Darkness Falls Again, Explorer Perishes!

Immediately afterward, dozens of dazzling white sword lights erupted in the darkness.

Those white-robed young people had activated the power within their bodies at the same time.

As the sword lights flared, they finally worked together to drive more than a dozen thick golden pillars into the ground of the Gobi desert.

Buzz!

At the same time, a translucent pale-golden light barrier suddenly spread out from those pillars as its center. Like an upside-down bowl, it shielded the entire multi-storied ship and the group of white-robed people inside.

By the light radiating from the golden barrier, Li Ziyang finally saw the situation before him clearly.

That safe golden barrier was less than ten meters away from him.

And behind him, in that thick, ink-black darkness, something enormous was slowly writhing, accompanied by bursts of low chewing that made his scalp tingle.

Although Li Ziyang normally lived in comfort and luxury, at the critical moment between life and death, the instincts of a Great Soul Master still erupted.

He used every last ounce of strength he had. The two yellow soul rings beneath his feet flashed wildly, and a silver vine shot out from his palm, heading straight for the golden barrier ten meters away.

He wanted to use the vine to grab a stone at the edge of the barrier and pull himself in.

But in the end, he was still one step too slow.

The instant he had just taken two steps, a long tentacle covered in barbs stretched out from the darkness.

The tentacle was astonishingly fast, wrapping around Li Ziyang's ankle in one grab.

"Save me! Save—"

Li Ziyang shouted desperately toward the white-robed people inside the barrier.

But the swordsmen inside the barrier only looked at him coldly. A few of them even retreated two steps toward the center of the barrier out of fear, terrified of being touched by the darkness outside.

The next second, Li Ziyang's body was dragged violently into the endless darkness behind him by that tentacle, like a torn sack casually thrown away.

Soon, the sound of bones shattering came from deep within the darkness. After that, there was no movement at all.

Outside the golden barrier, only a glaring pool of blood remained, along with half a severed silver vine.

The image on the light screen froze instantly, then was once again covered by large swathes of blood-red.

[Participant: Li Ziyang (Fasnuo Province, Level 21 Great Soul Master)]

[Current Status: Deceased]

[Cause of Death: Exposed to the night, failed to enter the Evil-Warding Array in time, dragged away and devoured by a dark monster.]

When those lines of large text appeared, the entire Douluo Continent could no longer say a word.

Four people in a row now.

A Soul Emperor, a blacksmith, a Soul Elder, and now this Great Soul Master.

All of them were dead.

Not a single one had survived the first night in the Great Ruins.

Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi sat on the sect master's throne, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest.

The face that usually always carried a gentle smile was now covered in gravity.

"Uncle Sword, Uncle Bone, did you understand it?" Ning Fengzhi spoke softly, breaking the silence in the hall.

Chen Xin slowly nodded, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes.

"I understood some of the clues."

"The most dangerous thing in that so-called higher-dimensional world is the night."

"Once the sun sets, monsters appear in that darkness, monsters even those mysterious swordsmen cannot deal with."

Gu Rong, who was beside him, also echoed, "That's right."

"The previous Soul Emperor died in the night. That blacksmith survived by hiding near a glowing stone statue. And now this Great Soul Master was killed because he failed to run into that golden array barrier."

Ning Fengzhi took a deep breath and sighed. "This truly is an unreasonable world."

"Even such a powerful swordsman sect can only hide inside an array and tremble like rats once night falls."

"How exactly do the people there survive?"

"Could it be that no one can go out anywhere at night?"

At the same time, at Shrek Academy.

Tang San stood on the training field, rapidly reviewing the images he had just seen in his mind.

With his experience from the Tang Sect in his previous life, his thoughts were far more meticulous than those of his peers.

He turned his head and looked at Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu, and the others beside him, then said in a low voice, "Did everyone notice?"

"The night in the Great Ruins seems to be a natural law that cannot be defied."

"If you want to survive, you have to find a place protected by special power before it gets dark."

Hearing this, Dai Mubai, who was standing nearby, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as well and nodded with lingering fear.

"Little San is right."

"This place is too damned creepy. No matter how strong you are, if you don't follow the rules and run around at night, you're dead."

"Right now, I just hope that voice in the sky never picks me."

Listening to the students' discussion, Yu Xiaogang stood to the side as well, his expression shifting uncertainly.

Just moments ago, he had sworn with absolute confidence that all of that had been nothing but tricks to mislead the eye, ordinary soul beasts.

But now, even a group of mysterious experts who could control swords through the air were terrified of the night. This had clearly gone beyond anything he could explain with common sense.

Yu Xiaogang gave two dry coughs, trying to salvage a little face.

"Ahem... Little San's analysis is quite good."

"This proves that some kind of special environmental magnetic field exists in that area, and at night it releases poisonous gas, thereby triggering mutations."

"As soul masters, we must be good at observing these kinds of environmental patterns..."

Only this time, even Ma Hongjun, the most obedient of them all, did not speak up to agree.

Everyone was staring at the sky screen in midair, waiting for the image of the final participant.

Five people, and four were already dead.

Now, only that last lone seedling remained.

Very soon, the blood-red words on the sky screen gradually faded away as well.

Before long, the image flashed, and the fifth light screen lit up completely.

This time, the person who appeared before everyone was Zhu Dazhi, a forty-second-rank Battle Soul Ancestor from a branch of the Zhu Family of the Star Luo Empire.

Completely different from the dim sky when the previous few had landed, the image on Zhu Dazhi's side was extremely bright.

The sun hung high in the sky, and sunlight poured without reserve over the broad riverbank, even giving people a faint feeling of warmth.

The place where Zhu Dazhi had landed was a flat stretch beside a great river.

Next to him was a vast river so wide its far bank could not be seen. The river water churned with turbid waves, letting out a deafening roar as it surged endlessly into the distance.

Seeing this bright sunshine, everyone in Douluo outside the light screen could not help letting out a long breath of relief.

On the sports field of Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang's face, which had been utterly bloodless, finally recovered a little.

He straightened his slightly disheveled collar and clasped his hands behind his back again.

"There's no need for everyone to panic too much."

Yu Xiaogang cleared his throat and said in a tone as if he had seen through everything, "Think back carefully. The four people who died earlier all met with misfortune after dark."

"That is enough to prove that in that so-called higher-dimensional world, most of the danger lurks at night."

"As long as one moves during the day and avoids those fierce beasts that hide by day and emerge by night, with strength above the Soul Ancestor level, self-preservation is absolutely more than enough."

After hearing the Grandmaster's analysis, the surrounding students nodded one after another, feeling that it made perfect sense.

After all, humans naturally had a fear of darkness. Now that they were seeing the riverside scenery in broad daylight, the tense string in their hearts naturally loosened as well.

In the image, Zhu Dazhi had the same thought.

He stood on the cobblestone bank by the river, took a deep breath of air tinged with moisture, and a trace of relief appeared on his face.

"Looks like my luck isn't bad. I happened to arrive in broad daylight."

Zhu Dazhi patted his chest, then turned and walked forward along the relatively flat stretch beside the river.

He had calculated things very clearly in his mind. This place was out in the wilderness, and the urgent priority was to find a local and ask for directions. Best of all, he could find out where there might be some treasure of immortality.

After walking along the river for roughly half an hour, a deep, muffled sound suddenly came from the woods ahead.