Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1070: How Could There Be a Path to Immortality in This World? (78): Underground Mega-Tower

A beam of light pierced through the clouds and struck the earth, followed by a violent explosion and utter destruction—engulfing everything.

A section of the small hill was instantly obliterated, and a cloud of dust billowed up, blotting out the sky.

A squad of twelve Gaia units slowly descended. Their eyes flickered, clearly scanning for signs of life.

Just then, a figure burst out of the dust with incredible speed. Two cold flashes gleamed—Gui Ying wielded two silver daggers, slashing in a crisscross motion behind one Gaia unit, leaving an X-shaped mark!

Though it seemed like a wound, it was only a faint white scratch.

Gui Ying was startled. The Gaia he’d ambushed turned its head 180 degrees—an unnatural movement.

“A child?” Gui Ying was shocked.

But the Gaia’s arm twisted at an inhuman angle and swung toward Gui Ying—its arm cannon had morphed into a blade!

Gui Ying narrowly dodged, but his clothes were cut. Holding his daggers tightly, he scanned around. The floating Gaia units began surrounding him. He frowned deeply.

At that moment, Luo Pianxian, carrying Long Xiruo, flew out of the smoke. Kui Qianyi and Xiao Shengmo also burst out from different directions.They all saw the ambushers—creatures they had never seen before.

Without a word, the twelve Gaia split up and launched their attacks!

“Be careful!” Kui Qianyi shouted. The speed these childlike enemies exhibited was alarming even for this old turtle.

As a newly awakened demon working in a pet hospital, Luo Pianxian lacked combat experience despite her strong demonic energy. Seeing a Gaia flash before her, she could only hold onto Long Xiruo and stumble to the side.

But the attacking Gaia morphed its arm into a long blade and slashed Luo Pianxian’s back!

Blood splattered in the air. Luo Pianxian fell to the ground headfirst!

Long Xiruo wriggled free from her arms. She turned and saw Luo Pianxian on the ground in pain. A gash as long as an arm marred her back.

“Sister Dragon... go...” Luo Pianxian whispered, eyes closing.

“Pianxian!!” Long Xiruo cried out. A jewel in her palm began to glow.

The situation escalated rapidly.

Gui Ying was already on the ground, overwhelmed by four Gaia. He couldn’t even react.

Xiao Shengmo was fending off three Gaia using his unique ghost clan body to avoid defeat—for now. But the City Lord of Fengdu hadn’t launched a counterattack yet.

Kui Qianyi had unsheathed a sword hidden in his cane. The old man instantly recognized the threat level of this enemy unit and went all out to survive.

Using his three-foot sword and agile techniques, Kui Qianyi fought three Gaia alone—but he was clearly outmatched. Age had diminished his strength, and his decline was accelerating.

Then came a deep dragon roar.

All the Divine Land-born—Kui Qianyi and the others—seemed to hear an angry voice echo through their souls... the wrath of their faith, Divine Land.

The True Dragon of Divine Land’s Constructed Body—activated through Kui Qianyi’s jewel and powered by Long Xiruo’s blood—was an emergency measure to temporarily restore her combat power.

By Luo Pianxian’s side, the tiny Long Xiruo stood still. Floating two meters above her was the expressionless Constructed Body of the True Dragon.

Three Gaia already lay motionless nearby—their chests pierced. The Constructed Body held the severed head of another Gaia.

“Lord Dragon…” Gui Ying, injured and struggling, began crawling toward her. A gentle force pulled him to Long Xiruo’s side.

“Don’t speak. Watch over Pianxian,” said the Constructed Body calmly. “I’ll handle them.”

She waved her hand. A golden light entered Gui Ying’s body.

Though his wounds didn’t heal, his stamina was replenished. Looking down at the Little Butterfly Demon, Gui Ying saw the golden light had stopped the bleeding, though the wound remained.

Sensing the greatest threat was the Constructed Body, several Gaia abandoned their attacks on Kui Qianyi and Xiao Shengmo. Leaving only two to keep them occupied, they charged toward her.

A golden flash enveloped the Constructed Body—it transformed into a massive golden dragon!

The dragon tore through Gaia units with ease.

Explosions filled the sky as Gaia bodies shattered one after another. The golden dragon swiftly eliminated the ones attacking Kui Qianyi and Xiao Shengmo before transforming back into a human form on the ground.

Kui Qianyi frowned as he looked at Long Xiruo—her little face had gone pale.

Every activation of the Constructed Body consumed Long Xiruo’s blood. But now, cut off from Divine Land’s blessings and unable to draw strength from the earth, her recovery was extremely limited.

Each use of the Constructed Body drained her far more than she could recover.

Xiao Shengmo, on the other hand, was amazed. This... this is the power of the True Dragon known to the transcendents of Divine Land.

Suddenly, the Constructed Body turned to look at Xiao Shengmo, making the City Lord’s eyes flicker nervously. Then, it gazed toward the horizon. “Kui Qianyi, take them and leave.”

“What?” Kui Qianyi was stunned.

In the sky, countless figures were approaching—at least a hundred Gaia units!

“Take this,” said Xiao Shengmo gravely.

He opened his mouth and exhaled a black wind that turned into a massive cloud of mist.

As the mist cleared, a large carriage appeared, pulled by four black bulls walking on ghostfire.

This was the City Lord of Fengdu’s personal vehicle. The bulls were no ordinary beasts. Everyone quickly boarded the carriage. Xiao Shengmo slapped the bulls, and the carriage soared into the sky.

The Constructed Body transformed into a golden dragon again, charging alone into battle against the oncoming horde of Gaia.

The chariot sped away, and only the image of the golden dragon weaving through the sky and beams of light scattering across the air could be seen.

Kui Qianyi withdrew his gaze, a chill running down his scalp. “City Lord Xiao, can you go any faster?”

He knew that Long Xiruo was burning her own blood essence to power the Constructed Body. The longer she sustained it, the greater the toll on her.

At the front, the Fengdu City Lord silently nodded and pulled the reins. The four black bulls let out roars in unison, and the chariot instantly shot forward by several hundred meters.

Then, the chariot plunged into the ground — it was a ghostly artifact, possessing unique abilities that allowed it to burrow and travel underground.

Not long after, Long Xiruo suddenly opened her eyes within the chariot, her face pale as paper.

“How do you feel?” Kui Qianyi rushed over, placing his hand on her wrist.

Long Xiruo shook her head and pulled her hand back, frowning. “I took down a few dozen of them, but there are still many left. I don't plan to keep fighting them. How is Pianxian?”

Kui Qianyi replied urgently, “The bleeding has stopped, thanks to you. But some strange force invaded her body — I haven’t been able to dispel it, only suppress it. It’s corrosive… If she hadn’t evolved recently, that strike would’ve…”

“They seem like puppets,” Long Xiruo frowned. “When I fought them, I noticed something odd — they don’t seem to have minds of their own. Their bodies are human-like, but they can shapeshift like machines.”

“Stop talking and take this,” Kui Qianyi took out a bottle and poured out a few pills.

Long Xiruo nodded.

Without the power of the land to replenish her, her recovery was extremely slow. Kui Qianyi’s spiritual medicine could only help slightly speed up her blood production.

Seeing Long Xiruo sit down cross-legged to absorb the medicine’s effects, Kui Qianyi finally let out a sigh of relief. But uncertainty about what lay ahead still gnawed at him.

“City Lord Xiao, where is this chariot heading?” Kui Qianyi looked up at Xiao Shengmo, who was driving at the front, frowning.

“The mountain,” Xiao Shengmo said coolly without turning around. “From here, we can get close to its base.”

Kui Qianyi narrowed his eyes. “City Lord Xiao, was this intentional?”

“Not sure what Elder Turtle means,” Xiao Shengmo replied calmly.

Kui Qianyi said grimly, “That mountain is clearly the center of it all. We were ambushed and fled in haste. So why did City Lord Xiao choose to head straight toward that mountain? These enemies are numerous and strong — that mountain might be their base. I just don’t understand why you would walk into the tiger’s den knowingly.”

“To retrieve something,” Xiao Shengmo finally turned around. His ghastly face carried a chilling smile — not quite a smirk, but close.

“Retrieve something?” Kui Qianyi squinted his eyes and subtly signaled Gui Ying.

Gui Ying’s hand moved quietly, and a silver dagger appeared in his grip.

But at that moment, a small seven-story tower suddenly materialized inside the chariot.

“Tower of Ten Thousand Ghosts?!” Kui Qianyi exclaimed in shock.

The tower instantly unleashed a powerful suction force and pulled everyone inside within seconds!

Only Xiao Shengmo remained in the chariot.

“Forgive me. I act on behalf of another,” he muttered.

The tower gently floated to Xiao Shengmo’s side and settled beneath his seat. He remained expressionless, tugged the reins, and the chariot sped up again.

…

No one knew how long the chariot traveled underground before it finally burst through the darkness.

The oppressive weight around them disappeared as the chariot emerged from the rock into a vast, open space.

Xiao Shengmo’s expression turned serious.

In front of him was a colossal structure.

It stretched both downward into the earth and upward beyond sight — an enormous tower, with no visible base or peak. Before it, the chariot looked no larger than a microbe.

The entire tower was constructed of some kind of metal. Xiao Shengmo guided the chariot swiftly upward until it reached one of the tower’s entrances.

A massive, square, pitch-dark entryway swallowed the chariot as it shot into the long tunnel within, vanishing from sight.

…

Far behind, the hard soil and rock began to crack open.

Something was digging its way out — finally, a massive object broke free from the earth.

It tumbled downward, losing all sense of gravity — it was a gigantic turtle shell, as large as a bedroom.

Several figures burst out from the shell, which fortunately landed on a protruding rocky platform.

These were none other than Ming Tushan, Hanyang Zhenren, and the others — who had separated from Daoist Baijie and were exploring the underground edges in search of an escape route.

“This… is this the end? What even is this thing?”

Clearly, Ming Tushan had no idea where they had ended up in the darkness below. He had merely guided the turtle shell in one direction.

Now, he stared in shock alongside Hanyang Zhenren. “In all my years… I’ve never seen anything so… colossal!”

Any human skyscraper would seem laughable next to it — it was incomparably huge, built entirely from metal, with countless window-like openings.

It looked like a tower that pierced through the earth itself.

(End of Chapter)