Chapter 167: The Powerful Gatekeepers

Chapter 167: The Powerful Gatekeepers

The enormous towering structures stood silently within the frozen twilight. Not a single sound came from their surroundings, making them seem less like buildings than a painting in oils.

Passing through such an environment, Derrick Berg found himself even more tense than when exploring other places deep within the darkness. Every hair on his back stood on end.

After entering the region shrouded by twilight, the entire exploration team—including Chief Colin Iliad and the Shepherd elder Lovia—inevitably fell into a state of fatigue and decline, as though they had already stepped into the final years of life. And as they advanced, the number of rotting giants wandering along the roads or rushing out from different buildings increased, each wave stronger than the last.

With one side weakened and the other strengthened, progress became difficult. After several fierce battles, the City of Silver’s exploration team finally broke through the monsters’ “blockade” and “interception” and arrived in an area so unnaturally quiet, so utterly soundless, that it made their scalps prickle.

Faced with this, Demon Hunter Colin Iliad had no choice but to break the silence and give a reminder:

“This means we have truly entered the Giant King’s Court and are about to approach its core. The degree of danger will only rise. It will not fall.”

After hearing those words, a small number of exploration team members, affected by the twilight, wavered somewhat.

In their view, although for most of the earlier journey they had not dared stop for long, fearing they would be surrounded by rotting giants, there had at least been times when they had cleared out all the monsters in a small area and could rest and adjust. They had already obtained quite a few Beyonder characteristics, mystical materials, and potion formulas. This exploration could already be considered sufficiently rewarding. There was no need to continue going deeper. The most sensible thing now would be to find a suitable building, establish a forward camp, and prepare for a second exploration later.

Facing such a suggestion, Colin Iliad did not say much. He only emphasized that the objective of this exploration was to gather as much general information about the Giant King’s Court as possible and accumulate enough intelligence for all later actions.

Then he had a team member named Antilna “Placate” those whose wills had wavered.

Since the Shepherd elder Lovia also supported the Chief, that small group of exploration team members quickly adjusted their mental states and continued silently forward behind him.

After some time, they saw a massive stone stairway. It was gray-white overall, yet stained with orange-yellow light, both splendid and still.

Each step of that stairway was relatively high. For ordinary humans, climbing it would be extremely difficult. Fortunately, even the shortest member of this exploration team, Elder Lovia, was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and she could also control fierce winds.

Above the enormous stairway stood a magnificent wall so high that one had to raise one’s head to see the top. It bore many signs of damage and scorching. In certain places, arrows as thick as ordinary tree trunks and several meters long were still embedded there, causing portions of stone to collapse.

At the center of the wall was a pair of great double doors several dozen meters high. Their color leaned toward gray-blue, and rows of golden nails were inlaid upon them. Outside stood two guards whose mere appearance exerted immense pressure.

They were five or six meters tall and wore exquisitely crafted, solid silver full-body armor. One held a greatsword; the other had planted a huge axe against the ground. Behind each visor shone a mass of orange-red light, like a single eye.

“Silver Knights…” Demon Hunter Colin raised his right hand and held his straight sword horizontally, stopping the exploration team members behind him.

He had already drawn the two straight swords he carried on his back and coated each with a different medicinal paste.

Silver Knights… Derrick Berg’s eyelids twitched, and his heart palpitated.

Only recently had he learned from the Chief some intelligence known only to the upper ranks. He now knew that Sequence 3 of the Giant pathway was called Silver Knight. He also knew that the City of Silver lacked the correct potion formula, though it did possess the corresponding Beyonder characteristic.

What startled and frightened Derrick was that the gatekeepers of the core region of the Giant King’s Court were actually two Sequence 3 demigods. That was one level higher than the City of Silver’s strongest combatants!

And this was merely the gate area of the King’s Court. Who knew what they would encounter if they truly entered its depths?

After the fright, Derrick found himself unable to suppress a certain anticipation:

Perhaps, within the Giant King’s Court, they could find the potion formulas that came after Sequence 4 of the Giant pathway.

If that happened, the Chief might become a Silver Knight, greatly increasing the strength of the City of Silver. Then they would be able to explore the Giant King’s Court another step deeper, find more potion formulas, hunt more monsters, and harvest more high-level Beyonder characteristics and mystical materials.

Subconsciously, Derrick glanced left and right and discovered that Joshua, Haim, Antilna, and the other exploration team members had more or less the same reaction as he did: tense and afraid, yet carrying a trace of hope.

At that moment, the Shepherd elder Lovia took two steps forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Colin Iliad. Looking up at the gray-blue doors and the two Silver Knights whose present states were unclear, she said, “If there were only one, we would have a chance to handle it.”

What she truly meant was that, with two Silver Knights present, even if they were willing to endure terrible casualties, they would have no way to clear out the enemies. After all, even if the Chief could assume his mythical creature form and under normal circumstances fight a Sequence 3, this environment did not allow him to attempt anything similar. The twilight’s shroud brought decline, and what he could normally withstand might not be something he could withstand here.

Colin Iliad nodded. He separately glanced at Lovia and Derrick Berg, observed the scene ahead for a while, and said, “For now, as long as we do not approach that door, the two guards will not attack us.”

“Perhaps we could try luring one Silver Knight away and deal with it separately?” the female warrior named Antilna suggested after some consideration.

She had medium-length burgundy hair. Her features were not individually exquisite, but together they gave her an open, striking beauty.

During this expedition, her main duty was to rely on the sealed artifact she controlled to treat the team members’ psychological problems and resist enemies with mental-domain abilities.

Antilna’s specific idea was that she and the others would lure away one Silver Knight and use terrain and teamwork to hold it off, while the Chief and Elder Lovia joined forces to deal with the one that remained, aiming to finish it as quickly as possible.

This was the City of Silver’s textbook method for handling similar situations.

“Even if there were only one Silver Knight, it would still be very difficult. And we cannot guarantee that the Silver Knight you lure away will not directly reveal its mythical creature form,” Demon Hunter Colin calmly rejected Antilna’s proposal.

Setting aside the Silver Knight’s own powerful Beyonder abilities, as long as it revealed its mythical creature form, the majority of the City of Silver exploration team would be unable to look directly at it and would be affected. There would be no possibility of holding it off.

Without waiting for the other team members to speak, Colin Iliad looked back and said, “We will take another path.

“Derrick discovered some records in the reflection world of Afternoon Town. They mention a passageway in the rear region of the Giant King’s Court.”

The Shepherd elder Lovia’s gaze immediately turned toward Derrick Berg. It was indifferent and calm, containing not a trace of emotion.

Derrick instinctively raised the Unshadowed Crucifix in his hand a little higher and restrained an indescribable shudder.

“Good.” Lovia agreed with Colin Iliad’s suggestion.

And so, the exploration team withdrew from the enormous stone stairway and made a detour to the left.

Before long, they saw a rugged path. On the right was a towering cliff face; on the left were clouds and mist stained by twilight, their bottom nowhere in sight.

Of course, the path was narrow only relative to giants. For every member of the City of Silver exploration team, it was still fairly spacious.

As they advanced step by step, the spirituality of Derrick and the others was triggered at the same time, and they instinctively looked to the side.

At the edge of the cliff, gray-blue, swollen hands were reaching out from the orange-red clouds, gripping the rock there. They were densely packed, too many to count.

If these were all giants, even if they were only Sequence 7 or Sequence 6 giants, relying on those numbers alone would be enough to wipe out the City of Silver exploration team here.

Colin Iliad was just about to swing the straight sword in his hand when Derrick suddenly felt something subtle. He hurriedly raised the Unshadowed Crucifix higher and pressed one finger against one of its thorny spikes, drawing fresh red blood.

The twilight glow emitted by the pure cross suddenly brightened, as if returning in an instant to the state of noon. It poured fiercely toward the edge of the cliff and enveloped those gray-blue giants trying to climb up.

Those giants froze in place at the same time. Their bodies faded inch by inch and quickly dissolved from sight.

They were not real giants, but resentful ghostly shadows left behind when those giants had died miserable deaths in the past. That was why the Unshadowed Crucifix had sensed them.

It was a Saint-level sealed artifact in the Sun domain—the natural bane of resentful spirits, shadows, and evil spirits.

After easily resolving those monsters, the City of Silver exploration team continued forward with vigilance. After some time, they finally rounded the cliff wall and the precipice and saw a gloomy gray forest.

Inside that forest, the trees were dozens of meters tall and extremely thick. Yet their bark had peeled away, their trunks had rotted, and their branches and leaves had withered. They gave off an immediate impression of decay.

Those branches and leaves should have been tangled together overhead, forming cover that blocked the twilight and made the interior dark. Now, however, because many trees had collapsed and snapped, orange-red light had already spilled through most of the forest visible to the naked eye.

“This is the Decaying Forest where the giant ancestors—the Giant King’s parents—were buried.” Derrick looked ahead and mentally calculated how much longer he could use the Unshadowed Crucifix, then spoke to the Chief and his teammates.

Colin Iliad stared at the forest for a while and said, “It has already been damaged. Even if danger remains, it should not be too powerful. We can try exploring it.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Derrick answered without hesitation. “My cross can oppose this environment. I’ll walk at the front.”

He remembered Mr. World’s reminder that some form of contamination might be hidden inside the forest, while the Unshadowed Crucifix could provide an effective warning.

The gray-haired Colin nodded gently.

“Watch your surroundings.”

Derrick drew a soundless breath, took large steps, and walked toward the Decaying Forest.

At the same time, using the convenience of walking at the front, he softly recited Mr. Fool’s honorific name.

Then, Klein, whose line of sight had been blocked by the twilight and who had been disconnected for a while, could finally see the specific situation again, though he still could not expand his field of vision too broadly.