Chapter 2077: Five Race Deal!

The 10th level angel stared down with narrowed eyes. "Check carefully."

One of the 9th level angels sent his perception into the crater while another used a golden eye technique. The rest searched for any trace of energy, movement, bloodline fluctuation, or spatial disturbance.

Time passed slowly, and the dust finally began to settle until the battlefield became visible again.

The crater was enormous, and its surface had been melted into smooth black glass. Parts of it still glowed red from the heat, and golden flames burned along the edges.

Beyond that, there was nothing. No body, no blood, no broken weapon, and not even a scrap of clothing. There was no trace of Max at all.

One of the angels frowned slightly. "He was completely erased."

The 9th level angel nodded. "With attacks at that level concentrated inside the sealing formation, even a 10th level Divine Lord Realm cultivator would have taken serious damage."

Another angel looked toward the crater. "And he was only at the Law Manifestation Realm."

The leader stayed silent for several breaths while his eyes moved slowly over the destroyed region. He searched again and found nothing. There was no life aura, no spatial fluctuation, no trace of Primordial energy, and no sign of the Seven Divine Veins. It was as though Max had never stood there at all.

Finally, the angel relaxed a little. "He’s dead."

The others nodded, and one of them smiled. "That was easier than I expected."

The leader gave him a cold look. "Don’t be stupid."

The angel immediately fell quiet.

"If we’d treated him like an ordinary Law Manifestation Realm cultivator, things would be much different," the leader said, turning back toward the crater. "That’s exactly why we used overwhelming force."

His expression settled into calm. "There was no reason to give him another chance to surprise us."

One of the 8th level angels asked, "What about the devils?"

"They did their part," the leader replied. "This matter is over."

He turned away. "We’re leaving."

The other angels nodded as golden light gathered around their bodies, and one after another they disappeared into the sky.

The 10th level angel was the last to go. Before he left, he looked once more at the ruined land below. The crater lay silent, with no movement, no aura, and no sign of life.

Satisfied, he turned into a streak of golden light and vanished into the distance.

Soon the whole area was quiet again, and only the destroyed land remained.

As far as those six angels were concerned, Max Voidwalker was dead.

+++

Several minutes passed after the six angels disappeared into the distance, and the enormous crater they had left behind stayed completely silent.

Golden energy still flickered across the ruined ground while traces of holy power lingered in the air. The earth had been melted into dark glass, and nothing in the destroyed region suggested that anyone could have survived such an overwhelming attack.

Then the space above the center of the crater quietly distorted, and a faint ripple appeared.

Max stepped out of his dimension as casually as if nothing had happened at all.

There wasn’t a single injury on his body, and even his clothes were untouched. The terrifying barrage of golden sword constructs, the sealing formation, and the final attack from the 10th level angel had never reached him in the first place.

The moment he realized there was no reason to endure any of it, he had simply entered his dimension.

That was one of the greatest advantages of having such an ability. As long as he had enough time to react, trapping him was far harder than most people imagined.

Max glanced around the ruined battlefield for a moment, then turned his eyes toward the Ten Shadows Trial. Without wasting any more time, seven-colored lightning wrapped around his body again, and he shot into the sky.

This was exactly why he had chosen to travel alone.

If Damian and Revona had been beside him during the ambush, everything would have become far more complicated. Max could slip into his dimension whenever he needed to, but bringing others in with him wasn’t something he wanted to reveal casually. Even if he had a way to protect them, doing so would have exposed another one of his greatest secrets.

Traveling alone gave him freedom. He didn’t have to worry about protecting anyone else, he didn’t have to explain how he survived impossible situations, and most importantly, he could vanish whenever he needed to without anyone finding out where he had gone.

As he flew, his expression gradually grew colder.

’The Devil Race and Angel Race are far too arrogant.’

The attack had confirmed something important, because those two races had been willing to break one of the few agreements that had actually been respected throughout the outer layer.

The Five Race Deal.

Anna had explained it to him before he left Bloodstone City.

Among all the conflicts between the five great races, very few agreements were truly honored by everyone. Competition never stopped, ambushes happened all the time, and participants fought over trials, marks, treasures, inheritances, and territory. Outside the cities, strength usually settled everything.

There was one exception, though.

The Five Race Deal protected newcomers who had not yet entered the Ten Shadows Trial. Under the agreement, members of the five great races were forbidden from deliberately hunting or killing such newcomers outside the cities.

The reason behind it was simple, because every race needed fresh geniuses. If older and stronger participants were free to wait outside the city gates and slaughter every new arrival before they had even tasted the outer layer, the Godslayer’s Pilgrimage would eventually turn into nothing more than a hunting ground for established participants.

So the five races had created a temporary safety period. Until a newcomer entered the Ten Shadows Trial for the first time, the official forces and stronger participants of the five races were supposed to leave them alone.

It wasn’t complete protection, of course. Beasts could still attack, independent cultivators could still cause trouble, and people from lesser races weren’t necessarily bound by the agreement. Even participants from the five great races sometimes found loopholes to exploit.

On the whole, though, the agreement had been respected for many years, and it was one of the only things resembling a safety net outside the cities.

Once someone entered the Ten Shadows Trial, however, that protection vanished completely. From that point on, they counted as a true participant of the outer layer, which meant anyone could hunt them, challenge them, or kill them without needing to explain themselves.