Chapter 774: The Strongest Black Spirit

What were these whirlpools doing here? While Fang Yi attempted to understand the strange phenomenon, fumes of black smoke began to emerge from the gigantic pyramid, and black bandages from its base.

Fang Yi's eyes grew wide. "What? Hasn't the pyramid been destroyed...?"

How could there be smoke coming out of the base of the pyramid??Hold on—the base!?Fang Yi glanced toward the pyramid's base. Upon thinking back to the empty interior, he smiled grimly. "So that's it."

He tried to stand up again, but he was still suffering from a bout of weakness from unleashing his ultimate technique. The sand beneath his feet began to shift. The three smaller pyramids seemed as though they were monsters devouring the black sand all around them.

As the sand drained away toward them, Fang Yi found the sand beneath his feet give way. "Is this the end for me?"

Black bandages covered up the moon in the sky. The black bandages approached from above, and the three pyramids from all around him. Fang Yi, whose body stubbornly refused to move, found himself in dire straits.

He winced. "It's a pity that I wasn't able to finish Zhang Lie's trial. He'll be disappointed, I suppose..."

As the black bandages shot down toward Zhang Lie, an eagle's cry pierced the skies. Golden claws tore the black cloth to shreds as an eagle swooped down toward Fang Yi, grabbed him, and rose again into the skies.

Only when they escaped the bandages did Fang Yi discover that the figure that had grabbed him was a golden eagle, whose feathers were like starlight. As he stretched his wings, golden radiance lit up the entire night sky.

"You are..." Fang Yi thought that this golden eagle looked particularly familiar.

"Zhang Lie had me come," the golden eagle replied.

Zhang Lie!

The golden eagle was none other than Xing Ying. Xing Ying continued, "Zhang Lie knew how difficult this trial would be for all of you considering that you've only just ascended, so he specially assigned us warlords from the Milky Way to follow you from behind. After all, you're all his precious followers."

Fang Yi blinked. "Us warlords?"

Xing Ying clarified, "The other warlords are tailing the rest of the hunters in Team Zenith."

Beneath them, the smaller pyramids began to revolve rapidly. Black sand gathered where they stood, forming miniature cyclones which tore through the desert. The cyclones were strong enough to cause a shift in the air currents, and even Xing Ying was affected.

Fang Yi glanced down at the revolving pyramids. "As expected, the storms I encountered were caused by those pyramids."

"The pyramids are basically mobile warships the black spirits can deploy at will."

"What?"

Xing Ying didn't explain. Instead, he commented, "You're really unlucky, aren't you? The black spirits are by far the strongest race among those around the draconian world."

More black cloth emerged from the base of the pyramid and struck at Xing Ying and Fang Yi. Despite the sandstorm and turbulent conditions, Xing Ying easily flew out of reach while chatting with Fang Yi.

Fang Yi had a complicated expression on his face as he watched Xing Ying dodge the attacks with ease. Was this the strength of a mid-rank warlord, a warlord from one of the four prime races?

Xing Ying continued amiably, "I have to admit that your combat strength is truly extraordinary. For you to be able to destroy the pyramid to such an extent—the black spirit king must have been truly annoyed with you to summon the three mobile pyramids to attack you."

"No, no, you overpraise me. Compared to you, I've hardly managed to do anything."

"There's no need to be so modest—even if I were to attack the pyramid myself, there's no way I'd be able to wreak such damage. It looks like there are really strong hunters besides Zhang Lie and Sun Mengmeng among the humans."

Although quite a few warlords had taken note of Team Zenith's performance during the Void Cup, not every warlord had the time or interest in doing so. To the warlords of the third realm, rookies of the first realm were nothing impressive.

If the third-realm hunters were like adults, then second-realm hunters were teenagers, and the first-realm hunters just little rascals. No matter how outstanding one such rascal was, none of the third-realm warlords would pay them any mind.

The only reason they knew of Team Zenith was via Zhang Lie; all they knew was that he had a group of outstanding subordinates. Before that, no one in the third realm paid any attention to the members of Team Zenith, nor the unharvested potential they represented.

After all, the members of Team Zenith were all humans. The proud warlords didn't want to admit that there were members of other alien races more talented than they were—and of course, the chief reason why the members of Team Zenith had been neglected was because they were always being compared to someone far more radiant: Zhang Lie.

Fang Yi laughed. "Everyone in Team Zenith is exceptionally strong. You'll see what I mean once you face them for yourself."

Xing Ying nodded. "I'll take your word for it. Do you have any insight regarding the black spirit king?"

"You mean the king of the realm?"

Fang Yi's gaze turned to the black pyramid, his eyes sharp as spears. "Yes, I do."

Xing Ying warned him, "The mission that Zhang Lie gave me was to protect your life, but I won't step in in a fight between you and the king. That's still your responsibility, and the most I'll do is take care of the trash out here. Are you alright with that?"

"It's far more than enough. Thank you."

"In that case, let's set off." Xing Ying flapped his wings and flew toward the apex of the pyramid in a beam of light.

Black cloth shot straight toward Xing Ying, but he was always able to dodge and fly between the small openings left behind in each attack. As Xing Ying flew past attack after attack, the black cloth resorted to defense instead, firmly covering up the entirety of the black pyramid.

Golden light tore through the black cloth and charged into the pyramid proper. Xing Ying shouted, "Go!"

He tossed Fang Yi forward. As he fell, Fang Yi took a long swig of restorative, then retrieved a spear—an armament-type soulshard conveniently dropped by a peak-grade sand scarab. The tip of the spear was sharp and honed to a fine edge.

As he fell, the restorative swiftly began to heal his wounded arm and body.

"[Heaven's Judgment: Stormwind Explosion]!" The combination of wind and lightning generated a frightening force that seemed to be able to penetrate space.

The momentum that Xing Ying had given him during his toss allowed Fang Yi to launch down toward the pyramid like a meteor.

With his spear before him, Fang Yi broke through countless walls as he shot into the interior of the pyramid. Within moments, he had arrived at the base layer of the pyramid. Its black foundation prevented him from going further; the tip of Fang Yi's spear began to spark...