Chapter 554: Empty City

As the many probing gazes from the mountain forest all withdrew, the Eldest Princess finally looked away, then turned her phoenix eyes toward Li Luo and said with a smile, "Li Luo, you really rendered great service this time."

"If you hadn't seized Jing Jing Taixu in time to use as leverage, I'm afraid I would have had to clash head-on with Lan Lan today, and the outcome would be hard to predict."

Li Luo said somewhat helplessly, "You're too unyielding. If it really wasn't working out, we could have actually taken a step back. You're the captain—if you were to fall here, then we'd have no chance at all."

Earlier, when the Eldest Princess clashed with Lan Lan, she had clearly intended to take Lan Lan's "Ming Wang San Bai" head-on, and such a collision was no child's play—once something went wrong, it would inevitably mean elimination.

And if even the captain, the Eldest Princess, were eliminated, the points they had on hand would essentially be useless.

Hearing this, the Eldest Princess glared at Li Luo with her phoenix eyes and snorted coldly, "So what if it's Ming Wang San Bai? Do you really take this palace as something made of clay? If that Lan Lan dares to have such boldness, then this palace will accompany him to mutual destruction—what of it?"

Faced with the Eldest Princess acting tsundere, Li Luo had nothing to say.

"Let's go, into the city." Jiang Jiang Qinge said from the side.

The Eldest Princess turned her gaze toward the ruined third-tier city before them and said, "Once this city is purified, the Red Sand Prefecture will basically only have the final 'Red Stone City' left."

"That is where victory and defeat will be decided."

Li Luo sighed as well. Don't be fooled by their current points reaching several hundred thousand—know that just the purification points for Red Stone City alone amount to five hundred thousand. Whoever swallows this enormous sum of points will surely vault straight to first place.

However, this also sufficiently reveals the danger Red Stone City holds. Perhaps no single squad can swallow this enormous sum of points alone.

With such thoughts, the squad entered this ruined city reeking of malice-tainted Qi.

Not long after they entered the city, the three noticed something amiss.

Because the city was utterly empty—there wasn't a single Other within.

This phenomenon left the three somewhat astonished, so they split up to scout. Half an hour later, they regrouped at the city center, still with nothing to show for it.

"Where did that big Other of mine go?" Li Luo asked, uncertain and suspicious.

The Eldest Princess and Jiang Jiang Qinge also found it strange. The latter said, "Could it be that they sensed our battle earlier and fled?"

The Eldest Princess shook her head and said, "Earlier, I didn't sense any unusual movement within this city."

Jiang Jiang Qinge's willow brows furrowed slightly as she said, "But the malice-tainted Qi permeating here is so dense, it indicates that quite a number of Others must have existed here before. Moreover, the ground we're standing on, even the buildings, show signs of corrosion—this means a rather powerful Other once made its lair here."

"Then where did all these Others run off to?" Li Luo's face was full of confusion. Who would have thought that after finally snatching a third-tier city, it would turn out to be an empty one.

Jiang Jiang Qinge shook her head, indicating she didn't know what was going on either.

"Forget it, no Others is fine too—after all, setting up the purification devices is the main source of points." The Eldest Princess thought for a moment and said somewhat helplessly.

Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge both had no objections. Why these Others had vanished so mysteriously was hard to investigate now—after all, their main purpose in coming here was to set up the purification devices. The disappearance of these Others happened to let them smoothly claim a third-tier city.

Then the three split up again, placing those "Purification Light Pearls" throughout the city. About an hour later, purification light pillars began rising within the city.

These light pillars transformed into countless interwoven rays of light, gradually covering the entire city.

Immediately, the permeating malice-tainted Qi began to melt away, and the city began to brighten.

Such a smooth scene left Li Luo's trio, who had endured great hardships along the way, momentarily stunned.

Li Luo took out his Spirit Mirror, glanced at it, and said, "Points have been credited... just like that, a third-tier city mission is complete?"

He was still somewhat in disbelief. Previously, every third-tier city had required a bitter battle, because they inevitably contained a small catastrophe-level Other. An Other of this strength required even the Eldest Princess to fight with all her might, and sometimes even needed Jiang Jiang Qinge's assistance to finally destroy it.

But this time, they had essentially picked up fifty thousand points for free.

"Let's wait another two hours. If nothing changes, we'll set off directly and head to Red Stone City." The Eldest Princess thought for a moment and said.

Jiang Jiang Qinge and Li Luo nodded—this situation could only be handled this way.

Then the three waited within the city for two hours. During this time, the malice-tainted Qi within the city continuously dissipated, and the Others' traces still never appeared.

So the three exchanged glances, decisively stopped lingering, and directly set off, leaving this third-tier city and beginning to race at full speed toward the prefecture capital of Red Sand Prefecture—Red Stone City.

Yet as the Eldest Princess's trio advanced at full speed toward the final showdown location, they were unaware that in other cities in the surrounding area, the various squads that had broken in had all encountered the same situation as them.

The cities were utterly empty—not even half an Other's trace could be found.

In the end, after setting up the purification devices, these squads also left these empty cities and, just like Li Luo's group, began racing at full speed toward the final destination.

Several days later.

When the Eldest Princess, Jiang Jiang Qinge, and Li Luo stood on a high slope and gazed at the majestic walls built of crimson giant rocks that had appeared within their field of vision, their expressions gradually grew solemn.

Because above this city, they saw no trace of malice-tainted Qi whatsoever.

The degree of purity was as if Red Stone City before them had never encountered an "Other Disaster" at all.

But that was clearly impossible.

Along their journey, they could feel that the source of the spreading malice-tainted Qi came from this prefecture capital of Red Sand Prefecture—Red Stone City.

As the saying goes, where there's abnormality, there must be something strange. The seemingly unusually calm Red Stone City before them must hold something bizarre.

"This city is very dangerous." Standing on the high slope, Jiang Jiang Qinge stared at the towering crimson walls, her lips pressed slightly together. Relying on the keen perception granted to her by her Ninth-Grade Light Phase, she could sense that the seemingly peaceful and tranquil city before her brought her a tremendous sense of crisis.

The feeling was as if a dark beast crouched there, opening its fanged maw, waiting for them to enter.

"What do you say? Go into the city?" Li Luo looked at the two big sisters, seeking their opinion.

Even Jiang Jiang Qinge was being so cautious, showing just how perilous the danger this city held was. In this situation, he, a mere Phase Master Realm cultivator, was better off staying low-key.

The Eldest Princess and Jiang Jiang Qinge exchanged glances, then she deliberated: "Red Stone City is different from those previous cities. The danger here is probably even greater than the corrupted Thunder Roar Tree, so I don't recommend we enter it alone."

"My idea is to wait here for now, until other squads arrive so we can discuss things and see if we can join forces to enter the city."

"I have a feeling the Other within this city probably won't be weaker than the Smiling Face Demon you encountered in the Dark Cavern back then."

Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge nodded upon hearing this, indicating their agreement.

Before knowing what dangers lurked within this city, caution was indeed warranted. If one wanted to seize the initiative for points at this moment, one would probably only end up getting oneself buried in the city.

Seeing the two had no objections, the Eldest Princess took out her Spirit Mirror, flicked a finger, channeled phase force into it, and then a pillar of light slowly rose into the sky. This light pillar used the Spirit Mirror as its medium—only those holding a Spirit Mirror could perceive it.

After doing this, the three sat down cross-legged and began to wait quietly.

This quiet waiting lasted for about half a day.

At a certain moment, the Eldest Princess and Jiang Jiang Qinge suddenly raised their heads and looked toward the mountain forest behind them.

They saw gusts of breaking wind sound out from there, as numerous figures leaped out from the mountain forest, finally landing directly toward Li Luo's side.