Chapter 1102 - 893: Teleportation_2

The number following Duke’s name in the score board was jumping upwards at an unstoppable pace, just now it was a surprising number, and in the blink of an eye, it soared again, finally pausing at a height he found hard to believe.

Forty million points, forty million.

He looked over it several times to confirm he hadn’t miscounted.

In a short period of time, Duke’s score had leapt from nearly thirty million directly to seventy million.

Adding to the previous two surges, the total score was already a multiple of second place.

The main ore vein collapsed, all the ores were gone, all drawn out. The sentinel from Stone Hammer Tribe’s panicked shout echoed in his mind once more.

The time of the main vein incident coincided precisely with when Duke’s scores surged again.

This is definitely not ordinary means; normal wizards absolutely cannot empty an entire main ore vein in such a short time, even if several Level 3 Mages were mining together.

The only explanation is that Duke possesses some means to rapidly extract ore veins, such as a very special witchcraft artifact.

And this collapse of the main vein further confirms a guess that makes him burn with anger.

He was exposed, his team was encircled, they were trapped in abandoned mine shafts by four Level 4 Powerhouses with hundreds of tribe warriors chasing and blocking them, their side suffered casualties, some died, some fled, he himself almost met his end in the mineshaft.

And then the main ore vein was emptied at his most dire time.

This hunt wasn’t targeting him from the start; those Level 4 Powerhouses weren’t here to catch him, or rather, catching him was just a side dish.

They really wanted to catch Duke, and Duke countered by leading the pursuers to where he was hiding.

Rodrick understood he had been used as a decoy to draw fire by someone he’d never even met.

Rodrick had lived for many years, crawled and battled through arenas and battlefields on the Scavvy Continent, killing countless people, always scheming against others, yet today he was used as a pawn unknowingly by a wizard he hadn’t even seen.

This feeling was more enraging than being slashed by swords, the anger felt like burning iron filings were sprinkled on his heart, each heartbeat accompanied by scorching pain.

He clenched the short-handled warhammer in his hand, his knuckles cracked with intense pressure, his face looked exceptionally pale as his blood and flesh form receded, and the old scar at the corner of his mouth twitched slightly with uncontrollable fury.

"Duke." He squeezed these two words through clenched teeth, his voice hoarse and hard.

Although he had never seen Duke, his tone sounded like he was cursing an enemy he’d known for years.

No matter how much dread and scheming he had for this person before, now they had all transformed into bone-chilling hatred.

He withdrew the divine revelation mark’s light screen and leaned back against the cold rock wall, closing his eyes to regulate his breath.

He needed to recover, needed to return to peak condition quickly.

Then he would make that person, whom he had never seen before, pay the price.

...

Duke was speedily traversing beneath the mine area, his earth elemental form allowing him to swim through the gray-white rock stratum like a fish swimming upstream.

As his perception spread, he clearly caught the several Level 4 auras rapidly approaching from the southwest direction.

His original plan was to continue flying north, to first fly out of this tribal territory’s range.

According to the agreement signed between the Wizard Council and the Elderlands natives, these Level 4 Clan Leaders couldn’t chase trialists beyond the territory boundaries.

But he quickly realized he had underestimated these Level 4 Powerhouses’ speed. Byron’s aura was at the forefront, followed closely by Zaied in the gray cloak, the distance between them rapidly narrowing.

At this speed, Zaied would intercept him before he could fly out of the territory boundary.

He immediately gave up continuing the stealth plan, detached from the rock layer out of the earth elemental form, and reformed his figure on the edge of the collapse zone’s rubble beach.

As soon as his feet touched solid ground, he raised his left hand, injecting spiritual power into the divine revelation mark.

Silver-blue teleportation light poured out from the mark, descending from above, enveloping his body within.

Zaied’s figure almost simultaneously shot out from the southwest side of the mine area’s rock wall shadow.

His speed was so fast that it left a gray-white afterimage in the air, his deep gray eyes locked onto Duke in the teleportation light, and his shriveled fingers suddenly opened in mid-air. Numerous chains formed from gray energy shot out from his palm, engulfing toward Duke like a hunting spiderweb.

Duke stood motionless, he didn’t even look back at those rapidly approaching gray chains.

The silver-blue teleportation light flowed around him, his body beginning to blur and fade.

Zaied shouted, tightening his fingers suddenly, the gray chains compressed on the outer layer of the teleportation light, dug into the dissipating phantom.

But the chains only touched air, capturing nothing as they passed through the phantom.

Duke’s figure completely vanished in the teleportation light, leaving only a few wisps of fading silver-blue light strands and the air slowly closing from where the chains had tightened.

Zaied landed on the rubble beach where Duke had just stood, gray chains languidly hanging at his feet.

He maintained the gesture of reaching out to grip for several breaths, the deep gray eyes roiling with extreme coldness and anger suppressed to its limit.

Moments later, he slowly withdrew his hand, the shriveled fingers curling inside the sleeve, knuckles whitening slightly from the force.

Byron and the other clan leaders arrived shortly after, looking at the empty rubble beach and the teleportation light which had vanished without a trace, all fell silent.

The core area of the main ore vein had completely collapsed into a giant sinkhole, rubble and dust at the bottom slowly sliding.

The most abundant Philosopher’s Stone vein in the entire mining area was emptied by the same person using the same method.

And under the watchful eyes of several Level 4 Powerhouses, that person calmly teleported away, not even Zaied’s personal attempt could stop him.

On the Gobi Desert, the wind and sand howled, sweeping over the rubble beach, causing the gray-white ore residue along the collapse zone’s edge to rustle.

Several Level 4 Powerhouses stood in place, none speaking first, simply staring silently at the sinkhole.

...

At the moment the teleportation light vanished, Duke first sensed an extremely ancient and heavy aura.

Unlike differences in energy particles’ concentration, this was a deeper, residual aura of rules, sedimented over countless eras.

He lowered his body’s center of gravity, his spiritual power spread out like a fine net, his right hand gripping slightly, several strands of dark gold sand silently slid out from the sleeve, suspended at his fingertips, ready.

His feet stood on a broad pathway paved with gray-white stone slabs, each slab several zhang square, seams between slabs so fine they were barely discernible.

The surface of slabs engraved with dense ancient patterns, irregular, some curved, some angled, intertwined and interwoven, no repetitive patterns.

He lightly brushed one of these patterns with the sole of his shoe, and it suddenly lit up briefly, like stirred sediment, emitted a very short-lived pale golden glow, then quickly dimmed.

This isn’t mere decoration; these patterns are an integral part of some ancient rules of the building itself—they’re not dead, only sleeping.

The stone walls on both sides of the pathway were so high they faded into the enveloping gray mist above the entire space.

The stone walls made of the same material as underfoot slabs yet far more aged, surface covered with cracks of varying depth, with occasional faint strands of pale golden light flowing through the cracks, weaving along their path, leaving fleeting light trails on the gray-white stone walls.