45: Space mezzanine
His heart pounded violently in his chest, each beat like a drum, clearly audible.
Lin Feng forced himself to adjust his breathing to an extremely slow frequency.
The more critical the moment, the more absolute calmness was required.
He did not act immediately; instead, he closed his eyes again and simulated the entire operation plan in his mind dozens of times, like a sand table exercise.
From the moment he left the cover, to when he reached the base of the throne, and then to when he used his Mental Energy to construct runes and activate the “anchor point”... every step, every detail, even the slightest possible unexpected event he might encounter, was included in his calculations.
He wanted to reduce the probability of error to the absolute minimum!
When he opened his eyes again, there was no trace of emotional fluctuation in his dark pupils, only the absolute focus of a precise instrument.
He slowly leaned out halfway from behind the enormous crystal cluster.
His gaze, like the most precise ruler, quickly swept across the hundred-meter-long, empty death zone.
There was no cover.
The ground was paved with hard obsidian, flat as a mirror, where any slight footstep could be infinitely amplified.
And those four Skeletal Knights, like statues, though motionless, Lin Feng could feel four invisible “alert lines” full of death aura, fanning out and crisscrossing the entire area in front of the throne.
To pass through this area silently was an almost impossible task.
“Unless…”
Lin Feng’s eyes flickered slightly.
“…I don’t go by ‘ground’.”
A bolder, even more outlandish plan instantly formed in his mind!
He slowly raised his head, casting his gaze towards the cave’s dome, dozens of meters high and covered with massive stalactites!
He would go over from above!
The difficulty of this plan was several times higher than going by ground!
He not only needed to climb the steep rock wall silently like a gecko but also needed to move silently among the slippery stalactites like an ape!
This was an extreme test of strength, Agility, Physique, and body control!
But Lin Feng had no other choice!
He took a deep breath and no longer hesitated.
He temporarily left all unnecessary weight from his backpack behind, taking only the most crucial items.
Then, like a lizard merging into the shadows, he silently began to climb up the edge of the cave wall.
His fingers, like iron tongs, firmly gripped the tiny crevices on the rock wall.
His feet, blessed by the Earth Force, seemed to possess magnetic power, adhering firmly to the rock wall.
His movements were gentle yet full of power.
The entire process did not make even the slightest unnecessary sound… Time ticked by, minute by minute.
When Lin Feng finally climbed to the dome of the cave and hid his body behind a huge stalactite, his forehead was already covered with fine beads of sweat.
From his “God’s eye view,” the entire cave was visible.
The massive Skeletal Throne and the terrifying Ancient Lich sitting upon it seemed so tiny.
And the four Skeletal Knights, which had previously put immense pressure on him, now appeared as four inconspicuous “small black dots.”
A wonderful feeling of controlling everything arose spontaneously.
He was not carried away by this feeling.
He moved cautiously among the stalactites, which resembled an underground forest, constantly adjusting his position.
Finally, he hovered directly above the Skeletal Throne.
From here, the vertical distance to the base of the throne was approximately thirty meters.
He precisely located the skeletal relief he had targeted, which concealed the “anchor point.”
Then, he took out a [Tough Vine] from his embrace.
He firmly tied one end of the vine around his waist and tightly wrapped the other end around the thickest stalactite.
Having done all this, he took a deep breath and released his hands.
Like an agent in a movie, he silently descended along the vine towards the death forbidden zone below.
Twenty meters… ten meters… five meters… When his feet finally landed gently, like feathers, on the cold obsidian ground, he was less than half a meter away from the skeletal relief!
And the four Skeletal Knights remained motionless, like statues.
They had no idea that an uninvited guest had unknowingly infiltrated the core area they guarded!
Lin Feng’s heart was almost leaping out of his throat!
He dared not delay for a moment, immediately turned, and faced the cold skeletal relief.
Then, he extended his right hand.
He did not touch it.
Instead, he displayed the fruits of his seven days of arduous training, without reservation, at this very moment!
His Mental Energy, like the most precise surgical knife, extended from his fingertips, transforming into countless silver-white threads of light, finer than hair.
These threads of light rapidly intertwined, spiraled, and outlined before him… an extremely complex six-pointed star rune, full of spatial rhythm, slowly materialized out of thin air before his palm!
This was precisely the basic rune recorded in the space notebook, capable of disturbing spatial nodes and activating the “anchor point”!
“Go!”
Lin Feng shouted inwardly!
The rune, constructed purely from Mental Energy, silently imprinted itself on the skeletal relief like an invisible brand.
Buzz—!
An imperceptible, faint fluctuation, existing only on the spatial plane, instantly rippled out!
The space in front of the originally unremarkable skeletal relief began to subtly and eerily twist, like water ripples!
An oval “hollow” about half a person’s height, black as ink, as if capable of devouring all light, slowly emerged!
The entrance to the spatial interlayer had opened!
Lin Feng’s eyes burst forth with an unprecedented brilliance!
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately bent down and plunged into the black hollow!
...The moment his body entered the hollow, the oval entrance, as if it had never appeared, returned to its original state.
Below the throne, there was still a deathly silence.
As if nothing had happened.
However, at this moment, the two clusters of eerie purple Soul fire burning in the hollow eye sockets of the Ancient Lich, who had been sitting motionless on the throne for centuries, subtly, gently, flickered.
Its head, as withered as tree bark, seemed to have rotated ever so slightly, at an imperceptible angle… “Is this… the spatial interlayer?”
Lin Feng found himself in an extremely peculiar space.
It was not large, only about the size of a room.
Around him was a chaotic, constantly shifting stream of Void Realm energy. There was no up, down, left, or right, and even time seemed to slow down here.
And in the very center of the entire space, a translucent black box, formed by countless vengeful Souls and cursed runes, quietly floated!
The Ancient Lich’s Phylactery!
A wave of death and Soul energy, even purer and more terrifying than the Lich’sMain unit, constantly emanated from the box!
This was the source of the Lich’s power and the secret to its eternal life!
Lin Feng’s breathing quickened.
He suppressed the excitement and greed in his heart, extended his slightly trembling right hand, which had gathered all his strength, and aimed it at the ultimate Treasure Trove, so close yet capable of driving the entire world mad!
“Gathering Skill!”