Chapter 267 Treasure Hunt Within the Ruins

The moment the second round of sword rain fell, the entire central square seemed to have been ruthlessly plowed over by an invisible giant hand.

Those humans and demons who were still gritting their teeth and rushing towards the core of the sword monument were almost instantly defeated and scattered.

puff!puff!puff!

A second-tier armored boar, its body the size of an armored vehicle, had just roared out of its cover behind the bronze dragon pillar when it was instantly pierced by three dim sword lights descending from the sky. Its mutated metal back armor, capable of deflecting armor-piercing bullets, was as brittle as a sheet of paper in front of these ancient swords, whose very edges were almost worn smooth.

Before the demonic boar could even let out a scream, its massive body slid forward for more than ten meters due to inertia before crashing to the ground, its internal organs and demonic blood splattering everywhere.

On the other side, a cultivator from the Green Zone who was unwilling to give up the core inheritance had just summoned his spare flying sword and was trying to use the broken pillar as cover to continue his charge forward when more than ten broken swords above his head simultaneously changed direction.

clang!clang!clang!

His protective aura was pierced through in just two breaths, and he flew out with a scream, half of his shoulder almost being sheared off. He crashed heavily into the ruins at the edge of the square and never got up again.

"Don't fight it head-on! Use the terrain!"

Old Ding skimmed across the ground, his movements clumsy yet as fast as a wild beast tumbling through rocks and piles of corpses.

He had just dodged a volley of swords that brushed close to his scalp when he turned around and saw that two more of the Yellow Zone hunters following behind him had fallen forever in pools of blood.

One of them had his exoskeleton pinned to the ground by a broken sword, and his pseudo-spiritual root was shredded to pieces by the sword energy.

"Brother Ding! This thing seems to be able to lock the energy fluctuations within our bodies!" A young hunter huddled behind a broken stone lion, his voice trembling. His mechanical left arm had been severed cleanly at the root, and sparks were still sizzling from the cut.

Old Ding gritted his teeth, glanced at the torrent of ten thousand swords swirling again in the sky above the square, and then looked at the jade slips below the sword monument that were still floating but seemed to be getting more and more out of reach. His eyes twitched violently.

The distance is indeed not too far.

But what lies across the middle is no longer just a few hundred meters of road.

It was a death zone that even risking one's life to fill might not be enough to level it.

Having spent so many years in the wasteland, his greatest skill wasn't showing off, but rather judging when to gamble and when to stop.

Continuing to charge forward from here is no different from suicide.

Even a third-tier demon king like the Tongbi Ape King was being suppressed by the second wave of sword rain, roaring repeatedly, its body covered with more than a dozen deep, bone-revealing sword wounds. It was still staring intently at the direction of the sword monument, refusing to retreat, but it simply couldn't break through in the short term.

Old Ding changed direction almost without hesitation.

"Don't touch the core components yet!"

He suddenly barked a low shout, his voice not loud, but as ruthless as a knife, "Move to both sides! Search the side halls and ruins first, take whatever you can! If we charge forward again, we'll all die here!"

Upon hearing this, the remaining hunters from the Yellow Zone who were still following him almost simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

The reason they hadn't retreated earlier was because Old Ding was still charging forward. Now that Old Ding had spoken, the group immediately stopped hesitating and followed him, quickly leaving the core killing zone of the central square and rushing towards the sprawling architectural ruins on the left.

Many others made the same choice as them.

The central square is a battleground reserved for true madmen and the strongest of the strong.

The areas on either side of the plaza are where most explorers can actually survive and "get some soup".

Once you get here, the previous standoff between humans and demons, and the pretentious facade maintained by the humans themselves, have become completely meaningless.

Live, get what you need, and then leave alive.

That's the only rule here.

……

To the left of the Sword Tomb are the ruins of the Pill Pavilion.

This place was clearly once an important storage location for the Shu Mountain Sect's elixirs. Although most of the buildings have collapsed, a faint medicinal fragrance still lingers in the air, mixed with the smell of aged blood and dust, making it seem particularly strange.

Old Ding and his three remaining men had just reached the edge of the ruins when they heard a piercing metallic clang and a shout mixed with angry curses.

"Put those pills down! We found them first!"

Old Ding's pupils contracted, and he immediately lowered his body, peering through the gap in a collapsed stone beam.

In the center of the ruins, five cultivators from the Green Zone, dressed in pure white nano-robes, were manipulating several spare short swords with dim spiritual light, forcing several mutated demon wolves, each the size of a calf, into a corner.

In front of them, amidst a pile of rubble, lay a cracked, purple-gold gourd, half-buried.

The gourd stopper had already burst open, and several pills with faint red clouds swirling around their surfaces were scattered on the ground. Even from dozens of meters away, one could smell the refreshing medicinal power that almost made one's blood surge.

"Good stuff..." A hunter next to Lao Ding suddenly started breathing heavily.

"Nonsense, shut up." Old Ding muttered under his breath, his eyes darkening completely.

The demonic wolves were clearly driven mad by the pills. Covered in blood, they stared intently at the pills on the ground, refusing to back down an inch, their fangs dripping foul-smelling saliva.

"Awooo—!"

A demonic wolf suddenly pounced, tearing the wound on its abdomen even wider.

"court death!"

A ruthless glint flashed in the eyes of the leading Wang family cultivator, and his hands quickly formed hand seals.

"Fire Divine Thunder, descend!"

boom!

A bolt of crimson lightning struck down, blasting the head of the foremost wolf apart. A stench of burning flesh filled the air. The wolf's carcass twitched twice before going still.

However, the other demon wolves did not retreat. Instead, they pounced on the moment the lightning exploded and dust rose.

"Hold the formation!"

"Protect the gourd!"

The Wang family cultivators were clearly no pushovers either. Their three short swords clashed and slashed, instantly creating large gashes on the wolves. However, their lightning spell hadn't come without a price; the protective aura of the two at the front had noticeably dimmed.

Old Ding squinted.

He didn't move.

He is waiting.

They wait for who will reveal a weakness first, and for who will dig that purple-gold gourd out of the pile of rubble first.

This is neither a ring nor a battlefield.

This is a relic.

In places like this, whoever gets ahead first is likely to benefit a third party.

Sure enough, a moment later, the opportunity came.

A severely wounded demon wolf suddenly went berserk, lunging forward despite being pierced by two short swords, and biting the forearm of one of the Wang family cultivators. The cultivator was in pain, his swordplay faltered, and his two companions had to be distracted to help him.

In that brief moment of imbalance, the leading Wang family cultivator lunged forward and reached for the purple-gold gourd.

"Now!"

Old Ding let out a low shout and suddenly sprang up from the shadow of the broken wall.

He wasn't going there for the Wang family cultivators.

Instead, he slashed directly at the hand holding the gourd!

The Wang family cultivator's expression changed drastically, and in his haste, he only had time to shift his body slightly. The high-frequency vibration blade slashed past the back of his hand, failing to chop it off, but it still sent the purple-gold gourd flying.

"Who?!"

"Someone's stealing!"

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Almost at the same moment the gourd flew up, a hunter from the Yellow Zone behind Old Ding suddenly darted out, leaping into the pile of rubble like a wild dog pouncing on its prey, and scooped up the purple-gold gourd along with the two pills that had rolled away, pulling them all into his arms.

At the same time, another hunter, without thinking, raised his hand and threw two explosive burning grenades into the middle of the Wang family cultivators and the wolf pack.

Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, flames erupted in the narrow space between the ruins, and a shockwave carrying rubble and sparks rushed towards us.

The already bloodthirsty demon wolves were further enraged by the explosion, and instead of grabbing the pills on the ground, they turned around and attacked the nearest Wang family cultivator.

"Damn it! Kill the wolves first!"

"Protect the elixir!"

"There are still people over there, don't let them get away!"

The Wang family cultivators were both shocked and furious. They no longer cared about their manners or pride and immediately engaged the demon wolf in a fierce battle.

Old Ding had no intention of staying to compete with them.

"Walk!"

With a low shout, he turned and retreated, not wanting to linger in the fight.

The three hunters from the yellow zone worked in perfect unison; after succeeding, they didn't even look back and immediately followed him into the depths of the ruins.

In a place like this, it's not a matter of skill to fight hard.

That's real skill – to finish a job and still run away with the loot.

Behind them, curses, howls of wolves, the whistling of flying swords, and explosions mingled together, turning the entire ruins of the Pill Pavilion into a bloody mess. But Old Ding and his group paid no heed to any of this. They swiftly weaved through the broken walls, shattered beams, and stone steps, quickly leaving the melee behind.

Old Ding only raised his hand suddenly after passing a half-collapsed corridor.

"stop."

The three hunters stopped almost simultaneously.

The air suddenly became quiet.

Not far ahead, a quiet room, half-buried in rubble, revealed half of its stone door. There was no medicinal fragrance, no demonic aura, and no buzzing of spiritual energy devices emanating from the crack in the door.

Only a restrained yet chillingly sharp sword intent seeped out little by little from the crack in the door.

Even more strangely, deep within this sword intent, there was a faint yet real trace of life force.

The hairs on Lao Ding's back stood on end.

This place is far more dangerous than those few pills.

But it's worth much more.

He slowly narrowed his eyes, but before he could speak, another furious voice came from the ruins behind him.

"It's you?!"

Old Ding looked back and saw that the leader of the Wang family cultivators had actually fought his way out of the wolf pack, his chest still covered in blood, his face ashen, as he chased after them. Behind him were two equally disheveled companions.

Clearly, they had also gotten rid of those demonic wolves.

Moreover, they also saw the quiet room.

In an instant, the murderous intent in the air changed.

If we were to describe the chaotic battle at the Pill Pavilion just now, it was more about whoever got the first move grabbing the most and whoever made the most of the chaos gaining an advantage.

So now, both sides are very clear about this.

The truly valuable things are probably in this quiet room.

Old Ding slowly tightened his grip on the battle knife in his hand.

The Wang family cultivator wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, staring intently at the stone door of the meditation room, then at Old Ding, his eyes so cold they seemed to want to devour him.

Neither side made any further moves.

But everyone knows that the petty squabble of "grabbing something and running away in the chaos" has already ended.

Next time they make a move, it won't be a simple grab and run.

Instead, one must fight until one side is completely defeated before being qualified to even touch that door.

In the quiet room, the faint sword intent suddenly intensified.

It seemed as if something behind the door had sensed the murderous intent outside.