77: Fate ordained Lu Chen to become king!

Lu Chen then realized his palm was pressed against the curse mark on her collarbone; the dark gold patterns and golden incantations intertwined into a bizarre totem.

The screaming of the Bone Eagle flock shattered the stillness.

Lu Chen drew the rusted saber stuck in the ground with his backhand, and the blade extended into a three-meter light blade upon being infused with the dark gold patterns.

The sweeping blade light transformed into a blood-colored crescent moon, annihilating all Undead Creatures in its path.

But for every wave of enemies eliminated, more skeletons crawled out of the magma.

"Five hundred meters to the southeast." Lu Chen suddenly grabbed Ning Xiwei's wrist, "The Gear Phantom is an energy node."

The young girl immediately understood, drawing a Hexagram Array in the air with her staff: "Path of Holy Light!"

A golden passage pierced the bone wall, and the group rushed forward under their magic shields.

Lu Chen charged at the very front of the team, his rusted saber splitting the constantly closing skeletal barriers along the way; the blade began to show cracks due to excessive load.

When they rushed into the range covered by the Gear Phantom, the sight before them suffocated everyone.

A bronze gear with a diameter of a hundred meters floated in mid-air, each tooth socket inlaid with human skulls.

A skeleton draped in cobwebs sat at the center of the gear, and the gem inlaid on top of the scepter in its hand was a magnified version of the Minotaur Crystal Core.

"Welcome to the Flesh and Blood Furnace." The scepter skeleton's lower jaw moved, but the voice that emerged was the clear, bright voice of a young girl.

Its hollow eye sockets lit up with purple light, and hundreds of vine-like structures resembling blood vessels suddenly drilled out of the ground.

Lu Chen's Soul Fire issued a frantic warning.

He pulled Ning Xiwei into a roll to the right; the spot where they had been standing was struck by the vines, leaving a deep pit.

The dark gold patterns flowed toward the young girl along the point of contact, and the incantation on Ning Xiwei's collarbone suddenly burst with strong light, actually forming an energy circuit between the two of them.

"Lu Chen? Impossible! Light and Darkness can merge together?..." The scepter skeleton let out a surprised tremor, "This is impossible!"

Lu Chen felt a certain shackle being broken.

When Ning Xiwei's blood dripped onto his sternum, the dark gold patterns instantly covered his entire body, and the rusted saber was reforged into a pitch-black greatsword under the energy infusion.

The moment he leaped up, a dark red cloak made of Soul Fire unfurled behind his back, and the trajectory of the blade slash left behind lingering spatial cracks in the air.

The scepter skeleton raised the gem to block, but the strike, imbued with the power of the Undead Monarch, directly pierced the defense.

The instant the gem shattered, the entire Secret Realm began to collapse. Lu Chen grabbed Ning Xiwei amidst the energy turbulence, shielding her with his body.

The girl's silver hair swept across his cervical vertebrae, and the starlight flowing through her strands reminded him of the Valkyrie from his memory fragments.

When everyone landed in a safe zone, Lu Chen found that the bones in his right hand had turned dark gold.

Even stranger, the curse mark on Ning Xiwei's collarbone was missing its most crucial part, and that rune was currently imprinted on his metacarpal bone.

"This is... a Symbiotic Pact?" the Ice Mage suddenly exclaimed, "Legend says this is an equal alliance only signed between the Elven King and the Holy Dragon in ancient times!"

Ning Xiwei touched the scorching curse mark, then suddenly pressed the tip of her staff against Lu Chen's ribcage: "What exactly are you?"

"I should be the one asking you that," Lu Chen pointed to her bleeding earlobe, "Three minutes ago, your blood was golden."

Amidst the gasps of the crowd, the blood bead on the girl's earlobe solidified into a miniature Holy Grail in mid-air.

Another memory chain deep within Lu Chen's Soul Fire snapped, and he suddenly recalled the adage carved behind that bronze throne—[When the Dark Gold Returns, the Holy Blood Shall Wash Away the Lies of the Gods].

"Be careful!" The red-haired youth threw three burning Talismanic Incantations, and a wall of fire sprang up before the group.

The molten bone slag crackled in the intense flames, plating Zhao Si's face with a flickering golden edge.

This fourth-year Chief Fire Elementalist wiped a scorch mark from his forehead, his emerald pupils reflecting the collapsing Gear Phantom in the distance.

A shield condensed from ice crystals blocked the splashing magma; the girl with long silver-blue hair planted her staff into the ground: "The Cold Current Barrier can last for another ten minutes."

As Shelley spoke, the white mist she exhaled solidified into ice blossoms in the air.

On the collar of her school uniform was pinned a Frost Rose emblem, which was the unique Family crest of the nobility from the Northern City.

Lu Chen's finger bones scraped across the healing cracks on his breastplate, and the dark gold patterns writhed like living blood vessels.

He suddenly grabbed the wrist of the brown-haired girl who was bandaging Ning Xiwei: "The pattern of the Holy Emblem on your glove is a mirror image of the cobweb crest on that scepter skeleton."

"You're hurting me!" Chen Lu said, tears welling up as she shook her wrist. The Moonstone at the tip of her healing staff let out a protesting hum.

The novice priestess, who hailed from the Academy's Temple, hurriedly checked the wound behind Ning Xiwei's neck, only to find the oozing golden blood evaporating into particles of light.

The entire team suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Zhao Si's Flame Shield flickered, reflecting the pale faces of everyone present.

From the distance came the mournful screech of twisting metal. Seven purple light pillars rose from the collapsing phantom of gears, piecing together a giant spider totem in the sky.

This temporarily assembled team really had everyone imaginable.

Even Lu Chen felt it was a bit too coincidental.

They were all Disciples from the Academy.

But they all seemed to be top talents!

Was this good news for Ning Xiwei?

"It's the Purifiers from the Magic Secret Realm..." Shelley's ice shield cracked. "Those light pillars are localization beacons for Judgment."

Ning Xiwei suddenly pressed her temples, the cuff of her uniform sliding down to reveal a newly emerged silver chain tattoo on the inside of her forearm.

The Soul Fire in Lu Chen's eye sockets contracted sharply—this pattern was identical to the chains that bound the Valkyrie in his memory.

"Two kilometers southwest, a spatial rift." Lu Chen's bone saber pointed toward the densest area of blood-red light, "But there is..."

A deafening Dragon roar interrupted his words.

The two-headed giant Dragon, covered in bone scales, shattered a hill. Corrupted flesh hung down from the gaps in its skeleton. Its left head spewed ghostly blue Nether Fire, while its right head condensed dark purple lightning.

Zhao Si recognized the brand on the Dragon's horns; it was the Sin Imprint unique to the Secret Realm Execution Squad.

The Secret Realm Execution Squad was something created by the Secret Realm itself.

To prevent you from exiting the next Secret Realm.

They only had one function!

—You want to stay put?

No!

If you don't leave, you die!

Or die anyway!

Either withdraw, or continue forward.

"Take Junior Sister Ning Xiwei and go first! Thank you for helping us out. Although we aren't from the same Academy, I, Zhao Si, know how to repay kindness!" Zhao Si tore open the flame insignia on his collar, unleashing the Flame Demon Power sealed within.

At the same time, Shelley deployed twelve Ice Prism Mirrors, the refracted cold light slicing the battlefield into a shattered Domain.

Before Chen Lu's healing array could fully form, the Nether Fire burned through the ice shield.

Lu Chen spun, shattering a fireball, and shoved the priestess girl into Ning Xiwei's arms as he did: "The three of you run southwest, don't look back!"

"Are you crazy?" Ning Xiwei's silver hair whipped wildly in the gale. "That's an Eighth Tier..."

Dazzling dark-gold light suddenly swallowed her vision.

Lu Chen's bones vibrated with an ancient bell-like tremor, and the pressure of an Undead Monarch swept across the wasteland like a tsunami.

The two-headed Dragon momentarily froze. Zhao Si seized the opportunity to inject the Flame Demon Fire into the cracks in its wings.

"So you know Dragon Language Intimidation." Shelley gasped while reinforcing her ice shield, frost beginning to form on her hair tips. "But we can only hold out for thirty more seconds..."

Lu Chen's blade had already pierced the Dragon's abdomen. Dark-gold patterns spread along the blade, and the corrupted Dragon suddenly let out a terrified howl.

When his finger bone touched the Dragon Heart Crystal Core, the purple light pillars across the entire sky simultaneously turned, converging above their heads into the Eye of Judgment.

"Go quickly!" Zhao Si detonated all his Flame Explosion Talisman Incantations.

Shelley bit her tongue, spitting out vital essence blood, pushing her ice magic to its absolute limit.

Lu Chen grabbed Ning Xiwei by the waist amidst the chaotic energy flow, wrapping the dark-gold cloak around them both as he charged toward the spatial rift.

Chen Lu's prayer pierced through the roaring explosion: "Moon God, please guide the lost ones..." The healing staff snapped, and a silver torrent tore open the blood-red curtain of the sky.

The last image Lu Chen saw was the two-headed Dragon annihilating in the purple light, and Zhao Si's burning figure turning to ash.

As the spatial rift swallowed the four of them, the rune on Ning Xiwei's collarbone suddenly pierced into Lu Chen's Soul Fire.

Countless memory images flooded back. This time, he clearly saw the Twelve Knights kneeling behind the Bronze Throne—and among them were these very individuals, along with the faces of the founding patriarchs of their respective Families.

Damn it?

What the hell is going on!

Coincidence leads to a story?

Zhao Si is already dead!

What about those two women behind him?

Aren't they all Academy Disciples from completely different places?

Why do they have a connection to me?

Lu Chen felt that this Secret Realm would reveal many things.