Chapter 0562: Empty City

After the prying eyes retreated, the First Princess retracted her gaze and praised Li Luo with a smile. "You've contributed a lot to the success of this fight once again. If not for your timely capture of Jing Taixu, I would have had to struggle against Lan Lan, and who knows how that would have turned out. An unpleasant outcome would be more likely than not."

Li Luo shrugged. "Dear Princess, you must be exaggerating! We could have simply ran with our tails tucked between our legs in the worst case! If you had gotten crippled here, our odds of victory would be nonexistent."

Frankly speaking, the First Princess had planned to resist the Three Kowtows of the Enlightened Sage headfirst from the start. Of course, doing that was no child's play, and any mistake on their part would have led to elimination.

If the group leader was eliminated, the remaining points wouldn't amount to much.

Upon hearing those words, she glared at Li Luo. "So what if he started kowtowing? Do you think this princess here is a simple punching bag? Psh. If this damned Lan Lan dares to try it, then I'll take him on for a couple of rounds and we will see who wins!" Faced with the self-confident and arrogant princess, Li Luo was left speechless.

"Let's go. Into the city!" Jiang Qing'e casually mentioned.

The First Princess' gaze turned to face the decrepit and derelict level three city. "Once this city has been purified, the only real problem left to deal with in the entirety of the Red Clay Province will be the Russet Rock City. The victor will be determined there."

Li Luo sighed wistfully. Despite them having a lead of tens of thousands of points, the purification of Russet Rock City provided almost five hundred thousand points! Whichever team managed to get the largest slice of the pie would definitely be able to directly ascend to the top position.

However, this also demonstrated the absolute peril it contained. No single group would be able to monopolize the points.

Compartmentalizing away their own lamentations, the squad made their way into the ruined city rife with corruption.

Yet as they progressed, they noticed something extremely unsettling and strange.

The entire city seemed to be empty. Not a single Other could be seen.

This led the three to feel taken aback, and they spread out to investigate further. After half an hour later, they regrouped in the center of the city with nothing to show for their efforts.

"Where are the Others?" Li Luo couldn't help but ask. The First Princess and Jiang Qing'e were similarly befuddled. "Could they have been scared away by our battle?"

"No... Even during the fight, I did not sense any movement in here."

Jiang Qing'e furrowed her brow in consternation. "Hmm, the corruption within the city is also extremely pervasive... This suggests that there were numerous Others here. Just looking around, we can see signs of corrosion on both the grounds and building. There was definitely an extremely strong Other here."

"Then where could they all have gone?" Li Luo was similarly confused. Was their difficult faceoff against Lan Lan going to be rewarded with an empty city?

Jiang Qing'e shook her head, indicating that she was completely baffled by the sight before her too.

"Forget about it. So be it. The purification of the city is where we get most of the points from anyway." The First Princess shrugged after she spoke.

Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e did not have any other comments. There was probably no need to look deeper into this, as their aim was to set up the cleansing barrier. This was perfect—they'd obtain the points for cleansing a level three city!

The three got to work and finished setting up the cleansing orbs throughout the city very quickly. Within two hours, purifying pillars of light arose into the skies.

The beams of light then interwove into an increasingly dense net of light, eventually ensconcing the entire city with its cleansing powers.

At the same time, the corruption began to recede, and eventually even the city took on a radiant glow.

The ease of which the situation resolved itself caused the trio to feel a little taken aback.

"Our points just increased. That's it?" Li Luo felt a sense of disbelief as every single level three city before this had been a herculean task to cleanse. Each possessed a Lesser Heavenly Disaster Class Other, and even the First Princess had to engage in an arduous battle before slaying them. She'd even require Jiang Qing'e's assistance from time to time!

On the other hand, this simple endeavor of theirs had netted them fifty thousand points.

"Let's give it another four hours. If nothing strange happens, we will make our way towards Russet Rock City," the First Princess said.

The other two nodded in acceptance of the situation.

Time passed by, and they could gradually feel the corruption consistently dissipate with no sign nor shadow of Others.

After which, the squad no longer hesitated and left the level three city, making their way towards the final trial, Russet Rock City.

Interestingly, what the squad did not know was that this strange situation was also the case in the surrounding cities.

Those cities were all completely empty, without any trace of a living Other found within.

In the end, all the other squads set up their cleansing barriers and chose to leave, directly making their way towards the final destination.

A few days passed.

The three were now perched atop high ground, observing the massive and majestic reddish-brown wall that had appeared before them, their expressions gradually becoming more solemn.

No trace of corruption could be seen emanating from their objective.

It was as though the Other Disaster had never occurred.

But anyone could tell that this was impossible.

In the entirety of the time they had traveled, they could distinctly feel that they were moving towards the source of the corruption, Russet Rock City itself.

There was definitely some devilry at work. The quiet and seemingly uncorrupted Russet Rock City looked even more suspicious as a result.

"This city is extremely dangerous," Jiang Qing'e mused as she stared at the humongous walls before them. Her ninth-grade light resonance granted her exceptional perceptive abilities, indicating the perilous situation that lay ahead.

It was as though a primal beast was coiled up within the depths of the city, its gaping maw ready to swallow any unfortunate fools willing to step in.

"How do I put it? Do we go in?" Li Luo asked curiously.

Even Jiang Qing'e was approaching the situation cautiously, indicating that calamitous dangers likely awaited them. It was better to be honest with their feelings, considering that he was just a mere Resonant Master Stage cultivator.

The First Princess looked at Jiang Qing'e before gravely saying, "Russet Rock City is completely different from the cities we’ve been to. The level of danger is probably much higher than what we had faced at the Thunderpeal Tree. My suggestion is that we do not enter alone."

"I agree wholeheartedly. Let's wait here for other squads before we deliberate over our decisions. Perhaps some might be willing to work together."

"I can feel that the Other in the core of the city will be no weaker than the grinning demon we had met prior." Li Luo nodded in agreement with Qing'e's musings.

Without being able to clearly identify the risks ahead of them, they would have to remain on their toes. Scrabbling for every last point in this situation would only lead them to early graves.

Since the other two did not have any other opinions, the First Princess took her spirit mirror out and emitted a pillar of light into the sky with the aid of resonant power. Anyone else who held a spirit mirror would also be able to perceive this sign, serving as a beacon for the other squads to congregate around.

After which, the three sat down and quietly waited, a peace that lasted several hours.

Finally, a hint of movement could be sensed as the group looked towards the forest in their surroundings.

Countless silhouettes could be seen emerging from the trees, gradually gathering before Li Luo's squad.