Chapter 1442: 1442. Crowded

It wasn't hard to understand where the Land of the Fallen began. The group flew past regions rich in life that forests and packs of magical beasts until they arrived in a vast empty prairie.

The prairie was immense. It spanned as far as the group's eyes could see, and it only featured short strands of grass as forms of life. It didn't contain any magical beast according to their senses.

Large craters tainted that otherwise flat land. Traces of old battlefields filled the prairie, but the passage of time had almost covered most of them. The terrain of the Immortal Lands was so rich that even fights among rank 8 cultivators couldn't turn its regions into wastelands.

The emptiness of the prairie was a clue that Noah didn't miss. He had already confirmed the Rats' extraordinary hiding abilities, so the lack of magical beasts hinted at the presence of those creatures.

No magical beast would give up on inhabiting such a vast region. The area was rich in "Breath", and its terrain contained enough power to nurture entire packs for countless years.

The energy in the inheritances hidden in the prairie leaked from those structures and flowed into the outside world. The ground benefitted from the presence of those structures, especially since they weren't proper areas meant to test cultivators.

The inheritances generated by the dying wills of powerful experts were generally messier than the others. The cultivators who had died on those battlefields didn't have the time to create proper trials. The world had simply taken the form that they desired.

That made the Land of the Fallen appealing to most cultivators. The trials there would either be easy or downright impossible. Those inheritances lacked the complex challenges that could appear in structures like the pyramid.

Noah and the others didn't speak. They had already decided their approach during their hurried flight. Their goal was to enter an inheritance and ignore any creatures hidden underground.

The Land of the Fallen in the human domain had signals. The cultivators had explored it long enough to find the entrance of most inheritances contained there.

However, the Land of the Fallen under the control of the magical beasts didn't have those features. Noah and the others were in the blind, but one of them could solve their issue rather quickly.

King Elbas took out a series of golden lenses from his space-ring. Those curved pieces of glass floated in front of his face as he inspected the prairie.

The lenses showed him the flow of the "Breath" in the area. King Elbas could analyze that phenomenon to understand which spots could potentially hide an inheritance.

King Elbas could also see the nature of that "Breath" through his lenses. He could understand its element and the vague true meanings that it carried.

That gave him a chance to pursuit inheritances that seemed to suit his individuality. The three hybrids knew about that, but they couldn't do anything to stop King Elbas from exploiting his advantage.

It was only normal for the Royal to make his choice according to his individuality. The hybrids would have done the same if they owned items capable of accurately detecting the "Breath".

"This way," King Elbas said as he flew toward one of the large cracks.

The grass was shorter in that area, and an oppressing aura came out of the crack. Something inside that structure caused those strange reactions in the environment, and the group didn't hesitate to dive toward it.

The depths of the crack featured many intricate runes on its azure walls. King Elbas wanted to stop studying them, but their situation didn't give him the time to satisfy his curiosity.

When the group was about to reach the end of the crack, the walls on their sides broke. A tide of hairy creatures flew out of the tunnels that had opened. An earthquake also spread through the areas, and countless boulders fell toward them as that destruction continued.

It was as if the whole crack didn't want them to reach its bottom alive. The Rats controlled the environment so well that they could use it to their advantage.

"They want to separate us!" Don exclaimed when he gained a general understanding of what was happening.

The four turned to face every side. Noah, Jordan, and King Elbas launched flames toward the countless creatures jumping on each other's back to reach the experts. Instead, Don waved his hands to shatter the boulders above him and create monkey-like puppets to hinder the Rats' assault.

Hundreds of creatures died in an instant. That pack didn't feature any upper tier creature, so the black, red, and golden flames killed countless specimens in a single blow.

That slight loss didn't seem to affect the pack. More Rats came out of the tunnels, and loud squeals filled the entirety of the crack. Those cries even echoed through the surface and alerted the creatures living in other spots.

The group counterattacked as they continued their descent. The experts wanted to find an entrance quickly, but their expressions turned cold when they saw Rats coming out of the crack's bottom.

They could create a path through those creatures, but they wouldn't have the time to explore the area before the Rats coming out of the walls reached the bottom.

A tide of beasts also appeared on the surface. The sheer size of the army obscured the white light of the sky and made the crack fall into complete darkness. The Rats had surrounded the group in less than ten seconds.

"We need to find another one!" Jordan shouted, and the experts began to launch their attacks toward the Rats falling from above them.

The multicolored flames easily opened a path toward that army and allowed the experts to return to the surface. King Elbas didn't need to take out his lenses anymore. He had already gained a general understanding of the area during his first inspection, so he could lead the group toward the next inheritance already.

The group flew out of the crack and moved in a seemingly random spot of the prairie. A second inspection revealed that the grass had grown following a specific trend. When looked at it from above, it depicted a symbol that resembled a rune.

Still, before the experts could reach that spot, the ground broke, revealing an underground structure that contained hundreds of Rats.

Noah and the others had to stop again, but the Rats didn't hesitate to jump toward them. Some of those creatures even managed to reach them after using their companions as platforms, and their sharp teeth tried to stab their flesh.

That assault didn't manage to injure the experts who quickly vanquished that pack. Yet, more Rats appeared inside that underground structure, and the group soon had to give up on that spot.

King Elbas quickly led them toward another area. A narrow but deep pit soon unfolded in their vision, but Rats came out of it before they could even approach it.

When the experts left that spot, they discovered that Rats now filled every inch of that region. Only the distant areas were still empty. Thousands of magical beasts had come out of the ground to attack them.

Noah and the others exchanged a glance at that point and flew higher in the sky, in areas that the Rats couldn't reach. Then, they began to throw attacks toward the surface.

The Rats were too dangerous to face on the surface, but the experts could slowly destroy them from far away.