Palace Lord's Game

The Soul Reaper Envoy's parting threat sounded like a horn calling for a siege. Almost the instant Su Yan and the others burst out of the stone house, the entire End Times Cult outpost erupted like a disturbed beehive!

A piercing bone whistle shrieked through the dim yellow sky. Countless robed cultists poured out of their tents. The corrupted Netherworld creatures—Crimson-eyed Soul Devouring Beasts, Underworld Soldiers armored in black slime, and even more twisted, unnamable monsters—converged on them like a tide from every corner of the camp! Shouts of battle, monstrous roars, and the whistling of weapons slicing through the air instantly ignited the deathly silent land.

"Break through to the east! The terrain is complex there, with a rock forest!" Su Yan, referencing the rudimentary map they'd acquired, made an instant decision. The east was a jagged black rock forest, far more suitable for maneuvering than the flat plains in other directions.

No time for hesitation. The four of them and their pet immediately transformed into a sharp arrow, charging towards the east. Mo Hen, while running, hurled all the Smoke Bombs and Explosive Mechanisms on his person backward, attempting to slow their pursuers. Dense black smoke and continuous explosions temporarily obscured vision, but more enemies flanked them from the sides.

"Lightning Talisman!" Su Yan turned and unleashed a blast of lightning, incinerating several corrupted Underworld Soldiers who had charged too far ahead. But more enemies immediately filled the void. Star Vortex guarded Su Yan's flank, its Starlight Breath sweeping out in a fan. The silvery breath dealt significant damage to the End Times cultists and corrupted creatures, but the sheer number of enemies caused its spiritual energy to deplete rapidly.

Bai Zhi maximized the radius of her Universal Salvation aura. The gentle Buddhist light not only healed the Blood Essence the group lost from high-speed movement and sporadic attacks but also dealt continuous purification damage to approaching undead monsters. However, her own mana was also dropping fast. Yun Ji continuously cast Calming Talismans and Wind Control Talismans, stabilizing their minds and slightly increasing their movement speed.

This was a grueling, mobile battle. They couldn't stop, only push forward, and forward, using every piece of cover they could find, dodging bone arrows, Yin fireballs, and various bizarre curse spells shot from all directions. Injuries began to appear in the group. Mo Hen's Mechanical Beast was completely destroyed after enduring several heavy blows. Su Yan's shoulder guard was grazed by an corrosive energy, causing a searing pain. Star Vortex's beautiful carapace now bore several deep scratches.

Pressure! Unparalleled pressure! It felt as if all the malice of the Netherworld was concentrated on their small group.

Just as they were about to charge into the black rock forest, hoping to catch their breath amidst the complex terrain, a violent spatial distortion suddenly appeared ahead! An invisible area filled with fine spatial cracks blocked their path—a Chaotic Space Turbulence Belt! This was a common hazardous feature of the Netherworld, with extremely unstable spatial structures. Blundering into it could result in random teleportation or even being torn to shreds!

Pursuers behind, a dead end ahead!

"Cornered..." Mo Hen's face was grim.

Su Yan tightly gripped the Compass in his hand. Under such intense combat and perilous circumstances, the Compass seemed stimulated. Its silver light flickered with unprecedented frequency, its repair progress silently increasing from 60% to 61%... 62%... finally stabilizing at 65%! Simultaneously, a brand new understanding of spatial manipulation flooded Su Yan's mind!

[Astral Shuttle] (Active): Channel the Power of Stars to perform a small-scale, short-distance group spatial jump for a short duration. Consumes a large amount of spiritual energy and mental power, with a long cooldown. (Effect is influenced by the Compass's repair progress and the user's strength).

A glimmer of hope in despair!

"Follow me!" Su Yan, without time to think, roared and poured his nearly depleted spiritual energy into the Compass! The Compass shone with brilliant silver light, and a gentle film, seemingly composed of countless starlight, instantly enveloped the four of them and their pet!

The next moment, their figures blurred and vanished from their original spot, appearing almost simultaneously a hundred meters away, on the other side of the spatial turbulence belt!

"Pfft!" Su Yan, forcibly activating his new ability, coughed up a mouthful of blood. His face turned ashen, his mental power nearly drained. He staggered, almost falling, but was quickly supported by Bai Zhi beside him. Mo Hen and Yun Ji also felt a strong sense of dizziness from the spatial teleportation.

The pursuers, caught off guard, crashed into the spatial turbulence. Instantly, over a dozen cultists and monsters were torn apart by the invisible spatial force or teleported to unknown locations, causing chaos behind them.

"It worked!" Mo Hen exclaimed, both surprised and delighted.

However, before they could catch their breath, a deep, majestic voice, as if carrying the weight of the entire Netherworld, drilled directly into everyone's minds like a cold viper:

"A clever trick... The struggles of ants always provide some amusement."

It was the Netherworld Palace Lord!

His voice was devoid of any emotion, yet it contained potent mental contamination, causing their minds, which had just begun to relax from their escape, to tense up again. It felt as if invisible eyes were hanging high in the dim yellow sky, indifferently watching their every move.

"Enjoy this final game. When the 'Core of the Fallen God' fully awakens and connects with the 'Well of Guixu,' this corrupted old world will usher in its ultimate 'purification.' And you... will be the first batch of sacrifices to witness this grand moment."

Core of the Fallen God! So that's what they called the "Rule Tumor"! And it was about to connect with the Well of Guixu!

This news sent a chill down everyone's spines. Their previous speculations were confirmed; the End Times Cult's objective was far more insane than they had imagined!

The Palace Lord's voice echoed in their minds like a nightmare, using various twisted words to try and shatter their will, painting a "beautiful picture" of the world's end. The group had to divert some of their attention to guard their minds, resisting this pervasive mental contamination.

They were forced to navigate precariously between the rock forest and the spatial turbulence belt. The environment here was extremely dangerous, with spatial rifts appearing out of nowhere, the ground occasionally collapsing into dark pits leading to unknown depths, and even more bizarre Netherworld creatures lurking, adapted to this environment.

But pressure also fueled them. In this extreme struggle on the edge of life and death, the team's potential was further unleashed.

Bai Zhi discovered that when she fully recited the Rebirth Incantation, she could not only pacify the souls twisted by the End Times' power, bringing them peace, but also draw a faint, pure wish of compassion from their dissipation, feeding it back to herself. This made her Buddhist teachings more condensed and slightly enhanced her adaptability to the Netherworld environment.

Mo Hen's most severely damaged reconnaissance Mechanical Beast, after absorbing too much stray Netherworld death energy, underwent an unexpected mutation in its core. Its outer shell became covered with a faint, dark coating that absorbed Yin energy. It moved more silently, and its resistance to Netherworld energy increased. Although its attack power remained unchanged, its survivability and reconnaissance capabilities greatly improved. Mo Hen jokingly nicknamed it the "Shadow Scout."

Yun Ji began experimenting with new talisman techniques. She combined the Mount Fangcun's Soul Suppressing Talisman with the Netherworld's Yin energy to create the Mystic Yin Soul Suppressing Talisman. When activated, this talisman would form a small, extremely cold force field that not only effectively froze the actions of the undead but also interfered with the energy circulation of the End Times cultists, proving surprisingly effective.

Even Star Vortex, after swallowing the core of a "Shadow Demon"—a creature composed of pure negative energy—that attempted a sneak attack, let out a disgusted belch and exhaled a wisp of pure Starlight. Through their soul link, it conveyed a vague thought to Su Yan: "Disgusting... Starlight is tastier." This minor incident brought a rare moment of lightness amidst the tense atmosphere and made Su Yan realize that Star Vortex seemed capable of purifying its power by consuming specific energies.

Thanks to the Compass's timely Astral Shuttle and the various potentials unleashed by the team in their moment of crisis, they danced on the edge of a knife, narrowly evading encirclement by large groups and eliminating small ambushes. They pushed forward, arduously and persistently, towards the "Yin Soul Ravine" marked on the map, which was also the direction of the "Core of the Fallen God's" pollution source indicated by the Compass.

They knew this so-called "game" was the Palace Lord's cat-and-mouse taunt, a blatant ploy to wear down their strength. But they had no retreat.

The pursuers behind them remained like shadows, and the whispers in their minds never ceased. Ahead lay even denser darkness and unknown dangers.

This race against death in the heart of the Netherworld was far from over.