Looking toward the massive spatial gate, a terrifying vortex at its center continued to expand, emanating an overwhelming pressure.
"If you don’t want to die, get out of the way!"
Furious roars echoed from behind as all the armies charged forward at full speed toward the vortex.
Hibria and Nayr waited, attentive to the orders from the golem and the dragoness. Both had already accepted that these two were the strategists of the group—far more intelligent and capable of leading in any situation. However, Ruri didn’t waste a single second before commanding: the draconic beasts moved immediately, positioning themselves just behind the ten armies leading the march.
Upon entering, they found themselves surrounded by spatial runes. They were now inside the formation isolating the area, resembling a tunnel connecting that small world to various other small worlds and the main region.
The exit was visible on the other side—not too far—but an overwhelming pressure engulfed the bodies of all the draconic beasts, forcing them to move slowly.
Even so, they could see the armies ahead facing the same challenge. Behind them, weaker armies began to enter. Some of their soldiers exploded into blood the moment they stepped into the tunnel, unable to withstand the oppressive force.
After stabilizing, the survivors of those armies continued forward, but they were moving ten times slower than the leading groups.
During the crossing, after just a few minutes, within the first ten armies at the front, a mutant divine beast alongside its leader suddenly vanished. At that moment, that leader had a wicked smile on his face.
In the next moment, he reappeared before Nayr, wielding a jade saber aimed straight for his throat.
The saber radiated a terrifying aura, combining multiple natural elements, and its power was so crushing it made even the strongest tremble.
"Courting death!"
Seeing the direct attack, without any probing or hesitation, Nayr was consumed by rage. It was as if this enemy genuinely believed he could defeat him in a single strike. In response, Nayr covered his body with multicolored scales and counterattacked with his spear.
To his surprise, the figure disappeared again before the strike could land. His spear found no target.
"Watch out!"
The warning shout echoed as the enemy reappeared right behind the small dragoness, his weapon mere inches from her head. The attack was so swift that even a seasoned warrior like Hibria had no time to react.
The dragoness and the golem, however, continued advancing without a care, as if ignoring any threat. Nayr’s heart tightened with worry, and he rushed to try to intercept the attack, knowing full well he wouldn’t make it in time.
The assassin smirked mockingly, but the moment his weapon was about to touch the dragoness’s head, a hand cloaked in a yellowish light imbued with earth laws grabbed the blade.
With a firm motion, the hand yanked the blade away, and a katana gleamed as it severed the assassin’s head. The strike was so fast and precise it seemed to transcend space. From the start, the pair hadn’t even bothered to glance at the assassin. To them, he was just an insignificant fly.
As the assassin’s body fell, the leader of the divine beasts appeared before the draconic beasts, wielding a radiant spear. His eyes widened in shock.
His objective had been simple: create an opening for his subordinate to escape after executing the perfect assassination. But the assassin’s death had been so instantaneous that he didn’t even have a chance to act.
"Get lost!" Bruno roared firmly. He knew engaging now would delay their group and allow the enemies ahead to gain distance.
"We’ll see!" shouted the divine beast leader, boiling with rage over the loss of his subordinate. The defeat felt like a humiliating slap to his pride.
However, the tunnel’s other side was now close, and there were only two priorities at the moment: crossing and conserving energy. Even seething with fury, the leader swallowed his anger and kept running.
The draconic beasts, on the other hand, were dumbfounded. Witnessing that pair eliminate such a powerful enemy with ease left them bewildered. But their slow minds would take time to process the reality, and there was no time for reflection.
Ahead, another obstacle arose: an army of mutant demons blocking the path.
"The draconic beast clan is here! If you don’t want to die, move aside! Otherwise, this spear of mine will show no mercy!" shouted Nayr fiercely. He knew these were allies of the demoness, sent to delay them and drain their strength.
"You need to control the explosive power of your flames. From now on, exercise restraint," Bruno advised calmly.
"What?" Nayr asked, surprised.
Bruno made a gesture and sent a knowledge rune to him. Nayr received it, and his eyes widened in disbelief, unable to fully grasp its contents.
"When your power is limited, you must learn to use it efficiently. Use the smallest amount of energy to create the greatest impact. Condense your flame energy only at the tip of the spear," Bruno explained. "Apply the principles I sent. Don’t overthink it—just attack!"
Nayr jumped and tried to follow the advice. He threw his spear at a demon blocking the way.
*BOOM!*
To his amazement, that demon exploded instantly. Just a small amount of his flames, used minimally as he’d been taught, was enough to trigger a deadly explosion. *What if I fully mastered this?* he thought, stunned.
"Just keep practicing. You’re... better at learning by doing," Bruno explained, carefully avoiding calling him an idiot.
But truth be told, Nayr was talented. After a dozen attacks, he quickly grasped the method. By the end, he’d successfully reduced his energy consumption while boosting his killing precision, which brought him immense satisfaction.
Nayr and Hibria had significant latent talent, but they lacked a true master in this world. They had to rely on themselves to figure out much of their growth, which—paired with their limited intelligence—created the worst-case scenario.
If they were pure beasts or hybrids without any mutations, they could just fight all day to naturally learn how to wield their power. After all, beasts usually didn’t need intelligence—instinct took care of everything.
But they were mutants, each with distinct traits, which became a massive problem when left to their own devices. What Bruno taught them was nothing more than the simplest method to control fire laws, drawn from the immortal knowledge he had absorbed. Yet, this small shift made a massive difference.
Moving forward, they eliminated demons while running nonstop. Nayr led the charge, piercing and clearing the way, with everyone else following close behind. The corpses littered across the ground didn’t escape the notice of Alm and Bruno, who collected everything.
As they approached the other side, another group of demonic beasts appeared to block them. However, Bruno continued giving Nayr tips during the battle.
Meanwhile, Ruri was allowed to do the same for Hibria, who fought with a sword and seemed to have some talent for spatial laws. Enlightened by the advice, their powers grew steadily.
Less than an hour later, they finally reached the tunnel’s exit.
After a spatial distortion, Alm, Bruno, and Ruri took deep breaths, sensing the Qi in the environment. They were finally out of that other world, and everyone noticed the Qi’s presence again.
Unfortunately, it was minimal—like being in an ascending world. Stopping to absorb it would take days to replenish fully. Before being dragged from their universes, all the mutants had been divine-level cultivators.
But there was a rule: the heroes only brought those with lower cultivation, as they still had significant room for growth.
Everyone looked around and found themselves in a gray world amidst cracked, reddish terrain. Everything seemed chaotic, but it was easy to sense major disturbances in the laws and much denser, more potent Qi further ahead. These were the land’s greatest treasures, lying far in the distance.
"Those ahead are already far away!" Nayr shouted furiously, unable to see them anymore.
As for the armies behind, slower and having entered much later, they would take hours to catch up.
"Tch, trying to ambush us again? They didn’t learn last time," Ruri muttered, drawing her katana and scanning the empty space.
Hibria and Nayr widened their eyes in confusion but soon noticed the space around them rippling. Moments later, they found themselves surrounded by an army of divine beasts—the same type as the previous assassin.
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The divine beasts sneered wickedly, while the draconic beasts prepared for combat. However, an overwhelming sense of impending death loomed over everyone. Among the enemies, ten of them held crystals, ready to use them.
"Hehehe, you want to fight? You’re not worth my time..." the leader began to taunt but suddenly froze, turning around.
Behind him stood a round figure with a bloodthirsty gaze. "Oh, hi there, everyone!" Bruno said, waving cheerfully.
Instantly, the divine beasts began trembling uncontrollably. The golem was holding a long, strange spear that radiated an instinctive fear.
"This is bad!"
The leader’s expression shifted, and he quickly transformed into his true form—an orange gorilla, ten meters tall, wielding a massive spear. However...
*Puft!*
"OH NO!" he roared in pain as a metal spear suddenly impaled him from below.
"Wow," Ruri murmured, impressed. Her mental power had been used by the array to ensure the attack was flawless. Their secret Dao was becoming increasingly refined and stealthy.
"Bastard! Attack with everything!" the divine beast bellowed, urging his generals to use the crystals, but...
Liumi struck the ground, and the earth trembled.
*CRACK!!*
Suddenly, the ground split open, and black metal spears shot toward the sky. This was Liumi’s spear technique, which once relied on wood but was now far more powerful thanks to the metal found in that place.
The draconic beasts froze, unable to react, as they watched their enemies being brutally impaled, roaring in despair. In an instant, the nauseating smell of blood filled the air.
Only the leader and his eight generals survived. But as they broke the spears and spat blood, they realized the crystals were no longer in their hands.
At that moment, Ruri reappeared in her original spot, and all her allies turned to her, startled. They hadn’t even noticed her disappearing, and now she was back already?
She waved casually, stowing all the crystals into a spatial ring. Then, she lightly drew her katana from its sheath.
Their leader, however, proved incredibly resilient. Like the other generals, he had a strange mutation—his body regenerated at an unnervingly fast rate, even faster than a pure dragon could.
Just then, a small dragoness wielding a curved sword moved. In the blink of an eye, with a single slash, she cut one general in half, then another, and another. They fell like cabbages being harvested.
These eight were the strongest subordinates of the divine beasts, but against Ruri, they were horrified to realize they couldn’t even move, let alone retreat, as her katana sliced through their bodies.
"You bastard, die!" Meanwhile, the leader roared, and his spear lashed out at the golem, shaking everything around them.
In response, the golem simply yawned, placing his left hand over his mouth. With his right hand, a yellowish light pulsed as he slowly grabbed the tip of the spear.
Panicking, the leader burned all his bloodline energy and pulled the spear back before it was too late. Acting purely on instinct, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it later.
Seeing this, the golem smirked. Then, he moved his spear, and the two clashed simultaneously.
**Clang!**
Both moved as fast as lightning, their spears colliding with a deafening sound.
But the divine beast, who resembled a gorilla, grunted in pain and staggered backward, his body covered in blood. He was clearly no match in this duel, while the golem seemed to enjoy himself, not even scratched.
The golem then stopped, standing there like an invincible battle god, his spear lazily resting on the ground.
He gazed arrogantly at the beast. "I really don’t know where you got your confidence... Anyway, I’m bored and in a hurry."
"You’ll see!" the leader roared as a deafening sound erupted from his back. A pair of white wings made of laws emerged, radiating an ancient, desolate aura.
"Mutants are so strange," Ruri muttered, watching. She had long since killed the generals.
Then, just as the draconic beasts were shocked by the leader’s growing aura, a black cutting light flashed, abruptly halting his power and escape attempt.
He stiffened suddenly, looking in horror at the golem. A thin line of blood appeared from the center of his forehead, down his nose, jaw, throat, chest, and abdomen.
Alm stowed Vorion back into his inventory, looking disinterested. Then, the divine beast’s body split into two halves and fell to the ground.
The draconic beasts stood frozen in place, utterly catatonic. It all happened so quickly—a million incredibly powerful enemies obliterated almost entirely by this "weak" golem alone. Ruri merely finished things off, and none of them had the slightest chance to resist; they were like fish on a chopping board. After a few seconds of silence, their jaws collectively dropped in awe.
Little did they know, this was just a small amount of Qi circulating through the meridians of physical cultivation.
Ruri, Alm, and Bruno were thrilled. The celestial runes that had sealed their cultivation were removed the moment they entered this place; now, they could recover to their peak strength.
"Let’s go," the golem said, waving a hand to lead everyone forward quickly.
"T-thank you..." Hibria was the first to speak, bowing toward the pair, still in shock.
She wasn’t naive enough not to realize the obvious now; everyone realized it. These two had always been capable of handling themselves but had simply chosen to remain hidden.
Nayr clenched his fists silently beside her, unable to speak. They had stepped in to help without asking for anything in return, completely changing their fates. Reflecting on their earlier words and actions, both were overcome with shame.
"There’s no need for thanks between us," Ruri said lightly to them. "Master already said everything before. We never lie. You’re connected to us, so after proving yourselves worthy, we helped a little. That was your good karma attracting us. If you’d been anything like the others, we would’ve just ignored you."
The two nodded, not knowing what to say, but...
At that moment, everyone felt time and space stagnate around them, freezing their bodies.
Alm and Bruno immediately looked up. In the midst of the gray horizon, a spatial channel opened. Then, a male, human-like figure emerged from it.
He looked directly at the golem, narrowing his eyes. "Why do I feel the will of the heavens within you?"