Path to life, path to life...

David dodged one lightning strike after another, weaving and maneuvering, constantly trying to quietly close the distance to the Mage Tower.

However, every time he approached to within a hundred meters below the Mage Tower,

the man on the throne would instantly disappear along with the Mage Tower, reappearing further away, making him completely untouchable.

Damn it...

David suppressed the fire of frustration in his heart, forcing himself to calm down,

he had directly appeared in this room after stepping into the teleportation ring, witnessing the sky full of starlight and the slowly rising Mage Tower.

At that time, he had tried to communicate with the shadow of the man on the Mage Tower, but the other party did not give him a chance to speak, and indiscriminately began to bombard him with spells.

David belonged to the Supernatural Accident Place under the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was himself a top-tier player in personal combat rankings, equipped and skilled enough to handle various unexpected situations,

barely surviving the first wave of thunderbolts.

At that time, he thought this was a stage in the Sacred Mountain trial, and that the danger would naturally dissipate if he endured for a while,

however, he was trapped for almost half an hour, and the lightning barrage showed no signs of stopping, nor could he find an exit or a switch to stop it—if they existed.

Furthermore, perhaps due to the lightning strikes, when he tried to use the intercom to communicate with his teammates, all he heard was static, and he had to be carefully cautious, guarding diligently,

to prevent the lightning from striking the intercom, resulting in losing the only means of long-distance communication with his teammates.

"Just now the intercom connected to Li Rising... I wonder if they can make it..."

David's thoughts raced, as his foot pivoted on the ground, his body flipping forward like a gymnast, his palm lightly pressing against the ground,

his figure flipping, narrowly evading a diagonally slashing lightning.

But the pursuit of thunder was ultimately too intense,

another thunderbolt shot from behind, and David, airborne without any leverage point, had to retrieve a metal dog tag from his backpack, grasping it in his palm.

Crack—

The lightning struck directly on David's back,

the rectangular dog tag shattered on impact, breaking into two parts, neutralizing the damage from this attack.

David's eye twitched slightly, seemingly feeling heartache for the item,

in this room, the lightning emitted by the Mage Tower wasn't like real-world lightning, which disappears instantly, not giving people time to react.

Before lightning forms, a long, tortuous, blurred line appears in space,

about half a second later, the line illuminates, causing arcing discharge.

Precisely for this reason, David was able to hold on until now.

Among the sky filled with lightning, he narrowed his eyes, staring intently at every blurry fluctuation in the air,

finally, he found an opportunity.

It's now.

David's breath stopped abruptly, and in the instant his body flipped head-to-heel, he swung the Judgement Spear,

piercing the tip through a horizontally slashing lightning.

The Judgement Spear emitted dazzling golden light, firmly controlling the lightning, forcing it to bend like an arc, converging beneath David's feet.

Release!

The Judgement Spear suddenly spun, the fixed lightning, like a taut bowstring,

catapulted David out with swift speed and great force,

causing the man on the Mage Tower to not even react as David approached within a hundred meters.

Got you...

David's eyes were devoid of any emotion, beneath the charred and cracked skin, pure and majestic power surged, infused onto the Judgement Spear, and suddenly thrown.

Swoosh—

The Judgement Spear, still flickering with residual electric light, effortlessly ripped through the ozone-scented air, flying rapidly in mid-air.

The top of the Mage Tower glowed with a circle of colorful lights, it was clear that these were protective shields set up by magic professionals to prevent being approached by warriors.

However, David's Judgement Spear was not something so easily intercepted.

The golden spear spun and advanced, penetrating layer after layer of spell shields,

the shields not only failed to block the spear's advance, but were instead plundered by the spear's energy, further accelerating its flight speed.

The Judgement Spear is a perfect quality weapon with three Special Effects,

Special Effect one and two are passive triggers, able to convert excessive kinetic energy applied to the spear into lightning with magic-breaking properties, and automatically fly back after throwing,

while Special Effect three, named Judgment Divine Thunder, actively triggers to transform the spear into a remotely controllable spherical lightning.

For example, now.

Having penetrated all spell shields, the spear suddenly compressed, deformed, and converted into a nearly one-meter-diameter azure spherical lightning,

with an irresistible force, it blasted towards the man on the throne.

If this strike hit, even opponents of the monster general level encountered in the Lost World would have no choice but to drink in defeat.

However...

The man on the Mage Tower, sitting on the Dark Throne, facing the swiftly flying spherical lightning, showed no signs of panic,

he simply and casually waved his finger.

Bang—

A square stone tile in front of the Dark Throne silently sprang open, and a mighty gargoyle emerged from it.

This gargoyle, crafted from unknown stone material, was shaped like a demon, held a long sword in its left hand, a trident in its right hand, wings on its back, exuding a violent and bloodthirsty aura from within.

David's pupils suddenly contracted,

based on energy fluctuations alone, this gargoyle was barely average,

if he could close the distance, David could even smash it to pieces within ten moves without relying on the Judgement Spear,

however, in almost all traditional fantasy world settings, the gargoyle puppets kept in the Mage Tower's main purpose was not attack but defense,

the puppets in the Mage Tower primarily serve to protect the Mage Tower's owner, 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

they usually lack intellect, neither psychic abilities, nor spell damage, nor physical damage can effectively harm the puppets.

The spherical lightning formed by the Judgement Spear's Special Effect three deals the most damage at the moment it contacts a solid object,

if this strike were blocked by the massive gargoyle puppet,

then whether it was the light and heat radiation released by the spherical lightning or the air shockwave,

would struggle to cause significant damage to the Mage Tower man behind.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but in that instant, David felt as if the man sitting on the Dark Throne, shrouded entirely in shadow, had slightly raised the corner of his mouth, revealing a faint smile.

Time seemed to slow down,

In David's perspective, the sphere lightning was slowly flying forward, about to touch the trident that the stone gargoyle puppet was swinging down vertically,

And the entire Mage Tower once again displayed that familiar and annoying fluctuation,

The outline of the Mage Tower blurred and was about to flash again, distancing itself from David.

At this critical moment, the gargoyle's head inexplicably exploded,

The massive stone body shattered into several pieces, collapsing to the left, clearing a straight path for the sphere lightning directly to the throne.

Crack.

The remains of the gargoyle fell to the floor of the Mage Tower,

Only when the sphere lightning hit the man on the throne did David belatedly hear the three gunshots from a distance.

Boom!

The sphere lightning, in a fleeting moment, bloomed into endless light and heat,

The cobalt blue currents snaked like thousands of tiny snakes, illuminating the entire space as bright as midday.

After the strike, the starlight in the space gradually faded, and the thunder quietly disappeared as if it had never existed.

David fell downward, the Judgment Spear, ending its sphere lightning form, automatically flew back into his hand.

The place returned to the shape of an ordinary room,

Wooden floors, a space as vast as a football field, with three walls pasted with pale yellow wallpaper, and one wall covered with a huge glass pane, which was full of dust.

And the Mage Tower, which David had been fighting for a long time, rapidly shrank,

Finally turning into the size of an upright container—although still quite tall, it was dwarfed compared to the gigantic Mage Tower previously seen.

The man on top of the Mage Tower, who seemed like a god, also turned into a shriveled black corpse,

Draped in a dark robe, hunched, huddled in the metal seat.

It seemed as if he had been dead for countless years.

Is this an illusion...

David instinctively tightened his grip on the Judgment Spear, clearly feeling the muscle soreness and the stinging pain of cracked skin in his body, his suit shattered into strips, casually hanging on his body.

Suspicion spread in his mind,

David temporarily suppressed his confusion and turned to look at the corner of the room, where three teammates appeared.

"Thanks."

David sincerely nodded, realizing that the gargoyle, which was about to intercept the sphere lightning, was destroyed by the timely arrival of Li Ang and others,

Li Ang repeatedly pulled the trigger of the Colt Revolver, instantly firing three bullets, one hitting the gargoyle's head, shattering it,

The other two hitting the torso, crushing its body, clearing the path for the sphere lightning to the Mage Tower man.

Due to there being no firing rate limit on the Colt Revolver and the instant hits with no flight trajectory,

The three gunshots sounded like just a single shot.

"Hmm."

Li Ang casually retrieved the Colt Revolver and along with two teammates, stepped forward, observing the room's scene along the way.

The four gathered, exchanged information briefly,

David had only contacted Li Ang and others earlier, without finding any trace of Hoenhem and Amber.

"This room should be a part of the Sacred Mountain trial."

Liu Wu Dai walked to the corner of the room, carefully observing the wall covered with glass, and said faintly, "Come and see."

The three went forward and came to the wall,

The glass didn't completely match the entire wall, leaving a half-meter gap on both the left and right sides of the room,

Standing there, looking into the crevice between the glass and the wall, they could faintly see some intermittently flickering lights.

"These lights are... occult patterns?"

Ding Zhensi used the Kui Ox Mecha's sensors to scan the narrow gap between the glass and the wall, and doubted, "The original specific function of these patterns,

was to trigger fear emotions in intruders, making them see the scenes they most dislike.

But it seems to have been modified?"

Despite Ding Zhensi not having a high confidentiality level in the Special Affairs Bureau,

The memory chip of the Kui Ox Mecha he drives contains quite a lot of information,

From astronomy and geography to mysterious studies texts, covering almost everything—the memory chip and the Mecha's sprite part are isolated from each other, to prevent being consumed by the sprite,

And even if the sprite becomes agitated and takes over control, the memory chip will actively dissolve and self-destruct to prevent stolen intelligence.

In some sense, Ding Zhensi is really just a pendant of the Kui Ox Mecha, mainly responsible for making it move, all other details are handled by the AI...

"Hmm..."

Li Ang looked at the patterns in the crack, rubbed his palms together,

All along, he had been collecting mysterious studies texts in the mall and auction house, and he often browsed forum posts in his free time,

But the content gathered this way is unlikely to be of high quality, even if it's empty talk, it also poses the risk of misleading people due to the ignorance of the text's authors,

It definitely can't compare to the deep understanding of the agents in the Special Affairs Bureau, the Bell Tower, and the Heterodox Academy.

However, his divine power and divine sense can make up for the shortcomings in information collection,

His divine sense quietly swept over the Mage Tower, and the feedback startled Li Ang slightly.

"The death time of the man on the Mage Tower is roughly consistent with Theresa,

And judging from the bone shape, it matches the mural we saw in the Underground Palace, and the contents recorded in Theresa's diary."

Li Ang paused, then slowly said, "This corpse should belong to the short young blonde mage, Solomon, in Theresa's hero team."

David asked in confusion, "Solomon? Who's that?"

Li Ang gave a brief introduction and handed Theresa's diary to David to see if he could find anything from it.

"According to Theresa's description in the diary, Solomon's talent for spells was unparalleled in the world.

He had an innate ability with schools of spells that others could hardly match. He understood at a glance, learned it immediately, although his personality was rather lazy and laid-back, not driven and diligent like other Mages,

But he still received a special-grade mage certificate awarded by the Mage Guild before the age of twenty—only seven people in the history of civilization have had such an honor."

Li Ang casually said, "Hmm... This kind of setup comparable to a Dragon Ao Tian makes me feel like I'm returning to those older fantasy novels over a decade ago, where the protagonist had top-tier affinity with all school elements."

"In other words, he's an extraordinary genius, right."

David drank a bottle of magic potion, causing the charred skin to naturally fall off, then took an identical suit from his backpack and put it on, "Then how did he die here?

And sitting on the Mage Tower, deliberately staying in this space capable of creating fear illusions."

"The Iron Maiden instrument I encountered upon teleporting here, the arm aggregation patrolling each floor, and this Mage Solomon..."

Li Ang squinted his eyes and slowly said, "I feel like Theresa, Solomon,

Didn't want later players to continue climbing the Sacred Mountain and completing the trials?"