Chapter 1091 - 888: 18 Million Points

The Duke stored the last philosopher’s stone from the rich mineral pocket into the Divine Court and continued to plunge deeper into the mine without looking back.

His earth elemental form moved through the gray-white rock layers like a swimming fish, and where he passed, the dark red crystals embedded in the rock walls on both sides were peeled off, crushed, absorbed, leaving behind trails of gray-white debris exhausted of energy.

He moved at lightning speed, and the branch and main veins of the mine collapsed behind him, with rubble and dust surging through the narrow mine shaft like a flood breaking a dam.

Inside the Divine Court, the third tender leaf of the World Tree Seedling had fully unfolded, and the bud tip of the fourth leaf had emerged from the top of the stem.

The pile of philosopher’s stone ore beside the seedling was continuously decreasing, replaced by a growing heap of gray-white residue.

The statue seized from Victor’s hand continued to stabilize and release emerald green life energy, merging with the energy of the philosopher’s stone ore, greedily absorbed by the seedling’s roots.

The entire seedling emitted a warm and bright pale golden halo, its range expanding several circles larger than before, coating the surrounding spring water and grassland with an extremely faint golden sheen.

Behind the mine vein, several warriors of the Stone Hammer Tribe found Orak’s corpse at the edge of the collapse area.

The signature giant stone hammer was shattered into several pieces, scattered among the rubble pile, with traces of Orak’s ruptured tiger mouth blood still on the hammer handle.

Orak himself was half-buried in the collapsed mine debris, with a palm-shaped perforated hole in his chest.

The warriors glanced at each other, not daring to touch the corpse, and quickly ran towards the battlefield on the eastern side of the settlement.

When the news reached Byron, he was holding the totem pole high, ready to smash the light screen again.

The warrior who reported was kneeling on the ground, his voice extremely low, but every word was clear to Byron’s ears.

Orak is dead, the mine area collapsed, and the ore was drained.

Byron slowly lowered the raised totem pole, for the first time a complex expression of astonishment and rage intertwined on his square face full of horizontal flesh.

He grabbed the reporting warrior’s collar, lifting him off the ground, and growled, "Who did it? The old man from the Black Stone Tribe was entangled in Stone Split Valley, isn’t he? Who else here could have killed Orak?"

The reporting warrior’s face turned pale, stuttering that he didn’t know who, only that Orak was killed instantly, with a palm-shaped hole in his chest.

Byron loosened his grip, his lips under his graying beard pressing into a whitened line.

At Stone Split Valley, there were two Level 4 entwined with the Clan Leader of the Black Stone Tribe, it was impossible for them to have any extra Level 4 forces.

The strong force capable of instantly killing Orak must be either Level 4 or some extremely strange method.

If it’s Level 4, then there’s a fourth unknown force hidden in this mine area.

He suddenly recalled those two clan leaders who had cooperated with him to set up the ambush, they agreed so readily, could they have set their sights on the Stone Hammer Tribe’s mine vein long ago?

While his main force was besieging the Black Stone Tribe, they sent people to sneak behind his mine vein, monopolizing the mine area while severely weakening the Stone Hammer Tribe.

The more he thought about it, the more something felt off, the more he felt used as a tool.

Byron no longer hesitated, withdrew the totem pole from in front of the light screen, and shouted "Retreat" to his deputy before charging towards the mine vein like a catapulted giant stone.

He moved at incredible speed, with each step creating deep pits in the rubble beneath his feet, reaching the entrance of the mine vein in moments.

Standing in front of the still collapsing mine pit, he expanded his perception, Level 4’s vast spiritual power penetrating through the layers of rock wall like an invisible radar, capturing the rapidly moving energy signal deep underground.

The strength of the signal was far from Level 4, but the speed was astonishingly fast.

The rock layers before him felt like nothing, as if he himself was part of the rock.

Byron quickly made an initial judgment, this bizarre stealth technique, coupled with the palm-shaped wound left when Orak was killed, indicated the opponent possessed at least some extremely powerful rules attack method, capable of instantly unleashing single-point killing power far exceeding their level.

Byron stood at the edge of the collapse area, with the still crumbling rubble beneath him, and Orak’s incomplete corpse behind him.

He slammed the totem pole into the ground with force, a low growl emanating from his throat beneath his graying beard, the roar resonating in the mine shaft ruins, causing the already shaky mine shaft vault to collapse in several places.

The mine vein was gone, the vanguard general killed, he had besieged the Black Stone Tribe’s settlement with so many people for so long but only shattered one layer of the light screen.

No matter how the battle was calculated, the Stone Hammer Tribe suffered losses to the bone.

And the aura continuously retreating deep underground did not pause for even a moment.

The Duke did not hesitate upon sensing the Level 4 aura from afar and retreated without delay.

And Byron seemed helpless against the Duke’s underground earth-escape technique, completely unable to pursue.

...

The Duke traveled through the underground rock layers for quite a while until the Level 4 aura behind him completely disappeared at the edge of his sensing range, then stopped in a naturally formed cavity.

This cavity hid at the edge of a massive underground dark river, the river water emanating a faint blue light in the darkness, with scattered fluorescent ores embedded in the surrounding rock walls, illuminating the cavity like a palace at the bottom of the deep sea.