Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 719: The King is No Longer Here [6.5k words]

Dark Glory Continent, Kota Fortress.

"Roar--!!"

",!!"

A sonorous and pleasant shout rang out from the main gate of the huge fortress. On the armored platform, a gray-haired girl was seen chanting quickly, cooperating with the warlocks behind her to release one large-scale pyroxene spell after another. Behind her, a sky full of artillery fire rushed out from the pyroxene heavy cannons, and along with the pyroxene spells, it heavily bombarded the abyss creatures that broke through the siege and rushed to the fortress, blasting them into minced meat.

Boom——! !

Suddenly, a huge roar came from the sky above the fortress, causing the gray-haired girl to subconsciously move her eyes. After seeing the space transmission track that spanned the entire sky, she breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, a hint of determination appeared in her eyes, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Lady Tafina, new abyss creatures have leaked in!!"

The next second, a rapid shout sounded, and the gray-haired girl came back to her senses. She looked at the hundreds of abyss creatures that had escaped from the last line of defense in the distance. A determined look flashed in her eyes, and she decisively waved her staff and shouted with her mental power:
"Prepare to cast spells and cooperate with the firepower team to suppress them! Don't give them any chance to get close!!"

……

Kota Fortress, wartime command room.

"Report, high-intensity spatial fluctuations have been confirmed! Lord Black Sword and his men have left successfully!!"

"it is good!!"

Cheers with obvious affirmation rang out amidst the rapid reports. In front of the long table, Ryan listened to the good news conveyed by the messenger, his eyes lit up, and he shouted in a low voice, with obvious excitement on his face.

It worked!
"In this way, as long as Lord Black Sword succeeds in defeating the last Blue King, this war will end immediately!"

Ryan looked at the big screen in front of him, at the dark tide on the map that seemed to have no end but was obviously much lighter than before. His eyes were jumping, without any doubt or hesitation in his eyes.

For him, who had witnessed all the incredible things brought by the other party, from the very beginning, he never doubted that the black-haired young man's actions would fail. Instead, he was more worried about whether his subordinates could successfully complete the tasks assigned by the other party.

'but……'

After a brief moment of excitement, the young man who served as the Chief of General Staff glanced at the bustling scene in the command room, a calm look flashed across his eyes, and after taking a deep breath, he quickly gave an order:

"Everyone, pay attention! Lord Black Sword and his men have launched a decapitation operation! The Ace Troops have changed their actions to Plan 2! The 19th and 20th lines of defense have changed from filtering mode to interception mode. Don't give these guys any chances!!"

A calm and cool voice sounded, and in front of the Chief of General Staff's seat, the young man was seen sweeping away his previous fatigue, standing in front of the big screen with high spirits, issuing one instruction after another in a high-pitched mood, without any sign of slackness at all.

That’s right, precisely because he has great faith that the black-haired young man will succeed, and he has been entrusted with an important task, he needs to complete his task to the best of his ability at this time!
He firmly believed that under the other party's leadership, the world would usher in a brighter and more glorious future than any previous era!
……

On the other side, the old continent, a place of slumber.

Pitch-black cracks continued to spread from under the dark red sky. Inside the deserted giant city, the originally grand and huge city had now turned into a ruin.

In the center of the ruined city, black liquid resembling blood kept dripping from the dark space that looked like a black hole. The rich breath of the abyss spread from it, engulfing the entire city.

Dead silence, desolation, despair...

This is the feeling that the Sleeping Land gives people at this moment. After millions of abyssal creatures escaped from the holes in the abyss, all that was left was this dark place that no one dared to set foot in or ask about. Silent silence enveloped the city, as if nothing would change for tens of millions of years...

boom--! !

A huge roar was heard, and a silver-white "cannonball" suddenly rushed out from the dark red sky, breaking the silence of the sleeping place and smashing all the buildings along the way with an extremely violent attitude. Finally, it hit a half-collapsed tower heavily and stopped with a series of sounds of collapsed buildings.

"Ahem, ahem! Tsk, this place has really changed a lot since the last time we came here."

When the space fluctuations emitted by the silver-white "shells" subsided, Randy, who had quickly relieved the discomfort caused by the space shock with the "special medicine" provided by Xin Lailai, rubbed his temples in the ruins, and looked at the city scene around him, which had undergone earth-shaking changes compared to their first visit, and muttered to himself.

"Look at the bright side. At least we can recognize the outline, and there are no large groups of Overlord-class units showing up to hold a welcoming ceremony for us."

Xin Lailai, who was smashed into the ruins by the space teleportation array, pushed away the heavy building ruins on his body with one hand, patted the dust on his body with magic power, checked the surroundings with the Star Domain, and looked at the abyss hole in the distance that was floating in the center of the building ruins like a sky island. With a thought, he controlled an alchemical vest and rushed towards it quickly.

Peng——! !

A sharp sound of breaking through the air was heard, and the Alchemy Vest was seen flexibly jumping back and forth among the floating building ruins. After a while, it arrived near the Abyss Hole. Under the gaze of the three people, it rushed into the Abyss Hole without hesitation, and then...

"How about it?"

"We haven't lost contact. The spaces on both sides are connected, and we haven't seen any abyssal creatures."

Xin Lailai answered with his eyes closed, sensing the vague scene coming from the alchemy vest in his mind. Finally, when it was about to be eroded by the energy of the abyss and was about to be scrapped, he retracted his soul body in time, opened his eyes and looked at Randy and the White Demon beside him, and said:

"There is a layer of turbulent space flow on the outside, which is similar to the situation in the subspace. The erosion intensity of the abyss energy is within 0.6 levels. The scene inside is not clear."

"That means we can enter normally, right?"

"Ah."

"Then just go over there? How about you, Old White?"

"No problem." "I'll make some preparations."

On the ruins, Randy looked at Xin Lailai and the White Demon beside him and asked. The White Demon simply nodded, while Xin Lailai closed his eyes, holding a soul storage crystal, and after replenishing the soul energy that had just been consumed, the demonic power in his body burst out, and he quickly stacked up the blood rage layers of the oath set with muffled sounds. At the same time, he took out the scrolls that he had prepared long ago and crushed them all.

[Hint: The effect of "Rock Rune" has been obtained, body defense +0.12...]

[Hint: The "Mana Surge" effect has been obtained, and the mana recovery speed...]

[Hint: The "Blessing of Life" effect has been obtained, and the speed of health recovery is...]

[Hint: Obtained...]

【…】

[Tip: The current duration of "Blood Rage" has been refreshed, current number of layers: 20 layers, duration: 20 seconds]

"..."

A series of cold reminder sounds rang out in Xin Lailai's mind. Randy and the White Mage, who were standing beside him, saw that the number of buffs on their team list was getting outrageous. Xin Lailai's eyes moved at the same time. Under the gaze of the two, Xin Lailai took out a large stack of scrolls and more than ten bottles of temporary buff potions, looked at the two, and said:

"These are extra. Do you want to use them?"

Before he came in, he bought props and materials worth more than 100 million Paradise Points. Although most of them had been spent on the front battlefield, even so, the small portion of buff props that remained was enough to support them in several tough battles.

"...Do you guys in the Sanctuary always perform such tricks before fighting a boss?"

"It's better to be prepared than to be unprepared. However, I personally suggest that you prioritize buffs that are effective for the physical body. These buffs are less likely to fail. After all, you probably won't be able to distract yourself and renew your buffs during the battle."

Xin Lailai said, picking out the buff items she recommended. Randy and Bai Mo heard this, looked at the bunch of rare buff items that they would never have the chance to see in their own paradise, their expressions moved slightly, and they silently stepped forward to pick out a batch that suited them, and then followed Xin Lailai's example, pinching the scroll and drinking the potion.

"Let's go, the buff lasts for a limited time, try to get it done quickly." "Okay."

After both of them had applied the buffs, Xin Lailai glanced at the team status bar with two lines of buff bars per person, nodded slightly, looked towards the Abyss Hole in the distance, spoke, and then flapped the scaly feathers behind him, and instantly rushed into the air in a circle of strong wind, rushing straight towards the Abyss Hole. The White Mage and Randy below heard what he said, and didn't say much. They stepped into the air in their own way and quickly followed.

Peng——! !

A figure covered with three buff effects flew through the air, piercing into the hole of the abyss like three arrows. In an instant, a large amount of abyss erosion and immunity prompts sounded in Xin Lailai's mind. The sword force on his body began to be rapidly consumed at a speed of hundreds of points per second, and finally...

Om-! !

[Tip: You have entered the special area, the Abyss Hole (inside), the current area danger level: LV.45~50 (nightmare level)! ! ]

Just like rushing out of a pitch-black tunnel, as the prompt sound rang, the scene in front of Xin Lailai suddenly changed from a pitch-black abyss passage to a colorful and bizarre scene. Pieces of space debris were floating in the secondary space, like floating land, and at the end of these bizarre spaces, there was a huge space debris that was thousands of kilometers wide.

The huge space debris was quietly suspended there, like a whale, quietly overlooking the space debris swimming in the subspace. Dark brown light flowed from its surface, making it impossible to peek into the scene inside.

This is the scene behind the hole in the abyss. If a temporary world core had not been formed in the outside world, and all the abyss creatures here had not rushed to the outside world, then what they would be facing now would not be such a simple broken space, but extremely violent space turbulence and a large number of abyss beasts.

Xin Lailai and the other two looked at the piece of space debris at the end of their sight, looked at each other, and nodded. Then they saw Randy raised his hand and pressed, and quickly built a teleportation array under their feet.

Boom——! !

The violent spatial fluctuations erupted, causing the space fragments where the three people were standing to collapse, and the figures of the three people suddenly turned into three streams of light, which in an instant crossed a distance that was difficult to accurately estimate, and heavily slammed into the surface of the giant space fragments, forcing their way into the circles of violently fluctuating black and brown fluctuations.

[Tip: You have entered the special area, the sealed land. The current danger level of the area is LV.50 (nightmare level)! ! ]

boom--! !

A strong feeling of disorientation and discomfort came, followed by a huge impact like hitting the ground. When everything calmed down, Xin Lailai opened his eyes and looked at the scene in front of him. He saw that the original bizarre subspace scene had disappeared, replaced by an unusually clear blue sky and a brick and stone ground with three large holes smashed by the three of them. Streets, crowds, and noise.

It was like traveling to another world. Looking around, I saw a large number of residents wearing Cang Ling Empire costumes walking and talking on the streets under the blue sky. Soft light fell from the sky, shining on the lush ancient trees, giving people a silent feeling of nature and warmth.

For a moment, Xin Lailai almost thought that he was in some kind of hallucination, but then he realized that everything in front of him was not an illusion. This extremely normal scene in front of him was real, but...

"It seems that these people can't see us?"

Randy glanced at the surrounding scene and quickly noticed something out of place. The people passing by seemed to be completely unaware of their existence. No one looked in their direction, and they also completely ignored the colorful space barrier behind them that looked like an unloaded game. It felt like they were NPCs executing a fixed program.

"It is some kind of physical illusion. The technique is very sophisticated. No traps were found. It is very likely that the Blue King created it to stabilize his will."

Xin Lailai, who had sensed with the Xingluo Domain for a while, spoke and stated his conclusion, while the White Demon beside him seemed to have noticed something, looked at the surrounding scene, and suddenly spoke:

"There's something wrong with the flow of time here."

"It's about five times slower than the outside world. It doesn't seem to be intentional. It's probably the indirect result of some influence."

"Five times? Old White, you mean that ten thousand years may have passed in here?"

"Ah."

"Oh my god, doesn't that mean that guy has been carrying it all by himself for tens of thousands of years? Tsk tsk, no wonder this kind of thing was created. If I hadn't used this kind of scene to fool myself, I would have gone crazy a long time ago, right?"

Randy sighed with admiration, looking around at the prosperous scene with a hint of admiration in his eyes, while Xinlailai's eyes moved slightly, as if he had thought of something, but then he shook his head, dispelling the distracting thoughts in his mind, raised his head to the end of the prosperous scene in front of him, looking at the towering palace standing at the end of the street, and said:

"The core of the illusion is right there. If we break it, this place should be able to return to normal."

Although this illusion itself will not pose any threat to them, it will suppress their perception ability to a great extent. In this case, no matter what the meaning of this illusion is to King Cang himself, they must break it first.

"Let's go, speed up."

As Xin Lailai spoke, he flapped the Youlin Kongyu behind him heavily and rushed directly towards the palace at the end of the street. Seeing this, Bai Mo and Randy on the side didn't say much. They nodded and quickly followed. Amid the piercing sound of breaking air, they followed Xin Lailai through the streets, the half-open palace gates and aisles, and finally stopped in front of a heavy metal door dyed with pale blue dye.

"It's right behind here."

Xin Lailai spoke, a solemn look flashed across his eyes, and he pressed one hand on the door in front of him. After exchanging a glance with Bai Mo and Randy, he took a deep breath, expanded the Star Luo Field to the extreme, and at the same time, he exerted the muscles of his arm and pushed forward suddenly.

Buzz——!!

The sound of an ancient and heavy door moving was heard, and an extremely majestic aura rushed in from the crack of the door, causing the three people's robes and hair to dance wildly in the wind. When the metal door in front of them was completely pushed open, the scene inside was completely revealed to Xin Lailai and the other two:
"Cang Ling...Immortal!!"

Deafening shouts rang out from under the tall throne. Guards in dark green armor stood on both sides of the blue-white carpet, while ministers of the Cang Ling Empire half-knelt on one knee respectfully at the foot of the hundreds of meters long steps, looking at the tall figure resting with his eyes closed on the throne, and swore in sonorous and powerful voices, as if telling how glorious the Cang Ling Empire was in the past.

Is that... the King of Cang?
At the entrance of the palace, Xin Lailai walked forward and looked up at the tall figure sitting on the throne. After sensing the oppressive aura emanating from the other person, he looked at the other person who seemed to be in a deep sleep, his eyes moved slightly, and he reminded White Demon and Randy in his mind:

"Be careful, he should be sleeping now. Once the illusion is broken, he will most likely wake up."

"Ah."

Upon hearing this, Bai Mo and Randy nodded slightly, took out their weapons, and stared at the King of Cang in front of them, already ready for battle.

Om-! !

With the pitch-black giant sword in hand, Xin Lailai held Yuan Mo in one hand and walked over the stairs step by step. He took a deep breath, and used his mental power to lock onto the power source of the illusion that existed in his vague perception. He took a step forward, and the sword energy on his body burst out, aiming at the sleeping King Cang in front of him with all his strength.

Wrapped Blade: Absolute Heaven.

boom--! !

The sword light with energy-cutting effect burst out and instantly hit the body of the Blue King. Instantly, the violent energy shock spread out, and a dark brown barrier suddenly emerged between the Blue King and Xin Lailai, while the magnificent palace scene around them quickly collapsed and faded as if it had been hit by something, and finally...

boom!
The dark brown barrier was shattered, and the perception that had been suppressed to the limit suddenly burst out. However, when the three people, whose spirits were stretched to the limit, saw the scene after the illusion faded away, they were all stunned.

"Hey, this must be fake..."

Murmurs of disbelief were heard, and gray flocs floated down from the sky. The surrounding scene faded rapidly as if time was going backwards. On the dilapidated throne, there was neither a great king sleeping, nor any abyss monster that was so distorted that it could make people feel terrified at a glance. Instead, there was only a body dressed in king's clothes, sitting in the same posture as the King of Cang in the illusion, nailed to the throne by an old spear, emitting a powerful pressure... a set of dry bones.

The King of Cang... is dead?
Wait? If that's the case, then what has been suppressing the abyss energy here for tens of thousands of years...

For a moment, Xin Lailai felt that all the thoughts in his mind were frozen there for a short time, and it was during this short moment when his thoughts were frozen -

"Be careful!!!"

A cold roar exploded, and the White Demon, who had the highest level of intuition among the three, seemed to have suddenly realized something. His pupils shrank suddenly, and he drew his sword to block to the side without hesitation. Xin Lailai, who was shocked by the scene in front of him, also got goose bumps all over his body in an instant, and a very piercing chill came from the right side of his body. Without thinking too much, he took a step forward without hesitation and blocked to the right side with the White Demon. Finally -

boom--! !

In an instant, an impact so horrifying that was beyond imagination erupted, and Xin Lailai, Bai Mo, and Randy flew backwards heavily like a stack of people. In an instant, they turned into a dark stream of light, and crashed through the walls of the palace. Finally, with a loud bang, they smashed through the wall of the royal city, and hit the edge of the entire space fragment with a bang, and spurted out a lot of blood.

Boom~!

The next second, a roar like a mountain torrent sounded, and the towering royal city in front of them collapsed and dissipated under the gaze of the three people. The originally blue sky collapsed into a blood-red oppressive sky, and the pedestrians and buildings on the street turned into desolate sand, setting off an incomparably huge gray-white dust storm in this piece of space debris.

By the time the dust storm subsided, the scene before our eyes had undergone a drastic change.

Barren sand, barren sand all over the sky.

The grayish-white sand drifted in the wind, sweeping over collapsed ruins and burying the skeletons of one abyss monster after another.

There is no grand and prosperous royal city, no warm and happy laughter, and no wall that cannot be built...

Some of them were just a sky stained with blood, a ruined dead city with no one left in it, and a desolate battlefield with nothing left except dead bones.

Boom! !

There was a heavy sound like a mountain collapsing. In the dilapidated palace with only ruined walls and ruins left, a tall figure jumped down from the collapsed city wall in the distance and landed heavily on the steps covered with thick dust, stirring up a cloud of dust.

Boom, boom, boom——!!

Heavy footsteps were heard, and the tall figure in front of the throne ignored Xin Lailai and others at the end of the battlefield, but walked step by step to the throne, pulled out the broken tower shield stuck in the ground with one hand, looked at the dry bones nailed to the throne by the spear, and slowly half-knelt on one knee.

"Actually, is that so..."

Randy murmured in disbelief with a slightly hoarse voice. He looked at the scene in front of him and muttered, as if he understood everything.

"Ahem, it seems that we have all been deceived...?"

Xin Lailai, who spat out a mouthful of blood, also spoke. He looked at the scene at the end of his sight, at the tall figure half-kneeling on one knee in front of the throne, with a deep shock in his eyes.

Yes.

They were all deceived.

There has never been a lonely king, nor a sleeping king.

The King of Cang did find a way to suppress the hole in the abyss, but that method was simply beyond the ability of the warlock to handle.

That's right.

This is the truth.

The King of Cang had already died. When he chose to embed the Core of the World into his own body and manipulate it to absorb the abyss energy of the entire world, it was no longer possible for him to survive.

This is why the Blue King carried all his confidants into the Hole of the Abyss.

It was not to deal with the abyss creatures in the abyss hole, but to prevent himself from completely losing control after absorbing the abyss energy. No one could kill him and take over the task that he could not complete.

The glory has long gone, and only the bones of the king remain.

The one who guarded here and truly endured the loneliness for tens of thousands of years was not the Blue King, but the taciturn old warrior who had always existed in the story but was rarely mentioned by many people, yet always stood guard behind everyone.

Captain of the Imperial Guard.

……

(End of this chapter)