And as an immigrant to Aosam, it was normal for Denton to save Cynthia, wasn't it? Of course, the life-saving wasn't free; Cynthia had things she absolutely had to do.
"Wait a little longer. Someone will naturally take care of the troublesome things," Denton, despite being only Sequence Four, spoke with an air of control over the whole situation. He looked into the distance and said, "Now, we just need to find that door and wait for them to return."
After speaking, Denton glanced at the vanished Eagle Eye in the sky again, hugged the wall, and walked forward. Seeing his clear sense of purpose, Cynthia pursed her lips and followed.
Yake could see within a 50-kilometer radius, the area visible to his eyes, not every detail within 50 kilometers. Therefore, he didn't know that someone was secretly carrying out a plan right under his nose. But Yake firmly believed in his intuition: there were still secrets in this building that hadn't been explored. The main reason was that the collapse came too suddenly.
Some might think the collapse was part of their assessment and thus normal, but there was no reason for a sudden change to occur just after they arrived here without finding anything. He carefully searched every part of his vision, looking for anomalies.
Meanwhile, Wei Huan had already flown a great distance. However, Jones and Liyav could confirm that Wei Huan was not moving in a straight line. Soon, the reason for Wei Huan's actions became clear.
The flying speed slowed down, and they descended from high altitude into the desolate forest. Everyone immediately saw the "purple crystal mud" almost buried by purple fallen leaves. This was a person, or rather, once healed, a challenger from the Blue Star. But now, heavily contaminated, he lay paralyzed on the ground, devoid of self-awareness.
Liyav remembered that feeling—like plunging into a bottomless abyss. He clearly felt he was alive but had no sensation in his body. The helpless feeling of fear and despair made his hair stand on end even when recalling it now.
Seeing Wei Huan use the Burrow Beast to grab the infected person, Liyav felt gratitude toward Wei Huan, even though Wei Huan also absorbed the Colossus shard carried by the person. Regardless of Wei Huan's true purpose, Liyav, who had indeed been saved, cast a thankful glance at Wei Huan.
Wei Huan did not focus on Liyav's gaze. He simply rescued people, absorbed the Colossus shard, took the person away, and rushed toward his destination. Along the way, he found four more people successively. As they were saved, Wei Huan's Colossus finally began to have a noticeable facial contour.
When another Colossus shard was aggregated, the Colossus, which only had a head, suddenly emitted a sound: "It's not enough."
"Help!" Jones was startled. With a flip, he nimbly landed on the Burrow Beast's shell, watching the stone statue warily.
Wei Huan and Liyav, however, were much calmer. Being more focused on cultivating Spirit Power, they had sensed subtle changes in the Colossus long ago. It probably started when Wei Huan absorbed the first shard. The pure power of nature within the stone statue seemed to converge. If they had to describe the feeling, it was like the wind blowing, water flowing, and fire leaping to life. It was a sense of "metamorphosis."
To confirm the result of this change, and also consistent with Wei Huan's goal, they continued to rescue some people, finally prompting a change in the Colossus.
"It's not enough," it said.
Hearing the Colossus speak, clearly soliciting the fusion of more shards, Liyav asked Wei Huan with a grave expression: "Should we continue?"
Wei Huan nodded: "There's no other way."
"Do you think it will attack us?"
"It doesn't matter. If it dares to attack, we'll smash it back into pieces."
Colossus: "..."
To confirm his guess, Wei Huan had to search for survivors over a larger area, almost half of this trial ground. Every time he found a challenger and integrated a new Colossus shard, it would say: "It's not enough."
In a flash, Wei Huan had saved 8 people, which made him a little curious: "Are there that many Colossus shards?"
Liyav hadn't expected Wei Huan to ask this. As a high-ranking general and powerhouse of the Great Bear Nation, he knew a good deal and explained: "Many. These Colossus fragments appear in Gold-grade treasure chests, and they are not world-specific. About five or six pieces are opened every year. It's been 7 years now, so there are quite a few."
"Are you saying there are 50 pieces?"
"Around 50. Most were collected by the state. Some were collected by private organizations and powerhouses. They should all have entered this time."
Wei Huan wasn't interested in this. He was only guessing a possibility. He already had 19 stone fragments now. Did this mean he was close to half and something would change?
Wei Huan's guess was correct. After spending a long time finding a new challenger and obtaining his Colossus shard, the Colossus, which had been floating beside Wei Huan and whose head alone was now several times larger than Wei Huan, finally changed its voice and said: "Thank you, Challenger. I finally feel much better, but this is still not enough. We need to collect more Colossus shards to restore my power so I can open that door."
"..." Wei Huan was silent for a second, feeling like he was hearing lines from a game NPC.
The Challenge World had never given him a false feeling, but this assessment world did now. However, this was not a bad thing. With clear guidance, he could directly complete the mission, which was better than having to rely on speculation for everything.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Huan asked the Colossus: "This place is too big. It's difficult for me to collect the remaining fragments."
The Colossus replied: "I know the direction of the remaining fragments. Go in the direction I guide, Challenger."
As its voice faded, a fresh green breeze swept past them, then transformed into a colorful butterfly, fluttering ahead.
The Colossus said: "This world has been polluted. We need to purify this world and restore its original appearance, but my power is still too weak. Now I need to rest. When you find a new fragment, I will wake up."
"Are you a Titan? What is behind that door? What exactly do you want us to do in this assessment?" Liyav urgently questioned. Unfortunately, the Colossus did not answer him. After speaking, it closed its eyes, seemingly truly exhausted and asleep.
"What is this?" Liyav frowned. "Task guidance?" He was referring to the butterfly. "It's like a game."
Jones saw that Wei Huan did not reply, so he thought for a moment and said: "An assessment, isn't it just a pre-arranged trial?"
Wei Huan raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, acknowledging the answer. In fact, the Challenge World was also a pre-arranged trial. Otherwise, in a real world, how could monsters jump out of a treasure chest, and how could supplies be obtained? It was just that the Challenge World lacked a plot and existed only for them to level up, like the most basic monster-slaying game. The Great Battlefield was an unrelenting, real-time strategy confrontation, filled with killing and the cruelty of disregarding human life, nothing else.
So, in this assessment, it had clearly become a plot-driven adventure trial. One rigid "game" after another forced humanity to grow up at the fastest possible speed. Otherwise, the extinction of the race awaited.
A game of the gods? Wei Huan sighed softly, thinking about this. He truly didn't want to think too much; it would send his emotions plummeting into an abyss. So, before he fell, he pulled himself back.
He turned to Liyav and Jones and said: "Exactly. Since it's a trial, there must be a reward. A large-scale trial that gathers the current human powerhouses—I'm already looking forward to the reward."
Sure enough, when it came to rewards, the eyes of the two others also lit up, not being immune to the allure. Yes, talking about rewards, they were no longer tired.
With the "plot" progression clarified and the guidance of the butterfly, everything went smoothly for Wei Huan. This world, apart from the purple spot contamination, had no other monsters. He only needed to hurry. The scattered and infected challengers outside were all found and rescued by him one by one.
Although this took a long time, when the last fragment was found and merged, the anticipated next "plot point" finally arrived.
The Colossus, which had been complaining of exhaustion, now fully opened its eyes and said to Wei Huan: "I feel I have enough now. Thank you, Challenger. Next, we need to go to a place. Only by opening that door can we have the power to combat this contamination. Now we must speed up. We don't have much time left."
As it spoke, the stone mass, about the size of a truck, suddenly leaped off Wei Huan's shoulder. It tumbled in mid-air, then grew hands and feet, landing on the ground with a "boom." As its feet touched the ground, as if gaining tremendous power, its body grew visibly, reaching a hundred meters tall in a few breaths.
The skin, which had previously looked like stone, also became smooth during this process. Although it was still a grayish-white color unlike human skin, it no longer looked like stone. Its appearance was almost identical to a human: the same facial features, hands, and feet, even having five toes. However, the strong, naked body lacked gender characteristics, only giving an impression of extreme strength.
As for whether he could kill it? Wei Huan vaguely felt that he could potentially fight this creature.
After the Giant recovered to its full strength, it said to Wei Huan: "Alright, next we must proceed at full speed. I hope you can keep up with me."
Without waiting for Wei Huan's reply, it took massive strides and ran out. Each step covered over a hundred meters, and its pace was fast; its movement speed was indeed quick. Moreover... the amplitude of its body swings suggested it possessed similarly swift movements in combat. Wei Huan secretly compared and noted that the difficulty of defeating it had increased slightly.
Wei Huan urged the Burrow Beast Mother to follow, requiring him to travel at full speed to keep up with the Giant's pace. Perhaps this was also a test? Wei Huan didn't try to stop and see what would happen. In any case, it wasn't him running, so following was fine.
They galloped like this the entire way. Halfway through, Wei Huan found some landmarks and confirmed that they were indeed heading toward the location of one of the two giants on the map. However, this direction seemed different from the one he initially chose. It was heading toward the direction of the Sun-Holder.
Sun, light, heat. These keywords were very unfriendly to a Tomb Keeper. Wei Huan frowned, contemplating the probability of him completing this mission.
He had to try to succeed. There was no reason to turn back now, and if he did, would the mission fail? This big guy kept shouting, "Time is running out." Perhaps the mission, at this stage, was an escort task racing against time?
Finally, the familiar white mist appeared ahead. The dense white mist flowed down from the sky like a waterfall, encircling their world. Wei Huan had used all methods before and could not break through.
But now, the grayish-white skinned Giant stood before the white mist, inserting the fingers of both hands into the mist. Its arms strained, muscles bulging, and its legs were deeply rooted in the ground like iron towers. Then, it loudly roared: "Titan!"
The white mist that had blocked Wei Huan was torn open by the Giant like two white curtains being pulled aside. Wei Huan was greatly alarmed and re-evaluated the strength of the Titan. Hmm... he couldn't defeat this Titan now.
This wasn't just because of "immense strength." More importantly, Wei Huan sensed the power of laws in the Giant's action of tearing open the restriction.
Behind the torn restriction, there was still a patch of white mist, but this mist could no longer hinder them. The Giant maintained its posture, turned to look at them, and said: "Quick! Go and sail it out! I can't hold on for long. Be quick!"
"What? Sail what out?" Jones scratched his head in confusion. "How much time do we have for the mission? Can you be clearer?"
Jones's question was also what Wei Huan wanted to know. Unfortunately, the Giant did not answer them but concentrated on fighting the power of the restriction. Jones wanted to ask again.
The Giant roared: "Hurry! I can't hold on much longer! Titan!"
Well, it seemed they had reached the stage where they had to figure things out for themselves again. Wei Huan no longer hesitated, urging the Undead to fly into the white mist. The white mist indeed no longer obstructed them. It was like the most ordinary mist, having no effect on them other than slightly obscuring visibility.
Wei Huan didn't know the direction and simply flew forward. Soon, he couldn't even hear the Giant's shouting of "Titan" anymore. The surroundings were extremely quiet, but not eerie or terrifying. The air in the white mist was pure, like walking in a park on Blue Star one morning. The world felt like it was gradually being illuminated under the morning sun.
Wei Huan's flying speed also unconsciously slowed down until a massive outline appeared ahead, like walking under a gigantic building, and a shadow was cast over them. Wei Huan stopped to sense the environment. Feeling no danger, he continued forward.
However, the portal behind him was already open. A large number of Undead emerged, flying toward the huge dark shadow. Soon, Raven Sister's "caw-caw" sounded in his ear. Wei Huan listened, raised an eyebrow, and this time flew directly over.
Liyav asked: "What is it?"
Wei Huan said: "A ship."
"A ship?"
"A very large ship."
That was right, it was a very large ship. As they moved closer and continuously increased their altitude to see the entire object from above, they realized it was indeed an ancient sailboat made of an unknown material, somewhat resembling the wooden ancient sailboats of Blue Star's antiquity.
However, its size exceeded imagination, being about ten aircraft carriers in size. The tallest mast alone seemed capable of piercing the sky, and the crossbars stretched out of sight.
"What... is this?" Liyav murmured.
Jones said: "It's an ancient sailboat."
Liyav looked at the serious-faced Jones: "I know it's an ancient sailboat, but that's not what I asked. I..."
Jones said: "Yes, you want to ask what it is? It's a large sailboat that sails by wind power."
Liyav was about to say something, but quickly reacted: "You're not wrong, but obviously, a giant thing like this isn't for humans."
Jones said: "A Titan's wind-powered large sailboat."
Undoubtedly, this was what the Giant was referring to. While listening to the two talk, Wei Huan was already contemplating how to pilot it. Recalling the Giant's words, it explicitly said, "sail it out." In other words, they had to find a way to start this massive ancient sailboat and get it out of this white mist space before the Giant ran out of strength?
"But this is an ancient sailboat, and there's no wind here."
"Is it possible that the ancient sailboat is just a form, and the real power is in the cabin?"
"Right, should we go down and check?"
The last question was from Liyav to Wei Huan. Wei Huan was the backbone of this small action team, and without his agreement, they couldn't proceed. Wei Huan nodded. He had no better option at the moment.
Liyav and Jones descended, followed by hundreds of Undead. The Undead army, visible everywhere, stepped onto the ancient sailboat's deck earlier than them and seemed to have searched for a while. The two men also had their own tasks. Although the Undead army could quickly search the ship, they were limited by intelligence and could not be as thorough as humans. Liyav and Jones needed to enter the ship to look around and should be able to find the power room.
The two landed on the deck. It was so large that they felt like two ants entering a human room, unable to see the ends in any direction. The two quickly discussed and decided that one would search the bow, and the other the stern. Jones summoned a Tier 5 World Goshawk and rode it. With a bright cry, he flew toward the bow. Liyav, on the other hand, waved his staff, and a red transparent halo appeared around him. He covered three to four meters with each step, moving rapidly toward the stern as if teleporting.
Liyav found nothing at the stern, only the huge rudder, the masts, and thick hemp ropes that he could sleep on. Finally, he flew down along the hull and reached the first deck of the cabin, which contained individual rooms. However, the rooms only had basic bed frames, fixed wooden stools and chairs, and no other items. They were old but neither broken nor dirty, as if the owner had meticulously cleaned them before leaving. Everything was well preserved.
Liyav searched a total of six rooms. There were still more rooms ahead, but they seemed to be the same. He planned to continue to the next level when a tremor suddenly came from under his feet, accompanied by a scraping sound. Realizing something, Liyav hurriedly flew up, returned to the room, went to the window, and peered out.
Sure enough, the ship was moving. Did Jones find the power room and start the ship? Liyav was a little annoyed. It was another day of being useless. This assessment was clearly not tailored for him. He nearly died as soon as he arrived, and even though he was fine and could move freely now, his strength seemed to be consistently unusable. Furthermore, that "black monkey" had beaten him to it. Although Liyav didn't want to admit it, he truly wanted to appear more useful in front of Wei Huan, after all, Wei Huan was the only team leader who controlled the channel for advancement.
Liyav returned to the deck. He hadn't walked far when he saw Jones flying over on his Goshawk. As soon as they met, Jones spoke first: "Was the power room at the stern? You are truly amazing!"
Liyav was stunned. It wasn't him, and it wasn't Jones, so then, could it be... Liyav looked up at the sky, witnessing an extremely shocking sight.
He saw that the masts were filled with Xiuroma (Centaur-like Undead). The strong Xiuroma had dark skin and huge bodies. Their three-headed, six-armed, man-and-horse form was full of a murderous and valiant aura. A white light flashed before his eyes, faintly illuminating the bodies of the Xiuroma. Looking closely, it wasn't light at all, but rather thin, flying gauze.
Large swaths of white gauze, like mist falling from the sky, fluttered in layers before his eyes. They seemed like sails, catching the wind and carrying the ship to the open sea. Liyav understood. This ship had no so-called power room at all. Just as they had seen at first, this was the most purely ancient sailboat.
Wei Huan had untied the sails attached to the crossbars, and so the ship flew. Liyav smiled bitterly. Right, in a world of magic, why talk about science?
The giant ancient sailboat, ten kilometers long, sailed in the white mist. The sails, transformed from white gauze, billowed without wind. Soon, the white mist was broken through, revealing a world of purple and red outside.
"Buzz!"
The ancient sailboat flew out, plunging into this transformed world. Wherever it passed, the purple spots flew up into the sky like extracted purple bubbles, then were rapidly purified in the white light emitted by the ancient sailboat. A hint of green appeared on the ground. Although large areas of purple spots still existed, the situation was indeed improving.
"Titan!"
At this moment, a roar sounded. A figure leaped up from the purple ground—it was the Giant that Wei Huan had revived. It leaped gracefully onto the ancient sailboat. Despite its enormous body, it landed steadily without any tremor.
"Thank you, brave Challenger." The Giant went straight to the bow. Liyav quickly followed, only to see that Wei Huan was here.
The Giant continued: "We are the Sun Herders of the Titans. We and the Moon Herders are twin tribes. Combining the strength of our two tribes can purify all contamination in the world. Even contamination from Outer Gods."
Everyone caught the key phrase: "Outer Gods."
The Giant continued: "However, our purification alone is not enough. There is still a sacred object of our tribe in the temple. Protect it from contamination. When it grows up, it can completely purify this land."
Wei Huan raised an eyebrow.
Liyav was already asking: "Is it the Twelve-Leaf Sapling?"
The Giant seemed quite pleased and willing to answer their questions: "Yes, the Tree of Nature is the totem of our Sun Herders and Moon Herders, a gift from the God of Nature. Being near it allows us to perceive nature, purify our minds, and achieve a state of faster unity between mind and spirit. Its fruit possesses natural attributes. Consuming it allows us to feel the essence of laws up close and communicate with the gods. Only by cultivating it to full size can this world be completely purified."
Wei Huan, Liyav, and Jones exchanged glances. This was a very shocking worldview.
But something seemed not quite right?