Bronze Gate

Before long, Lu Yuan's heavy sword shattered the carapace atop the Dungeon Spider's head, cleaving straight into its brain.

The Dungeon Spider let out a piercing shriek and collapsed to the ground, twitching.

Lu Yuan pulled out his longsword, flicked the bluish-green mucus from its blade, and looked toward Green and the others.

Green's defensive capabilities were extremely strong.

Although the Dungeon Spider was quite powerful, breaking through Green's defenses was still difficult.

With him blocking the Dungeon Spider's attacks, the others only needed to focus on attacking.

Although Zhuo Ming and the others were slightly weaker, the Dungeon Spider itself was not a Ferocious Beast with particularly formidable defenses, so their attacks could still leave wounds on its body.

However, even the combined attacks of their entire team failed to inflict fatal damage on the Dungeon Spider.

After Lu Yuan killed his spider, the Dungeon Spider facing Green and the others still had the strength to fight.

Lu Yuan stomped the ground and shot toward the Dungeon Spider.

At that moment, the Dungeon Spider's claw was blocked by Green's greatshield once more. It let out an angry, shrill hiss as Lu Yuan leaped up, clearing two meters and appearing above its head.

Lu Yuan raised the heavy sword above his head and slashed down viciously.

The black blade struck the black carapace. A sword mark instantly appeared on it, and spiderweb-like cracks spread outward from the mark.

Crack!!

Rip!!

The blade tore through the carapace on the spider's head and pierced its skull.

"Screech!!"

The Dungeon Spider let out a piercing cry. Its body twisted violently, and its sharp claws flailed in every direction.

Lu Yuan stood steadily on its back and drove the heavy sword down with force.

The Dungeon Spider's movements abruptly stiffened, and its enormous body, nearly 1.8 meters tall, crashed heavily to the ground.

Zhuo Ming and the others stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with shock.

"Too strong!"

"The carapace on the Dungeon Spider's head is clearly its hardest part, yet the Black Knight split it open with one strike! How strong must he be?!"

"A Guardian-type has such terrifying strength. As an Assault-type, I'm completely devastated."

Everyone spoke up at once.

Green glanced at the corpse on the ground, put away his greatshield, and spoke with a bitter smile.

"Lu Yuan, you're too strong. I feel like we'd only hold you back if we followed you."

Lu Yuan smiled. "How could that be? This Dungeon Spider is much stronger than the ones in the outer area. Facing two at once would be somewhat troublesome even for me. If you hadn't held one back, I wouldn't have been able to deal with them so easily."

Lu Yuan was not merely being polite.

His strength was indeed great, but facing two Dungeon Spiders this large, it would not have been easy to finish them off in a short time.

Especially since there had originally been spider silk and other things nearby. The terrain favored the Dungeon Spiders, making them somewhat troublesome to deal with.

Of course, with his defensive abilities, getting injured was unlikely. It would merely take him longer to kill them.

The problem was that he was heading for the ruins now. Who knew what the situation there was like? The sooner he got there, the better.

If he arrived too late and the ruins closed, it would be too late for regrets.

"Hahaha, hearing you say that puts me more at ease. Let's gather the materials and keep going."

Green laughed.

The group collected the materials and continued deeper into the dungeon.

As they ventured further into the inner area of the dungeon, the passageways became broader and more intricate.

Some passages were even over two hundred meters wide, like small plazas.

The Ferocious Beasts Lu Yuan and the others encountered also grew stronger and stronger.

Some of them made even Lu Yuan feel that they were somewhat difficult to handle.

However, Lu Yuan was strong, and with the equally capable Green and the help of the other Gene Warriors, they advanced steadily despite some difficult battles.

After traveling some distance, Lu Yuan's group passed through an area filled with rubble.

Just then, a low growl sounded in the distance.

Sensing the powerful aura, Lu Yuan immediately stopped.

Cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He stared toward the corner where the sound had come from, his expression uncertain and alarmed.

What a powerful aura!

This was the first time since entering the dungeon that he had sensed such a terrifying presence!

If he faced it head-on, he felt that he would not stand even the slightest chance.

Green felt the same way.

Green immediately raised a finger to his lips and gestured to Zhuo Ming and the others.

Zhuo Ming and the others stopped at once, silently watching their surroundings.

For a team adventuring in the dungeon, this was normal communication.

Lu Yuan and Green exchanged glances, and both had a trace of lingering fear in their eyes.

The two carefully peeked around the corner and looked outside.

Beyond the corner was a huge passage resembling a small plaza. Near the edge of the passage, a Ferocious Beast covered entirely in black scales, with a single horn on its forehead and a canine-like body standing about 1.7 meters at the shoulder, was lowering its head to tear into the corpse of a giant yellow snake over five meters long with a black stripe along its back.

Several giant snakes over two meters long lay nearby as well.

When Lu Yuan saw the yellow giant snake on the ground, his pupils contracted and his heart trembled.

A Black-Striped Snake was highly venomous and possessed great speed, strength, and constitution.

An ordinary Black-Striped Snake was only a little over two meters long. A Black-Striped Snake over five meters long was clearly an Elite Ferocious Beast!

The Gene Tempering Level of a Black-Striped Snake was at least 50%. Even Lu Yuan would not dare provoke an elite Black-Striped Snake.

Yet it had become a corpse in this Ferocious Beast's jaws?!

This Ferocious Beast was far too powerful!

Lu Yuan studied the Ferocious Beast and compared it with the illustrations he had seen before.

Before long, he recognized it.

A Black Scale Horned Wolf.

This was a powerful Ferocious Beast found throughout the Sandstone City region.

Black Scale Horned Wolves were few in number, but their packs were extremely powerful.

Even the weakest Black Scale Horned Wolf was an elite-level beast, and one with a Tempering Level above 80% at that!

It was said that the Black Scale Horned Wolf pack even had powerful leader-level Ferocious Beasts.

They were among the top predators in all of Sandstone City!

He had not expected to encounter one here.

He turned to look at Green beside him.

Green was also turning to look at him.

Lu Yuan could see the fear in Green's eyes as well.

The two exchanged a look and slowly retreated.

"Boss, Brother Yuan, how was it?"

Zhuo Ming asked cautiously.

The others also looked at the two of them.

Lu Yuan and Green exchanged glances. Green frowned and said,

"Not good. There's a Black Scale Horned Wolf eating over there."

"What?! A Black Scale Horned Wolf?!"

Zhuo Ming and the others all widened their eyes in shock. Everyone immediately lowered their voices, growing tense.

"How could we run into a Ferocious Beast of that level here? If we went over there, we wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps in its teeth."

"Boss, Brother Yuan, what do we do?"

Everyone looked at Lu Yuan and Green.

Green looked at Lu Yuan as well.

"Lu Yuan, you're the strongest. Do you have any ideas?"

Lu Yuan frowned in thought before speaking. "The Black Scale Horned Wolf is too strong. Just sensing its aura makes people afraid. We're no match for it. Let's find a way around."

Hearing Lu Yuan's words, Green and the others nodded.

"We can head back for a while. There's a fork in the path ahead that should also lead toward the ruins."

After making their decision, everyone carefully backed away, not daring to disturb the Black Scale Horned Wolf while it ate.

After switching to another passage, they continued onward.

As they went deeper into the inner area, the number of elite Ferocious Beasts that made Lu Yuan feel threatened increased.

There were some Ferocious Beasts whose danger even Lu Yuan had failed to notice.

Green had been the one to spot them all.

At times like this, the benefits of extensive dungeon exploration experience became apparent.

Green had spent several years in the Sandstone Dungeon, and he had countless methods for avoiding Ferocious Beasts.

All of them were lessons learned through repeated brushes with death!

The group continued forward cautiously.

Before long, they passed through a narrow passage less than ten meters wide.

As soon as they emerged, they saw the corpse of a massive yellow sand ant.

"It's a Dungeon Sand Ant! Judging by its size, it should be an elite soldier ant! I didn't expect it to die here."

"Let's go take a look."

The group approached the elite soldier ant's corpse and found numerous blade and sword marks on it.

"They were left by Gene Warriors. It looks like Gene Warriors killed it."

"I heard that the ruins are near the ant nest. Soldier ants usually remain at the nest to guard it. Could the ruins be close?"

Zhuo Ming spoke.

Everyone revealed delighted expressions.

"Don't celebrate yet. Stay alert! Don't let someone ambush us."

Green shouted in a low voice.

Zhuo Ming and the others stiffened and nodded.

They continued onward and saw many more Sand Ant corpses along the way.

Most were worker ant corpses, though they occasionally saw soldier ant corpses as well.

Soon, they arrived at a small plaza.

There were quite a few Gene Warriors on the small plaza, gathered in twos and threes.

Humans, elves, catfolk, and dog-headed people—the four races were faintly divided from one another.

There were also a small number of teams mixed from all four races.

At the far end of the small plaza stood a tightly shut bronze gate.

All sorts of strange patterns were carved into the gate.

"It's the ruins gate!"

Lu Yuan and the others' eyes lit up, and joy appeared on their faces.