Translator: flycrane01 Editor: Millman97
Inside the main warehouse at the bottom level of the underground fortress, Bai Wulei looked at debris, remains, and the rusted scraps of magical equipment that had been piled up like a hill, dumbfounded.
Powerful crystal suits of the Star Ocean Imperium appeared to be hanging on the sixty shelves that were dozens of meters high. However, with the slightest touch, all the crystal suits crumbled into crazily flying iron dust as if they were made of sand.
Bai Wulei coughed heavily because of the stimulation of the iron dust. He coughed while he bellowed, "It's impossible! How could there be only such a pile of garbage? The old man said that magical equipment that could equip tens of thousands of Cultivators was hidden in his place!"
He rushed crazily inside the warehouse madly and explored the weapons and magical equipment one area after another. It was a pity that his finger seemed to be blessed with a destructive ability all of a suddenly. All the weapons and magical equipment he touched were shattered and collapsed into debris.
"How can this be?" Bai Wulei was about to cry. He gnashed his teeth and said, "It's unreasonable. The old man already presented countless techniques and magical equipment he took from the underground fortress in order to boost morale. At that time, I asked him what about ourselves when we were offering so many secret treasures to other people.
"In the end, the old man burst into laughter and declared that what he had taken out was only one tenth of all the treasures. The real good items were still below the ground!
"How is it possible?
"There must be something wrong. There must be another warehouse. There must be!"
Bai Wulei waved a seemingly glamorous flying sword. But after one slash, it broken into more than ten pieces, suggesting that it was more fragile than glass.
Fengyu Zhong, Master Hidden Fog, who was the previous leader of Black Spider Tower, and Dark Empyrean, who was the real 'Black King', all frowned and stared at the wall, deep in thought.
The spacious warehouse was wreathed in a vague black mist, as if streams of demonic aura were leaking in through the wall.
Fengyu Zhong asked respectfully, "Black King, what do you think?"
Since Dark Empyreal had launched an attack in the Nascent Soul Stage toward Bai Xinghe in front of everybody, there was little point in him concealing his identity any longer. Getting rid of the low profile as one of the 'Eight Blades of Black Spider', he stood confidently, surrounded by a daunting, decisive aura. He replied calmly, "It appears that we have all been fooled by Bai Xinghe. The old, cunning Pirate Potentate was merely bluffing.
"There are not as many secret treasures of the Star Ocean Imperium as he claimed. Even if there were, most of the magical equipment and the weapons would already be rusted and damaged.
"Those he brought to the surface were just about everything. That old fox!
"However…"
Dark Empyrean, the Black King, narrowed his eyes and said slowly, "It suddenly occurs to me that, although most of the weapons and magical equipment on our way here are seriously damaged, there are a great number of war assets, especially high-purity crystals such as the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones. Their volume seems to far exceed the need of a regular war."
Hardly had he concluded his sentence when the color of his face changed abruptly. He drew a rune quickly and held it in his palm while he murmured a spell. Then he opened his hands suddenly!
A black bug immediately flew out of his hands and flew far away in a streak of blackness.
A moment later, Fengyu Zhong's nose flapped as he sniffed the air. He observed with a solemn face, "Something is indeed not right. The moisture of the air has increased all of a sudden. The spiritual energy of the water class is very active right now!"
"Not good!" Dark Empyrean seemed to have sensed something. His face turned extremely pale as he shouted loudly, "Hurry and leave!"
…
The middle level and the upper level of the underground fortress had changed entirely.
Over the past ten thousand years, the multiple earthquakes, especially the super earthquake affected by the apocalypse five thousand years ago, had already riddled the fortress with holes everywhere.
The traps that Yan Xinjian had devised neatly, through a few insignificant explosions, altered the route of the Nether River precisely, turning the Nether River into a raging dragon that invaded the fortress. The hair, claws, and teeth of the dragon were running into the fortress through the countless fractures on the top half of the fortress!
In a moment, the underground fortress turned into a swamp!
The unstoppable flood was roaring in every pathway like ferocious beasts, smashing everything in its way.
Countless space pirates were consumed by the flood before they realized what was going on. They were bashed into the wall hard by the rushing torrent. Despite the protection of their crystal suits, they were vomiting blood with their internal organs torn apart.
The flood alone was not terrifying, but most of the warehouses inside the underground fortress were packed with high-purity crystals such as the Thunder Stone and the Sunlight Stone.
Those extremely unstable crystals did not even need to meet water directly to explode. As long as the moisture of the air increased to a certain level and the spiritual energy of the water class in the air was active enough, they would detonate instantly!
As a result—
Explosions were taking place everywhere inside the underground fortress. Countless warehouses and pathways collapsed before they were swallowed by the flood. The space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators inside were buried and suppressed by the fireballs and billions of rocks that were cascading down on their heads without even having the opportunity to scream.
For the areas that were not affected by the explosions of the Thunder Stones and the Sunlight Stones, when they were drowned by the flood, the eccentric beasts living inside the Nether River crawled into the fortress along with the currents.
Those eccentric beasts had been living in absolute darkness for thousands of years. They could only perceive their prey through spiritual energy.
In order to keep away from their enemies, most of them had evolved with the ability of converging their spiritual energy, too.
Right now, the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators who had triggered their spiritual energy instead of concealing it in the emergency were like butterflies in a dark night. They became the most appealing prey for the eccentric beasts.
There were floating eccentric beasts that were emitting dim lights like jellyfish, fish-type beasts that had sharp tusks and could bite through the toughest super alloys, and insect-type beasts that both looked like water snakes and giant centipedes with flagella and tentacles wriggling all over their bodies to name a few.
Hundreds of eccentric beasts were swimming, sneaking, and searching in the water, exchanging greedy and cruel information with each other.
Even the mortal enemies gave up the idea of hunting each other for now because more delicious prey was right in front of them.
Swoosh!
A floating eccentric beast that looked like a transparent jellyfish lunged at a space pirate who was struggling inside the flood. The boneless body of the beast opened like a bag and covered the space pirate's head as fast as lightning. The soft tentacles groped for the gaps in the victim's crystal suit and injected the fatal venom into it.
Hiu!
Hundreds of 'goldfish' that had the sharpest teeth congregated into a cluster of deadly gold as they charged at an Immortal Cultivator who had suffered internal injuries during the strike of the flood. Their teeth bit his crystal suit hard. After being ripped for a moment, the crystal suit was creaking and about to crumble at any moment!
Hu!
The insect-type beasts that looked like enormous centipedes spurted corrosive body liquids as they swam forward. The dark green body liquids quickly spread out in the water and enshrouded two Immortal Cultivators, who did not know what was going on silently, like faint mist.
"Ah!"
"Ah! Ah!"
"What is this? What is this damn thing?"
Screams were echoing nonstop inside the communication channel of the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators. Countless people were killed before they sensed where their enemy was!
…
Inside a secret tunnel, Bai Kaixin and Lei Dalu were moving forward prudently. Suddenly, Lei Dalu's nostrils widened, and his ears twitched. He leaned against the wall and listened carefully for a while, before he mumbled, "Something's wrong."
Bai Kaixin turned nervous. "What is it? This road is very inconspicuous. The Immortal Cultivators shouldn't be able to discover it."
"It doesn't sound like the Immortal Cultivators," Lei Dalu murmured. Then he suddenly shouted, "Not good. Run quickly!"
"What's going—"
Before Bai Kaixin finished his sentence, he had already heard a boom far away from them, as if something had exploded, which was followed by the earsplitting noise of a flood that was pushing close to the two of them unstoppably.
Bai Kaixin was lost, too. "What's happening?"
Huala! Huala! Huala!
As if the horn of the God of Water had been blown, a tide rounded the corner and was rushing close.
"What are you waiting for? Run now!"
Lei Dalu snatched Bai Kaixin's elbow and ran as fast as he could!
…
Li Yao and Bai Xinghe had snuck into the river. Everything they saw raised the deepest fear deep down their heart.
It was a pathway that had just been savaged by the flood and the eccentric underwater beasts.
Endless debris was floating in the dirty water. There was no telling whether it was originally crystal suits or the magical equipment inside the underground fortress. Occasionally, there were empty crystal suits stuck in a strange position, as if waving at the bottom of the pathway. When Li Yao drew close and observed, he often discovered that there were only skeletons inside the crystal suits, if there was anything at all.
They were the space pirates and the Immortal Cultivators who had been attacked by the eccentric beasts. Not even their bodies remained.
Li Yao and Bai Xinghe were both aware of the toughness of the underwater beasts. They both switched their crystal suits to stealth mode and tried to reduce the spiritual energy being emitted as much as possible, while they continued forward in the water purely with the strength of their muscles and bones.
Right now, a huge bunch of space pirates and Immortal Cultivators had triggered their spiritual energy to the maximum due to anxiety. They were more eye-catching prey than the two of them. Therefore, it did not matter very much even if some of their spiritual energy leaked out.
They had been engaged with a lot of eccentric beasts on their way, too. If the shoal was not large enough, they would eliminate the beasts as quickly as possible. When it was too large, they would simply turn off the last bit of their spiritual energy output and pretend to be two cold, iron shells.
Since the eccentric beasts had been living below the dark underground for generations, most of their optical organs had retrograded, and they could only perceive their surroundings with spiritual energy. Li Yao and Bai Xinghe did not run into any trouble when they passed the blind predators. However, the ugly appearance of the beasts caused goosebumps all over Li Yao's body.
"The two of them are running toward the core area of the underground fortress."
While there were no eccentric beasts nearby, Bai Xinghe triggered the light beam again and watched. There was worry in his voice as he said, "Not good. According to their current route, it is likely that they will run into the main force of the Immortal Cultivators!
"We have to save them before they meet the main force of the Immortal Cultivators and bring them back to the Star Prier's House before we all run away from here together!"