Chapter 403 - 373: Joy Gives Way to Sorrow

Chapter 403: Chapter 373: Joy Gives Way to Sorrow

A dense, teeming Skeleton Sea, with countless Skeleton-type Pet Beasts clamoring and shrieking. The clusters of ghostly fire in their eye sockets were like a sky full of stars.

Such a scene inspired not a sense of beauty, but of terror—endless terror, like plunging into an icy cavern.

"This... There have to be hundreds of thousands of skeleton Pet Beasts, right?" the muscular guy said, scratching his head as he took in the scene.

If they fell in among those skeleton Pet Beasts, there probably wouldn’t even be a skeleton left of them in the end.

"Thank you, thank you so much for saving us!" the girl with dreadlocks said, also seeing the spectacle. She thanked him from the bottom of her heart.

"Don’t mention it. You were just careless and fell into the Blood Demon Sect’s trap. You’re victims, too. Saving you was the right thing to do." Li Qian waved his hand dismissively, not giving it a second thought.

His gaze remained locked on the screen, fixed on the Skeleton Sea behind them. Suddenly, he shouted, "Quick, veer left!"

The driver didn’t know why, but he trusted Li Qian. He instinctively adjusted the controls, turning the hovercar slightly to the left.

It was this very turn that allowed the hovercar to narrowly avoid a Bone Spear hurtling toward them.

"It’s those dozen or so Skeleton Marshals! They actually have ranged attack Skills!" Bai Bingbing saw it too and immediately shouted a warning.

"Those dozen-plus Skeleton Marshals have all reached Dominator Level. If we get shot down, the consequences will be unthinkable." Beads of cold sweat broke out on Zhao Liuli’s face.

The situation was incredibly precarious, and everyone assumed a posture of wary vigilance.

Clearly, they had celebrated too soon. The crisis was far from over; even though they were now airborne, the risk of being shot down remained.

SWISH SWISH SWISH...

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH...

Bone Spears shot forth with the force of a thunderclap, streaking through the air at incredible speeds and creating sonic booms as they targeted the airborne hovercar.

"Sir, watch out! Dodge!" Li Qian shouted again. In truth, even without his warning, the driver knew exactly what to do.

If they were shot down, there would be no survivors.

VRRRRMMMM...

The hovercar’s engine roared to life, its speed instantly pushed to the maximum. The thrusters at its rear spat out long tongues of flame.

Everyone inside the car, including the five unlucky souls who had just regained consciousness, felt a powerful force press them back. For a moment, they were pinned to their seats, unable to move.

The driver was completely focused, his eyes glued to the screen without blinking, his hands constantly making adjustments.

Under his control, the vehicle began to swerve erratically—left, right, up, down. From a distance, the hovercar looked like a drunkard, staggering about with no discernible pattern to its movements.

It was precisely this lack of a predictable flight path that allowed it to narrowly evade the Bone Spear attacks time and time again.

After about ten more minutes of thrillingly dodging several dozen waves of attacks, the hovercar finally managed to put some more distance between itself and the skeleton army.

This small increase in distance gave Li Qian and the others another small measure of safety.

Thanks to the greater distance, the threat posed by the Bone Spears had been significantly reduced.

"Phew..." Li Qian let out a long sigh of relief. ℯℯ𝑙.

He glanced around at the others in the car, pressed a hand to his forehead, and said with a self-deprecating chuckle, "Well, that was exciting. A few more times like that and my heart might give out."

"A few more times? This one experience is enough for me to relive for the rest of my life!" Lu Tianjiao said, patting his chest, an expression of lingering fear still on his face.

It couldn’t be helped. That last scene had just been too dangerous. One wrong move could have meant a fiery crash and death for them all.

As the distance between them and the army grew, the tightly wound tension in Li Qian and the others’ hearts began to slowly unwind.

Just as Li Qian and his group thought they had finally escaped—or at least, were temporarily out of danger and could relax for a moment—a WHOOSH echoed as a streak of orange-red flame shot toward them from the distant horizon.

It was followed by a deafening BOOM.

The rushing flame seemed to have struck something in the air not far off...

With another WHOOSH, a flaming piece of metal debris hurtled toward Li Qian’s hovercar with the speed of a thunderbolt, giving them no time to react.

The sudden accident caught everyone completely off guard.

"Fuck, what the hell is going on?" Even Zhou Yuanhao, who looked like a simple-minded brute, couldn’t help but curse at the sight.

The hovercar was struck by the metal component. While it didn’t explode in midair, the impact tore a massive gash in its side.

A furious gale poured in through the gash, instantly turning the cabin into a chaotic mess.

"Snow Spirit, use Ice Crystal Guardian!" At the critical moment, Bai Bingbing summoned her most reliable Pet Beast—a Snow Spirit. It was a creature that resembled a white cat, capable of walking upright and possessing eyes like sapphires. At that moment, its eyes suddenly bloomed with a deep blue light.

As the blue light shone forth, a pale blue sphere materialized out of thin air inside the cabin, enveloping the eleven of them.

The sphere surrounded them, deflecting the various pieces of debris and shrapnel flying in from all directions.

The moment the words left Bai Bingbing’s mouth, another crisp voice rang out.

It was Zhao Liuli. In front of her, the light of a Summoning Array flashed into existence.

Immediately after, a strange-looking, sharp-beaked parrot with a musical note symbol on its head appeared above her.

"Qixi Parrot, use Telekinesis!"

The Qixi Parrot received Zhao Liuli’s command and acted without hesitation, its body instantly radiating waves of translucent Energy.

The translucent waves of Energy radiated outward. The massive, protective sphere containing the eleven of them plummeted from the sky. Just as it neared the ground, it suddenly hovered for a moment. Because of this, its final descent was only from a height of three or four meters.

From such a height, not even a small insect would be killed by the fall, let alone a person, so they landed safely on the ground.

Of course, this manner of landing was less than graceful, and it made their hearts sink.

Without the hovercar, they had no way of returning to Mo Yuan City.

Leaving aside the other threats along the way, the skeleton army at their backs alone would be enough to run them ragged.

Just as Li Qian was starting to get a massive headache over their situation, a similar milky-white sphere of light descended from the sky not far away.

Li Qian saw four people inside the sphere—four rather young men.

Two of them looked like young nobles, exuding an air of elegance. The other two, however, gave Li Qian a rather strange feeling.

They were calm and composed, like seasoned veterans who had seen it all. In short, their eyes and their posture were not what one would expect from men their age.

Seeing the sphere land, Li Qian couldn’t help but frown. Without a doubt, the hovercar belonging to these four had been blown up by some sort of Skill.

Their hovercar had exploded in midair, and one of the flying components had smashed into his own vehicle, causing the scene from just moments before.

In other words, they were the victims of a completely unexpected disaster—innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

Thinking of this, Li Qian didn’t hesitate. He walked straight toward them, ready to demand an explanation...