Rumble…”
The Ba-Serpent moved. Its enormous body actually moved.
“The Ba-Serpent woke up!” Linley’s face instantly turned ugly to behold. Barker’s face, as well, immediately turned pale, without a hint of color. The Saints that had been in the process of searching close to the Ba-Serpent’s massive body, in virtually the same instant, disappeared like locusts, flashing away from the Ba-Serpent’s vicinity.
Without hesitating at all…
Linley and Barker flew back at high speed to the entrance to the second floor. After all, right now, there was only two ways to escape. One was to return to the second floor through the gateway to the second floor. The other method was to immediately go to the fourth floor.
“But…”
Nobody knew where the fourth floor’s gateway was. Without any other options, they had to return to the second floor as fast as possible!
“Quick, quick!” Linley was frantic. “We’re out of time!”
At this moment, Linley’s mind suddenly flashed back to Delia, who was still waiting for him back at the Yulan continent, as well as his two children, Taylor and Sasha. Linley wasn’t the only one frightened; the other Saints were frightened as well.
But…
“Wait a second.” Linley suddenly halted.
He had once more heard that sound of snoring, the sound of the Ba-Serpent’s snoring. After Linley halted, Barker flew a short while, realized Linley wasn’t flying, and turned back.
“The Ba-Serpent didn’t wake up.” Linley was surprised.
Linley wasn’t the only one to discover this. Many of the other fleeing Saints had discovered this as well. All of them began to fly back. If the Ba-Serpent really had woken up, how could it possibly have let them cross that long distance from its body to the opening as easily as that?
Seeing that the Ba-Serpent was still slumbering, many Saints didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
Linley and Barker exchanged a glance, both grinning.
“So it just rolled over in its sleep.” Linley could tell that the position of the Ba-Serpent’s body had moved slightly.
Many Saints hesitated only a short while before once more drawing near the Ba-Serpent and once more searching carefully around it. In just a short period of time, a Saint discovered the location of the gateway. Linley and Barker could both clearly see seven Saints standing there in mid-air, staring at a location next to the Ba-Serpent’s head.
“Could it be there?” Linley and Barker both flew over.
Indeed…
The Ba-Serpent’s head was facing the cliff of that giant iceberg. The black breath of the Ba-Serpent was rapidly crumbling the cliff of the giant iceberg, revealing a passageway within it. The stairs were easy to spot.
“So it is here. How terrible.” Linley and Barker shared a glance. They both had a terrible feeling.
Just then, before the Ba-Serpent had turned over, the head of the Ba-Serpent had been resting against the other side. If they had found the tunnel then, they’d have to go close to the Ba-Serpent’s head, true, but it would be towards the back of the head. Linley and the others still would have been able to soundlessly sneak past.
But now…
The Ba-Serpent’s head was directly facing that passageway, and with each breath, that black gas blew towards the stairs. In addition, a large amount of black gas was still circulating around in that area.
It would be very hard to reach the passageway to the fourth floor!
“Right now, there’s only two ways we can enter the fourth floor.” Linley frowned. “The first is to rely on speed to dodge past the black gas and charge straight through to the stairs and enter the fourth floor quickly. The second method is…” Linley raised his head.
This iceberg was enormous.
Clearly, the stairs were continuing to the top.
Linley expected that stairs ended somewhere in the middle of the iceberg mountain. They could drill a hole down through the iceberg mountain and directly reach the insides of the iceberg mountain, then look for the entrance to the fourth floor.
“But drilling through the mountain would definitely create noise.” Linley was rather worried.
Just as Linley was hesitating, two black shadows suddenly charged towards the black-energy shrouded entrance. Those two black shadows were very fast and agile. Despite the density of the black gas…one of the shadows was touched by the black gas, but the other made it onto the stairs.
“Shadowshape Doppelganger Technique!” Linley said to himself.
Just then, that person had relied on the Shadowshape Doppelganger Technique to risk his life and pass through the black gas blocking the stairs.
“Can’t keep wasting time like this. If we keep wasting time, the Ba-Serpent will have breathed even more times and the black gas surrounding the tunnel will become even denser. Once it totally blocks off the entrance, then there won’t be any chance to go in at all.” Linley ground his teeth.
He glanced at the nearby Barker, who nodded back at Linley.
All of the forty-plus experts present understood that they couldn’t waste any more time. The more time they wasted, the less of a chance they would have.
“Whoosh!” A flash of light suddenly sped towards the entrance at high speed. With but a flash, the person entered the tunnel. Yet another Saint had passed through and entered the fourth floor.
Although the black gas was very dense and seemingly dangerous, all of the Saints present had their own consummate techniques, and thus still had a high chance of making it past.
After two had made it past, the forty-plus remaining Saints all felt their confidence increase. Yet another Saints transformed into a blur and streaked towards the tunnel entrance. Linley recognized this Saint; it was the War God’s disciple, Eddins.
Eddins was extremely fast, but suddenly, with a ‘puff’, Eddins was suddenly caught in a pincer by two flows of black gas. There was no way for him to dodge at all.
Instantly…
The terrified Eddins opened his mouth, as though he wanted to let out a scream of pain, but he didn’t even have the chance to make a sound. The black gas surrounded him, and then he crumbled into tiny pieces. Not even his soul was left.
“Eddins, he…” Linley’s heart contracted violently. This black gas was too terrifying.
The faces of the forty-plus other Saints instantly turned pale. This black gas was too terrifying. Although they had guessed at how strong it was, they hadn’t imagined that just by touching it, even someone with Eddins’ power wouldn’t be able to withstand it for half a second. Even his soul had been destroyed.
The mood was gloomier than ever before. On the third floor, only the Ba-Serpent’s slumbering snores could be heard.