Chapter 77 – Crow's Mouth

“No wonder this is a miracle passed down from the Era of the Great Cataclysm.”

Lin Ze clicked his tongue in amazement.

The Pale Wall was circular in shape.

But to insignificant humans, its curvature was nearly impossible to perceive with the naked eye.

“The Pale Wall has four entrances in total. If we walk along the wall, we’ll find one,” Liu Man said, taking the lead and heading to the right.

After about half an hour of walking.

The group finally spotted a massive door embedded within the colossal wall.

The door, forged from rock, was tightly shut, its surface rough yet remarkably even.

From a distance, it gave off a heavy, earth-like texture.

At Lin Ze’s command, the Rock Ghost stepped forward and pressed its thick palms against the door.

Then, with sudden force—

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

A dull, thunderous roar echoed through the air.

Under the Rock Ghost’s immense strength, the two heavy doors slowly creaked open.

Before long, a gap wide enough for two people to pass through was revealed.

“It’s so easy when you have a Pet Beast with outstanding strength,” Liu Man said with a smile.

“In the past, we’d have to have several Pet Beasts work together and struggle for ages just to push this door open.”

Lin Ze smiled but said nothing.

Without wasting any time, the group passed through the massive door and headed inside.

“Be careful—there are far more Ferocious Beasts in the third ring zone than in the previous two.”

“And they’re mostly Tier 4 Pet Beasts, with no shortage of Tier 5 ones either.”

Song Ting gave her usual warning, then explained the differences to Lin Ze and Guo Xinyi.

“Additionally, beast packs occasionally appear in the third ring zone. Though they’re not large—only a hundred or two hundred strong—we still need to be extremely cautious.”

Lin Ze nodded slightly.

A beast pack of only a hundred or two hundred didn’t sound all that impressive.

Compared to the tens of thousands of Insect Tides they’d encountered back in Deathknell Canyon, it was far less daunting.

But if every single one of those hundred or two hundred beasts was Tier 4, the threat level would be entirely different.

Even with eight Tier 5 combatants in the team, going up against hundreds of Tier 4 Ferocious Beasts was no walk in the park.

“Our goal is the second ring zone, so we’d better not waste too much energy here.”

“On the way ahead, unless absolutely necessary, let’s avoid the Ferocious Beasts whenever we can.”

Song Ting’s words drew nods of agreement from the others.

For this Secret Realm expedition, they’d planned for about three days.

Subtracting the time spent coming and going, they’d have no more than two days to spend in the second ring zone.

Time was precious.

Not worth wasting in other areas.

Along the way, the group encountered quite a few more Ferocious Beasts.

They avoided them whenever possible.

Those they couldn’t avoid were dealt with swiftly, to keep the battles from dragging on and attracting more beasts.

Under these circumstances, Liu Man and the other three women’s Pet Beasts gradually joined the fray.

There was no denying it.

The combat power of Tier 5 Dragon-type Pet Beasts was not to be underestimated.

Whether it was Liu Man’s Dragon Lion, Gu Lengyan’s Blade-Spine Dragon, or Song Ting’s Flash-Leap Dragon Beast—

Their attacks were all ferocious and ruthless.

Tier 4 Tomb Horrors often couldn’t survive even a single exchange against them.

On the other side.

Lin Ze finally got to witness the Mist Spirit’s fighting style.

Without any visible movement from Guo Xinyi, a section of the white mist swirling around her suddenly split off, condensing into a lifelike giant palm.

Then it struck out with overwhelming momentum, slamming into a Tomb Horror with a thunderous boom and driving it hard into the ground.

Once the massive palm lifted, the poor Grave Horror had been reduced to a pulp, dead beyond any doubt.

“That’s one powerful Wonder Item!”

Lin Ze clicked his tongue in admiration.

But he quickly noticed that before long, Guo Xinyi pulled out a potion and tipped her head back to down it.

“That’s… a Soul Power Potion.”

As the name suggested, the effect of a Soul Power Potion was naturally to restore depleted Soul Power.

However, compared to the Soul Replenishing Potion Lin Ze had obtained through his achievement, it was far inferior in effectiveness.

Even the highest-quality High-rank Soul Power Potion couldn’t restore all Soul Power instantly.

Watching Guo Xinyi take the potion, Lin Ze understood somewhat.

“It seems this Wonder Item is powerful, but it’s a major drain on Soul Power.”

Thinking about it, it made sense. For something that allowed a Tier 3 Apprentice Beast Tamer to wield Tier 5-level power as effortlessly as controlling their own arm, it would be impossible to imagine there being no side effects.

After observing for a while, Lin Ze withdrew his gaze and opened his Pet Beast panel instead.

After nearly half a day of fighting.

The Rock Ghost’s Growth Rate had increased by over four percentage points.

The density of Ferocious Beasts within the Secret Realm was ultimately much higher than in the wilderness.

If they had been hunting out in the wild, it would have been difficult to even increase the Growth Rate by 1% in that amount of time.

“Still about 5% to go. Once it reaches 80%, I can unlock [Boulder Impact].”

Lin Ze murmured to himself.

As he was pondering, the battle had already concluded.

The group continued forward.

“Speaking of which, besides Grave Horrors, what other Ferocious Beasts are there in the third ring area?”

Along the way, Lin Ze took the opportunity to ask Song Ting.

The list obtained earlier from the logistics department had only provided detailed information on Ferocious Beasts in the fifth ring.

Presumably, the academy hadn’t expected any First Year student to make it to the third ring, so the list didn’t contain much information on that front.

Hearing Lin Ze’s question, Song Ting answered without hesitation:

“Pale Guards!”

“They’re an Undead Attribute Ferocious Beast, with Power Levels generally ranging from Tier 4, Stage 2 to Tier 4, Stage 7.”

“Additionally, their Evolution Form, the ‘Pale Lord,’ is also extremely formidable, with a Power Level as high as Tier 5, Stage 8.”

Tier 5, Stage 8, huh.

Lin Ze mused briefly but didn’t pay it much mind.

With the team’s current strength, killing a Tier 5, Stage 6 Ferocious Beast was more than manageable.

Seeming to read Lin Ze’s thoughts, Song Ting spoke with a serious expression, warning:

“A single Pale Lord isn’t much of a problem—what’s truly terrifying is its commanding ability.”

“The Pale Lord has the power to summon lower-form members of its kind. Every time it appears, it’s accompanied by a large number of Pale Guards.”

“Part of the beast hordes in the third ring are legions led by Pale Lords.”

At these words, both Lin Ze and Guo Xinyi’s faces took on a more solemn expression.

A beast horde led by a high-tier Ferocious Beast and one without such leadership were completely different in combat capability.

The latter was just a scattered mob, nothing to fear.

The former was an army, enough to make anyone pale.

Lin Ze knew this all too well.

Back in Deathknell Canyon, if it hadn’t been for the Deathknell Striker, the Beast Tamers wouldn’t have been pushed back step by step under the insect swarm’s assault, nearly being wiped out entirely.

“But there’s no need to worry too much. Pale Lords spend most of their time sleeping underground and rarely surface to roam around outside.”

Seeing the change in their expressions, Song Ting added a word of reassurance.

“Unless we’re extremely unlucky, we normally wouldn’t run into a Pale Lord.”

The moment she finished speaking, Liu Man burst out laughing.

“Xiao Ting, you’re jinxing us with that talk.”

Song Ting rolled her eyes at her friend. “Don’t be a crow’s mouth…”

Before she could finish.

Lin Ze’s expression suddenly shifted.

“A Ferocious Beast is heading this way!”

Gu Lengyan also looked ahead with a grave expression, her voice firm. “There are many of them.”

The other three were taken aback, quickly gazing into the distance.

They were currently standing on a small slope with an excellent vantage point, easily able to see the situation far ahead.

Looking out.

A cloud of dust rose from a thousand meters away.

Vaguely visible was a large group of armored, blade-wielding skeletal creatures charging toward them at full speed.

They were none other than the Pale Guards they had just mentioned.

Their numbers were estimated to be no fewer than two hundred.

Seeing this scene, Liu Man and the others exchanged bewildered glances.

Could it really be that accurate?