The flying vessel transformed into a silver streak tearing through the gray mist.
No detours, no stealth.
A straight, crude, limit-speed penetration!
A breakthrough of pure velocity.
【Eyes of the Netherworld】 active at full strength.
The wind pressure cannon operating at maximum power!
In Lin Gui's vision, massive soul outlines loomed like mountains.
To the left was an aggregate of countless wailing faces constantly shifting forms—Shadow Weaver Siren.
Sensing the approach of the "flying vessel," the countless faces turned simultaneously, letting out a silent shriek.
Several giant whips condensed from shadows and resentment suddenly lashed out from the mist.
They struck toward the path ahead of the flying vessel!
"Boom—!!"
Beneath the flying vessel, an entire patch of ground instantly shattered and was annihilated.
But the flying vessel was too fast!
By the time the shadow whips fell, it had already soared through that airspace.
Leaving behind only the stirred-up violent air currents and the shrill cries of the spectral demons.
The flying vessel's speed was so extreme that one second it was in Shadow Weaver Siren's territory, and the next, it had entered the domain of another Epic demon.
Straight ahead.
The thick fog suddenly became viscous and dark.
A giant sphere resembling a rotting star—Moros, the Thousand-Faced Nightmare—rotated slowly.
Countless eyes opened one after another on the sphere's surface.
Densely packed beams of "Gaze," capable of freezing the soul of even a Legendary expert, shot out in a crisscross pattern!
That was a direct attack on the mental level, impossible to evade.
"Hold on tight!!!"
"Buzz—!"
Everyone's minds shuddered violently, as if their souls had been struck by a heavy hammer.
The attack was invisible and was being launched from at least a kilometer away, yet it made the souls of everyone present tremble!
Eve let out a muffled groan, her arms trembling as she held tightly to Lin Gui.
Lin Gui gave a sharp cry, simultaneously pushing his 【Levitation】 to its limits to control the runaway flying vessel.
He forced it to graze past the very edge of the interlaced "Gaze network"!
Next, one High-tier Legendary demon after another responded to their lord's drive.
They continuously launched attacks at the flying vessel.
Massive tentacles composed of blood and rusted metal rose from the "ground."
Black giant trees pulled out roots that pierced the high sky, lashing toward the flying vessel.
The flying vessel lost speed, changed direction, and then accelerated again.
The several Legendary experts tied to the outside of the vessel had long since lost their air of powerful experts.
"Aaaah—!!"
"Slow down! It's going to fall apart! It's going to fall apart!"
Terrified, crumbling, and slightly comical screams were torn into fragments by the gale.
Under Lin Gui's command, the flying vessel was like a small boat in a storm.
Yet with incredible precision and determination, it repeatedly pierced through the gaps of death, breaking through the shackles of the mist.
Finally.
Two minutes later, the flying vessel reached the familiar area of purple mist.
The territory of the Soul-Devouring Sovereign, Apophis.
It was a slowly writhing "Forest Abyss" composed of countless deep-blue tentacles and giant skeletons.
Last time, Lin Gui had been afraid of disturbing Apophis and had not dared to use his Eyes of the Netherworld to see its full form.
But this time.
Within the Eyes of the Netherworld, Apophis's full form was clearly revealed for the first time.
As massive as a mountain, its deep-blue tentacles were like an undersea forest, with the end of each tentacle flickering with a glimmer of soul-devouring light.
It slowly "turned," and its hollow "gaze" seemed to "look" at the flying vessel.
No, it was looking behind the flying vessel.
At the several "Apex" auras that had been disturbed and were now emitting terrifying fury and greed, chasing closely behind!
In the next instant, a scene occurred that left Lin Gui shaken.
Apophis's massive soul-body did not attack the flying vessel.
Instead, it suddenly "surged" to one side, its countless deep-blue tentacles stretching and interlacing.
It actually constructed a thick spectral barrier that spanned the entire field of vision between the flying vessel and the pursuers behind!
It blocked the shadows reaching out from Shadow Weaver Siren, the Gaze cast by Moros, and the blood-colored tide swept by Crimson Calamity!
A soul whisper that seemed to have traveled across ten thousand years, full of exhaustion and obsession, drifted faintly across space:
"Pro... tect..."
"Vil... lage..."
"Don't... harm..."
"Won't... allow..."
Lin Gui's entire body jolted.
And Eve, behind him, suddenly snapped her eyes open at this very moment.
A surge of divine power abruptly flooded into her mind.
In her purple eyes, starlight swirled violently, as if reflecting shattered time.
Fragmentary memories were forced into her mind.
In the images:
That terrifying-looking, mountain-like tentacled giant beast lay quietly beside a human village.
A child curiously touched its transparent, ethereal tentacle tips, and it pulled back slightly, showing no ill intent.
The villagers and this massive spectral demon had formed a bizarre yet harmonious coexistence.
...
The end arrived.
The sky was torn open, and an unspeakable Demigod shadow covered everything.
The demon tide surged forward, destroying everything in its path.
Apophis let out a sky-shaking roar, its deep-blue tentacles soaring into the sky, tightly entangling that sky-covering shadow to buy time for the village.
However...
More unspeakable things reached out from the shadow.
Tentacles were torn off one by one and devoured.
Finally, amidst despairing hisses and the light of the village being completely annihilated, the memory fragments came to an abrupt halt.
Eve's face was pale, and fine sweat beads formed on her forehead.
"This... this... is truly incredible..."
"A demon protected humans."
"The legends from that book are actually true."
She murmured in a low voice, filled with complex and indescribable emotions.
By the time she looked back.
That massive existence that had once silently protected and was ultimately twisted into a Soul-Devouring Sovereign had already vanished behind layers of mist.
The flying vessel had completely charged out of the densest spectral area of the Wailing Corridor!
In their ears, it was no longer the roars of High Rank demons.
Instead, it was the terrified, shrill screams of countless low-and-mid-tier spectral demons fleeing.
They were like creatures encountering their natural enemy, frantically distancing themselves from the direction of the flying vessel.
"We... we're out?" Kilian's voice carried an unbelievable tremble.
The flying vessel's speed did not decrease at all; it even used its inertia to continue accelerating.
Faster and faster!
Four minutes later.
The mist ahead suddenly thinned and dispersed.
A massive, dead, ruined city-state with collapsed buildings came clearly into view.
The city walls were broken, the streets empty, and an air of staleness and silence permeated the area.
Blackwater City had been reached.
Stabbing daylight fell, illuminating the flying vessel and the wretched passengers on board.
Seeing this, Lin Gui manipulated the runaway flying vessel to slow down continuously.
The vessel did not slowly decrease to a relatively stable speed until it was nearly halfway through this large city-state.
As the vessel stabilized, several passengers could no longer hold back.
"Ugh... blegh!"
Morpheus let out a dry heave.
His face was white, and he gripped the handrail so hard his knuckles turned blue.
He suddenly looked up, staring at the gray-robed mage ahead who still sat perfectly upright, though his forehead was damp with sweat.
His voice rose due to extreme shock and a certain sense of being "broken" by the deception:
"You... you don't have any concealment artifact at all!!"
"You just relied on this speed... to charge your way through!!!"
Lin Gui slowly lowered the vessel's altitude, heading toward a relatively flat square within the ruins of Blackwater City.
Hearing Morpheus's words, he turned his head, his lips curling into a tired but clear arc.
"Like I said..."
"I'm just a micro-insignificant wandering mage."
"What right would I have to own a 'divine artifact'?"
"Everyone... thinks too highly of me."
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