“He’s dead.” The Human Lord glanced toward the Sovereign Ranking. The guy they’d sent in was out.
“My younger brother, He Ming, and the Yingye brothers… all of them must’ve died here.” The Thunder Lord’s voice was frigid.
“The Yingye brothers died here, too? Could there be something terrifying down inside?” mused the Human Lord.
“Risk and opportunity often come hand in hand. When we dug open the burial mounds, no shortage of undead confronted us. There must be an especially powerful one here, too,” observed the golden lion. More precisely, he was referring to the skeletons. When the cultivators had first come here, they’d leveled up by hunting down skeletons wholesale.
“I’m going to take a look inside. Who’s with me?” The lion spat out an aureate sphere from its mouth and imperiously swept its gaze across the rest of the lords.
The other nine lords remained noncommittal and didn’t answer. Despite their agreement on paper to not contend with each other before the third round, they certainly wouldn’t mind an opportunity to eliminate an unwary competitor.
The sphere the Monster Lord had spat out was anathema to all undead. Using it, the golden lion mowed a path through wherever he went; he’d been the first to reach unravelled void, and the first to declare himself a lord.
If there was a ghost or some other such entity beneath the mound, the Monster Lord was confident in remaining unscathed. In fact, he could direct it to attack the others. Snickering, the lion strode into the cave, head held high with aplomb.
“That stupid lion can go on ahead. I doubt the ancient immortal heritage will be his so easily…” the Thunder Lord snarled through gritted teeth.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
A moment later, the cave resounded with a cacophony of deafening noise and angry leonine roars.
“Bastard!” The rest of the lords heard the lion yell. A sparkling shadow flew out of the cave several meters before crashing onto the ground.
“My Aureate Dawn Orb!” the lion yowled, then pounced right back into the cave.
“What… what’s going on here, exactly?” The others were thoroughly confused.
Bang!
Before they could fully react, a silver pile flew out from the cave just like the golden lion had a few seconds earlier. This time, it was a six-meter silverback gorilla with huge, rippling arms that extended past its knees.
The gorilla looked quite different from common specimens of its kind. Its fur glowed with a metallic light, and there was a mark upon its forehead in the shape of a crescent moon. Despite its perceived void cultivation, it emitted an incredible aura that rivaled the unravelled void lords’.
“Damn, it’s really strong!” complained the gorilla, before it too rushed back into the cave.
The ground began trembling.
Crackoooom!
The cave itself caved in.
“We’ve got it all wrong! There’s no undead inside the burial mound, just that silverback gorilla! It must be responsible for killing Yingye and the others!” The Thunder Lord was the first to realize what’d happened.
“That gorilla just now was Yuan Tong! Traitor to the silverback gorillas!” yelped a silverback gorilla. “Yuan Tong has defected to Qing Yu’s Sidekick, and is now with a little human nun!”
The speaker was none other than Silversnow, the prettiest and greatest genius of her race.
“Oh, it’s those guys.” The Human Lord glowered. He parted the crumbled rock with a spray of sword light, then charged in as well.
“After them!” The other lords weren’t far behind.
……
Qing Han put away the book in her hand and looked at the second pillar of light.
“He knows I’m here,” she murmured.
“Huh?” Silverblaze didn’t understand.
“That’s not immortal light. It’s light from a formation.” Qing Han’s eyes glittered with starlight, a cosmos in them. “It’s a diversion, to attract most of the cultivators there.”
“Should we go help?” Silverblaze brightened and leaped onto Qing Han’s shoulder.
“No need,” the disguised girl shook her head. “The whole of the Sovereign Ranking is just a joke to him. If he wanted to, he could eliminate all of the other cultivators here on the spot.”
The Wolfking’s eyes widened and she gawped at her traveling companion.
Although they’d entered this tomb pretty much as soon as they arrived, they were perfectly aware of the goings-on in the outside world.
The ten lords were all unravelled void experts, only half a step from returned void. There were a handful more concealed experts just like them, although those preferred to stay in the shadows.
In the outside world, a number of perceived void experts had already proven themselves by slaying golden immortals. Lu Yun’s exploits from yesteryear were fairly common, nowadays, and unravelled and returned void realm practitioners would only be stronger.
Where did her mistress’ confidence in Lu Yun come from? Could he really eliminate all the other cultivators here if he wanted to?
Silverblaze couldn’t believe it.
“The current world will never understand what it means for supplemental paths to be king.” The corners of Qing Han’s mouth curved upward. “If one’s own self is insufficient, there’s nothing wrong with outside help. Main or supplemental doesn’t matter, as long as it helps.”
……
Inside the cave was a huge, open plain. On the opposite side was an exit to elsewhere.
The silverback gorilla waved around its glittering staff threateningly. There were bruises all over its body, but that didn’t stop it from guarding the entrance with increasing resolution.
“You mewling pups, you’re all ganging up on me! Why don’t you come at me one by one!” roared the gorilla.
The ten lords were rather shocked. They were all peak unravelled void cultivators, each of whom was strong enough to defeat a golden immortal. Yet all ten of them together couldn’t put down this one silverback gorilla! Despite their best efforts, suppressing it was all they could do.
“Since when did Yuan Tong become this strong?” Silversnow gasped.
Though Yuan Tong was a talented gorilla among his kind, he was far from the brightest. He came from base origins, and lacked the patronage for others to consider him particularly significant. If the young Wolfking hadn’t brought it along, it was highly unlikely that the silverback would’ve attended the Sovereign Meet by itself.
However, the present Yuan Tong had already reached perceived void. Furthermore, he was holding off the lords one against ten!
What incredible results!
