As discovered by Sis, Ad his group had easily passed the test of the fourth floor, allowing them to ehe fifth.

  Ace ventured aloo the fifth floor of the Necropolis of the Gods, a realm of exquisite beauty that trasted sharply with the danger lurkih its enting facade.

  The moment Ace stepped onto the lush terrain, a breathtaking juretched before him. The foliage was an iridest green, and the atmosphere hummed with life. Glistening streams flowed serehrough the ndscape, aic flora bathed the surroundings in a vibrant tapestry of colours. The symphony of nature's song filled the air, and it was easy to lose oneself in the jungle's enting allure.

  Yet beh the breathtakiy y an undercurrent of dahe fifth floor was not simply a paradise of flora; it was a realm of trials as, where the lush ndscape cealed perils of unimaginable proportions, a fact that was made clear by the oppressive killing ihat hung in the air like a shroud, a harbinger of the challenges ahead.

  Ace barely mao travel three steps when his sharp instincts, honed by tless battles, warned him of the lurking danger. A branch of a t tree seemed to e alive. One of them, thick as a dragon's tail, suddenly shed out towards him. The enormous wooden appendage was aension of a colossal tree, its power resonating at the middle stages of the saint realm.

  Ace's rea was swift, his instincts guiding him like a shadow. With the grace of a seasoned warrior, he deftly sidestepped the massive branch. It whooshed past him, leaving only a faint breeze in its wake as it sliced straight through Ace’s afterimage.

  A few meters to the left, Ace’s body appeared, his gaze steady as he assessed his surroundings. His eyes narrowing slightly as he sed the various trees surrounding him.

  Though the density of the elemental essence here on the sed yer of the Necropolis had more than doubled, so too had the stability of the space. Although he was able to spread his [Observation] a little over 100 meters on the first three floors when unpressed, here on the sed yer, he could barely spread it over 30 meters.

  As such, although he could sehe dangerous air that loomed over him, he wasn’t able to tell that the trees were alive.

  Still, as an expert who specialised in the ws of fire, if there was ohing he didn’t fear, it nt-type lifeforms.

  As the thick branaked towards Ace’s neck with terrifying momentum, Ace didn’t even draw for the give stuck to his back. Instead, he casually threalm ed in a yer of fire out to meet it.

  The branch had the girth of two adult males and stretched for over 50 meters, whilst Ace’s palm was barely a fra of the size. But as the two attacks collided, a deafening explosion resouhrough the air as the branch was ied, but that was just the beginning.

  Ace calmly raised his hand, slowly pointing at the tree that dared to attack him. A thin crimson beam of highly pressed fmes created a soni as it tore through the air, aiming straight for the tre of the sky peing tree that towered over him.

  BOOM!

  Another explosion – several times louder and more devastating tha one – enveloped the entire body of the tree.

  “Looks like this fifth floor was designed just for me,” Ace grinned as he looked at the now desote crater where the giant tree was once positioned.

  Although his words were a bit of a stretch, he wasn’t pletely wrong – Ace really was the worst possible oppo for pnt-type lifeforms.

  Still, he had never been the murderous type. As long as he wasn’t provoked, Ace was too zy to deal with them, especially as the majority of oppos on this level were merely at the middle stages of the saint rank aoo weak to provide him with the challenges he sought. But as I said, that was ti on them not provoking him. Unfortunately, the natives of the fifth floor didn’t receive that particur memo…

  Within seds of Aerating his would-be attacker, the sorrowful cries and wails of m creatures rang in his ears as all the trees that surrounded him seemed to e to life.

  “Looks like we’ll be doing this the hard way then,” Ace sighed lightly as he watched the dozen or so branches slig towards him from just about every ao prevent him from fleeing – not that he had any iion of fleeing.

  “[Bzing Pulse]!” Ace said as the burning skin-tight armour that coated his body like a sed yer of skin pulsed like a beati.

  BOOM!

  With the fusion of Ace’s mysteries, “Essence of Fire” and “Explosion, reag 50%, not only had the power of his attacks seen a drasticrease in power, but his skill in utilising his explosive fmes had also skyrocketed.

  The teique [Bzing Pulse] wasn’t a teique he had previously e up with; it was merely one he came up with in the spur of the moment to ter the ining attacks, ahe effects were still terrifying, all the same.

  The explosion spread for hundreds of meters, enveloping all forms of life in the surrounding area. Be they se or not, all pnts, trees, and even the grass in the area had been reduced to ash, turning what was once a lush terrain of paradise into a desote hellscape void of any signs of life.

  As the dust cleared, Ace gave a satisfied nod as he assessed the results of his newly-created teique. “Not bad.”

  Ace wasn’t the only one who had run into a bit of trouble upon climbing to the fifth floor. Both Amira and Leona had run into simir situations; only they weren’t able to deal with it quite as easily. Still, with the progress they had made on the previous floors, it would take more than a group of trees and pnts with the power of a mid-stage saint to halt their steps, especially Leona.

  Whilst Amira simply chose to use her incredible speed to escape before she was surrounded, Leona, like her human partner, chose to sughter her way towards Ace, burning anything that stood in her way.

  .

  .

  .

  Whilst Ad his group were in the process rouping once more, hundreds of miles away from their current position, two groups were in the process of fag off against one another. On one side was a group of almost two dozen experts from the New Yun Empire led by two of the Radiant Church’s foremost experts, ander Lehman and Lord Heidens, and the sed disciple of the High Priest – Felicia Wonnerin.

  And stood across from them were two young men and a bck rodent which stood on its rear legs cautiously eyeing the group across from them.

  The young men were Linley and Olivier, whilst the rodent standing on Linley’s shoulder was, of course, Bebe.

  Some time ago, Linley and Olivier came across a cottage in the middle of the jungle, which was surrounded by hundreds of serees, each of which was at the middle stages of the saint realm.

  After spending over six months in the Necropolis, they both uood that a cottage being guarded by so many creatures could only meahing – a treasure was located there. Unfortunately, even with their rapid improvements, her was able to take on so many mid-stage saints at the same time; as such, they decided to form a temporary truce – at least until they mao clear a path to the cottage.

  If it had been before the opening of the Necropolis, even with Linley, Olivier, and Bebe w together, there would have been no ce they would’ve been able to clear a path, but as top-tier gehese six months had allowed their progress to be nothing short of miraculous.

  It took several hours of non-stop fighting, but with all three of them w together, they were finally able to achieve their goal. But before they could eveer the cottage and see what was ihey were interrupted by the party from the New Yun Empire.

  The group from the Empire had long since located Linley’s trio, but even though they weren’t scared of them, they khey would have to pay a price to take down Linley without harming Bebe, who would undoubtedly stop at nothing to protect his partner and they weren’t willing to pay such a price if they didn’t have to.

  As such, they decided to wait a Linley’s group tire themselves out before they eventually made their move. Thankfully, with the stability of the spaside the ruins, Linley and his group weren’t able to seheir auras, meaning as long as they stayed out of sight and smelling range of Bebe, the ces of them being found were almost ent.

  As the group from the Yun Empire revealed themselves, Linley’s draian eyes frosted over as he gred at them. More specifically, the two elderly-lookiandihe tre.

  “Heidens, Lehman,” Linley growled as he willed his azure dragon scales to once again cover his body as he resummoned his twin swords from his ste rings.

  “Linley,” the former Holy Emperor – Heidens – sighed regretfully. “You are, without a doubt, one of the most gifted youngsters our ti has ever produced. If only you had agreed to join us at the church, we could’ve been the oo usher in a new era. Unfortunately, you have chosen to foolishly walk down this path of revenge. Now, the only oute left for you is death.”

  As he said that, Heidens summohe golden mage’s staff that radiated the aura of a Diviifact.

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