While the twins’ group spent their sweet ti collecting Starlight Fruits, the experts in the Golden Palace still made their way further and further into the various regions.
There was a big change this ti around. As ntioned before, usually no more than a single Universe cos to the Golden Palace. Because of that, you have a much lower number of experts managing to reach the deeper parts. You would always see the top powers of that Universe doing the best progress, while most of the rest don’t get far.
Now, groups similar to the one the twins had with Royer were made everywhere. Experts from various Universes, not part of any top power, are joining forces and especially sharing knowledge. Sure, the top powers still had the best ti on their way further into the Palace, but they weren’t alone like they were before.
There was also the chosen issue this ti. Eventually, the news about those ’chosen ones’ spread among the experts. But, above all, a piece of news caught their attention. One of those Chosen was killed by soone who wasn’t a Chosen himself. And yet, that expert ended up absorbing the Chosen’s mark, becoming a Chosen too.
To be more specific, the one who died was the expert from Universe F950. He was travelling alone, and by coincidence, he t with the chosen from the Universe F954 and its Romuteri Clan’s experts. Let’s not forget the Romuteri Clan was the controlling power from F954.
He was pursued, but he had his own ans, and he eventually managed to get away from the Romuteri Clan. Too bad that also caught the attention of other groups that happened to be in the area. That’s how the information about him being a Chosen was found by the others. After all, why would such a top power like the Romuteri Clan’s group be after him instead of continuing forward, and in such a big number? That was everyone’s line of thought.
What about the new Chosen? Well, he was a Demon Beast, a Divine Jade Turtle. He caught the guy from F950 in a region dominated by water. Using his advantage and the fact that the Chosen from F950 was alone, he landed the fatal hit and managed to acquire the mark.
At the mont, only four experts had the marks.
Rifindio, obviously, had four of them.
The Angel from F951 had two, the sa guy who lured and killed his Angel companions to make it look like he died.
The third one was from the Romuteri Clan from Universe F954. No one knew exactly who it was, though. The group this Romuteri Clan mber was moving with didn’t show any hints of who among them had this mark, and the group itself was plenty strong. Even the other top powers didn’t simply attack, especially considering they wouldn’t know who their target was. You need another Chosen to find him or her in that group’s midst.
Last but not least, the Turtle, who went by the na of Gara. Coincidently, he was from Universe F954, just like the Romuteri Clan. His race, the Divine Jade Turtles, was pretty strong back in the F954, even if they weren’t on par with the Romuteri Clan. The Romuteri had the backing of the Werdlem Empire, after all. That made the Turtles kind of their subordinates. Of course, here in the Golden Palace, everyone wanted to get a chance at the Celestial Realm, so regardless of whether you ca from a top power or not, no one would submit to you easily. Gara and his subordinates definitely wouldn’t.
The chosen ones, the groups made of random experts, the top powers...
All these parties made their way further into the palace, but the Chosen themselves didn’t et for the ti being.
Naturally, the number of corpses and broken cores only increased with each region. From the nurous experts at the entrance of the Golden Palace, you wouldn’t find more than 10 or 15% remaining here. The saying that not even half of the experts would survive the Golden Palace during each opening was no joke. Only the cream of the crop, as well as so lucky ones, have gotten this far now.
But then, these various groups, top powers, and lone experts began to gather. There were literally years of difference between the forward most participants and those at the tail of the exploration. And yet, they were all converging in the sa region. So had been here for years, without the necessary ans to proceed, while others arrived later, but were just as stuck.
What could have made them stop here? The answer was quite simple. In front of them, there was a new Region, a Region that pretty much none of them had seen before. They wanted to enter it, but they couldn’t. That’s because the border had a protective barrier in place.
The barrier was adorned with countless potent runes, the levels of which most experts could not identify. Yet, so had seen them. Those were Legendary Grade runes, Peak-Level ones!
As always, formations were separated by grades. Legendary Grade Ones were no different. The twins’ group, so far, has only seen Initial and Middle Level Legendary ones.
But what truly caught everyone’s eyes was not the barrier nor the runes. Instead, it was the circular construction far, far into the distance. It looked like a giant gate, and around that gate, eight different marks could be seen. As you can imagine, those were the eight marks of the eight Universes.
They were still several hundred kiloters away from that gate. But even so, that gate’s size alone was gigantic, even from here. Too bad no one could go there. The barrier preventing them from entering the next Region, the Region where that gate was located, couldn’t be broken.
---
The Angel and his two companions arrived at that region, looking at the gate in the distance. Without wasting ti, the Angel joined the several more angels that had arrived at that area earlier. "Friends, it’s good to see you."
The other angels nodded at him, even though no one knew who he was. "Yes, welco. Who are these two?" They didn’t question the angel, but they didn’t like to see their race mber being followed by those two experts, especially since the two outsiders were not even from the sa Universe.
"There is no need to worry," the angel explained. "I have a pact with these friends here, so they can’t betray , even if they wanted to."
The angel who asked smiled, nodding. "That’s good. My na is Faltel, by the way." Then, Faltel turned to the barrier ahead. "I have been here for a year already. Can you see that barrier? That’s a Legendary Level Formation, and a Peak one at that."
"Legendary Peak Level?!" The angel was taken aback. "I only heard about it in the Werdlem Network. It’s my first ti seeing one in front of . Oh, right. Where are my manners? I’m Galatia."
Faltel nodded and sighed. "We have our cultivations suppressed to the Transition Realm. But truth be told, even if we were all with our cultivations released, we would stand no chance of breaking through that thing. Only Celestial Realm experts would have a chance."
"Then... what do we do?" Galatia asked back.
Faltel pointed at the center of the barrier. There, one could see an area where the Legendary Level runes were pretty much nonexistent. "We have noticed sothing. Every day, one rune in that central area of the barrier disappears, and we can see it weakening. According to our calculations, the runes will be completely gone in four months’ ti."
Galatia looked surprised. "That leaves us with no more than six months to reach the end, but that gate might be the end itself. So... everyone has just been waiting, doing nothing?"
"You are free to give it a try," Faltel shrugged. "Believe , we tried. Our race would never have waited so long since the longer we take, the more experts arrive here. We can only wait."
Galatia glanced at one of his companions. ’Ermon, you are the formations master here. Is it truly helpless?’
Ermon, from Universe F954, nodded. ’It is. That thing ahead is terrifying. I have no hope of turning off that formation, even if I had a thousand years to work on it.’
Galatia could only give up there. ’So be it.’
Then, he glanced to the side, locking eyes with an expert from the sa Universe as Ermon, F954. Both sides had noticed each other, but they also kept quiet. They knew it. They were both Chosen, but they were also hiding within their own powers. The only difference was that the F954 Chosen’s companions knew the truth about him, while the Angels around Galatia had no idea he was a Chosen.
Galatia wasn’t worried. That’s because the F954 experts and their Chosen didn’t know the truth and were probably thinking the Angels around Galatia were his own protectors. Engaging right now would only give other powers a chance to acquire their marks. It was better for both Chosen ones to stay low so the other powers around wouldn’t identify them.
Around two months later, Gara and his Divine Jade Turtle group arrived. Now, only two months remained for the central area of the barrier to co down.
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