489: One gulp

Unlike the optimism of the other Cosmic Beasts, Doran felt that something was wrong the moment Lin Tianwei's figure vanished.

Although he couldn't sense even a trace of Lin Tianwei's aura or power, his intuition told him that the area ahead was extremely dangerous, and a slight misstep could lead to his demise.

“This is impossible!”

This was Doran's first thought, identical to Komlan and the other beasts.

He was a Lord-level peak existence; no Lord-level Cosmic Beast could pull off such an outrageous feat right under his nose.

Unless the opponent's strength wasn't Lord-level, but rather the more powerful Universe Master.

“Lin Tianwei is a Universe Master?”

Doran dismissed this ridiculous idea without a second thought.

Universe Master-level Cosmic Beasts were at least bounty missions worth five billion merit points, which he, Doran, would neither accept nor dare to accept.

After all, taking on such a bounty mission beyond one's capabilities wasn't about pushing oneself; it was simply seeking death.

No matter how many Lords there were, they were mere ants before a Universe Master, capable of being crushed by a single stomp, without even a chance to struggle.

However, Doran's intuition kept warning him, an intense warning that made him feel as if he would die at any moment.

In this situation, after eliminating all other wrong answers, even if the last remaining possibility was illogical, it must be the truth.

Doran's pupils suddenly constricted; he abruptly remembered that he seemed to have felt this sensation before.

That was when he had an audience with a certain Universe Master.

The opponent was right in front of him, yet he couldn't sense any aura, which was truly extraordinary.

That Universe Master was an elder to Doran; although there was a huge disparity in their strength, the elder was willing to answer his questions.

As a Universe Master, a universe forms within him, constantly regenerating.

Under extremely special circumstances, if the rules of his own universe could synchronize with the external universe, then the opponent could completely merge into the universe, becoming undetectable.

It was like a drop of Water Stealthing into a river or sea; the water was still there, but no one could distinguish the specific drop they were looking for from the vast expanse.

“Is that possible?”

The moment this thought arose, Doran instinctively chose not to believe it.

His Universe Master-level elder could do this because it was his residence, a place he had lived for countless years, and he was intimately familiar with the laws of the environment, so he could naturally achieve this.

But this place was different; it was the Alien Battlefield, the boundary between two great universes, where the laws were extremely chaotic.

Let alone Lin Tianwei, a Cosmic Beast who had just arrived here, even those Cosmic Beasts who had lived here for countless years couldn't become fully familiar with the conditions here.

They might even be affected by the environment during battle, unable to unleash their full strength.

Perhaps only a God King, a God King recognized by the universe, could achieve this.

“Better safe than sorry!”

Even so, Doran eventually gave the order to retreat.

Merit points could be earned again, but if one's life was lost, there would be no chance of revival.

This led to the scene just now, where Doran, without hesitation, gave the order to retreat.

Without any hesitation, the moment the order was given, Doran flew away in a panic, heading in the opposite direction from which Lin Tianwei had arrived.

Time waits for no one, especially when fleeing in a hurry; every second is extremely important.

“Commander, did you make a mistake?”

“That alien Cosmic Beast was scared and fled in a panic the moment it saw us, so why are we still running?”

For a legion, the commander's orders were absolute.

Although Komlan and the other beasts were puzzled, they still resolutely carried out Doran's order, fleeing closely behind him.

However, executing the order didn't mean they had no opinions, and the outspoken Komlan immediately voiced his doubts.

Facing these brothers who had followed him for many years, and who were willing to carry out his orders immediately, Doran also had enough patience and explained:

“This matter is a bit unclear. The opponent did disappear right under our noses, but that doesn't necessarily mean they fled.”

“My intuition tells me that we are currently in an extremely dangerous situation.”

“Anyway, staying in Novice Village is meaningless; it's better to leave directly. Perhaps that can help us avoid this impending crisis.”

“Intuition?”

Although Doran's reason was far-fetched, Komlan and the others were extremely convinced.

Because it was precisely by relying on this excellent intuition that Doran was able to become the commander of the Holy Flame Legion.

And it was also thanks to Doran's intuition that the Holy Flame Legion had avoided fatal crises multiple times, surviving until now with only seven members.

One must know that even super-large legions composed of hundreds or thousands of Cosmic Beasts couldn't be so stable.

It must be said that the Holy Flame Legion was indeed extremely astute, being the first to choose to escape when none of the other alien Cosmic Beasts had sensed the danger.

Unfortunately, it was a little too late to escape at this point.

Or rather, their fate of death was sealed the moment they saw Lin Tianwei.

After flying for about ten minutes, Komlan was the first to notice that something seemed amiss and exclaimed:

“Have you noticed? It seems we just flew through this area?”

At this point, Komlan pointed in horror at the star quietly suspended in space in the distance and said,

“I've seen this star at least three times already!”

The moment they received Komlan's reminder, the other six beasts stopped.

Maria even asked directly, saying, “Komlan, are you sure?”

“We've only been flying for ten minutes, yet you say you've seen this star at least three times.”

“Doesn't that mean we've been going in circles, being played like monkeys by some entity?”

“How is that possible? We are powerful Lord-level Cosmic Beasts with extremely keen perception. How could we not notice such an obvious flaw?”

In an instant, voices questioning Komlan rose one after another; clearly, they were extremely confident in their own strength and simply didn't believe they would be so easily fooled.

“Enough, everyone calm down first.”

“Something is wrong now; it's better to believe it than not.”

“Let's fly again, and it will be clear whether Komlan was mistaken.”

Facing the noisy crowd, Doran, as the commander, stepped forward again; his intuition told him that everyone's emotions were very off.

Under normal circumstances, even if Komlan was wrong, the others shouldn't be so harsh on him.

“Could it be that, without realizing it, all of us have been affected?”

Keeping this terrifying thought to himself, and not voicing it to affect morale, Doran once again led the legion forward.

After Komlan's reminder, this time it wasn't just Komlan; all the Cosmic Beasts clearly felt that something was amiss.

Because in just half a minute, the star Komlan had spoken of appeared again.

In other words, their circling frequency was much higher than imagined.

In just over ten minutes, they had already circled in place more than twenty times.

Cold sweat trickled down Maria's forehead; only by being in it could they feel the despair when they discovered the truth.

The stronger their strength, the more desperate they became,

Because this meant their enemy was stronger, very likely so strong that they couldn't even hide.

They had realized it too late; in the end, they still couldn't escape this crisis.

From who knew when, their side had already fallen completely into the enemy's trap.

Trying to use the life-saving tool he had exchanged for a hefty price, Doran found that this space seemed to have been completely sealed, and he couldn't connect to his previously preset spatial coordinates at all.

Under these circumstances, even the Space Gate he had bought at a great cost couldn't take him away from here.

Although this answer made the beast despair, Doran knew it wasn't time to despair yet.

Once they chose to give up, the Holy Flame Legion would truly be annihilated here.

Thinking of this, Doran spoke, “The enemy's methods are very strong, to a degree we completely cannot comprehend.”

“But we still have hope, because we still have a trump card for survival. It's time to let the enemy see why we are called the Holy Flame Legion.”

“Let the Holy Flame cut through the darkness and bring us the dawn of victory!”

As soon as his voice fell, a terrifying energy surged from Doran, reaching for the sky; it was time to go all out.

As for the other Cosmic Beasts of the Holy Flame Legion?

They said nothing, merely stood silently behind Doran, similarly unleashing all their power.

Something miraculous happened!

The seven energies, originally of different colors and completely different laws, actually followed a certain rule and merged together, forming a crimson, towering Holy Flame!

This Holy Flame had just been born, yet its terrifying energy illuminated the entire universe, becoming the absolute focus of this universe.

As the legion's trump card, the Crimson Flame was naturally extraordinary, a super secret technique Doran had obtained from a powerful entity.

It only required finding several Cosmic Beasts skilled in specific laws to jointly use a Holy Flame far more powerful than their individual strengths.

In other words, although the members of the Holy Flame Legion were all Lord-level Cosmic Beasts,

Through mutual cooperation, they were actually able to use a Holy Flame with power reaching the Universe Master-level.

This was the Holy Flame Legion's trump card, a Holy Flame capable of burning everything.

Under Doran's urging, the Holy Flame flew into the air, burning towards the universe they had seen countless times.

As long as they could burn a hole in this cage, they would be able to instantly escape from here using the life-saving tools they had prepared in advance.

A moment, just a single moment was all they needed.

Doran's eyes were full of hope, staring intently at the Holy Flame that had already flown into the universe.

This massive spark carried all the hopes of their seven Cosmic Beasts!

In the Alien Battlefield, Lin Tianwei was currently flying towards the next Novice Village.

Having decided to try his hand, Lin Tianwei naturally wouldn't just play around as before; this time, he was serious.

The seemingly simple Claws attack was merely a diversion; the real attack came from Lin Tianwei's Abyssal Giant Maw!

The reason Doran and the other alien Cosmic Beasts felt Lin Tianwei's aura suddenly disappear was simply because they had already been swallowed whole by Lin Tianwei, all entering Lin Tianwei's stomach, into the universe within Lin Tianwei's stomach.

If their strength was great enough, or their perception keen enough, they might have noticed a slight anomaly the moment they were swallowed by Lin Tianwei.

Unfortunately, they were still a bit too slow, and were destined to become Lin Tianwei's food.

However, as Lin Tianwei flew, he felt that something was not quite right; it seemed there were parasites stirring in his stomach, causing him to feel a slight burning sensation.

Although it was only a faint trace, it couldn't escape the keen senses of Lin Tianwei.

With just one glance, Lin Tianwei knew what was happening in the universe within his stomach.

It turned out that a few ants, unwilling to accept their fate, were putting up a desperate struggle, attempting to ignite a flame and burn a hole in his stomach.

“Holy Flame?”

The Holy Flame ignited by Doran and the other beasts with all their might seemed as ridiculous as a spark in Lin Tianwei's eyes.

With a thought, the previously calm stomach space suddenly changed, beginning to violently squeeze and collapse,

As if some powerful force was compressing this universe.

This was not the most terrifying part;

The moment the space compression occurred, countless streams of acid rained down from above.

This acid was highly corrosive, capable of rapidly decomposing contacted matter into energy substances that were more convenient for Lin Tianwei to absorb.

Since the Holy Flame flew extremely high, the acid first contacted the Holy Flame.

However, this Holy Flame, on which the Holy Flame Legion had placed high hopes, was not even a small flame in the face of the acid.

It was extinguished without suspense the moment it came into contact with the acid.

Not only that, the acid further decomposed the Holy Flame into energy, rapidly integrating it into the stomach universe, becoming food for Lin Tianwei to grow stronger.

After easily dealing with the Holy Flame, Lin Tianwei accelerated and flew a bit faster.

Lin Tianwei paid no attention to his recent actions; after all, for him, it was merely a necessary process of digesting food.

Just like a tiger's stomach, it needs to constantly churn and secrete stomach acid to digest food.

However, Lin Tianwei never imagined that what he considered utterly ordinary was a nightmare in the eyes of Doran and the other alien Cosmic Beasts.

The seven Cosmic Beasts, who had been looking up with hopeful faces, never imagined that what awaited them was the scene of the Holy Flame being mercilessly extinguished by stomach acid.

Maria even let out a gasp: “No, how could our Holy Flame be so vulnerable!”

They had expected to see hope, but instead, they saw the Holy Flame being extinguished right before their eyes.

But soon they lost the will to be surprised, as the sky-full of stomach acid was already pouring down on them.

Once they touched this terrifying stomach acid that could even extinguish the Holy Flame, complete annihilation would be their only fate!

(End of Chapter)