blade in Ye Bai's hand seemed eager to leap out of its scabbard, while a thin white film now covered Ye Bai's entire body. Had Langxin's Horn-Pupil Eyes been active once more, he undoubtedly would have noticed the difference in Ye Bai at that moment.

"Found it!" Wang Jiao's expression suddenly turned ecstatic. Yet at that very moment, the suction force surged violently, and everyone lifted off the ground, drifting toward the sky.

"Where is it? Where is the boundary marker? Once we cross it, we're saved!" Before Wang Jiao could finish speaking, she vanished into thin air. Immediately afterward, Bai Wan'er, Ye Bai, Dao... all of them disappeared one by one.

"Are all five hearts present? Earth-Binding Dragon-Shifting Formation." Suddenly, a milky-white pillar of light shot explosively into the sky.

"Present." The other four hearts were long gone from sight, yet their voices echoed from various locations. Following that, four-colored pillars of light in different hues also erupted into the sky.

In an instant, the four-colored pillars of light seemed drawn by an invisible traction as they moved toward the milky-white pillar of light, immediately beginning to spin at high speed.

When Ye Bai regained consciousness, he was already standing before the ancient fortress.