The massive Beholder Lord vanished, along with the army of thirty thousand undead surrounding it.
The Wolf Legion, unable to exert their full combat power in the underwater world, had served as "mobile power banks" for the Dark Beast Royalty. They had circled it, tirelessly providing energy for those earth-shattering, invincible strikes until their mana was drained and they returned to the Great Tomb.
However, the Wolf Legion numbered sixty thousand. Using thirty thousand Level 5 undead to maintain the Avatar of the Dark Beast King was relatively easy. Thus, the disappearance of the giant Beholder had nothing to do with energy depletion.
Nor was it due to the Divine Surge's attacks.
The other vehicles had performed well, coordinating with Wei Huan's Dual-Headed Hidden Demon army. Even when an occasional attack landed on the giant Beholder, the damage was negligible. The Avatar manifested by the Dark Beast Royalty was a channeled ability; as long as there was energy, it could be repaired indefinitely. Wei Huan had plenty of undead, which meant plenty of energy.
There was only one reason the Beholder had disappeared.
The current phase of the battle had ended; it was time to switch tactics.
Wei Huan had intentionally dismissed the Beholder Avatar to summon a new one. The primary reason for the disappearance of those thirty thousand undead was that they had been squeezed dry. Rather than keeping them there uselessly, it was better to send them back to the Great Tomb where Wei Huan could rapidly restore them.
Then, a massive creature with three heads, six arms, and a centaur's body appeared. A Shura Horse.
It stood a thousand meters tall. Compared to the eerie Beholder, the Shura Horse was heroic, imposing, and brimming with tyrannical power. Unlike Mo Ji's cute, childish face, an adult Shura Horse looked terrifying—its three heads were locked in expressions of thunderous rage. Its muscles were stacked like bricks, pulsing with explosive strength.
The Shura Horse was the "War Engine" of the Dark Beast race. Seeing it magnified a thousand times was like witnessing a God of Destruction.
Wei Huan watched his mana plummet as more than ten thousand Wolf undead were dismissed. He grabbed a row of over fifty "Super Energy Canisters" and absorbed them one by one until his Grave Power was refilled.
He hadn't expected the Avatar manifestation to be so taxing. Summoning the Shura Horse was significantly more expensive than the Beholder, likely because the Horse's energy was concentrated in its physical form, whereas the Beholder only consumed massive energy when firing its "Black Beam."
Only Wei Huan, with nearly 20,000 Grave Power, would dare to swap Avatars mid-battle. Any other mage-class professional, even at the current cap of 6,000 MP, would have been sucked dry instantly.
Wei Huan didn't summon the Shura Horse just to waste mana. The upcoming phase of the operation was no longer suited for a long-range glass cannon.
Long ago, the Shura Horse's claws had possessed a hint of Destructive Power. Now at Level 6, that power was far stronger, capable of easily shattering the "invincible" properties of the Divine Surge.
As soon as the giant Shura Horse appeared, Wei Huan realized how much he loved this unit. It was truly a biological weapon born for war. It reared its front hooves and then charged toward the crater like a blade of wind.
Surge tentacles attempted to intercept it, but they were no match for a six-armed giant with 360-degree vision. Its thick arms, tipped with pitch-black claws, tore through the surges. Any corpses caught within were crushed into mincemeat by its palms.
It was a literal bulldozer of divine destruction.
"So cool!"
"It's a Shura Horse!"
"Brilliant! The Shura Horse is perfect for this terrain!"
"Commander Wei is incredible. To have recruited the Dark Beast Royalty... we've already won this!"
Amidst the cheers, a teasing voice sounded in Wei Huan's ear.
Mu Zhong smiled. "Wasting all that mana to switch Avatars... you didn't happen to 'forget' about the Shura Horse at the start, did you?"
Wei Huan went silent for a moment before laughing. "Better late than never."
"Is the Shura Horse better suited for this?"
"The Shura Horse had Destructive Power at Level 4," Wei Huan explained. "At Level 6, that power extends to its entire body. I had the Dark Beast King manifest it based on the Level 6 template. It consumed more mana than I expected, but its combat effectiveness is staggering."
"What does the Dark Beast Royalty base its manifestations on?" Mu Zhong asked. "Have you figured out the mechanism?"
"Cognition and Observation. For example, if they have seen a true God and understand it—and if their own strength is sufficient—they could potentially manifest that God."
"I see," Mu Zhong mused. "But I think it's simpler: when their own power is great enough, they 'are' gods. Whatever they manifest—even an ant—becomes the God of Ants."
Wei Huan chuckled. "Quite philosophical. Like the chicken and the egg."
---
The situation remained tense. The seabed was a boiling mess of Divine Surge tentacles. But standing on the back of the Level 6 Legendary Hero Mama Point, protected by the Level 6 Legendary Heroes Big Bear and The Disemboweler, and shielded by a Level 7 barrier, Wei Huan was untouchable.
He had exceeded the "ceiling" of this world. He was an invincible powerhouse.
As they followed the Shura Horse to the edge of the deep pit, Mu Zhong noticed something. "There are no 'Liar Remnants' inside the tentacles. Probably because they are a collective mind; individual roots don't have the capacity for independent thought."
Wei Huan nodded. "The God is dead. The residual energy hunts by instinct, using biological brains to create a proxy for thought. It's a cheap trick, but impressive for a corpse. It even knows to use the mindless kelp as guard dogs. We shouldn't underestimate this energy."
They looked down into the pit—the secret Mu Zhong had squeezed out of the Heart of Steel. While the AI hadn't explicitly stated what was down there, it had insisted this was the breakthrough point.
The Shura Horse reached the bottom of the crater and began digging deeper with its six arms. Its claws acted like excavators, shredding through layers of silt and surge energy. This triggered the Divine Surge's defense mechanism, but the undead army held the perimeter.
Because the surges lacked true wisdom, they focused entirely on the giant Shura Horse, ignoring Wei Huan's vehicle and the others.
"This is easier than I thought," Mu Zhong remarked. "But then again, our strength exceeds this world's level. If we were still struggling, a normal challenger wouldn't stand a chance."
"Most wouldn't even see the truth," Wei Huan said heavily. "They'd die thinking the Liar Remnants were the final boss."
"Is your Grave Power holding up?"
"Yes. The Shura Horse is expensive to summon, but its maintenance is low as long as it isn't taking massive damage. With the undead behind it acting as a battery, I can keep this up for a day or two."
Mu Zhong was surprised. "A day or two? I thought two or three hours would be your limit."
Wei Huan turned to him with a smirk. "I'm Sequence 6 now."
"Right... Sequence 6 is a whole new stage. We talked about this—Sequence 6 is the battlefield of Avatars."
"Exactly. Remember the memory fragments we got after killing the Liar Brain in the Level 5 world? The colossal beings that looked like mountain-sized demons? They weren't necessarily that big naturally; they were likely Avatars."
---
As they descended, the seven other vehicles followed Wei Huan like ducklings, terrified of being left behind. Wei Huan ignored them. His attention was focused on the Shura Horse.
The Heart of Steel was controlling tens of thousands of flying cameras, providing a live feed with "anti-distortion" filters so they could see through the energy. It guided Wei Huan toward a point where the Divine Surge was knotted into a glowing sphere.
"Dig here," Wei Huan ordered.
The Shura Horse tore into the knot. 'Skree!' It sounded like reality itself was being ripped open. Wei Huan sent a flying Beholder into the gap to scout.
What he saw made him gasp.
He had been to the seabed before and seen the white jade-like corpse of the God. He had expected more of the same. Instead, he found a Treasury.
A literal treasure vault.
Buried deep within the Divine Surge was a pocket of space about the size of five football stadiums. Floating within it were countless treasure chests and... bodies.
"Chests..." Wei Huan's eyes widened.
Silver chests were the most common, but there were plenty of Gold and Iron. At a Level 6 world, Bronze chests were rare, as were the higher tiers like Platinum and Diamond. But they weren't absent.
Scanning with the Beholder's eyes, Wei Huan saw dozens of Platinum chests and even four or five Diamond chests.
'Diamond!' This would solve the training ground shortage for the human race!
He quickly regained his composure. Why was this here? Was it a trap, or was this how the World Tree could be planted without being consumed?
"Heart of Steel?" Wei Huan looked at the AI interface.
Mu Zhong, seeing the feed, was equally shocked. "So many chests? Does this thing have a hoarding problem? Did it collect every chest in the vicinity?"
That was the likely truth. It explained why they hadn't seen a single chest on the way here. The Divine Surge tentacles had been "vacuuming" them up. Because the rules of the Challenge World state that chests don't refresh unless opened, the entire world's loot was concentrated in this one spot.
"But why hasn't it opened them?" Mu Zhong asked, then answered himself. "It can't. Only humans can open treasure chests—it's a gift and a test from the Challenge World. Other races can't touch them; they either become the chests or the monsters guarding them. Since it couldn't open them, it just stashed them."
Wei Huan remained silent for a moment. "It's our lucky day, then."
"Are we opening them?"
"Of course. But I have two questions: why are there people and monsters floating in there, looking half-dead? And why did the Heart of Steel bring us here specifically? Is there something besides the loot?"
Mu Zhong tried to ask the AI, but it remained silent. "I think we've hit a restriction. We need to find a 'key item' to unlock the next set of answers."
"I found the key item," Wei Huan said.
A green flame flickered in his left eye. Deep in the reflection of the treasure vault, he saw a figure.
"General Josh... seems to be alive."
Mu Zhong's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"I think so," Wei Huan said. "He has a heartbeat, though his breathing has stopped. We need to get him out."
"How is he alive? Is it a trap?"
"I have a theory. Pull up General Josh's file—specifically his weapon, gear, and class attributes."
Mu Zhong realized it instantly. "General Josh is a Lightning-attribute Sage!"
"Exactly," Wei Huan nodded. "If he's alive, it means any high-level Lightning-attribute challenger might still be surviving. If we can use the Law of Destruction to fight our way in, they can use it to protect themselves."
Wei Huan dispatched a Facehugger (parasite undead) into the space. For a rescue mission, they were the most surgical tools he had. Josh was far away, so he decided to pull out a closer survivor first to test his theory.