A World Worth Protecting

The rescue cruiser dashed through the Martian sky in a speedy blur. It seemed to pierce the heavens as it shot through the sky. Their journey took less than an hour. Flying at a speed that surpassed ordinary cruisers, they soon reached their destination.

Their destination—a wasteland. It was barren of snow, and the ground was red and bare of plant life. There was nothing, except a circular cave.

A red glow spilled out from within the cave. The dusty red Martian soil looked even redder under the light, looking as if it had been soaked in blood. Everyone froze when they saw the sight, and a strange, bizarre feeling unfurled inside them.

The giant tree, dressed in black robes, stared at the entrance of the cave with his expressionless face. An icy glimmer surfaced in his eyes. He matched the location of the cave with the coordinates provided by the array formation before saying coolly.

“This is it!”

He leaped off the cruiser and charged out. Behind him followed the three Core Formation realm cultivators from the military, which included Chen Feng. They all had somber expressions on their faces as they dashed out after the giant tree and entered the blood-colored cave.

The last to follow were Wang Baole and the remaining Foundation Establishment realm cultivators. Despite the terrifying blood-colored sight, they leaped off the cruiser without hesitation and entered the cave. Wang Baole was one of them. The donkey seemed frightened out of its wits, and it stuck closely to Wang Baole.

Under the lead of the giant tree, Chen Feng, and a few others, the party of fifty-odd people entered the cave. As soon as they stepped inside, Wang Baole caught the heavy scent of blood in the air. It permeated the cave and was like a punch to the face.

It was nauseating. It was akin to the smell of rotting corpses and freshly removed organs. It was beyond what words could describe. Their heartbeats quickened, uncontrollably as a long, cavernous tunnel appeared before their eyes.

The tunnel was ten yards wide. It looked vast, and its walls were lined with cracks. Some were so small that one would have to take a closer look to notice them, while some were so large that they formed their own tunnels and pathways that seemed to go on forever. They couldn’t compare to the main tunnel, of course.

“This tunnel was freshly dug…” Chen Feng examined the walls and said slowly. The giant tree and the other two Core Formation realm cultivators checked the walls as well. Then, they looked at one another before racing down the tunnel.

Wang Baole was together with the Foundation Establishment realm cultivators. When he had stepped into the cave, he had sensed the Dark Fire inside his body stirring. It had seemed livelier than usual.

That had convinced him that his earlier guess had been right. He had been able to practice the Dark Art because he had inhaled a small bit of blood-colored mist when he had been trapped in the cave. His guess had been correct all along.

What exactly is that blood-colored mist… they said that this cave is not far from where the Divine Armament is. Does this have something to do with the Divine Armament? The gears in Wang Baole’s head spun rapidly. He dared not allow the distraction though. This was clearly dangerous territory, and the one leading the party was none other than the giant tree.

Even though Wang Baole had contacted the Sect Lord and informed him of his location, thus ensuring that the giant tree wouldn’t dare to harm him so blatantly, they were in dangerous territory. Sometimes, there was no need to dirty one’s own hands to kill someone else. Choosing not to offer a helping hand or prioritizing whom to save first could decide whether a person lived or died.

That was why since they had entered the cave, Wang Baole had chosen not to venture further up front but instead decided to stick with the other cultivators. He had no time to overthink it anyway. He pulled himself together and followed the group as they moved steadily down the tunnel. Everyone was on high alert and observing their surroundings, and they didn’t progress very far before a series of sudden thundering roars rang out from the end of the tunnel.

They sounded like the roars of ferocious beasts and appeared suddenly. The giant tree, who had been walking at the front, suddenly raised his right hand and grabbed at something in the wall beside him.

His attack was swift. When he struck, black claws made out of wood seemed to appear and overlay his actual hand. His hand pierced the wall and pulled. A half rotting corpse was dragged out from the wall!

The clothes on the corpse were torn and beyond recognition, and the corpse was filled with maggots and gave off an incredible stench. It exuded the smell of death.

Despite that, it still moved. It was like a living dead. Its hands kept clawing outward even though it had been caught by the giant tree. Howls that sent shivers down one’s spine crawled out of its mouth.

Alarm flashed across everyone’s faces. They dashed away from the walls.

“What is that?”

“The living dead?”

“A reanimation!”

The giant tree frowned. He snorted, then with a twist, crushed the skull of the corpse he had captured. The beheaded body fell to the ground. It was still crawling on the ground after losing its head…

Wang Baole’s scalp began to prickle. The others around him were equally alarmed and horrified. Shouts began to travel from afar. The sounds of something digging their way through the earth came from beneath them on the ground and around them in the walls.

Alarm and terror surged inside everyone as heads started popping out from the four walls, from the ground, and even from above them in the ceiling.

There were sounds of racing footsteps and howling coming from the end of the tunnel. The soil was glowing a blood red, and with that light, the rescue party saw, in their shock, three figures stepping out from the end of the tunnel!

They were all corpses, but there was little sign of decomposition on their bodies. Their clothes remained mostly intact, and an alarming energy force exploded from their bodies when they appeared.

When the rescue team, including the giant tree, Chen Feng, and Wang Baole, saw the clothes the three people were wearing, their eyes immediately widened in shock!

The clothes were vastly different from common Federation fashion. They were clearly from a much older era. Wang Baole had seen corpses of the ancient green-bronze sword in the Spirit Breath Village before. He immediately recognized what these corpses in front of them were wearing… they weren’t humans from earth, they were beings… from the ancient green-bronze sword!

These corpses had clearly fallen onto Mars alongside the fragmented pieces when the ancient green-bronze sword pierced the sun. It was unknown why they had become the zombies they were now!

This was the same for the heads that had popped out from the walls, the ground, and from the tunnel ahead of them. As soon as they appeared, they began to howl and struggle their way out of the soil. They charged towards the rescue party as soon as they freed themselves.

The three corpses at the end of the tunnel, brimming with violence, did the same and charged at the giant tree, Chen Feng, and company.

There was chaos in the tunnel. The sounds of explosions and howling resounded in the air. The giant tree, Chen Feng, and the other Core Formation realm cultivators were busy fighting off the hordes. They had been holding their ground before a dozen or so corpses with equally alarming murderous air charged towards the cultivators from the end of the tunnel.

A little giant that stood thirty-odd meters tall, holding a gigantic pole made from bone, marched towards them, booming every step of the way.

There were too many of them. The party fought back frantically, but they knew this wasn’t sustainable. The giant tree and Chen Feng soon charged out. As they fought their way out, they yelled at the rest behind them.

“Scatter! Get out of here if you can. Those who can’t, try your best to stay alive! Chen Feng, follow me. I’m going to fight my way in. I want to know what this place is hiding!”

The giant tree had a fearsome expression on his face. He had reigned supreme on the moon and was a lord in his own right. Most monsters in the Sea of Beasts would pale in comparison against his violent and brutal nature. As rage overtook his mind, he surged forward, leaving behind an afterimage of a giant tree in his wake. He charged deeper into the tunnel.

The Foundation Establishment realm cultivators, including Wang Baole, watched as the giant tree, Chen Feng, and the Core Formation realm cultivators fought their way deeper into the tunnel. They started to spread out and find a way out. Some wormed into the cracks in the walls.

Even though the corpses had come from the walls and the earth around them, the cracks in the walls were narrow and allowed the cultivators to defend themselves via a narrow crack. If they were lucky, they might even find a way out through the crack.

Wang Baole, with a cold and merciless look on his face, wielded his Dharmic Armament and slashed two corpses into halves with a single sweep of his blade. He observed the growing number of corpses around him and realized that most in his group had split up. He gritted his teeth and swept his blade across in a single slash. Then, he turned, snaked into a crack, and dashed deeper in.

The donkey had remained on its toes during the entire chaotic battle. It hadn’t been able to help itself and had taken a few bites of the rotten flesh. It had then spat the meat out with a grimace. When Wang Baole had gone into a crack in the wall, it followed swiftly and raced towards it as well.