The aftershocks of the battle rippled through space, but they didn't last long before everything fell silent.
He lingered only briefly, tossed away the three heads, then flew off.
Chen Beixun hovered in the air, gazing at the cave entrance before him. A freezing wind howled out of it, carrying a thick, musty stench that swept toward him.
Inside the entrance was a long, narrow passage that seemed to have no end. Once he stepped inside, he was swallowed by endless darkness.
Chen Beixun raced through it, pressing on against the suffocating wind. It sighed of ill omen, as if mourning and warning him.
"Pavadode! Please respond!" Chen Beixun called as he ran, trying to contact him.
Gradually, the wind died down, and Chen Beixun reached the end of the passage.
He entered an unfamiliar room, roughly ninety square meters in size and completely empty. The walls were white, but under the dim lights they looked grayish. The room was filled with the smell of moldy rice.
Chen Beixun walked to the center of the room and looked around. The moment he stepped inside, the entrance behind him closed.
"Chen Beixun, hurry and save us!" An Changyan's weak voice came through Chen Beixun's Optical Computer.
Beep, beep!
Chen Beixun quickly raised his arm, projecting a map. Two points were marked on it, and one was blinking incessantly. That was An Changyan's location.
"Damn it!" Chen Beixun frowned and began hacking and pounding at the walls with his long saber.
Boom! Boom!
He slashed a crack into the wall with his saber, then raised his left hand. Several slender tendrils spread from it and burrowed into the crack.
Suddenly—
The slender tendrils abruptly swelled, forcing the crack open into a hole fifty centimeters high. Chen Beixun crawled to the opening and peered out at the world beyond.
Behind the room was a vast hall flooded with light.
Looking up from below, he saw a domed structure covering the hall.
The dome was unimaginably high. Even with Chen Beixun's mental power probing it, he could only make out the lower part of the structure.
Hang in there! Chen Beixun thought as he sped toward An Changyan.
Whoosh!
Chen Beixun flew out through the hall's arched entrance and into a world made of black metal—or, more precisely, onto a seemingly endless metal road about two thousand meters wide.
On both sides of the metal road lay golden, light-filled abysses. Rows of structures resembling overpasses stretched across the road above, extending from one abyss all the way to the other.
"Almost there!" Chen Beixun's eyes gleamed as he flew at full speed, leaving a trail of white streaks behind him.
As he drew closer, the clanging of metal grew louder. His mental power had already revealed what was happening.
An Changyan's group had probably triggered a mechanism, awakening the Metal Guards in the golden abyss.
Chen Beixun focused his gaze on the people locked in fierce battle.
"C6-grade metal?" Behind Chen Beixun, the Heng Divine Weapon released countless small white swords. Under his control, they gathered into a long white sword and shot toward the Metal Guards blocking his way.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The long white sword charged wildly through their ranks like a runaway horse.
Far away... twenty-one guards had surrounded An Changyan, while Metal Guards surged toward them in a vast tide.
"That's him!" An Changyan turned to look. Her face was deathly pale, but excitement glimmered in her eyes. Her lips moved. "He's here!"
Suddenly—
"Wait, where's Pavadode?" Chen Beixun asked in confusion, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Chen Beixun gripped his long saber and leaped down from the Gold Cloud Shuttle.
The moment his Alloy Combat Boots touched the metal ground, boundless moisture surged out and instantly froze into white mist.
Extreme Cold Domain!
The freezing mist severely restricted the Metal Guards' movements, slowing them to a crawl.
Chen Beixun guided the long white sword through the ranks of Metal Guards. Every strike hit a guard's core, unleashing a blinding white flash.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Metal Guards' cores shattered and exploded. Scorching waves of air, carrying metal fragments, surged toward Chen Beixun.
With a light wave of his hand, a towering wall of ice rose from the ground and blocked the blast.
Behind the ice wall—
At Chen Beixun's command, the long white sword scattered into countless small white swords.
"Whew..." Chen Beixun let out a deep breath and precisely maneuvered the small swords into a crescent-shaped blade of light.
Phosphorescence shimmered across its surface, and endless cold surged from it.
Gritting his teeth, Chen Beixun poured all his strength into the blade. With a Mental Power Amplitude of 43, he drove it to its limit. In an instant, the blade grew several times larger, and its speed became impossibly strange.
It swept away like an autumn gale clearing fallen leaves.
The people fighting in the distance suddenly felt a cold wind. It moaned and shrieked as it rushed toward them like a flood.
The Metal Guards that had been attacking them all turned toward the source of the wind.
Everyone was stunned.
"What?!"
"Could he really wipe out all these Metal Guards by himself?!"
An Changyan struggled to support her frail body and stepped forward.
"Damn it," she cursed, then pushed through the crowd, trying to leave.
"Your Highness!" Several guards hurriedly pulled An Changyan back.
"Hurry! I need a few people to come help!" one of the guards shouted.
Several figures immediately flew off.
Facing the ever-growing number of Metal Guards, Chen Beixun began to feel strained.
Gradually, some Metal Guards broke through the attack zone of the long white sword.
At first, it was manageable. He could take care of them with the long saber in his hand.
There are too many. Should I send out the Demon Island Vine? Chen Beixun pondered.
But the Metal Guards seemed endless. If they were equipped with long-range weapons, there'd be no way to fight them!
There were simply too many. Every time one Metal Guard fell, more came pouring in.
"Your Highness!" Moluo shouted from a distance. He was trying to draw some of them away and ease the pressure on Chen Beixun.
Moluo gripped his battle axe and hacked wildly at the Metal Guards surging toward him, like a man possessed.
"Demon Island Vine!" Chen Beixun shouted, extending both hands.
Hundreds of slender, crimson vines emerged from Chen Beixun, then detached from him.
The crimson vines spread across the ground, continually extending outward.
"Devour them! Devour every last one!" Chen Beixun shouted.
At his command, the crimson vines swelled almost instantly, their color spreading across the entire metal world.
"Good heavens!" Moluo exclaimed, staring at the crimson canopy.
The others were even more terrified. A plant life-form of the Domain Lord level could wipe them out thousands of times over.
"Devour everything here," Chen Beixun murmured, admiring the Demon Island Vine.
Countless vines reached out from the crimson canopy, greedily seizing the Metal Guards on the ground.
One group was taken care of, and another crawled out of the Golden Abyss.
Chen Beixun frowned slightly and approached the golden abyss. He stood at its edge, gazing down at the golden light below.
"It's so deep. My mental power can't reach the bottom!" Chen Beixun exclaimed.
At that moment, his mental power was like a drop of water falling into a lake—utterly insignificant.
Suddenly—
A sound came from the Golden Abyss, like a needle striking a record on a phonograph.
Chen Beixun looked toward it, but his mental power still couldn't make out anything.
"This World Lord... sure has too much time on his hands!" Chen Beixun grumbled, then turned away.
"Chen Beixun!" An Changyan was being helped along. The "buzzing" in her head kept repeating, as if it had been branded into her mind. It left her so unsettled that she couldn't bring the Yan Shen Armament's full power to bear against the enemy.
An Changyan's face was deathly pale, and her Alloy Combat Armor was covered in countless fine scratches.
Chen Beixun flew over and briefly explained a few things to Molo before heading straight for An Changyan. He had plenty of questions that needed answers.
Thud!
His Alloy Combat Boots struck the metal ground with a clang.
Chen Beixun landed in front of An Changyan, his gaze calm as he asked in confusion, "Where did Pavadode go?"
"What's going on with these Metal Guards?"
"How many of our people did we lose?"
Chen Beixun fired off question after question. A dose of high-powered tranquilizer appeared in his hand. He opened it, twisted the cap, and injected it into An Changyan's neck.
"Haah... haah..." An Changyan gasped heavily.
It wasn't long before she recovered. The buzzing in her head temporarily disappeared as well.
"Can you answer me now?" Chen Beixun asked.
An Changyan waved her hand, signaling for the people supporting her to let go.
She coughed a few times, then replied, "Pavadode went ahead to scout. He told us to wait here, then vanished as if he'd disappeared off the face of the earth."
"I don't know how those Metal Guards appeared, either." An Changyan gave a faint, weak shake of her head. "Six of our people were killed."
Chen Beixun nodded and thought for a moment. "You should all come into my World Ring first." With a wave of his hand, he took everyone into the World Ring.
Chen Beixun glanced at the World Ring on his index finger, then communicated with the Demon Island Vine. "How is it? Are these things still crawling out of the abyss endlessly?"
"Yes, there are too many!"
"Master, I feel like I can break through after devouring them for a few more months!" the Demon Island Vine replied.
"Heh! Heh!" Chen Beixun chuckled. "You glutton. We're short on time. Let's get out of here!"
He raised a hand and recalled the Demon Island Vine.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Metal Guards kept crawling out along both sides of the metal road.
A strange feeling suddenly welled up in Chen Beixun.
How can there be so many? The thought flashed through his mind, and an unknown fear rose within him at the world beneath the abyss.
"Let's go!" Chen Beixun stepped onto the Gold Cloud Shuttle and sped away. Behind him, the Heng Divine Weapon released eighteen thin, white swords, each as delicate as a cicada's wing. They formed two long white swords that swept through the enemies in his path.
Within seconds, Chen Beixun reached a bronze-colored gate. He looked back to see a surging mass of Metal Guards bearing down on him like a dark cloud!
"Damn! Why are there even more than before?!" Chen Beixun's pupils contracted. There must be tens of thousands! If they trap me, I'm finished!
He controlled the long white swords, first cutting down dozens of Metal Guards rushing at him, then unleashing their full force against the Bronze Gate.
Boom!
The Bronze Gate was blasted open, leaving a huge hole.
Chen Beixun blurred forward and flew through the hole. Then he took a Fire Crystal from his Space Ring and tossed it to the ground.
Whoosh!
Chen Beixun sped away at once. He also had the Demon Island Vine form a shield of vines, hiding behind it to absorb the blast from the Fire Crystal.
Chen Beixun had used this trick countless times in the past to kill his enemies. Back then, he'd only been at the Star Level, and the explosives he'd used had been far less powerful than a Fire Crystal.
By then, Chen Beixun had already flown a considerable distance and was completely out of the Metal Guards' range.