Age of Evolution

Chapter 451: 451: Internal Conflict

These women were at the beginning of the Planet Stage, and they were not a match for those Martial Artists who were generally at the Constant Star Stage. So they stood arrogantly, confident that even if the opposing side had some tricks, they were absolutely not their opponents.

“Ladies, what happened?”

A group of women rushed over, all with anxious looks on their faces, as if they had met a great hero who would take a stand against injustice.

These Martial Artists were initially quite complacent, but after being surrounded by women, they suddenly smelled a strong rotten smell.

“Not good, retreat quickly!”

Hongbo shouted and was the first to retreat quickly.

Some others also reacted quickly and began to retreat. However, those at the front were a bit too late.

Just as they started screaming, the skin of these beautiful women burst at the same time, and bloody ghosts leaped out, baring their fangs and claws.

The distance was too close and the incident happened suddenly. All the people on the outskirts were attacked.

“Ghosts at the Planet Stage!”

These Martial Artists all used their strongest attacks, swords and blades clashed, but it was already too late.

The distance was too close, and the ghosts actually chose to self-destruct at the first opportunity!

Pieces of rotten flesh and body parts filled the air, and the exploded remains of the ghosts were all gone in an instant. However, the Martial Artists on the outskirts were miserable.

Seven people died horribly on the spot, and nine were injured to varying degrees!

Moreover, these ghosts had toxins on them, different from ordinary poisons. These toxins contained thick dead air and corpse poison which started rotting quickly once they got on you.

“Ah! It hurts!”

“My hand! My hand is rotting!”

“I’m not willing to accept it. I just arrived at the Yellow Springs Netherworld, I haven’t found a single Cosmic Crystal. I can’t just quit like this!”

These Martial Artists howled, unwilling to be eliminated so quickly.

At this time, Lin Zhen stepped forward: “Your unwillingness won’t change anything. The choice is simple, either you get eliminated or die. Choose for yourselves.”

After saying this, Lin Zhen went towards the depths of the mist.

Hongbo, following behind, said to Lin Zhen: “You are really heartless. When your comrades are in such big trouble, instead of thinking of solutions, you just make flippant remarks.”

Lin Zhen snorted coldly: “The method I mentioned is the best choice.”

The surrounding Martial Artists were stunned for a moment and then fell silent.

Indeed, although Lin Zhen’s words were blunt, they were indeed the best and the only choice.

No matter how unwilling those Martial Artists were, they could only accept this outcome, activate the World Power, exit the World Stone, and be eliminated.

Not just them, these skin ghosts, which can transform into human forms, deceived many people at the start. The number of Martial Artists quickly dropped from two hundred thousand to one hundred and seventy thousand due to deaths and injuries.

The cruel reality sobered up many Martial Artists and made them realize the terror of this place.

Lin Zhen’s party continued to move forward, the road ahead was heavily fogged, and the visibility was extremely low.

After the attack just now, everyone became extremely careful. Even the occasional blue ghost fire floating in the distance would make them tense for a while.

“I’ve seen information from the outside. The first journey inside the World Stone is supposed to be the ‘Road of Yellow Springs’, which should be the road under our feet.”

“Yes, it should be. The Road of Yellow Springs is the outer boundary of the Netherworld. If we follow it, we will reach a river called the Santu River. Only after crossing the Santu River will we truly enter the Netherworld.”

“This world created by Yama the World King is sick. He creates a World Stone full of ghosts, as if he doesn’t want anyone to enter.”

A Martial Artist complained, and after they had walked a bit further, he could no longer stand the limited visibility on the Road of Yellow Springs.

A Martial Artist who was relatively good at using the power of light raised his hand, and a ball of Holy Light appeared in his hand.

The Holy Light indeed represses the power of darkness. The surrounding dense fog immediately dispersed a lot, and the visibility increased, which felt like a torch in the dark.

Hongbo even praised him for a good job. Then a few other Martial Artists followed suit, each lighting up the Holy Light or Flame, creating an atmosphere full of light.

Lin Zhen glanced at them: “You are too flashy. Although Holy Light inhibits ghosts, it also easily attracts attacks from others. You should know that our enemies here are not just ghosts, but also other competitors.”

“Lin Zhen, just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean we are. We have Big Brother Hong, we have nothing to fear.”

“Exactly, if you don’t like it, you can go further away!”

“The person in charge here is Big Brother Hong.”

Lin Zhen smiled, and then looked at the old students like Cao Yang and Taishan.

These old students were a bit hesitant. They didn’t want to separate from the large group, but they also didn’t want Lin Zhen to leave.

Lin Zhen did not look at them anymore. Once he went a little further ahead, he would approach the Santu River in the land of Yellow Springs. After crossing the river, everyone would go their separate ways.

With better visibility, the Martial Artists gradually adapted to the conditions of the Yellow Springs and their focus gradually shifted towards finding Cosmic Crystals.

Hongbo shouted, “Everyone keep an eye out! If you see a Cosmic Crystal, grab it immediately.”

“Big Brother Hong, how do we distribute the Cosmic Crystals we find? Does the group distribute them evenly, or does the finder keep it?”

“Of course, the one who finds it gets to keep it. This affects everyone’s ranks and doesn’t need to be handed in.” Hongbo answered generously.

Hearing Hongbo’s words, everyone found a new drive and started searching everywhere.

If it comes to finding things, Lin Zhen has an enormous advantage. His sky-blue spiritual power spread out, covering a radius of a hundred meters without missing a spot.

After a while, Lin Zhen’s eyes brightened.

“There is something here!”

He strode forward two steps, then picked up a lump of earth from the ground. In the middle of the clump, a small round bead, shimmering with starlight, was revealed.

With a swift reach of his hand, he snatched a Cosmic Crystal.

This was the first time Lin Zhen had obtained a Cosmic Crystal, in both his previous and current lives. Such a small piece was a fortune he couldn’t grasp in his former life.

This single piece was equivalent to a hundred thousand Kirin coin, when converted to Sanjiang currency it was a billion!

Seeing Lin Zhen’s success, all the martial artists revealed envious expressions. Even Hongbo was moved. A single crystal worth a billion, who wouldn’t want it?

Everyone started searching more diligently, but unexpectedly, the second person to find a Cosmic Crystal was Lin Zhen again.

This time, Lin Zhen found the Cosmic Crystal underneath a black rock, not one, but three!

He moved the stone aside and grabbed the three Cosmic Crystals. In an instant, his wealth increased by another three billion. This made the eyes of the other Martial Artists more eagerly envious.

“Lin Zhen, do you have some sort of trick to finding them? How did you find so many in succession?”

Lin Zhen ignored the question. He felt that coming here was extremely valuable. If he could find a few million Cosmic Crystals, his financial crisis would be immediately alleviated.

An unexplored World Stone could yield several billion Cosmic Crystals, which was very normal.

All the martial artists started to spread out. At this moment, the Spiritual Mind Master had a significant advantage. The projection of their spiritual power allowed them to search like casting a net.

However, their spiritual power was far weaker than Lin Zhen’s. The strongest among them was Hongbo, who possessed early stage sky-blue spiritual power, while the others were basically at the Diamond Period.

Lin Zhen’s spreading Spiritual Power was much larger in range than others, akin to a high-powered, wide-range radar. This made his search speed much faster than others.

As they approached the banks of the Santu River, Lin Zhen had already collected over a hundred Cosmic Crystals, whereas all the other thirty-something people combined had attained only about the same amount.

The martial artists were green with envy, yet due to Hongbo’s earlier words, they did not dare to speak up. They could only watch as Lin Zhen collected one Cosmic Crystal after another.

“Look there, there’s light over there, stop them!”

A big group of people rushed over at high speed. In this World Stone, flying was impossible, so these martial artists all ran furiously, sticking to the ground.

Over a hundred people spread out in a fan shape, forming an encirclement.

“The Blue Bee Gang is here, surrender your Cosmic Crystals and we’ll spare your lives!”

“Drop whatever you have in your hands, put your hands on your head and squat down, or else we won’t show mercy!”

A group of people shouted wildly, most of them were seasoned martial artists at the Constant Star Stage.

Hongbo’s face changed drastically. He didn’t expect that the light from Radiant Power would indeed bring trouble. The number of enemies was three times more than theirs. They were in trouble this time.

The people of the Star River Giant Beast Alliance nervously watched the robbers that appeared, instinctively protecting the recently collected Cosmic Crystals.

All eyes turned to Hongbo. He stiffly stepped forward, “Friends of the Blue Bee Gang, we belong to the Star River Giant Beast Alliance, please give us some face.”

The head of the Blue Bee Gang gave Hongbo a glance. “Buzz off, this is a different world. Talking about your background here is useless. The World Stone is for cultivation, those without strength should simply submit. Our Sanjiang Federation guild doesn’t care who you are!”

The people behind the leader readied their weapons to concur with his words, ready to attack at any moment.

Hongbo was burning with anger but dared not fight. He could only grit his teeth and asked, “How much do you want? We just got here, we haven’t gained much.”

“We know you don’t have much, but at least you must have a hundred pieces. If you don’t, we will attack.”

Hongbo turned his head, looked around, and finally, his gaze landed on Lin Zhen.

“Lin Zhen, you should hand over your Cosmic Crystals. The rest of us combined don’t have as many as you. Only in this way can we all get through this.”

Lin Zhen was stunned. “Why me? Even if we were to give some, it should be divided equally, right?”

“Lin Zhen! Don’t you have any sympathy?”

“Exactly, you enjoy the protection of the team, but when it comes to contributing to the team, you refuse. You’re really something.”

“If you refuse, then leave. We won’t protect you anymore. For someone of your Realm, your arrogance is too much!”

Seeing the righteous indignation of the people around him, Lin Zhen revealed a cold smirk.

The quality of these new recruits from the Giant Beast Alliance was really low. Han Sha and others prioritized bloodline, but overlooked the most fundamental courage and responsibility of martial artists.

Originally, Lin Zhen considered their bond as fellow students. Now, he deemed it unnecessary to consider it any further.

Slowly raising his hand, Lin Zhen spoke, “In that case, I’ll leave the team. But before I do, I have to give everyone a little present.”

The surrounding people sighed in relief, thinking Lin Zhen had agreed to give up his Cosmic Crystals.

Unexpectedly, the Yin-Yang Spear appeared in Lin Zhen’s hand. He teleported into the crowd of robbers and thrust his spear out. In a moment, a flurry of spear shadows rained down, covering the sky!

“Anyone who wants to rob us, be prepared to die. Stop pretending, let’s fight!”

Blood splattered and screams filled the air as Lin Zhen’s spear pierced through several people.

The Blue Bee Gang recoiled in shock. “Damn it! These people from the Star River Giant Beast Alliance are playing us. Kill them!”

People surged forward, and Lin Zhen was surrounded. The other people weren’t much better, as they were forcefully drawn into the melee.