Chapter 3176: Chapter 3176: The Elephant Men

Both Zen and Elvinia could freely explore the Dark Region with their abilities.

However, Zen thought constantly about the Other Shore Key for Stage Seventeen. Thus he merely passed through Stage Fifteen and continued his ascent.

The two of them made their way upwards.

They did not stay too long in Stage Sixteen either and journeyed on.

Finally, they arrived in Stage Seventeen and came out on top of a mountain.

After they crossed three stages rapidly, the pressure on the Other Shore increased.

This type of pressure would've been unbearable for others but the two of them managed. Elvinia had previously absorbed enough soul crystal and had already reached the ultimate level of the Indigo Soul. Zen also did not feel anything with his physical body.

“We're at Stage Seventeen. Do we continue to go up?” Elvinia asked him. In front of them lay only endless desert.

The sight of emptiness on top of that huge mountain made Elvinia feel desolate. It would be better to go to the upper stages.

Zen, however, shook his head. “No. We'll stay here.”

“Is there anything important here?” she asked, throwing him a strange look.

If it was about Other Shore Tokens, Zen could easily find better ones in the upper stages.

“Yes. Just wait here for me,” he told her, not divulging much information on what he was currently planning.

Without a word, Zen withdrew from the Other Shore and activated the Other Shore Key from the Blood-storing Seed. He then began to recite the Sanskrit words deciphered by Geoffrey.

“Sand ...bone...separate...”

As he finished reciting the words, Zen reached out and gently pressed the Other Shore Key's lines.

When he returned to the Other Shore, his palm was covered with lustrous map lines.

“An Other Shore Key?” Elvinia muttered, staring at his palm in wonder. Zen nodded as the map shimmered in his palm.

“Yes.”

Despite his confirmation, a trace of doubt remained in Elvinia's eyes.

Other Shore Keys were valuable but why was Zen interested in Stage Seventeen's? If he really wanted one, Elvinia could very well get him one from a higher stage. ℞ÀΝỘΒΕș

Still, Elvinia chose to trust Zen. If he wanted to explore this stage, then they would do so. Maybe there were some secrets in this stage that needed to be uncovered.

Using the map on his palm as reference, Zen commenced with his exploration by first looking around and comparing the terrain.

He frowned. The surrounding terrain didn't seem to match his map.

It was understandable. The Other Shore was vast and Stage Seventeen's geography could be quite complicated. It might take them a lot of effort to find the corresponding terrain.

Their current location was relatively desolate and the star rings were set in the center of the mountain range. A few races resided here but none of them had built anything as big as the Myriad Spirits City or the Sky Water City in Stage Fourteen.

Zen and Elvinia thought it best to go down the mountain and head south.

It was a pretty fruitless start. The direction they took had nothing but low and barren mountains for miles.

Zen continued to check the map in his hand but not once did the terrain match up.

The two of them then started to slow down.

They were able to walk a little over 50 miles to the south in a day and a night, but there was still a lot of distance to cover. Stage Seventeen was vast in all directions.

At this rate, it would take Zen a long time to find what he was looking for.

“We can't go on like this. It's a waste of time!” he huffed.

Elvinia nodded. “I agree but if we continue going south, we could stumble upon the Elephant Men's territory and ask them for a map.”

Her words implied that she had already known they wouldn't find the temple on their own. Zen remained silent as he ruminated on her suggestion.

This was the first time he looked for a temple with the aid of the map and he didn't have that much experience. He pursed his lips and nodded at Elvinia, giving in to her idea.

After they walked about a hundred miles south, the low mountains gave way to grassland. This grassland area was closed in by huge fences on both sides.

“Why are the fences so high? And the grass is high, too,” Zen said. His eyes gleamed with surprise.

The fences that closed off the grassland were ten thousand feet high, way taller than any of the mountains they'd traversed so far.

Not only that, but the grassland itself was incredibly vast and overwhelmingly high. Each blade of grass stood several hundred feet high and swayed like trees in the wind. Zen and Elvinia would be nothing but mere ants once they entered.

Elvinia shook her head. It was obvious that she did her research, but there were just so many weird and unexplainable things that existed on the Other Shore.

“Let's go inside and have a look then,” Zen said.

The two of them had arrived at their destination. They crossed the fences and ventured into the grassland. Only ten miles in did they suddenly hear the loud blowing of a horn.

“Woo...”

As it rang, the ground began to tremble, as if a huge earthquake had just been summoned.

Zen quickly grabbed hold of Elvinia's hand and summoned his thunder wings. He rose into the air and took a quick look at what was happening.

At the height of ten thousand feet, he finally saw what was happening.

Black bulls, twenty to thirty thousand feet tall, were rampaging within the grassland. Behind them was a group of human-shaped creatures that were a little over ten thousand feet tall.

These humanoids were bipedal, gray-skinned and had elephant heads. They were the Elephant Men Elvinia had mentioned earlier!

These Elephant Men chased after the bulls, which caused the ground to tremble.

Zen and Elvinia were like two, pesky mosquitoes compared to these giants.

The black bulls were heading towards the fences. Though tall, there was no way these fences would be able to withstand the impact from these beasts.

However, just as the bulls were about to breach the barriers, one of the Elephant Men raised his horn.

“Woo... Woo...”

Textures appeared on the surfaces of the seemingly ordinary fences at the exact moment the horn was blown.

“Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...”

Thick lightning gathered on the fences, forming into chains that wrapped around the bulls.

Bound and restrained by the lightning chains, the bulls could only lie helplessly on the ground as their pursuers closed in on them.

“These fences contain such a strong power of lightning,” Zen murmured, admiration obvious on his face.

“It's made of lightning wood, which is a relatively rare Other Shore Token,” Elvinia told him. “I never expected there to be so much in the Elephant Men's territory.”

As they marveled at the lightning wood, the two of them failed to notice the huge shadow behind them. A dull and rough voice suddenly boomed, “Chief! Those mice have sent their spies again!”