Marvel: The other side of the double-passing door is Devouring the Stars

Chapter 384 A Safe Passage!

"In that case, let's fight!" Iron Claw roared. "Giant Bear, let's join forces and kill them!"

The giant bear also took out its weapon—a huge battle axe, the blade gleaming coldly in the mist.

"Kids, even if you're stellar-level, we're not to be trifled with!" the giant bear roared. "I've roamed the stars for years, what haven't I seen!"

"Is that so? Then let us see what you're capable of," Rowan said calmly, slowly drawing his Void Slash.

The moment the divine sword was drawn, the very space seemed to tremble. The terrifying pressure emanating from the Void Slash caused Iron Claw and the Giant Bear's expressions to change drastically.

"An immortal-level divine weapon!" Iron Claw cried out in terror, "Who exactly are you people?!"

“You don’t need to know this,” Rowan gripped the Void Slash, “because the dead don’t need to know secrets.”

The battle was about to begin. Iron Claw launched the first attack, his figure flashing like a ghost, his claws whistling as they hurtled towards Rowan.

"Wind Claw!"

Several claw shadows intertwined in the air, forming a dense network of attacks. This was Iron Claw's signature move, which had caught countless enemies off guard.

However, against Rowan, who was at the stellar level, this attack seemed so slow. Rowan didn't even use any special techniques; he simply swung the Void Slash.

“Too slow.”

A flash of dark sword light streaked past, easily deflecting all of the iron claw's attacks. Not only that, the sword light also left a deep wound on his chest, from which blood gushed forth instantly.

"How is this possible?" Iron Claw stared incredulously at the wound on his chest. "How could my Wind Claw be so easily broken?"

"Because the difference in strength between us is too great," Rowan said calmly. "In our eyes, you are like ants."

On the other side, the giant bear also launched an attack on Luo Feng. He wielded a huge battle axe, each strike carrying the power to split mountains and shatter rocks.

"Mountain-breaking axe!"

The enormous axe shadow crashed down on Luo Feng; if it hit, even a stellar-level expert would be injured. But Luo Feng was no longer the naive boy he once was.

"Starburst Sky-Splitting Blade!"

Luo Feng channeled his psychic power, instantly creating thousands of psychic flying swords. Although he hadn't yet mastered the aggregation technique taught by Master Arya, it was more than enough to deal with an enemy of this level.

Thousands of flying swords rained down on the giant bear, the dense attack leaving him no way to dodge.

"Ah!" The giant bear let out a painful scream as hundreds of wounds appeared on its body in an instant, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

"A telekinetic master! And such a high-level one at that!" The giant bear stared in shock at the sky filled with flying swords. "Who exactly are you people?!"

"Didn't I just say that the dead don't need to know secrets?" Luo Feng replied coldly.

Iron Claw and the Giant Bear now truly realized that they had not encountered any easy targets, but rather two terrifyingly powerful individuals. What they had thought would be an easy robbery had turned into a death trap.

"We surrender!" Iron Claw cried hastily. "We're willing to hand over all our possessions, please spare our lives!"

"Yes, we were wrong!" the giant bear hurriedly begged for forgiveness. "We're willing to do anything to atone for our sins!"

"Begging for mercy now? Too late," Rowan's voice remained icy. "Since you chose to take action, you must bear the consequences."

"Besides, even if we let you go now, you'll continue to harm people in the future," Luo Feng added. "Keeping you around will only be a menace."

Seeing that pleading for mercy was useless, a glint of madness flashed in Iron Claw's eyes. He suddenly took out a strange device and fired a red signal flare into the air.

"Since we're going to die anyway, let's take each other down with us!" Iron Claw grinned menacingly. "I've already sent out a distress signal; the other teams will be here soon! Then you won't be able to escape either!"

"Fool!" the giant bear roared. "You'll expose our location by doing this!"

“We’re all going to die anyway, why bother with all that!” Iron Claw replied.

Luo Wen and Luo Feng exchanged a glance, both seeing helplessness in each other's eyes. Originally, they only wanted to quietly resolve these two troublesome issues, but now it seemed impossible.

“In that case, let’s finish this quickly,” Rowan decided. “We can’t let the others get here.”

“Agreed,” Luo Feng nodded. “We’ll go all out and end the battle quickly.”

The two no longer held back and began to fight seriously. Luo Wen's Void Slash emitted an even more terrifying pressure, while Luo Feng's telekinetic flying swords became even denser and sharper.

"Void Slash!"

The pitch-black sword energy tore through space, heading straight for the iron claw. The latter was completely unable to withstand an attack of this level and could only watch helplessly as the sword energy approached.

"No!" Iron Claw let out its final scream before being completely swallowed up by the sword energy.

When the sword energy dissipated, the iron claw had completely vanished, leaving not even a corpse behind. This was the terrifying power of the Void Slash, capable of erasing an enemy from existence entirely.

On the other side, Luo Feng also launched a full-scale attack. Thousands of telekinetic flying swords converged into a torrent, completely surrounding the giant bear.

"Starstorm!"

The torrent of flying swords spun like a tornado, generating enough cutting force to tear apart any matter. The giant bear couldn't withstand this attack for more than a few seconds and was quickly torn to shreds.

The battle was over; the entire process took less than a minute. Two veteran team members, who had initially appeared aggressive, were easily dealt with.

"Clean up the scene," Rowan quickly retracted his Void Slash. "We must leave before the others arrive."

"Understood," Luo Feng replied, retracting his telekinetic flying sword and beginning to clean up the traces of the battle.

The two worked quickly and soon cleaned up the scene. While it was impossible to completely cover up the signs of a fight, at least they wouldn't leave any obvious evidence.

“The signal flare is here,” Rowan analyzed. “The other teams should be here soon. We need to come up with a plausible explanation.”

“Let’s say we were attacked by monsters,” Luo Feng suggested. “Iron Claw and the Giant Bear unfortunately perished, and we barely escaped.”

“It’s feasible, but it has to be made to look realistic,” Rowan said, deliberately creating some minor injuries on himself. “You should also create some wounds; that will make it more convincing.”

Luo Feng did as instructed, and the two of them quickly found themselves in a disheveled state as they fled.

About ten minutes later, footsteps could be heard in the distance. Karl, along with Lao Wu and several team members, quickly arrived at the scene.

“What happened?” Carl asked coldly. “Who fired the signal flare?” “Iron Claw,” Rowan replied weakly. “We were attacked by a group of strange monsters. Iron Claw and the Giant Bear sacrificed themselves to cover our escape.”

"A monster? What kind of monster?" Old Wu asked skeptically.

"They're huge, incredibly fast, and have tremendous attack power," Luo Feng added. "We were no match for them. If Iron Claw and the others hadn't fought so desperately, we wouldn't have escaped."

Carl carefully examined the scene and, while finding some suspicious points, found no conclusive evidence. Furthermore, the injuries on Rowan and Luo Feng did indeed appear to be from a fight.

“What about Iron Claw and the giant bear’s carcass?” Karl asked.

“They were dragged away by monsters,” Rowan replied. “Those monsters seem to feed on flesh and blood.”

While the explanation was somewhat far-fetched, anything could happen in a dangerous place like the Forbidden Mist Domain. Karl had his doubts, but couldn't find a reason to refute it.

"Fine, two pieces of trash are dead, so be it," Karl said coldly. "Can you two still carry out your mission?"

“Yes,” Luo Wen and Luo Feng answered in unison.

“Very good, then let’s move on,” Carl ordered. “This time you will follow the home team and will not be divided into groups.”

The group regrouped and continued towards the ancient ruins. Luo Wen and Luo Feng followed in the middle of the group, appearing outwardly the same as before, but both knew in their hearts that they could no longer conceal their strength.

“Although we’ve solved two problems, our situation may be more dangerous now,” Luo Wen said to Luo Feng with a mental wave as they walked.

"Why?" Luo Feng asked, puzzled.

“Karl isn’t stupid; he’s definitely sensed something,” Rowan analyzed. “Although there’s no evidence yet, he’ll be even more wary of us.”

"Then what should we do?" Luo Feng asked.

“Continue to pretend you’re still recovering from serious injuries to lower their guard,” Rowan replied, “while looking for an opportunity to break away from the group.”

"Understood," Luo Feng nodded.

After the incidents involving Iron Claw and the Giant Bear, the atmosphere within the expedition team became even more somber. Although Karl did not explicitly question Rowan and Luo Feng's explanations, his gaze frequently fell upon the two, his scrutinizing eyes making everyone feel uneasy.

"We're almost there," the scout at the front suddenly stopped after about three hours of marching and reported back to Karl, "The fog ahead is starting to change, and I'm sensing strong energy fluctuations."

Karl strode to the front of the group, carefully observing the situation ahead. Sure enough, the originally uniform silver-gray mist began to show subtle changes, sometimes tinged with a faint blue light, sometimes flashing with wisps of golden light, looking both beautiful and eerie.

“It seems the ancient ruins are just ahead,” Karl said, a glint of excitement in his eyes. “Everyone, stay alert and prepare for any possible challenges.”

The group continued to advance cautiously, each person gripping their weapon tightly, ready to deal with any unexpected situation. Luo Wen and Luo Feng walked in the middle of the group, appearing just as tense as the others, but in reality, the two were secretly communicating through telepathic fluctuations.

"Can you feel it?" Rowan asked quietly. "The energy fluctuations ahead are very unstable."

“Yes, and the intensity is very high,” Luo Feng replied. “With this level of energy fluctuation, unexpected situations might arise.”

“If chaos really breaks out, that might be our chance to escape,” Rowan continued. “We must be prepared.”

“Understood, I’m ready to cooperate with your actions at any time,” Luo Feng nodded in agreement.

After walking for about half an hour, a massive stone wall suddenly appeared ahead of the group. This stone wall was hundreds of meters high and its width seemed endless, completely blocking their path. Most peculiarly, the surface of the stone wall was covered with complex runes, which emitted a faint light and changed color over time.

“This is the outer defense of the ancient ruins,” Karl said excitedly. “It’s said that if you find the right activation method, you can open a passage to the core of the ruins.”

"Captain, these runes look very complex," Old Wu said, carefully examining the stone wall. "How do we activate them?"

“According to intelligence, a specific number of people need to simultaneously input energy to activate this protection,” Karl explained. “That’s why I need so many people.”

As he spoke, Karl took out an ancient parchment scroll covered with densely packed text and images.

“According to this ancient text, we need to input energy at specific locations on the stone wall,” Karl said, pointing to the patterns on the parchment. “Each person is responsible for one rune node, and they must be activated simultaneously for success.”

The team members began to disperse to various positions on the stone wall as instructed by Karl. Rowan and Luo Feng were assigned to the right side of the stone wall, responsible for two adjacent rune nodes.

"Are you ready?" Carl asked loudly.

"Ready!" everyone responded in unison.

"Very good, now start inputting energy. Remember, you must keep in sync!" Karl gave the order to begin.

Everyone began channeling their energy into the rune nodes they were responsible for. As energy was poured in, the runes on the stone wall began to glow even brighter, and the entire stone wall began to tremble slightly.

"Excellent, keep it up!" Karl shouted, "We're almost there!"

However, at that moment, an accident occurred. As more and more energy was injected, the stone wall trembled more and more violently, and the light of the runes began to become unstable.

"Something's wrong!" the team member in charge of technical analysis shouted a warning. "The energy reaction is beyond expectations; the system might be going out of control!"

"What?!" Karl's face changed drastically. "How could this happen?"

Before he could find the cause, disaster struck. The stone wall suddenly burst forth with blinding light, followed by a massive surge of energy from the runes, forming a terrifying energy storm in the air.

"Everyone, retreat immediately!" Karl shouted the order, but it was too late.

An energy storm instantly spread, engulfing the entire area. The violent energy raged like a hurricane, tearing apart everything it touched. Several team members who couldn't escape in time were directly struck by the energy torrent and instantly turned to ashes.

"what!"

"Help!"

"My arm!"

Screams filled the air, and the entire group descended into utter chaos. Everyone was desperately trying to escape this death zone.

"Now!" Luo Wen sent a signal to Luo Feng through mental fluctuations.

The two exchanged a glance and immediately understood each other's meaning. In the chaos, this was the perfect opportunity for them to break away from the group.

"This way!" Luo Feng shouted deliberately, "I see an emergency exit!"

With that, the two ran away from Karl and the others. Under the cover of the energy storm, no one noticed their departure.

(End of this chapter)