*Grrrooo!!!*
*Klang!* knocking back a White Serpent King replica, Li Xue remarks—
"Why do these things remind of that big Sinner from the second excavation?"
As soon as the first group had descended the mountain, the White Serpent King replicas had ambushed them.
*Pah!* pulverizing one of the enemies, only to see it splattered onto the snow in the form of mercurous liquid—that is already attempting to reform itself, Ye Chen can't help but think back to Long Hua's supposed Relic.
"I think I'm reminded of surnamed Long's Relic more…"
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, Shao Tianming divides an enemy with his halberd, and shouts—
"Screw trying to fight these things, let's just run!"
Lashing an enemy back, Li Zi Xiang asks—
"Where?"
"Anywhere, but here! Stick together!"
...…
"…"
As members of the Ashen River Hall begin to run off, Xiang Yu, who is surrounded by numerous military soldiers, shouts—
"Move out of this area and lure those things into the buildings! Have your explosives ready to bury the enemy!"
"…"
Heeding to this command, Zhou Chen moves around the battlefield, and flings all the enemies that he comes across towards a building.
"Follow General Zhou's lead!"
Rather quickly, the other military troops trail after Zhou Chen—while maintaining a bit of distance between them.
...…
"…"
Entering a five-floor building, Zhou Chen slices a hole in the ceiling, and leaps upward.
*Grrrooo!!!* chasing after him, the White Serpent King replicas follow, and entering the building after them are the military troops.
Taking charge for Xiang Yu, who had stationed himself at a safer distance, Liang Jin He shouts—
"15 seconds on the timer, leave as soon as you're done! Run as far as you can!"
"Understood!"
"First charge, set!"
"Second charge, ready!"
In a rapid manner, the military troops begin to paste clay explosives onto the support pillars of the building.
...…
"…"
Just as Zhou Chen reaches the top of the five-floor building, he leaps towards the roof of another, and as the White Serpent King replicas thought to give chase—
*Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!* the explosives detonate, causing the entirety of the building to begin to collapse!
As a portion of the building leans onto another nearby building, it creates a domino effect—causing the other buildings that are near the first and second to collapse as well!
*Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!* similarly to the situation near Zhou Chen, structures in other parts of the city begin to topple over in almost the same instance.
"…"
Landing onto the roof of an intact building, Zhou Chen looks down to see all the enemies buried beneath a pile of rubble.
Turning around and peering off into the distance, Zhou Chen sees five tiny dots moving across the city by leaping from one building to the next.
Landing beside Zhou Chen, Yang Ning asks—
"That's them, right?"
"Should be."
...…
As the dust clouds caused by the collapse of multiple buildings settle—
*…! …! …! …! …!*
"Uh?"
Not granting the weapon spirits the time to celebrate, mercurous liquid leaks outwards from the rubble.
"…!"
"…?"
The sheer sight of these ominous liquids instantly causes several individuals to turn pale, and making them even more eerie—is how these liquids would cover up the corpses of the fallen.
Upon the mercurous liquid passing them by, the corpses would vanish, along with any traces of blood—leading many to believe that they were devoured.
"R-Run!"
"These things are simply far too tenacious!"
Without sparing the mercurous liquids another glance, numerous individuals chose to run.
"Ai…"
Glancing back behind him, while continuing to move, Teng Hao shakes his head, and remarks—
"This is also that surnamed Long's handiwork?"
"Who knows?"
"At this point, I wouldn't be surprised."
As discussions break out to slow the pace, Jiu Sheng shouts—
"Enough talking! We need to pick up the pace, and get to Hope City as soon as possible!"
Narrowing her eyes, Xu Tian Kun sees members of the Ashen River Hall—numbering somewhere in the fifties, ahead of them.
And further ahead of the hall group are Zhou Chen and Yang Ning.
...…
"…"
Landing on top of the frozen lake, the group stands in front of the damaged cubic structure.
Compared to the visual projection, this structure is much larger in scale when seen in person. From the surface of the lake to its highest corner, the structure is probably about the height of a six-floor building.
Scanning the structure, Tian Cheng remarks—
"Seems to be a ship of some kind."
"Hm?"
Being reminded of something, Lin Yu Heng says—
"There was a record of the weapon spirits attempting to escape from this world by using a colossal ship of some kind. As soon as that ship closed in on the Soul Cage, however…"
"Lin-xiong means to say that this is that exact ship?"
"It probably is. This should be its front hull."
Shrugging his shoulders, Long Hua moves along with Tian Cheng behind him, and entering the breach, he looks down to find—
"Looks like we're in the right place."
Passing the breach is an uneven hole that is around five meters in diameter; the depth of this hole goes through the entirety of the ship's front hull and the frozen lake itself in a straight line—leading downwards to a massive earthen hollow.
Storing Tian Cheng into a storage pouch, Long Hua leaps down.
While descending, Long Hua sees the entirety of the city below.
All the buildings in this city are black in color—with specks of white present throughout their bodies.
Not a single building possesses a flat roof—for all of them have a pointed tip, which can easily allow them to be used as a stake on a colossal target.
Wrapping around the entirety of the city—in a spiraling shape, are a black tree's roots; numbering five in total.
"Hm?"
Following the trunk of this black tree, and noticing how it is stabbed into the underground wall, Long Hua blinks his eyes, while thinking—
(That tree back in the ancient city… Did it originate from here? …I guess that explains why its leaves contained traces of Spirit Extracts.)
Noticing how all the tree's roots are emerging from the edges of the city, Long Hua spreads his divine senses forward in a random direction, and sees—
(A pool of Spirit Extracts right below this city. Ai, if I was a weapon spirit, I'd probably jump right in.)
Upon Long Hua touching his feet onto the underground city's streets, the Tai Xuan Emperor remarks—
(*-laoban, these buildings are all made from starlight obsidian.)
"How valuable are they?"
(They're rather common in the vast heavens' entirety. Still, for your intended purpose, they'll suffice.)