“Wait, who was the first of you to leave the Secret Realm?”
Chen Bugu had just regained consciousness, his mind still a bit muddled. He needed to figure out how much time they had wasted in the Secret Realm.
“Chen Dage, I was the first to return to this space. After being killed in the Secret Realm, I woke up on this platform.”
“Not long after I woke up, Bai Ting and the others also woke up one by one. Everyone returned here after being ‘killed’.”
“Lin Lin Jie woke up before you. The former Muka King told her that he still had some things to say to you, so you would remain unconscious for a while longer, and he asked us not to leave the spherical space and to wait for you to return.”
After Han Badou finished speaking, he recalled the scene of the ‘god’s’ light spear piercing his chest, and he still felt a lingering fear.
“Ba Dou, when you woke up, had Liu Shifu and Teacher Lin left?” Chen Bugu continued to ask.
“Yes, when we woke up, we didn’t see Liu Shifu and the others anymore. According to our calculations, it has probably been about 20 days since we entered the Secret Realm.”
Han Badou immediately understood Chen Bugu’s meaning when he heard him ask about Liu Shifu and the others.
They didn’t have many solutions for the time issue.
The former Muka King had told Lin Lin to wait for Chen Bugu to wake up here, so they had no choice but to keep waiting.
Relying on Bai Ting’s quartz watch, they could barely tell the time here, but as the hands swept through one circle after another, and Chen Bugu still hadn’t woken up, everyone inevitably felt some anxiety.
Just today, as everyone was once again discussing whether to take Chen Bugu and leave this place first, they finally saw Chen Bugu slowly open his eyes.
“Thank you, everyone.”
Chen Bugu gave a bitter smile. He had been unconscious for so long, yet everyone was willing to guard him, which made him trust this group of companions even more.
“But all the food is in my storage ring. How did you all manage these past ten-plus days?”
Chen Bugu then noticed that the water Lin Lin fed him was a bottle of “Farmer’s Three Punches” brand bottled water, which they hadn’t had before.
Yan Kuan was about to speak when he suddenly saw several figures slowly approaching them not far from the platform.
“Well, just watch, maybe they’re here to ‘deliver food’ to us.”
Yan Kuan shrugged, stepping aside to let Chen Bugu see the figures.
Chen Bugu gradually regained a bit of strength. He slightly raised his head and saw three men walking towards them from not far away.
The leading man had yellow hair tied in a small braid, an East Asian face. The two men following him wore white shirts and suit pants, but also had strange hairstyles.
Chen Bugu turned his head and glanced at Han Badou.
“It’s fine, Chen Dage. Two Black Iron Four Star, one Black Iron Five-Star.”
Chen Bugu relaxed a bit after hearing that. They had delayed for too long, and their strength hadn’t improved, but if it was just one Black Iron Five-Star and two Black Iron Four Star, Bai Ting and the others should be able to handle it.
The yellow-haired leader was now less than seven or eight meters from Chen Bugu and the others. Chen Bugu could see that all three men’s eyes were constantly appraising and lingering on Lin Xiaoxiao and Lin Lin, with a hint of ill-intentioned lewdness.
The yellow-haired man spoke, not in Chinese, but it sounded like someone from the neighboring Neon Country.
“Han Badou, what are they saying?”
Chen Bugu’s tone was cold. He could already roughly guess the content of their words; sometimes expressions and demeanor convey more information than speech.
“The yellow-haired man asked if we wanted to go with them, saying that all six of us could join their team, and they wouldn’t mind providing us protection.”
“However, the price is for us to hand over our equipment, for the men to cripple their arms, and for the women to take off their clothes…”
As Ba Dou spoke, his tone grew colder and colder.
Upon hearing this, Yan Kuan and Lin Xiaoxiao had already turned to face the three men, while Bai Ting merely glanced at them and continued to sit where he was.
Lin Lin raised the Goblin’s Bone Staff, and with a gentle wave, a faint energy shield simultaneously appeared on Lin Xiaoxiao and Yan Kuan.
The Goblin’s Bone Staff in Lin Lin’s hand had now turned green. Originally, she could only cast a shield on herself, but now she could cast it on others.
Lin Xiaoxiao’s Cold Iron Dart had also turned green, Floating in the air and spinning rapidly, with a faint layer of air blades around the dart.
It seemed Yan Kuan hadn't been idle while waiting for him to wake up.
Seeing this formation, the yellow-haired man showed no fear. Red light flickered in his eyes, yellow fur began to grow on his upper body, and his fingernails extended, becoming incredibly sharp. It was clearly some kind of reinforced transformation ability.
He roared to the sky and swiftly charged towards Yan Kuan.
Yan Kuan pressed his hands to the ground, trying to manipulate the few Earth Elements available in this place.
The Earth Elements gathered and transformed into sharp earth spikes, continuously thrusting out from the ground in front of the yellow-haired man.
After the yellow-haired man broke an earth spike with one palm, he felt the pain in his palm and decisively chose to turn and retreat.
Despite the distance being only seven or eight meters, the yellow-haired man couldn't get close. In his eyes, the earth spikes manipulated by the fat man blocked him one after another like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
Elemental abilities generally consume a lot of mental energy, and this fat man was releasing them almost continuously. If they delayed or acted separately, the fat man would surely be overwhelmed.
Thinking this, the yellow-haired man turned back and shouted something at the other two, probably asking them why they were standing there watching the show.
Of course, the yellow-haired man didn't know that the two men dared not make any rash moves at that moment.
It wasn't that they didn't want to help the yellow-haired man; it was just that a moment ago, their entire bodies stiffened, losing control, and then when they could move again, they saw several cold glints flash by, felt a chill at their necks, and looked down to see several darts already pressed against their throats.
If they moved even an inch, those darts might instantly sever their carotid arteries.
Seeing that his teammates couldn’t help, the yellow-haired man decisively pulled back, turned, and tried to escape. He looked back at Bai Ting and Chen Bugu, who were sitting on the ground, and instantly realized he had bitten off more than he could chew this time.
“Chen Bugu, watch this, I’ll show you something.” Yan Kuan said with a smile, his voice full of excitement.
The moment the yellow-haired man retreated rapidly, the surrounding ground suddenly trembled, followed by four three-meter-high stone walls instantly rising from the ground, trapping the yellow-haired man within them.
Chen Bugu could hear the yellow-haired man continuously attacking the stone walls from within, but clearly, his reinforced transformation ability was not a strength-type like Xue Ke’s, and the yellow-haired man would not be able to break through the stone walls in the short term.
“I’ve trapped him. How do you want to deal with him?”
Yan Kuan looked at Chen Bugu. Since Chen Bugu was awake, he was still accustomed to asking for his opinion.
“Neon Country, a nation that knows small courtesies but lacks great righteousness…”
“Kill him.”
Chen Bugu had a very poor impression of the Neon nation, especially since they had actively provoked them.
“Alright~” Yan Kuan smiled.
Countless sharp earth spikes suddenly grew from the four earth walls trapping the yellow-haired man, and the yellow-haired man trapped within them let out a scream.
Chen Bugu looked at the earth wall, which was now riddled with spikes like a hedgehog, and finally understood what Yan Kuan meant by “show you something.”
It seemed Yan Kuan had made a breakthrough.
Chen Bugu had seen this move in his previous life. Because its principle and appearance somewhat resembled a medieval European torture device, everyone called it:
Iron Maiden!