Olivia's complexion was deathly pale. The price of that last-ditch burst — doubling his speed at the final moment — had not been cheap. Combined with his severed legs… Olivia's condition right now was far from good.
"Why haven't you left?" Olivia looked up at Lin Lei.
Lin Lei simply stood where he was, making no move to go. He could see that Olivia's combat strength had plummeted, and with both legs gone, maneuvering in a fight would be a nightmare. True, he could fly — but flight alone, without legs, would cut his agility by more than half.
"Thanks." Olivia fell silent for a moment, then uttered those two words. After that, he focused entirely on treating his wounds.
Lin Lei's heart, however, felt heavy. He glanced back toward the entrance to the fourth floor. "Bak… if Bak really died, then later his wife 'Lina' and his two children — if Gates and the other three brothers ask me…" He felt a surge of helplessness.
In the face of a god-level magical beast like the Ba She, simply keeping his own life had been a stroke of luck.
Bak — there was nothing Lin Lei could do to save him.
"All I can do is hope Bak has good fortune, that he made it like me. Either he entered the fourth floor, or he escaped back to the second." Lin Lei remained on the spot. Partly to help Olivia, guarding against any creatures that might attack the injured warrior, and partly to wait…
To see whether Bak could make it to the fourth floor.
A long while passed.
"I'm ready." Olivia rose to his feet, gave Lin Lei one glance, and said nothing more. His entire body blurred into an afterimage and soared straight into the sky.
Lin Lei stood there for nearly another half-hour before finally letting out a sigh and taking flight.
The snowy world was a vast expanse of white. Tall trees stood defiantly against the landscape, their branches draped in silver by the accumulated snow. After flying for a short while, Lin Lei spotted a familiar face — it was Clay, the same man he had sparred with back at War God Mountain.
"Lin Lei." Clay flew over with a smile. "I thought you were still down below…"
"Just after you entered the fourth floor, someone behind us screamed, and that woke the Ba She." Lin Lei shook his head. "I was just luckier than most. But my good brother Bak…"
Clay offered words of comfort. "Don't be too sad. Right after I entered the fourth floor, I found Olivia with the broken legs. From him I learned the Ba She had awakened. I assumed you'd all been slaughtered. The fact that you're alive is already something. Your brother would be happy for you."
Lin Lei nodded.
Then the two of them flew side by side. Clay warned, "Don't keep dwelling on your brother. The fourth floor has its own dangers too. If you lose focus and lose your life, it won't have been worth it."
Lin Lei snapped alert, took a deep breath, and shook his head. "I know."
"Fain told me that back in the day, they could only hide out on the fifth floor. The Tomb of the Gods has eighteen floors in total. Every five floors make one tier. The first four aren't too dangerous — the fifth floor is actually the safest of the first five." Clay spoke with the authority of someone far more experienced.
Clay had lived far longer than Lin Lei and knew a great deal.
"Oh? The fifth floor is the safest of the first five?" Lin Lei was somewhat surprised.
"Mm. Fain told me the War God said that every five floors form a tier. Floors one through five are of moderate danger, but floors six through ten are extremely lethal. Even Fain and the others could die at any moment." Clay's tone turned serious.
Lin Lei nodded solemnly. He would need to be utterly careful from now on.
"The sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth floors are all horrifying. But compared to those four, the tenth floor actually has the lowest danger of the second tier." Clay smiled faintly.
Lin Lei committed every word to memory. This was intelligence Fain had obtained directly from the War God himself. The War God had unquestionably reached at least the tenth floor, so he would naturally know the conditions up there.
"Five floors per tier. The fifth floor is the safest of the first tier, the tenth floor is the safest of the second tier." A sudden intuition stirred in Lin Lei's mind. "It's almost as if these safer floors exist to let people rest and prepare."
Clearly, the jump in danger from the sixth floor onward was enormous.
And the eleventh floor — within it lay the corpses of gods and divine sparks. Any fool could understand… the eleventh floor was probably a hundred or even a thousand times more dangerous than anything before it.
Soaring above the snowscape, Clay remarked, "It's only in the first tier that we can rely on our own strength to power through against whatever creatures show up. From the sixth floor on… it takes brains, strength, and luck all working together."
Lin Lei nodded again.
Back in the day, De Si Li, Fain, and the others had been too frightened to even attempt the sixth floor, holing up on the fifth until the ten-year period expired.
"Whoosh!"
From a snowdrift below, a creature suddenly erupted from the white mound like a bolt of lightning aimed straight at Clay. Metallic light shimmered across Clay's body as he let out a roar and threw his right fist at the incoming beast.
"Boom!"
Fist met furry paw.
Clay's whole body shuddered and he was sent flying backward, while the white, shaggy monster was knocked down hard onto the snow.
"Quite the strength." Clay gasped in surprise.
Lin Lei stared down at the furry creature in astonishment. He had sparred with Clay before and knew the man's power was formidable. "Clay's strength is ten times De Si Li's, and his raw power and defense rival Bak's — yet this creature is on par with him."
The monster crouching in the snow suddenly rose upright on two legs.
"A bear?" Lin Lei looked down at the creature in surprise and spoke aloud.