Chapter 124: The Bloody Rule

"Senior, has the Elemental Forbidden Ground opened?" Gune asked, looking at Zul Elament in a deep voice.

"Mm!" Zul Elament nodded.

"Just now, the moving island shook violently, and a barrier containing considerable divine power enveloped the entire island. The Elemental Forbidden Ground has opened."

"I've come now to lead you there."

"Finally opening?" Gune murmured to himself.

With a light wave of his staff, an invisible force enveloped Gune, and then Zul Elament swiftly flew with Gune toward the exit.

During the flight, Gune's face twitched slightly, and after a moment, his appearance was vastly different from before. His body also shrank a bit and thickened slightly. Then Gune took out a golden wig and put it on. With a slight writhing of his skin, the wig perfectly fused with his head.

After such a disguise, Gune had completely transformed into another person.

With a touch of Dark Essence merged into his body, coupled with his Shadow Cloak, Gune now looked very much like a shadow-walker.

This scene made Zul Elament pause for a moment.

After a while, Zul Elament laughed: "You really are cautious."

"Too many people outside want to kill me; I have to be careful," Gune said.

"That's true," Zul Elament nodded.

When they reached the exit, Zul Elament, who was leading Gune, stopped.

"Waiting for others?" Gune asked.

"Mm!"

Within less than a minute.

Two flying figures each swiftly approached from different directions.

Each of these two Transcendent Masters brought one person.

One was a slender, long-haired girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen, wearing a magic-gold-grade leather armor and carrying a heavy sword on her back.

Although her aura was perfectly concealed, she was too close to Gune.

"Sixth-order mid-stage," Gune thought to himself.

With a sweep of his gaze, Gune's eyes passed over the girl and landed on the heavy sword she carried.

"This heavy sword... seems to contain extremely powerful spell-cursed might."

"A peculiar magic-cursed weapon? Or a top-tier magic-gold weapon with legendary traits?"

The slender, long-haired girl naturally noticed Gune as well. After scanning him and finding nothing unusual, she withdrew her gaze.

After shifting his gaze from the heavy sword, Gune looked toward another Transcendent Master flying in from another direction.

This was a man in his mid-twenties, wearing black armor and carrying a sharp blood-colored war blade on his back.

His aura was murderous, and the blood-colored war blade matched his aura, sharp and fierce.

His own realm was perfectly revealed along with his murderous aura: sixth-order peak.

Seeming to notice Gune's observation, he looked back at Gune and then smiled lightly.

"Since everyone is here, let's set off."

Zul Elament said in a deep voice.

After opening the peculiar barrier formed by the Dominator, the three Transcendent Masters led Gune and the other two into the seawater and swiftly sped toward the mysterious moving island.

More than ten minutes later.

The group of six quickly broke through the water surface.

The sea before their eyes was now in a tranquil night.

Thick, dark mist pressed heavily over the vast ocean.

As soon as they reached the surface, Gune felt that terrifying power.

"Go!"

The three Transcendent Masters, carrying the three, rushed at lightning speed toward the source of that terrifying power.

A few minutes later.

The six were already near the moving island.

Before them, the not-too-large moving island was perfectly enveloped by a huge spherical energy shield.

This energy barrier, a full meter thick, radiated terrifying energy fluctuations.

Having witnessed the aura of evil god divine power, Gune knew clearly that this contained the fluctuations of divine power.

Even just the emitted fluctuations were as vast as mountains, daunting to behold.

"Could it be that the energy barrier has sealed it, and we can't get in?" Gune thought to himself.

Zul Elament, flying at the front, spoke as he flew.

"According to the message just received, the entire island is now sealed by divine power. Anyone who dares to make a move will be killed instantly, with no room for negotiation."

"So when you enter the island, don't act rashly, or no one can save you."

"Understood," Gune and the other two nodded.

Arriving at the edge of the energy barrier, Zul Elament, leading Gune, flew straight into it.

Upon touching the energy barrier, after a slight resistance, the energy channel easily let them through.

But as soon as they entered, Zul Elament's figure descended rapidly.

The other two Transcendent Masters also descended.

"There's an anti-flight force; we'll go on foot," Zul Elament said.

Then, the six of them stepped on the water surface and swiftly ran toward the island's core area.

As they neared the island's core.

Gune could clearly see that in the core area, a large number of transcendents were divided into three major groups.

One group was naturally the evil gods, the Southern Church, pirates, and many other strong figures.

Another group was the Transcendent Association, mainly formed by the three southern empires—"Yulan," "Sheng Luya," and "Heiyu"—along with many experts from the Oceanic Department.

As for the remaining group, they were completely neutral bystanders and the like.

When Gune and the other six arrived at the area of the Transcendent Association.

Gune looked around; it was a dense crowd of over three hundred people.

Meanwhile, the evil gods, the Southern Church, and the pirates had even more people, over a thousand in total.

Of course, most were ordinary pirates; the number of experts was roughly on par with the Transcendent Association.

Gune looked toward the front of the Transcendent Association.

He saw several familiar figures, such as the Steel Wizard "Thorstein Kalasa" and the Transcendent Master "Gultong."

These Transcendent Masters stood behind three strong figures Gune did not recognize.

After his gaze swept over these three strong figures at the front, Gune's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Divine Envoy-level experts?"

"There should be more than these three; probably others are hidden in the shadows."

In the area of the evil gods and the Southern Church, Gune also saw many strong figures.

After scanning those people back and forth and finding no trace of Meisha, Gune slowly withdrew his gaze.

"Meisha probably guessed I'm here. Knowing she's no match, it's not strange that she's hiding to avoid being found."

After some thought, Gune turned his attention to the key point of this event.

The treehouse of the Wicked Sea Elder.

At the island's core, on an ancient banyan tree, a modest treehouse was built among its branches.

Elsewhere, random attacks that weren't powerful enough to damage plants or trees might go unnoticed.

But if one attacked the banyan tree nearby.

Then the many root-like tendrils hanging from the banyan tree would instantly entangle the attacker, drag them underground, and turn them into a source of energy and nutrients for the tree.

Beside the stone path below the treehouse stairs.

A whirlpool about the height of a person was slowly rotating, absorbing surrounding energy.

But at the moment, the energy whirlpool contained chaotic fluctuations of space and time, clearly not the time to enter.

"Is this the location of the Elemental Forbidden Ground's entrance?" Gune thought as he examined the whirlpool.

After more than an hour of silent waiting.

The energy whirlpool gradually stabilized.

"The path to godhood is itself an extremely difficult road."

"Throughout history, how many geniuses have wished to attain godhood and gain eternal, immortal life?"

At the same time, an aged voice came from the wooden house, not loud but clear enough for everyone present to hear.

The voice immediately invigorated the over a thousand people waiting around; they all looked toward the wooden house.

"Even with the guidance of predecessors' divine crowns, it is still exceedingly difficult."

"Sometimes, what you think is a shortcut may be the whisper of a demon."

"This struggle for the divine crown in the Elemental Forbidden Ground is filled with bloodshed and slaughter from the moment of entry."

"The door is there."

"But behind the door awaits the Death God, who reaps the souls of the dead—a true Death God."

"When two enter, one must die. Only after the Death God reaps a soul will passage be granted."

"If you wish to contend for the divine crown, you must be prepared to die."