A World Worth Protecting

The Five Peaks was situated at the border between the Pond Cloud Rainforest and the surrounding regions. A river flowed through the valley between the third and fourth peaks, feeding into the entire rainforest.

Occasionally, fish with sharp fins would emerge from the water’s surface, creating huge splashes before submerging into the river again. From afar, it definitely looked dangerous.

Looking at the flowing river, Wang Baole was very tempted. After setting the aircraft to hover, he stood by the railings and lowered his head to look at the mountain range that resembled the fingers of a hand.

Even though the conditions were not ideal, Wang Baole would feel indignant if he got so close to the discovery site but did not take a closer look at it. He fell into thought, his eyes revealing a look of determination.

I will just go over to take a look. If the risks become too much for me to manage, I’ll return immediately.

With that in mind, Wang Baole took a deep breath, directing the aircraft to land. When the aircraft had reached a low flotation state, he opened the protective guard and gave the middle-aged man in black another kick in the head so that he would remain unconscious a while longer. Only then did Wang Baole turn to alight from the aircraft.

Having gone through the battle in the rainforest, Wang Baole’s ruthlessness and decisiveness seemed to have been honed and were becoming more apparent. Now, as he landed, he immediately rolled forward without hesitation into the woods.

His moves were smooth and sleek. If a bystander had observed him, they would have seen a rotund body jumping flexibly before disappearing between the trees.

After all, in that life-and-death crisis, Wang Baole had gained the experience of moving with agility in the woods. He was not an expert, but he was impressive nonetheless.

Right now, Wang Baole was crouching as he moved swiftly forward while paying attention to his surroundings. His body alternated between pausing and jumping, and he moved along a winded path as he neared the Five Peaks, instead of taking the most direct route.

From above, the Five Peaks did not seem as huge. However, as he approached the region from the ground, the mountain felt majestic. There were five peaks, which could be considered as five sharp swords. The mountain also had extremely steep slopes that appeared to lead straight to the sky.

According to what my father said, the entrance to the site is a cave located at the base of the third peak. Wang Baole narrowed his eyes and lowered his head, slowly approaching the Five Peaks.

As he neared, he noticed the feces of numerous types of birds. It was the feces that made Wang Baole more confident. It became apparent to him that the area he was in was where the birds rested or stopped for a break. Typically, places like these were not treacherous, and thus the risks would be comparatively smaller.

Before long, Wang Baole was climbing on the first peak at rapid pace as he approached the third peak. He could have driven the aircraft there, but since it was a highland, the aircraft would have to float at a greater height, which would make it unsafe since others could easily see it.

Therefore, Wang Baole chose to tether the aircraft further away where it would float nearer to the rainforest. This way, he could hide his tracks more conveniently.

I will just take a look and leave once there is danger.

The closer he was, the more alert Wang Baole became. He slowed down, and after reaching the third peak, he lowered his head and saw the huge fish that leaped out of the water from the river’s distributaries.

If I fell from here… Wang Baole immediately cut off his thought and grabbed a rock beside him. He looked around, recognizing the location mentioned by his father and setting his eyes on the middle of the rock wall on the third peak above the water. There was a huge tree that grew in a slanted direction, its roots anchored in the gaps in the rock wall.

Beside the tree, there was a bigger crack. This crack was exactly the entrance to the discovery site that Wang Baole’s father and his archaeological team had found.

The archaeological team is impressive. They managed to find such a well-hidden discovery site.

After noticing the crack, Wang Baole was slightly surprised. If it were him, he never would have thought that the crack was the entrance.

My dad couldn’t have given me the wrong information while he was drunk, could he? Wang Baole hesitated and felt that since they were father-and-son, he could trust his father. Therefore, he cautiously began climbing toward the rock wall.

Fortunately, Wang Baole has already reached Pulse Enrichment. He also possessed the devouring seed, which he controlled to release suction power that allowed him to move stably on the rock wall. With such a technique, he eventually arrived beside the tree and neared the entrance at the crack.

He observed his surroundings closely, instead of heading right in. After making his observations, he pushed forcefully with his hands, his body leaping up with momentum as he entered the crack.

The moment he entered, a gust of cold air seemed to blow in from the crack. Wang Baole took a deep breath, pressing his body tightly against the rock wall and advancing cautiously toward the bigger crack.

The crack is slanted?

After a few steps, Wang Baole turned to observe the surrounding rock wall. He realized that the crack was not formed naturally but seemed to have been formed when something in the sky fell and impacted the mountain.

This mountain is still intact even after being impacted by an external object.

Wang Baole felt slightly incredulous and pondered over it before continuing to move on. However, even when he reached the end of the crack, he still had not found any clues.

Although it was the end of the crack, he saw a large depression in the area. However, the area surrounding it was clean, free of even bird feces, and naturally free of debris.

Either my father lied to me or the archaeological team was too professional, removing everything thoroughly from here. Wang Baole stood in the depression and looked around, troubled.

He had entered the area cautiously, yet he did not find anything. Therefore, he was naturally disappointed and depressed. He tried to search the area thoroughly again, but eventually, he let out a long sigh, giving up on his search as he planned to leave.

At this moment, he stopped and turned to look at the depression again. He thought for a moment before retrieving the black mask from the storage bracelet. He wanted to bring the mask to the center of the depression to align it in order to ascertain if the mask had indeed been an item that had crashed and landed on the site.

However, the very instant that he brought out the black mask, the mask suddenly gave off a colorful, brilliant glow that radiated outward and lit up the surrounding walls. It was the first time that had happened outside the hallucination realm.

This scene gave Wang Baole a scare. He immediately retreated but stopped after taking only three steps as his eyes looked straight at the area above the depression. Right then, for some reason, the glow that radiated from the mask seemed to be projecting an image.

In the image, there seemed to be numerous corpses of both genders, young and old. They were of people and of monsters, clearly the depiction of a war!

The area of the war zone was large. There were several large broken statues. Even though it was only an image, Wang Baole still seemed to smell the repulsive stench of blood simply by looking at them.

The image seemed to have been tainted red. A large hand print could even be seen falling strongly from the sky toward the ground.

Vaguely, in the crimson sky, there were several huge suns with their glow extinguishing one after another. At the highest point in the sky, there was a large blurry image of a face. One could only see a sense of coldness radiating from his eyes as he looked at the ground. There was also a figure standing among the crowd, protected by the people surrounding them.

It was a woman, a figure wearing a black mask!

The very instant Wang Baole noticed the woman, two words immediately appeared in his mind, despite the woman wearing a mask.

Unsurpassed beauty!

The woman’s eyes conveyed feelings of indignation and resilience. They also revealed a determination to kill, even if her opponent was a god. As she turned to look at the gods straight in the face, she raised her right hand, and an ancient greenish-bronze sword immediately appeared from nowhere, carrying an indescribably sinister aura. The moment it appeared, the sky seemed to change, becoming turbulent, and time seemed to freeze there and then. Only the sword floated beside her.

The moment he saw the sword, Wang Baole’s eyes almost fell out of his sockets. He felt as if he had been electrocuted, his brain fuzzy. As the glow from the black mask faded, the image before him also blurred and eventually disappeared, restoring the cave to its original state.

Wang Baole was confused, and his breath became irregular as well. He stood there for a long time before he recovered. As he left, he was still mumbling, his voice indicating shock and disbelief.

“The sword… the sword…” Wang Baole walked back out of the crack, shaking his head violently. He looked at the Sword Sun in the sky, utterly surprised and incredulous at the same time.

With his turbulent emotions, Wang Baole returned to the aircraft and sat inside for a long time. He calmed himself down by taking deep breaths before leaving in the aircraft.

He did not notice, but a gaze had fallen onto his aircraft at this moment, only retracting when the aircraft had gone out of sight.

The person looking at the aircraft stood at the entrance of the Five Peaks. Under the setting sun’s rays, his face could not be clearly seen. He was wearing a long, white robe and had a mob of flowing white hair.

Behind him was a black fog, masking a youth with a protruded mouth and ape-like chin.

Beside him was a mosquito, quietly hovering.