Chapter 354 – Sophia Returns

Sophia’s Black Crow flew at a considerable speed, and with her Nightshade Eyes talent, she could evade some of the energy tides. Through the tireless, fearless, and repeatedly resurrected Black Crows, her reconnaissance progressed quite swiftly. She gradually confirmed that at the core of this energy-ravaged zone, there existed a “passage” leading to another region.

“The deeper we go, the closer the sky and earth become. At the very core, the distance between them might be less than a hundred meters.”

She rode on Sickle Moon’s wolf back, gazing into the distance.

Sickle Moon was responsible for evasion, Seventeen for vigilance, and she for observation.

The three of them advanced fervently with their synergistic techniques and found a gap area where the energy tides were relatively sparse. However, they could go no further.

“Unless we possess the power of the Legendary Realm, we cannot shatter the energy tides to penetrate or traverse this region.”

Sophia frowned.

Together, the three of them fully possessed the ability to contend with or even defeat an ordinary Legendary. However… even if they could overcome an ordinary Legendary, they fell far short in terms of “strength,” “energy,” and “sustainability” compared to a true Legendary.

To traverse, they had to tear through the energy tides. Among the three, only Sickle Moon could accomplish this, but she had to exert herself explosively, far from the effortless mastery of a true Legendary.

Moreover, it wasn’t as simple as tearing through the energy tides and recklessly charging deeper to cross over.

She judged that even if a “passage” existed, its area would not be large, which made it all the more necessary for them to have sufficient strength to carefully search the core of this perilous zone.

Their strength was clearly inadequate.

Mu Yuan pondered whether he should send Deadbone to traverse the fierce blockade zone? However, the current situation was tense, and the fierce blockade area was extremely far from the territory.

For Deadbone to make a one-way trip would take at least two days. Two days wasn’t long, but if the battle situation changed, Tianyuan Territory would be critically vulnerable without Undead General guarding it.

Besides…

“The fierce area here is far more vast than the perilous zone Sophia and the others discovered.” In such an expansive region, finding a possible ‘passage’ within it would inevitably require a significant amount of time.”

This was one of the reasons for his hesitation.

Ultimately, it came down to the insufficient number of Legendary powerers in Tianyuan Territory. If he had eight or ten Legendary Generals stationed there, how could the safety coefficient of the territory drop significantly with the absence of one or two?

They were still too weak.

However, if Tianyuan Territory had already produced eight or ten Legendary Realm powerers, he would have long since counterattacked Jackal Fang instead of slowly probing.

Unable to decide, Mu Yuan prepared to consult Deadbone, Lu Liu, Isloria, and a few others.

After all, he was a Lord with many capable aides.

Isloria said impatiently, “I’m almost too busy with territorial affairs to handle, and my understanding of the external battle situation is still from a day and a half ago. Asking me about this is useless. I haven’t even finished arranging work for the over ten thousand new residents. Lord, you must consider that for every day these people’s work arrangements are delayed, the territory loses a day’s profits. Do you think I have any spare time to consider other matters?”

She was absolutely right.

Better get back to work quickly.

Mu Yuan saw Isloria off and turned to Lu Liu, who had just returned.Lu Liu shared some intelligence gathered from the elves and giants.

He added, “Asun encountered an accident—it was ambushed by a Legendary Realm monster. It said the Legendary creature resorted to deceit and surprise attacks against such a young falcon, leaving it severely injured. For some time, it likely won’t be able to venture deep into those dangerous areas.”

Though in his view, Asun’s injury was partly due to its own recklessness and high-profile behavior.

Through the shared vision from Asun, Lu Liu had witnessed everything.

But then again, Asun’s large size and the emerald divine light shimmering around it during flight made staying low-key rather difficult.

Lu Liu said, “Over the past few days, Asun has provoked… encountered several Legendary Realm monsters. However, this allowed us to record detailed intelligence on these Legendary beings, including their appearances, Domains, and more.”

Mu Yuan took the intelligence report handed over by Lu Liu.

At a glance, it was exceptionally detailed—excessively so.

The report contained a meticulous account of Asun’s encounters with Legendary monsters, far more elaborate than the reports Isloria submitted during her work debriefings.

The entire process included descriptions of Asun’s flight postures, the enemy’s flight speed (precise to meters per second), whether the enemy raised its left or right hand first when attacking, and more.

Wait!

The combat reports Lu Liu presented contained at least two thousand characters each, with some exceeding four or even six thousand words. They were accompanied by hand-drawn “Legendary Domain Portraits” sketched by Lu Liu.

When did Lu Liu learn to draw?

No, that wasn’t important. He had called Lu Liu over to seek his opinion, so how did it turn into a work report?

“How about letting me give it a try?” Lu Liu suggested. “I might be able to withstand the energy surge.”

Perhaps he could.

However, Lu Liu wasn’t adept at speed. Even if he could endure the energy surge, how many times could he withstand it? The challenges he’d face venturing into the Fury Zone were similar to those Sophia and the other two encountered.

Asking Lu Liu might be futile, so Mu Yuan could only contact Deadbone through the Mental Link.

“Deadbone, what do you think?”

Deadbone was currently deep in the Wilderness, tracking down the Gnoll Fang Lair.

Asun served as the scout in the open.

Mu Yuan had never expected to locate the enemy’s lair relying solely on Asun or the scouts from the elves and giants.

He had always pinned his hopes on Deadbone. The significance of Asun’s reconnaissance was mostly to create opportunities for Deadbone.

And Deadbone had already discovered crucial clues pointing to the Gnoll Fang Lair yesterday within a designated suspicious area.

Once the enemy’s lair was identified, and after Isloria, Lu Liu, and other commanders advanced to the Legendary Realm, he could launch an assault on Gnoll Fang.

The Mental Link connected instantly with Deadbone, who was thousands of kilometers away.

Deadbone’s steady voice soon came through.

“Bone has recently discovered some monstrous experts that likely don’t belong to the Gnoll Fang faction.”

It had a faint sense of foreboding.

“Bone needs a few more days for observation. Heading south to the Violent Blockade Area at this time would pose significant risks.”

Until this matter was thoroughly investigated, the Undead General felt uneasy.

Within the Gnoll Fang overlord faction, not all experts were Jackalweres; there were also a few non-Jackal direct Fourth-Order Experts, even some at the Legendary Realm.

But since Deadbone said so, it had its reasons.

Venturing south was no longer advisable.

He could only let Sophia and the other two continue their search slowly. If all else failed, they could return to Stone Ridge City to train.Just half a day later, Sophia sent another message.

Hope had arrived.

Hope for breaking through the blockade had arrived.

……

In the wilderness, an elite corps of about a hundred soldiers had spread out, searching for clues, traces, or treasures and materials.

Commanding this corps was the Taixuan Alliance’s newly advanced Legendary Realm·Level 7 Great Lord·super powerhouse Shen Linglong, who already had two Legendary Realm monster kills to her name.

Shen Linglong stared wide-eyed at the pure black crow before her that could sing, dance, and even write Taixuan cipher language, letting out a long exclamation of surprise.

“Huh?”

After some communication and confirmation, Shen Linglong met with Sophia and the other two.

Soon, she understood why Sophia’s group of three had appeared here – they had actually taken great risks, venturing thousands of miles deep into the wilderness, searching for a way home and to save their own lord.

It was truly admirable.

And also truly enviable.

Tianyuan’s generals not only had the capability to venture deep into the wilderness, but most importantly, they could actually follow the limited clues, investigating and analyzing along the way, eventually finding the key location.

What kind of pillar ministers were these!

Shen Linglong glanced beside her at her capable general. This was a massive rock-like lifeform ‘Rumbling Rockbeast’ with a spherical body but short, thick limbs.

“If I went missing, would you venture thousands of miles into the wilderness to investigate regardless of the dangers?”

She stared intently.

The Rumbling Rockbeast blinked its big eyes and let out a very innocent sound, “Huh?”

Shen Linglong facepalmed.

Why were all her subordinates reckless brutes with muscles for brains?

With none of her subordinates being reliable, the weary Shen Linglong could only discuss strategies with Sophia herself.

For every sentence Sophia spoke, she spoke one.

For every ten sentences Sophia spoke, she spoke one.

Sophia spoke…

“…Based on my judgment, we only need to start exploring from here, here, and here, then by shattering the energy tides and following the spatial folds, we have an 80% probability of finding the legendary passage location.

“What do you think, Lord Linglong?”

Every single word Sophia said was recognizable to her, but when put together, why couldn’t she understand any of it?

Shen Linglong thought for three seconds.

Shen Linglong gave up thinking.

“Yes, yes, yes, we’ll proceed according to your strategy.”

She said expressionlessly.

Beside her, the Rumbling Rockbeast also listened quietly without expression. For a moment, the figures of the human and the giant beast seemed to overlap.

……

“BOOM!”

Two hours later, Shen Linglong, Sophia, and the other three had already reached the depths of the dangerous area.

They rode on Sickle Moon’s back, swiftly navigating through, dodging wave after wave of crashing energy tides. When they couldn’t avoid them completely, Shen Linglong would wield her giant halberd – twice her height – gathering the power of heaven and earth to shatter the waves.

Shen Linglong’s hundred-plus elite soldiers and officers were not present.

She had stored the elites within her Great Lord’s Mark Space.

After all, the energy here was extremely violent with constant tides. The elites wouldn’t just be unhelpful here – they would actually be a major hindrance. Even as a Legendary Realm expert, she couldn’t protect too many people; escorting two or three was her limit.

However, after truly venturing deep inside, Shen Linglong discovered that Sophia’s group of three didn’t really need her protection. Rather than her protecting the three of them, it was more like the four of them cooperating together.The white wolf girl named Sickle Moon possessed incredible speed. Without her, traversing such treacherous terrain would require Shen Linglong to repeatedly blast through the energy tides with her giant halberd, expending several times more energy than currently needed.

Conserving energy equated to safety.

The young girl named Sophia could summon Black Crows, providing them with additional eyes and preventing them from wandering aimlessly like headless flies.

Among the three, only the taciturn archer Seventeen seemed relatively ordinary, yet she was still a Fourth-Order Expert.

Damn, that Tianyuan kid has too many outstanding commanders under him!

But with his three main force commanders all scattered abroad, wouldn’t the situation in Tianyuan Territory be even worse than imagined?

At this thought, Shen Linglong’s eyes grew determined: the heavy responsibility of breaking through the passage must fall to her!

……

Boom—

Wave after wave of energy tides came crashing down.

The sky shimmered with seven colors. The distance between heaven and earth felt dangerously close, as if they might collapse at any moment.

In this constantly roaring region where not a single monster could be seen, three humans and one wolf were rapidly advancing.

They darted, they probed, they marched forward.

Sophia served as the commander, Sickle Moon functioned as the super mount, while Shen Linglong wielded her giant halberd, transforming into a nuclear-powered pathbreaker who shattered all energy tides blocking their way.

This hazardous area wasn’t particularly large. Even accounting for spatial distortions that made the interior much vaster than it appeared from outside, it still couldn’t compare to the furious zone that sealed off the entire Black Colossus Mountain Region.

With a legend like Shen Linglong present, thoroughly exploring the entire core area was only a matter of time.

Sophia’s only concern was whether the legendary passage actually existed.

She had asked Shen Linglong about it.

Shen Linglong responded mysteriously, “It might exist, or it might not.”

Energy continued roaring as scattered elemental particles and coalescing turbulent currents severely obstructed explorers’ vision. Relying on her epic talent, Sophia could still clearly observe their surroundings. Maintaining intense concentration, she hadn’t rested for eighteen consecutive hours, barely blinking.

In the distance, the sky seemed to press lower while the earth rose slightly, leaving only a thin line separating heaven and earth. This line appeared infinitely elongated, like a deep valley’s winding path with no end in sight.

Could that be the passage?!

Sophia tugged at the fur on the right side of Sickle Moon’s head, “Charge toward there!”

Sickle Moon raced straight ahead.

As they advanced, the line between heaven and earth disappeared from view, with surging energy tides appearing on both sides that seemed no different from before. However…

“The energy tides are growing more violent!”More chaotic and violent than the most violent area we encountered earlier in the core region!”Initially, when exploring the violent area, she had sought ‘areas with thinner tides.’ But the core area of this hazardous zone was limited, and there was little difference between crossing straight through or detouring around.

Perhaps the more violent regions were the correct targets?

After Sickle Moon ran for several dozen seconds, Sophia confirmed this speculation. They were treading upon an elongated spatial pathway.

“We need to accelerate!”

“Awooo—”

The white wolf howled, erupting with pure moonlight radiance as her body swelled three times in size, transforming into an increasingly majestic and sacred Moon Coronet Giant Wolf.

White Wolf Lian Yue’s speed multiplied severalfold, becoming like wind, becoming like light.

Shen Linglong also began swinging her giant halberd continuously.The giant halberd condensed a hundred-meter-long golden radiance, ceaselessly slashing and shattering the oncoming tidal waves.

She too was burning with intensity.

Tens of seconds! Hundreds of seconds!

Sickle Moon poured all her strength into a full-speed sprint—no dodging, no hesitation, no regard for anything—just charging straight ahead, transforming into a flowing stream of moonlight. She needed to be fast, faster, even faster! She had no idea how far she had run, but after hundreds of seconds at full speed, the surging energy tides around her had become less violent.

Ahead, the distance between the sky and the earth was gradually widening.

Here, the energy tides no longer posed much of a threat.

Sickle Moon reverted to her smaller giant wolf form and continued carrying the three of them forward. They dashed several more miles, and the energy tides behind them gradually thinned out.

Patches of greenery began to appear on the ground, and in the distance, the howls of monsters could be heard.

They had broken out of the energy turbulence zone.

But had they succeeded?

“We made it!”

Gazing at the unfamiliar undulating mountains in the distance, Sophia declared with certainty.

(End of Chapter)