Several hours later, in a region of the mid-levels of the Rotten Vale where piles of various rotting monster corpses had accumulated yet not the slightest trace of effluvium remained, only a few Raphinos could be seen. They had been deeply corroded by the effluvium, yet still retained the biological instinct to survive. These creatures were sprawled atop the decaying bodies, tearing at them mouthful by mouthful, chewing and swallowing the putrid, blood-reeking rotten flesh.
If divided by regions, the Rotten Vale and the Coral Highlands were originally one and the same, differing only in vertical elevation.
Yet it was precisely this difference in height that shaped the Coral Highlands into a colorful, fairy-tale-like world, while the lower Rotten Vale resembled its opposing counterpart—a scene like a bottomless abyss.
In the Coral Highlands, Raphinos existed merely as the primary food source for most carnivorous creatures. In their daily lives, aside from evading predators, the only things they needed to consider were where the Coral Eggs tasted better and where water sources were more abundant.
Their defining trait was simple: harmless to humans and beasts alike.
But the Raphinos within the Rotten Vale were completely different. They shed the docility of their upper-level counterparts, becoming highly aggressive, and were forcibly driven into omnivory.
When there were not enough coral eggs available, the flesh and blood of other creatures would also become their chosen food.
Suddenly, not far away, the effluvium was torn open into a massive gap, and the violently raging wind nearly swept the feeding Raphinos away.
The ones that had already become incomparably violent because of the effluvium immediately gave up feeding and let out piercing shrieks toward the direction the gale was blowing from.
Very soon, a sheet of crystals fell, rapidly stacking into a road.
The Radiant Crystal Butterfly responsible for maintaining the passage had not even flown out yet when the hunter—who had already endured the high temperatures inside the passage for a long time—was the first to leap out.
After landing, feeling the sticky sensation under the soles of his boots and breathing the rotten, stinking air that still carried faint threads of a breeze, he had finally made it out of that dim passage!
Who knew—within this passage opened up by the Sunblaze Dragon, one that was completely impossible to see the end of, aside from the scattered points of light that lit up when the Radiant Crystal Butterfly sprayed scale powder to counter the effluvium for illumination, everything else was endless, unfathomable depth.
If not for his trust in the Sunblaze Dragon, and the clacking impact sounds from his companions' footsteps on the Terastal crystals behind him, he would have almost been driven into claustrophobia.
Before the hunter could even voice his feelings, someone behind him suddenly shoved him.
"Don't block the way! There are still people behind!"
"O-oh!"
The hunter snapped back to his senses, quickly running off to clear the way.
The Raphinos that had originally been preparing to launch an attack after noticing the hunter's appearance hadn't even had time to start fighting when those lifeless, pallid eyes saw hunter after hunter continuously charge out of the passage, as if endless. Very quickly, they filled this entire area.
Forced into it, the Raphinos could only fly up high and cling to those protruding gigantic conch shells.
Although the Raphinos had become somewhat unhinged due to the effluvium, when it came to matters of survival, they still cared about their own lives.
One or two creatures of a hunter's size were nothing to worry about—but a massive crowd was a completely different matter.
Why was it that the Girros were able to occupy such a vast living area within the Rotten Vale?
Aside from their strong reproductive capacity, it was also because they spent the entire year moving about in large, tightly packed groups.
People continued to emerge from the passage one after another, a process that lasted for more than half an hour, until the final person finally leapt out.
Some of the logistics personnel with insufficient stamina collapsed the very moment they emerged, their tightly wound nerves finally relaxing.
Their physical potential had been completely squeezed dry, and the prolonged exposure to intense heat had already pushed their endurance past its limit.
In that final moment of relaxation, they could no longer hold on and directly fainted.
As a result, this also triggered no small amount of commotion.
The Commander waved a hand to dismiss the hunters who had rushed over to support him. Looking at the hunters all around, the corners of his mouth rose in a smile he could no longer suppress.
After clapping his hands to draw everyone's attention, he immediately ordered everyone to grit their teeth and push through in one go, returning to the upper level of the Rotten Vale, and not stay here to cause trouble for the Sunblaze Dragon.
That was right—by the Commander's own words, it would count as causing trouble.
After all, hunters could not, like a Fire Wyvern, simply fly straight into the sky after emerging from the lower reaches of the ravine. They had no choice but to shamelessly wait for the Sunblaze Dragon to help them once again by carving out another new passage upward along the route it had previously opened on Logan's way here.
But when they were only halfway through the retreat, the Sunblaze Dragon seemed to sense something and proactively accelerated the speed at which it carved the passage. Many paths that would normally have required detours were instead blasted straight open by a single laser beam from its mouth, forcibly shortening the retreat time by a considerable margin.
When they finally reached this place, the Sunblaze Dragon turned around without the slightest hesitation and hurried back.
The hunters did not ask anything. Including Darren, they all understood very clearly that until the logistics scholars could produce equipment capable of dealing with effluvium of this level, there was truly nothing they could do to help Logan.
Therefore, everyone silently quickened their pace, all for the sake of not dragging down what Logan was about to do.
And at this moment, Logan himself was indeed feeling a sense of urgency.
He had not expected that this trip—meant to be nothing more than showing his face and rescuing these highly useful hunters—
would end up with something going wrong on Zorah Magdaros's side!
That creature had deceived all living beings!
They had originally thought it had resigned itself to returning to its own resting place, yet after resting for three days and using the effluvium to stabilize its life energy, which was on the verge of running rampant, it unexpectedly started making trouble again!
Those thunderous, rumbling footsteps advancing forward could not possibly be faked!
And yet, for reasons unknown, the Vaal Hazak showed no reaction at all.
Helpless as the situation had become, Logan could no longer stand by and do nothing. After a brief moment of thought, he decisively flew toward the direction where Zorah Magdaros was located.
At some unknown point in time, the wall at Zorah Magdaros's originally designated resting place—one that connected directly to the Everstream—had been melted through by magma flowing down from its back.
As the magma of the Everstream intertwined with Zorah Magdaros's own magma, life energy continuously coiled and intertwined within it.
Under normal circumstances, this was an entirely natural phenomenon. After Zorah Magdaros died, the volcano on its back would gradually drain its magma, eventually turning into a dormant volcano.
Many years later, once Zorah Magdaros's remains fully merged with the environment, and the dormant volcano became completely connected to the tributaries of the Everstream, it would become active once more.
Only at that point would this volcano have nothing to do with Zorah Magdaros anymore.
But there was one problem that could not be ignored!
That was the fact that flowing through the Everstream at this very moment was not only magma carrying massive amounts of life energy, but also pheromones saturated with pure life energy—pheromones belonging to the cocoon of the yet-to-hatch "King of Elder Dragons," Xeno'jiiva!
Originally, these pheromones could only be perceived through energy-sensing organs and were not enough to drive Zorah Magdaros completely mad.
However, as the magmas converged, the pheromones clung like parasites burrowing into bone, directly infiltrating Zorah Magdaros's core energy organs and instantly awakening it once more.
That yearning for life seized its mind again, driving the Zorah Magdaros—which had already resigned itself to fate—to make one more desperate charge, all for the sake of its own survival.
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