Everyone watched the orange-red pillar of light blooming in the center of the hall, each of them buzzing with excitement.
A Sub-Legendary chest!
They had never even heard of such a thing before. If they could pull out a Legendary-grade item fragment from it, that alone would give any player a massive boost to their base stats.
"Wait — something's wrong. This isn't the trap being disarmed!"
Shi Feng raised his head toward the ceiling, where an orange-red magic array had formed from raging mana. A faint sense of wrongness crept over him. In his previous life, he had seen countless master-level trap mechanisms get disabled, but not a single one had caused wild mana to surge like this. There was only one explanation for such a violent flow of mana.
The trap disactivation had failed!
Huo Wu looked ashamed and was about to say something, but Shi Feng beat her to it, shouting: "Everyone, use a first-tier Teleport Scroll and get out! Then use a Town Return Scroll to leave the Ark immediately!"
Normally, once a trap mechanism was triggered, it would blanket an area — but that didn't mean there was no way out. While the trap was still activating, using a Teleport Scroll to leave its range was actually a common countermeasure. It just didn't work against instant-trigger traps.
The current trap wasn't the instant type. The problem was that the forging hall's door had been sealed shut by divine runes, preventing anyone from leaving normally. Using a Town Return Scroll would take too long to channel, but a Teleport Scroll required no cast time and could bypass the physical lockdown, carrying the user straight out of the trap's range.
Once outside, they could use a Town Return Scroll to leave safely.
Shi Feng chose Town Return for a specific reason: he had no idea what consequences triggering the forging hall's trap might bring. If even the area outside the hall wasn't safe, and the Fallen patrol came charging in, they'd be deep in the most dangerous zone — an easy party wipe.
The moment they heard Shi Feng's command, nobody hesitated. They pulled out the first-tier Teleport Scrolls they had prepared in advance and teleported out one by one, until only Shi Feng himself remained in the entire hall.
Because this was his best chance to seize the Sub-Legendary chest.
Now that the trap mechanism had been triggered, the chest was no longer protected by it. He could simply toss it into his inventory and be done with it — except he'd have to grab the chest while the trap was actively firing at him.
And once the trap finished, it would reset to its original state, meaning he'd have to start all over again.
Shi Feng had considered this beforehand, but trying to grab the chest with two Fossil Tyrannosaurs guarding it had been far too risky. Now that the guardians were dead, things were much simpler.
He immediately activated Wind Chasing Sword and dashed straight toward the chest.
Just as he was about to reach it, the orange-red magic array on the ceiling fully activated.
Blood-red lances materialized out of thin air in the half-dark of the forging hall. Every single lance radiated a terrifying aura as they rained down like a downpour, blanketing the entire hall.
"A destructive-type trap?"
Shi Feng watched the blood-red lances fall and felt a measure of relief. He triggered Sword Control Return to Heaven, which could block more than a dozen attacks.
The blood-red lances plummeted down, but before they could even touch Shi Feng, they scattered harmlessly to the sides.
And in that window, Shi Feng reached the Sub-Legendary chest and tried his luck — could he take it?
After all, this was the first Sub-Legendary chest he had ever encountered. When ordinary players found a locked Dark Gold chest, they could usually carry it away. Only a tiny fraction were fixed in place, making them impossible to move.
The instant he touched it, the system gave him its answer.
It could be stored in his inventory, but doing so required eight seconds of channeling time.
With Sword Control Return to Heaven's block count, he could withstand these blood-red lances for at most two seconds. Adding the Ground Ring's absolute defense brought that to five — still nowhere close to eight seconds.