If the abnormality inside the mountain belly had been limited to that alone, it would have been one thing. But greater abnormalities followed one after another.
A deep rumble, the entire mountain belly shook.
It was as if volcanic magma beneath the earth was about to erupt. The surrounding crimson liquid gold began to surge repeatedly. The liquid in every pit and hollow rose and fell like fountains. For a moment, firelight shot in all directions. The scalding liquid from below seemed ready to flood back into the mountain belly at any moment.
The people crowded onto the scorched rock where the golden orchids grew looked around in terror. They used their magical powers to protect themselves, isolating themselves from that scalding liquid.
All because someone had been too handsy and picked a fruit, turning a perfectly fine place into such a perilous situation. The group’s eyes were filled with a desire to devour Fatty Nan alive.
Even Yu Qing and Mu Aotie wanted to kick Nan Zhu into the golden magma.
But displeasure between martial brothers was one thing, they would not air their internal strife in front of outsiders.
Seeing the outsiders’ displeasure, Yu Qing quickly tugged Nan Zhu’s sleeve and tilted his head in a signal.
Nan Zhu understood. The three martial brothers swiftly flashed away.
There was no other way. Everyone had finally found this place, and now someone had made it seem like it was about to collapse. With the fury of the masses hard to withstand, it was better to avoid them for now.
Stones began to fall from the top of the hollow mountain belly with a clattering sound. The mountain shook more and more violently. Falling rocks began to strike the golden giant inside.
The golden giant’s chest showed a slight rise and fall. His eyelids trembled slightly, then suddenly snapped open. His eyes, like golden amber, coldly fixed upon the group of panicked people.
But the panicked group did not notice him.
The iron-masked man said in a deep voice, “The things in this place, you dare to touch them without understanding them clearly. Brother Wu, it is not my place to say, but that dead fatty’s hand ought to be chopped off later. Looking at this commotion, it feels like this mountain is going to collapse. There is no way to continue searching. Let’s go out first and wait to see what happens.”
Wu Hei grunted in agreement. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly glanced over and saw the golden giant move. He saw the golden giant release one hand, while the other hand smoothly reached for the sword hilt. It made his hair stand on end. A cry of alarm burst from his lips, “Go!”
He took his son and was the first to flash away.
The others noticed in turn. With a quick look, they nearly died of fright. Truly, whatever they feared came to pass.
Those with high cultivation did indeed react quickly. The iron-masked man also flashed away in an instant.
Of course, it also had to do with positioning. The position where his group stood allowed them to see and react first.
The golden giant had already drawn his sword. With a single horizontal sweep, the sword whistled like thunder. It easily sliced through the hard scorched stone pillars and the hanging stalactites, and shattered the scalding liquid shooting up like fountains.
The power of that single sword strike was devastating, truly unstoppable.
The thief couple, the Zhuangs, jumped up to dodge together. Seeing the situation was wrong, in his desperation Zhu Kuanzhen, eager to save his wife, added another burst of power for her. He used all his strength to send Nie Pinlan out of the threat of death.
The giant sword’s edge passed right beneath Nie Pinlan’s feet. But Zhu Kuanzhen lost his balance and tumbled away in two pieces, cut in half at the waist by a single sword strike.
Ning Chaoyi, who had leaped into the air, saw that Lu Xingyun and Shen Qingcheng could not avoid the edge. He also acted urgently, grabbing the mother and daughter’s shoulders mid-air and lifting them to fly away.
But this action caused a slight delay in his own rising speed.
He thought he could avoid this strike, but he had ultimately underestimated the speed of this sword. Because he had never seen such a fast sword draw.
Most importantly, the sword in the golden giant’s hand was too large. It easily created a visual illusion, making one think it was not moving fast. By the time one experienced its true speed, it was already too late. Both his legs were swept off from the middle of the thighs.
Blood sprayed out. The two legs flew off in different directions, falling into the golden magma one after another, emitting black smoke and being swallowed.
Due to this strike, Ning Chaoyi’s body suffered severe damage. His rising speed was dragged down again. He could not reach the hanging stalactites at the top and began to fall back down. Fortunately, Shen Qingcheng flew over in time and caught him, carrying him away.
Nie Pinlan did manage to grab a stalactite at the top, but she witnessed her husband being cut in half by a single sword. She watched her husband, split into two pieces, fall into the boiling golden magma.
“Ahh…”
Nie Pinlan, hanging upside down from the top, let out a piercing scream. Tears instantly rolled down her cheeks. She reached out her hand across the distance, wanting to save her husband. But even if she jumped into the magma, she could not save him now. She could only wail in grief.
Those who had reacted quickly and run fast might not necessarily have escaped this calamity smoothly. Although they had dodged the sword slash, it was hard to dodge the golden magma that had been blasted apart by that single sword.
The spurts of golden magma, after being swept apart, rushed out like a meteor shower. Each drop whistled as it shot out, with enough power to pierce and shatter the scorched stone.
Those who had reacted quickly, thinking they had escaped a disaster, were terrified out of their wits.
The four demons, led by Old Lady Rat, were no kind souls. Unable to hide in time, they casually grabbed their own people to use as shields.
Each of them acted in默契 without even needing to signal, directly launching a sneak attack. They pulled the iron-masked man’s three subordinates, forcibly pushing them out to serve as shields.
Wave after wave of spurting golden magma was shattered into bursts of light that shot out.
Several screams rang out. The three cloaked figures used all their cultivation in their desperation, trying to resist with their protective astral qi. But they were easily breached by the waves of light, instantly falling like they had been turned into sieves. Smoke rose from their wounds, but no blood was seen for the moment.
From this, one could see how terrifyingly powerful the golden giant’s single sword attack was. Even initial Xuan level cultivators could not withstand the residual power attached to that one strike.
The four demons, having survived one wave of attacks, finally gained a moment to breathe. Almost simultaneously, they flashed behind a massive lump of scorched rock to hide.
They had just hidden when they saw a burst of light scrape past. The massive scorched rock was struck with continuous explosions, slowly cracking apart.
And just at this moment, Bai Lan saw Old Lady Rat, Gao Yuan, and Jiang Shan huddled together right in front of her. She quickly swept her gaze around and saw that the others’ lines of sight were just blocked by this large scorched rock. For some reason, she suddenly exploded. Both palms struck out with full force.
The first palm struck Old Lady Rat’s back. The old lady, who had never dreamed of such a thing, coughed up a mouthful of blood and was thrown forward.
The second palm struck Jiang Shan’s back. Jiang Shan also coughed up blood and crashed into the wall.
Gao Yuan had only turned half his head when a palm strike sent him crashing into the already cracked massive scorched rock.
The three of them did not even see what had happened before they were buried alive by the collapsing massive scorched rock…
Wu Hei, carrying his son, paid no heed to the others and was the first to urgently flash out of the mountain belly.
The iron-masked man was the second to rush out, also ignoring his own subordinates. One look at the golden giant’s attack power, and he knew escaping for his life was the priority.
To avoid the fury of the masses and for safety’s sake, Yu Qing’s three martial brothers had already stood at a suitable distance in advance. They were safe, but the sudden change before their eyes had left them dumbfounded.
They had witnessed a sudden, tragic disaster with their own eyes. The awakened golden giant had used only one sword strike, and a group of Xuan level cultivators were either dead or wounded. Even Wu Hei and the iron-masked man, these two upper Xuan level cultivators, had been scared into fleeing.
Nan Zhu lowered his head to look at the golden fruit in his palm. He was completely dazed and foolish, the corners of his mouth twitching repeatedly.
He was asking himself in his heart, did he really cause all this by picking a fruit?
Yu Qing slapped his two martial brothers on either side, “What are you still standing there for? Run!”
He was the first to run. Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie also hurriedly followed.
They had to run. The three of them, upon seeing the golden giant awaken, immediately made the connection. This was likely the mountain guardian beast of the Golden Ruins.
Previously, they had all held onto a lucky hope, believing that those guarding the Golden Ruins might be the two Wu brothers. Now it seemed they had been thinking too nicely. Was this not just self-comfort?
Realizing this, the three martial brothers instantly ran for their lives as if fleeing.
Running out of the mountain belly, they did not see Wu Hei, who could shelter them. They could only rely on themselves. Yu Qing immediately waved his hand to signal, leading his two martial brothers to jump straight off the cliff. Landing at the bottom of the cliff, they immediately found a hidden place to hide.
The ground below the cliff could also be felt shaking, but it was not as obvious as inside the mountain belly.
Yu Qing was in the lead, guiding his two martial brothers to specifically choose gully routes that were not easily discovered, sneakily hurrying along.
Nan Zhu, chasing behind, asked, “Old Fifteen, this is not the direction to the Immortal Palace.”
Yu Qing turned back and cursed, “Do you fucking want to run back in a straight line? Are you blind? Nie Pinlan’s husband was killed. Ning Chaoyi’s two legs are crippled. So many dead and injured, all because of your itchy hands. This debt will all be settled on your head later. The hatred of a husband’s murder, with Nie Pinlan’s temperament, do you think she will let you go? The iron-masked man lost those subordinates, he definitely won’t let you off either. We don’t know where Wu Hei went. Now both sides want to kill you. If we don’t take a winding route, what else can we do? The two of us can’t save you.”
Nan Zhu broke into a slight sweat as he ran, holding up the golden fruit in his hand as he went, saying pitifully, “I picked a fruit and it caused such a huge commotion? I say, is this thing really that important? No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like it!”
Mu Aotie took one look and also grew a little anxious, “Why are you still holding that thing? If the golden giant really comes looking for the fruit, aren’t you just courting death?”
Nan Zhu then felt guilty again. He also found it strange. This thing had caused such huge trouble, so why was he still clutching it tightly? Without a word, he directly threw it out. It hit the cliff wall ahead with a clang and fell.
Who would have thought that Yu Qing, rushing in front, caught it again and threw it back to Nan Zhu, “Keep it for now. If the golden giant is really guarding this thing, it means it’s a treasure. If he really comes looking for this thing, and later he finds us but we can’t hand it over, that will also be a fatal problem.”
“Right, right, right.” Nan Zhu nodded repeatedly and quickly stuffed it inside his clothes to keep it safe.
Inside the mountain belly, the seated golden giant sheathed his sword. He planted the sword upside down into the ground, using it as leverage to slowly stand up.
He had been sitting for too many years. His legs seemed somewhat unsteady. He moved them slightly, then bent down and stepped through the gap in the scorched rocks blocking his path.
He paid no heed to Ning Chaoyi and the others, who were helping each other to flee, nor to Bai Lan, who was pretending to be dead next to a pile of rubble.
He had already tested these people’s strength with one sword strike. They were not worth mentioning. He regarded them as ants and paid them no further attention.
He strode forward with his sword in hand, walking to a ruined area in the middle of the mountain belly. Lifting his legs, he swept and kicked with rumbling sounds, quickly clearing out a patch of dark black metal ground. In the middle of the flat ground was a metal wheel plate with rings within rings.
The golden giant walked to the middle of the open ground. He gripped his giant sword upside down and thrust it down. With a buzzing vibration, the sword was plunged into the gap in the middle of the metal wheel plate.