Chapter Ninety-One: Journey's End

“Oh.” The captain lowered his head to look at the screen of his intelligent light-brain. Indeed, the information on these fourteen people was listed under Lord Mingyu of Three Axe Mountain.

“Come in,” the captain said coldly.

The fourteen members of Luoyuan’s group walked through the allied army’s base, where the atmosphere was tense and grim. Many teams eyed each other as if ready to devour their rivals.

“What’s going on?” Thor whispered. “Last time we came, the adventurers from different squads called each other brothers. Now the air is thick with murderous intent.”

As they walked through the base, they saw few smiling faces. Most adventurers were cold and distant, many with hatred burning in their eyes.

Luoyuan spoke softly, “I reckon that a month and a half of slaughter has claimed too many lives. Many of these adventurer armies are made up of friends and brothers—now they’ve lost them, so this is how it is.”

As Luoyuan and his companions entered the base and headed toward the Three Axe Mountain faction, they were unaware that they had already been noticed.

“These are the fourteen.”

“They’ve come again. Inform the lord quickly—these are the ones His Highness personally named.”

“Yes.”

A few figures in the crowd watched the fourteen from afar, then someone turned and hurried away to report to the bodyguards under the Ninth Prince.

...

Within the core of the Black Dragon Mountain Holy Land faction’s camp, at the allied base.

His Highness the Ninth Prince, Brolin, sat with eyes closed, brow furrowed, seemingly troubled.

“Your Highness.” Someone rushed in and knelt on one knee.

“Katulo.” Brolin opened his eyes and looked down at the kneeling bodyguard.

“Your Highness, our security patrol spotted those fourteen—the ones you personally ordered to be killed, who later wiped out one of our squads in a spaceship,” the bodyguard reported hastily.

“Oh? A spaceship?” Brolin’s eyebrow arched, a hint of derision in his smile. “I remember now!”

After a month and a half of carnage, Brolin had been remotely commanding the army. Compared to the complexities of war, the matter of Luoyuan’s group was trivial.

“Continue monitoring them,” Brolin ordered coldly.

“Yes, Your Highness,” the bodyguard replied respectfully.

...

Within the Three Axe Mountain camp, teams under their domain gathered as soon as they arrived at the allied base. Luoyuan’s fourteen joined the ranks.

They had originally intended to head straight for the exit of the Interworld, but there would certainly be troops stationed there. If a small group tried to leave through the exit, they’d be ambushed; only by following the main force could they safely depart, so they returned to the allied base.

As Luoyuan and his group rested in the camp, a lean man approached accompanied by a burly silver-haired man. The lean man was familiar—he was one of Mingyu’s subordinates.

He smiled and said, “Luoyuan, this is our Three Axe Mountain Second Battalion’s commander, Lord Bendi.”

Luoyuan sized up the burly, silver-haired man, noting his formidable aura—clearly a high-level cosmic powerhouse.

Among the forty-eight thousand in the base, there were six cosmic-level fighters. The brutal war lasting a month and a half had cost over a hundred thousand elite ninth-grade star warriors, finally forcing several cosmic-levels to show themselves. However, these cosmic-levels could not interfere with the assessment for trainee cosmic mercenaries, a rule agreed upon by the upper echelons.

“Lord Bendi,” Luoyuan greeted, and the others—Luofeng, Hong, Thor—also bowed. They hoped to blend in with the main force, so their attitude had to be humble.

“Luoyuan? Lord Mingyu has mentioned you to me,” Bendi smiled at them. “If you make it out alive, Mingyu will be very pleased.”

Bendi smiled again, “Just so you know, I am also under Lord Mingyu.”

“Oh?”

“So Commander Bendi is also under Lord Mingyu,” Luoyuan said, delighted.

“Haha, when we leave the Interworld and return to Canglan Star, come with me to meet Lord Mingyu,” Bendi said with a smile. If not for their shared superior, Bendi would not have greeted them personally.

“Certainly,” Luoyuan replied with a smile.

Bendi soon left—after all, as a high-ranking officer in Three Axe Mountain, he had many duties.

...

Luoyuan's group were like grains of sand in the Three Axe Mountain camp, unnoticed among the masses. With Bendi’s protection, no one disturbed them. Bored, they found a spot and began playing cards.

Time flew by. On the fifth day, word spread that the treasure exchange in the Interworld had ended. Some were angry, some cheered, others were joyful. Luoyuan just smiled—he could have claimed all 312 treasures, but that would have made him the target of all, and the crystal ball with the top-ranked space secret technique was merely a ruse by the white-bearded old man to toy with the adventurers.

“The journey in the Interworld is over,” Luofeng and the others laughed.

Suddenly, a messenger soldier ran over and called out, “Luoyuan, this is an official notice—the treasure exchange has ended. Soon, our Three Axe Mountain army will depart! We’ll leave the Interworld, head to the Thunder World, and from there, return to Canglan Star.”

“Understood,” Luoyuan replied.

“Also—the allied base forbids killing, but once we march out, the return is no longer ‘allied base’ territory. Combat may occur on the way back. Be careful, don’t stray from the main force,” the messenger warned.

“Got it.”

“Thank you.”

Luoyuan and his companions laughed in response. They would stick with the main Three Axe Mountain force—nearly eighty thousand strong, with two cosmic-levels, making it very safe.

“We’ll keep to the rear,” Thor grinned. “With only fourteen of us and as direct subordinates of Lord Mingyu, we don’t need to be at the front.”

“Three Axe Mountain, all units—move out!”

A deep voice echoed from the heart of the Three Axe Mountain army, resonating in everyone’s ears. Luoyuan, Luofeng, Hong, Thor, and the others rose with the rest.

“We’re finally leaving this godforsaken place,” Luofeng and the others soared into the air.

Nearly eighty thousand moved as one, like an immense storm cloud blotting out the sky and shrouding the plains in darkness, streaming away in countless streaks of light toward the distance.

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