1037 Key 1

'Roar… Roar... roar…'

Suddenly, a gigantic bear with two heads made a strange noise next to a nearby riverbank, slowly moving up and down the riverbank. Some parts of the Two-Headed Bear's body were slightly rotten, while the internal organs within its abdomen could be vaguely seen twitching inside. Stale, black liquid continuously dripped over the places that the bear had passed.

Garen went on a high alert immediately.

Without needing him to remind them, the Black Sucker below him instinctively held their breaths immediately as well as restrained their movements in fear of disturbing the Two-Headed Bear.

Caw caw! Caw caw!

Within a faraway shroud of black mist, a black creature which faintly resembled a flying dragon could be seen flying around the abyss, circling the surrounding continuously. It raised its snake-like neck and continuously while making weird crow-like cries.

Garen was enveloped by a feeling that indicated an intense threat. His instinctive bodily reactions were constantly on high alert while large patches of goosebumps throughout his entire body had flared up.

"It's definitely a high-level Void Creature!" He could already sense the dangerous nature of his opponent without even thinking about it.

Garen rode the Black Sucker and moved between the Two-Headed Bear and flying dragon monster slowly. He was careful to prevent himself from appearing within the monsters' visions.

After traveling for a short distance along the cliff, he saw a cave within the precipice near himself suddenly. It seemed as though a stone carving-like object was placed within the cave.

The inside of the cave was very shallow, being only a few meters deep. This allowed Garen to see the whole thing immediately while using his night vision. It was completely empty inside, without a single object within.

While riding the Black Sucker, Garen slowly used his Energy Field to restrain his aura silently while scaling his way towards the cave.

Finally, he burrowed into the cave without alerting the Two-Headed Bear or black flying dragon.

He could hear that the cries outside were now muffled by a cliff that acted as a layer between them, which made the noises slightly quieter. Garen sighed in relief slowly only after realizing that he had likely left the Two-Headed Bear's field of vision. He began to size up the cave in front of him.

There were two burning candlesticks inside the cave. Ancient rough decorative patterns were carved on the black candlesticks that were tinged with purple. The carving techniques were coarse and simple.

There was a dark blue, graphite-colored, human-shaped statue enshrined between the candlesticks.

The statue resembled a woman who was dressed in gauze. Strangely enough, there were no nipples on her breasts where her chest was located. Instead, there were two blurry human faces on the peaks there.

Moreover, the woman also had three pairs of hands that were all raised; a fierce and cruel smile could be seen on her features.

There were even black and red traces of blood that remained below the feet of this statue. Garen walked closer and looked before noticing that there was a stone pit below the feet of the statue. Two human corpses, that had been dead for a long time, were lying inside there.

His expression changed at once. It was clear that this cave housed a terrible murderer. In a place like this where high-level Void Creatures existed, the owner of this cave was definitely a creature of the same level.

"I must leave quickly!" Garen was just about to turn around and ride the Black Sucker before suddenly noticing some items that were messily placed at the edges of the deep pit below the statue's feet. There were hearts and internal organs of animals, a bright and shiny red gem, a few snow-white bones that belonged to unknown animals, as well as some flowers and grass that had wilted for a long time.

Garen picked up the red gem quickly and turned around before riding the Black Sucker and fleeing.

After avoiding the Two-Headed Bear and black flying dragon in a terrifying manner unscathed, Garen increased his speed gradually while constantly urging the Black Sucker to accelerate as well.

A tumor-like flesh ball on the Black Sucker's abdomen expanded continuously. It was a Distorted Seed that Garen had placed on its body as a parasite to increase the Black Sucker's physical fitness by threefold. Currently, it possessed greater speed compared to its initial self while it was moving through the cliff.

After moving for some time, an irritable roar echoed from below.

"Ramsda!" yelled a furious voice in an indistinct and inarticulate noise that sounded like an unknown language. The sound waves vibrated inside the depths of the canyon, remaining for a long time.

The tremendous sound waves reverberated in Garen's ears and made his mind gloomy and uneasy before his qi and blood quaked, filling his mind with disgust.

He was immensely shocked because there was a distance of at least a few kilometers between his current location and the ground below! He could only imagine how terrifying the roaring monster's powers could be if they were able to trigger fear in his body despite being so far away.

The Black Sucker was frightened to the point where it accelerated madly. It charged out of the crevice of the abyss rapidly and leaped into the air before landing on all fours at once. It stood on the ground steadily like a crouching frog.

Pfoo…

It was only then did Garen's feeling of dread slowly subsided, he felt a horrifying emotion.

"What kind of place was that? What was that godly statue that they worshipped? And what was that roaring creature?! Did it really possess intellectual abilities to be aware of that godly statue and worship it? How did these terrifying creatures appear at the edges of the Void Battlefield?"

A series of questions flashed through his mind. Garen recalled the information that he knew and realized that no one had mentioned the cave of the godly statue previously.

"It's impossible that no one had discovered it earlier. They had probably discovered it, but the information was sealed by someone else," understood Garen.

He took the red gem out and looked at it. This thing looked like a regular red gem, except that a white flame that could be seen burning inside its core faintly.

Garen referred to his own databank, but there was no news about this object that was stored inside the information within his Energy Machine Imprint.

All this while, it had been determined that the creatures on the Void Battlefields did not possess intellectual abilities. However, it seemed like that was completely inaccurate now, this was because they would be unable to worship the godly statue if they had no intellect.

Garen hid these doubts within his heart faintly and kept the gem inside his Space Ring. He rode the Black Sucker and began rushing towards the Level Four Plains of Everlasting Night.

"It's important for me to complete this task first. There'll be a chance for me to enter the Void Battlefields in the future. When that time comes, I'll come back stronger and explore this place," said Garen while making up his mind.

According to the displayed information, the Black Rain, which had descended two days ago, and was about to occur again now. It would be a moment where many monsters would appear when that time came, and would also be a good opportunity for Energy Machinists to hunt these Void Creatures. Moreover, it was also a chance for the Void Creatures to hunt human beings.

While riding on the Black Sucker, Garen traveled towards the south on his journey. He passed long, continuous stretches of black hills. The Black Sucker that was now the host of a parasite ran at an extremely fast speed. Many of the monsters that Garen passed by wanted to ambush him, but were unable to catch up to the Black Sucker's speed. Soon, many of them fell behind after chasing him for some time.

Without having to waste time clashing with them, Garen was able to enter the region of the Plains of Everlasting Night within slightly more than an hour.

Just as he had entered the Plains of Everlasting Night and before traveling further, he could already see three people in black robes. They were besieging a black ox that was exhaling red flames from its nostrils on the dark earth surface in front of him.

The black ox was sturdy and large while the muscles of its entire body were taut. Its front hooves would dig up the ground occasionally as it panted coarsely.

Meanwhile, the three figures that were surrounding the black ox were in a tight corner. One of them had suffered injuries to his shoulder and was constantly dodging the black ox's attacks with somewhat strange postures. The little group shouted occasionally while a few invisible and transparent pieces of Energy Machinery assisted them by increasing their speed and strength.

Garen's vision focused on the few pieces of invisible Energy Machinery. He could seemingly tell what kinds of specialized measures were used to make them invisible. However, it seemed as though these invisibility effects had started destabilizing gradually. Thus, he was able to see the fluctuations and distortions of time and space at a glance.

Numerous laser-like beams were constantly being released from the hands of these three people. These beams struck the body of the black ox, but they only managed to cause tiny wounds of various sizes onto its body. It was not very effective, and they managed to enrage the black ox instead.

Moo!

The black ox roared furiously and spat a large mouthful of wine-red flames at one of the people suddenly.

Garen stood far away and narrowed his eyes faintly. Was this Level Three strength?

He used his Energy Machine Imprint to judge the power of the black ox's flames immediately.

Boom!

The flame struck the chest of one of the people violently and sent him flying in an explosion at once.

"Friend, sorry to trouble you, but we need some help. Help us kill this Void Fire Ox, because we'll need its heart later!" Two of the people panicked suddenly. One of the men then yelled at Garen loudly and asked for help.

"The heart of the Void Fire Ox? Is the heart of the Void Fire Ox even useful?" Garen raised his eyebrows and asked them in a universal language.

"It can be used! It's definitely useful. We used specialized methods to observe it for a few days beforehand so there won't be any problems at all!" The man from earlier yelled quickly before dodging the black ox's flames immediately again.

"Alright then!"

Garen smiled faintly and walked over slowly. An invisible chill rushed towards the three people who were clashing with the Fire Ox suddenly.

Suddenly, the cold attacked the Fire Ox and caused its movements to become irritable.

Moo!

It let out a furious roar and began to feel a tremendous threat approaching. It glared at Garen in a panic and tried to retreat backward, frenzied.

Garen closed his eyes. When he opened them again, shrouds of faint bloodthirsty qi were released.

He raised a finger and pointed it at the Fire Ox.

"Explode!"

Bang!

The Blood Eagle's Blood Control abilities burst out at once.

The blood within the Fire Ox's entire body sprayed out madly. It gushed out of its skin and all seven crevices of its body like a fountain. It lost all of its energy at once before falling on the floor. It made a crashing noise before finally becoming a corpse.

The three people, who were covered in wounds, stared at Garen with gaping mouths.

"Level Five… A Level Five powerhouse!" The voice of one of these people sounded as if he was quaking slightly.

This was a Level Two to Level Three district. Energy Machinists or Mech Pilots that were Level Three or higher would rarely appear here because this place lacked things that were highly valuable to them. Therefore, Level Five Energy Machinists were what these Energy Machinists without sects dreamed of becoming.

There would only be one of them within a hundred people, making them amazing.

Level Four Energy Machinists were already the backbone of the social stratum of the three main Energy Machinist metropolis, much less Level Fives.

Furthermore, he was such a young Level Five!

These three people which comprised of two men and one woman came to the Void Battlefields and took risks to find materials. They had broken through Level Three to become Level Four Energy Machinists. However, they were no longer young anymore. They were already twenty-five to twenty-six years old now and had almost exhausted their chances of developing their potential. If they had not come to the Void Battlefields to find precious materials, they would perhaps remain at Level Three for the rest of their lives.

Now, however, a young Level Five Energy Machinist was currently standing in front of them.

These three people exchanged glances and communicated through their gazes.

Garen had walked over and had now taken out a little knife to cut open the side of the Fire Ox's body before digging its heart out.

Its heart was still beating faintly like a living creature. Moreover, since all of its blood had spurted outwards because of Garen's Blood Control ability, the ox's heart was extremely clean and pretty, like a crystal model that could move.

He took the heart away and placed it into his Space Ring directly. This made the hearts of the other three Energy Machinists jump slightly as well. This Level Five Energy Machinist was definitely the powerhouse of one of the sects. Otherwise, he would not be so familiar with the usage of Space Equipment.

It was important to note that the price of Space Equipment outside was not cheap. Therefore, most Level Four Energy Machinists would need to save up for at least a few years before having enough money to purchase these devices.