Chapter 1132: Turning Back

"Hmph."

Jack of Diamonds' voice came from the dark underground. Faintly, plant roots were moving below.

"I spent almost a whole day digging this tunnel... It's your good luck that it happened to be finished at this point, otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to protect you."

"No, wait!"

Jian Changsheng said hurriedly while falling, "We can't leave yet!! Heart is still up there!"

"What Heart?" Jack of Diamonds' voice was somewhat puzzled.

"Chen Ling!"

Jian Changsheng didn't have time to explain. He grabbed a protruding stone beside him, used his terrifying fingertip strength to stop his momentum, and looked up...

The tunnel Jack of Diamonds dug was extremely deep. Looking up from this depth, he could barely see the torch fire on the ground, and the Jiangtian Cult people didn't chase after them; they were probably inconvenient to pursue during the ritual.

Jian Changsheng gritted his teeth, stepped on the edge of the tunnel for leverage, and actually rushed toward the surface like a cheetah!

"Is he crazy?!" Jack of Diamonds was incredulous to see this.

"I went through so much trouble to dig this tunnel for him, and he's going back to die halfway through??"

Sun Bumian looked at the black shadow rushing toward the surface without hesitation. After struggling for a moment, he let out a helpless sigh...

He stepped on the cloud-walking steps, stabilized his figure in mid-air, and lifted his foot to ascend to the surface as well.

"You're going too?"

"What other choice is there?" Sun Bumian shrugged.

"He is adamant that the person is Heart, we can't just leave like this... Let's trust him once. If I'm wrong, I don't mind having a junior named 'Sun Changsheng' in the family tree."

As his voice fell, he stepped into the void, his figure flying upward like lightning!

"Then you..."

Jack of Diamonds turned to look at the last member of the 6-generation. Before he could finish his sentence, the latter had already violently inserted his hands into the vertical cliff, his slender body arching like a beast...

Then he stepped hard with both feet, climbing up against the cliff like a white flash of lightning. In the narrow space, he broke through the air at high speed, emitting bursts of roaring sounds!

Jack of Diamonds: ...

He looked at the three who had disappeared above, then at the tunnel he had spent so much effort digging, his expression incredibly colorful.

"...Then I'll leave???"

……

"What's the situation?! They actually ran away?!"

"When were the stone locks on them opened??"

"And the tunnel... damn it, they had already secretly dug a way out!"

“……”

After Jian Changsheng and the other two fell into the ground, both the two Cardinals and the other ordinary Jiangtian cultists were shocked, seemingly unable to understand how they could have done this silently while their Divine Paths were suppressed.

"What should we do? Should we chase them?" someone asked urgently.

“#@*（￥&））*！”

The High Priest remained in the posture of pressing his palm on the altar, the muscles on his arms bulging one by one, as if he were struggling to support something... He opened his wild, ape-like mouth and let out bursts of low humming.

Seeing this, Zheng Ye spoke immediately:

"Don't chase! Completing the ritual is more important! Hurry and get the stored vegetables and fruits!!"

For the ritual, the sacrifice doesn't necessarily have to be human; anything from Earth will do... Now that the ritual is halfway through and the High Priest cannot move at will, since those people have escaped, there is naturally no need to risk chasing them.

As soon as these words were spoken, several Jiangtian cultists on the periphery immediately set off and ran toward the direction where the vegetables and fruits were stored. Dust filled the air, the ground rumbled, and the ritual was largely in chaos...

Chen Ling stood quietly on the edge, the stone hanging in his heart finally dropping.

"These three guys, they don't seem that stupid after all..."

Chen Ling had originally worried that Jian Changsheng and the others wouldn't be able to leave here on their own, and he would eventually have to intervene to disrupt the situation... But now it seemed they had been preparing a way to escape all along.

With them gone, Chen Ling felt much more relaxed.

Chen Ling's gaze locked onto the High Priest in the center of the altar, his tongue licking his lips lightly. This hunter, who had always been hiding on the edge of the crowd, finally took a step forward.

【Audience Expectation +3】

【Current Expectation: 58%】

*Bang—!!*

Just then, the ground in front of the bonfire suddenly exploded, and a black shadow flew out from the ground!

Jian Changsheng rushed out of the surface due to inertia, his leather jacket outlined amidst the dust and smoke. Under the bewildered and astonished gazes of many Jiangtian cultists, he landed heavily back on the ground!

Following him, two more figures rose—one stepping on clouds and suspended in the void, the other crashing to the ground like a cannonball, shaking two or three Jiangtian cultists to the ground on the spot.

Chen Ling: ???

Chen Ling, who was about to make a move, was incredulous. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why these three guys had come back again??

"They want to obstruct the ritual?!" Zheng Ye was shocked to see this and spoke immediately, "Stop them!! Don't let them get close to the High Priest!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding Jiangtian cultists swarmed up, and the two Cardinals snorted coldly, their figures dragging out afterimages as they rushed straight toward the three!

In a situation where the Divine Path could not be used, these three people actually dared to come back; this was no different from seeking death.

Jiang Xiaohua didn't say a word and rushed toward a Cardinal with unstoppable force, fighting him again with his terrifying physical body. Sun Bumian glanced at Jian Changsheng, sighed silently, and pointed at the other Cardinal from a distance:

"—Freeze!"

Although the Divine Path could not be used, Sun Bumian knew more than just the Divine Path... He had long since mastered the secret techniques of the Actor's Path.

Jian Changsheng had no other means and could only force his way through the crowd. He locked his gaze on the red-robed figure standing not far away and shouted:

"Chen Ling!! I know it's you! Come with us quickly!!"

Chen Ling saw this scene, his expression incredibly complex.

He knew that his disguise had been seen through by Jian Changsheng after all... This guy had seen him eating Jiangtian cultists in the Red Dust Domain; it was most likely the detail of him swallowing his saliva just now that exposed his identity.

He didn't deny it, just stood there quietly and shook his head calmly:

"No... I'm not leaving."

"Why??"

"I can no longer go back."

"Bullshit!!" Jian Changsheng gritted his teeth and shouted, the words he had suppressed in his heart for so many days pouring out. "Isn't it just those rumors spread in the human domain?! Let them say whatever they want! We just need to be ourselves!! Why care about them?!"

"...Rumors?"

Chen Ling gave a bitter smile, his eyes full of helplessness.

Countless Jiangtian cultists rushed toward Jian Changsheng, and even the two Cardinals temporarily shook off Jiang Xiaohua and Sun Bumian and moved straight toward them... Amidst the raging torch fire, Chen Ling's lonely shadow danced like a ghost.

He opened his arms gently, like a scarlet fire about to devour everything, the power of the Calamity surging wildly within his body!

"What they said isn't entirely rumors."

"Take a good look, am I... still that Chen Ling?"