Telerga stopped dead, his face a mask of cold fury. He spun around, lightning coiling around him like giant, restless pythons. "He should have been killed immediately, to prevent other clans from pinpointing our exact location."

Deep within the abyssal ocean, countless green bubbles suddenly materialized. These orbs were faintly translucent, merely hovering in the gloom ahead, showing no inclination to ascend toward the surface.

Falonie was just about to reply when her eyes caught sight of the green spheres, and her expression underwent a drastic change.

The warriors of the Black Demon Clan, following their gaze, also displayed looks of sheer horror. They paid Telerga no further mind. Even Telerga himself was momentarily stunned into silence.

At the center of each green bubble was a frozen corpse. The bodies were desiccated, shrunken like sticks, their contorted faces locked in expressions of absolute despair and terror. It was as if they had witnessed ultimate horror in their final moments, having been tortured to death. Their ghastly visages sent a chill through the onlookers.

These lifeless bodies were encased within the bubbles, which acted as sarcophagi for their mummified forms. There were no signs of struggle or physical wounds on the bodies, yet the terrifying distortion of their features seemed infectious, chilling the very core of Falonie and Telerga.

"Something is wrong!" Falonie said, apprehension tightening her voice as she raised a hand, signaling everyone to halt.

The group maintained a careful distance from the hovering green spheres, unwilling to rush blindly forward. Falonie stared intently at the desiccated remains for a long moment, scrutinizing every detail. "They show no evidence of combat, no wounds whatsoever. That fact alone speaks volumes..."

After a few seconds of tense silence, she hissed, "Their souls were invaded instantly, killed by some form of soul sorcery. They must have witnessed something incomparably terrifying and despairing before death, otherwise the look of twisted fear wouldn't remain so vivid after all this time."

"I don't know why," one of the Black Demon Clan members whispered quietly, "but looking at their faces makes me deeply uneasy."

"I feel it too."

"Me as well."

"It's like we're subconsciously thinking that we might face the same consequence, meet a similar end..." After voicing their individual anxieties, the group suddenly fell silent, sensing an invisible coldness that seemed to permeate the seawater, quietly influencing their thoughts.

This realization struck them all with sudden, sharp disquiet.

Falonie whipped her head around sharply.

Not far behind them, a cluster of starlight flickered into brief existence, as if trying to stealthily conceal itself.

"Telerga, can we navigate around that area ahead?" she murmured after a few seconds of thought, then suddenly demanded in a low voice.

Telerga frowned deeply, shaking his head. "It seems we cannot. How strange..."

"Strange how?" she pressed immediately.

"After I killed that last pursuer, I seized the memory of his journey. We’ve been following the correct path all along. However, he never encountered this bizarre scene. The route must be correct; if so, only one possibility remains." Telerga’s face shifted slightly. "Those green bubbles ahead must have appeared only very recently. They weren't here before. Or rather, they weren't positioned in this exact spot."

"If we can't bypass it, we must venture through," Falonie stated. "But I have a very bad feeling about this. If we charge in now, something disastrous is likely to happen."

"Your intuition is always spot-on. If you sense trouble, there will certainly be trouble," Telerga nodded. When faced with such crucial situations, he never doubted Falonie's judgment. "I have an idea." A wicked smile suddenly spread across his face.

Everyone knew of his vicious cunning, and their eyes brightened. Those who knew him well, noticing the calculating glint in his eyes and the occasional glance over his shoulder, immediately understood and began to smile too.

"You mean?" A harsh, resolute expression flashed across Falonie’s rugged, masculine face; she had clearly deciphered his plan as well.

"Someone has to scout the path," Telerga grinned, his features momentarily becoming grotesque. "Naturally, we won't sacrifice our own kin. That sneaking shadow was looking to die anyway; we might as well oblige him."

Falonie nodded in agreement with his scheme. "He cultivates the profound mysteries of Space. It would be difficult for you alone to subdue him, so we’ll have to..."

Mid-sentence, she abruptly stopped, her face contorting in alarm. "Not good! Someone else is approaching!"

Telerga and the Black Demon Clan warriors tensed, covertly channeling their own profound laws, readying for a fight.

Soon after, Yebolo's booming, coarse laughter echoed from a distance. He led the entourage of Ancient Demon Clan males, approaching fearlessly. As Yebolo arrived, he burst out laughing. "We actually got lost on the way, took a wrong turn! Fortunately, Telerga, in your skirmish, you left behind your unique aura, allowing us to re-establish our bearing."

Telerga's expression soured. "Yebolo, are you here for the relic as well?"

"Of course." Yebolo smiled casually. "Don't assume you're the only ones who know about this. Oh, right, Tatt also knows about the relic. I imagine the Devouring Clan and the Soul Clan are paying attention too. Hmm, I'm not surprised to see you. I suspect there might be a few other factions approaching from different directions; we’ll likely all cross paths eventually."

At these words, Falonie and Telerga's expressions darkened; they realized this venture might be fraught with too many variables.

"How is this possible? I wiped out nearly all of those people!" Telerga snapped.

"One managed to escape, and he sold the news of the relic's discovery. However, he didn't sell it to me first, so I already executed him moments ago. He added far too many rivals to this relic hunt, so he deserved death," Yebolo chuckled blandly, then fixed his gaze forward on the green bubbles, letting out a soft, curious sound. "What are those strange things?"

"Perhaps some kind of restriction formation," Falonie replied, not bothering to conceal the truth, knowing deception was futile. She waved a hand toward her clansmen, signaling them to spread out, allowing Yebolo’s group to draw closer.

Yebolo, naturally, accepted the courtesy, leading his men to converge. His eyes, eerily alien, shimmered with multicolored halos as he stared at the green spheres for a moment before his expression grew profoundly serious. "They were all struck by some form of malignant soul power and died instantly. Their minds were reduced to mush, and their spirit altars were utterly pulverized."

"Someone has to breach it," Falonie remarked.

"Can't it be avoided?" Yebolo frowned.

"We haven't figured out a way to avoid it yet," Telerga grumbled. "Because according to the coordinates, the relic should be directly beneath these green bubbles. Only by entering among them and searching deeper can we find any clue."

Yebolo looked surprised, then chuckled darkly, spreading his hands. "Do you have a clever solution?"

"There is one person who belongs to neither your side nor ours. That individual has been tracking us the whole way, hiding right..." Falonie paused dramatically, raising a hand and shouting, "Right there!"

Yebolo bared his teeth in a grin. "I knew your Black Demon Clan was full of schemes. You were preparing to find cannon fodder to test the path. Well, it's fortunate you didn't go mad and try to target us instead. Good, everyone needs someone to send to their doom; having someone else volunteer is absolutely ideal."

He nodded toward one of his subordinates casually. "Go on."

Falonie had exerted considerable effort to pinpoint the location, naturally hoping the Ancient Demon Clan would seize the individual. Yebolo readily agreed to this, making no excuses.

A colossal Ancient Demon Clan giant, broad and tall, roared like a ravenous beast. His teeth actually pierced the corners of his lips, emerging like menacing tusks.

He charged directly toward Shi Yan's hiding spot. The sound of his roar, carrying a ferocious, bestial aura, manifested as a colossal battle blade, ten meters long, which sliced through the water currents and slammed down upon the area where Shi Yan was concealed.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

Where the battle passed, the seawater exploded, and the specific location Falonie had indicated churned violently, like rolling thunder being crushed underfoot.

But no figure materialized, no cry of pain or burst of anger was heard.

The Ancient Demon giant looked back at Falonie with surprise, beginning to doubt the accuracy of the position she had given.

Falonie's face was grim, a flicker of anger appearing in her eyes. "He cultivates the profound mysteries of Space. I didn't anticipate his mastery was so exquisite that he could instantly phase out underwater."

With that, Falonie closed her eyes again, resuming her search.

However, this time she had clearly miscalculated. "Nothing. His aura is not present in the vicinity. He understood our intent and likely leveraged the advantage of his spatial mastery to slip far away from this spot in the meantime."

"So, no cannon fodder available?" Yebolo sighed in disappointment, signaling the clansman to stop wasting his effort. He trusted Falonie's mysterious cultivation methods; if she said the person was gone, he was gone, and there was no need to waste more time.

In the area where the currents were still chaotic, Shi Yan remained concealed, as if he had become an extension of the seawater itself, floating motionless in one section.

By circulating the profound mysteries of dark energy throughout his body, his bones, flesh, and meridians were stripped of all life signs and any perceptible normal features.

He was like a truly hidden, bloodthirsty remnant bone—untouchable, invisible, and undetectable even by ordinary divine senses.

The ferocious impact force generated by the battle blade had indeed struck him. However, that Ancient Demon male's cultivation realm was only at the first heaven of Immortality; his degree of Divine Body transformation was significantly inferior to Shi Yan's. Consequently, an attack of that magnitude caused him no harm whatsoever.

But his mood remained foul. Lurking in the shadows, he observed Yebolo of the Ancient Demon Clan, along with Falonie and Telerga, like a coiled viper. He licked his lips, his face a mask of suppressed, savage rage.

It had been a long time since anyone dared to treat him this way. After years, here at the bottom of the Ruined Sea, he was once again subjected to such humiliation—being treated as expendable cannon fodder for a suicide mission.

He watched as the Ancient Demon Clan and the Black Demon Clan conferred, planning to temporarily join forces and venture into the center of the green bubbles together. He sneered inwardly, silently waiting.

Waiting for them to venture deep so he could become the hunter, slaughtering these self-proclaimed superior race members one by one, thereby fueling the accumulation of his own strength... Ugh, today's chapter is a snag~~(To be continued)RQ