“Ten seconds to touchdown, prepare for landing.”

“Ten, nine, eight…two, one, touchdown!”

The cloudship spat out jets of azure light in the air, then slowly descended. Yun Hu and Xuan Gui watched the mountains below. Having donned their exoskeletal mechs, they floated out of the ship ahead of the others.

“This area has an incredibly rich abundance of transcendent source essence.”

“And…it’s very orderly. Compared to the scattered essence on the Ice Sea, this is of very high quality.”

“I never imagined we could find such a treasure trove outside the Five Continents.”

Transcendent source essence generally drifts in the void, existing in a disordered form. Even if large quantities exist in a particular area, it only leads to chaos. If the density is too high, it forms a so-called "black spot," then expands the disordered phenomenon, eventually evolving into an uncontrollable "black hole!"

Within the Five Continents, only the places where the Gods reside can suppress this disorder.

Source Tower, Guang Ming Bi Lei, Nagano…

These places, because of the “power of the Fire Seed” suppressing it, can appease the massive amount of transcendent source essence.

The largest source essence location in the world is Nagano's Kiyotsuka Cemetery.

And this snow mountain's source essence density gives Yun Hu the illusion of returning to the Source Tower.

“Is this an ancient civilization’s residence? Why don't I see any traces of 'civilization' having lived here?” Xuan Gui scanned the area, finding it strange. “This place has such a large amount of orderly source essence gathered here…could it be natural?”

If it’s naturally generated…

Then it doesn’t conform to the Five Continent’s understanding of transcendent source essence characteristics.

If there's artificial manipulation…

Then why is it that this vast snow mountain, as far as his spiritual power can reach, has not a single trace of life?

“Don’t overthink it.”

Yun Hu smiled. “What ancient civilization could exist in a place like this? We’ve been inside this ‘relic’ for so long. Have we discovered even a trace of life? Not even a skeleton…”

Xuan Gui was silent.

“The so-called ‘relic’ should be a coincidence, a wonder of nature.”

Yun Hu crossed his arms and slowly descended.

He smiled and said, “There's no way any ancient civilization could exist in a place like this. The ‘ancient humans’ of six hundred years ago migrated south from the north, fleeing to the Five Continents…At that time, the Ice Sea was probably in utter chaos.”

“I suppose.”

Xuan Gui sighed softly. “But how do we explain the ‘authority’ mentioned in the intelligence?”

“Perhaps the Storm God deliberately released false information!”

Yun Hu scoffed. “Saying that carrying the ‘power of authority’ would cause time distortion, and be trapped by prohibitions…But we brought the [Cloud Mirror] this time. Is there anything unusual?”

“…”

“Alright, the cloudship has landed.”

Yun Hu patted Xuan Gui on the shoulder and said calmly, “This mission shouldn’t be too complicated. First, collect the source essence, then see if there are any naturally occurring ores with transcendent properties…Maybe there's a lot of mithril here. Let's get a head start before the others arrive.”

“Okay.”

Xuan Gui nodded, still subconsciously looking towards the distant snow mountains.

One question remained unresolved—

So far, they haven't seen even a trace of living beings, nor have they found any dead ones. So, where are those people from the Storm Church?

They landed earlier than the Source Tower, and they even had a Saint leading the way…

Where are they?

The Source Tower's candidates began to move around the mountains, and drones spread out among the peaks.

Before long, anomalies appeared.

“Number Seven is out of contact!”

“Number Thirteen is out of contact!”

The drones, remotely controlled by psychic transcendents and sent into the deep mountains, had simply lost contact. But the last images they captured before malfunctioning were all normal.

How could they suddenly crash in mid-air?

“This is really strange…”

Hong Lin, who was responsible for controlling these drones, felt very peculiar.

According to the Source Tower's plan, they were supposed to conduct reconnaissance and sampling on the outskirts of the snow mountain first. After the drones determined the internal terrain, they would slowly advance inward.

“You, you…come with me.”

Hong Lin immediately reported the anomaly to Lord Yun Hu. After receiving a positive response, she quickly led two of her subordinates towards the location where the drones had crashed.

Soon after.

The three-person team arrived at the drones' crash site.

This was a relatively open plain, and the overlapping shadows of the mountains made the visibility somewhat dim…But the wreckage of the crashed machines was clearly visible, cut into dense fragments scattered across the snowfield.

“What happened? It’s like they were cut open?”

The two team members subconsciously moved forward, preparing to pick up the shattered hulls and check what had happened.

Hong Lin frowned, looking at the scattered drone wreckage across the snowfield, and suddenly realized something was wrong.

The last image showed no explosion.

No explosion…

“Wait!”

She shouted abruptly, but it was too late.

The team member walking in the front turned his head at the sound, but his body shattered without warning, as if struck by countless sword energies in an instant. The body, which had been lifting its foot to step forward, still maintained its "forward" motion after being split apart due to inertia. Thus, an extremely bloody scene appeared on the snowfield—

Dozens of pieces of the corpse were thrown out in an instant, landing with a patter and sliding a short distance across the snowfield.

Drones could be shattered…

And so could people.

“???”

This scene had a severe impact on the other enforcer’s mind.

“Don’t move! Don’t move!”

Hong Lin roared in a low voice, using a psychic shock to stabilize the pale-faced enforcer.

The latter's body completely froze in place.

Hong Lin reached out a hand, pulling the enforcer back through the air…

“Bang!”

The moment he landed heavily, a large amount of cold sweat instantly oozed from the enforcer's forehead.

“I’m not dead! I’m still alive!”

He was initially relieved, then his face turned as pale as paper.

Part of the stock of the submachine gun he was holding in his hand had been cut off at some point, leaving only half…

In the place where he had been standing earlier, there was an invisible air barrier!

The seemingly ordinary road ahead.

Was actually filled with "invisible blades."

As long as he took a step forward, he would be directly sliced open!

He was only a little bit away…If he had moved forward again, he would have been cut open directly!

“Didn't Lord Yun Hu say that there were no transcendent beings in this place?” The enforcer's voice was hoarse, his eyes filled with fear. “How do you explain this kind of thing?”

“…”

Hong Lin was silent. She looked at the quiet and gloomy snow scene in front of her, and only felt a chill run down her spine.

This kind of "wall" that kills invisibly is clearly an array pattern that only transcendents can set up…

This invisible wall is enough to prove one thing. What the cloudship saw earlier, that there was no life aura and no transcendent traces here.

It was all an illusion!

She took a deep breath, pulled her subordinate up, and said in a deep voice, "Now is not the time to be afraid. We need to return immediately and report the news to Lord Yun Hu."

But after turning around, she didn't even take a step.

Hong Lin stopped in her tracks.

In the distant wind and snow, a large red figure slowly stepped out.

The large red figure was draped in ancient bamboo armor, layer upon layer, and wore a snow-white mask, carved with scarlet ancient characters, the meaning of which was unknown.

Behind it, long hair scattered like a waterfall, almost reaching the ground.

The whole person was both slender and bloated!

Hong Lin had never seen such a strange attire.

What made her feel even more terrified was…

As a psychic transcendent, not only did she not detect even a trace of unusual psychic aura, but even at this moment, her heart lake had not sent a wave of danger.

This showed that the other party could completely conceal their killing intent!

And their mental state overwhelmed hers by who knows how many levels!

“Hoo…”

Hong Lin summoned three throwing knives, revolving around her body. These were the weapons that had accompanied her for many years…In addition to that, she also had a sealed artifact bestowed by Yun Hu.

She had been given this reward after suffering a blow in the hall when fighting Gu Xiaoman.

It was a fan carved with cloud patterns.

She took out the fan, clenched it tightly in her palm, and the cloud patterns were activated by her spiritual power, gradually changing from snow-white to scarlet. The entire fan also became hot.

The level and power of the sealed artifact were related.

Even among Grade A sealed artifacts, some had usage limits, so their explosive power would be stronger than those that could be used infinitely!

This fan, if activated normally, could be used four times in total.

But Hong Lin chose to activate it all at once…The cloud patterns gradually deepened from scarlet, eventually turning pitch-black!

The strange figure wearing the bamboo armor didn't say a word after appearing, and didn't even move when Hong Lin took out the sealed artifact. It just watched quietly, until Hong Lin took the initiative to attack—

Buzz buzz buzz!

The three throwing knives were the first to go.

Psychic object manipulation and killing was faster than logic-enhanced bullets!

The bamboo armor figure moved forward instantly. Its body seemed bloated, draped in layers of thick armor, but the speed of its stride was extremely fast. Not only did it rush straight at the throwing knives, but it also drew its blade from its waist in an instant. Only three crisp sounds exploded in the snowfield. Hong Lin didn't even see how the bamboo armor person drew its blade, and her three throwing knives were directly knocked away—

In the next moment.

The extremely oppressive figure appeared above her head!

“Rumble!”

At the same moment, Hong Lin unleashed the four times charged cloud pattern fan at the bamboo armor monster with all her might—

The pitch-black wind of annihilation, containing all the power of a Tier 3 psychic, enveloped the bamboo armor monster, and bloodshot appeared in Hong Lin's pupils. Her spiritual power directly crashed into the other party's heart lake!

“Kill!”

She tried her best to buy herself a chance to survive.

From the moment this guy showed up, she knew that her chances were slim, but if a spiritual attack could create a one-second gap…Then maybe there would still be a chance to escape!

“Sizzle—”

Unfortunately, a miracle did not happen.

And the raging soul annihilation wind did hit the bamboo armor figure, and also pierced through its body.

But the "soul annihilation" failed.

A swirling, fiery black wind howled and spread in the air, eventually dissipating.

The figure that had leaped high ultimately swung its blade down lightly.

This strike was clean and swift, cutting Hong Lin and the enforcer beside her in half.

The bamboo armor clanked and gradually quieted down.

After landing, the figure stood with its blade sheathed, and walked towards the "invisible barrier." But it passed through this layer of blades unscathed, without suffering any damage. Finally, it squatted down in front of the shattered drone fragments, picked up one, and examined it carefully.