Chapter 637: An Anomaly Within, Linked to Deities

No need for the naked eye; the power of the soul has already discerned what happened.

A multitude of monsters surround me, and they launched the first round of attacks at me.

But now they have been driven back by the Headless Knight, leaving casualties everywhere.

Kilometers away, four Fortresses tower.

The Fortresses are arranged in a fan shape, encircling the area.

Each Fortress has a wall, and many monsters stand upon it.

The walls are a hundred meters high; the Fortresses have circulating formations that create protection.

The monsters on the walls are massive, each exceeding ten meters.

Their bodies' energy boils and churns incessantly, and they all unleash long‑range Elemental Attacks.

The Bone Armor shatters so quickly; they are the ones exerting the greatest force.

"The Instance has changed."

"These monsters look like an army."

Jiang Chen immediately detected the anomaly.

Whether the monsters that attack me up close or those stationed in the Fortresses that launch ranged Elemental strikes, their actions seem to be under unified command, not a chaotic rush.

Moreover, the four Fortresses are faintly linked as one, and the elements each Fortress's monsters wield differ.

The leftmost Fortress controls the wind element.

Counting to the right, they are fire, water, and electricity in order.

These four elements are, arguably, the most common among Human Professionals.

Each Fortress controls one element for attack.

It is not a Skill or spell, but the purest Elemental Attack.

This mode of attack reminds Jiang Chen of deities.

Whether Human Race, Demon, or Dragon Race, using elements ultimately requires a Skill to attack.

Only deities, whose very nature differs from other beings, are embodiments of elements and possess absolute control over them.

This also grants them the ability to directly command elements to attack.

Of course, deities can also cast Skills, which can augment elemental destructive power to some extent.

All these thoughts flash through Jiang Chen's mind.

Jiang Chen instinctively feels that the Tianshan God Palace Dungeon should be related to deities.

Under the assault of the Headless Knight and the Skeletons, the monsters are swiftly repelled and eliminated, and a void appears before Jiang Chen.

Elemental attacks from the Fortresses continue unabated.

They persist like cannon shells, repeatedly exploding on Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen disregards their attacks.

If it were another team, such relentless attacks would be immense pressure.

But for Jiang Chen, it feels nothing.

His strength already far exceeds the Instance's limits.

He enters the Instance as if on a tour, strolling around and casually clearing it.

Having long been accustomed to facing powerful foes, grinding this same‑level Instance offers no challenge at all.

In the blink of an eye, the Undead Legion has cleared the monsters outside the Fortresses.

Then, like a tide, they surge into the four Fortresses.

The overwhelming attacks rain on the Fortresses, shaking their shields to the brink of collapse.

The four Fortresses suddenly emit a strong Energy Fluctuation, the Four Elements converging in the air.

For a moment, the sky above fills with dark clouds, raging winds howl, and thunder cracks repeatedly.

Jiang Chen's mouth twitches slightly, "Finally taking action."

He had long sensed that four BOSSes are hidden within the four Fortresses.

The four BOSSes are the Fortresses' commanders.

Only when a Fortress is attacked to a certain degree will they act.

This is an Instance mechanic.

At this moment, as the Fortress's shield is about to collapse, the commander inside finally acts.

The Four Elements gather in the air, their power continuously intensifying.

The power quickly surpasses Level 80, breaking the Instance's ceiling.

This phenomenon leaves Jiang Chen somewhat surprised.

Normally, aside from the final BOSS, the power tier of the Instance midway does not exceed the permitted entry limit.

This is a Level 75 Instance, with an entry cap of Level 80, so besides the final BOSS, the monsters encountered midway have power between Level 75 and Level 80.

But now, just upon entering the Instance, the power cap has already been broken.

Jiang Chen knows that such a tier of power is nothing to him, yet it would be extremely hard for other professionals.

He has once read high‑level data on the Tianshan God Palace Dungeon; although the information is not detailed, it does outline the general situation.

The Instance has three stages, and he is currently in the First Stage.

This stage requires destroying the elemental Fortresses to obtain the key.

"As the name suggests, the high‑tier Instance's difficulty is truly high!"

"For an ordinary team to pass, it is indeed very difficult."

Jiang Chen murmurs.

He didn't realize that what he did differed from the data.

The data only said to destroy the elemental fortress, but actually you just need to pick one of the four and attack a single one.

Others all choose one elemental fortress to attack, only the commander of that one fortress is alerted, and there is never any elemental convergence that would break the instance's power limit.

Jiang Chen, however, attacked all four fortresses at once, alerting the commanders of all four, thereby triggering a mutation.

Gale howls in the instance, the wind becomes Blade, clatter‑clack falling on the Undead Legion.

Thunder roars, electric snakes dance, likewise weaving back and forth over the Undead Legion.

Lightning illuminates the ground, then red‑blue twin beams flash across the sky.

Fire Element and Water Element fall simultaneously.

Fire rain and snowflakes falling together—a scene even Jiang Chen sees for the first time, exceedingly beautiful.

Two opposing elemental attributes collide without merging, a violent explosion erupts as a result.

For a moment, the elements tremble, dazzling the eyes.

Jiang Chen stands there relaxed, as if admiring a beautiful fireworks display.

Having gone through the Dragon King Hall instance and endured the baptism of an elemental dragon, this level of Elemental Attack is trivial, like playing with a child.

The Undead Legion, under elemental onslaught, still maintains a fierce offensive.

The Lich General performs healing, wounds recover in the blink of an eye.

They, like Jiang Chen, ignore the Elemental Attack.

Jiang Chen doesn't even need to summon Ku Lou Wang, nor any other skill assistance.

Relying solely on the Undead Legion itself is enough to push through.

The four fortresses' seemingly sturdy shields, under the Undead Legion's frenzied assault, hold for only a minute before shattering with a boom.

The Undead Legion pounces like feral wolves, swiftly clearing the monsters on the city wall.

The army storms into the fortress interior, beginning to slaughter the commanders.

Jiang Chen strolls leisurely forward; at this point the Undead Legion, unless it meets a tough opponent, requires no concern from him about how to fight.

He only needs to wait for the outcome.

In no time, the elemental smoke gathered in the sky dissipates.

Jiang Chen also receives a message.

"Kill a level‑78 Wind Commander, EXP +2200000000"

"Obtain Wind Key"

"Wind Key: one of the four Elemental Keys; at least one key is required to unlock the instance's Third Stage."

"Kill a level‑78 Fire Commander, EXP +1900000000"

"Obtain Fire Key"

Messages keep popping up, Jiang Chen obtains four keys.

The four elemental Fortresses fall completely silent; when the Undead Legion leaves, the Fortresses collapse amid a roar, turning into ruins.

Jiang Chen also passes the Fortress at this moment, continuing forward along the instance's road.

Looking up, he sees the Tianshan peak.

Above the peak, shrouded in mist, a faintly visible exquisite grand palace looms.

Tianshan God Palace, the instance's name derives from it.

Beyond the elemental Fortresses lies the mountain‑climbing path; from here the instance truly begins.

Jiang Chen gazes at the mountain, the Tianshan main peak inside the instance gives him a sense of vitality, alive.

Unlike the outside world's Tianshan main peak, which is dead and stagnant.

He felt this when he first entered the Tianshan God Palace instance.

At that time they all doubted that the instance's peak was the true Tianshan main peak.

Now Jiang Chen is even more certain of his feeling.

There are countless legends about the Tianshan Mountain, whether in his past life from a transmigration or in the then Shenlong Empire, all speak of Tianshan Mountain.

In his past life it was said Tianshan is the ancestor of all mountains, the source of the world's dragon veins.

Here, Tianshan is likewise mysterious and mighty; it is said that many deities were nurtured within, once forming the Tianshan Hall of Ten Thousand Gods.

Jiang Chen doesn't believe the Ten Thousand Gods tale, but given the towering Tianshan Mountains, the emergence of a few to a dozen deities is entirely possible.

Soul power flows within the instance, gradually seeping into the Tianshan main peak.

Jiang Chen is very interested, wanting to uncover everything.

Perhaps from this he can unravel the mystery of that past upheaval.