It was no longer important what was inside the spatial gear because the apparatus itself was a priceless treasure. Although people who would possess such an item had to be extraordinary, the demonkin was fairly confident in his own abilities as well.

He exchanged glances with the arachne and drew his weapons—a dagger in his right hand and a handgun in his left. He then pressed forward, saying, “Put down everything you have and I’ll let you go.”

Ji Tianqing, who had been observing quietly all this time, couldn’t help but sneer. “That was my thought initially, but I need to make some changes. You guys can forget about going even if you leave everything you have!”

The demonkin was furious, and his eyes were full of killing intent. The arachne was even more irritable—he transformed into his original half-human form as he charged toward Ji Tianqing. Then, he raised his war-axe and slashed down from above!

This arachne possessed the strength of a count, and considering the momentum of his charge, that axe blow was sure to contain an earth-shattering might. Ji Tianqing naturally wouldn’t block that attack head-on and merely slid away to the side. Qianye suddenly appeared in her place and met the war-axe with a horizontal slash.

The arachne went berserk—the muscles in his entire body squirmed and twitched as he swung the weapon with even greater ferocity.

A loud clash reverberated through the air as the war-axe struck East Peak. However, the latter only sank slightly before stopping the arachne’s all-out blow.

The demonkin and woman inhaled deeply, chilled from head to toe.

They were naturally quite clear about the arachne’s strength. Let alone a one-on-one duel, they wouldn’t be able to stop his blows even if they worked together. Qianye didn’t look that strong, but he managed to block the attack with his one-handed blade—was he a divine champion?

The arachne couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He roared continuously, pouring in as much power as he could to suppress East Peak. However, even that charge attack just now hadn’t gone through, and now, they were locked in a contest of strength. How could he win? Every time he added more force, it felt like he was crashing into a massive mountain range. The massive recoil in power stunned him.

Five origin power activation points revolved throughout Qianye’s body as the Excavator kicked into action, pouring out wave after wave of power and easily stopping the arachne. In the blink of an eye, the spider became drenched in sweat and short of breath. The pressure on East Peak also lightened.

Qianye had no intention of being entangled for too long. He pushed the war-axe away with a cold smile, took a step forward, and threw a fierce punch at the arachnid-human junction.

This fist, backed by the power of the Excavator, immediately shattered the arachne’s origin defenses and shifted all of his innards. The spider’s expression immediately changed, and he could hardly speak anymore. He soon collapsed to the ground and no longer moved.

This result was far beyond everyone’s expectations. The demonkin and that woman were shocked at the defeat of this powerful arachne count. Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan were also surprised at how easily Qianye had felled this enemy.

The panicked demonkin made to retreat, but a cold intent appeared behind his back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

The shocked demonkin turned and fired at the enemy, but all he managed to strike was a mirage. Li Kuanglan had appeared behind him yet again. The demonkin noticed a flicker at the corner of his vision at this moment. Without time to think, he stabbed instantaneously in that direction and the attack actually connected! The demonkin wanted to pull his blade back, but the dagger simply wouldn’t budge. He glanced up in surprise, only to find the edge in Ji Tianqing’s grasp. Despite looking small and agile, she was unreasonably strong. It took the demonkin quite a bit of effort to pull his blade back just slightly, and it would be dragged back as soon as he stopped exerting.

A wisp of black energy emerged from atop the demonkin’s head; he was just about to form his innate totem when he felt a chill behind his back. Soon afterward, his body lost control and the demonic energy scattered. Li Kuanglan grabbed him by the nape of his neck and poured a steady stream of frost origin power into his body. The invasive power destroyed his defensive powers and froze his neck into an icicle.

The demonkin didn’t last very long under the combined assault of the two ladies and soon breathed his last.

JI Tianqing sighed in regret. She had wanted to catch the enemy alive at first, but this demonkin was quite strong and it was easier to just kill him.

Having witnessed the two experts’ deaths, the woman turned to flee after firing an arrow. She was strangely fast and her distance gave her a good head-start. Qianye’s group couldn’t catch her before she vanished into the forest.

It was during these unexpected events that Nangong Tianyu jumped up all of a sudden and bolted into the river. He dived down into the depths, where his aura promptly faded away.

No one had expected Nangong Tianyu to recover his movement, nor did they know he would be such a good diver. Considering how adept he was underwater, chances of catching him again were next to zero even if they did dive in after him.

However, the man had revealed quite a bit of information to them, including the fact that not all of those missing people were dead. Some of them might have fallen into native hands and gradually assumed different identities.

It would seem the natives and Nangong Tianyu’s group were quite cautious, rarely leaving the increased gravity region to enter the landing point of the Empire and Evernight. That was why there were very few records of them at all.

The trio didn’t find anything of value on the arachne and demonkin. Their possessions were mostly things from the Great Maelstrom, and most of them were things only useful to the dark races. The remainder wasn’t worth much, either, compared to the things the group had brought back from the deeper regions. Hence, the three of them found nothing that impressed them.

Ji Tianqing woke up the arachne and interrogated him on his origins. This arachne had entered the Great Maelstrom during the previous opening of the passage, but he never made any major progress inside. The arachne physique was the strongest among the dark races and highly suited for the environment inside the Great Maelstrom. They would transform and become stronger simply by staying here, even without any major breakthroughs. Hence, the arachne stayed behind to explore the land, hunt for treasures, and seek opportunities to kill some imperials.

Be it experts from the Empire or Evernight, whoever passed the invisible line would step into the high-gravity region. That area was a forbidden place to both factions as no one had ever returned alive from it.

This arachne only operated near the borders, and even then, he would go with companions.

Seeing that she could get nothing more out of him, Ji Tianqing raised her blade and slaughtered the arachne.

Both the demonkin and arachne possessed a map with a series of markings on them. This information filled in a lot of blanks for the trio.

After figuring out the general direction, Ji Tianqing said, “Let’s go to Heavenschild Pasture first, then the Constellation Well, and finally the Pond of Life.”

This path was somewhat complicated, but Ji Tianqing explained things to Qianye in just a few words. “No one else knows the location of the Heavenschild Pasture just yet, so we should first head over there and collect the resources. Then, we head to the Constellation Well because we can’t be disturbed during the process. People from the Empire shouldn’t be there yet, and even if some of them had arrived, they won’t be much of a threat. The Pond of Life can be used by both factions, so a big battle awaits once we get there.”

What Ji Tianqing meant was that they should get most of the things done—be it robbery or killing—before heading over to the battle at the Pond of Life. Li Kuanglan had no objections to this plan, while Qianye couldn’t come up with anything better, either. The three thus changed directions after Li Kuanglan was done collecting the silk lotuses and headed toward the Ashen Mountain Range.

This mountain, stretching thousands of kilometers in length, was both majestic and dangerous, dotted with steep precipices everywhere. The three moved in due haste, passing through the foot of the mountain to start the hike.

Naturally, the precipices and cracks couldn’t deter the trio. Qianye took point—he moved up along the precipice like a spider, breaking off protruding rocks with the combined use of East Peak and Excavator. As for the parts that were too smooth, he would use East Peak to cut out some holes and produce footing.

In fact, Qianye himself didn’t need stepping points. All he needed was to activate Excavator and dig his hand into the cliffside on his way up. But the rocks here were especially hard, and even Ji Tianqing might not be able to crumble the rocks with Excavator activated. Hence, Qianye needed to help them open up a path.

Qianye reached into a crevice, hoping to pull himself up, when he felt a stabbing pain from his fingertips. The sensation then turned into numbness.

He pulled his hand back to find a small beetle on his fingers, doing its utmost to suck his blood. The insect was oddly strong and its jaws were incomparably sharp—it was actually able to bite through Qianye’s skin. What made it more lethal was its venom. At this point, Qianye’s fingers were starting to swell and turn blue. He was also gradually losing sensation.

At a glance, his hand looked like an ordinary man’s that had been bitten by a snake. However, Qianye possessed an ancient-vampire constitution—how toxic was this venom to bring about such features!?

Qianye channeled his blood energy and sent a wisp of dark golden blood energy to his finger. A plume of faint golden flames lit up at his fingertips, and the swollen digit gradually returned to its original state. The beetle’s poison was so strong that it was able to last a couple of moments before being incinerated by the dark golden flames.

The beetle cried out anxiously as it poured as much poison as it could into Qianye’s body, but how could a small beetle overcome the retaliation of the dark golden blood energy? Qianye’s finger recovered in the blink of an eye while the dark golden blood energy charged into the insect, promptly reducing it to ash.

Qianye felt somewhat regretful because such a toxic beetle was all too rare, and it could be a peerless treasure if used correctly. However, the insect was simply too dangerous. If it were Li Kuanglan instead of Qianye, she might’ve perished from the venom by now.