109: Treasure House of the Sacred Valley

Since the task was complete, it was time to turn it in.

Everyone returned to the Holy Valley without stopping, taking a full day and night to finally arrive.

The few task recipients didn't even rest, directly seeking an audience with the Great Priest.

It was the same room as last time, and the same emaciated, decrepit old insect-person.

However, this time the Great Priest wasn't alone; there was another person in the room.

"Shi Li! It really is you!"

Zhong Xin smiled when he saw him.

"You've finally arrived."

Shi Li was wearing the unique attire of the Weng Weng Clan at this time.

This indicated that he must have arrived very early, even having time and leisure to bathe and change.

After exchanging greetings, Zhong Xin, as their representative, communicated with the Great Priest.

"Respected Great Priest, we have lived up to your expectations and have collected all four colored divine stones."

"Ho ho ho ho… Good."

"What should we do next?"

"Ho ho ho ho… Good."

…

Fortunately, having had two previous communication experiences, Zhong Xin patiently continued to converse with him.

After a round of communication, the Pioneer Team also learned of the Great Priest's next arrangements.

Eight divine stones would be arranged in a formation, placed in eight directions.

The center of the formation would be what they called the Tongtian Gate, which was the Space-Time Trace.

According to the Great Priest, the purpose of this formation was to cut off the supply of heaven and earth energy, causing the Tongtian Gate to be severed and closed.

The principles involved the aboriginals' mystical arcane arts, which the Pioneer Team could not comprehend.

However, judging from the schematic diagram provided by the other party, the area covered by this formation was only slightly larger than their base.

It could be said to perfectly envelop the base.

Logically, from the Pioneer Team's perspective, they should not allow such an unknown formation to be set up.

But after another private discussion between Zhang He and Zhong Xin, they still agreed.

There were three reasons.

Firstly, their goal was inherently to close the Space-Time Trace.

As long as it could be achieved, at the moment of closure, all Allomorph (aliens) in that world, meaning all members of their Pioneer Team, would be expelled from the alien realm and returned to Blue Star.

This was a phenomenon verified by multiple practices, 100% accurate.

Secondly, the locations where the other party would place the divine stones were very close to the temporary base.

Pioneer Team members could monitor and inspect them at any time, and any unusual activity would be discovered promptly.

Thirdly, and most importantly.

That was the fact that this Event was clearly marked with the word [Core].

Aboriginals might lie, but the System Panel would not.

Since it was marked as a [Core Event], it must be related to closing the Space-Time Trace and severing the connection between the two worlds.

However, they also offered to help set up the formation, but were rejected by the Great Priest.

The reason given was that only members of the Weng Weng Clan could set up such a formation, and outsiders could not help at all.

The only thing the Pioneer Team could do was to be on guard during the setup of the formation and its activation.

Especially according to the Great Priest, the formation would attract a large number of demonic beasts during its activation.

And a new task was also presented before everyone's eyes.

[Event (Gathering Divine Stones) completed.]

[Event enters next phase.]

[Accept/Decline Task]

[Core Event]: Divine Stone Formation

[Content]: The Great Priest requests the Pioneer Team's help to guard the eight divine stone formation eyes during the formation's activation.

[Reward]: Unknown

"Unknown?" xN

Everyone was a bit puzzled by this last line.

But no matter what, the task still had to be accepted.

"Additionally, I also want to thank you for gathering the divine stones."

Saying this, the Great Priest drew a spell in his hand.

A small spatial teleportation gate actually opened before their eyes.

"This teleportation gate leads to the treasury of our Holy Valley. Normally, only clan members who have rendered meritorious service to the Weng Weng Clan are qualified to enter and choose treasures.

And today, this opportunity will be granted to you.

Everyone who enters later can take any one treasure."

As the Great Priest's words fell, information popped up in front of Zhang He.

[Event (Gathering Divine Stones) completed]

[Reward obtained - Weng Weng Treasury Access 52 seconds.]

"Huh?"

She didn't react.

"You received the message too?"

Zhong Xin asked from beside her.

So everyone present exchanged information and found that they had all received more or less viewing time.

The duration of this time seemed to be related to their contribution to this task.

For example, gathering divine stones, or the number of demonic beasts killed in specific areas.

Among them, Zhang He and Zhong Xin received the longest time, with the latter being slightly longer than the former, reaching 56 seconds.

This was because they were precisely the ones who gathered the red divine stone and the yellow divine stone, respectively.

As for the other task recipients, the long ones were less than 30 seconds, and the short ones were even only 2 seconds; they would probably be teleported out as soon as their feet stepped in.

"Shi Li, how many seconds is your access time?"

Zhong Xin asked with a hint of envy.

"I don't know."

But Shi Li unexpectedly spread his hands.

"Don't know?"

"8 minutes and 07 seconds, how many seconds is that in total?"

"You…"

Zhong Xin's face immediately darkened; he regretted asking.

Damn it, comparing people only makes you angry; others only have a few to ten-odd seconds.

This guy directly used minutes as a unit!

"That's not right."

But at this moment, someone raised a question: "We conquered two divine stone areas in total, but everyone's time combined isn't even 5 minutes."

The implication was that Shi Li had also conquered two divine stone areas, and even if the difficulty factor was higher, the total should not be too far ahead of everyone else combined.

Yet, the time Shi Li received was almost twice theirs?

…

Hearing this question, Shi Li looked at the person: "But I conquered more than just two divine stone areas."

? xN

"Ho ho ho… Warrior Shi Li is indeed a young talent."

At this moment, the Great Priest smiled and helped him explain: "The black divine stone area, which was originally planned for us to be responsible for, was also conquered by him alone."

!!! xN

Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned.

Before, they thought their group had at least tied with Shi Li at 2:2, but the reality was 2:3?

"But…"

"Don't ask, don't ask, the more you ask, the more embarrassing it gets."

Someone still wanted to say something, but Zhong Xin interrupted him with a bitter smile, covering his face.

"Alright, let's enter in order of time length."

Zhang He stepped forward to organize.

So, with everyone's consent, the person with the shortest time entered first.

He stepped into the teleportation gate and disappeared, only to reappear a breath later.

"How was it?"

"What's it like inside?"

"What treasure did you get?"

Everyone gathered around him curiously.

…"I didn't see anything clearly inside; my eyes blurred, and I was teleported out."

The person's face was full of bitterness.

…

…