When the time came, Han and other members on the expedition team boarded the ship.

  To be accurate, it’s not really a ship but a rocket, equipped with the bullet shape appearance and rear liquid-type propulsion mechanism.

  Once started, the bullet-shaped rocket will finish accelerating in space, directly shooting into the abyss, arrive at the bottom of the abyss and leaving countless dark beasts on the surface far behind them.

  Boom~

  The capsule closed right away, everyone sat on their own seat and locked themselves with a strong safety ring.

  Storm Ma Jingkong, a middle-aged man with a gloomy and long face said, “I am the commander of this expedition team. If I die, Ghost Lesa will take command. If Lesa dies, his brother Mad Lion Riley will take over. If Riley dies, Du Haiming, you will be up.”

  When Ma Jingkong said those words he didn’t show any emotions, and Lesa and Riley the twin old men are also like that. Everyone knows, people will die eventually, especially on a suicide mission like this one.

  Arthur is rather the special one. Although he has warlord-level power, but he’s the scout for the team, so he won’t be taking over the commanding responsibility of the expedition team.

  Then, Ma Jingkong looked at Han, slightly frowned and said, “It was said that you have special ability on how to destroy gene factories, so your only mission is to stay with us and don’t be left behind.”

  Perhaps this arrangement is because of Han being the youngest and lowest level among all members, so Han didn’t oppose the command and gently nodded his head.

  Boom~

  After the countdown, the rocket fired out like a bullet. There’s no window inside the rocket, it’s just darkness with a few dark red lights. From the oppression of gravity felt, Han knew that the speed they were going at must be very crazy.

  Within minutes, the sky rocket carrying the expedition team flew headlong into an abyss on the planet.

  “Deceleration device active, be prepared!” The internal auxiliary system voice reminded everyone that they would soon be landed inside the relic.

  The voice just fainted away, intense blue flame ejected out from the front of the rocket, forcing to reduce the speed to prevent the expedition team from crashing headfirst and meet their doom.

  Kacha~

  The ceiling began to fall off, and everyone on seat were all ejected out within 0.01 seconds as the rocket dove head first into the soil. The flame from engine were completely shut off, and Han and the others all landed in all sorts of strange ways.

  Sure enough, this carefully chosen expedition team is full of elite members, under such high-speed ejection, no one was injured.

  Han lowered down his posture among the team, and looked around with his dark vision. Due to the initial impact force from rocket landing, a huge storm of dust was raised around the landing spot and surrounded everyone.

  “Eye of Darkness.”

  Just when Han was ready to use his eyes to scout like usual, suddenly, Storm Ma Jingkong shouted all of a sudden, “Follow me!”

  Shua~

  Then, the well-trained soldiers all followed closely behind him, moving quickly in the dust storm. Terry and Carson covered the rear, only Cerberus Arthur went missing, and Han wasn’t even sure when he left, or if he’d come back.

  Han’s positioned in the center of the team, the sound of fierce fighting and Ma Jingkong’s foul mouth already came from the front. This middle-aged man with a long face like a horse, seemed to also have a very rough character.

  Soon after, the back also got into fights. After about a minute, Han and the others got out of the dust and were able to take a clear look at the relic, and Han almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

  \r \r \r

  This is a giant world with countless enemies, each more horrific than the last.

  Ever since time, Han has never seen such strange looking dark beasts, they can walk upright, with teeth like wolves and arms like gibbons, and on the hands are claws of bears.

  To some extent, they don’t look like dark beasts, but more like that group of star apes Han met a few months ago, the black eyes gleam with light of cruelty and spite.

  “Phantom world! Out!” Liu Gongjin whispered.

  Suddenly, the magical illusion was born. Every explorer became identical to those monsters in appearance.

  Mad Lion then gently touched his dimension ring, reached out a handful of white powder and threw them into the air. Then, it immediately covered everyone’s scent, letting these dark beasts not able to distinguish. At the same time, Ms. White’s voice came from Han’s ear.

  “Stay calm, don’t use source energy, otherwise we will be exposed.”

  Although this expedition team is only temporarily formed, but that instant of seamless cooperation still gave Han a big surprise. No doubt, everyone on this team are all top tier espers.

  Aoao~

  Millions of strange dark beasts on two legs issued a harsh rattling roar, then all rushed towards the direction where the rocket landed, and what followed immediately was the sound of the rocket been torn into pieces.

  The dark beasts charged past Han and the others but they were completely unaware of them, giving Han hope that the illusion had worked.

  At that moment, Han again found that there’s a strange emission arc directly facing towards the abyss, like a silver shield, pointing beyond the abyss.

  Han recalled from the briefing during meeting, this relic is not only strange in its number of dark beasts, but also its technology.

  The cruising missiles that were shot into the abyss were rebounded by a mysterious power to turn around and attack humans. There was even a terrifying laser shot from inside the ruins, destroying more than a dozen warships in the sky, large and small, including carriers and dreadnoughts.

  Without a doubt, in order to stop human intrusion, the relic didn’t hesitate to use the power of technology.

  But how come this relic is equipped with the ability to fight back with high-tech weapons?

  Han looked at the silver shield that’s gradually becoming clearer, he became very puzzled.

  A few minutes later, the rocket has been completely torn, and the expedition team relied on the illusion casted upon them to go deeper into the dark beast herd, trying their best to avoid colliding with the oncoming dark beasts.

  This is undoubtedly dancing on blades. Once Liu Gongjing’s illusion wears off, or Riley’s powder can no longer cover up the human scent, the team will immediately fall into a hopeless siege!

  Han observed everyone’s face and noticed that they are all very calm, with a very determined look, so he finally felt a little at ease, but his heart is still beating faster than usual.

  After approximately half an hour, the dark beasts became quiet. They separated into dozens or hundreds per herd, laid on the floor as if resting.

  At that moment, Cerberus Arthur’s voice came into everyone’s ears.

  “Don’t worry, I am speaking directly into your minds, so there is no actual sound. I have found a way out of here, and it’s approximately straight to the left of Ma Jingkong.”

  “But I must remind you guys, after 3 hours you guys will encounter a herd of dark beasts with a very keen sense of smell. They look like porcupines, or giant hedgehogs. I narrowly escaped death when going through their herd. As for you guys, pray.”

  Han was surprised at Cerberus Arthur’s amazing ability to move. He did not rely on illusion, but he was actually able to leave that dark beast camp ground. He is indeed the best scout in the Milky Way Galaxy.

  As for the group of dark beasts with a keen sense of smell, Ha don’t know how his teammates will deal with them, but they all look pretty confident.

  After nearly 3 hours, Han and the others had left the initial landing point for more than 120 kilometers of distance. At first their moving speed is really slow, but after the expedition team got used to moving through dark beasts, they began to pick up speed.

  Han saw the sweat on Liu Gongjing’s forehead, his hands are folded in a strange position in front of his chest, and the illusions he summoned is a kind that Han has never seen before, attached to everyone like a magnet no matter how they move.

  Finally, they came to the key point to leaving this abyss. At the route pointed by Arthur in the distance, tall cliffs stand, where there is a narrow gap that can only accommodate up to two people side by side to go through at once.

  And looked at behind the trail between the rocks is the bottom of the abyss, where countless strange dark beasts are resting.

  And between them and the trail, there is really a large pack of hedgehog-like dark beast, their back is covered by spikes, with a shark-like sharp head and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

  If they want to go through these dark beasts to get to the trail between the rocks, they would probably have to fly across them.

  Shua~

  Suddenly, Sage Wood Carson left the group and charged right towards those dark beasts.

  “Let me do it! You guys go!” Carson shouted desperately, attracting all those dark beasts to look at him. When they realized that the one that’s making human noise was actually one of their own kind, they curiously tilted their head.

  Rumbled~

  Sage Wood Carson activated his power right away, emerald green trees one after another drilled out of the soil and appeared in this dark suffocating world.

  Gradually the trees became alive, Carson held his breath and murmured, and more and more miraculous tree beings appeared, raising their root-thick arms towards the dark beasts.

  Aoao~

  Upon discovering humans, all the dark beasts jumped up, including those “hedgehogs” that were blocking the trail.

  And that’s when Han finally realized, that sentence said by Carson, was actually a farewell!

  He sacrificed his life, in order to create a chance for comrades to escape!

  Gritted teeth, people quickly came to the narrow gap between the rocks, and before entering the dark trail everyone couldn’t help but turn around for one last look.

  They just saw that Carson has been completely surrounded, in the face of millions of dark beasts, only a group of sage wood beings were not enough to stop them. Those tree beings were nothing more than twigs to the beasts’ sharp teeth, and were torn apart with a gruesome snap, and the dark beasts are like a dense mass of killer ants, surrounded their delicious prey and destroyed it layer by layer.

  “Even if I die, I don’t want to see the Protector’s prophecy come true!”

  “You guys hurry up and go, I will cover up the rear for you guys!”

  “Humans will triumph!”

  “Humans will triumph!”

  “Humans will triumph!”

  During the final stage of Carson’s life, he crazily shouted.

  And that’s when Han suddenly realized, he finally understood that calm look on his teammates’ face, it’s the determination to sacrifice self for the greater good!

  Protector’s prophecy?

  Looks like everyone but Han knew about the Protector’s prophecy.

  This isn’t really a good start, it had only been 4 hours since the expedition team entered the relic, and they already encountered exotic dark beasts’ siege.

  Quasi-warlord Carson, dead!

  Chapter 157: The Prophecy and Second Layer of Extinction Domain

  The expedition team gradually climbed along the narrow gap between the rocks, and after a few hours, they have completely gotten away from the large group of dark beasts they initially encountered after landing and came to the top of a towering mountain.

  At the moment, there were still 11 members on the team, with Carson died in battle and the best scout Cerberus Arthur also disappeared without a trace. In the last few hours, the team didn’t get any news from Arthur.

  Standing at the top of the mountain, Han looked down.

  He saw a large vacant field in the distance, and there lies countless number of dark beasts and also many silver arc large shields. The location of each shield is a separate entrance to the relic, and what can be sure is that shield is some kind of advanced technology Han and the others don’t know about, and it’s equipped with superconductivity and laser-firing abilities.

  Nobody knows whether these huge shields have always existed, or were moved there after the relic was opened. In short, this strange A-43 relic is different from the relics humans explored in the past, and also riskier.

  “It’s like a barracks.” Han mumbled to himself.

  “What?” Mad Lion Riley frowned and asked him.

  “I said, this is like the dark beasts’ barracks, those giant shield-like weapons resemble human turrets preventing enemy entry, and the dark beasts inside the relic can add reinforcements, coming in from those helical channels over there.” Han explained as he pointed his finger to the distance.

  Not only Riley, almost everyone now noticed Han’s right eye at the moment, it’s a kind of pitch black color, Han used his Eye of Darkness and noticed the channels spiraling downward in the distance.

  “The distance is over 300 kilometers. Rest 15 minutes and then let’s enter the next layer of the relic.” As the commander, Storm Ma Jingkong decided.

  Han thought for a moment and said, “We are not waiting for Arthur anymore?”

  Ma Jingkong pouted and said, “That old dog, even if we are all dead he will still be alive. That old dog is not only the best scout in the Milky Way, he’s also the most antisocial one. He must be trying to find the gene factory alone, and when he does he will come back to let us know for sure.”

  Han nodded, and then asked, “About what Carson said as last words, what’s the prophecy of the Protector?”

  Every hesitated for a second, and then the atmosphere became gloomy.

  Wuyong said, “The Protector had predicted, the Prehistoric Civilization will return to the galaxy, and at that moment the human race living here will extinct.”

  The diminutive Nie Tian immediately continued, “Originally, I didn’t believe it, until recently, many relics began to undergo uproars like this one, and the difficulty of exploring relics increased about 40% in the past year, just like the Protector’s Prophecy.”

  “First the dark beasts in the relic will proliferate, then these dark beasts will start spreading in the Milky Way and become vanguards in the massacre of mankind, and then the prehistoric civilization’s vanguard army will arrive, cooperating with the merciless dark beasts to sack our civilizations. Finally, the prehistoric civilization’s main army will arrive, crushing the human race like you do an insect. Wiping out our civilization and prosperity.

  “Now that I think about it, this is the exact first phase of the Protector’s Prophecy, Riot of the Dark Beasts.”

  Han could not believe his ears. If the Protector’s Prophecy actually come true, then the humanity will lose the Milky Way, and the vast majority of human beings will die, with a few lucky survivors forced to leave their homes.

  Would this be the fate of the Milky Way Galaxy? The fate of humans? The fate of Earth?

  Ma Jingkong frowned and said in a deep voice, “Don’t think too much for now. Prophecies are prophecies because they won’t come true for sure! The Protector said himself, the probability of the galaxy being destroyed is 82%, we still have 18% of chance!”

  “As for this trip, we are here to strangle doom in the bud with our own hands!”

  \r \r \r

  “Although the Alliance isn’t perfect, the politicians are always fighting for self-interest, but politicians are politicians, soldiers are soldiers! As soldiers with power, we can’t just watch tragedy befall onto our home! We shoulder the responsibilities of soldiers!”

  Everyone slightly nodded and didn’t say anything else.

  Through the observation of everyone, Han suddenly came to a realization.

  Han used to hate Sally Empire’s politicians to the bones, wished that he could strip off their skins and eat their flesh!

  But other than the politicians, there are also soldiers in the galaxy. In comparison to politicians, soldiers’ mind is rather simple. They don’t know much, but when someone wants to occupy their home planet or harm their fellow comrades, they won’t agree at all.

  Han looked down from the mountain, Carson’s body had been long gone, and the large crowd of dark beasts that took him down was dismissed a long time ago too.

  Without question, Carson was a respected soldier. It was said that he came from an ancient clan in the galaxy with royal bloodline running in him. If he didn’t have to come to the extinction domain, Carson could’ve been living in a luxury palace with endless wealth and honor.

  But he died, like an exhausted homeless dog, alone, without dignity.

  When Han looked at the place where Carson was killed, he couldn’t help but remember Pang Zuolin, that man that changed Han’s life who jumped down from the skyscraper holding the bronze bull.

  They both died, one’s purpose was to protect Earth, and the other one’s will is to protect the galaxy.

  “Time’s up, let’s go to the spiral entrance Han mentioned.” Ma Jingkong stood up and said, “Arthur’s not here, Nie Tian you be scout and Terry you are responsible for covering the rear.”

  After a few hours, the expedition team finally got through the endless dark beast herd and arrived at the spiraling passage that connects to the second layer of the relic,

  Looking down from above, the passage seemed as if a staircase down to hell, it’s pitch black below with dark beasts’ roars coming from time to time.

  Ma Jingkong nodded, and the team began moving down. At the same time, large number of dark beasts are also climbing up the passage from the second layer, so the team must be very careful and stick to the wall, and try to not crash into the beasts.

  The dark beasts saw that there are actually their own kind coming down, but they didn’t pay too much attention, just often curiously look at them. Unfortunately for the beasts, under the effect of illusion and powder, the expedition team both look and smell like dark beasts, so they roused no suspicion at all.

  Another two hours passed, and everyone surprisingly noticed that the upright-walking dark beasts disappeared, which made the passage spiraling-down extra empty. But immediately after, a rumbling noise start coming from the lower layer, the ground began shaking with gravel falling off from time to time.

  After another 10 minutes, the team finally realized why the ground was shaking: a large group of bison-like four-legged dark beasts charging up from the second layer of the relic!

  They have sharp horns, much like mammoth ivory, located in the center of their head. Their opened mouth is like leopard’s, body is as solid as wild bulls, with hard scales covering their whole back.

  Rumbled~

  The wild-bull like dark beasts are rapidly charging towards Han. Unlike the upright-walking dark beasts from before, the dark bison aren’t intelligent, and they are also very bad-tempered, so fights broke out even between their own kinds.

  Aoao~

  Two dark bison directly charged at each other, and the slightly weaker one fell right into the abyss, with a roar lingering in the air before it fell to its death.

  The team is faced with a difficult situation: if they continue to advance, then they are bound to clash with the beasts, and those beasts won’t even hesitate to kill their own kind.

  Kacha~

  Just at that moment, the slightly smaller Nie Tian suddenly released the barb at the hands and feet position, and then climbed up the wall like a gecko. The others saw and all followed him, including Han.

  High level battle suits can not only purify the air, gather water molecules, at the same time it has powerful additional features. The barbs on gloves and boots is just to help soldiers climb rocky walls, allowing soldiers to travel like geckos.

  Shua~

  11 people travelled closely to the wall, their speed not only didn’t slow down but actually started accelerating.

  After all, these are all quasi-warlord to warlord level, Han must make every effort in order to keep up with the speed of the team.

  When they are about to reach the bottom, the surrounding actually became extremely bright, the cold white light shined the underground world to be very clear and visible.

  And they just saw that the second layer of the relic is actually directly the gene factory itself!

  Not hidden, not protected, the gene factories came into the sight of everyone!

  Those jars filled with gene growth liquid that were perpetually spawning dark beasts, once cultivated successfully, the liquid inside the transparent jar will immediately fade, and the side door will open, pushing the dark beast out of the jar in a hideous mechanical birth!

  Aoao~

  And the just finished dark beasts will let out a shrill roar, discern direction, and then rush to the first layer of the relic where the large number of dark beasts and strange silver shield-like equipment are. Ready for battle.

  Everyone became very excited, as long as they can destroy the gene factory, then they can destroy the dark beasts’ production and prevent them from steadily appearing on the surface!

  As long as the number of dark beasts is limited, then the powerful army formed by espers will be able to charge into the relic and kill off all the remaining dark beasts!

  On the orbit of Iron-Cross system, from the 12 permanent management member nations, more than 30 of the strongest esper legions are on standby. That’s an invincibly strong army!

  “Let’s go! Go bomb these genetic factories!” Everyone thought in their head.

  But Han began to feel a little worried. As someone that destroyed gene factories with his own hands once, he still felt that making this discovery of gene factory seemed to be a bit too easy.

  The gene factory can explain the existence of the dark beasts in the relic, but it can’t explain those powerful silver shields. Who actually set them up and used them as a weapon to attack the humans?

  These dark beasts?

  Han doesn’t believe it, the dark beasts aren’t that intelligent, they are only a product of gene synthesis.

  Han really want to tell others about his fear, but he doesn’t know how to transmit messages through hidden voice, and the moment he opens his mouth the dark beasts will notice, so he had no choice but to keep his worries inside himself.

  Meanwhile, Ma Jingkong became extremely excited, pointed his finger at his dimension ring, as if making some kind of hint, and others excitedly nodded.

  Han saw what Ma Jingkong pulled out from the dimension ring, and he slightly hesitated, frowned.

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