Elven cultivators

A dry, hot wind blew in my face, carrying dry grass clippings that stung my skin with a rough, gritty feel.

Seltler reined in his camel, raised his hand to shade his eyes above his brow, and squinted at the entrance to the canyon in the distance, which resembled a narrow crevice.

It can be clearly seen that the entire canyon is shrouded in a layer of gray fog, and only the outline of the entrance can be vaguely seen.

As for what lies further inside, it is completely impossible to see.

Standing behind him, Ralph craned his neck to look a few times, then frowned and said, "Captain, there wasn't this much fog outside Windwailing Canyon before, was there?"

"No," Selt shook his head. "I passed through here last fall, and there was no fog in the canyon at all."

He paused, then added, "Perhaps this is why those caravans and adventure teams have disappeared."

The teammates looked at each other, their expressions grave.

The Wind Howling Canyon has a harsh environment, with no vegetation growing around it, so no one usually goes near it.

Until a few months ago, a caravan took a wrong turn and had to rest near Windwail Canyon, after which it mysteriously disappeared.

At first, no one noticed anything was wrong; they simply assumed that the caravan had unfortunately encountered bandits or monsters and had been wiped out.

It wasn't until later, when the caravan's relatives issued a missing person quest, and an adventure team accepted the quest and went to Windwailing Canyon, that people realized something was wrong.

After that, the relatives of the missing adventure team also issued a missing person quest, and other members of the team accepted the quest and went out of town, but they also disappeared without a trace.

And so the cycle repeated itself, with the bounty for the missing person missions accumulating higher and higher. Many adventurers, drawn by the money, rushed to Windwailing Canyon, only to find that the missing person had vanished without a trace.

Over time, Windwailing Canyon has become a high-risk, forbidden area.

Even though the bounty is tempting, few people dare to accept it.

Only Selt and others were exceptions.

Their team was considered top-notch among adventurers throughout the northern part of the continent.

Including him, there were three Gold-ranked players in the team, and the rest of the teammates were all Silver-ranked.

An adventure team with such a powerful setup can be counted on one hand in the entire northern part of the continent.

It was precisely because they were confident in their abilities that they dared to take on this highly dangerous mission that terrified countless adventurers.

However, after witnessing the eerie state of Windwailing Canyon with their own eyes, they couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Mia frowned, a worried look on her face. "Maybe we should just forget about it. I have a bad feeling about this. So many adventure teams have taken on the mission and then disappeared without a trace after leaving the city. This mission might be more dangerous than we thought."

As soon as he finished speaking, Johnny curled his lip and said, "If you're afraid of this and that in our line of work, you shouldn't go out. We're in a profession where we risk our lives. What's there to be afraid of? You're too timid."

Mia wasn't angry; she just shook her head. "I still think we should be more cautious."

The other teammates also frowned and looked thoughtful.

Selt stood on the edge of the hillside, staring at the distant mist for a long while before finally turning around.

"Now that we're here, let's not talk about anything discouraging. The reward for this mission is very high, enough for each of us to buy a manor with a yard in the most prosperous city, and buy a batch of slaves, so we can live the life of a manor owner for the rest of our lives, without having to live this life of licking blood off the knife."

Selt had a high level of prestige in the team, and once he spoke, no one raised any objections.

Besides, they also agreed with the captain's words.

Once they finish this deal, they can retire on the spot.

For adventurers, this is undoubtedly the ultimate goal.

With their dreams within reach, they felt reluctant to back down now.

After reaching a consensus, Selt ordered the team to speed up their march without further delay.

The group climbed over the hillside and headed towards the distant Wind-Weeping Canyon.

""

The closer you get to Windwailing Canyon, the more desolate the surrounding environment becomes.

There was a faint, rusty smell in the air, mixed with an indescribable sense of decay.

Gray mist billowed outside the canyon entrance not far ahead, like a thick curtain.

Shelter didn't rush closer, but stopped a few hundred meters from the entrance.

He was about to remind everyone to check their weapons and prepare for battle when he suddenly noticed that the sky above him had darkened for a moment.

He subconsciously looked up, and the expression on his face instantly froze.

Above the canyon, gray mist began to surge violently like boiling water.

At the heart of the gray fog, a massive outline was slowly emerging.

It resembles the silhouette of some kind of door, with jagged edges and an arched top, showing no trace of stone or metal texture, only a layer of flowing dark light slowly creeping along the edges of the outline.

Inside the door was a bottomless chaos, so black it looked as if the entire night sky had been crushed and stuffed into that crevice, with occasional dark red veins appearing and disappearing like fleeting blood vessels.

It was as if something was awakening behind that door, coldly sweeping across the earth through the dark crack.

The air became icy and stagnant.

Selt felt as if he had been immersed in a pool of cold water, with a chill running through his very bones.

"What...what is that?"

Ralph's voice came through my ear, dry and rough like sandpaper.

No one answered him.

Everyone stared blankly at the strange phenomenon in the sky, as if they were nailed to the spot and unable to move.

The rich instincts they had developed from years of adventure suddenly gave them a frantic warning.

"Retreat!" Selt suddenly shouted, "Run back, don't look back!"

Ralph was the first to react, yanking the reins and turning the camels around. Mia and Johnny followed closely behind, and all the camels surged forward towards the hillside almost simultaneously.

But they hadn't run more than a few steps when a deep voice came from behind them.

Why are you running?

An invisible pressure suddenly descended from the sky, pressing down on them like a mountain.

Several camels were the first to succumb, letting out a mournful cry as their knees buckled and they collapsed to the ground. A chilling sound of bones cracking echoed from their bodies, and they quickly turned into a puddle of soft mud, collapsing to the ground.

The invisible pressure crushed all the bones in his body, killing him instantly.

At the same time, Selt and the others also fell to the ground in a sorry state, getting their mouths full of mud.

Although they didn't die instantly like the pack animals, they were still unable to stand up due to the pressure. They could only kneel on the ground, supporting themselves with their hands, desperately resisting the invisible pressure enveloping their entire bodies, and struggling to turn their heads to look behind them.

What came into view was a figure wrapped in a black robe.

He stood quietly behind the crowd, his hood pulled low, revealing only half of his pale chin.

"You're in luck." The black-robed man's voice was low and hoarse, yet it carried a hint of excited fervor. "You'll be able to witness firsthand the pivotal moment when this continent is about to undergo a transformation."

"Who...are you?" Selt asked with difficulty.

Before the man in black robes could speak, a cloud of gray mist suddenly surged in from the side.

Selt only had time to feel a cold breath brush against his neck before his vision began to blur.

The gray fog instantly engulfed all the adventurers.

After a few breaths, the gray fog quickly receded, leaving only a few shriveled corpses on the ground that were almost unrecognizable.

A taller figure emerged from the mist; it was the sixth seat.

The ninth seat glanced at him with displeasure: "It's such a waste to kill off a few spectators like this."

The sixth seat calmly said, "Everyone else from the Eternal Ring is here; you're the only one missing."

The Ninth Seat shrugged and turned his gaze to the slowly expanding outline of the canyon entrance.

"Alright, I'd also like to see what's inside the Abyss."

He adjusted his black robe, turned, and stepped into the gray mist.

The sixth seat lags behind by half a step, following the ninth seat as they enter the mist.

In the distance, the giant gate suspended above the canyon was still slowly expanding, with the dark light at its edges flickering, as if something was pushing it open from the inside.

But this silence did not last long.

A moment later, the giant gate shook violently, and the chaos inside the gate seemed to be violently struck from the depths by something, suddenly bulging outward.

Immediately afterwards, a deep, muffled roar erupted from inside the door, causing the rock walls on both sides of the canyon to tremble slightly, and boulders tumbled down the slope.

Dozens of streams of light burst forth from inside the door.

They trailed long, bright trails, like a meteor shower sweeping across a layer of grayish-white mist, scattering in all directions.

They were incredibly fast, streaking across the sky and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

……

North of the Primordial City, in the rift valley where the Purple Palace was forged.

Thousands of disciples, each wielding a light source stone, busily moved among the massive palace framework.

Anton stood on the platform of the main hall, which was not yet fully topped, with a roll of design drawings that was already mostly unfolded in front of him.

He was looking down, his fingertips slowly tracing a thin line on the diagram, sensing whether the direction of the array patterns below matched the diagram.

Just then, his expression suddenly changed, as if he sensed something, and his figure vanished instantly.

When he reappeared, he was already a thousand meters above the ground, gazing at the northern horizon.

A dull rhythm was coming from that direction, accompanied by a chilling atmosphere.

It was as if the entire world was trembling.

Anton immediately understood.

The Abyss has opened.

Without hesitation, he immediately unleashed his divine sense, which spread out over a vast area to the north like an invisible giant net.

Almost at the same moment his divine sense spread out, a ray of starlight entered his perception.

The starlight was moving at an extremely fast speed across the edge of the plain from the northeast, at a distance of about two hundred kilometers.

Without hesitation, Anton enveloped his figure in the light of the Xuanjin sword, transforming into a golden streak of light that pierced through the void and sped toward the direction of the starlight.