Chapter 262: The Outsider

Roar!

A deafening roar echoed across the heavens and earth, making even the ground tremble faintly.

Black smoke billowed as the massive creature within finally halted its steps. It stared at the ancient glowing characters suspended in the void, and within its blood-red pupils, fear and fury began to surface.

It was precisely this power that had sealed it within these mountains.

It had originally assumed that with the passage of time, this power would have weakened, but from the looks of it now, it still would not tolerate its defiance.

Its blood-red beast pupils glanced resentfully into the distance, where that human possessing dual aspects stood. He was so weak — if only it could charge over, it could devour him in an instant.

When that time came, it could use this to touch upon the power of dual aspects, which would be of tremendous help in reaching that bottleneck.

But this short distance was made untraversable by the ancient characters radiating a mysterious, oppressive might in midair.

Roar!

It felt extremely unwilling. Pawing the ground in place, its tremendous force caused the earth to quake, but in the end, it still did not dare to provoke that power.

Or rather, it did not dare to provoke the master of that power.

That was an existence it could not contend against.

Within its somewhat chaotic, frenzied memories, it had once glimpsed the master of those ancient characters. At the time, it had only caught a distant glimpse, yet that alone had filled it with an inexplicable dread.

In the end, after rampaging briefly through the mountains, the vast black smoke turned around and departed, finally vanishing once more into the boundless mountain range.

Clearly, it had still chosen to retreat.

And as this Heaven-General-grade spirit beast departed, the ancient characters in midair slowly descended, finally transforming into a streak of light that shot toward the peak of that mountain from before.

Outside the Dark Spirit Pool, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, that spirit beast couldn't break free of the seal the Dean had left behind. Otherwise, today they would have had no choice but to abandon their cultivation at the Dark Spirit Pool and flee for their lives.

Li Luo also quietly let out a breath. If that spirit beast had truly broken out, the unluckiest one would likely be him — after all, there was an eighty percent chance it had come for him.

And a spirit beast whose strength had reached the peak of the Heaven-General stage — even among the students of the Sacred Origin Star Academy, even the Seven-Star Pillars might not necessarily be able to contend against it.

The strongest on his side was Jiang Qing'e, but right now she was only at the mid Earth-Fiend General stage, the Fiend Body realm — there was still an enormous gap between her and that spirit beast in the forbidden zone.

So the current situation was the best possible outcome.

"Fortunately that spirit beast didn't break out, otherwise today this place would probably be swimming in blood," Tian Tian said with a solemn expression.

Senior Qiu Bai nodded gravely. If this spirit beast were converted into an Other rank, it would be a Great Calamity-grade... and an Other of this level shouldn't appear on the outskirts of this Dark Cavern.

Even a Four-Star House squad encountering a Great Calamity-grade Other would have only one option — run!

"The Dean is truly amazing. Just a single character he left behind was enough to intimidate a Heaven-General-grade spirit beast." Li Luo gazed at the mountain peak that had returned to calm in the distance, a look of longing on his face.

"Within that character lies a wisp of the Dean's will. One might even say it possesses a certain spirituality... The level of a King-tier powerhouse is beyond what you and I can fathom. That is the pinnacle of power in this world."

Jiang Qing'e offered an explanation. Her clear golden eyes were likewise fixed on the distant mountain peak. She pressed her red lips together and said softly, in a voice only the two of them could hear: "But one day, you and I will definitely reach that level."

"Why are you dragging me into this?" Li Luo couldn't help but laugh.

"Not everyone can be like you — a ninth-grade Light Aspect, sweeping aside everything."

A smile surfaced in Jiang Qing'e's eyes as she said, "Your dual aspects aren't exactly simple either... And, for some reason, I keep having this premonition that your limit doesn't seem to end there."

Being gazed at by those eyes of Jiang Qing'e's, Li Luo couldn't help feeling a little guilty. This big white goose's perception was truly too sharp — dual aspects were indeed not his limit...

The day he stepped into the Worship-General stage, even Marquis-tier powerhouses would likely be shaken beyond words.

What was the power of dual aspects...

Have you ever seen the Three-Aspect Palace at the Worship-General stage?!

"Let's go. Our cultivation at the Dark Spirit Pool ends here. Next, we'll begin tackling the Tier-2 Purification Towers." Jiang Qing'e didn't say much more on the subject, shifting her tone as she spoke.

Li Luo, Bai Bai Mengmeng, and Student Xin Fu heard this, and their spirits immediately lifted, a hint of eagerness gleaming in their eyes.

Compared to those Tier-1 Purification Towers, the Tier-2 ones were far more difficult. It was said that White-Erosion-grade Others roamed within, and Red-Erosion-grade Others were also plentiful. Most importantly, in some heavily polluted Tier-2 Purification Towers, Calamity-grade Others might be born.

That was strength equivalent to the General stage. Others of this level could only be cleared by the Black Swan Squad.

Li Luo and the others certainly wouldn't be overambitious enough to seek trouble with Calamity-grade Others, but with Li Luo's strength having surged to the third pattern of the Pattern-Birth Stage this time, their squad should now be able to fully contend head-on against all White-Erosion-grade Others, and even some of the weaker Red-Erosion-grade Others — with thorough preparation, it wasn't impossible to give them a try.

Jiang Qing'e took out a map, her slender jade finger pointing at several Tier-2 Purification Towers that gradually extended toward the far reaches of this region — this was the route they would be advancing along.

The final point on this route...

Li Luo's gaze looked toward the even more distant crimson small-tower marker — that was a Tier-3 Purification Tower.

If they could conquer this Purification Tower, then their purification mission in this Dark Cavern would be considered to have perfectly completed one stage.

This was a great mountain shrouded in thick black fog.

The black fog within the mountain was like a clammy moisture, these mists sliding down along withered leaves, slowly dripping, releasing boundless chill.

From within the black fog, eerie whispers continuously emanated.

From time to time, bizarre figures darted through the black fog, followed by eruptions of malice power. Amidst piercing shrieks, eerie creatures tore at each other, devouring one another.

Deep within the mountain.

There was a ground piled with heaps of white bones.

At the center of the white bones stood a chair of flesh and blood. The flesh squirmed, and at this moment, coiled upon the flesh-and-blood bone chair was a shadow roughly several zhang in size.

That figure was extraordinarily bizarre. Its body seemed to be a centipede composed of flesh and blood, with arms of flesh swaying unconsciously, yet atop its body sat a head identical to a human's.

This human-headed centipede Other radiated an extremely terrifying power of malice — this was an Other whose strength had reached the Earth Calamity grade!

It coiled upon the flesh-and-blood bone chair, its six cold, violent eyes fixed upon the white bone plaza ahead, where many Others were devouring one another, assembling amid shrieks into monstrous Others that made one's hair stand on end at a single glance.

However, as these Others continued devouring and reassembling, the human-headed centipede Other upon the flesh-and-blood bone chair suddenly opened its mouth. That mouth expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye, occupying most of its face.

The mouth inhaled, black qi billowing, directly sweeping up the Others in the field and swallowing them in one gulp. As its ghastly-white sharp teeth chewed, piercing sounds emerged from within.

Black liquid flowed down from the corners of its mouth.

After finishing this wave of Others, the human-headed centipede Other let out a sharp screech from its mouth — it was driving the other Others in this place to continue coming here to devour one another.

However, after the screech was emitted, the human-headed centipede suddenly noticed that no other Others appeared.

This enraged the human-headed centipede somewhat. It was the king of this region — how dare these lowly creatures ignore its command?

The Human-Headed Centipede's flesh-and-blood body propped itself up, and dense, viscous power of malice churned like rolling waves—it intended to go out and clear away all these disobedient low-level creatures nearby.

Hee hee!

However, just as it was about to move, a burst of playful laughter suddenly rang out, and that laughter caused the black qi of malice all over the Human-Headed Centipede aberration to roll violently.

An indescribable pressure enveloped its body.

Fear rose in the Human-Headed Centipede aberration's heart. It understood this feeling, because when it had previously devoured other aberrations, those aberrations had been just like this—like livestock awaiting slaughter, completely suppressed.

This was... the appearance of an aberration higher than it!

The Human-Headed Centipede slowly lowered its head, only to see the ground writhing at this moment, gradually forming a smiling face. The corners of the smiling face's mouth split extremely wide, dark and gloomy within, as if leading to some unknown place.

And that smiling face seemed to exude a strange magical power, causing the Human-Headed Centipede to abandon all resistance. Then, moving its flesh-and-blood body bit by bit, it willingly crawled into the smiling face's great mouth.