Chapter 249 – Dark River, Underworld Creatures

The entire five-member team was in a rather relaxed mood.

Perhaps it was because they had spent enough time preparing, considering almost every possible factor.

They had strictly followed the predetermined plan once they entered.

Their exploration had unexpectedly gone very smoothly.

“So far, our exploration progress has reached 9%.

At this rate, we could push the overall progress to 15%, or even 20%, by the end of this operation!”

In the team, a tall and handsome Golden Bear twirled his high-frequency vibrating particle knife in the air, creating silver-white knife shadows, and said, “I can almost imagine the shock of our old friends in the circle when we submit our exploration progress after this mission. Friends…”

The handsome Golden Bear raised his silver short knife and, with an exaggerated expression, half-jokingly exclaimed, “Today is the day we make a name for ourselves!”

“Haha…”

The others all laughed, even the usually serious Xie Jun couldn’t help but smile.

The whole team was filled with a light-hearted and joyful atmosphere.

After a while, a woman with half her hair left and faint red light emanating from her arms spoke with a touch of relief, “Thank goodness that kid didn’t make it into the team; otherwise, we’d probably just be at the first task point by now, instead of progressing so smoothly.”

“Indeed.”

Someone nodded in agreement, “What do you think is happening with that kid now? The last we saw him, he was rushing towards Ruins City. With that rash attitude of his, if he had joined the team, he would have dragged all of us down.”

Listening to his teammates’ discussions, Xie Jun’s eyes flickered, and an image of a figure flashed in his mind.

His eyes softened, and he sighed lightly before speaking, “Alright, let’s clean up the battlefield and collect useful materials and information. Let’s try to finish the mission early. At that time…”

Xie Jun paused and said softly, “We’ll go look for that kid on the way back and take him out with us. After all, it was Old Song who recommended him; we can’t just leave him here on his own…”

Someone in the team frowned, wanting to object, but was pulled by the sleeve by another person. After a moment of consideration, they reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Following Xie Jun’s orders, the group quickly sprang into action.

They were currently in the ruins of an old, medieval-style City Lord’s mansion.

This building was located at the center of a massive Ruins City.

However, they had taken a hidden passage directly to the task point, bypassing the entire city filled with death energy monsters. Their goal was to eliminate the two level S crow deity’s undead in the core area.

With two level S evil power crystals in hand, they were looking at a significant addition to their merit.

The only task remaining was to conduct a quick exploration of the surrounding area to see if there were any valuable items left.

All five of them were seasoned veterans, each having participated in more than five level S secret realm explorations.

It didn’t take long before someone in the team made a discovery.

“Click-click-click—”

A nondescript Golden Bear with exceptionally bright eyes unintentionally triggered a black candelabra on the wall.

The floor beneath them started to tremble, and the sound of mechanical gears turning could be heard, causing the stone bricks to shift.

As a wave of decaying air—sealed for countless years—gushed out, a vast underground secret chamber entrance was revealed before the five of them.

“I knew it!” The Golden Bear who discovered the secret chamber clenched his fist, his eyes shining brightly as he whispered, “Since there’s a hidden passage, there must be a secret chamber too. And here it is…”

The other four also had their eyes gleaming with excitement, showing a hint of expectation on their faces.

Giving the discoverer an approving look, Xie Jun glanced at the rest of the group.

With a tacit understanding, they approached, their detection instruments lighting up with blue light, and began to scan the secret chamber entrance below.

“A total space of 74.5 cubic meters, with traces of toxic substances and minor death energy in the air… No traps, no signs of evil energy waves…”

“Two people, go down first.”

After hearing the report, Xie Jun squinted his eyes and immediately issued the order.

Two members of the team cautiously descended into the secret chamber, one after the other.

Xie Jun and the other three stood at the top, keeping a vigilant watch for any potential external dangers.

Not long after, sounds came from below.

A voice filled with immense surprise, excitement, and even a bit of distortion rang out.

“Wow, there’s actually…”

Before the voice could finish, it erupted into a scream.

The expressions of Xie Jun and the others above changed drastically.

Almost simultaneously, dazzling energy radiance burst forth from the three of them. Hot weapons were activated, and cold weapons unsheathed.

In an instant, they dashed toward the entrance like bolts of lightning.

At the same moment, a burst of silver light shot up from the secret chamber below.

Xie Jun and the other three collided directly with the silver light.

All that was heard was a sharp “crack”.

As the silver light dissipated, all five members of the team vanished completely.

Outside the room, faint wailing and sobbing sounds could be heard. Inside the eerily silent room, only a few carelessly dropped item packs indicated that Xie Jun’s team had once been there.

…

Lu Yuan stood at the end of a dilapidated long street.

Black wings of fire spread out behind his back.

The long street before him was densely packed with a large number of monsters driven by death energy.

Leading them was a crow deity’s undead, standing over three meters tall and dragging a giant battle axe.

Lu Yuan had deliberately traversed the entire city to gather these hundreds of death energy monsters.

The myriad of death energy monsters growled and wailed, the death energy emanating from them entwining to form a dense dark cloud of death energy, bringing a wind of pervasive decay.

Yet, Lu Yuan merely stood there, calm and composed.

Thirty meters…

Twenty meters…

Ten meters…

He silently counted the distance between himself and the monsters.

When the leading crow deity’s undead, over three meters tall and emanating level S evil energy waves, was within five meters of Lu Yuan, its battle axe raised high to strike down—

Lu Yuan finally moved.

He raised his hands, positioning his index fingers and thumbs to form a triangle. At the center of the triangle was the entire long street scene.

Then…

Lu Yuan calmly spoke, “Super Killer Move—Death Message on the Way to the Underworld!”

In an instant, the black wings behind him shattered abruptly, transforming into a massive amount of death energy.

His entire body seemed to become the center of a swirling vortex.

Countless strands of death energy were attracted and gathered towards him.

Under his command, the accumulated death energy formed a vast, roaring dark river that surged forward with a thunderous “boom.”

The crow deity’s undead, standing close to him with its battle axe raised high, was instantly submerged by the river.

The dark river of death energy swept through, inundating the entire long street in the blink of an eye.

It crashed and surged relentlessly…

Lu Yuan, still wearing a calm expression, opened his professional panel and watched as a cascade of information popped up like a waterfall.

Several related skills’ experience points soared rapidly.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

When the dark river that had flooded the long street finally disappeared, the street was eerily silent and empty.

The wailing and wails were gone, and the previously bustling scene had vanished without a trace.

All that remained were patches of black sand and countless decayed weapons scattered on the ground.

Hundreds of death energy monsters that had filled the long street were completely wiped out by Lu Yuan’s single super killer move!

“Phew—”

Lu Yuan exhaled, letting out a sigh of satisfaction, “That was awesome!”

Casually summoning his undead crow assistants to help clean up the battlefield, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but reflect—this was the right way to clear an instance.

This marked the fourth ruined city he had cleared, including Fenglu.

His current exploration progress had surged to 17%, with large areas on the Secret Realm Map that were previously dark now “lit up.”

From the death energy monsters, he had collected nearly a thousand black beads.

However, Lu Yuan only chose to absorb a few of the larger ones.

Even so, his [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] professional level had risen to LV9, [Death Energy Entanglement] had climbed to LV11.

And [Underworld Garment] had reached LV4.

His mental power had also seen a significant boost, with his detection range now approaching 700 meters.

Lu Yuan felt that absorbing a few more black beads, or even just one, would be enough to improve his intelligence points by one.

“This trip to the Wailing Ruins has been worthwhile. My [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] has never seen such a significant increase. It’s almost like I have a third main combat panel now…”

Currently, Lu Yuan’s main combat panels were [Martial Artist] and [Elephant Deity: Emissary Stance (Extraordinary)].

Soon, [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] would become the third.

And with this professional panel, Lu Yuan… could fly!

“Whoosh—”

After collecting all the black beads, a massive amount of death energy suddenly rose behind Lu Yuan.

This flaming death energy quickly formed a pair of enormous black wings behind him, nearly three meters wide and with a wingspan of over seven meters on each side.

These black wings, resembling crow’s wings, had crystal-like feathers that exuded a mysterious and elegant aura in their pure darkness.

With a gentle flap of these wings, Lu Yuan soared upward, reaching tens of meters into the sky in an instant.

He looked down at the Ruins City beneath him. On his fair and handsome cheeks, black patterns resembling Red Spider Lilies began to grow.

In a moment, these patterns spread all over his body, and a set of luxurious, half-transparent black armor adorned his figure.

The armor perfectly accentuated Lu Yuan’s already tall and slender physique.

Wings… mask… armor…

Suspended in mid-air, Lu Yuan felt, for an instant, like he had transformed into a celestial warrior straight out of an anime.

Raising one hand, black death energy flowed between his fingers like water.

“[Death Energy Entanglement] is truly the core skill of [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)].

With each level increase in [Death Energy Entanglement], the quality and quantity of death energy I can control improve dramatically. All kinds of techniques naturally come to me as well…”

“Moreover, the level up of [Death Energy Entanglement] also enhances the effectiveness of all skills based on death energy. Take [Super Killer Move—Death Message on the Way to the Underworld], for instance… I could never unleash a dark river as powerful as the one I just did. It was as if the underworld itself had opened, capable of washing away everything…”

Lu Yuan felt that ever since he had comprehended [Super Killer Move—Death Message on the Way to the Underworld], its true power had only now been fully realized.

“Crack—”

Lu Yuan chose the largest black bead from the pile he had just collected and gently crushed it in his hand.

Countless images flashed through his mind, and his mental power expanded in a gaseous form.

With a “boom,” his detection range successfully broke through to 700 meters. On his attribute panel, his intelligence points also increased from 23 to 24.

Lu Yuan stood quietly in mid-air with his eyes closed for a while.

After he had absorbed and digested all the memory images in his mind, he opened his eyes once again.

“A terrifying underworld monster born from a falling black meteorite?”

Lu Yuan’s expression turned peculiar.

This was an important clue he had just gleaned from the memory images.

“Indeed, it was not just the death energy black tide that led to the downfall of Ancient Brent Kingdom… there are even more horrifying existences!”

Lu Yuan gazed into the distance, as though he could feel the truth constantly calling out to him.

“The memories of these individuals who had steadfastly guarded the city of Ancient Brent Kingdom reveal similar levels of understanding about the true nature of the death energy black tide… They no longer provide any significant leads for the main quest…”

“And I’ve collected enough black beads…”

“It’s indeed time to explore the deeper parts of the Secret Realm…”

“Five Saints… the sovereign of Ancient Brent… and the underworld creatures born from the meteors…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes gleamed as he flapped his wings. Breaking through the layers of black fog, he transformed into a black shadow, swiftly heading towards the area marked as a ‘restricted area’ on the Secret Realm Map…