The whole crew nodded. They didn’t really have a choice. All of them were unemployed, they all came from either low or unknown backgrounds, and they had no more zoids, which forced them to live inside the cave instead in the city. Fang Meng thought these guys must be fearless or dumb, but whatever the case, she was still very impressed with their combat strength and teamwork, including the idiot she would be stuck with.

The went further down to the lower levels until they found a forest. Fang Meng mentioned this forest was untouched during the war for unknown reason, so if they ever needed monster cores, this is the perfect place to get it. But she also warned not to go to deep, because some of the wild beast were at the immortal realm level.

The crew did spend some time on obtaining some monster cores, but Ye Tian was more interested in the herbs and plants that he’s never seen before. Everywhere he passed by he collected these rare living, and looking down from above, one could see one path of the forest became bald. Fortunately, Ye Tian found some storage rings prior to coming to this forest, that’s why he could collect mountains of herbs and plants.

“Ye Tian, how come you’re not interested in these monster cores. They will help you further with the huge cultivation you already have,” Lin Yang curiously asked.

“These supreme dao monster cores won’t help me a bit. It has to be infinite or higher.”

“Ohhh, then you must have gained a lot by sucking that monster core from the python.”

“No, I haven’t mastered the skill yet, that’s why you were able to sense a lot of energy leaking out. At most, I was able to gain 10% of that energy, the rest leaked out.”

“….That’s a shame, but what do you call that skill?”

“Forbidden Cult.”

“What? Forbidden Cult! Where did you learn it?” Fang Meng finally jumped out and asked with shock.

“My father taught it to me, but he said never to use it unless if it’s necessary.”

“What family are you from? Which clan?”

“My family is not famous. We’re just from a small isolated village.”

“Hmmmm…..I’ve heard stories or legends from my grandfather. He said there was an ancient hero who had such tyrannical power, even other powerful experts and ancient empires feared him. In fact, this hero was the one that saved this world from an apocalypse during the ancient war against the demons. One of his famous demonic ability enabled him to suck out the demon’s core energy and transformed it into a destructive attack. Some divisions of the demon army and some of their cities were wiped out from this destructive ability. Even the demons feared his ability. There were other human clans that betrayed their own to join the demons for selfish greed. ”

“But fortunately, this hero led his generals, some other human clans, and other ancient races in defeating the demons. But after that devastating war, they all disappeared.  Some said they all died like some of the ancient civilizations that perished after the ancient war, but some didn’t believe it. It’s a shame, no one knew their names…..” Fang Meng explained with a touch of sadness. Everyone could tell she really admired these heroes from the ancient times even though this story might be a myth, but deep inside her, she truly believed these heroes existed.

“What are you doing?” Fang Meng angrily asked at Xiang Jiao.

“Just wanted to see if you were real or not,” Xiang Jiao replied calmly. He resumed to his monk-like behavior thereafter. But just a moment ago, due to his curiosity, he touched Fang Meng’s cheeks with his finger.

“If we’re done here, I think we can get a battle aircraft from one of the government facilities in the lower level.” Fang Meng continued to explain but she still felt annoyed at Xiang Jiao.

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“Sounds good, but we also need to find something from this place. It’s called ‘the eyes of the treasure fox.’ Have you heard of it?” Ye Tian asked.

“Yes, they were one of races that lived here, but just like its name, they were targeted frequently due to their ability to become a random treasure when you obtain their eyes. I’m not sure if they’ve survived till this day….” Fang Meng worriedly replied.

After passing several levels, they’ve arrived at the governing city. It’s a level where all the governing departments operated during the past, however, many of the buildings have been destroyed from the war. That did not stop them to explore the place, especially having the chance to obtain a battle aircraft!

“We should split up into two teams and search for anything of value. Ma Qian and Xiang Jiao, you guys go west, Lin Yang and I will go east,” Ye Tian ordered.

They looked around for a few hours, but could only find some historical records of this civilization and the family clans that lived here.

“Roarrrrrr.”

A wild beast appeared out of the sky and attacked Ye Tian and Lin Yang.

Boom!

They barely escaped the punch that left a pit on the ground. This wild beast appeared similar to a 10 feet yellow gorilla with black wings and bulky muscles.

Kaboom! Boom! Boom!

Ye Tian and Lin Yang had to retreat as far away as they could, because the gorilla’s strength was too powerful for them to withstand. Ma Qian and Xiang Jiao arrived a short while later, but there was no way that the whole team could even go against an immortal dao beast.

“The winged ape! It’s still alive. Be careful, this beast is very strong comparable to an immortal dao cultivator. They were part of the invaders that we struggled to defend against,” Fang quickly warned after jumping out to the scene. She continued, ” Ma Qian call uncle frog to help, now!”

“Uncle frog! Please come out and help us!” Ma Qian simply yelled out.

Woof!

High up in the sky, a gigantic armored frog was rapidly descending straight down, aiming for the winged aped with his two curved blades held on his hands.

Swingggggg!

The ape winged blocked the blades with his steel trident, but the impact of the clash caused the nearby buildings to be split into multiple  sections. Both were at immortal dao realm, so the team had to stay away from the battle, otherwise, one hit from them could cause their lives! However Ye Tian, was nowhere to be seen.

The battle continued, but buildings after buildings were destroyed into pieces wherever the battle went.

“There! Over there! inside the hill, there should be a battle aircraft.” Fang Meng communicated with Ma Qian.

There were buildings among the hills, but part of them were destroyed so bad, it exposed some secret underground base.

“Ye Tian, we found a battle aircraft on one of the destroyed hills,” Lin Yang shouted. They expected to meet Ye Tian there, but they didn’t realize Ye Tian was already on his way there. Before Fang Meng found out, Ye Tian was surveying the whole terrain and found that underground base. That curiosity led him towards that place.  When Ma Qian and the others arrived inside the underground base, Ye Tian was already seen near an aircraft.

“How do we get this aircraft to fly us out of here?” Ye Tian yelled. He was really asking Fang Meng since he doubted the others would know how it works.

“You need monster cores to start the aircraft. The higher monster cores the better speed it will get.” Fang Meng replied.

“Okay we need to go now. We can’t stay here any longer.”

“But what about the mission?”

“Abandon the mission for now. Until we get stronger, we can come back to this place.”

The base was shaking due to the battle outside. A lot of the buildings turned into ashes, parts of the terrain were cut deep, and other parts were burning.

“I put some monster cores in, why is it not starting?” Ye Tian asked.

“You need to put 50 infinite or 150 supreme dao monster cores to activate it,” Fang Meng replied.

“What? That’s almost our whole collection we got from this place!”

“You want to keep the monster cores or you want to leave this place alive?”

“Grrrrr……bitch” Ye Tian thought to himself.

Once all the monster cores were used, the aircraft started to elevate.

“Use your mind to navigate where you want to go,” Fang Meng said.

Vrooommm!

With a burst of energy, the aircraft flew high up in the sky. There was another passage that connected this level all the way to the outside without using the multiple tubes.

Uncle frog was still seen battling the winged ape, but he was on the losing end gradually. Both were immortal dao beasts, but the winged ape seemed to have a slightly higher cultivation that reached the intermediate realm. Can the crew escape safely from this place?