Chapter 629: Chapter 629: The Lifesaving Straw
Even if the Tide of Chaos had not erupted, Fabian and Esther would still have gone all out to stop them.
However with the outbreak of the Tide of Chaos, everything in the inner circle had now changed. They were sure to die if they recklessly entered the inner circle now.
Seeing Fabian stand in his way, Zen looked on helplessly. Fabian was not Zen and he did not understand what he was thinking. Moreover, Zen had no intention of sharing his secret with anyone.
“Please get out of my way, I have something very important to do,” Zen said calmly.
Jarrod also barred Zen's way to stop him. “Zen, you're very important to our Purple Heart Sacred Place. We simply can't let you go forward any further. You will die!”
“Really?” A faint smile appeared on Zen's face. “But what if I have more important things to do? Do you mean that I should give up on myself just because I am important to your Purple Heart Sacred Place?” Zen looked intently at them until they had to look away shamefaced.
“This... Why would you have to give up on yourself?” Jarrod asked in puzzlement.
Zen shook his head, as there was no way in which he could explain, and said, “I don't need you to come with me. I'll go by myself!”
Lavender also looked questioningly at Esther who was kneeling on the ground. She lowered her head and asked, “What are you doing?”
“My queen, the inner circle is not a place you can safely enter now. You'd better stay here and wait for the demonic beasts to retreat, and then we can leave here,” Esther said as she lowered her head.
Lavender was the supreme queen in Esther's heart. Technically, Lavender was very powerful and there was no need for Esther to worry about her safety. However, Esther also understood that something had been happening to the Demon Night in the Upper World, because Lavender's statue had begun to lose its luster and had become dark and dim. In other words, the sword spirit in front of her was Lavender's final soul fragment!
If Zen were to die, this soul fragment would also vanish into thin air, and in the end, their queen would die!
This was something that Esther would never want to see.
“I don't need you to make decisions for me,” Lavender said coldly to Esther, regaining her commanding demeanor.
Esther gritted her teeth. She was fully aware that she had no right to persuade or lecture Lavender who was her queen. Even Amber, the leader of the Heavenly Feather Sacred Place, was not qualified to do so, much less Esther, who was inferior to Amber.
“Since you have made up your mind, I will follow you inside!” Esther said seriously.
At the same time, the top-level war lords of the Demon Night next to Esther also knelt down. There was a resolute expression on their faces.
They were all well aware that they would probably die if they entered the inner circle of the Dark Nether Cave at this time, with the Tide of Chaos raging, but they still chose to follow their queen. They would follow her into hell itself if needed be!
Fabian and Jarrod became even more depressed as they saw the actions of the Demon Night war lords. If these war lords of the Demon Night followed Zen and entered the inner circle, then the two of them would be left here alone. After thinking for a moment, Fabian held his head in his hands and said, “Okay, I still don't think that you should go, but we too shall brave the inner area with you!”
Sometimes, decisions had to be made through hard way.
Moreover the demonic beasts in the outer circle didn't have any intention of leaving. If these demonic beasts didn't leave then they would be stuck here with no way to return! In the end the team formed up and began to advance towards the inner circle. Though trepidation filled their steps, they marched on with forceful steps.
Shortly after Zen and the others had left, near the Bloody Pass, three columns of smoke unfurled off into the opposite direction!
The three members of the Night Group possessed quite a few unique skills. They dematerialized into smoke and circled in the air. However, they were slowly moving towards the outside of the Bloody Pass.
It cost them a lot of life vitality to utilize such a technique of evasion. But, every time, once they had only thirty percent of their life vitality left, the three of them would suddenly rematerialize on the ground underneath the beaks of the Swallowing Birds and the sharp claws of the Azure Wolves. They would then rapidly dash forward for some distance. During this process, they would take out life vitality crystals to replenish their own life vitality!
After they had replenished their life vitality, they once again turned into columns of smoke, repeating the same process over and over again!
Unfortunately, although they were able to survive for the time being using this technique, the demonic beasts were still lingering around them. They were still in a dangerous situation with the demonic beasts circling around them every time they materialized. ꞦΑＮó₿Ë𝐬
Moving in this way was proving extremely inefficient. It would be almost impossible for them to reach the Tower of Sin in such a tedious way. Even if they wanted to continue like this, there was not enough time for them. Furthermore the life vitality crystals were far from enough to sustain their escape method!
Though they had a great number of supreme life vitality crystals with them, these would be used up eventually. Every time that they used one then there would be one less left. Just in a short period of time, each of them had used up half of their life vitality crystals in order to cover a small distance indeed. If this continued, then it wouldn't be long before they were left stranded and would be swallowed up by these beasts!
“What should we do, brother!” one of the Night Group top-level war lords asked as they traveled in their temporary incorporeal forms.
“How would I know?”
“Who is going to lure these demonic beasts away?”
In the thick smoke, the three constantly used some of their life vitality to communicate with each other.
Just as the three of them were panicking, two rays of bright light suddenly appeared, coming from the path they were travelling along. One was black and the other red. When the rays of light came closer, they could see that they were two mountain-like figures.
The three of them were stunned for a moment. Then, one of the Night Group top-level war lords said, “I… I think we could be saved!”
“It's Malcom! They are coming!” the other Night Group top-level war lords also exclaimed.
“Haven't the ogres already been expelled from the Tower of Sin? They really can enter the Dark Nether Cave.”
The ogres hadn't shared their secrets concerning the secret passageway under the Tower of Sin with the Night Group. It was impossible for them to share such an important secret with other races, even if the Night Group was their vassal.
In fact, in order to achieve their secret goal, the ogre race had only issued an order to Shane, asking him to report back to Malcom through message rune as soon as he discovered Zen's whereabouts in the Dark Nether Cave.
Receiving the order, Shane had been puzzled for a long time. He had thought that the ogres would give him an order to assassinate Zen. He hadn't expected that what he would receive was an order that simply required him to report on Zen's movements to Malcom. After all, what was the use of reporting Zen's movements to Malcom? Could it be that Malcom could actually enter the Dark Nether Cave by some other means?
Or was Malcom hiding in the Dark Nether Cave all this time?
These questions had puzzled Shane for a long time. But since the ogres gave the order, he had to obey. Although the ogres couldn't currently enter the Tower of Sin, the Night Group's Eternal Night Sacred Place was still a vassal of the Flaming Ogre Sacred Place and the Dread Ogre Sacred Place.
He hadn't expected that not long after he secretly used his message rune to send the message, Malcom and Rehaan would actually rush into the Dark Nether Cave!
“Malcom... Malcom's cultivation seems to be… He has become a war sage!” they exclaimed as they stared at the approaching figures.
“Oh my goodness! The ogres must have grasped the other secrets of the Tower of Sin. Colin and Neil had once suddenly appeared in the Tower of Sin as two war sages, and now Malcom has also become a war sage!”
At this moment, the three top-level war lords of the Night Group seemed to have found a silver lining in the clouds which had plagued their minds regarding a way to escape. Obviously, the more advanced Malcom's cultivation had become, the more it benefited them.
However...
although some of the Azure Wolves and the Swallowing Birds had retreated at the approaching beams of light, the three of them still found that there were many demonic beasts surrounding them. Malcom had broken through to become a war sage, but even a war sage was surely unable to deal with so many demonic beasts!
Although they were still quite worried, there was now hope for them to survive with someone more powerful helping them. They would not let the chance slip by.
“Malcom! Malcom!”
Originally, Malcom had been a seat owner, the same as these top-level war lords of the Night Group. However, now that Malcom was a war sage, the three of them immediately became respectful and addressed him almost reverently.
As their voices, carried by life vitality force, were sent to ring out in Malcom's ears, Malcom narrowed his eyes and looked forward. He saw immediately that there were three pillars of smoke which were densely surrounded by a large number of beasts. The three dematerialized smoke columns moved slowly, and numerous demonic beasts also followed closely behind them…
“It's Shane,” Rehaan said indifferently. ���Should we go to save them?”
Malcom furrowed his eyebrows as he considered the dense cluster of demonic beasts.
Malcom had a great advantage in this place since he had broken through and became a war sage. Despite this, he was still very cautious. In the Dark Nether Cave, even a mighty warrior of the Soul Sea Realm would have to tread very cautiously. One wrong step would mean death. Moreover, Malcom was only a first level war sage!
There were many ferocious demonic beasts gathered below, and it would be quite troublesome for Malcom to deal with them. The outcome of such a confrontation would not be certain.
“Where is Zen?” Malcom stopped, hovering in the air as he asked Shane through his life vitality.
Shane was looking pleadingly up at Malcom, hoping that he could save them. Seeing that he had suddenly stopped there, but made no move, he immediately realized that Malcom did not plan to save the three of them. Shane quickly sent a message to Malcom though his life vitality, “They have rushed into the inner circle! But I have left markers on their bodies, so that we can track them!”
Of course, Shane wouldn't simply tell Malcom where Zen was. If he did, he would then have nothing with which to convince Malcom to save him.
“This old fox, he doesn't want to tell us!” Rehaan laughed sinisterly.
Malcom shook his head and said, “It is only survival instinct. Shane thinks that we are his lifesaving straw. So he will not easily let us go. If we want to know where Zen is, then these three must be saved. Take out the flame-controlling scale that the Flaming Ogre Sacred Place has given us.”
Rehaan nodded and immediately took out a small golden scale. The ogre race had dominated the Tower of Sin for a long time, so they were more familiar with the Dark Nether Cave than the other races. The flame-controlling scale was a mighty weapon and might be potent enough to deal with the assembled demonic beasts.