[Second Floor of the Divine Tomb]
After Zhang Yue used his blood as bait to lure out and kill all the divine beast BOSSes that had been sealed within the stone pillars, the corpses of those BOSSes did not respawn.
Then, following Ouyang Ling'er's instructions, Zhang Yue ordered the thirty-six-winged Armageddon Black Dragon to unleash its dragonfire and burn the stone pillars.
And sure enough, those stone pillars ignited like dry wood, catching fire instantly.
Amid the roaring flames, one pillar after another burned away like candles melting to nothing.
Almost at the same moment the pillars vanished, the corpses of the slain BOSSes on the ground transformed into wisps of white smoke, drifting up into the air. Then, high above, they gathered and formed a massive white curtain of light.
Exactly the same phenomenon as on the first floor of the Divine Tomb.
Once all the corpses were burned completely, the glowing curtain in the air gradually took full shape.
At that moment, the system prompt echoed down into Zhang Yue's ears.
["Ding~ Congratulations, the teleportation path to the Third Floor of the Divine Tomb has been opened!"]
Zhang Yue did not hesitate, he stepped straight into the light.
Meanwhile, Ouyang Ling'er, Wu Haotian, Ning Tiantian, and the others shifted their attention from the second floor to the third, following Zhang Yue's feed.
———
Back on the second floor of the Divine Tomb, all was silent.
As everything settled back into stillness, none of them knew that, deep in the darkness, a pair of eyes had been watching Zhang Yue all along.
When Zhang Yue stepped into the light and left the second floor, the figure in the shadows waved a hand.
The next instant—
Whirrr!
Golden starlight poured down from the sky, scattering across the ground.
In a moment, the stone pillars that had been burned by the Armageddon Black Dragon were all restored to their original form.
And the divine beast BOSSes that Zhang Yue had slain were also reconstituted from the starlight, brought back to life.
Once revived, the divine beasts all flew back into the stone pillars, transforming once more into the engraved patterns etched upon them.
Everything returned to peace.
As though nothing had ever happened.
And the eyes in the darkness gradually faded away…
———
Meanwhile, Elsewhere—
Zhang Yue had arrived safely on the Third Floor of the Divine Tomb.
Compared to the first and second floors, this one was an entirely new layout, an entirely new scene.
Zhang Yue found himself standing on a small, solitary boat drifting in the middle of a vast ocean. Looking around, he saw countless other lonely boats floating on the endless sea.
But none of those boats had anyone on them.
Across the entire sea, it seemed Zhang Yue was the only living being.
As Zhang Yue turned the camera around, panning across the surroundings, Ouyang Ling'er immediately began an intense analysis of everything visible.
Before long, she reached a conclusion.
["Sea burial!"], Ouyang Ling'er's voice came through the comms, ["After the fall of Xingtian, the Transcendent Lord God who surpassed the main god of the divine realm, his attendants were all entombed within the Divine Tomb as well. And as Xingtian's personal servants, they chose to be buried at sea, in this very ocean."]
At that moment, Zhang Yue looked up and saw something floating above: a dragon's head.
The dragon head was connected to something above, and from its open mouth below, streams of water gushed forth continuously.
And it wasn't just one, there were dragon heads like this every hundred meters or so, all around.
Each dragon head was spewing water.
It was as if Zhang Yue were inside an enormous bathhouse, and those dragon heads were all the faucets filling it.
Above the dragon heads, connecting them, was a shimmering violet light barrier.
Under that glowing barrier, even the entire sea surface was tinted with a faint purple hue.
Then Ouyang Ling'er's voice sounded again, ["This place is like a tidal mechanism. In other words, you must clear this floor before the water level rises high enough to submerge everything!"]
["Otherwise, you'll drown!"]
Hearing this, Zhang Yue took a closer look, and indeed, the sea level was slowly but steadily rising.
At that same moment, the thirty-six-winged Armageddon Black Dragon spread its wings and flew upward. But as it ascended, one of its wings brushed against the violet barrier above.
A sudden, agonized roar tore through the air.
Zhang Yue turned at the sound and saw that the half of the dragon's wing that had touched the barrier was severely burned.
Zhang Yue frowned slightly and said, "Looks like you were right. I have to finish this before the water level rises high enough to flood that barrier."
With that, Zhang Yue gripped his transcendent staff tightly and readied himself for battle.
At the same time, the wounded Armageddon Black Dragon, still in pain, roared and released a burst of dragonfire from its mouth, scorching a massive section of the sea's surface and setting many of the floating boats ablaze.
The next instant, those boats erupted into roaring flames.
And from within the inferno, humanoid figures emerged, each one wreathed in golden fire!
System Data: Lv300 Divine-class BOSS – Divine Guardian!
Looking across the sea, every burning boat now bore one of these Divine Guardians.
The first floor had been lord monsters, the second floor ordinary BOSSes.
And now, on the third floor, it had escalated straight to full Divine-class BOSSes?
Still, Zhang Yue showed no hint of panic.
He raised his staff, locked onto the surrounding Divine Guardians, and said coldly, "Now begins… the killing."
———
Meanwhile—
News of the Necromancer's advance into the Super Hidden Realm [Divine Tomb] of the World 57 had spread across the globe.
Especially after Zhang Yue entered the Divine Tomb, when all the international adventurers gathered outside its entrance were slaughtered by the Eight Ferocious Beasts.
"The Eight Ferocious Beasts have already set up outside the Divine Tomb. Once the Necromancer emerges, he'll fall straight into their trap! Can he possibly survive this crisis?"
"But eventually, he'll have to face them. There's no escaping it. The Eight Ferocious Beasts came for the Necromancer specifically, and I've heard his purpose in entering the Divine Tomb was precisely to gain power to fight them. Once he comes out, who wins and who dies, no one can say."
"Let's hope God Zero grows stronger quickly, strong enough to destroy every evil in the world."
———
Meanwhile, somewhere else—
Someone was up to mischief again.
In the Eastern Nation, Inoue Amano was in a conference room with his country's top officials, monitoring the situation in the World 57.
On the giant screen, they could clearly see: outside the entrance to the Divine Tomb in the Death Territory, the Eight Ferocious Beasts had revealed their true forms, no longer hidden, stationed there in wait for Zhang Yue to emerge.
The oppressive aura of eight emperor-level BOSSes blanketed the entire Death Territory, so intense that even through the screen, it made everyone watching tremble with dread.
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