High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

"This is fucking a dead end..."

Shen Chang'an's heart sank.

But just as his gaze swept behind the monster, his pupils suddenly contracted.

It was a tiny crack, only a few meters long!

A crack within a crack!

Ahead was Luo Zheng. Behind him were three high-level demons with their blood-red maws wide open.

"Not going in means certain death, going in... at worst, we'll just die somewhere else!"

A hint of madness flashed in Shen Chang'an's eyes.

The next second, to Luo Zheng's astonishment from afar, he turned around and charged straight at the three terrifying demons!

"Has this kid... gone mad? Is he deliberately trying to kill himself?"

Luo Zheng frowned.

He watched helplessly as Shen Chang'an's tiny figure charged towards the mountain-like horde of demons. However, just before Shen Chang'an was about to collide with the demons, his legs suddenly pushed off the ground, plunging straight into the inconspicuous, tiny gray crack!

"Buzz—!"

The moment Shen Chang'an's figure touched the crack, it was like a drop of water falling into the ocean, instantly swallowed up without a trace!

The high-level demons, having missed their target, slammed their massive bodies together, letting out angry roars. But since their target had completely vanished, leaving not even a trace, they paced irritably for a while before finally calming down and turning to disappear into the dark depths of the wasteland.

Luo Zheng watched the whole thing quietly from a distance.

Due to the great distance and the obscuring effect of the monsters' enormous bodies, he couldn't see the tiny spatial rift clearly. What he saw was Shen Chang'an rushing towards the horde of monsters, being completely engulfed, followed by a brief period of chaos before finally returning to calm.

"Hmph, as expected, not even a bone fragment was left."

Luo Zheng sneered, his tense nerves finally relaxing.

"Mission accomplished. But exchanging a sixth-realm expert for a fifth-realm expert is a huge loss..."

He clutched the hidden injury from Liu Fang's self-destruction, took a deep look at the desolate wasteland that had returned to death, then turned around, transforming into a blood-red afterimage, and quickly left in the direction of the exit.

......

Shanghai, the Zhao residence.

Inside the opulent, glittering restaurant, Zhao was sitting at a long mahogany table, cutting a piece of rare, medium-rare Wagyu beef from his plate.

The door was pushed open, and Luo Zheng walked in, accompanied by a pungent smell of blood and burning.

Hearing the noise, Zhao also looked up. When he saw Luo Zheng's disheveled appearance, with his clothes tattered and large areas of burns, his good mood instantly turned sour, his brows furrowed slightly, and a hint of displeasure flashed in his eyes.

"How did it get into this state?"

Luo Zheng knelt on one knee, lowering his scarred face: "Second Young Master... Liu Fang is dead."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ye abruptly stopped: "What did you say? Liu Fang is dead?!"

"Yes. In order to kill that brat, Liu Fang was forced to use the Red Lotus Karmic Fire to self-destruct."

Luo Zheng gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with gloom.

"But don't worry, young master. I cornered that kid, and he charged into the monster horde on his own. There wasn't even a bone fragment left. Shen Chang'an is dead."

Upon hearing the news of Shen Chang'an's death, Zhao Ye's shock gradually subsided. He leaned back in his chair and nodded slowly.

"To be able to exchange your fifth-realm cultivation for one of our Zhao family's sixth-realm cultivators, and to injure you, a Spirit Abyss Realm body cultivator, like this..."

Zhao also sneered: "Even if Shen Chang'an dies, he can still be proud in the afterlife."

You have to understand, these two were already his trump cards. One was a sixth-realm magic-based core cultivator who could change the terrain, and the other was a sixth-realm body cultivator who specialized in physical defense and close combat. This classic "battle-tactic" combination could basically kill 99% of the same sixth-realm opponents in actual combat! Who would have thought that this trump card combination would be lost to a freshman who had just entered university.

"Alright, as long as the person is dead."

Zhao waved his hand, "Go down and rest to heal your wounds. You can collect your bonus later."

"Thank you, Second Young Master." Luo Zhengqiang endured the pain and got up to leave.

After finishing dinner, Zhao took a hot towel from the butler and wiped his hands. Then, he casually picked up two shiny, patina-covered walnuts from the tray and started playing with them in his hands.

"housekeeper."

"Go, write a letter to Zhao Haitang. Ask her how that special admission student named Shen Chang'an, whom she invested in, is doing at school lately, and whether he has encountered any accidents."

The butler standing to the side paused, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes. He couldn't help but speak up, "Second Young Master, Shen Chang'an just died in the Abyss Rift. If we turn around and send a message to provoke the Eldest Miss, wouldn't that... seem too ostentatious?"

"It doesn't matter."

Zhao also gave a cold laugh.

"I want to see what kind of furious expression my proud older sister will have when she learns that the genius she has invested so much in has died tragically."

......

"Bang!"

Shen Chang'an crashed heavily into a patch of dark brown earth from mid-air.

Ignoring the excruciating pain, he immediately braced himself with one hand and cautiously looked around.

Behind him, the tiny gray crack, after spitting him out, seemed to have exhausted its energy. Its edges twisted violently a few times, and then it closed completely and disappeared in mid-air with a "pop".

"Damn it... now there's really no way out, I'm utterly unlucky."

Shen Chang'an gritted his teeth and cursed.

He struggled to his feet and looked around.

The scene here is not much different from the abyss outside; it is still a depressing purplish-red sky and a barren land.

However, within a radius of several kilometers, not a single demonic creature could be sensed. Perhaps there were no demonic creatures, or perhaps the demonic creatures here hadn't yet been attracted by the scent of blood on him.

"The wound needs to be treated immediately."

Despite his severe injuries, Shen Chang'an found a huge black rock nearby that was as tall as a three-story building and sat down with his back against it.

The spatial ring flashed, and a pile of bottles and jars of medicine and bandages scattered on the ground.

He gritted his teeth and first roughly washed the horrific burns on the left side of his body with water, then smeared large amounts of cooling ointment on the torn flesh. The intense stinging pain made his whole body tremble uncontrollably.

He then painstakingly used splints and bandages to firmly fix his severely damaged right arm to his chest.

After treating his external injuries, Shen Chang'an took out an exquisite jade bottle. This was a high-grade healing elixir given to him by Zhao Haitang.

He poured out a few pills that emitted a strong medicinal fragrance, tilted his head back, and swallowed them.

The pill entered his stomach and immediately transformed into a gentle yet powerful medicinal force, flowing slowly along his meridians and beginning to repair his internal organs, which had been damaged and shaken by forcibly accepting the sixth-level spell.

Feeling his blood and qi gradually stabilizing, Shen Chang'an breathed a slight sigh of relief.

But he knew he absolutely couldn't stay here any longer. The smell of blood from treating his wounds was too strong; in this unknown area, who knew what monsters it might attract?

Shen Chang'an raised his left hand and subconsciously glanced at the tactical watch on his wrist, wanting to confirm his current position and depth.

The tactical watch was barely preserved during the self-destruction.

However, when he saw the watch face clearly, his heart sank to the bottom.

The electronic screen, which should have displayed depth and coordinates, was now covered in dense, static-like noise, completely obscuring the image. Apart from a faint backlight, it couldn't receive any signals or location information.

He has completely disappeared.