Owen Bertram finally reached the entrance of the Giant Tortoise Cave, and from a distance, he could see that it was dim inside, but it seemed that there was something trapped inside!
As he approached within half a zhang, he felt an even colder and more sinister power emanating from the cave which pierced his entire body, causing his soul to feel slightly frozen and stiff.
This kind of coldness was completely different from the cold poison in the village.
Little Loach was already swimming restlessly at the entrance of the cave. It had no interest in ancient corpses, but upon reaching this place, it couldn't help but drool at the thought of the demon beast glyph bones beneath the iron spear.
At this moment, a hazy radiance suddenly lit up in the dark cave, and its range and brightness continued to expand.
Little Loach was startled and quickly retreated to Owen Bertram's side, hiding behind its elder brother before curiously stretching out half of its head.
Owen Bertram looked at the little fellow speechlessly: Are you sure my small physique can block your current majestic figure?
With the help of the light from the cave, Owen Bertram could finally see that more than half of the cave had collapsed, which was probably caused by the sharp aura of the iron spear earlier.
The remaining small part of the cave was covered in a strange type of underwater grass.
The underwater grass entangled the large corpse in the cave. Each strand of grass resembled a leech, trying to burrow into the corpse as if it were a living creature, attempting to suck its fresh blood.
However, the ancient corpse was as hard as steel, and the underwater grass had no way to penetrate it.
The hazy radiance came from within the ancient corpse, a faint blue color that even rendered the corpse half-transparent.
Consequently, Owen Bertram saw a Spear Qi, only the size of a pinky finger, curled up in the chest of the ancient corpse.
The Spear Qi was identical to the iron spear and was both agile and sharp. The ancient corpse needed to gather its whole body's spiritual light to suppress this Spear Qi.
After suppressing the Spear Qi, the ice-blue radiance gradually retreated and eventually disappeared completely within the ancient corpse.
Owen Bertram thought to himself: "The ancient corpse must have come here and encountered the Spear Qi at the entrance. All it could do was trap the Spear Qi inside and slowly wear down..."
Last time, the Spear Qi had severed the entire Hunshui River!
Owen Bertram couldn't help but take another look at the ancient corpse—such an astonishing creature...
Unexpectedly, this glance caused Owen Bertram to freeze on the spot: the tall and burly ancient corpse was dressed in the official attire of the previous dynasty, holding a pure gold seal in its left hand and a three-foot-long red lacquered command token in its right hand.
At the top of the command token was a circle, and within it was a sinister character for "kill".
The left and right hands of the ancient corpse were thin and bony, covered with fine black hair!
Owen Bertram looked up further and saw an enormous wolf head perched on the corpse's neck!
The wolf's eyes were tightly closed, but there seemed to be a slight slit between its eyebrows, as if it had a third vertical eye growing there?
"This is clearly an ancient demon corpse, but why is it wearing the official attire of the previous dynasty, and possessing an official seal and a command token? I have never heard of any demon officials in the previous dynasty..." Owen Bertram was utterly perplexed.
The two races had always been at odds, with the demon clan hunting humans for food and the human race hunting demons for materials, so how could the previous dynasty have conferred an official title on a member of the demon clan?
Little Loach hid behind Owen Bertram, but after seeing the situation within the cave clearly, it quickly slid out again. Owen Bertram grabbed its tail and pulled it back.
"With such a bizarre situation... We shouldn't get involved." Owen Bertram didn't hesitate in the slightest. The Spear Qi and the ancient demon corpse had formed a balanced standoff and he and his elder brother weren't qualified to participate in such a high-level situation.
They would obediently report back to the Horizon Bureau, since they had already found the corpse and their rewards were secured. They'd leave how to handle the situation to the people of the Horizon Bureau.
But Little Loach wouldn't back down. Its plump body wrapped around Owen Bertram as its head shook like a rattle drum. With two whiskers like drum strings, it seemed to be saying:
How could this be? The snacks I've stored in the iron spear will all go to waste!
"You've stored?"
Little Loach swam around Owen Bertram, shaking its head and tail, showing that it didn't care at all; everything that was theirs, belonged to them!Owen Bertram glanced back into the cave again, only to see the hazy blue glow in the body of the Ancient Demon Corpse begin to spread once more, its frequency akin to respiration.
It seemed... that the Ancient Corpse was refining the spear energy?
Owen Bertram shuddered and decisively rejected Little Loach: This corpse was also a ruthless one.
Just as Owen Bertram was about to speak, a faint wave suddenly emerged from the river water. Following that, a dark radiance, seemingly able to ignore the resistance of water, instantly reached Owen Bertram's face, aiming straight for his throat!
So fast!
Owen Bertram quickly lifted his arm, and the Turtle Shell Shield appeared out of thin air on the outside of his arm.
Thump—
The dark radiance hit the shield, stirring up a muffled sound under the water. Despite being Owen Bertram, he was pushed back several yards by the force of the dark radiance, his arm sore and numb.
"Who's there?" Owen Bertram was on alert, his body curling up and hiding as much as possible behind the Turtle Shell Shield.
But this attack did not come from within the cave!
As expected, that wave quickly emerged for the second time, and another dark radiance shot towards him at high speed. This time, however, Little Loach was enraged, it was fast, but Little Loach was even faster!
It was like a streak of lightning in the water. No one could see its movements clearly as it darted out and bit the second dark radiance in an instant!
Then, it crunched and devoured it with snap after snap!
The third dark radiance closely followed, but this time, it was aimed at Little Loach instead of Owen Bertram.
Cliff Maxwell discarded his crossbow and turned to swim away, cursing the uselessness of the so-called "God-slaying Power." He couldn't even penetrate such a small shield!
However, he also realized that it wasn't a "coincidence" that a second Demon Beast attacked in the River of Gangs yesterday. It was simply orchestrated by Owen Bertram and his second Demon Beast!
He was extremely excited in his heart; this was an earth-shattering secret! No wonder Owen Bertram's abilities suddenly increased; it turned out he had raised a Demon Beast!
Yesterday, he must have deliberately framed me, then pretended to be a good guy. After I expose you, the officials of the Horizon Bureau will definitely execute you with their Flying Swords on the spot.
Cliff Maxwell swam at full speed, as fast as a flying fish. After taking the Great Freedom Divine Pill, his current strength was comparable to the third layer of "Fixed Acupoint." He felt that his power had increased several times over, enough to easily kill a dozen of his past selves.
So even though his sneak attack failed, he still thought he could escape.
...and then he ran into something headfirst.
He couldn't even see how that "thing" suddenly appeared in front of him.
Owen Bertram saw that it was Cliff Maxwell and shook his head in disappointment.
You repay my kindness with vengeance, today after I saved your life yesterday?
But what was the origin of that crossbow?
Cliff Maxwell shook his head, drew the short knife from his waist, and charged forward. Unfortunately, his movements seemed slow and clumsy in Owen Bertram's eyes.
Owen Bertram didn't even need to use his Bone dagger. He slightly dodged, skillfully avoiding Cliff Maxwell's short knife, grabbed his wrist, and then twisted it.
Crack—
Cliff Maxwell's wrist was broken, and the pain made him scream underwater, spitting out a large number of bubbles.
Owen Bertram's face was cold, and just like how he decisively killed the Team Leader and Abbott, he was always resolute and efficient in dealing with such matters, never letting go of any potential threats.
He saved him yesterday because, although they were competing, he couldn't bring himself to ignore someone in danger. But Cliff Maxwell repaying kindness with vengeance was intolerable.
Moreover, Cliff Maxwell had seen Little Loach; this man couldn't be allowed to live!