Chapter 151: Stumbling into the Floating Island

Enemy attack!

With a sharp scream, the alarm sirens wailed loudly across the area. Oh no, they had been exposed! Having just triggered the protective barrier and become trapped within it, the moment the enemy discovered the intrusion, Lei Xiang and his companions became like turtles in a jar, left with no choice but to take a beating. They had to escape this barrier as quickly as possible.

Lei Xiang’s eyes flashed with a wild blue light. He could see nearly a hundred figures suddenly rushing out from behind those "granaries." Judging by their auras, they were all cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or above. The three leaders among them possessed Golden Core mid-stage cultivation. While it would be easy to kill them, it would consume too much time, and there was no guarantee whether powerful reinforcements might appear during the process. Lei Xiang truly regretted not designing a gun capable of area-of-effect attacks; if he had the opportunity in the future, he vowed to develop one.

In the split second of a lightning flash, Lei Xiang made a decisive choice. Summoning the Blue Lotus Disc, pale blue light faintly shimmered, shrouding the figures of Lei Xiang and his companions. At the same time, he activated the Unmatched Overlord Art, supplemented by the bewildering illusions of the Myriad-Change Fantastic Pupils, and all three vanished from the spot.

When that group of people flew close, the ten-zhang barrier was entirely empty. Everyone was extremely puzzled. Could the raiding thieves have escaped? The sickly-looking middle-aged man who led them formed a sword-finger with his right hand and fiercely poked the center of his brow. A vertical eye split open between his eyebrows, shooting thousands of rays of golden light into the barrier.

After a long while, the sickly middle-aged man shook his head and said to the two young men beside him, "Junior Brothers, this matter is truly bizarre. I searched using the Heavenly Eye divine technique, but found no trace of the enemy. Yet this barrier was indeed triggered and remains completely undamaged. Unless the enemy triggered it from afar, where could they have run off to?"

The two junior brothers also felt bewildered and could not make up their minds for a moment. In the end, the sickly middle-aged man made the decision: leave two disciples behind to keep watch and signal if anything happened, while everyone else returned to their posts to avoid falling for a diversionary tactic.

The group quickly withdrew, leaving one old man and one young man behind. The purple-robed elder instructed the other youth that the two of them would take turns standing guard and cultivating so as not to neglect their duties.

Inside the barrier, Lei Xiang sucked in a cold breath. What kind of organization was this, acting with such strict discipline? Seeing how orderly the sickly middle-aged man's arrangements were—yet no such figures existed in the cultivation world—it could only indicate the immense power of this organization. However, this was extremely disadvantageous for them; they could not afford to waste time in a stalemate like this.

Lei Xiang could not afford to waste time!

Therefore, he racked his brains for a countermeasure, carefully using his divine sense to search through every storage bag in hopes of finding something. Suddenly, inside a certain spirit beast bag, he spotted the sleeping Gluttonous Pig. This fellow had probably been asleep for a hundred years, and judging by its three tail feathers, it had evolved once again. Could this pig, renowned for swallowing everything, possibly...

A bold idea formed in Lei Xiang's mind. He tried communicating with the Gluttonous Pig using his divine sense, and to his surprise, it woke up very quickly, growing another pair of wings behind its back. The little pink pig with two pairs of wings looked even more cuter, but an untimely thing happened: when the Gluttonous Pig evolved, although its wings grew at a breakneck speed—taking mere the blink of an eye—it still produced a faint friction sound that alerted the young guards.

Lei Xiang’s mind raced. Deciding to go all in, he transmitted an instruction to the Gluttonous Pig via his divine sense. The Gluttonous Pig then concealed its wings, tumbled out of the spirit beast bag, and landed with a soft "thud." The slight sound instantly attracted both guards and gave the concealed Yang Jian a massive start. For some reason, the mere sight of the Gluttonous Pig made Yang Jian tremble all over, almost causing him to reveal his form. Fortunately, Lei Xiang channeled a stream of pure spiritual energy into him, stabilizing Yang Jian's emotions.

The young man had already walked over to investigate, while the old man had just snapped out of his meditation. "What’s the situation? Are the enemies finally unable to hold out anymore?" As he spoke, he flew forward toward the barrier, but his brow furrowed the moment he laid eyes on the little pink pig.

A foot-long pig with red lips was blinking its tiny bean-like eyes, seemingly smiling at him. Facing this adorable little pink pig, the old man could not muster a shred of hostility. Could this really be the raiding "enemy"? Just a spirit beast like this—could it have wandered in by accident?

Just as the two of them were hesitating, the little pink pig twitched its bulky rump, farted right at them, and instantly unfurled the two pairs of thin wings on its back. With a fierce flap, before the two guards could figure out what was happening, they were hit by a wave of overpowering stench and instantly lost consciousness.

They had succeeded!

Lei Xiang was the first to leap out, commanding the Gluttonous Pig with his divine sense: "Devour!" The Gluttonous Pig opened its red mouth wide, baring cucumber-sized green teeth, and silently began to gnaw through the barrier. Its red lips resembled burning flames while its green teeth looked like an ocean of green; the interplay of red and green was truly a striking sight.

In barely three minutes, the red and green ripples had devoured a one-meter-high breach. Lei Xiang and the others ducked low and squeezed through. They had finally made it out! Everyone was thrilled, save for Yang Jian, who lingered far off to the side. Lei Xiang hurriedly comforted him, saying, "This is my spirit beast. Although it swallows everything, you can rest assured, it will not harm you."

Turning around, he directed the Gluttonous Pig to continue devouring ahead. The barrier further up was even sturdier, making the consumption quite strenuous, and the Gluttonous Pig began to pant slightly. Communicating with Tian Rui, Lei Xiang learned that the object she sought was located just two thousand meters ahead. Although divine sense could not reach it, this distance was extremely close to the mark.

Lei Xiang nodded. With a wave of his large hand, he materialized the two incapacitated guards and employed the Soul-Searching Art. Moments later, he extracted the information from their minds: those "granaries" were actually storehouses for spiritual stones. Furthermore, the quantity of spiritual stones stored here was astonishingly huge—though the exact amount was unclear, according to that person's memory, it was enough to tempt anyone into plundering it. No wonder so many people were assigned to guard it, along with such a formidable protective array.

Since Lei Xiang desperately needed massive amounts of spiritual stones to level up anyway, he decided to take them right from here. He resolved to make one push, charge forward, and seize them. The three of them summoned their respective magical treasures and launched a high-profile attack. This drastically increased their speed in breaking through the barriers, but it also drew the remaining guards over. Lei Xiang commanded the Nine-Treasure Lotus Staff to single-handedly fight dozens of foes, easing the pressure on Tian Rui and the others, while drawing out the Nine-Nine Immortal-Slaying Gun to entangle the sickly middle-aged man.

Just as Lei Xiang and his companions fought the guards to a standstill, the Gluttonous Pig sank its green teeth in for one final bite, finally chewing completely through the rear barrier. Exhausted to the point of collapse, the Gluttonous Pig was hastily recalled by Lei Xiang. After offering it some comforting words, he tucked it back into the spirit beast bag to sleep, then took the lead in charging forward.

Seeing the Gluttonous Pig return to its spirit beast bag, Yang Jian refocused his spirit and charged along with them. At this point, the guards met their disaster. The three of them swept through like tigers entering a flock of wolves, cutting a whirlwind path forward for twenty-five hundred meters before stopping in front of a solitary stone building. According to Tian Rui's sensing, the object should be right here.

Tian Rui spat out a ball of flames, incinerating the two guards blocking her path. Just as she stepped forward, she was blocked by the sickly middle-aged man. Despite his frail appearance, once he moved, one realized he possessed boundless strength. His pair of heavy metal hammers weighed at least tens of thousands of catties, yet he wielded them as nimbly as a pair of chopsticks. Commanding the battle with seasoned precision, he attacked Tian Rui so fiercely that even when Yang Jian came to assist, they could only barely fight him to a draw.

Lei Xiang once again raised the Nine-Nine Immortal-Slaying Gun, aiming the muzzle at the middle-aged man’s head. "Don't move. Put your hands up." But the sickly middle-aged man paid no heed to his warning, hurling his heavy hammers like shooting stars toward Tian Rui. The hammer heads dragged a blinding trail of flame, making the surrounding air seem to burn.

*Bang, bang!*

Lei Xiang pulled the trigger. The Nine-Nine Immortal-Slaying Gun fired two consecutive rounds, both striking the man square in the head. The middle-aged man stared in stunned disbelief; he had no time to react before the black crystal bullets pierced his defenses and drove deep into his brain.

Then everything stopped. Every movement came to a halt, and even the sound vanished entirely. Time seemed frozen at this very moment.