The experience of traveling through the Jianmu Root Network was far from comfortable.
It was not the instantaneous teleportation of spatial travel, nor was it the smooth journey of riding in a vehicle.
The experience was more like a bizarre return.
It felt as if one were being wrapped in some kind of warm, moist living tissue, forcibly squeezed and wriggled through a narrow passage.
Countless fine rootlets rubbed against their bodies, emitting a "shasha" whisper and carrying a life force so dense it seemed inseparable, evoking thoughts of an ancient pulse buried deep underground.
All around them, the flowing light of life energy surged ceaselessly in the dark void, forming a brilliant underground river of stars.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Perhaps a moment, perhaps several hours.
The stream of light rushing past their eyes began to slow down, and in the endless darkness ahead, a bright point of light pierced the void.
The point of light rapidly expanded.
White light instantly flooded their vision.
When the four opened their eyes again, their bodies had been crudely "spit out" from the end of the channel by the Jianmu Root Network, and they stumbled a few steps before managing to stand steadily.
The sensation under their feet changed from the previous suppleness to the characteristic hard coldness of metal.
"Ugh..."
Xia Lian was the first to lose her composure, covering her mouth and retching, her small face turning deathly pale.
To be wrapped and transported like nutrients by the Divine Tree's roots was truly not a pleasant experience for a Ranger with a mild case of trypophobia.
Lin Qingyue, on the other hand, had adapted well. She surveyed their surroundings, her beautiful brows slightly furrowed.
This was an Underground Palace.
It was completely different from the "dog kennel" of the Azure Dragon Temple, which was piled with discarded drafts, liquor bottles, and fruit pits, overflowing with the aura of decadent living.
This place was excessively clean.
Even clean to a pathological degree.
The floor was seamlessly pieced together with slabs of an unknown metal. Stepping on it produced only dull echoes, without a single speck of dust.
The walls and pillars were all made of this dark metal with a cold, hard luster.
Every floor tile was polished to a mirror finish, and every inch of wall was cold and desolate.
There were no murals, no sculptures, and certainly no potted plants or calligraphy.
In their place were weapons.
Countless weapons hung neatly on the walls.
From ferocious flanged maces to razor-sharp horse-chopping sabers.
From plain, standard-issue longswords to horrifyingly shaped flails that looked as if they were already stained with the blood of countless souls...
Every single one was polished to a mirror shine, their edges flashing with a man-devouring chill as if they had just drunk their fill of fresh blood yesterday.
The entire Underground Palace felt like a massive weapons exhibition hall.
The air was thick with a suffocating mixture of rust and slaughter.
"Is this... truly the White Tiger Temple?"
Lin Xiyue gripped the Blackstone Shield in her hand, her athletic body tensed as she vigilantly scanned their surroundings.
"It feels more like some war maniac's armory."
Lin Qingyue's brow arched.
It seemed that Azure Dragon's teleportation service was just like the one from Vermilion Bird last time, the kind that "drops you off at the gate of the neighborhood, and the rest you walk yourself."
Xia Lian gripped her shortbow nervously, her voice low. "It's too clean, clean to the point of giving me the creeps."
Shouldn't a berserker's residence be chaotic, bloody, and filled with traces of destruction?
Yet this place looked like a collection room meticulously maintained by a late-stage obsessive-compulsive disorder patient.
Ice-blue magic motes already lingered at Su Wan's fingertips; she was the most sensitive to magical elements.
"The elements here are very... sparse and violent, as if they've been forcibly drained by something."
Before she could finish, her beautiful brows furrowed tightly, and she strained her ear to listen.
"Wait."
Her deep blue magic robes fluttered in a non-existent wind as ice crystals shimmered around her body.
"Outside... there are violent elemental fluctuations. Extremely, extremely violent!"
Her voice carried a hint of gravity.
"It's as if tens of thousands of mages are casting spells simultaneously, the entire space is vibrating, no, it's more chaotic than that, it's war!"
No more words were needed from her.
Waves of violent vibrations, dull as thunder, were already transmitted clearly through the metal floor to everyone's feet.
Accompanying the vibrations was a roar echoing from the depths of the Underground Palace.
The sound was muffled by the thick stone walls, yet it remained faintly audible.
It was the sound of battle cries and explosions.
Dense and frenzied, as if thousands of soldiers were engaged in a bloody, relentless clash.
No one needed to say a word. The tacit understanding they had cultivated over years and months instantly put the squad into combat mode.
Lin Xiyue tilted her shield forward, adopting a standard defensive stance, her athletic figure standing like a mountain in front of the other three.
Xia Lian's figure blurred in the light and shadow, as if she might merge into the darkness at any moment.
At the tip of the staff in Su Wan's hand, an ice crystal had already formed, radiating a soul-freezing chill.
"Let's go see."
Lin Qingyue's words were brief and to the point. She held her staff, [Beloved], in a posture that looked less like a Priest and more like a lancer about to charge into battle.
The four moved cautiously along the only passage, creeping toward the source of the sound.
At the end of the passage stood a massive, incredibly heavy metal gate.
Blinding white light leaked through the gap in the door, and the violent sound waves were spilling out from there.
The four combined their strength, and with a tooth-grinding creak, they pushed the heavy iron gate open a crack.
The next instant.
Blindingly bright sunlight.
Deafening battle cries.
A stench of blood so thick it was nauseating.
All of this converged into a tangible shockwave, completely engulfing the four.
The sight before them caused even these four, who had seen countless grand scenes, to have their pupils constrict sharply.
The Abode of the Gods?
No.
This was a Flesh Grinder!
They were standing on the mountainside of a canyon, at the exit of a grand fortress.
And outside the fortress was war.
A true war, like purgatory!
Dark masses of monsters were swarming from the sky and the ground, like a tide, like black clouds, blanketing the world, infinite and endless!
They were creatures Lin Qingyue had never seen before.
Resembling giant mantises, their bodies were covered in dark-green carapaces. Their forelimbs were two massive scythes like bone blades, and on their backs was a pair of translucent wings that emitted a sharp, ear-piercing buzz when vibrating.
The low-level ones charged on the ground, while the high-level ones spread their huge membranous wings, circling and diving in the sky.
They blocked out the heavens, drowned the earth, and their numbers were simply incalculable!
And on the defending side, Lin Qingyue saw familiar figures.
It was Pandaren clad in heavy armor, wielding war hammers!
They had formed a battle line, fighting frantically against those Mantisfolk on the city walls.
Beside them were even more races she had never seen before.
Burly, heavily armored Yaungol with curved horns wielded totem poles and fought side by side with the Pandaren, forming a line of steel.
Agile Simian Race warriors, wielding spears, darted across the city walls, their thrown spears accurately piercing the monsters' compound eyes.
And in the rear, the elegant Jinyu manipulated water, forming barriers, healing wounded comrades, or striking enemies with water arrows.
This was an allied force composed of multiple intelligent races!
Relying on the ancient and sturdy city walls, they fought with all their might to resist the Insect Tide's assault.
But the brutality of the battle exceeded everyone's imagination.
Every swing of a Pandaren warrior's war hammer crushed a Mantisfolk's skull.
Yet more Mantisfolk would immediately swarm up, their sharp bone blades leaving trails of sparks on his heavy armor.
A Mantisfolk had just been sent to the second dimension by a Yaungol's totem pole, only for three more to immediately trample over its companion's corpse and pounce forward without fear of death.
Every minute, every second, more allied warriors were torn to shreds by the Mantisfolk's sharp bone blades.
Severed limbs fell from the city walls like rain.
Blood had long since stained the black walls a dark crimson.
The air was filled with a nauseating stench of rust, sweat, and viscera all mixed together.
The defense line was on the verge of collapse.
This was a war with no chance of victory, a war of attrition fought purely with will and flesh.
"We..."
Xia Lian's voice was a bit dry. She looked at a young Pandaren warrior being tackled and instantly dismembered by several Mantisfolk, her face turning a bit pale.
Just as Lin Qingyue was about to order reinforcements.
A soul-shaking tiger roar boomed from the horizon!
"Roar!"
The roar carried endless slaughter, incomparably tyrannical, as if it wanted to shatter the sky itself!
On the battlefield, the endless Mantisfolk halted their attack.