Chapter 254 – Sudden Change, A Call—”You must get it!”

Rolling death energy surged like a flood.

Thick and liquid, it collapsed all around.

Xie Jun and his two companions’ pupils constricted. They kept retreating, seemingly unable to escape the black torrent.

But at that very moment.

The death energy that had been flowing outward suddenly retracted.

Instead, it flowed inward.

An inexplicable suction force emerged from the center of the restricted area.

Under this suction, massive amounts of death energy formed a gigantic black vortex, causing even the sky to resemble the shape of a funnel.

Xie Jun and his companions stood on the desolate wilderness, protected by their light shield.

Watching as tendrils of death energy, like smoke, streamed from all directions, converging like rivers flowing to the sea towards the massive vortex.

The entire Wailing Ruins seemed to tremble in response.

The faint wailing in the air suddenly grew louder, turning into a sound akin to crying.

Countless undead crows flapped their wings and flew over, circling and hovering in worship around a single direction.

The three of them looked up with bewilderment.

They observed the restricted area fully exposed under the sky.

Vaguely.

They saw, beneath the colossal funnel of death energy, at the center of the vortex, the sixth stone pillar stood tall.

Endless streams of death energy converged towards a colossal black egg at the top of the stone pillar, as if… something was brewing.

At this moment, Yellow Bear members scattered across various corners of the Wailing Ruins secret realm.

All sensed the sudden change.

A deep, indescribable unease rose spontaneously from each person’s heart.

For no apparent reason, a thought surfaced in their minds.

“Something big… is about to happen…”

…

“Alright, I’m leaving if there’s nothing else.

I just dropped by to see you. I’m still on vacation…”

Su Zhaohui put down the square-shaped glass, stood up from the sofa, and looked at Song Cong’s calm face. Half-jokingly, he said, “If you ever truly gain Lord Tong’s support, don’t forget about me. When you become rich and powerful, remember your friend, Old Song.”

Song Cong’s face showed a trace of helplessness. He waved his hand casually, as if saying, “No need to see me off.”

Su Zhaohui yawned lazily and started to walk out.

But before he could take more than two steps.

Both he and Song Cong paused almost simultaneously.

A few seconds later.

One stood up, the other turned back, their eyes meeting.

In each other’s pupils, they saw reflected faces filled with confusion and a touch of shock.

“You received the message too?”

“Of course!”

Su Zhaohui looked at the message he had just received, frowning as he quickly read it out word by word.

“…Half an hour ago, Golden Bear member Xie Jun sent a distress signal from within the restricted area of the Wailing Ruins. Two members of Xie Jun’s team, whose consciousness were downloaded, had their clone bodies revived, confirming the deaths of their original bodies…

It has been confirmed: a level S secret realm, the Wailing Ruins, has experienced an evil energy riot. The monitored danger level has been temporarily upgraded from level S to SSS.

We urgently summon Golden Bear and Flying Bear members of level S and above to suppress the situation…”

“Damn!”

Su Zhaohui couldn’t help but curse: “What kind of insane thing did Xie Jun’s team do in the Wailing Ruins? In the past, those unlucky enough to enter the restricted area just died; they never caused such a big disturbance.

An evil energy riot upgrading the secret realm’s danger level by two whole tiers—from a regular S to sub-legendary level… I haven’t encountered something like this in decades!”

“What’s the use in talking about that now? The urgent thing is how to resolve it!”

Song Cong looked grimmer than Su Zhaohui. Through gritted teeth, he spat out a sentence: “Lu Yuan is still in the Wailing Ruins.”

“I know. But an SSS danger level, a sub-legendary level secret realm with an evil deity… sending us ordinary S-level members in would be a death sentence as well…”

Su Zhaohui sighed helplessly, just as his expression changed slightly with a faint “huh.”

“The summoning order has been canceled. A top-tier Flying Bear General with four wings has taken on the task of suppression. Now, they only need ten Golden Bear members below SS level to assist in the search and rescue… Old Song!”

Su Zhaohui called out to Song Cong, looking up at him.

Song Cong already had his combat suit on, ready to depart at any moment.

“Lu Yuan is a pure martial artist. The level S Wailing Ruins were already dangerous for him. Now it’s upgraded to sub-legendary level…”

Song Cong’s face darkened, and he bit his teeth lightly, “I don’t know if his consciousness is backed up and uploaded. Even if it is, once he ‘dies,’ his talent potential will be greatly diminished…”

By the end, Song Cong’s face was filled with worry.

After listening to him, Su Zhaohui paused and then said, “I’ll go with you!”

He started taking off his casual denim jacket, grumbling as he did so.

“Xie Jun is really a jinx, always causing problems for the organization… It’s lucky that Lu Yuan isn’t part of his team.

Old Song, don’t worry. Just for this alone, Lu Yuan is a person of great fortune. If we can bring Lu Yuan back safe and sound… Lord Tong’s lavish rewards await us!”

…

“Huh?!”

Lu Yuan, who was enduring the overwhelming surge of memories in his mind, noticed the sudden changes around him immediately.

He saw the collapse of the death energy barrier and the formation of the death energy vortex.

Also, atop the sixth stone pillar, he saw a colossal black egg radiating strange waves of consciousness.

The battle had momentarily ceased.

Right after the changes began, the three emissary-level Crowmen who had been attacking him turned swiftly and headed toward the square.

Once there, they leaped onto their respective stone pillars.

Kneeling on one knee at the top of the pillars, they faced the colossal black egg at the center, assuming a posture of devout worship.

“Sovereign… Servants… Representative…”

Lu Yuan pressed his throbbing forehead with one finger while watching the experience points on the [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] panel rapidly increasing.

He furrowed his brow, enduring the relentless waves of memory images.

Lu Yuan tried to find more clues about that battle from the memory images he saw.

But he discovered that these two emissary-level Crowmen—or rather, the two former Saints of the Ancient Brent Kingdom—had been thoroughly brainwashed. Their memories contained few valuable images, mostly filled with songs and praises to the crow deity.

What truly shook Lu Yuan was one particular scene—

In the sky, a colossal crow shadow flew slowly, covering the heavens and earth.

Its wings spread wide, blocking the light of the stars and moon.

The shadow it cast plunged the entire Ancient Brent Kingdom into perpetual night.

The boundless, ocean-like death energy it radiated rang the death knell of the underworld for everyone who saw it…

“So this is the underworld creature born from that fallen meteorite? It’s so massive… No wonder the few people of Ancient Brent lost… They weren’t even in the same league…”

Lu Yuan sighed softly.

He instinctively turned his gaze to the colossal black egg on the sixth stone pillar in the distance.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Could this thing waiting to hatch be that underworld creature?”

Lu Yuan’s heart instantly tightened.

If that were the case, what was he even fighting for? To combat a terrifying existence that could easily wipe out an entire kingdom, you’d need Yellow Bear leading a mecha army just to stand a chance.

“No way, I can’t let it hatch!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flashed as he searched around for anything he could throw.

He tried to condense several spears out of death energy and launched them with his thoughts.

But before the spears could hit the black egg, the three emissary-level Crowmen, who had been in a worship stance, quickly got up, using their bodies to block each spear.

“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”

Each of Lu Yuan’s spears directly exploded one emissary-level Crowman after another.

“Uh…”

Lu Yuan was momentarily stunned, doubting whether his casually thrown death energy spears were really that lethal.

But he soon realized that these three emissary-level Crowmen seemed to be sacrificing themselves willingly.

After their bodies exploded, they turned into vast streams of death energy, all rushing towards the black egg on the sixth stone pillar.

Every drop of death energy was completely absorbed by the black egg.

This act seemed to accelerate the hatching process of the egg, as the consciousness waves emanating from it grew increasingly stronger.

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and took a deep breath before diving headfirst.

The pure black death energy wings unfurled behind him; given his current height of over five meters, they looked somewhat “underdeveloped.”

But Lu Yuan had no intention of using these wings to fly.

He sprinted towards the stone pillar, each step leaving a giant crater beneath his feet, causing the rocky ground around him to undulate like rippling water.

Upon reaching the edge of the square filled with corpses, Lu Yuan stomped down fiercely.

His massive body, as impressive as a demon mountain, rose into the air.

The black wings stretched to their fullest extent, and the underworld garment, now upgraded to level 5, manifested on him as a splendid and classical heavy armor.

He raised his right arm, and a large amount of death energy converged at his fist. Dark golden martial deity strength burst forth, intertwining with the death energy.

With the ultimate exertion, the absurdly powerful strength of an Elephant Deity Emissary was elevated to an even higher level.

Activating ultimate exertion under the [Emissary Stance] of the Elephant Deity was an extremely risky move.

Given the massive base strength, even a slight increase could cause an “overload,” potentially resulting in an explosive “boom!”

Lu Yuan only dared to attempt this because he was in the state of level 2 [Undefeated Instinct].

A king level battle consciousness barely allowed him to control his strength within the finely balanced limit his body could endure.

“Crack, crack, crack—”

Even so, Lu Yuan’s Elephant Deity Emissary body began to groan under the immense power.

His gargantuan form started to fissure slightly.

The strength flowed inch by inch, channeling up until it converged like rivers into the sea, all focused in his fist…

“Boom!”

That punch landed solidly on the surface of the colossal black egg.

“Crack—”

A cracking sound echoed as if something had shattered.

Lu Yuan landed, his face expressionless.

He raised his hand, silently observing his cracked bones.

Then he glanced at the smooth, unblemished surface of the black egg.

Without hesitation, he turned and walked away.

He couldn’t even crack the egg shell.

Lu Yuan couldn’t find any reason to linger there any longer.

He burst out of the square like a hurricane, sprinting towards the edge of the restricted area.

As he ran, he mentally calculated his odds. Given his speed, what were the chances that he could escape the Wailing Ruins before the colossal egg fully hatched?

Truth? Main quest?

To hell with those.

Curiosity was nowhere near as important as his life.

This trip… he’d already gained enough.

However.

Just as Lu Yuan was about to step off the land that once belonged to the Capital of the Ancient Brent Kingdom.

Suddenly, a voice abruptly echoed in his mind.

“Wait…”

“Boom!”

Lu Yuan’s surge forward came to an abrupt halt. One foot created a large crater beneath him, while the other hovered in mid-air.

He was stunned.

From the moment he had entered the Wailing Ruins, he had faintly felt a calling of some sort.

That calling had been intermittent, almost forgotten.

Now, it was incredibly clear.

“Wait…”

The voice continued to echo in his mind.

He turned around bit by bit, looking back in disbelief.

His gaze locked onto the colossal black egg atop the sixth stone pillar, the source of the voice telling him to stop.

“Don’t go…”

The voice continued to resonate in his mind.

Like the calm surface of a moonlit lake, it sent subtle ripples through his thoughts.

“He left… something for you…”

The voice was vague, indistinguishable in gender or age.

Lu Yuan wasn’t even sure if the voice was truly speaking to him.

At the moment the voice finished speaking its last sentence.

“Boom!”

An unprecedented and intense desire surged in Lu Yuan’s heart.

He stared intently at the black egg, as if he could see through the egg shell to the secrets hidden inside.

A voice continuously echoed in Lu Yuan’s heart, telling him over and over again.

“Don’t go, stop.

You…

You must obtain it!”