Chapter 355: The Most Urgent Task is to Find a Way to Get Through

"What are you saying? Helping you was just a small favor, and besides, without you, we wouldn't have been able to get in so easily."

Su Chen chuckled twice, his gaze toward Ano very gentle.

"That's right. Actually, to be precise, you helped us too. Besides, they were just some Pills to replenish Spiritual Power; they aren't that precious."

Lv Luo also laughed; the little girl in front of her didn't even reach her chest.

To have grown up to be so sensible and cautious, it was enough to see how much suffering she had endured before.

Hearing this, Ano found it hard to refuse again. With red eyes, she accepted the Pills and whispered, "Thank you."

The group entered the secret passage. It was already very old, pitch black, and it was impossible to see the path ahead.

The air was mixed with the fishy smell of soil, and even carried a strange odor—the scent of rot from years without sunlight.

They had walked for a long time when suddenly, their path was blocked.

"There is a lightning-element barrier ahead; we can't get through."

Lv Luo said anxiously. The barrier in front was very light in color, only a faint purple, but to Lv Luo, it was very obvious.

Ano, however, had already walked through it as if she hadn't seen it. Hearing Lv Luo's voice, she turned around, looking very puzzled.

"Can't you come over?"

Ano asked in confusion, "There are lightning-element barriers in Leiyin Island, but walking from here, they have already weakened a lot; ordinary people should be able to endure them."

Hearing this, Lv Luo tentatively walked forward, but the moment her fingertips touched the purple barrier, she felt as if she had been electrocuted and jerked her hand back violently.

She gasped, looking at her fingers—which were about to be scorched—with lingering fear. Her lips parted and closed several times, but she couldn't say a word.

Natasha didn't believe it and placed her hand on the barrier as well, but the result was the same.

Her palm was even covered in dense, purple patterns.

Su Chen did not act rashly.

At this moment, Ano and the others, including Su Chen, stood separated by the purple barrier, looking at each other from afar.

"What do we do now? Can none of you come over?"

Ano was extremely anxious. Seeing that they had all tried and truly couldn't get through, she was so worried she was about to cry.

"You are from Leiyin Mountain, so you should naturally have a certain immunity to lightning, and... you are the Saintess, so you have enough affinity with this; that is why the barrier does not harm you."

Luo Shen pondered for a moment and immediately realized the reason.

For a place with such an ancient heritage, while it does not have unique thoughts or actions like a person on the surface, in reality, it also recognizes its master.

In this world, only the Leiyin Clan exists, so Ano, as the Saintess of the Leiyin Clan, naturally comes and goes freely without restriction.

But they were outsiders; Leiyin Mountain instinctively resisted the intrusion of outsiders.

"No wonder the Sun Family and the Ouyang Family wanted to wipe us out. Was it just to obtain the exclusive heritage and marks of the Leiyin Clan, so they could move through Leiyin Mountain without obstruction?"

Once these words were spoken, Ano seemed to sink into deep memories.

Her eyes were vacant, as if she had thought of something, and tears fell down in streams.

At this moment, she was no longer in this tunnel.

Her mind was filled with the scene at Leiyin Mountain: her clansmen falling one after another, longswords piercing their chests, the flowing blood even staining the land red. A woman with a crisscrossing scar on her face curled her red lips, her expression arrogant, yet her words were cold and heartless: "Kill all those who don't listen. Capture that little thing alive; her mark and heritage are of great use to me."

The entire sky seemed to have turned blood-colored. Ano's tears flowed unconsciously, instantly dripping onto the ground.

The group fell into a rare silence, and the atmosphere sank into an eerie stalemate.

They noticed Ano's abnormality in an instant, but no one took the initiative to break the atmosphere.

Ano was dazed for a long time before she raised her head, revealing a smile uglier than crying, and explained slowly: "Actually, it's like this. Legend has it that the ancestors of the Leiyin Clan were children of the Mountain God. We were conceived and grew up in Leiyin Mountain and have never left this place. We are the children of the mountain. Therefore, the child born in each generation who most resembles the ancestor is the Saint Son or Saintess, and they bear a unique mark."

"Then they were so anxious to capture you because it has to do with Leiyin Mountain, right?" Natasha couldn't help but ask.

Those people were truly too cold-blooded and selfish; just for their own selfish desires, they wanted to wipe out the indigenous people here.

"Yes. Because we had never left here before, we didn't know that Leiyin Mountain actually has restrictions. This barrier prevents anyone who is not of the Leiyin Clan from entering. When they first came in, they spent countless Heavenly Treasures, and even later, every time they entered or left Leiyin Mountain..."

Ano did not finish her sentence, but the painful expression on her face said it all.

"... they would use the blood of my clansmen on their magic treasures."

After Ano finished speaking, her expression was very ugly, "But that is not a long-term solution, so... they captured me, probably wanting to find a way to control the entire Leiyin Mountain."

After saying this, Ano's tone was already tinged with a sob.

She hadn't expected that the ultimate goal of those people was actually her. If she had been more obedient back then, perhaps her clansmen wouldn't have died.

It was she who had caused their deaths.

She... was not worthy of being this Saintess.

"It's all my fault. If I had known all this sooner, perhaps they wouldn't have had to die for me."

Ano covered her face and wept bitterly, like a homeless little beast, extremely fragile.

"This is not your fault. It is because of their greed that they harmed innocent people. They are the ones who are wrong."

Su Chen subconsciously wanted to go over to comfort her, but hindered by the existence of the barrier, he could only stand where he was and speak.

"There is still a chance to save everything! At worst, using my life to trade for a glimmer of survival for my clansmen is worth it!"

Ano clenched her hands into fists, her eyes already carrying a determination to die.

"The most urgent task is to find a way to get through."

Luo Shen was still somewhat rational and immediately pointed out the problem at hand.

Although this lightning-element barrier had gradually weakened here, the energy it released could still block a full-strength strike from someone at the Peak Quasi-Emperor Realm.

Although Su Chen and the others could destroy it, it would inevitably alert others in Leiyin Mountain. At that point, it would be startling the snake, and the loss would outweigh the gain.

For a moment, everyone was troubled.

Just then, a voice came.

"I smell something so fragrant. You have good things, so why are you hiding them and not telling me?"

The voice carried a bit of the confusion of someone who had just woken up, and the attention of the group was instantly drawn.

(End of chapter)