Mu Qingtong lost interest in the game after playing a round of cards, and the remaining three continued to gather around the silver stump to play Landlords.
Cha Naixue stood in the dark and quietly observed Xia Feng for a while; her childhood friend was still the same as before: casual and disorganized, fond of games, and seeming to lack ambition.
"Hehe~ Everybody is here."
Gongsun Ze and Yulina slowly emerged from the dense forest.
Master Chen looked up, narrowing his dark eyes as he watched the man.
Gongsun Ze shook the golden key in his hand and chuckled, "So, Captain Chen, do you want to snatch it from me? I'd be glad to oblige."
Chen Hangdao patted his sleeves, ready to stand up, but Xia Feng's voice echoed in his heart, "Master Chen, don't bother with him, trust me."
Chen Hangdao looked at Xia Feng, furrowed his brows, and sat back down, communicating telepathically, "Are you sure?"
Cai Kuihua next to him also seemed restless, "Brother Xia, do you really have a way to snatch Wen Zaiye's body?"
"Don't worry, I'm incredibly lucky today, found something good."
Xia Feng gathered and stacked the poker cards on the silver stump, placing them right in the center, perfectly covering a hole the size of an index finger.
In fact, he had sensed the message from the silver key when he retraced his path earlier.
As he got closer to the starting point, this sense grew stronger.
From the sensed information, it was clear that this silver key did not provide access to the treehouse but had the power to forcibly seal the Calamity Realm!
So based on this, he thought of a very good strategy that did not involve competing with Gongsun Ze for the golden key.
Seeing that the Holy Department had no intention of seizing it, Gongsun Ze sneered, unsurprised; after all, these indifferent agents would unlikely risk their lives for a mission.
Just then, Cha Naixue and a silver figure suddenly flashed towards him!
"Heh~ you can't stop me." Gongsun Ze's form dispersed into Red Mist and the next instant, he reformed in front of the treehouse.
He playfully glanced back at everyone with a devilish smile, "Sister Nai Xue, Miss Mu, wait for me to come out~"
Saying so, he held the golden key, his form merged into the sealing barrier, and vanished.
Cha Naixue stopped in her tracks, frowning deeply; honestly, she was once again disgusted by Gongsun Ze's greasy smile.
"Is the Black Spade not showing up yet..." Cha Naixue surveyed her surroundings, feeling slightly down; perhaps the future she had seen might not occur.
After all, it was only a slightly more probable future scenario.
Thinking of this, she sighed helplessly.
"Brother Xia, are you poisoned or something, opening with a king bomb?"
"Just say if you want it or not? You don't want it, right? Humph~ four twos!"
Xia Feng's triumphant voice rang out, and Cha Naixue shook her head, this guy... still in the mood to play cards, she was truly amazed.
Soon, before the card game ended,
Gongsun Ze emerged from the treehouse barrier carrying a man's corpse, a smile hanging on his lips as he scanned everyone, "Passed the Calamity Realm, farewell, everyone!" Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel⸺fire.net
Wen Zaiye not only carried the Moon God Tears but also possessed another Divine Object unknown to others—the Anubis Ring.
This ring appeared very plain, devoid of any spiritual essence, but it was a crucial Divine Object directing the arrival of the Evil God Anubis.
Now he just had to wait for the Summoning Wood deep in the forest to mature into the Summoning Tree, then activate the Anubis Ring to guide the descent of the Evil God.
However, activating the Anubis Ring required approximately three minutes, and during this period, he could not be disturbed; otherwise, it could lead to a backlash and failure.
So, they had to get the Holy Department and Cha Naixue's group out of the Calamity Realm first.
According to the plan, his people were already outside to intercept them, so not one of the Holy Department or Cha Naixue could escape.
As for whether some other accident might occur... Impossible! This plan was perfect; surely it wouldn't result in summoning some other deity, right? Gongsun Ze thought somewhat amusedly.
Yet, there was still a problem.
As he said goodbye to everyone, it seemed that the people before him had no intention of leaving the Calamity Realm at all. Their eyes blinked, staring at him.
"....I said, the Calamity Realm has been cleared." Gongsun Ze's eye twitched slightly. "Aren't you leaving?"
In fact, when Cha Naixue and Silver heard Gongsun Ze talk about running, they immediately thought to leave the Calamity Realm. But strangely, the seal of the Calamity Realm had not been lifted, so they were still unable to leave this space.
Suddenly— just then, a silvery stump next to the four from the Holy Department lit up, forming a circular barrier with a radius of two meters that enveloped the four of them.
Gongsun Ze saw at a glance that a silver rod had been inserted into the hole in the center of the stump.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that the rod seemed to be a key.
Xia Feng clapped his hands, "Well, you must have understood by now, this evil-power-filled Calamity Realm has been sealed by me again! I reckon in less than an hour your souls will not be able to withstand the erosion from the evil power, you will start to lose your reason, till death!"
His lips curled up, revealing a devilish smirk,
"So! If you want to live, just hand over all the good stuff you have~"
The others around: "..."
Cha Naixue felt a bit stunned, no wonder… no wonder Xia Feng was so leisurely earlier, he had already secured victory?!
The developments had completely exceeded her expectations. She had thought Xia Feng was only First Rank, so it would be tough for him in a fight filled with many Second Order and Third Rank contenders to snatch the golden key.
Silver glanced at Cha Naixue subconsciously. Her expressionless, rigid face puzzled: "Master, it seems like you've—"
"Hmm?" Cha Naixue tilted her head, expressionless, "Silver, what do you mean?"
Silver blinked, looked up at the dark sky, looked around, and sighed, "It's getting dark, time for dinner."
"Come on, come on, everyone, don't just stand there, who's going first?" Xia Feng called out.
Cha Naixue pursed her lips and softly said, "....Little Feng, do I have to give, too?"
"Nonsense means I don't have to—"
"It means you have to give it too." Xia Feng rolled his eyes.
While they were speaking, Gongsun Ze in the distance twitched his cheeks. He forcefully composed himself from the mood to curse and said in a low voice:
"I have plenty of Wisdom Fruits left, enough to last two more hours."
"Oh, so what?" Xia Feng blinked.
Right, so what? Gongsun Ze stared hard at the Silver Radiance Array under the feet of the Holy Department group.
He could clearly sense that the array was isolating the evil power on the outside, and the people inside were not affected by the evil power.
His face darkened even more.
It wouldn't be impossible to attack this array together with Cha Naixue, but the spiritual pressure would surely deplete completely, and then Chen Hangdao could kill them when he showed up, not to mention the subsequent summoning of the Evil God.
"Damn it—" Gongsun Ze couldn't hold back; he actually didn't plan to leave the Calamity Realm at all.
But if he didn't leave, Xia Feng and the others wouldn't leave, and he couldn't summon the Evil God safely....