Death… And Me

Chapter 4379: Astronomical

They had been holding the area for almost half an hour.

Outside the airplane, Roan’s Crystal Void Scythe flashed once again.

"Death Style, Crescent Moon!"

The crescent-shaped blade swept across the battlefield, slicing through two charging Godly Spawns. Their heads separated cleanly from their bodies before the corpses crashed heavily onto the ground.

Now that he was at the Peak Stage of the Anchor God Realm, most of the restrictions the Celestial Plane imposed on him were gone. He could use 80% of his total strength. Godly Spawns were simply not an issue anymore, even when their Godly Pressure weakens his overall power.

Not far away, Celis, Kentucky, and the Aura Gods kept watch in every direction. Any Godly Spawn that wandered too close was immediately intercepted before it could threaten the airplane. In just thirty minutes, more than thirty Godly Spawns had already been eliminated.

Fortunately, none of them were Godly Beasts, which meant no mobs of Godly Beasts had noticed them yet. Even when two or three Spawns appeared at the same time, the combined strength of their group was more than enough to dispose of them quickly.

Inside the airplane, Rean had transformed the cabin into a temporary workshop.

Various tools, replacement runes, metal plates, and array components could be seen around him while several auxiliary arrays remained active to help with the repairs. The holes left by the strange guardian’s lasers had already been sealed. What remained now was replacing the damaged runes that formed the Light-Bending Arrays and several secondary systems that had burned out after redirecting those terrifying attacks.

Fortunately, Rean had anticipated the possibility of accidents.

His Spatial Ring contained a considerable reserve of replacement runes, each carefully prepared beforehand. One had to remember that Rean was still below the Aura God Realm, meaning he couldn’t manufacture many advanced runes since they required manipulating Godly Energy outside his body. Because of that limitation, he carried finished products wherever he went.

As his hands continued replacing one damaged rune after another, the conversation naturally drifted toward what they had witnessed inside the barrier.

"Senior Harksha," Rean began without taking his eyes away from the array panel before him, "how often do you see guardians inside barriers like that?"

Harksha slowly shook her head while circulating the medicinal power of several healing pills through her injured body. Her missing shoulder had already stopped bleeding completely, and flesh had begun to regenerate around the wound, although regrowing an entire arm was well beyond the capabilities of ordinary healing pills.

"Never," she answered before pausing for a moment. "Actually... that’s not entirely correct. As far as the reports I’ve personally read go, there was never any mention of guardians. There have certainly been barriers before. They’re extremely rare, but they do exist."

She thought about it for a second before continuing.

"Then again, how many reports have I actually read? Besgol has existed for an unimaginably long time. During that period, how many Elite Exploration Groups have ventured into the Godly Creatures’ Territories? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Maybe even billions. There is every possibility that someone encountered something similar in the distant past, yet I simply never came across those records."

Rean nodded while removing another damaged rune.

"I see..."

He carefully fitted a replacement into its slot before continuing.

"In that case, what do you intend to do now? Honestly speaking, the safest choice would be returning to Besgol, reporting everything we’ve discovered, and organizing a much larger expedition before attempting to enter that barrier again."

Harksha had expected exactly that suggestion.

Unfortunately, she dismissed it almost immediately.

"That isn’t necessarily the best solution," she replied. "First of all, how do we know that guardian was the only one inside? What if there are dozens? Hundreds? Your Light-Bending Arrays managed to divert those lasers somehow, but who’s to say every guardian uses the same attack?"

She looked directly at Rean.

"That creature... if I had to guess, even Seniors Arcis and Tobao could be overwhelmed by one like that if they weren’t extremely careful."

From outside the airplane came Roan’s calm voice.

Since all the doors remained open while the repairs continued, everyone heard him clearly.

"There could even be stronger guardians deeper inside. Besides, increasing our numbers would probably work against us."

Nearby, Senkiyu nodded in agreement while crouching beside one of the Godly Spawns he had just killed. With practiced movements, he split open its skull and retrieved the Godly Crystal hidden inside.

"Roan is right," he said while storing the crystal away. "There is a reason Elite Exploration Groups rarely exceed ten members."

Seeing Rean looking over, Senkiyu continued his explanation.

"Godly Creatures are incredibly sensitive to the presence of cultivators. The only thing they are more sensitive to other than us is other Godly Creatures. Just look around us. Ever since the airplane landed, Godly Spawns have continued appearing one after another. Some of them probably started dozens of kilometers away, yet they still managed to track us here."

He gestured toward another dead Godly Spawn lying nearby.

"There are records of much larger exploration groups from the past. Unfortunately, they were attacked far more frequently than smaller teams. Eventually, everyone reached the same conclusion. Five to ten members provide the best balance. Strong enough to survive most situations, but not numerous enough to attract every Godly Creature in the surrounding area."

Rean couldn’t help rubbing his chin.

"So bringing an army here would probably attract an army of Godly Creatures..."

"Exactly," Senkiyu confirmed.

Rean let out a helpless sigh.

"There goes that idea."

Rico’the shrugged. "I’ve always found something else strange." Everyone looked toward him as he spoke. "The Godly Creatures’ obsession with cultivators. It has always been like this. Countless scholars have tried explaining it throughout history, yet no one has reached a convincing conclusion. Maybe we’d have to ask an intelligent Godly Creature ourselves."

He laughed bitterly. "Of course, if something like that truly existed, Besgol and every surrounding region would probably already be gone."

Cantra frowned. "I don’t think it’s that mysterious." Everyone turned toward her. "The Godly Creatures don’t simply kill cultivators. They eat us. Isn’t the answer obvious? Either we’re especially delicious, or consuming cultivators helps them increase their strength. Haven’t all of you noticed that Godly Creatures become noticeably stronger after feeding on enough cultivators?"

Senkiyu shook his head. "That’s not the point."

He tossed another extracted crystal into his Spatial Ring before standing up. "No one denies that they benefit from eating cultivators. The real question is why they’re so obsessed with doing it."

Seeing Cantra’s puzzled expression, he elaborated. "If gaining strength were their only objective, then eating other Godly Creatures would be far more efficient. There are vastly more Godly Creatures than cultivators. They can also consume those creatures’ pure Godly Crystals directly. By every measurable standard, hunting each other should produce greater gains than attacking us."

He paused briefly before continuing. "Yet every so often, creatures belonging to entirely different races gather into enormous hordes. Races that would normally fight each other suddenly cooperate for one purpose alone: attacking our regions."

Senkiyu slowly shook his head. "Most of those invasions end in failure. Countless Godly Creatures die during every assault. From a purely logical standpoint, the risks vastly outweigh the rewards."

He looked around at everyone. "That’s why it doesn’t make sense. If strength were their only motivation, they would simply ignore us. The effort they invest into attacking cultivators is completely irrational."

Cantra fell silent.

After hearing it explained that way, even she had to admit the logic held together.

Indeed, the casualties suffered during those massive invasions were incomparably higher than anything they would experience hunting one another.

At that moment—

*Crush!*

Kentucky casually crushed another Godly Spawn’s skull beneath one talon before pulling out its Godly Crystal.

"Maybe it’s territorial," he suggested while cleaning his talons. "Perhaps they instinctively feel that the land occupied by cultivators should belong to them. They might not even understand why they feel that way."

Roan slowly shook his head. "It still doesn’t explain everything." He looked toward the distant direction of the barrier. "If I had to guess, I’d point toward the Sacred Relic."

Everyone immediately looked at him.

"I’m not saying the relic is directly responsible," Roan clarified. "Only that whatever influence it emits may somehow provoke the Godly Creatures. Whether it drives them mad, attracts them, or interferes with their instincts, I have no idea."

Inside the airplane, Rean inserted another replacement rune.

The surrounding array immediately lit up, and he quickly performed several tests before nodding in satisfaction.

"Interesting theories," he commented, "but we’re drifting away from the problem right in front of us."

He finally looked toward Harksha. "So... what do we actually do now?"

He counted on his fingers. "We can retreat to Besgol." Then he raised another finger. "We can abandon these ruins altogether and continue searching for the Thousand-Vein Root Hydras."

Finally, he pointed toward the invisible barrier far in the distance. "Or... We figure out how to get through that barrier and investigate whatever is hiding inside those ruins."

Silence immediately settled over the airplane.

From a rational standpoint, everyone knew returning to that place bordered on suicide.

And yet...

Harksha, Senkiyu, Cantra, Rico’the, and the other veteran explorers found themselves unable to simply walk away.

The reason was painfully simple.

Throughout Besgol’s countless years of history, every set of ancient ruins protected by an active barrier had eventually yielded huge riches. Even recovering a handful of intact replacement runes was enough to make an Elite Exploration Group famous for generations. If the barrier truly concealed an untouched ruin, then whatever waited inside might be worth more than everything they had obtained throughout their entire cultivation lives combined.

Besgol’s safety also relied on the runes found in such places, so that’s another reason to push forward. Of course, the gains would definitely be reason number one to try such a dangerous thing instead of going home.