Chapter 788: Sneak Attack
The laughter rumbled throughout the cavern, the terrifying origin power within causing Qianye’s ears to buzz. The stealthed person also revealed some traces of origin power fluctuation, but no one noticed her since all attention was on the laughter.
Anderfel’s expression transformed drastically as he glanced over at Claudia in astonishment. Elder Wei slowly opened his eyes. “Aren’t you afraid of alarming the Earth Dragon and killing everyone in the cavern?”
His voice was calm and neutral, but it filled the entire underground cavern—the loud laughter no longer sounded that grating in comparison.
“Humph! Everyone’s boasting about you as though you’re a god. I really must see what methods you have to pacify the Earth Dragon.”
At this moment, a series of thunderclaps rumbled in the air and arrived before the door at astonishing speeds.
It was a tall woman clad in a set of dark battle armor. There was a pair of dazzling metallic wings on her back with flashes of lightning creeping along its frame. It wasn’t just her armor, though; even her hair and brows would crackle with electricity from time to time. Actually, her face was extremely beautiful, but all that lightning filled one with dread and made it difficult to admire her.
She seemed to have crossed through the underground world in a straight line, and despite all the ruckus surrounding her, she hadn’t alarmed any of the beasts, insects, or crocodiles on the way.
Anderfel, Claudia, and Keimor bowed toward her. “We are honored to meet you, Your Excellency Caroline.”
She sneered without the slightest bit of courtesy, “Honored? I think you guys were cursing your bad luck! You must want me to die along the way so that you have fewer people to share the prize.”
Anderfel replied hurriedly, “That’s not true. With Your Excellency present, our chances of success have increased quite a bit. It’s just that, coming here with your cultivation is quite risky.”
“Since I dare to come down, that means I’m not afraid of death.”
Elder Wei snorted, “Ignorant courage.”
Caroline glared at him with her brows raised. “Old man, I must see how capable you are once we leave this place.”
Elder Wei replied gently, “O’ Revered Thunderous Whip, Your Excellency, if you really seek true experts, why don’t you come back with me to the empire? Just those within the army are enough to satisfy you, not to mention the four major clans.”
No matter how arrogant Caroline was, she didn’t dare to claim that she could win against everyone in the military. People at her level wouldn’t speak blindly, or it would just lower their status.
She said coldly, “Everyone knows how powerful the empire is. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be hiding in the neutral lands, either.”
Seeing the atmosphere growing tense, Anderfel stepped in to mediate things. “Your Excellency Caroline, what are you here to find?”
The lady replied, “I want a drop of Earth Dragon’s blood for my travel expenses. Additionally, I’m here to look for a person, he’s currently in the underground lair.”
She shot a beam of electricity with a flick of her fingers, outlining the appearance of a person in the air. Qianye was greatly astonished to find that it was a portrait of his original appearance! He rarely used his real appearance in public since coming to the neutral lands, and he had kept himself masked during his stay in Port City. How did she know how he looked?
Elder Wei was greatly alarmed. “Qianye? He’s here?”
“I don’t know if he’s that whatever Qianye or not, this person killed my brother and I’m not about to let him leave this place alive!”
Anderfel nodded. “If he’s also underground, we’ll definitely help you catch him. But we’re at a critical juncture right now. I think we should open this door and reap our final reward first, what do you say? If Qianye hasn’t died to the beast hordes, he’ll surely make his way here.”
Claudia chimed in, “The underground realm is vast and full of danger. Even if we can’t find him, his chances of leaving this place alive are quite slim.”
Caroline said, “Fine, I’ll go along with this. Old man, do you need me to help with the door?”
Elder Wei shot her a glance. “This door can’t be opened with brute force.”
Caroline’s expression turned dark, but she wasn’t without insight—a single glance was all she needed to judge the weight of those doors. Opening them was beyond her power even if there weren’t any locking mechanisms behind them.
She took a step back and said, “Fine! Let’s see how capable you are.”
Elder Wei spoke no more. He walked toward the door and pressed his hands against it. He was even smaller than an ant compared to the gigantic structure, yet he was posing as though he would push the doors open.
Caroline wore a cold smile as she waited for the results.
Elder Wei recited a string of unintelligible incantations. His origin power traveled with the sound waves to cover the entire door. These fluctuating notes induced a cumulative resonance from the door, which grew higher and higher like a tidal wave.
Qianye was shaken upon seeing this brilliant secret art. He observed the technique carefully, doing his utmost to remember all the details for further contemplation. With this method, he would be able to launch an earth-shattering attack by utilizing the origin power in the vast world around.
This method involved time and energy, and it couldn’t be disrupted midway. Even so, an art allowing someone of a lower level to unleash a divine-champion attack was still of great value.
Eventually, Elder Wei’s origin power covered the entire giant door, causing it to tremble ever so slightly. All of a sudden, its pitch rose sharply as the countless patterns on the door erupted in radiance and a series of runes appeared in quick succession.
The giant door trembled with even greater intensity and slowly opened up with a rumble.
A vast world could be seen through the crack in the door, but the imagery was blurry and unclear.
Greatly astonished, Caroline’s expression turned somewhat unsightly.
A door that had to be opened with arrays meant that it was locked via the same mechanism. If it wasn’t for Elder Wei’s art, even three Carolines wouldn’t be able to open the door.
The entire cave trembled with the opening of the giant door. The insects crawled about restlessly, but the beast hordes and giant crocodile remained still.
Elder Wei pulled back at this point, his aura was much weaker and his face full of exhaustion. He sat down quietly to recover, not even bothering to look at the new world beyond the door. Anderfel and the others, however, were all stunned after gazing beyond the threshold.
Caroline spread her wings, sparks of electricity arcing off from the bones therein. “I’ll head over to take a look.”
Anderfel and the others opened up a path. Caroline was the strongest person here, so it was the best course of action for her to take point.
From his angle, Qianye couldn’t quite see the world behind the door. From the aura seeping out, however, it would seem that there was less danger there than there was in the underground world. He shot a glance at the stealthed person and saw that her aura was fluctuating heavily, apparently hesitant about what to do. Regardless of whether this person was Bluemoon or otherwise, it was clear that she did not dare to take action in the presence of a variable like Caroline.
Caroline was a true divine champion. Even if Bluemoon were to pull off the ambush successfully, she would, at most, be able to injure the target. However, the retaliatory attack would definitely kill her.
Bluemoon might not dare, but that didn’t mean Qianye was the same.
Caroline was accumulating origin power as she walked toward the door—any more delay and she would be gone.
Qianye made an immediate decision. Firstly, he shot out two stones, striking the snipers below him in the head and knocking them out. After dealing with the danger at hand, Qianye forced out a wisp of Earth Dragon’s blood and attached it to an origin grenade, which he then hurled at the sleeping giant crocodile.
The Earth Dragon’s aura seeped out from the grenade as it flew through the air, agitating the beast and bugs in its wake. Even the giant pegmatite crocodile reacted by moving its tail about.
Caroline discovered the abnormality at this moment. She turned back just in time to see the origin grenade falling rapidly onto the crystalline crocodile’s head. Shocked out of her wits, she gasped. “No!!!”
However, she had no way to stop the grenade’s descent at such a distance.
With a loud rumble, the origin grenade exploded right on top of the monster’s head. A ball of raging flames spread out and surged into the air. At this stage, one could see just how terrifying this giant pegmatite crocodile was—those crystals on its body didn’t even crack amidst the fierce blaze and shockwaves.
It was struck squarely in the face but completely unharmed.
The giant crocodile finally opened its eyes. Perhaps the explosion and flames didn’t warrant its attention, but the fresh blood of the Earth Dragon swiftly brought it to sobriety.
The pegmatite crocodile turned its giant body around, and its amber eyes locked onto Caroline.
“Dammit! Why me!?” Caroline screamed. She grabbed from her waist a metallic whip studded with reverse hooks. In the blink of an eye, arcs of electricity crept up from its base and stretched all the way to its tip.
Her long hair fluttered in the air—she was perfectly clear who her opponent was because she could hardly even breathe the moment that giant crocodile had locked onto her.
Claudia was extremely decisive. “Let’s go in first!” She dived forward and vanished into the giant door.
Anderfel and Keimor wanted to follow her, but they were one step too late. Seeing that someone had escaped beyond the door, the giant pegmatite crocodile became furious. He took a step forward and unleashed an earth-shattering roar!
This step caused the entire space to quake. Anderfel and Keimor were sent into a daze as their bodies grew heavy. They tried their best to fly forward and had almost reached the door, but an origin tempest burst out from underneath, flinging the two backward. Soon afterward, an origin barrier materialized and sealed off the giant door.
Elder Wei stood up with a serious expression. “It seems we can forget about entering if we don’t kill this animal.”
Feeling helpless, Andefel and Keimor returned to their positions. Caroline turned back and shouted, “Old man, it’s time to bring out whatever skills you have! We should work together to kill this creature quickly, there’s no telling what dangers lie on the other side.”
Elder Wei laughed wryly. “It’s probably not that simple anymore.”