Chapter 296: Inner City

296. Chapter 296: Inner City

"I forgot to ask, what deep-seated hatred do you have with that Gu Spirit Sect Heavenly Pride that makes you determined to kill him?" Long Xuan asked casually.

"Nothing much, I just saw him kill his own sister and found him unpleasant to look at," Di Xin said, a faint killing intent flashing in her eyes.

Hearing this, the corner of Long Xuan's mouth twitched.

Someone else killed their own sister; what did that have to do with her? Was her sense of justice really that broad?

Di Xin, who plundered the treasuries of various tribes everywhere, was a great evil in the Gu World, absolutely not a kind-hearted person.

If she were a Saint Mother who punished evil and promoted good, Long Xuan would never believe it.

Could it be that she is a sister-complex? Long Xuan couldn't help but think.

On the other side, Cai Shao counted the remaining number of people, his mood somewhat heavy.

About one hundred thousand Gu Cultivators had fiercely attacked Divine Mechanism City, yet now only twenty thousand remained.

If these twenty thousand Gu Cultivators continued to attack the final Inner City of Divine Mechanism City, they would inevitably lose at least half of their manpower again.

The final number of remaining Gu Cultivators would very likely drop below ten thousand; the casualties were truly too severe, was continuing to fiercely attack the Inner City of Divine Mechanism City really worth it?

"There are still fifty thousand puppets in the Inner City; if our twenty thousand people continue to fiercely attack the Inner City, the number of survivors will most likely not exceed ten thousand," Cai Shao said with a heavy heart.

Zhu Yue glanced at him and said disdainfully, "Why are you acting so sorrowful for the world and compassionate towards humanity? This matter is entirely voluntary; no one is forcing anyone to attack the city."

"If you want to obtain heaven-defying treasures, then you should be mentally prepared to leave your life here; if you die here, it is your own choice, and you cannot blame others."

Zhu Yue suddenly shouted loudly to the crowd: "We are now organizing manpower to attack the city; whoever fears death can voluntarily withdraw right now."

"However, after we conquer the Inner City, those who did not contribute must not think of stepping one foot inside the Inner City, otherwise everyone will attack them together."

"Those who do not wish to take risks now, please leave and do not approach the Inner City any further, so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."

"And those who are prepared to gamble their lives for treasures, stay behind, and let us attack the city together."

"Whether to go or stay is entirely up to yourselves; please make your own choices now, everyone."

Hearing this, Qin Kai looked at her dissatisfiedly; in his opinion, everyone should attack the city together, and those who did not want to attack should all be killed—there was no reason to let them go.

But after all, this woman's strength was no weaker than his own, and the forces behind her were no weaker than his either; rashly offending her was absolutely not a wise choice, so in the end, he did not speak his dissatisfaction.

Hearing Zhu Yue's words, everyone at this moment looked at each other blankly, expressions of hesitation appearing on all their faces.

But in the end, there were some timid individuals who dared not take risks anymore, so they slowly withdrew from the crowd.

However, those who left were only a small portion of the people.

Those who dared to come to the Sky Island Ruins to take risks were basically people who liked adventure; cautious groups would never have come to Sky Island in the first place.

So at this moment, naturally, few left while many stayed.

People die for wealth just as birds die for food; it was also because the treasures in the Outer City were truly too astonishing, with even Soul Nourishing Wood, Gu God Alms Bowl, Face-Keeping Fruit, and Longevity Fruit present, so how astonishing would the treasures in the Inner City be?

When the value of treasures reaches a certain level, many people will choose to take desperate risks.

And at this time, Leng Yan also belonged to the group of Gu Cultivators seeking stability; since she had already obtained the Face-Keeping Fruit, her mission for this trip was complete, so she did not plan to take any more risks henceforth.

"I will go research whether there are other methods to break the barriers of those thirty-plus houses; I will wait for you there!"

Leng Yan greeted everyone and then withdrew from the crowd.

At the same time, leaving with her were the timid Miao Peipei, the bouncy Wu Yaoyao, and after Ye Qingluan's eyes darted around, she ultimately dared not take risks either and followed behind them to leave.

Nie Qingcheng struggled internally for quite a while before finally withdrawing from the crowd and leaving as well.

As for those male Gu Cultivators on the Divine Dragon Ship, a large group departed with a rustle, leaving only more than ten who were prepared to take risks and attack the city.

Long Xuan was stunned; were his crew members all so seeking of stability? There were actually so many cautious individuals among them.

Other ship teams only saw a few scattered departures, yet his crew directly lost more than half, making them especially conspicuous in the crowd.

Di Xin said at this time: "It is because you have fattened them up; the poorer the Gu Cultivator, the more they must gamble their lives for resources, but if a Gu Cultivator's purse is full, then most Gu Cultivators have no need to gamble their lives for resources."

Hearing this, Long Xuan nodded thoughtfully; it seemed this was indeed the logic: the poor do not fear death, while the rich cherish their lives.

Although the Ninth Young Master and Cai Shao, who were preparing to attack the city, were very wealthy, that was because they had sufficient trump cards and simply did not believe they would face any life-threatening danger.

However, those who left were actually wise; how could the people remaining here know that after expending a massive amount of manpower to breach the Inner City, they would fundamentally get no treasures at all, with the cost and reward being severely disproportionate?

It is true that the treasures in the Inner City are of higher value than those in the Outer City, but you need to use life-threatening stakes to gamble against an old monster who has lived for countless tens of thousands of years.

Only by winning the gamble can one take away one of the treasures from the Inner City.

That old monster, using experience from countless tens of thousands of years, has already honed all kinds of gambling techniques to perfection, winning every single gamble.

This is a gambling god who wins ten out of ten times; who can outplay a gambling god?

Almost everyone who enters the Inner City is unable to win against this gambling god.

By that time, not only will they obtain no treasures, but they will also lose their entire family fortune completely.

Therefore, after most people enter the Inner City, they will fundamentally encounter no opportunities; risking one's life to attack the city is absolutely not a wise move, it is simply a bloody loss, so that group of people who sought stability and left made the right choice.

As people continued to leave the crowd one after another, the remaining number of Gu Cultivators gradually dropped to only sixteen thousand, shrinking by one-fifth.

Next, under the leadership of several leaders, the remaining people began to launch a fierce attack on the Inner City.

It was still the original plan used to attack the Outer City: all four city walls were the main targets of attack; after the army of Gu Cultivators rushed to the foot of the walls, they did not rush to climb up immediately, but first used long-range attack methods to deplete the puppets on the walls.

Only after the puppets on the walls were reduced to melee models hiding in the distance did all the Gu Cultivators climb onto the walls to wipe out the last forces of the Puppet Army.

And the batch of Gu Cultivators with the strongest strength was still responsible for besieging those Golden Silver Puppets on the city walls; because Long Xuan's strength had been exposed, he also had to take on more responsibilities according to his ability, once again facing a Gold Puppet.

With the experience from last time, he and Di Xin cooperated together; eliminating a Gold Puppet was not difficult for him.

After approximately an hour, the army of Gu Cultivators successfully climbed onto the city walls and wiped out all the puppets on the walls cleanly.

After cleaning up all the puppets inside the city as well, the four allied forces finally converged at one point.

At this time, the number of people in the army of Gu Cultivators had sharply decreased to five thousand, with the number of Gu Cultivators who died in this great battle far exceeding half.

Such heavy losses made everyone's mood become heavy.

In previous openings of the Sky Island Ruins, although more than half the people would die, at least several tens of thousands of Gu Cultivators would survive.

This time was undoubtedly the session with the heaviest casualties; counting the Gu Cultivators still alive outside, fewer than ten thousand survivors remained.

Never before had so many died during an opening of the Sky Island Ruins; their session had effectively broken the record for death tolls.

Long Xuan swept his gaze across every surviving face, searching for his creditors, and sighed inwardly: What a stroke of luck! Counting those outside, he now only needed to refine Gathering Sea Pills for forty-odd people; all the other creditors had perished. Truly, a very light workload.

He had known that most of those creditors would surely die upon entering the Sky Island Ruins, yet he never expected so many to perish.

Trading away the five-hundred-strong Black Dragon Pirate Group for such a small amount of Gathering Sea Pills was truly a profitable deal.

"It is quite normal. For some unknown reason, the puppets of Divine Mechanism City increase year by year; the more times the Sky Island Ruins open, the higher the casualty count among the Gu Cultivators who enter."

"Yet, as Heaven and Earth Spiritual Power grows increasingly thin, the overall strength of Gu World's Heavenly Prides declines year by year. Based on these two reasons, our assault on the City has resulted in such devastating losses."

"When the Sky Island Ruins open next time, the number of deaths may even exceed ours."

Shui Juanyun sighed, being the first to break the heavy atmosphere.

"Let us not worry about how many have died; no matter how many perish, it concerns none of us who remain alive."

"The opportunities within the City are destined for the living; with more dead, there are fewer shares of treasures to divide, which is actually a good thing for us survivors."

Qin Kai curled the corner of his mouth, gazing at a splendid, golden palace before him, and added:

"We have already ransacked the other buildings; the quality of their treasures is no different from those in the Outer City."

"I believe the most valuable treasures of the Inner City must all be concentrated within this palace."

Zhu Yue smiled and said, "This palace stands at the very center of the entire Divine Mechanism City; the treasure that guards the City must certainly be hidden within it."

"But wherever the most precious treasures are kept, great danger is sure to follow."

"I observed that large numbers of puppets are concealed throughout this palace, so I did not rashly enter."

"Now that we are all assembled, shall we charge in together?"

At this, the expressions of the crowd of Gu Cultivators turned bitter; they still had to fight? Enough people had already died; they truly did not wish to take any more risks.

Yet, having come this far, how could they bear to turn back now?

To retreat now would render all their previous efforts futile. They had paid a heavy price to finally reach this point, enduring until the very last step; no one was willing to leave.

At this moment, all the Gu Cultivators' eyes revealed a mad gleam, and for a long while, not a single person departed.

Only Long Xuan appeared relaxed, as if he did not regard the puppets inside the palace as any threat at all.

He had learned very detailed intelligence about the Sky Island Ruins from Di Xin; according to his deduction, this battle could absolutely not happen again.

The Gold Puppets inside were either mere decorations, or, even if they could move, they would not do so.

The reason was simple: if those Gold Puppets could truly activate, then this group of Gu Cultivators would again suffer heavy losses, with more than half perishing.

That Gambler God's purpose was to attract more Gu Cultivators to the island, not to kill as many as possible.

If he killed too ruthlessly, causing hardly anyone to walk out of the Sky Island alive,

then when the Sky Island Ruins opened next time, few Gu Cultivators would dare to come.

That was absolutely not what that Gambler God wished to see.

Therefore, Long Xuan was certain that those puppets within the palace would absolutely not strike again.

For the sake of sustainable development, that Gambler God would absolutely not engage in such mad slaughter of Gu Cultivators again. (End of Chapter)