Chapter 1667: Did the King Run to the Lava Branch?

Magma Branch? Heliros?

Everyone stared at each other, muttering these keywords, all somewhat bewildered—what kind of beings are these that suddenly appeared? And they actually want to come aid Kaelania?

"Where is the Magma Branch?" Anthony asked.

"You'll hear it yourselves." Oshia didn't explain, because he didn't know much either.

In a towering, pitch-black hall, a ring of stepped seating encircled the space, each seat occupied by a being—some human, some goblin, some starborn… This is the River of the Dead Council.

At the center of the lowest step, a starflame embodiment stood, speaking eloquently: "The Lord of the Magma Branch, Heliros, finds it strange that ghost hounds have gathered here. He is willing to dispatch a powerful force to aid us, to slaughter these ghost hounds and destroy their conspiracy."

A human voice rang out: "What do they require as payment?"

Kaelania, embodied as a starflame construct, said: "They require no payment. Their only demand is that we hand over any captured ghost hounds to them."

"Nothing at all? Is that possible? Won't they just send some insignificant lackeys to scout?" the human voice asked.

Kaelania replied: "No. They are willing to let us test any team we send. If the team lacks strength, we may dispose of them as we see fit."

The human said: "It seems Heliros has great confidence in his forces—can we use any method? Even you?"

Would they dare let Kaelania, a colossal star-being, test the opposing side?

"That's what Heliros meant," Kaelania said. "He said if you break them, just throw them away—no need to return them."

Everyone in the River of the Dead Council exchanged glances. The opposing side is the Branch Lord, able to say such things—clearly they have immense confidence in the team they sent. But is this reasonable?

"Are they trying to plant spies in our position to obtain our coordinates?" someone asked.

Another said: "They're separated by several branches—what use would knowing our seating arrangement be? Can they even teleport over?"

"What if they're not actually from the Magma Branch, but impostors?"

Facing this doubt, Kaelania said directly: "Their method of contact is relayed through the Lord of Lania to me—impossible to fake."

Upon hearing "Lord of Lania," everyone exhaled in relief.

"The information we received from the Branch Lord is definitely not falsifiable, so is the Magma Branch truly this selfless? Sending a team we can freely test, just to slaughter ghost hounds, asking for nothing in return?"

As soon as this was said, everyone exchanged glances again.

While they debated, Ang's soul network also buzzed with quiet discussion.

"What is this Magma Branch even? Why are they suddenly encircling us? We haven't even gone to their branch." Negris said.

Anthony also felt baffled—could there truly be such a selflessly devoted star-being in the void?

Willing to help, harming oneself to benefit others, seeking no reward, only to maintain void peace—does such a star-being even exist?

Dispatching an elite team across vast distances to wage war in another branch consumes enormous amounts of energy and matter.

If they were just sending a random team to scout, that would be one thing—but daring to say they'll let us test them freely? That implies absolute confidence in the team they sent.

Since the team sent is elite, the material and energy cost would be immense. You couldn't possibly send a low-energy-level team to encircle ghost wanderers—otherwise, even if they stood still, you couldn't move them; the energy level would be insufficient.

But the higher the energy level of the dispatched team, the greater the energy consumption.

As previously stated: why don't star-beings just leave their own branches? Because merely leaving the branch consumes enough energy to cause a star-being to perish.

Even if they burned themselves completely, a star-being might still be unable to leave its branch.

The best option is through the Boundless Gate—but it's too small for a complete star-being to pass through.

Aside from the Boundless Gate, the only alternative is to borrow passage through the Infinite Expanse, where Star-Wanderers transport star-beings into the Infinite Expanse, move them a distance, then exit from the other end.

But where are Star-Wanderers now? The remaining ones are all here in Ang.

Expending effort and energy to send a team over, asking for nothing in return—this kind of altruistic star-being, nobody believes could exist.

People will do murder-for-hire, but nobody does loss-making deals—this is a loss so huge it's like losing to your grandmother's house. Why would they volunteer this?

"Could it be they have a team with such low energy level it can pass through the Boundless Gate without consuming too much energy?" Ursman speculated.

"Does such a team even exist? Low energy level—what use would sending them be?" Negris asked, irritated.

Ursman said: "Actually, our own levels aren't high either."

Everyone exchanged glances—yeah, we've been with star-beings so long we forgot that ghost guides actually aren't that high in energy level either.

Ang used the total energy of ten star-beings to power this current layered-division avatar, then peeled off layers from it—each person got two sheets.

Specifically, on each sheet, each person's strength is actually not high—still below dark star level—so dealing with them doesn't require high-energy individuals. Instead, we need speed, tracking skill, and the ability to search for their team.

"Yeah, energy level doesn't need to be high—dark star level is enough. They could come through the Boundless Gate. But what low-energy creature could keep up with ghost guides?"

Nobody could think of a specific creature—our knowledge of the Magma Branch is too limited.

The River of the Dead Council had the same doubts—one starborn asked: "What kind of team are they sending? Is it dark stars?"

Kaelania said: "They said it's a team of Incremental Entities, led by a skeleton called the Undying Sovereign."

"Pfft… Incremental Entities? Undying Sovereign? Skeleton?" Negris and Anthony exchanged glances—both simultaneously thought of the same person.

Calling someone the Undying Sovereign isn't strange, but calling their skeleton that, and calling it an Incremental Entity—there's only one such being in the entire void.

"How did the Old Undying end up in the Magma Branch?" Negris stared, stunned.

Anthony turned to Ang: "Your Majesty, where did the King go?"

Ang shook his head.

Ang doesn't know where the King went—so this is very likely the Undying King.

If there were no Undying Sovereign, no skeleton, Anthony might have had the silver coin destroy this reinforcements force with all its might—but now, Anthony quickly said: "Silver Coin, don't oppose—support them sending reinforcements."

Without Anthony's order, the Silver Coin stayed silent, inwardly just as curious: When did His Majesty the King run off to the Magma Branch?