"What do you mean?" Bai asked very seriously.
"You were wrong. She is alive" Lingling made a difficult face "She is the one behind this crisis. But I doubt that she is in his right state of mind. It's difficult to explain."
Bai was shocked about the news "Mayi is alive?" but quickly recuperated he needed more information "Where is she?!" Bai shouted "And what exactly happened to her?"
Lingling looked down "It's better that you see it with your eyes. I will explain it there" Just as Bai freed her, Lingling started walking along the corridor "Follow me."
Chenxiang looked at the worried look of Bai's face and held his hand. "Xiang" Bai looked at Chenxiang with unfocused eyes.
Chenxiang smiled "Don't worry, Bai. Mayi would be fine. We will do something about it."
Bai took Chenxiang hugging her hips leaning towards him. Then, he warmly kissed her "Thanks, Xiang." Bai could sense the worry look in Chenxiang a little forced smile "It didn't matter what happens, I will love you forever." Both holding hands started following Lingling.
The group finally left the corridor crossing over a wall made of vines, arriving at a big open area. All the groups with the exception of Lingling were surprised by this place. The reason for their surprise was the high vitality and spirit energy here. It was a big beautiful prairie, full of plants with a little river. The vitality was so thick that the air around was green and it could even touch. It seemed a little paradise, cultivating here will make someone double their results, with half the effort.
In the center of it stood a 30 meters tree, that extended with hundreds of branches full of leaves. Its trunk was golden and 5 meters wide while his leaves were jade green. The tree was clearly the center of the prairie. It exuded the strongest aura, breathing the air around would be enough to safe a dying man. Two people were standing next to it with their eyes close and seemingly meditating, a middle-aged man with dark green hair so long that he was dragging 3 meters at the ground, and a woman about 40 years old. She had a pale and sicky face, with curly long black hair with white traces from old age or some mental shock.
Bai's surprise was because he recognized this place, especially the central tree. It was Lingling's spirit that Lingling had show him before needing to leave. It had evolved so much that it was difficult to relate them as the same. For the people there, he could feel some familiarity from the woman.
"Let's bring you out here before they realize." Said Lingling. Just as she started walking, Lingling stopped still. She made a downcast expression "Too late."
A black-purple comet quickly crossed the sky, reaching towards the group. The comet stopped just as it was about to the clash with the ground and gracefully landed showing that in fact was a woman. She was a middle-aged beautiful woman, with a slender body and long legs. She had black and purples scales around her body, with long purple-black hair and deep purple eyes.
"How you dare to bring humans, Xie!?" The woman thrust her right arm trying to catch Lingling only to be stopped a sword and a hammer, Tang San and Bai had stepped forward protecting Lingling. They could sense that the woman was a spirit beast, a very strong one at that, more than 200.000 years old. But it wasn't like they would retract, working all together they had a possibility of winning.
The woman became more furious, her eyes slits like of a snake or dragon started shining and killing aura appeared around her body as she seemed to be prepared to charge at Bai's group.
"Stop!" A powerful voice resounded. Listening the voice, the woman fighting intent extinguished, she turned to the origin of the voice with a sorry look.
Two people were calmly walking towards them, one man and a woman. Bai and Xiao Wu recognized the woman as the Emerald Swan, Bi Ji. The man was a handsome middle-aged man in a black robe with golden lines who possessed black hair with one golden strand hanging, sharp deep golden pupil eyes, with an at least 2 meters height body and broad shoulders. His right arm was hanging and unresponsive like he couldn't be able to move, but the aura around him was incredibly dense, he was strong, very strong. If Bai's group could have fought and won against the purple woman, the man was completely different, they would be crushed by him.
"I will not let anyone fight here" The man said before approaching Lingling "If you leave your position again, risking your life, do not blame me for being ruthless." The man looked down at the other humans "I will let alive for Xie. One strange movement and you will be dead before you even know." He said calmly, even without exuding killing intent, Bai's group didn't have any doubt that he was serious "You are not permitted to stay here, leave immediately." Without waiting for any answer, he turned around and left, the black-purple woman following him.
Bi Yi stood there and looked at Bai's group sympatrically "Do not think bad about him. We are all very nervous and he is under too much pressure. I apologize from both" She bowed a little. Lifting her head she presented herself as not all of them had met her before "I am Bi Yi, an Emerald Swan spirit beast, second-in-command of the Spirit Beast Lineage. The man that left was our head, the Beast God, Di Tian. For the purple-haired, she was one of the commanders, she is called Zi Ji. They do not get along well with humans, try to not approach them."
Then, Bai's group present themselves to her.
"Yiyi." Lingling said "Can you guide them to the Wall? I want them to see our reality and the seriousness of it." Bi Yi showed that she really didn't want to do it "Please, Yiyi. I know that you don't like it. But with you there, I'm sure that they won't be attacked by the others."
Bi Yi sighed and nodded turning to Bai's group "Follow me. I will guide you"
Bai's group accepted, they had stayed very passively in all the conversation because they had too little information. They needed to know more about the situation, it was better to go with the flow before acting.
Bai's group followed Bi Yi towards a wall. Bai turned back seeing that Lingling was not following "You don't come?"
Lingling shook her head "I am not permitted to move from here" She made a forced smile "I already broke the rules leaving and creating a portal to rescue you. It's better for me to not leave this place. Don't worry, I have my methods to communicate, I will talk with you when you arrive there."
Bai nodded calmly, but in his mind, he wanted to charge over and forcing answers. He with Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang followed Bi Yi.
Arriving at a wall, Bi Yi's hand glowed with a green light. The wall opened revealing a similar corridor as the last. The corridor was narrow, enough for only one person to pass, it went over 1km until it finished in a round platform where all of them were able to fit. Once they were on the platform, they discovered that it was an elevator, quickly going up more than a km.
Leaving the elevator, seeing what was happening at the exterior, all the group's eyes opened wide in shock and fright, Bi Yi averted her gaze, some tears falling from her eyes. This was Hell!
The ant plague that attacked them was nothing comparing what was there. There were so many ants there that numbers lost their meaning. It was like an infinite neverending black and purple sea, waves furiously crashing over the wall that they stood.
After a minute, Bai finally recuperated from his stupor and looked around. Behind him, there was a big green dome formed by vines, surrounded by over 2 km trunks that were grouped forming the wall where they stood.
At the feet of the wall, vines were slashing the ants, trunks were crashing, sharp leaves were cutting... Countless of plants were repelling with an endless attack at the countless ants that madly charged forward no mattering if for their life. In a second, more than the ants that chased over Bai's group were killed, but the ants really seemed to have no end.
Over the wall, a great number of spirit beast were shooting down throwing different skill to any ant that passed through the plant's defense, trying to climb over.
"T-this is...?" Bai was truly shocked by the image in front of him.
"The last defense." Lingling had suddenly appeared next to them "The last fortress stopping them. If we were to fall here. The continent will perish."