What surprised Haoyun and his companions even more was that their battle armor once again played a significant role. Just as the system kept warning them of an imminent confrontation with a large group of meteorite fragments and a barrage barrier formed by the collision of meteorites, the green light flowing on the surface of their underworld battle armor suddenly surged, emitting invisible energy waves in all directions. Under the effect of these outward surging energy waves, all the meteorite fragments flying towards Haoyun and his companions were immediately suppressed by the powerful force contained within the energy waves. They could only hover in the air, shaking incessantly, unable to continue launching attacks against Haoyun and his companions.
With the meteorite fragments around them immobilized by the energy waves, Haoyun and his companions were once again propelled away from the range of the attacks by the powerful propulsion force emitted from the back of their battle armor. They successfully escaped the area occupied by the flowing meteorite fragments.
However, even after breaking free from the area of meteorite fragments, Haoyun and his companions dared not let their guard down. As soon as they left the concentrated area of meteorite fragments, the energy waves restraining the fragments immediately dissipated. Then, the meteorite fragments closest to them angrily launched another round of attacks from above. Therefore, Haoyun and his companions had no choice but to continue descending quickly without stopping to avoid more meteorite fragments from falling on them.
After a series of evasive maneuvers, Haoyun and his companions finally managed to shake off the pursuing meteorite fragments. Strangely enough, as soon as they created sufficient distance between themselves and the meteorite fragments, the fragments, like mechanical sentries losing their targets in a game, immediately calmed down from their agitation and resumed floating slowly and orderly in the air after returning to the floating group of meteorite fragments.
Seeing that the meteorite fragments behind them had finally stopped pursuing them, Haoyun and his companions breathed a sigh of relief. Their underworld battle armor seemed to sense that they had escaped danger and automatically switched from high-speed flight mode to a steady state, assisting them in descending safely towards the surface of the Eternal Longing Star.
At this point, Dao Lao finally had the opportunity to share with Haoyun and Dream Jia the data analysis conducted by the system on the meteorite fragments. However, he also expressed his confusion, saying, "According to the analysis results just now, that group of meteorite fragments is actually a unique defensive formation. They only react with attacks upon identifying enemies. But strangely enough—according to the system's records, this defensive formation, composed of meteorite fragments, is clearly a self-reliant counterattack defense formation developed by the 619th realm of the underworld, specifically designed to protect its main city, the 'City of Radiance.' So logically speaking, that formation shouldn't have attacked us, right?"
"Could it be that this formation was disrupted by the miasma energy?" Dream Jia asked. This was also the first reaction of Haoyun and the miasma immortals, both being miasma energy pursuit priests. However, since none of their systems detected traces of miasma energy in the meteorite formation just now, and they also understood that the system could not detect miasma energy in the formation, likely due to severe interference from the chaotic energy in the black hole, they could only consider this question as one of the reasons why the meteorite formation attacked them.
Therefore, Haoyun asked in confusion, "Why did the 619th realm specifically set up the defensive formation designed to protect the main city here? Could it be that the Eternal Longing Star had very important value during the Divine War?"
"Very likely. After all, from another perspective, the lower realm of the Spirit Realm is also a natural barrier to prevent enemies from invading the upper realm of the Spirit Realm. To prevent miasma energy from infiltrating the upper realm, the Spirit Realm has moved many divine power formations exclusive to the upper realm to the lower realm to form a defense line. However, even so, we wouldn't easily apply defensive formations specifically for protecting one city to lower realm planets. So from this perspective, the Eternal Longing Star should be a relatively special planet, which is why the 619th realm attached such importance to it at the time," Dao Lao analyzed.
Then, Dao Lao checked his system again, but due to the massive interference from the energy turbulence in the black hole, his system was currently only displaying "searching for information," and there was no further information available.
While Haoyun and his companions were discussing the meteorite formation, their underworld battle armor had already assisted them in rapidly descending about three thousand meters. However, at this moment, they still couldn't see the surface of a planet below them. Instead, they encountered another layer of dense, crimson fog. Seeing this scene, all three of them couldn't help but doubt the information their systems had reported. Because it was clear that their systems had been severely disrupted by the chaotic energy in the black hole, so their systems might have had a significant deviation in determining the position of the Eternal Longing Star.
Soon, Haoyun and his companions descended into the depths of the crimson fog. At the same time, their systems also sounded a piercing alarm, reminding them that a large amount of harmful gas had been detected in this crimson fog, and they must ensure that their protective shields remained open at all times!
Hearing the system's warning, the three of them were once again shocked. Because they didn't expect that after just evading the attack of the meteorite formation, they would find themselves in a deadly poison fog. So, Haoyun couldn't help but say, "It seems that the Eternal Longing Star is indeed a military key point in the Divine War! Otherwise, why would there be so many traps set up here?"
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However, unlike Haoyun's direct and simple critique of their current predicament, Dream Jia and Dao Lao wore expressions of extreme gravity at this moment. This was because, unlike the meteorite formation they had just encountered, both of them immediately recognized, upon delving into this crimson fog, the deadly elements concealed within it, which were remarkably similar to the toxic fog defenses they often faced when attacking territories occupied by miasma energy during the Divine War. What made them even more uneasy was the swift detection by the Miasma Energy Pursuit System of miasma energy equivalent to a four-star level of misfortune emanating from these fogs.
Upon seeing this information, the three of them were instantly thrown into a frenzy. Haoyun, in particular, exclaimed and vigorously twisted his body, trying to stop himself from venturing further into the crimson fog. Dao Lao, seeing this, quickly reassured, "Calm down! Haven't you noticed that although the system warns us that we've entered the fog, it hasn't alerted us to any attacks?"
Upon hearing Dao Lao's words, Haoyun quickly realized his oversight. After swiftly checking his own system's monitoring data, he awkwardly scratched his nose and said, "Oh! Hehe, I got too excited just now! Mainly because I haven't used this system in a long time, so in my haste, I forgot to check the monitoring data."
Considering that Haoyun was still a rookie who had recently joined, he hadn't yet developed good habits in using the Miasma Energy Pursuit System. Moreover, during their time trapped in the Fragrant Nebula, Haoyun had been forced to experience years of illusionary life without being able to use the system. Now, with the system's intermittent functionality due to the chaos energy interference in the black hole, it was understandable that Haoyun was unfamiliar with using and operating the Miasma Energy Pursuit System. This was why Dao Lao refrained from mocking Haoyun, which was a rare occurrence.
Dream Jia, on the other hand, rolled her eyes at Haoyun, calling him useless, and then turned to Dao Lao with a puzzled expression, "Strange, isn't it? Normally, these crimson miasmas, created by miasma energy, should have immediately launched attacks upon detecting us, shouldn't they? There's no reason for them to allow us to pass through so easily."
"It does seem suspicious. Why would the defensive formations of the Spirit Realm and the miasma energy defensive formations coexist at such close proximity? Normally, even if they didn't actively repel each other due to their proximity, they should, at the very least, not peacefully coexist without any awareness of each other's formations, like they are doing now," pondered Dao Lao, puzzled.
"Perhaps... do you think it's because of our armor? Because our armor has been modified by the Countess, we might have been identified as allies by the crimson miasma due to the miasma energy present in our armor, thus sparing us from attack. Meanwhile, the meteorite formation recognized us as enemies and launched an assault," Haoyun speculated uncertainly.
"But, I've checked our armor many times, and I've also examined the energy released from the armor multiple times. The system didn't detect any traces of miasma energy," Dream Jia questioned.
"Perhaps this armor ensures that the crimson fog doesn't attack us, while also ensuring our safe passage through the meteorite formation?" Haoyun speculated again. Feeling relieved that the surrounding fog wouldn't attack them, Haoyun relaxed a little and flipped over to a more comfortable reclining position, using the armor to continue navigating through the crimson fog.
As Dao Lao listened, he suddenly realized something and took out a small metal card, about the size of a bank card, and threw it towards the fog in the distance. Then they saw the card, once it left the protective range of the armor, instantly wrapped up by the crimson fog and completely incinerated in seconds. The card melted into molten metal within the crimson flames, which then quickly turned into a wisp of black-red smoke under the fog's corrosion.
Seeing the metal card, once out of the protective range, instantly devoured and evaporated by the crimson fog, Dao Lao's face was filled with horror. "It seems you're right. Anything outside this armor's protective range will immediately come under attack from the crimson fog."
"And, judging from the fact that the protective talisman I placed on the card, even with divine power, was corroded to nothing within a few seconds, it's evident that this crimson fog still possesses considerable destructive power. So, it seems that our armor from the Spirit Realm has indeed played a significant role! Hmph! I wonder what the Countess is up to! She must have ulterior motives for helping us like this! We must be more careful in the future!" Dao Lao concluded.
Although he was very worried that the Countess's seemingly helpful actions were actually laying the groundwork for some scheme of hers, at the same time, Dao Lao couldn't help but marvel at the Countess's strength. Because, apart from the fact that the armor modified by the Countess prevented the three of them from being attacked by the crimson fog, just the fact that this set of armor could withstand the attacks of the meteorite formation was remarkable. If the Countess were to use this ability to assist the miasma energy's army in attacking the Spirit Realm, wouldn't the miasma energy army be able to forcibly invade the upper realm of the Spirit Realm, having the ability to resist the Spirit Realm's defensive formations?
Thinking of this, Dao Lao couldn't help but nervously wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, while also sincerely hoping that the Countess was indeed as she claimed, just wanting to stay away from the conflict between the Spirit Realm and the miasma energy and focus all her energy on enjoying her life.
"Ah! The Countess seems to have helped us to ensure that we can safely pass through these defensive formations, rather than specifically modifying the armor to help us. This strange character, what does she really want to do? Could she really be helping us?" Haoyun asked, full of doubt.
Why would the Countess help them? What does she really want? After successfully dealing with two defensive formations with the help of the armor from the Spirit Realm, Haoyun and his companions couldn't help but ask these questions again. They were once again puzzled by the Countess's actions. Despite the Countess's appearance of being unkempt and casual, Haoyun and his companions were well aware that she was an incredibly powerful and intelligent individual. Therefore, they wouldn't be deceived by her surface demeanor, nor would they relax their vigilance just because they received her help.
Having witnessed the Countess's terrifying power firsthand and personally experienced the inhumane torture she inflicted upon them, Haoyun and his companions had every reason to remain cautious and alert towards the Countess's seemingly benevolent assistance. As adversaries, they had to maintain a cautious and vigilant attitude towards the Countess's goodwill. Especially considering how the Countess could so precisely enable their armor to withstand the attacks of the meteorite formation and the crimson fog, they couldn't help but wonder how the Countess was so familiar with the formations set up here.