When the master-grade Spirit Core Battle Armor covered its body, the once-flowing black mist instantly solidified, transforming into a suit of menacing and majestic Obsidian Heavy Armor.

Once its enlargement effect activated, in just a few seconds, Xiaoye’s form abruptly metamorphosed into a Hellhound standing over ten meters tall.

“Whoa… incredible…” Water Snake and the others were all dumbfounded.

The Transformation Skill of the Forest Sage and Great Druid class lineage could also produce massive effects, but compared to this, it was still a notch below.

Besides enlarging it, Su Chen could also shrink Xiaoye down to the size of a wolf cub.

“All set.”

Su Chen was satisfied. At least now it could enter the RV or even stay in other small areas without its size being an obstacle.

Among the other rewards, a special Rune, the Soul Pocket, had also dropped, along with a Lv. 8 Mind Transmission Rune.

The former could be left for the Demon Spirit Core housed in the RV to absorb. As for the latter, he simply fed it to Xiaolin. After some experimentation, it actually worked, and the Ice Phoenix Bird even successfully activated its Spiritual Skills.

…

After finishing all this, Su Chen warped back to the underground corridor.

Passing through the empty first corridor, he arrived at the heavy, sealed alloy gate at the far end.

The ancient wards carved onto the door still emitted a heart-pounding aura, but against the Concept Level divine artifact in his hand—the Unsealing Key—all seals were useless.

CLICK!

As he pointed the key from a distance, the massive gate, which had been sealed for ages untold, slowly slid open to the sides with a dull rumble.

BOOM!

The moment the gate opened, an inexplicably magnificent and sacred aura poured out from within.

The space behind the gate was even grander and more vast than the first corridor.

This was no longer a simple passage but a massive underground plaza.

On both sides of the plaza stood thousands of densely packed human statues. They were no longer in the kneeling posture from before; instead, they held weapons and wore heavy armor, arranged in neat formations like a legion of stone soldiers ready to march into battle.

In the deepest part of the plaza, three colossal divine statues, each tens of meters tall, sat upon thrones. Although their forms varied and their faces were indistinct, the overwhelming aura of supremacy they exuded could be felt even from a distance, making one’s breathing heavy.

However…

HSSSSSS!

The instant it was unsealed, air from the outside surged through the open gate and into this sealed, vacuum-like space.

The moment they made contact with the air, the once-vibrant statues and stone walls began to oxidize at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The bright paint peeled away rapidly as fine cracks and mold spots began to spread. In just a few seconds, the ravages of time eroded this miraculous place.

“What a grand spectacle…”

Su Chen was stunned, feeling the pleasant surprise of a tomb raider who had just unearthed a treasure.

To be honest.

If I had to deal with these one by one, who knows how long it would take.

‘I’ll just blow them all up and wake up as many as possible.’

Su Chen wasn’t focused on personal gain. At this dangerous moment, with the Elemental Suppression wave imminent, it was necessary to awaken them as soon as possible to destroy the sealed power of flesh and blood.

Of course.

Perhaps the act of opening the door had triggered the area’s defense mechanism, or maybe the Unsealing Key had completely disrupted their dormant awakening sequence.

Before he could make a move…

The serried ranks of stone statues began to vibrate violently. Their thick stone shells cracked and crumbled with a series of CRACKS. The figures hidden within, who had been unstoppable in the old era, were plunged into extreme terror the moment they began to revive.

“Ugh…”

A low, muffled roar echoed through the plaza, yet it held no killing intent—only endless pain.

As the stone shells fell away, the ancient flesh and blood—which should have been as tough as steel—began to rapidly shrivel and degenerate the instant it touched the air of the present world.

Their once-burly figures began to shrink rapidly.

Just then, a cold and indifferent warning was issued.

[System Warning: Permissions for the Spirit-Sealing Gate have been abnormally unsealed. Revival sequence has been forcibly activated.]

[Widespread, catastrophic drop in life-energy levels detected. The Second Underground City is currently undergoing a ruthless correction by the Laws of the current Magic World.]

[Terminating awakening process immediately. Resetting Spirit-Sealing Gate lockdown logic.]

Huh??

Su Chen naturally couldn’t understand this string of Sumerian, but one thing was certain…

The heavy metal gate, which was halfway open, seemed to sense the threat from the Law. Its internal gears began to mesh frantically as it defied the laws of physics and tried to force itself shut.

Standing outside the gate on high alert, he brandished the Unsealing Key once again, forcing the gate to open completely.

The terrifying Telekinesis, equivalent to Lv. 11, instantly collapsed into a single point. After being imbued with five layers of Damage-Inflicting Power, including Flame Burst and Thunderblast, it detonated right at the gate’s hinges.

BOOM!!

The violent shockwave caused the entire underground corridor to tremble, but it only managed to blast a crater, failing to achieve complete Piercing.

The gate’s material was completely beyond his comprehension. Like the Silent Extinction Sword, it seemed to possess some kind of indestructible, law-like property.

Before he could launch a second attack, a horrifying shudder swept through his entire body.

THUMP!

It was the sound of a heart beating, coming from the colossal, tens-of-meters-tall divine statue deep within the plaza.

Immediately after, a terrifying, tangible pressure like a tsunami surged madly forth from the mottled, decaying shadows.

At that moment, Su Chen felt a genuine, piercing pain from the depths of his soul, a tangible threat to his very life. It was the first time he had faced a real threat of death since the entire city had transmigrated.

The closer he came to a life-or-death situation, the calmer his mind became—a kind of madness born from extreme composure.

VMMMM!

Su Chen forcibly activated his Super-Limited Premonition Technique, but he couldn’t completely break free of the oppressive force.

The flow of Rune Energy within his body remained sluggish.

But.

At the same time.

The Time Hourglass had already smoothly inverted.

VMMMM!

Within his thoroughly suppressed Sea of Consciousness, only one object remained completely unaffected by the immense pressure.

In an instant, a brilliant light that transcended this very space erupted from the hourglass. The once-stagnant, cold vista of the underground corridor began to disintegrate before Su Chen’s eyes.

All the pressure, even the colossus’s soul-shattering roar, faded into illusory background noise.

Time devoured everything.

Su Chen’s figure suddenly appeared in the outer forest of the Earth Realm, gazing at the fissure zone in the distance.

‘The Time Hourglass is an absolute life-saving trump card,’ he sighed to himself. ‘The rank of this planar divine artifact is just too high.’

Using it just to reset his status and position before was a gross underutilization of its power.

If he had been using a common version of a death-substitute doll, he could only have prayed that his opponent failed to notice its special properties; otherwise, there was a high probability he would have been ruthlessly killed.

‘That colossus on the throne is incredibly powerful,’ Su Chen mused. ‘Its strength was probably among the best of the last era.’

Just as he composed himself, the ground beneath his feet began to shake violently.

BOOM!

An earthquake suddenly struck, and the massive fissure zone nearby began to crumble.

Thanks to the stern warning Su Chen had given before going down, the area around this danger zone had been cleared, so there were no reckless onlookers.

Several kilometers away, Captain Zhang Shihao and his men, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, stared in this direction with shock and uncertainty. They could feel the earth’s lament but couldn’t be sure what terrifying event was unfolding deep underground.

“AAAAHHH…”

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling shriek erupted from deep within the fissure.

It was the roar of the colossus, as loud as thunder, yet it was laced with an incredibly mournful tremor.

Soon, under the force of the sound wave, countless jagged fissures spread in all directions. The very ground collapsed and fractured, and in an instant, an abyssal maw leading to Hell opened up, ruthlessly swallowing everything on the surface.

Forewarned, Su Chen managed to evade the collapse and get away.

Amidst the vast cloud of rising dust and smoke, all that remained was a terrifying, bottomless sinkhole.

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