Upon seeing these words, Chen Yifei was momentarily stunned.
Before he could regain his composure, a beam of crimson light suddenly erupted from the ground and shot into the token in his palm.
The surface of the Bai Qi token was stained with layers of blood, which quickly faded... Chen Yifei distinctly felt a fierce murderous intent emanating from it.
[Audience Expectation +7]
Chen Yifei didn't know what had happened or why the audience expectation value rose with the integration of that crimson light. He didn't have time to ponder further because, just as the crimson light disappeared into the token, the entire massive pit began to shake violently!
The edges of the distant pit rapidly disappeared, and the earth transformed into countless tiny grains of sand, like a collapsing sandbox world, annihilating at an astonishing speed into the void at the bottom of the ancient treasury...
A wave of annihilation was sweeping towards Chen Yifei!
Chen Yifei's pupils constricted slightly. Without hesitation, he turned and fled, his body darting like a sword in the direction he came. In the collapse of the massive pit that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, he was like a tiny, struggling ant chasing a glimmer of hope.
Chen Yifei had accelerated to his utmost limit. Just as the collapse was about to engulf him, he narrowly escaped the range of the pit and stumbled onto the flat ground.
"Damn... What happened?"
Chen Yifei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned to look back. He saw that the original massive pit had completely vanished, replaced by a void of emptiness... When he looked down, it was like peering into an abyss.
In the next moment, the earth began to restore itself. That void was filled with soil emerging from unknown places, completely leveled within just a few seconds, as if the massive pit had never existed.
Seeing this scene, Chen Yifei unconsciously recalled the scene where the projection of murderous aura automatically restored after being defeated...
So, was this massive pit also restored by some mechanism of the ancient treasury of the Way of War?
Chen Yifei glanced at the token in his hand, his confusion growing. But he didn't have time to stay. If there were no surprises, the three enforcers would already be opening the gate of the ancient treasury.
He concealed the token close to his body and quickly rushed back to the trial area. He first ran to the entrance of the ancient treasury, scratched the faces of all the corpses of the enforcers from the first district, and then threw them all into the cliff. After a moment of hesitation, he also randomly threw the bodies of two enforcers from the Aurora City down.
After doing all this, Chen Yifei randomly found a place with the most and messiest corpses and sat down.
Boom——
At the same time, a low humming sound came from the entrance of the ancient treasury.
The ancient treasury of the Way of War was opened.
Chen Yifei's eyes slightly narrowed. He picked up a short knife beside him and slowly pressed the blade against his abdomen... Then he forcefully slashed!
His waist and abdomen were torn open, and a large amount of blood gushed out. Chen Yifei's face became visibly pale. He endured the severe pain and lay back among the messy corpses...
In the scarlet pool of blood, that pale face without a trace of blood color revealed a strange smile.
"The performance is over."
His eyes closed.
...
Outside the ancient treasury of the Way of War.
The massive ship swayed gently with the waves. Under the black sky, three figures clad in windbreakers stood at the bow, gazing at the slowly opening vortex.
"Time's up." A four-stripe enforcer stood with his hands behind his back. "I don't know how many will step onto the Path of the War God this year."
"According to previous years, seven or eight would be good."
"This time, there might be even fewer... Don't forget, Yan Xicai went in with that kid from the Path of the Book God. He wants to steal others' murderous auras, so the chances for others to ascend will naturally decrease."
"Does the higher-up really not care that Yan Xicai is cheating so blatantly?"
"Mind your own business." The five-stripe enforcer spoke coldly. "We just need to follow orders."
The two four-stripe law enforcement officers immediately fell silent.
As the vortex grew larger, half a minute later, it had returned to the size when everyone entered. They stood at the bow, waiting for the law enforcement officers who had completed the trial to return.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes...
After three minutes, the vortex remained deathly silent, with no sign of anyone emerging.
"What's going on? Did they misremember the time?" The four-stripe law enforcement officer was puzzled.
"That shouldn't be... Could something have happened inside?"
"It's just an outer trial. What could happen? The worst-case scenario would be the loss of one or two people," another law enforcement officer shrugged. "Some of them might still be unwilling to give up and want to try again... Let's wait."
They waited for another ten minutes, but the vortex remained unresponsive.
"...This doesn't seem right."
The five-stripe law enforcement officer's brow furrowed slightly. After a moment of thought, he said, "Let's go inside and check."
"Ah? But our ranks have exceeded the fourth level. We'll be rejected here, right?"
"The situation is urgent. As escorts, we have a secret treasure given by the Aurora City as a token, which allows us to move around inside for a short period."
He stood at the bow, solemnly bowed to the black giant sword piercing through the heavens and earth, then leaped and disappeared directly into the vortex. The other two law enforcement officers exchanged glances and followed closely behind.
A sensation of spinning and dizziness came over them, and in the next moment, the three of them stood stably on the edge of a cliff.
A pungent smell of blood suddenly filled their nostrils!
The three law enforcement officers frowned simultaneously. When they saw the situation on the edge of the cliff, their faces changed drastically!
They saw the bodies of more than ten law enforcement officers scattered around the cliff, most of them seemingly killed by bullets. They were the ones who had entered the ancient relics earlier!
"What happened?!" The four-stripe law enforcement officer exclaimed in shock, "How... how did so many people die??"
The five-stripe law enforcement officer's face turned ashen. He quickly walked around the bodies and locked his gaze on one of them, slowly crouching down...
"This is not right." He grabbed the face of the corpse and looked at it carefully for a while. "This person wasn't among the law enforcement officers who entered the ancient relics."
"You mean someone infiltrated the law enforcement team?"
"Who?"
The five-stripe law enforcement officer didn't answer. He immediately stood up and quickly walked deeper into the ancient relics.
As they went deeper, the number of bodies increased. The vast ancient relics were deathly silent. This silence was deafening to the ears of the three law enforcement officers.
"Is that... Yan Xicai?"
One of the four-stripe law enforcement officers raised his hand tremblingly, pointing to a corner.
The other two suddenly turned their heads and saw a thin figure twisted like a hemp rope in a pool of blood. They were stunned for a long moment before snapping back to reality... It wasn't that they didn't recognize Yan Xicai, but the bloodless and fleshless Yan Xicai looked too different from before.
If they didn't carefully discern the details on his face, it would be difficult for the three of them to associate this dead body with the arrogant Yan少爷 on the ship.
"It's really him..." Another four-stripe law enforcement officer spoke in a hoarse voice, with fear emerging in his eyes. "Even Yan Xicai died in the ancient relics. There will be major troubles in Aurora City."
"Quick, see if there's anyone still alive!"
The three of them searched separately. One of them came to the hill where the fiercest battle had occurred. Here, the bodies of dozens of law enforcement officers and usurpers were piled together, as if they had undergone a life-and-death battle in a bloody grinder.
As they searched, their hearts sank. There hadn't been such a large-scale casualty of newcomers in the past hundred years... They couldn't understand what had happened inside in just 24 hours.
Among the corpses scattered everywhere, a lifeless figure slightly moved a finger.
"This!!" The pupils of the four-stripe law enforcement officer contracted, and he immediately shouted, "There's still a survivor here!!"