Every moment requires the expenditure of extra power to resist the omnipresent purification and repulsion force, causing movements to become sluggish and energy operations to be sluggish, severely impacting the effectiveness of non-Light Element magic or even causing self-harm.

This environmental suppression is continuous and widespread, making any non-Light Element explorers struggle, their strength inexplicably reduced by several folds.

Secondly, there’s the roving scavengers, the Light Energy Guards.

Duke’s gaze captured them, these guards silently floated between the crumbling streets and fallen halls, their movement paths seeming random, but subtly patrolling around the core area.

Their attack method is simple yet deadly; once they perceive unauthorized life energy or energy fluctuations, they instantly transform into a scorching arrow of light during the attack.

This attack carries powerful purification and dispersion properties, causing terrifying damage to opposing attributes like darkness, shadow, and undead, and even against neutral or other elemental attributes, it can lead to significant energy annihilation effects.

The high resistance to physical and elemental attacks mentioned by players also stems from this. These guards are essentially energy bodies, making physical attacks largely ineffective.

Ordinary elemental attacks like fireballs, ice arrows, wind blades, etc., when hitting them, most of the energy will be assimilated or dispersed by the dense surrounding Light Energy Field, yielding minimal results.

Unless the attack energy significantly exceeds that of the guards themselves, or using an opposing attribute to create a temporary flaw, it’s incredibly difficult to effectively damage them.

What’s even more troubling is that they seem to be able to slowly recover through the Light Energy in the environment, or after being scattered, coalesce again not far away.

The interior of the ruins is not an easy path; huge broken columns, collapsed domes, deep fissures, and ground twisted by energy create a complex terrain.

Under Duke’s clear perception, the reason players and Four Gods Sect explorers struggle is apparent.

They are pressing forward against continuous environmental oppression, avoiding or enduring high-efficiency energy guards, exploring dangerous ancient ruins, advancing towards the core with difficulty.

Every step consumes significant energy, each encounter battle may result in losses, and the lack of intelligence leaves them like blind men trying to describe an elephant.

Duke’s attention finally turned to the center of the ruins.

There lies a relatively intact, circular altar built with giant white stones, towering high with its surface engraved full of complex, mysterious ancient runes flowing like liquid golden light.

Directly above the altar, in the void, floats the Light Seed that stirs the wind and clouds.

Of course, it hasn’t been fully confirmed that this is the Light Seed.

But based on current observations, it closely resembles the descriptions in the Light Sect’s texts.

In Duke’s perception through Divine Status, it’s not a simple ball of light, but a pure gold-colored multi-faced crystal undergoing subtle contraction and expansion.

Countless fine golden threads extended from the crystal’s interior connecting subtly to the runes on the altar and even to the entire ruin’s ley lines.

Each pulse seems like a deep breath, absorbing, purifying, and releasing purer original waves of energy, maintaining the vitality of the entire ruin’s Energy Field.

The sheer size and purity of the Light Element’s essence inside make Duke’s soul resonate with desire from its Divine Status.

Duke stood for a long time at the hill’s edge, merging into the backdrop like a rock. Underneath his hood, his gaze calmly scanned the chaotic scene at the ruins’ perimeter.

The occasional elemental magic lights rising from the Four Gods Sect camps, the increasingly intense friction and minor skirmishes in player gathering areas, and Robert’s elites unintentionally creating misunderstandings with other guild players, or carelessly leaking vague intelligence about weaknesses in the Four Gods Sect’s camp, sparking more chaotic flames silently.

Chaos is the best cover.

After confirming that external attention had been sufficiently attracted and dispersed, Duke’s figure quietly retreated from the hill’s edge like a fading shadow, disappearing into the shadow of the charred mountains in a few bounds.

He didn’t head towards any forces’ gathering direction, but circled the ruins’ light membrane from the perimeter, traversing the rugged northwestern foothills where people were scarce.

There’s the extension of the Ash Mountains, with jagged rocks and a hardened ground, almost devoid of vegetation, far from the main monitoring direction of the players and sect.

Duke stopped behind a massive, lightning-scorched black rock, his perception spreading to confirm there were no life energies within hundreds of meters around.

He crouched, placing his palm gently on the scorching, rough ground. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

A Heart Thought moved, and where skin met earth, a subtle dark golden glow closely resembling the surrounding scorched earth shimmered.

With High-Level Earth Element Affinity, combined with the fine control from his Talent, gave him an underground walking ability far surpassing ordinary Earth Element Wizards.

Duke’s body began to sink slowly, not violently breaking the surface but as if the rocks and soil beneath had gained life, gently parted and flowed, opening a passage just wide enough for one person, then silently sealing above his head.

No vibration, no sound, not even a ripple of excess energy was released perfectly.

He vanished like a drop of water into the sea beneath the charred surface instantly.

The underground wasn’t pure darkness; remnants of weak fire element embers lingered in the scorched earth, outlining vague shapes.

Like a fish swimming fluently in the dense strata, Duke advanced.

He moved with eyes closed, purely relying on the perception of earth element flow and a clear sense of direction in his mind, heading with resolve toward the area directly beneath the ruin’s light membrane.

The closer he got to the light membrane’s coverage area, the more active the energy within the strata became.

The pristine Light Element aura was unmistakably distinct even through the thick earth.

Soon, Duke sensed the existence of a barrier within the strata ahead.

The faint golden light membrane did not just envelop the surface but deeply rooted into the earth, forming an almost perfect hemispherical seal to physically and energetically isolate the ruins from the outside.

In Duke’s earth element perception, the soil structure ahead remained continuous, but its nature had changed completely.

Highly activated, pure Light Element energy soaked and solidified it, integrating it with the light membrane, becoming incredibly resilient, comparable to the most precise energy-solidified metal.

Ordinary earth tunneling magic would slam against this earthly light membrane, being fiercely bounced back, possibly triggering a backlash from the barrier.

Duke paused, floating within the soil just meters from the root of the light source.

He reached out, his fingertips lightly touching the scorched earth in front, seemingly indistinguishable from its surroundings.

The touch was cold and solid, an unseen strong Light Repulsion Force flowed within, refusing any unauthorized penetration.

Duke’s spirit submerged into the Spiritual Sea, where the platinum-colored Divine Status of the God of Light was slowly activated, a thread of incredibly pure light source aura flowed along his arm to his fingertip.

At the instant this essence touched the root of the light membrane, the hard, repulsive Light Element solidified soil behavior, melted like ice under the sun, and like subjects greeting their king, transforming instantly into something soft and compliant.

That mighty repulsion force disintegrated and was replaced by a gentle acceptance.

The soil before Duke’s fingertips silently parted, forming a stable passage edged with faint gold halos, penetrating straight through the theoretically impenetrable underground light membrane.

Divine Status — the highest-level pass of this world.

Without hesitation, Duke glided forward, easily passing through the tunnel and entering the underground area within the light membrane.

The passage behind him sealed silently once he was fully inside, reverting to the original robust layer of Light Element soil as if it was never breached.

Within the underground, the feeling was entirely different.

Instead of residue of the scorching fire element embers in the soil, there was warm, pure Light Element energy.

The pulse of the ley lines and the pulse from the Light Seed at the core above were subtly synchronized, forming a large and precise energy circulation network.