Alone and Infinite

The ground struck by the hammer silently emanated a layer of equally eerie light.

Tentacle-like tendrils, resembling plant roots, danced wildly on the ground.

Li Xia put down the black charcoal she was holding; it was so close, so very close.

It wasn't just because of the sudden flutter in my heart, but also because of the [Mental Blink] skill.

This was the first time he had ever encountered a monster that would immediately jump to his face upon being detected.

No, it should be a monster that jumps directly in front of you because it's locked onto by mental energy.

A blinding bolt of lightning shot up from his hand, and Night Silence slowly appeared in his palm.

At the same time, it pushed attention to its limit.

That lightning bolt attracted more than just myself.

The apostle is not some polite person who waits for others to finish fighting and recover before politely asking if they can share some of the profits.

On the contrary, once they see an opportunity, they will pounce on it without hesitation and take a big bite.

Li Xia slowly exhaled, and Ye Ji sensed his intention, with a few extremely bright electric lights moving on the gun handle.

The Ascended One Amodrich before me is not one of those weaklings; he is definitely one of the bosses of this world.

If you're not careful, you might crash and burn, or even lose your life here.

Tsk. That's a bit difficult.

Just as I was pondering this, I saw the disgusting monster opposite me suddenly flap its wings, which were made of tentacles and covered in disgusting slime.

An eerie black light rippled across the hammer in layers, as if power was gathering.

coming!

Li Xia was also on high alert. This was the first time he had encountered such a corrupted and bizarre creature, and he immediately made up his mind.

First, test the waters and keep your distance!

"Om-"

A loud buzzing sound emanated from 'Amodrich'.

The next moment, to Li Xia's astonishment, it suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, hundreds of meters away, an angry voice resounded throughout the sky.

"Damn, is this boss insane???"

Li Xia was stunned for less than a second before turning around and greeting him:

"go!"

The clueless Black Charcoal and Awoo had just set up their battle formation when they heard "Go," but they didn't hesitate for a second.

He turned and ran away decisively.

Although Black Charcoal only has 18 points in agility, its four claws move incredibly fast, almost leaving afterimages.

Awoo couldn't fly as fast as it, so it simply lay down on Black Charcoal's head, its lower body swaying in the wind.

They ran for almost a kilometer before stopping.

They found a hillside, and the man, the dragon, and the cat all simultaneously pulled out binoculars.

This telescope, produced by our employees, is of green quality and features tracking and automatic wind speed and humidity calculation, as well as multiple display modes.

The key is that the price is not expensive, and basically everyone has one. Li Xia was generous and bought three directly.

"Your Highness, what just happened?"

While watching the show, Aowu didn't forget to ask about what had happened before, mainly because it was all too fast.

Li Xia had just finished scanning the panel, and before it had even finished refreshing, he led Hei Tan and himself backward.

I thought we were going to have a fight, and I was worried that the other apostles might stab us in the back and get behind our backs like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

The monster suddenly disappeared.

"Mental Blink—that monster can lock onto the source of mental energy detection and jump to it based on its location."

This must have been a skill Amodrich possessed before he became corrupted, only it wasn't this powerful.

Indeed, Amodrich was an exceptionally rare magic warrior in the Arcane Dynasty, specializing in imbuing his special magic-slaying mace with magical power.

Because the arcane mage was extremely skilled at kiting, he painstakingly researched for many years, combining his talent and bloodline with magic to create the deadly weapon, Mental Blink.

"hiss--"

Aowu and Heitan took a breath together, locking onto the source of the mental detection?

Which apostle these days doesn't habitually cast a detection spell before engaging a monster?

"Detection triggers monster activity?"

What an insidious boss!

If you can't react in time, you'll definitely suffer a huge loss!

Wait a minute!

"What if the other apostles were to probe?"

Awoo suddenly realized something, looked at Li Xia, and noticed that the corners of His Highness's mouth had also slightly turned up.

Although Heitan remained naive, thanks to Teacher Ao's instruction, he also gained an understanding of the hall and the panel.

A man, a dragon, and a cat looked through the telescope at the 'Ascended Amodrich' who kept appearing in various places like ghosts.

And each appearance is accompanied by a roar of surprise and anger, and you might even see skill effects that look like fireworks.

For every apostle who couldn't resist his curiosity and began to explore, there would be a victim.

Watching the 'Ascended One's' figure recede into the distance, Li Xia put away his binoculars and said without hesitation:

"Let's go, let's go to the ruins first."

If it were just one person, they might try to kill the other, but now that they're surrounded by wolves, it's clearly not a good idea.

Why not take advantage of the boss being lured away and go in to explore first?

Just as we rounded the side, a dozen or so scattered figures appeared in the distance, sneaking towards the city ruins.

Clearly, everyone is smart and has the same idea.

Li Xia noticed that every team member had some kind of injury, with the most seriously injured one vomiting blood while running.

He even picked up the bottle and chugs medicine down his throat, clearly indicating that his injury was quite serious.

However, no one is willing to make a move right now, for fear of making any noise and attracting that freakish boss.

He withdrew his gaze, no longer paying attention to others, and relied on his speed to rush into the ruins first.

The first impression upon entering the ruins was: vast.

The ruins, broken cleanly in the middle, resembled a desolate wasteland, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The scorched black earth on the ground was high enough to reach above ankle height.

The wide streets were littered with fallen bricks and debris.

Over time, the once bustling street stalls have turned into rotting objects, lying in the soil in strange positions.

The entire city was filled with a deathly stillness.

At the end of the road, the decaying tree golems I had seen before wandered aimlessly.

"buzz"

A white slash passed through its body, and Li Xia was about to pass right past it.

But then they discovered a green treasure chest emerging from the corpse.

There's even a treasure chest?

Picking up the treasure chest, he continued rushing along the main road into the depths of the ruins.

Target – City Square!

Just as Li Xia guessed, this city must also have a place similar to the town hall from before.

It was a city square, but he never imagined it would be so huge.

He stood on the low building, looking at the distant square, which was already completely black.

Like a dark jungle, except there are no trees, but instead, there are rows of decaying tree golems.

It is difficult to describe their exact quantity with specific numbers.

But using the phrase "covering up the sky and blocking out the sun" is absolutely not an exaggeration!

What's most enticing is the high platform in the middle of these tree golems, where several things on a table are faintly gleaming.

Just by looking at its appearance, it's no ordinary product.

"At least 100,000 or more"

Awoo pondered for a moment:

"And then consider the conversion rate—we only encountered one corrupted tree golem in that small town."

Wow. Just how many people were gathered here back then?

"Wait, does this city even have that many people?"

Li Xia pondered for a moment, then slowly said:

"There should be. The magical technology of the Arcane Dynasty is actually very advanced, and the population that a city can accommodate will increase greatly in such cases."

For example, some of the ruins we saw before, if they had been intact, could have been over 100 meters high.

However, it wasn't without its gains; at least we learned the name of the city.

Sunset City

Li Xia looked at the words on the sign in front of the square. Some of them were peeling off, but the words "ascension point" and similar words were still faintly visible.

With an intelligence level of 23, recalling the map in his mind, he easily simulated the map in his head.

While intelligence doesn't increase IQ, it's like having a chip installed in the brain for memory and model building—it works incredibly well.

"Your Highness, is it possible that all the apostles actually landed in this area?"

"It's possible—"

Sunset City is located in the lower right of Wailing Basin and is the city closest to the Barren Plains.

The straight-line distance between the two is about 100 kilometers, and even a power-type apostle would only need a day to get there.

However, what Li Xia was more concerned about was that the ruins seemed to have been searched, and sometimes the exposed rooms had obvious signs of being ransacked.

There were even some skeletal remains, and if I'm not mistaken, these skeletal remains should all have 'crystal cores'.

Unfortunately, the skull was completely destroyed by violence.

Considering the situation of the hall, the answer is obvious: many apostles from various waves must have visited this place before.

Since the original world cannot reset the timeline, their traces are preserved.

From this perspective, every boss that wasn't defeated was definitely a formidable monster.

Because they weren't powerful enough, they were destroyed by the apostles and converted into resources long ago.

Looking at the vast ruins, Li Xia suddenly missed the 'high-value item detection aura' he had experienced once.

If only there were a 'high-value item detection aura', there would definitely be something in these ruins.

I had only asked a simple question before, and Aowu just said that it was impossible to get the second tier, so I didn't ask any more questions.

Now that he's approaching the third tier, he suddenly feels a strong urge to learn more about it.

"Awooo, that halo!"

Although Aowu repeatedly assured Li Xia that the Temple of Light could not possibly eavesdrop on their conversation, Li Xia still took precautions.

Oh, that one.

Aowu thought for a moment, then said in a low voice, "That halo—Your Highness, you should understand—must be delivered in a proper manner."