34: The Suffering of All Beings - Compassionate Salvation

Three days passed in a flash, during which they encountered many things: bad teams fishing for trouble, genuinely needy teams, and teams they met by chance and simply passed by.

Regardless, the trio maintained their hunting plan, not letting these outsiders affect their mood or the execution of their plan.

As time went on, the Divine Power creature populations in the Desert Area became increasingly scarce, not enough for the trio to hunt, and more and more pioneering teams poured into the Divine Ruins, creating an absurd situation of too many people and too few monsters.

Fortunately, the trio had been constantly moving, heading towards the Forest Area in the west. Since the Desert Area wasn't yielding much, they decided to switch regions.

The Forest Area has a better overall ecological environment and more abundant energy, which results in a greater number of Divine Power creature populations and lone-wolf Divine Power creatures living there, generally stronger than those in the Desert Area.

However, this did not affect Lin Chen's trio's hunting plan; instead, it would allow them to gain more.

As Lin Chen's trio entered the Forest Area and began hunting, Ruins City was undergoing changes.

An unknown entity hidden beneath Ruins City had awakened.

“After ten thousand years of slumber, I shall return!”

“The era has changed, and I am the victor.”

At the same time, a five-person team discovered the entrance to an underground space. They excitedly entered the underground space to explore, hoping to make a fortune.

All five were Fifth Order cultivators, the top five students in Gu City's senior year, possessing a certain amount of luck, and one of them already showed signs of being a Child of Fortune.

Through a narrow tunnel, the five from Gu City entered a vast underground space.

“Captain, I feel a bit uneasy.”

“Everyone be careful, Liu Meng's intuition is warning us. Stay alert and be ready to retreat at any time.”

The Gu City team's composition was very reasonable: Captain Wang Yuan, Vice-Captain Zhou Zhi, both absolute main attackers with astonishing combat power.

Team member Liu Meng, a natural spiritual master with incredible intuition, possessing a superhuman perception of danger, essentially a logistics manager.

Team member Lin Linglong, a spatial-type professional martial artist, the team's escape route, essentially a team medic.

Team member Wan Shan, with astonishing defense, an absolute MT, top-tier in tanking damage, possessing a three-second absolute defense domain.

Wang Yuan's five were very vigilant. The dark underground space did not obstruct their vision. In the center of the vast space, there was only an altar with a gray statue standing on it.

The gray statue's face was half ferocious and half benevolent. Its four heads and eight arms were all bound by black chains, the ends of which extended into the altar's underground.

“Linglong, check the spatial stability and confirm if we can safely teleport out.”

“Captain, spatial stability is normal. I can teleport everyone to the previously set teleportation point at any time.”

“Mengzi, sense the most dangerous area.”

“Captain, that statue is very dangerous. It gives me a chilling feeling of a corpse resurrecting.”

“Shanzi, be ready to activate your domain at any time to provide a safe environment for Linglong's teleportation.”

“Received, Captain.”

“Xiao Zhi, you and I will lead the way, investigate the statue's location, and test its strength.”

“Received.”

Wang Yuan was not reckless; instead, he consulted his team members, ensuring the retreat path was safe before arranging tactics.

The five ascended the altar steps and faced the gray statue. The gray statue showed no change due to their arrival.

“Captain, these chains are Devouring Life Iron, a Tenth Order treasure ore! The Devouring Life Iron is still active, the gray statue is alive!”

Within the Gu City team, Lin Linglong, like Lin Chen, came from the Suspended Mountain Lin Family.

The patriarch of the Gu City Lin Family was an Eighth Order powerhouse, two levels higher in status than the original Feng City Lin Family.

Lin Linglong was well-informed and immediately recognized the chains binding the statue as Devouring Life Iron and determined that the Devouring Life Iron was still active.

Devouring Life Iron only has powerful binding and devouring effects on living beings, so the gray statue was clearly alive.

“Retreat. An existence that requires Tenth Order Devouring Life Iron to bind is not something we can contend with right now.”

Wang Yuan was very cautious, and it was his caution that allowed the team to reach this point, avoiding one fatal crisis after another.

Accidents are the main theme of exploration; only caution can deal with the unexpected.

Wan Shan immediately activated his Absolute Defense, and Lin Linglong began to draw spatial power, applying it to everyone in the team for ultra-long-distance teleportation.

“Little human brats, don’t leave, stay here for me!”

“Little human brats, hurry and leave, this place is inauspicious.”

The gray statue opened its eyes, and both the benevolent head and the ferocious head spoke simultaneously. Two voices, speaking in an ancient language, resounded throughout the underground space.

“Our chance to escape is right before us, and you still want to hold me back!”

The ferocious head turned its head fiercely to look at the benevolent head.

The benevolent head, with its kind eyebrows and benevolent eyes, was not angered and slowly said,

“This place can also be a dwelling. The meaning of our existence has never been to go to the outside world, but to suppress this place.”

Wang Yuan's five heard the conversation between the two heads clearly, but they only listened, without any curiosity, only wanting to escape.

The gray statue was clearly of an extremely high life-tier; even though it was suppressed by the Devouring Life Iron, the physical pressure alone after it opened its eyes was something they could not contend with.

Three seconds later, Wang Yuan's team disappeared from the underground space.

“You cannot suppress me, Four-Headed Benevolent Venerable. All beings suffer, and benevolence is useless.”

“Benevolence saves all beings, and all beings praise benevolence.”

The benevolent head replied, then closed its eyes, forcibly dragging the ferocious head into a state of slumber.

Before falling into slumber, the ferocious head roared,

“Four-Headed Benevolent Venerable, soon, my master will return and bring suffering to the world! Suffering is eternal!”

Wang Yuan's five were unaware of what happened next in the underground space, but they understood that this matter needed to be handled by professionals. They, as mere small fry, just needed to stand aside and cheer.

At the teleportation point, Wang Yuan's five exchanged glances and all chose to leave the Divine Ruins and report the matter to the Camp outside.

There were no restrictions on entering the Divine Ruins, but to leave, one had to pass through four teleportation portals located at the corners of the world.

Wang Yuan's five were very fast. A distance of several thousand kilometers was expected to take only an hour to cross. If they didn't encounter any Divine Power creatures blocking their way, their travel speed could be even faster.

As long as the five returned to Blue Star and reported the situation, powerhouses above the Eighth Order would surely enter the Divine Ruins to investigate the danger and eliminate any threats far exceeding the Sixth Order.

Dimensional fragments below the Demigod Order were basically training grounds within human territory, solely for tempering humans of various orders and providing resource acquisition locations for them.

Truly dangerous dimensional fragments generally had visible divine power present, and not only were the situations within them incredibly complex, but even gods had a chance of falling within them.

While Wang Yuan's five were escaping, the underground space beneath Ruins City welcomed new explorers.

A team of seven ordinary civilian martial artists, by chance, entered the underground space through another passage.

The seven-person team were all just Fourth Order ordinary martial artists, lacking much experience or strength, and clearly had bad luck as well.

The moment they saw the gray statue, an infinite desire naturally surged within them. Looking at the chains, they vaguely knew they were Tenth Order Devouring Life Iron, worth a fortune.

The seven, unaware and seemingly possessed, walked onto the altar and collectively pulled on a Devouring Life Iron chain, trying to pull it out from underground.

They had already been corrupted by greed. This was merely the passive bewitching ability of the ferocious head, but for ordinary Fourth Order martial artists, it was still a dimensionality reduction attack.

The benevolent head wanted to awaken the seven, but the entity suppressed deeper underground began to riot, and the ferocious head also tried its best to block the benevolent head's power.

With both working in tandem, the benevolent head's power was firmly suppressed within the statue, only barely able to suppress the unknown entity, and could no longer affect the outside world.

“Benevolent Venerable, you have lost. The power of time is the greatest.”

The ferocious head muttered to itself, its two heads and four eyes gazing at the seven bewitched Fourth Order martial artists, bestowing blessings upon them, causing them to burn their vitality and souls, erupting with power sufficient to shake the Devouring Life Iron.

As long as the seven could pull the Devouring Life Iron out a little from underground, the Suffering of All Beings could release a trace of power, slowly disintegrating the suppression of the Devouring Life Iron and the Benevolent Venerable, thereby gaining freedom.

At this time, our protagonist was still hunting.

In the Forest Area, Lin Chen's trio annihilated one Divine Power creature population after another, collecting Divine Power Crystals one after another, completely unaware of the impending crisis.

In the Desert Area, the trio had harvested Divine Power Crystals worth over 60 billion federal currency, which was due to the Desert Area being relatively barren.

Now, in the resource-rich Forest Area, before the Divine Power creature populations significantly decrease, the trio could at least harvest Divine Power Crystals worth over 100 billion federal currency.

For those with strength, the more dangerous the place, the greater the reward.

Generally speaking, Fifth and Sixth Order martial artists can earn enough federal currency through adventuring to maximize their acquired aptitudes.

Lin Chen's grandfather, Lin Yuan, came to Feng City as a pioneer during a dimensional fragment's arrival when he was Fifth Order. In less than a year, he earned enough federal currency to raise his and his wife's acquired aptitudes to their limits.

Once acquired aptitudes are maximized, further improvement in aptitude cannot be achieved by mere federal currency.

The federal currency earned afterward can then be used to improve one's cultivation environment and acquire various precious resources for enhancing one's cultivation, materializing aptitude into strength.

Aptitude is the root, cultivation is the foundation. Combining both is the correct path.