99: Mysterious Metal

“Boom—!!!”

The last bolt of lightning pierced through the head of the Six-Armed Bloodfiend Ape.

Its crimson beast eyes suddenly dimmed, and its massive body collapsed like a mountain, crashing heavily into the snow.

Lei Qianjue knelt on the ground, his purple-gold battle robe already tattered, blood constantly overflowing from the corner of his mouth.

Both of his arms were charred black, his skin raw and bloody from the backlash of the lightning Qi.

“Hoo… hoo…”

He gasped violently, his vision blurring.

He won.

But he was also almost crippled.

Lei Qianjue staggered to his feet, looked around, and his pupils suddenly constricted.

On the snowy ground, Martial Master corpses lay scattered.

Of the thirty elites, fewer than five remained, and each was critically wounded and dying.

As for the three Grandmasters… the Red Palm Grandmaster had a huge wound torn open on his chest by a Yao Beast, blood gushing out and staining a large patch of snow.

The Cloud-Treading Grandmaster’s legs were completely broken, and he leaned against the rock wall, barely clinging to life.

The only one still able to stand, the Qingfeng Grandmaster, had also lost an arm, his face ashen.

“Useless… a bunch of useless people!”

Lei Qianjue roared, his voice terrifyingly hoarse.

Counting him, five Grandmasters and thirty Martial Masters were enough to wipe out Su Lei’s team like crushing ants.

He had originally intended to reduce casualties and make his move later in the Secret Realm.

Who would have thought that even with his Mental Energy suppressed, the opponent could Breakthrough the outer perimeter unscathed?

Moreover, the shackles on his Mental Energy were inexplicably removed.

To ensure the subsequent operation was foolproof, he had no choice but to set up an ambush.

The result… thirty elite Martial Masters defected in battle!

They were inexplicably chased by an overlord Yao Beast!

The elites he brought out were either dead or wounded… even if he completed the mission now, he would still be punished by the President of the Martial Alliance Association and the Lei Family Patriarch when he returned!

As soon as he thought of this, Lei Qianjue’s heart was filled with towering hatred, and even a hint of regret.

“Young Master Lei… Young Master Lei…” The Cloud-Treading Grandmaster spoke weakly, “We… we must retreat…”

“Retreat?” Lei Qianjue spun his head sharply, his eyes bloodshot, “I haven’t gotten the item yet! You’re telling me to retreat?!”

The Qingfeng Grandmaster gritted his teeth and said, “But if this continues, we will all—”

“Shut up!” Lei Qianjue interrupted furiously, kicking over a nearby rock, “Su Lei must die! The star marrow must be mine!”

He stared intently at the top of the snowy mountain, a crazy obsession burning in his eyes.

The next moment, he took out a blood-stained communication jade token from his in arms, his voice hoarse like a ghost.

“I know you’re listening!”

“Quickly send all the troops over!”

After a brief silence, a deep voice came from the other side.

“Young Master Lei, it sounds like… you’re not having much success?”

A hint of ferocity flashed in Lei Qianjue’s eyes as he forcibly suppressed his anger, gritting his teeth and saying.

“Zhao Tianhe, stop spouting nonsense! I agree to your conditions!”

“Oh?” Zhao Tianhe seemed interested, “Including ‘that thing’?”

Lei Qianjue’s pupils constricted slightly, his chest heaving violently.

“Including.” He almost squeezed these two words through his teeth.

A satisfied chuckle came from the other end of the communicator.

“Very well, I have already obtained your coordinates and will arrive in thirty minutes.”

“Young Master Lei, I hope you don’t forget your promise.”

The call ended, Lei Qianjue slowly put down the jade token, looked up at the top of the snowy mountain, the killing intent in his eyes uncontrollable… Deep within the ice cave, Lin Qianqian and her group finally reunited.

Wang Kai excitedly held up a fist-sized piece of star marrow, “Twenty pieces! A full twenty pieces! This is enough to make a hundred Hero Badges!”

Joy finally appeared on everyone’s tired faces.

Zhao Xuan stroked the smooth surface of the star marrow, exclaiming, “The purity of these star marrow… is higher than any piece we’ve seen before.”

Lin Qianqian, however, frowned, her gaze sweeping over everyone: “Wait, have you seen Su Lei?”

The atmosphere instantly froze.

Wang Kai’s smile stiffened on his face: “Why hasn’t he returned yet…”

Chen Xuan tightened his grip on the Qingfeng Sword in his hand, his expression gloomy: “Wait five more minutes, if he doesn’t come back, we’ll go look for him.”

The atmosphere in the ice cave instantly dropped to freezing point.

The joy on everyone’s faces disappeared, and they fell into silence.

A minute later, slow footsteps came from the dark passage.

Everyone immediately tensed up, weapons drawn, aimed at the source of the sound.

A figure staggered out of the darkness.

“Su Lei!” Lin Qianqian exclaimed, being the first to rush over.

Su Lei’s face was ashen, and a trace of blood still hung from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were exceptionally bright.

He held a piece of dark silver metal tightly in his hand, its surface flowing with strange patterns, as if it were alive and subtly wriggling.

“This is…?” Wang Kai’s eyes widened.

Su Lei handed the dark silver metal to Liu Hongyan, and everyone’s gaze focused on her hand.

Liu Hongyan was not only a Third-Order Martial Master but also skilled in energy material analysis.

As she took the metal, her brows furrowed slightly the moment her fingertips touched it.

“Abnormal temperature…” she murmured, “It’s not cold, nor is it hot, but a… an indescribable sensation.”

She quickly opened her portable analyzer, which she carried with her, and placed the metal on the detection platform.

The instrument started, a blue light scanned over it, but the next second—

“Crack!”

The analyzer’s screen suddenly flickered, then went black with a “hum,” emitting a faint burnt smell.

“What?!” Liu Hongyan’s pupils constricted, and she quickly cut off the power.

Everyone looked at each other.

“The instrument overloaded?” Wang Kai’s eyes widened, “This thing can even detect star marrow, how could it…”

Liu Hongyan didn’t answer, but instead drew an alloy cutting knife from her waist and carefully touched the metal surface.

“Sizzle—”

The moment the blade touched, the patterns on the metal surface suddenly lit up, the dark silver luster flowed like water, and the edge of the alloy cutting knife actually began to slowly… dissolve.

“This is impossible!” Liu Hongyan sharply retracted her knife, her expression grim, “Its energy field is devouring anything it touches!”

Wang Kai, nearby, quickly pulled up his data pad.

“Preliminary speculation: this metal possesses some kind of adaptive devouring characteristic, absorbing external energy and changing its own structure…”

Lin Qianqian looked at Su Lei: “Where did you find it?”

Su Lei was silent for a moment, then said: “The deepest level of the ice cave… there’s something like an ‘altar’ there, and this piece of metal was embedded in the center.”

Altar?

Everyone’s hearts tensed.

Liu Hongyan took a deep breath and took out a transparent crystal chip the size of a fingernail from her close-fitting pocket.

“One last try.” She pressed the chip close to the metal.

In an instant—

“Boom!”

A blinding white light erupted, and the entire ice cave shook violently!

Everyone was knocked over by the shockwave.

And that piece of metal… actually floated into the air, its surface patterns flashing wildly.

The white light gradually dissipated, and silence returned to the ice cave.

The dark silver metal slowly fell back into Liu Hongyan’s palm, its patterns still subtly flashing, as if breathing.

Liu Hongyan stared at it, her eyes gleaming with fervent light.

“This is definitely not a substance from Earth.”

“Its atomic structure completely fails to conform to any known element, and in fact… it wasn’t even formed naturally!”

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