Chapter 309

"Wait..." Zhang Cheng suddenly grabbed the Nebula Sage's arm, his expression grave, "Do you feel... the surrounding air has become... viscous?"

The Nebula Sage pushed up his glasses, his brows locked in a frown: "Indeed, some kind of energy fluctuation is increasing rapidly, my central processor is about to burn up!"

Everyone sat around in the pile of treasure, like a group of hungry wolves staring at fat meat, excited light flashing in their eyes.

Golden coins shining, dazzling gems, strangely shaped antiques... this wave is simply a huge profit!

"The star map on this stone slab has disappeared!" The Star Spirit Scholar pointed to the stone slab that originally had the star map and exclaimed; now it was empty, as if nothing had happened.

"Replaced by this line of words: 'The secret of the stars is about to be revealed...' This is too childish!" The Light Messenger complained.

Just when everyone was discussing, a powerful mental force slammed into their minds, as if someone were holding an electric drill to drill their heads, hurting them so much they fled holding their heads.

"Damn! What's going on? My head is about to explode!" The Interstellar Knight covered his head, feeling his brains were about to be squeezed out.

"Ah ah ah! My beautiful face!" The Light Messenger screamed in pain, as if this mental attack would ruin her face.

Zhang Cheng endured the intense pain, gritting his teeth: "Everyone be careful! There is some kind of mental defense mechanism hidden in the treasure!"

The Blue Star merchant covered his head, his face pale, but his eyes flickered, staring greedily at the treasure: "This... this is testing us! Whoever... whoever can hold on, can... can enjoy this secret alone!"

He stumbled toward the center of the treasure, trying to touch a crystal ball emitting a strange light.

"Stop!" Zhang Cheng shouted sternly, "This thing is very dangerous, we should study it together!"

"Nonsense!" The Blue Star merchant pushed Zhang Cheng away, "I contributed a lot, why should I share with you? This treasure is mine!"

Zhang Cheng's eyes turned cold: "You..."

The Blue Star merchant grabbed the crystal ball and laughed wildly: "Hahaha! The secret of the stars is mine!"

Just as he finished speaking, the crystal ball shone brightly, and an even more powerful mental force erupted... The Blue Star merchant finished speaking, the crystal ball shone brightly, and an even more powerful mental force poured out like a broken dam, rushing straight at everyone's foreheads.

"Damn! Going to be cool!" The Interstellar Knight yelled, about to be turned into a fool by this mental shockwave.

At the critical moment, the Nebula Sage shouted: "Everyone don't panic, this old man has already seen through everything!" He saw his hands waving rapidly in the air, blue light erupting from his fingertips, instantly forming a semi-transparent energy shield, shrouding everyone in it.

"Small tricks, dare to show off in front of an expert?" The Nebula Sage's mouth curled slightly, looking like an expert from the outside world.

This shield was indeed awesome; the mental shockwave hit it like an egg hitting a stone, instantly collapsing.

Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the Nebula Sage with admiration.

"Sage awesome!" "666!" Praises sounded one after another.

However, before everyone could recover, the surrounding space suddenly twisted, revealing countless energy phantoms flashing with deep green light.

These phantoms had various shapes, some like beasts, some like ghosts, letting out hair-raising roars, lunging at everyone.

"Damn! What ghost thing is this?" The Interstellar Knight yelled, grabbing the energy sword in his hand and charging up.

"Eat my move, Galaxy Slash!" A dazzling sword light flashed, but it passed directly through the phantom, as if cutting into the air.

And the phantom took the opportunity to counterattack, slapping the Interstellar Knight on the chest, sending him flying.

"Ouch, playing dirty, right!" The Interstellar Knight rubbed his chest, looking depressed.

Seeing this, the starship captain immediately directed the warriors to change tactics.

"Use energy nets! Trap them!" The warriors fired energy nets one after another, trying to trap the phantoms.

However, these energy nets passed through like air, having no effect on the phantoms.

Just when everyone was at a loss, those originally scattered phantoms suddenly began to converge, as if attracted by some force, gathering toward the center point... "Not good! They are..." The Nebula Sage's expression changed drastically.

"They are merging! Stop them!" Zhang Cheng shouted, drawing the high-frequency vibration knife from his back, the blade emitting a buzzing vibration.

He jumped up, shooting toward the center of the energy vortex like an arrow from a bow.

"Eat my enhanced version of Lightning Five-Chain Whip!" The blade light was like electricity, so fast it was hard to capture with the naked eye, hacking fiercely at the energy vortex.

"Boom!"

With a loud noise, the energy vortex shook violently, and the merging process was interrupted for a moment.

However, this was just a drop in the bucket.

Those phantoms rushed forward like moths to a flame, quickly filling the gap Zhang Cheng had hacked open.

The vortex spun faster, radiating an even more terrifying pressure.

"Damn, this thing is like it opened a cheat!" The Interstellar Knight crawled up from the ground holding his chest, unable to help but complain.

He felt his internal organs had been shifted by that blow just now.

Just when everyone was about to despair, the Star Spirit Scholar suddenly shouted: "I know! The energy of these phantoms comes from the surrounding space fluctuations! As long as we interfere with the space fluctuations, we can weaken their power!"

Saying this, he took out a strangely shaped instrument from his backpack, covered in strange glowing runes.

"Activate! Space Stabilizer!" The Star Spirit Scholar pressed the start button, the instrument emitted a buzzing sound, and visible energy ripples spread out; the surrounding space seemed like a calm lake surface hit by a stone, rippling with layers of waves.

That giant energy monster seemed to be suppressed by some force, its body flickering, and the originally violent energy fluctuations gradually weakened.

"Effective! Increase power!" Seeing this, Zhang Cheng felt his spirits lift, waving the high-frequency vibration knife again, hacking fiercely at the energy monster.

With the power of the space stabilizer continuously increasing, the energy monster's form became more and more blurred, as if it would dissipate at any moment.

"Just now!" Light flashed in the Light Messenger's hand, and a holy light shrouded the Interstellar Knight.

"Holy Light Healing!"

"Ah... comfortable..." The Interstellar Knight groaned, feeling his body filled with power.

He jumped up from the ground with a carp leap, grabbed his energy sword, and prepared to join the battle.

However, just then... "Wait! Something's happening!" The Nebula Sage suddenly changed his expression, his gaze fixed dead on the back of the energy monster...

The Nebula Sage pointed behind the energy monster, his voice trembling: "What ghost thing is that?!"

Everyone followed his finger and looked, only to see that the originally empty space had actually cracked a pitch-black gap, like a giant eye opened in the universe, radiating hair-raising coldness.

The gap grew larger, and a viscous black liquid surged out from it, wriggling like a living thing, emitting a hair-raising "hissing" sound.

"Holy crap! This thing is even more disgusting than the last one!" The Interstellar Knight covered his nose, nearly vomiting.

"Stop talking nonsense! Prepare for battle!" Zhang Cheng's expression was grave, the high-frequency vibration knife buzzing, ready to fight at any time.

The Light Messenger took care of the injured Interstellar Knight on the side, gently wiping the sweat from his forehead, her eyes full of worry.

"Are you okay?"

The Knight looked at her gentle gaze, a warm current surging in his heart, "Fine, small injury, won't die." He grinned, wanting to act relaxed, but his face was still a bit pale.

Just when everyone was waiting in full battle array, the black liquid suddenly stopped surging, as if blocked by something.

Immediately after, the pitch-black gap began to close slowly, eventually disappearing without a trace, as if it had never appeared.

"What's going on? That's it?" The Interstellar Knight looked bewildered, feeling like he was watching a sci-fi movie with a bad ending.

However, as the monster dissipated completely, the place it had occupied revealed a star map flashing with strange light.

On the star map, countless interstellar coordinates were densely marked, like a mysterious map leading to the depths of the universe.

The Star Spirit Scholar walked up, observing the star map closely, his brows locked in a frown.

"These coordinates... I've never seen them before, the places they point to... are full of unknowns."

"Unknown? Unknown is good! Exciting!" The Interstellar Knight rubbed his hands excitedly, "Grandpa has long wanted to explore places no one has been to!"

Zhang Cheng looked at the star map and fell into deep thought.

What exactly do these coordinates represent?

Is it treasure?

Is it a trap?

Or... a bigger secret?

Suddenly, he noticed a coordinate flashing with red light in the corner of the star map, appearing particularly eye-catching.

He reached out and touched that coordinate; the star map instantly enlarged, showing a pitch-black star region, and in the center of that star region, it was a giant black vortex...

"This... what place is this?" Zhang Cheng muttered to himself.

"Not good!" The Nebula Sage's expression changed drastically, "This is... the legendary 'Divine Ghost Killing Arena'!"

Zhang Cheng raised his head abruptly, his gaze like electricity, "Divine Ghost Killing Arena?! The forbidden land where even Star Gods have fallen?!"

The Nebula Sage nodded heavily.

"Go! Let's go see!" Zhang Cheng flashed a hint of determination in his eyes and turned toward the starship.

"Wait!" The Light Messenger called him, "Are you really going? It's too dangerous there!"

Zhang Cheng looked back at her, his eyes firm, "I must go! Some secrets must be solved!"

He stepped onto the starship resolutely, leaving only a tall back.

The Star Spirit Scholar looked at the star map, then at Zhang Cheng's distant back, sighed, and whispered: "Hopefully... he can come back alive..."