CHAPTER 772: CHAPTER 772: INTRUDER?

The ship let out a low, deep growl—a strange sound, not mechanical, but alive... like a beast coiling up to strike.

The deck shuddered.

Everyone felt it.

The sails stiffened, glowing with soft lines of spiritual runes. The hull began to hum, the lights along its surface pulsing brighter and faster.

"On my mark," Noah said calmly, his hand still raised toward the barrier.

The cultivators around him tightened their grips on weapons or drew in a breath of focus. No one spoke. They didn’t need to.

With one final pulse of energy, the ship moved.

In a blink, the entire vessel shot forward like a released arrow.

For a single second, a streak of silver light tore through the sea, slicing toward the barrier.

Water jets were sprayed in all directions.

The runes flared—gold and blue flashed like lightning across the sky—and then they twisted, warped... and vanished.

The ship disappeared for a moment.

The next moment, the world shifted.

Boom!

A shockwave rippled through the barrier, and the ship appeared on the other side—already charging toward the distant landmass.

The forest-lined coast of the Elven Continent loomed closer and closer.

Then, with a powerful jolt, the ship slammed into the soft, wet sands of the shoreline, throwing up clouds of dirt and sea spray. It stopped, rocking once, and then went still.

Boom!

The ground shook a little, and everyone jumped down from the ship without wasting any time. They landed on the distorted dunes of sand formed upon impact.

Noah didn’t hesitate.

With a flick of his sleeve, the ship shrank in size and flew into a glowing storage ring on his hand. The sand beneath where it had stood barely had time to settle.

But Noah used his power to create an illusion to make the land appear as it was before they collided into it. He knew if someone looked, they might realize that someone infiltrated from the signs of lands.

Unless someone was as specialized in illusion as he was or they had some special equipment on them, they would not see through the illusion he had placed.

Noah finally turned to Wuhan.

No words were exchanged; he just nodded at the man.

Then Noah’s figure blurred—gone in the blink of an eye, dashing away toward the dense green forest to the east, his robes fluttering behind him.

The others followed their own paths without delay.

Wuhan led half the group toward the north, vanishing behind the tree-covered hills.

Deep within the lands of the Continent, past all the high canopy tree houses on the thick branches of the several hundred-meter-tall trees, the bridges and chambers made from wood and vines, beyond the glowing fields of trees and delicate flowers flowing with power, and even further than the huge spiraling mountain tree that had several built-in chambers and windows that looked like small slits on the big tree, was a huge empty field with nothing but green grassland and several stone slabs of different sizes placed around randomly.

A faint red mark could be seen on each one of these stones, pulsing with energy.

And four hundred meters beneath this land was a hidden chamber enforced with thick metallic walls.

The lab was cold, silent, and bathed in the dull glow of bluish spirit lamps embedded into the ceiling. The air smelled of oil, metal, and something faintly burnt. Thick iron tables stretched from wall to wall, each one covered with strange mechanical parts.

There were many things in the room, from gears, glowing spirit cores, sharpened metallic feathers, and twisted vines wrapped in copper thread to vials of shifting liquid that shimmered with unnatural colors.

One table held the partially assembled body of a mechanical beast—a hawk-shaped construct with wings crafted from flexible alloy and etched with tiny spirit runes. Tubes ran from its chest to a socket nearby, where energy pulsed rhythmically, as if feeding it life.

In the center of the room, beneath a suspended crystal that slowly turned overhead, sat a single woman.

She was dressed in flowing robes of black and deep violet, the hem lined with tiny metal symbols that clinked softly whenever she moved.

Her head was tilted slightly, her hands delicate as they adjusted a small golden wire inside the mechanical bird’s neck.

Tick.

She froze.

For a moment, the entire room seemed to hold its breath.

The woman raised her head slowly. Shadows from the hanging light caught her face—sharp features, pale skin, and two eyes that didn’t match.

One was green, calm, and piercing like a forest at dawn.

The other... red, glowing faintly, filled with layered runes that spun slowly in the iris.

She stared straight ahead at nothing in particular, but her gaze pierced through walls and floors, as though sensing something far beyond.

"...An intruder?" She said softly, her voice smooth and eerily calm. There was a hint of confusion in her voice rather than absolution needed in her line of work.

And this uncertainty irked the woman.

Her eyes narrowed sharply as she placed the tool in her hand down with quiet care.

Then, with the grace of someone used to silence, she stood.

Her black robes swayed slightly as she walked to the far side of the lab. The walls hissed and creaked, opening a passage to the surface for her.

Several meters above the ground, the stones randomly arranged on the grass bed moved on their own before forming a circular perimeter. The land in the middle shifted, and a stairway appeared in sight.

The moment Helena walked to the surface, several figures flickered and surrounded her from all sides.

Helena did not even blink at their presence and watched as they knelt down to show their subordination to her.

"There is an unrest in the barrier around the continent." Her black robes flickered as red flames came out of nowhere, crawling from her feet to her head, before covering it with the symbol of her status as the general of the Red Dawn cult. "If there are any intruders... make sure they are given the honor to be of service to our lord."