Damian Grabs Lucy Luan’s Hand

"Why can't we go down there?" Ryan Lu was curious too.

"It's not that you can't go down, it's just..." Damian Black glanced at him. "Whoever wants to go, be my guest."

"Wow, you're really something... I'll go check it out!" Ryan Lu leapt and flew downward.

The valley was shrouded in green toxic mist, making it impossible to see what was below.

After a while, he flew back up, his face pale and green.

"So?" Everyone asked him.

"Better not go down there. I used a light talisman, and it's all bugs—seriously gross!"

"Did you see the big poison beast?"

"There's a hole down there, and it's packed with bugs too. Damian's right—if anyone wants to go, go ahead, but I'm never going down again!" He gagged.

"Huh? Damian, you've been up here at the top of the barrier just like us. How do you know what's down there?" Luna Lian asked, puzzled.

The depths of the gorge were pitch black. Even their Divine Sense couldn't see anything below.

Damian Black: "Experience."

"Oh..." Luna Lian nodded.

Damian Black glanced at Lucia Lu.

She was chatting with Adrian Drake, not paying Damian the slightest bit of attention.

Damian pressed his lips together, then suddenly called out, "Adrian!"

Adrian Drake looked over. "Huh?"

"Drip a drop of your blood down there."

"Why?"

"The poison beast loves blood. Once it smells it, it'll come out."

"Then why me? Ryan Lu, you do it!"

Ryan Lu: "Why me? You do it!"

"Forget it, I'll do it!" Luna Lian stood up, about to cut her finger.

"Hey!" Adrian Drake grabbed her hand. "No way a girl should do this! I'll handle it!"

He let go of Luna Lian, sliced open his own hand, and dripped some blood down.

Luna Lian gently squeezed the hand Adrian had just grabbed, her head down and her face blushing all the way to her neck.

Lucia Lu knew her little sister's secret.

She liked Adrian Drake.

The reason she wanted to go to Drake Abyss was probably because of him.

......

Sure enough, the poison beast was bloodthirsty.

Not long after the blood dripped down, it emerged.

Its cultivation wasn't that high—anyone here except Damian Black could handle it.

But its whole body was shrouded in black energy.

That black energy wasn't poison—it looked more like... demonic qi.

Twenty thousand years ago, the Nightspawn invaded.

Even now, there are still plenty of Nightspawn-tainted beasts and plants across the continent.

Lucia Lu had seen them before.

No matter what it is, once it touches demonic qi, it becomes way harder to deal with.

......

The poison beast looked like a fat, wriggling pupa. As soon as it appeared, it lunged straight at Adrian Drake, whose finger was still bleeding.

Adrian drew his sword and tangled with it.

Ryan Lu rushed over to help, quickly hacking seven or eight gashes into its body.

Driven mad, the poison beast suddenly charged at Luna Lian.

But Luna Lian, for some reason, just stared at it blankly, unable to move.

"Lianlian!" Lucia Lu dove forward, slamming the beast away with a palm strike.

Adrian and Ryan, swords in hand, stabbed straight into its eyes.

Damian Black finished it off with a strike right to its crown.

The poison bug struggled a few times, then fell down.

The poison beast was the Array Core.

With the Array Core dead, the barrier opened on its own.

Everyone flew up to the mountaintop.

Before anyone could say a word, Damian Black suddenly walked up to Lucia Lu and grabbed her hand.

There was a hole in Lucia's palm, and blood was dripping from it.

She'd gotten it when she knocked the poison beast away—its spiny shell had pierced her.

"Ah! Sis!" Luna Lian cried out in alarm. "How did that happen?"