The Ultimate Divine Class-Chapter 423 - 346: Netherworld River Armor, Monarch, Sickle Harvesting_1
Under the fiery-golden dome of the sky, the lush, verdant primordial forest resembled a vast azure ocean. Smoky-blue mist flowed soundlessly, presenting a scene of ancient, tranquil wilderness.
Deep in the dense forest, two figures, one tall and one short, skimmed close to the ground as they flew.
Shifting blue squares covered more than half of one figure’s face, and a mechanical-electronic eye floated outside its socket, emitting a hazy blue glow. Much of his body had a metallic sheen, its surface constantly lit up with virtual characters and the glow of energy transfer.
The other figure was completely enveloped in lead-grey exoskeleton armor, entirely obscuring their build and appearance.
The two moved slowly, clearly exercising extreme caution.
They took turns clearing potential hidden dangers ahead.
After traveling some distance, one of them stopped to recharge his exoskeleton armor. His protective face mask opened, and he sighed in relief. "We’re so lucky. We haven’t encountered any significant dangers so far, but we’ve reaped considerable rewards."
The other didn’t relax their guard, replying while scanning their surroundings, "Pioneering a Secret Realm is like that. When it’s tough, one wrong step can mean death; when it’s smooth, it’s like a walk in the park... This is the Deep Fog Area, after all. We can’t afford to be careless."
"I know."
Once his gear was recharged and adjusted, the first speaker casually asked, "What’s your Ash Value now? Made it into the top one hundred?"
"Let me see... Probably not. Still a bit short."
His companion was about to answer when suddenly...
WHOOSH—
A wind suddenly gusted through the forest.
The wind blew from the path ahead, carrying a faint, dry heat, yet it was filled with the stench of rot and decay.
It was like the smell of wood rotting and weathering into fine dust scattered in the air.
The two who had been chatting suddenly tensed. They exchanged a look, their expressions tightening, then simultaneously rose high into the air above the vast, layered forest canopy.
"It’s coming from that direction!"
One of them pinpointed the source, and both looked towards it.
Before them in the forest, it was as if a black sea was pouring in reverse.
A colossal, ring-shaped black wave roared upwards, surging towards them.
Wherever it passed, swathes of dark green forest were devoured by the blackness. Within the forest, countless ancient trees rotted and collapsed, flowers and grass turning to ash... as if all vitality was being consumed and plundered by the black tide.
The two figures hovering in mid-air stared blankly at this scene, utterly unsure what was happening.
Before they could fully recover from the shock, one of them, his eyes suddenly focused, pointed to the center of the surging black tide and blurted out, "What is that?!"
There, a vast shadow was slowly rising, as if something was about to break through the surface.
The two stared intently at that spot, trying to understand the cause of it all.
Finally, their pupils contracted sharply as they made out what was rising from the surging black sea—
It was an unbelievably enormous black crow.
Its aura was frigid, its form terrifying. Countless eyes, large and small, grew upon its head.
Each eye radiated endless desolation and deathly stillness.
It appeared from within the black sea of death, like a cataclysmic disaster poised to bring decay and ruin to the entire world...
"Ah... ah... ah..."
The two witnesses were already consumed by terror and panic. A profound chill, originating from their very souls, welled up from the depths of their hearts, instantly spreading throughout their bodies.
Their necks felt as if constricted by an invisible hand, and they couldn’t utter a single clear syllable.
Finally remembering to flee, they spun around and desperately sprinted back the way they had come...
「...」
A deep valley.
A valley entirely engulfed by darkness.
The Fly Shuttle and the cannon ceased their thunderous rumbles. The Mecha remained suspended in the air. The conflict had stopped.
All the explorers gazed blankly at the scene, their expressions bewildered. Those of Phoenix descent fell to their knees in fear, their lips muttering as if in ceaseless prayer.
They saw countless streams of Death Qi, coalescing into surging tides, rush skyward, filling the sky, toppling trees, and shaking the valley.
The Hundred-eyed Dark Crow, large enough to completely shroud the sky above the valley, floated silently. Its wings spread wide, and lightning-like strands of black Death Qi rained down...
It was a terrifying scene, as if doomsday had arrived.
In the center of this terror, a slender, imposing figure hovered quietly.
Deep black heavy armor, adorned with intricate patterns.
Three pairs of exquisite, magnificent wings with a span of over fifteen meters.
A long cloak of Death Qi, like satin, billowed without wind.
Above his head hovered the Dharma of a colossal, frigid, fully manifested Hundred-Eyed Dark Crow. His chest displayed a black vortex, from which endless Death Qi gushed out.
He perfectly merged with the pervasive aura of desolation and decay in this space. From his commanding height, beneath a crystal-sheened mask, a pair of indifferent eyes calmly surveyed everyone in the valley.
It was like... a Monarch, inspecting every subject of his domain.
The Monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherworld.
"What is... this power?" someone murmured in a daze amidst the deathly silence.
The murmur broke the silence, and in an instant, many people recovered from their astounded daze.
No commands were needed. In an instant—
Every single Fly Shuttle, Mecha, and augmented expert in the valley opened fire simultaneously.
Their aim was naturally in the same direction.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Countless energy beams, orbs of energy, and rays crossed paths in mid-air, forming a dazzling curtain of rain.
The super-powered engines of the three Earth Level Mechas roared like savage, ancient beasts.
The raptor-like Mecha spread its wings and, with a slight tremor, unleashed swarms of dark cyan energy blades that tore through the air, forming small cyan torrents that surged forth.
The beast-type Mecha opened its maw, spewing a plasma energy beam several meters thick.
The warrior-type Mecha wielded oversized alloy twin blades. Its frame vibrated at high frequency, and with a flicker, two searing, crimson blade trails lingered in the sky...
The mass of energy attacks converged into a terrifying torrent of energy, melting away large swathes of air within the valley.
In the blink of an eye, the slender figure in magnificent heavy armor at the heart of the battlefield was completely engulfed.
This volley lasted for nearly half a minute.
When the barrage ceased and the light from the energy beams dissipated, everyone stared wide-eyed and intently at the center of the conflict, their nerves stretched taut.
Half a breath later, the turbulence subsided. The distorted, blurry void calmed and cleared, revealing the scene at the center of the battle...
"Huh?!"
Everyone’s pupils contracted abruptly, followed by a moment of stupefied silence.
A pair of massive, crossed Nether Crow wings slowly unfurled.
Beneath the wings, the figure in Monarch Heavy Armor stood unscathed. The eyes beneath his crystalline mask remained calm, his noble and composed demeanor unchanged from the start.
ROAR!
A bestial roar abruptly shattered the silence of the field.
A figure streaked across the sky, its five-meter-tall form rapidly swelling to seven meters in mid-air.
Rows of serrated blades emerged from beneath its body; its originally faint-red silver threads turned completely blood-red.
This terrifying figure, like a Blade Demon, carried an overwhelming aura of violent bloodlust as it lunged at supersonic speed towards the figure in Netherworld River Armor.
The latter merely lifted his eyelids slightly, then raised an arm and swung it levelly...
SWISH—
A thin black line quietly appeared in the sky.
The black line rapidly expanded, forming a pitch-black crescent that spread out instantly.
There was no sound.
And no warning whatsoever.
The blood-red Demon, originally charging at supersonic speed, abruptly slowed... slowed... After continuing forward a short distance due to inertia, its terrifying, massive body silently split into upper and lower halves, which then fell from the sky.
HISS—
In the silent field, the members of the exploration team trembled violently, their eyes so wide they nearly tore at the corners, followed by gasps of cold air, one after another.
The three Earth Level Mechas also froze in mid-air. Inside their cockpits were three pilots, their movements arrested, their faces etched with terror.
"Sir... Sir Heinz... but he’s Rank Six?!"
Casually bisecting the troublesome chestnut-haired man with a single strike, the eyes of the figure in Netherworld River Armor showed no trace of emotion.
It was as if, to him, this was merely swatting an annoying fly, not eradicating an expert who had reached Rank Six.
He casually glanced around, then spoke calmly.
"Apocalyptic Crow..."
He lifted his arm for the second time.
Seeing this movement, the many experts of the exploration team in the valley, the Fly Shuttles, and even the three Earth Level Mechas felt their scalps tighten intensely. Almost without hesitation, they turned to flee.
Unfortunately, that arm had already fallen, accompanied by an indifferent voice from beneath the crystalline mask.
"Reap."
A black line, even larger than the one that had obliterated Heinz, spread out flatly.
Pitch-black and smooth.
Like an invisible, colossal scythe, it silently swept viciously across the midline of space.
The black gleam flashed and vanished.
Immediately following... they saw—
Within the vast valley, the energy shields around the many experts of the Modification System, the combat Fly Shuttles, and the Mechas all flared with an extremely dazzling light.
But this light lasted only for an instant before flickering out like candles in the wind.
Then, numerous figures, Mechas, and Fly Shuttles... engines sputtering, swayed and tumbled towards the ground below like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
The sky above the crowded valley was instantly cleared.
The figure in Netherworld River Armor opened his palm, and several deep-red crystal fragments from the valley floor flew up to him.
Having done all this, his broad, black six wings flapped. He turned and flew high into the sky, vanishing into the vast expanse in an instant.
「Meanwhile.」
At the entrance to the Secret Realm, in a certain conference room, twenty-seven leaders seated at a long, circular metal table stared fixedly at the light screen before them, lapsing into collective silence.
「...」
WHOOSH—
His broad six wings, spanning over ten meters, stirred a desolate wind, causing the azure forest waves below to churn violently. Under the intense corrosion of Death Qi, vast numbers of deep green leaves rapidly yellowed, then withered, completely decomposing into muck before even touching the ground.
A figure in magnificent and imposing heavy armor stepped down from the sky, treading on air.
As his feet lightly touched the ground, the armor on his body, the long, narrow cape behind him, and the crystalline mask on his face disintegrated inch by inch, transforming into dense black smoke that swiftly dissipated, finally revealing Lu Yuan’s pale, handsome face.
Lu Yuan closed his eyes. The Blood Pill in his chest rotated gently, his qi and blood surging like a tide.
The grievous wound on his abdomen immediately began to heal at a visible rate, quickly restoring to its original state.
The injuries on my body are fine, and my Spiritual Power is only slightly overdrawn, but...
Lu Yuan reached up to touch his chest, sensing that the Feather of the Hundred-Eyed Dark Crow hidden within his body was now dim, showing no fluctuations.
It looked... as if its energy had been completely drained, appearing listless.
Surely not? I just drew upon its power a bit more deeply. After absorbing so much Death Qi back in the Lament Ruins, it can’t have dropped from Legendary Level just from this little use...
Lu Yuan tried to probe the Feather of the Hundred-Eyed Dark Crow with his Spiritual Power again.
Fortunately, it still responded to his consciousness.
The Death Qi stored within had indeed been heavily consumed, but a considerable amount still remained.
It could probably support him for about three more battles at the intensity he had displayed in the valley.
