Chapter 84 – Actually, things aren't that bad yet

The two groups searching for Gray Blood Stones were not far apart.

The moment the deafening roar erupted, Liu Man and Gu Lengyan heard it immediately.

The two exchanged a glance, and without a word, they sprinted toward the source of the sound.

Before long.

They saw Lin Ze and the other two running toward them.

And.

Not far behind them in the high sky, the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon was chasing after them with furious roars.

“Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon!?”

“Why would a monster like this appear here?”

Liu Man’s expression changed instantly, an uncontrollable look of terror spreading across her face.

Even Gu Lengyan, who was always calm and rational, couldn’t help but change expression.

A Tier 6 Dragon Type Ferocious Beast was far beyond what they could handle.

Being targeted by such a vicious and powerful monster was absolutely a spine-chilling prospect.

The five quickly regrouped.

Without wasting time on words, they turned and ran.

On the way.

Song Ting briefly explained what had happened.

After listening, Liu Man and Gu Lengyan looked at each other in bewilderment.

Both women immediately sensed something strange about the situation.

But before they could point it out, Lin Ze spoke first.

“It was probably lured here by someone.”

Lin Ze’s eyes flickered as he directly voiced his suspicion.

“The monsters the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon was chasing are all Ferocious Beast species that don’t exist in the Secret Realm.”

“If I’m not mistaken, those monsters were most likely other Beast Tamers’ Pet Beasts!”

At these words, a shadow of gloom immediately fell over the girls’ faces.

Guo Xinyi bit her lip, her expression indignant.

“In other words, someone deliberately attracted that Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon over here? What exactly are they trying to accomplish?”

“That’s not hard to figure out.”

Liu Man, with her extensive experience in Secret Realm exploration, understood after a moment’s thought.

“Either someone encountered the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon, couldn’t defeat it, and decided to divert the trouble elsewhere—and we’re the unlucky scapegoats they picked!”

“Or someone has it out for us and plans to use the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon to kill us!”

Guo Xinyi’s eyes widened, her pretty face filled with shock and disbelief.

Only Ningjiang Academy students could enter the Stone-Condensing Secret Realm.

So the identity of the mastermind went without saying.

She simply couldn’t imagine that a student would do something like this.

Weren’t they all classmates from the same academy?

Having just entered the academy not long ago, the girl whose heart was still innocent simply couldn’t accept this.

Lin Ze, however, neither confirmed nor denied it.

Human nature was complex.

Whether it was the fear of death, or hatred and rage, all of it was enough to drive people to do many irrational things.

“But regardless of which situation it is, neither can explain why the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon appeared here.”

Liu Man said with a frown.

Gu Lengyan furrowed her brows slightly. “Now isn’t the time to think about that. Let’s first figure out how to deal with that big guy behind us.”

In just a few hundred meters of running, the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon had quickly caught up.

The distance closed to within a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

At this distance, the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon could spew Dragon Breath at any moment.

The heavy, terrifying Dragon Awe pressed down on everyone, sending chills running down their spines.

Hearing the increasingly close whistling sounds of wind behind him, Lin Ze’s gaze flickered several times, and he let out a soft sigh.

“We can’t keep running like this!”

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to face the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon.

Chasing on flat ground against a flying Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon was undoubtedly foolish.

Before long, they would be caught up to.

Liu Man and the others naturally thought of this as well.

Seeing Lin Ze stop, they too couldn’t help but halt their steps.

Gu Lengyan pursed her lips and said in a low voice:

“Rather than flee until we’re exhausted, it’s better to fight with everything we have while our strength is still sufficient.”

Liu Man, Song Ting, and Guo Xinyi exchanged glances and nodded heavily.

Having reached an unspoken agreement, they all ordered their Pet Beasts to attack.

The Flash-Leap Dragon Beast was the fastest.

It leaped out entirely, its form flickering slightly in the void, instantly crossing dozens of meters to arrive before the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon, opening its mouth to spew a semi-transparent pillar of light.

At the same time.

The Silver Centaur’s halberd, the Blade-Spine Dragon’s spine blades volleyed forth, the Fire Elemental Giant’s explosive fireballs… all of their Pet Beasts’ Skills struck simultaneously.

An overwhelming barrage of attacks engulfed the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon in an instant.

Yet facing such fierce and ferocious attacks, the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon showed not a trace of fear.

It simply opened its mouth and spat out Dragon Breath.

A shallow black breath swept out in a fan shape, shattering and annihilating all incoming attacks.

Then.

The Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon opened its massive maw once more.

This time, what it spat out was a mist tinged with a faint bloody hue.

The blood mist surged forth at astonishing speed, instantly engulfing the caught-off-guard Flash-Leap Dragon Beast.

It didn’t even have time to let out a cry of agony.

The Flash-Leap Dragon Beast’s body stiffened abruptly, a bluish-gray color emerging from its brow, spreading at a terrifyingly visible speed across its entire body.

In the blink of an eye.

The Flash-Leap Dragon Beast turned into a stone statue.

Crack!

The Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon swooped down and shattered the statue with a single claw.

The Flash-Leap Dragon Beast had fallen!

In just a single exchange, they had lost a Tier 5 combatant.

This sight made Liu Man and the others’ expressions change drastically.

“Stone-Condensing Blood Mist…”

Guo Xinyi’s face turned pale, murmuring to herself.

Stone-Condensing Blood Mist was the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon’s signature Skill.

Unless one possessed a high-level abnormal resistance Skill, any creature of a lower Level than the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon would turn into a stone statue the moment they came into contact with the Stone-Condensing Blood Mist.

With this terrifying Skill, calling the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon a slaughter machine when facing lower-Tier opponents was no exaggeration.

Crack!

In the brief moment of Liu Man and the others’ shock and horror.

The Silver Centaur and the Blade-Spine Dragon also followed in their companion’s footsteps.

One after another, they were turned into stone statues by the Stone-Condensing Blood Mist, then shattered and slain.

Among all the Pet Beasts, only the Rock Ghost, being of the Earth Attribute and immune to Petrification, and Xiao Xue, who had been unleashing Skills from the rear, could barely hold their ground against the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon.

Yet even so, it was all to no avail.

At this rate, total annihilation was only a matter of time.

“No good, we simply can’t win!”

Song Ting and the other women’s faces turned pale, staring at the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon with horrified eyes.

All along, they had heard plenty about the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon’s power and terror.

But facing it head-on was a first for them.

The latter’s might far exceeded their expectations.

Only now did they truly realize how vast the gap between Tier 6 and Tier 5 was.

A mere single Tier, yet as insurmountable as the heavens and the earth.

It involuntarily stirred a sense of helplessness.

Guo Xinyi’s face even showed a look of despair.

Seeing this, Liu Man’s expression shifted uncertainly for a moment, then suddenly gritted her teeth, as if she had made some kind of decision.

“I’ll hold off the Stone-Condensing Magic Dragon—you all take the chance to escape!”

The others stared at Liu Man in shock.

The girl’s hand now held a small, pitch-black bell, appearing there without warning.

“I can only hold it off for ten minutes at most. Use this time to leave Grey-Blood Valley and find somewhere to hide!”

Gu Lengyan seemed to recognize the black bell in Liu Man’s hand, and her expression shifted instantly.

“The Thousandfold Bell!”

Gu Lengyan’s face immediately turned utterly solemn.

“When the Thousandfold Bell is used, the wielder is also trapped in place and unable to move. Are you planning to sacrifice yourself?!”

Hearing this, Guo Xinyi’s eyes flew wide in alarm.

“Senior sister…”

The words barely left her mouth before Liu Man cut her off.

With a resolute look, she swept her gaze across her companions.

“Better one of us dies than all of us together!”

“But…”

It wasn’t just Guo Xinyi—even Gu Lengyan and Song Ting were filled with hesitation and grief.

To abandon Liu Man, to trade their friend’s life for their own survival—they simply couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

Yet if they didn’t, the only outcome would be all of them dying together.

Seeing them frozen in place, Liu Man grew anxious and turned to Lin Ze.

“Junior, take them and leave!”

Unexpectedly, Lin Ze shook his head without hesitation.

“I’m sorry, senior sister, but I can’t do that.”

Liu Man was taken aback, her expression growing even more urgent.

“Are you being this indecisive too?”

Lin Ze merely replied with a calm face.

“No need to rush, senior sister. Things haven’t actually reached that dire a point yet.”

Lin Ze’s composed, unhurried demeanor left all the girls present momentarily stunned.

At a time like this, how could Lin Ze still say such things?

Wasn’t the current situation bad enough?

But before they could figure out what he meant, he had already turned his gaze toward the battlefield.

With a subtle shift of his mind, a translucent panel suddenly materialized in the air before him.