Death... and me

Naturally, Rean, Roan, and Luan passed by the Beast Taming Guild to fetch Kentucky before heading to the exit of the undersea city.

Unsurprisingly, the guards at the gates of Salt Canyon City were surprised to see Rean's group there. After all, any humanoid race being that missed the exit or that decided to stay wouldn't come out before the Salt Sweep was over. "What did you come here for?"

Rean smiled in response, saying, "We need to go out, sir. The gates shouldn't be closed, right?"

"They're not. However, even though the intensity of the Salt Sweep has reduced these past three months, there's still too much white powder out there. You guys shouldn't go out now if you know what's good for you." The aquatic demon beast said in response, trying to warn them.

Rean nodded after hearing that. "It's fine. We know what we're doing. In any case, thank you for the warning, sir." Without waiting for the aquatic demon beast to say anything, Kentucky flapped his wings under water and rushed to the exit.

'Hmph! Don't complain later if you all turn into salt statues,' thought the guard before putting the matter behind. His job wasn't to stop people from killing themselves, after all.

Outside, Rean's group immediately noticed the difference in the concentration of the white powder. Even though they kept the water away with the bubble, the white powder began to fall inside. It's just that there wasn't as much as there was outside the bubble.

Then again, their group already expected that, though. Kentucky and Roan immediately used their Divine Energy to gather Dark Element around them. It didn't matter what that white powder was. Dark Element could destroy anything. Of course, there was a limit on how much could be destroyed at once, so the bubble still had to be up.

With the combination of Dark Element and the bubble that kept the water away, their group was barely able to keep themselves clear of the white powder. At the same time, Roan took several Rank Two Divine Stones out of his spatial ring for him and Kentucky to use. "To keep this amount of Dark Element, we will need quite some Divine Energy. Kentucky, use the Divine Stones to keep your energy topped up. I'll do the same."

Kentucky obviously wouldn't go against that. "No problem. Now, where should we go?"

Rean and Roan then looked at Luan after that. Although they could more or less see the direction of the Salt Sweep's origin, Luan was definitely better at doing that. After all, he could see energy itself with his eyes, plus the Salt Sweep was expected to be made with the dust from high-level Divine Stones. "It's coming from that direction, dad. The golden lights coming from the white powder are slightly more concentrated over there."

Kentucky didn't think twice and immediately dove down in the direction Luan mentioned. It also happened to be the direction the Salt Canyon continued.

*Suushh!*

Rean's group then moved at a relatively safe speed to keep the white powder away from their bodies. After all, if Kentucky moved too quickly, more white powder would barge into the bubble. It was better to be safe than sorry. Of course, that was still a very high speed to someone like Luan.

Of course, Roan made sure Luan paid attention to his task as they moved forward. "There are three different paths ahead, dad, uncle Rean. Two of them have the white powder's Divine Energy, but they're not emitting the white powder out. Instead, they're receiving the white powder from the third path on the left."

"Good!" Rean was satisfied to hear that. Bringing Luan was really the best choice as Rean and Roan couldn't see any difference between the paths at all. All they could tell was that they had white powder within their waters. "Kentucky, you heard him."

Kentucky wasn't an exception, even with his improved vision. "Oh! The third path it is."

That wasn't the only place with different paths to follow. The further Rean's group moved after the white powder, the more the canyon looked like a maze.

With Luan's cultivation improving, there were more things that improved. One of those improvements was his eyes becoming a lot more effective. When Roan found him, he could only see Elements and Divine Energy up to a hundred or so meters. Now that he reached the Peak Stage of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm, that distance increased to over four hundred!

Suddenly, Luan noticed something. "Kentucky, stop here."

Kentucky immediately followed Luan's words as the twins looked around. "What is it, Luan?"

Luan narrowed his eyes as he looked ahead, saying, "It seems like the white powder... is coming from the ground itself. In fact, the ground is shining with golden light. There's a lot of Divine Energy escaping from it. Also..." Luan then looked at Rean and asked, "Uncle Rean, it looks a lot like the formations that you build, but it also looks very different at the same time."

Rean was taken aback to hear that. "You can see a formation below?" Following that, Rean contacted Sister Orb in the Dimensional Realm. 'Sister Orb, didn't you notice it?'

[Hmm... I don't really feel anything. Perhaps it has something to do with the Divine Energy coming from below. It's probably jamming the system's sensors.] Although the Dimensional Realm was closed, Sister Orb could still talk with the twins. Naturally, she could still feel if there were formations around or not.

Rean and Roan nodded after that. Following that, Rean asked Luan, "Back when you saw my formations, you saw the shape that the runes took in your vision when Divine Energy passed through them, right? Are you able to tell me what shape the runes below have?"

Luan nodded, saying, "Yes, uncle Rean. That's why I said they look similar and very different at the same time." Luan then concentrated on the runes before he sent a picture of what he could see through Divine Sense. 

In an instant, Rean recognized what those runes were. "Well, well, well.... this is the second time I bumped into one of these."