Ethan didn’t set out immediately.
All three of them were in terrible shape. Laira had just completed a breakthrough, then used Thunder Flame and the Thunder Wings continuously for hours. Ruo Yan had pushed her soul nearly to its limit, and her body still carried wounds that hadn’t been treated. Ethan himself was no better off. The energy in his Heavenly Gate was nearly drained, and the Eye of Truth would send sharp stabs of pain if kept open even a moment longer.
He took out the remaining energy crystals from the Primordial Armor, divided them between Laira and Ruo Yan, and kept a portion for himself.
No one spoke further.
They sat amid the ruins, using every minute to absorb energy. The Necromancer stood at the outer edge on watch, its tall, wounded frame like a statue that had endured countless years of war.
About an hour later, the column of light in the distance suddenly grew clearer.
It pierced through the green sky, stretching into a line that seemed to connect heaven and earth. At the same time, the mechanical voice that had been silent for so long echoed inside the minds of every living creature still within the challenge space.
[Challenge completion conditions have been fulfilled.]
[The challenge space will close in sixty minutes.]
[The return gate has opened.]
[Surviving participants, please proceed to the Settlement Point.]
Ethan opened his eyes.
He watched the column of light for a moment, then activated the Eye of Truth for a very brief instant.
Information appeared quickly.
[Final Settlement Point.]
[Function: Finalize rankings, distribute rewards, open the return path.]
[Status: Safe.]
Ethan immediately pulled the light from his eyes.
"It’s the exit."
Ruo Yan had already stood up. "About time it ended."
Laira gently stretched her wings behind her, gauging how much energy she had recovered, then stepped to Ethan’s side.
"I can fly."
"No need to rush."
Ethan looked toward the column of light. "Everyone else will be heading there too."
Ruo Yan understood what he meant.
The Elves, the Beastkin, the Stoneweavers, and every creature that had taken part in the battle at Owin’s ruin were all still inside this world. If the Settlement Point was the only exit, every path would eventually converge.
"You’re worried about an ambush?"
"They should be more worried about me."
Ethan said it very calmly.
Laira laughed.
Ruo Yan looked at him for a moment, then said nothing more.
The three of them set out.
This time they didn’t bother hunting monsters, nor did they care about resource zones along the way. Ethan only used the Eye of Truth a few times to determine the shortest route, avoiding areas with strong energy fluctuations, and headed straight for the column of light.
About forty minutes later, the bone pyramids began to thin out.
Ahead appeared a stretch of flat ground so vast its edges were nearly invisible. At the center sat a circular plaza, its surface made of white stone that resembled jade. The column of light they had seen from afar shone down onto the plaza’s exact center.
When Ethan and Laira appeared on the high ground, many people were already gathered below.
The surviving Elves had congregated to the east.
The Red Fang warband’s Beastkin group stood a considerable distance from them, their wounded laid down behind the formation. The smaller races had split into separate clusters, no longer allied with each other as they had been at Owin’s ruin.
To the west, Ethan spotted Korr.
The Stoneweavers stood in a tight formation behind him. When he noticed Ethan, Korr only tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment.
No one approached.
But Ethan’s appearance still made the plaza noticeably quieter.
The Elves’ gazes locked onto him immediately.
A few Beastkin unconsciously tightened their grips on their weapons.
Especially when Laira spread her wings to descend, the Thunder-Iron Feathers on her rebuilt wing catching the light in purple-silver reflections, several people instinctively stepped back half a pace.
They had seen what those wings could do.
They remembered the massive lightning gate that had punched straight through the ruin even more clearly.
The older Elf was not present.
Perhaps his group was still en route, or had teleported to a different area.
But the Elves here had clearly received the information.
One of them looked at Ethan, lips pressed tight.
"Ethan Ashford."
Ethan touched down.
He didn’t answer.
The Elf didn’t step forward either. After a few seconds of tension, he only said coldly,
"What happened at Owin’s ruin isn’t over."
Ethan looked at him.
"I know."
No excess threats.
No need to debate who was right or wrong.
Both sides understood that once they left this place, what had happened inside the ruin would no longer be a conflict between individuals.
Laira stood close beside Ethan, the corner of her mouth curving slightly.
The Elves immediately avoided her gaze.
Just as the tension was building, the heavy sound of engines carried in from the distance.
Many people looked up at once.
An enormous dark shape was crossing the green sky.
The wooden ship that had been damaged by the puppet swarm had been repaired fairly well. A few sections of the hull were noticeably newer than the rest, but at least it could fly steadily again.
At the bow stood a woman with silver-white hair, arms folded.
Xue Ji.
She looked down at the plaza below, her gaze sweeping quickly across the various groups before settling on a familiar figure.
Ethan.
The ship slowly descended.
Xue Ji didn’t rush to step off.
She studied Ethan from head to toe for several seconds.
When he had left her ship, he was still just a Bronze-rank who had already been through no small amount of danger. Laira at the time still had an injured wing, and every long flight came with pain.
Now, Ethan’s energy signature had completely changed.
Silver-rank.
A purple-silver Thunder Wing retracting behind him.
Laira had also entered Silver-rank, and the wing that had been destroyed before was now fully sheathed in a layer of Thunder-Iron.
Beside the two of them stood Ruo Yan, along with a Necromancer that even ordinary Awakened would feel pressured just looking at.
And especially the very thin Soul Thread that now existed between Ethan and Ruo Yan.
Xue Ji was quiet for a moment.
Finally, she stepped off the ship.
"I believe I only let you leave the ship for a few days."
Ethan thought about it.
"I didn’t expect this much to happen either."
Xue Ji looked at the Thunder Wings.
Then at Ruo Yan.
"I can see that."
Xue Ji looked at the three of them, the corner of her mouth curving slightly.
"Sounds like your trip was quite eventful."
"Very eventful."
Ruo Yan answered for them, a trace of exhaustion in her voice.
"I nearly died several times."
Xue Ji glanced at the wounds on her shoulder and didn’t ask further.
The five surviving teenagers on the ship also stepped off one by one. When they saw Ethan, their expressions were somewhat complicated, but none of them came forward to bother him.
After what had happened before, at least they had learned when to stay quiet.
At that moment, the column of light at the center of the plaza suddenly trembled.
An enormous board appeared in the sky.
Everyone present immediately looked up.
[Final settlement begins.]
[Rankings will be locked.]
Names appeared one after another.
The lower positions stabilized quickly.
Then the first place appeared.
[Rank 1: Bone Demon Serpent.]
[Score: 46,350.]
The plaza immediately buzzed with noise.
"Bone Demon Serpent?"
"It really held first place the entire time?"
"Where is that monster?"
"I’ve never seen it anywhere near the Settlement Point."
Those who had been tracking the rankings beforehand weren’t too surprised by the name.
Xue Ji also looked up.
She had witnessed the Bone Demon Serpent’s score climbing at a strange pace with her own eyes. It was just that now, when all participants had been called here, the creature sitting atop the rankings was nowhere to be seen.
"Rather odd."
She murmured.
Ruo Yan, standing beside her, immediately turned her face away.
Laira pressed her lips together.
Both of them tried hard to keep their expressions normal.
Ethan’s face showed even less.
The moment the public rankings were finalized, a separate information panel appeared before his eyes alone.
[Score ownership detected.]
[Display identity was altered by the user.]
[Display alteration does not affect actual ownership.]
[Actual first place holder: Ethan Ashford.]
[Distributing rewards.]
The corner of Ethan’s mouth curved up slightly.
Ruo Yan noticed.
"What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing."
She understood immediately.
Ruo Yan looked at the board showing Bone Demon Serpent in first place, then looked at Ethan.
"It really went to you?"
"I told you."
"I still think the way you tampered with this place’s rules is absurd."
"It works. That’s what matters."
A small light appeared inside the Primordial Armor.
[First place reward has been distributed.]
[Limited Blind Box ×1.]
[Minimum rarity: S.]
[Unidentified map fragment ×1.]
[Permission to return to the original world has been unlocked.]
Ethan looked at the two items that had just appeared in storage.
The Blind Box was a silver cube, completely different from the box Owin had given him. The map fragment beside it was only palm-sized, its outer edges torn and ragged, and the markings on its surface were something even the Eye of Truth couldn’t fully analyze yet.
He didn’t open the Blind Box.
The Cataclysmic Thunder Gate was still in deep dormancy, and he hadn’t fully recovered himself. Now wasn’t the time to keep testing his luck.
Ahead, the column of light began to expand.
Small gates appeared around the plaza one by one.
[Return process initiated.]
[Participants will be sent back to their coordinates prior to entering the challenge space.]
The groups immediately began moving.
Korr was among the first to step forward.
Before entering his gate, he turned to Ethan.
"I hope the next time we meet, we won’t be on opposite sides."
Ethan nodded.
"Same here."
Korr placed his hand over his chest, then vanished into the light along with the Stoneweavers.
The Elves went next.
The Red Fang Beastkin also filed into different gates one by one.
Some of them turned to look at Ethan one last time before disappearing.
He committed every face to memory.
In the end, only Xue Ji’s group and Ethan’s remained.
Xue Ji looked at him.
"We’ll talk after we’re out."
Ethan nodded.
Laira took one of his hands.
Ruo Yan stood on the other side, the Necromancer following behind.
The three of them stepped into the column of light together.
The instant the light enveloped his body, Ethan’s Eye of Truth suddenly sent a sharp stab of pain.
A deep red warning appeared.
[Void fluctuation detected in the outside world.]
[Familiar frequency.]
Ethan’s expression shifted at once.
But before he could see anything more, the entire world was swallowed by white light.