After setting up his contingencies, Lei Lin flicked his sleeve and stepped through the spatial gate.
Pop!
It felt like passing through a membrane of water. When Lei Lin reappeared, he found himself in a different location.
A unique darkness and chill of the underground world permeated the surrounding air. The concentration of yin-attribute and earth-attribute energy particles was incredibly dense, even surpassing what he had once known in the Dark Pinnacle Domain.
"Is this the other end of the relic passage?" Lei Lin swept his gaze around his surroundings.
He was clearly inside a hall, surrounded by strange and bizarre statues, filled with grotesque style.
The magical formation on the ground had dimmed, revealing a thick layer of dust.
"Eternal Flame!" Lei Lin casually pointed, and a brilliant burst of flame instantly appeared before him.
"This place... it seems to have been abandoned for a long time. Is it deep within some ancient relic?" Lei Lin's spiritual power swept outward, discovering that the entire relic seemed to be shrouded by a mysterious force, which even restricted the soul power of wizards.
However, with his Moon-phase level true spirit power, he could still cover nearly half the relic's area, instantly spotting several routes leading outside.
"I hope there are no large-scale wizard formations outside, otherwise it would be extremely troublesome!"
Lei Lin walked up to a large gate. The stone gate was ancient and imposing, towering dozens of meters high. On the left was a statue of a demon, and on the right, a beautiful angel.
Crack! Crack!
Lei Lin pushed his hand against the gate. Two terrifying bolts of lightning shot out instantly, only to be deflected by the Comorian Scales on Lei Lin's body.
A pitch-black passage automatically materialized before Lei Lin, and he stepped inside without hesitation.
"I didn't expect to run into exploring wizards just like that! It certainly saved a lot of trouble!"
A smile played on Lei Lin's lips as his entire body merged completely into the darkness, moving in a manner that defied the laws of physics.
……
Meanwhile, several adventurers were desperately fleeing through the passage.
"Hurry! It's about to catch up!"
Among these adventurers were warriors clad in armor and archers carrying wooden bows, but most numerous were wizards in wide-sleeved robes carrying peculiar tools. Their composition was reasonably balanced, but at this moment, all squad members were fleeing in panic, their clothes torn and tattered, some stained with blood, revealing horrifying wounds.
Thud! Thud! From the darkness behind them came the sound of heavy footsteps.
Upon hearing this sound, everyone's face changed drastically, and they fled even faster.
Whoosh! A streak of dark light flashed, followed immediately by a black spear hurtling forward. It pierced directly through a wizard's innate body defense, pinning him to the ground.
[[[lang:en]] "Shinado! Damn it!" The lead adventurer was a brown-haired youth. He glanced back at his companion, who had been pinned to the ground with blood streaming from the corner of his mouth, gritted his teeth, and kept running.
"Go! Move it!" His eyes were bloodshot as he screamed hoarse, desperate commands.
At the same time, a fire of resentment and regret was gnawing away at his heart: "We were too careless! With our team's three-star rating, we had absolutely no business coming to this ruin! Damn it — this ruin's danger level is at least five stars! If I make it out alive, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch!"
"No! Shinado!" The female archer carrying a bow let out a wail and stopped dead, kneeling in tears beside the Wizard who had been impaled. She pulled a green potion from her robes and poured it directly over his wound.
"It's no use!" the lead adventurer roared in his mind, but his legs never stopped moving.
A dozen seconds later, he heard the scream of his former female companion. His face went white, but he ran even faster.
Thud-thud! Thud-thud!
The footsteps behind him were like a reaper closing in. Though the intervals between each footfall were long, the speed was terrifying. Before long, the youth heard several more dull impacts and agonized cries.
By this point, a horrifying realization struck him — there was not a single companion left at his side.
"No! I can't die here! I still have to become a five-star adventurer — even the Adventure King! I still have dreams unfulfilled, my family's honor and grudges still need me to…"
His voice cut off abruptly. A ring of black light shot outward. The youth twisted with everything he had, but the dark beam still grazed him, sending him spitting blood to the ground.
Thud-thud! Thud-thud! Accompanied by those footsteps, an enormous silhouette emerged from the darkness.