Chapter Twenty-Five: The Canyon

  "It's now, charge!" The three of them didn't start running forward until the snakes were almost upon them. Saber immediately increased the release of her barrier, and strong gusts of wind blew away the snakes that were approaching them. The three of them shot through the sea of snakes like an arrowhead, charging towards the other side.

  "Hoo-hoo~~~" The strong wind kept blowing out of the boundary, and the snake in front of them hadn't even approached before it was blown away. The three people ran faster and faster, the swamp gas around them could no longer be seen, and even the ground began to dry up.

  "And another thing, speed up!" Dais ran on Saber's left side, the wind was just right to blow open the snakes. Dais and Francis could still move forward under this wind power. "Ahead, that canyon, below is where the treasure is located!" The snake group in front had already seen the end, ahead was a sparse thicket, you can see a wide ground crack, that is the canyon on the map.

  "Lia, go all out! We'll make a dash for it in one breath!" Francis shouted loudly. The snakes chasing from behind were getting more and more numerous, so let's hurry up and run.

  "Whoosh~~~~" Saber exerted his strength and swung the sword in his hand forward, unleashing a tornado that blew all the snakes in front of them away. The three of them took advantage of the clear path and accelerated their pace, managing to escape before the snakes could surround them again. Two snakes that had been blown into the air by the wind fell back down, and Dis swiftly caught them with one hand grasping the snake's head and the other gripping its body. With a swift pull, he tore the two snakes in half like rubber bands, making a cracking sound. He casually tossed the snakes to the ground. "Hurry up and leave, this place isn't safe for long stays. Let's run to that gorge over there."

  The three of them sped up to their full speed, and the snakes behind were no match for them. Before long, they had left the snakes far behind. The three of them didn't stop until they reached the edge of the canyon.

  "Lia! How are you feeling? Are you tired?" Francis asked with concern.

  "It's nothing, just a bit of exhaustion, I'll be fine in a while!" Saber said as she sat down and took off her leather boots.

  "What a difficult road it is!" Francis also sat down on the ground, and with great effort pulled his feet out of his boots. "This road is really hard to walk! I don't know how we'll get back?"

  "Master! Our plan is to go directly through the branch of the Tongue Mountain Range into the Monster Country! We won't be going back!" Diess also squatted down and took off his leather boots.

  "Yes! Our journey has just begun!" Francis rolled his eyes, starting to miss the urban life of his past life. "Thanks to Lila this time, otherwise with so many snakes, a strong charge would have been very troublesome!" Francis still had lingering fears, this sea of snakes was truly terrifying.

  "This is my duty!" Saber listened to Francis' praise, still keeping her usual calm on her face, sitting on the ground to recover her energy, but what she was thinking in her heart was unknown!

  Francis stood up and looked at the canyon in front of him, exclaiming "What a magnificent sight! This world is never short of miracles!"

  The canyon stretches from east to west, winding and twisting, with no clear direction. The two sides of the canyon are steep slopes, forming a "V" shape as a whole. There are few plants on both banks of the canyon, only some reddish-brown massive rock formations, which are towering and unbroken, layer upon layer, sandwiching a deep and bottomless valley, showcasing an unparalleled majesty. With the naked eye, you can see that there is a winding river flowing at the bottom of the valley, stretching across the hard belly of the canyon. The river surface is narrow, with rapid currents, winding and twisting along the canyon, surging forward, and the sound of rushing water can be faintly heard.

  "Is this really the place where the Zomblatt Empire hid its treasure? What a great choice of location! It's been so many days, I don't know which emperor chose it, not to mention choosing a tomb site, but also considering Feng Shui, and they were actually able to find this!" Francis thought wickedly that the emperor must have spent all his time studying Feng Shui before finally finding this place.

  "This is indeed a good place for a graveyard!" Dais said, moving his hands and feet. "Young master! I'll go down and scout ahead first!"

  "Hold on, put on the sacred robe first, just in case something happens! It's also good to use your full strength!" Francis instructed. "I'll stay here with Lila! If anything happens, hurry up and come!"

  "Don't worry, my current strength is not what it used to be!" Dis said with a pleased smile, turned around and jumped down from the canyon, stepping on the fault lines of both sides of the canyon, jumping step by step downwards...

  It wasn't until Dis disappeared from view that Francis turned around, seeing Saber with her eyes closed to recover her strength. Francis didn't disturb her and sat down by herself, closing her eyes to rest.

  A moment later, Saber opened his eyes and stood up from where he was, looking like he had already recovered. "Young Master!"

  "Oh! Have you rested well?" Francis opened his eyes and looked at Saber who had stood up.

  "Hmm, I can now exert my full strength in battle!" Saber flexed the armor on her hand "My recovery abilities are strong, don't worry!"

  "I'm not worried at all! I know Saber's strength is quite formidable! This is just concern between companions!" Francis smiled and gave Saber a thumbs up.

  Looking at Francis' crescent-shaped eyes, Saber slightly turned her face away, "I... knew it! Diarmuid has been gone for a long time already!"

  Francis stood up from his original position "Don't worry! With his current strength, even if he really encounters a strong enemy, he still has the skill to escape!"

  "Master! When did I ever run away with a dime?" Dis's discontented voice came from one side. Before the words had fallen, he jumped up from the valley.

  "Was there a harvest? So long, it's not like your style!" Francis was very curious, the canyon was deep, and Dis would not take so long to come back and forth. What was inside that made Dis delay for so long?

  "A bunch of ugly reptiles!" Diess thought for a moment and continued, "I tried one out, they're all around seventh rank, judging by their appearance they should be crocodiles! Although they are seventh rank, they're just a bit bigger than usual! Their crawling speed is very slow, with our strength it shouldn't be a problem!"

  "Crocodiles? Are there crocodiles here?" Francis felt that this world was constantly overturning the scientific concepts of his past life. "Since there's no big problem, let's go down! Dis, lead the way!"

  "Come on! Watch your step, some of the rocks have weathered!" Dais said as he jumped down. Francis and Saber followed his example, stepping on the rocks in a zigzag pattern, jumping down step by step.

  "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~~~" As they approached the bottom of the valley, the sound of water grew louder and louder, until it was almost deafening. The three landed on the ground, Francis observed for a moment, and found that there was still sunlight at the bottom of the valley, although the view wasn't as clear as above, but it didn't affect their movement.

  "Those are the demons right there!" Di pointed at a huge creature in front of them.

  Francis followed Dis's pointing direction and was shocked, this was the largest creature he had ever seen in his life. A huge demon beast lay on the ground, its body length already exceeded 15 meters, even lying on the ground it was more than three meters high, from the side it looked like a crocodile indeed. A bloody big mouth, with many conical giant teeth inside, the teeth were almost as tall as Francis. Compared to its body size, its legs were much shorter, with sharp large claws, and each foot had webbed toes. The tail was very long, almost half of the body, with many hard bony protrusions on its body, and it also had scales. Francis walked in and found that there was still blood gushing out from the crocodile's mouth, apparently Dis had already killed it. "What a big guy, did this make you delay for half a day?" Francis touched the hard skin of the demon beast "Hard as armor!" Francis didn't know much about the demon beast, nor could he call out the name of the creature in front of him.

  "How could this one possibly delay me, Mr. Musk? Look at its backside, I've cleaned it for half a day!" Dis looked disdainfully at Francis's back.

  Francis looked back and was suddenly speechless! On the road behind him, every three to five steps, there was a giant alligator lying on the ground. No need to think, it must have been killed by Dis!

  "It's just calling you out to explore, not to go on a killing spree! Look at those corpses, from the middle onwards, it's clear they were running away when they died! I'm saying, you're just itching for a fight yourself!" Francis rolled his eyes in exasperation.

  "I'm just afraid that when Young Master comes down later, he'll get hurt!" Di said stubbornly.

  "They may be big in size, but those short legs, I really can't think of how they could harm me!" Francis let out a weak snort.

  "Master is really nagging, let's go quickly!" Dis ignored Francis and took the lead to walk ahead. Francis shrugged helplessly and followed with Saber behind him.

  Looking at the corpses in front of him, Francis couldn't help but say "You wouldn't have wiped out a whole family, would you? There are over a hundred here!" He took stock of their surroundings and saw that the canyon walls had become steeper, almost vertical. "Looks like we chose the right place to come down earlier!"

  "Roar...roar...roar..." A continuous roar echoed as the three of them walked up to a group of giant alligators.

  "Is that all there is?" Francis gazed at the countless giant crocodiles before him, astonished. The giant crocodiles emitted waves of ominous magical fluctuations around their bodies. "Indeed, the living and the dead look completely different!" The giant crocodiles in front of him had huge mouths with densely packed sharp teeth, and their entire bodies were covered in hard armor, exuding an aura that seemed to say they wanted to devour humans.

  "Roar~" A giant alligator with tawny eyes stared at Dice, and countless pairs of eyes also turned to look over. Saber quickly drew out his own sword, and since the Wind King's barrier on the sword had not recovered yet, the sword body was directly revealed.

  Francis also made good fighting preparations "Dis, it seems that someone still remembers you? Get ready, I'll count one two three, and we'll rush over together!"

  "What a nuisance, isn't the lesson they were given enough?" Dis raised his middle finger at the giant alligators in front of him, provoking a chorus of roars.

  "Roar!" A giant alligator let out a loud roar, seemingly taking the lead.

  "Is it coming? Ready! One... two..." Francis was also excited at this time, after experiencing the dull long journey, a bloody battle seemed not bad.

  "Whoosh, whoosh!" The sound of splashing water rose up, and Francis looked intently to see the majestic alligators scattering in all directions, their four short legs moving like wheels as they ran straight to the riverbank and jumped into the water, sinking down. In an instant, the group of alligators before his eyes had vanished.

  "......" Francis.

  "...’saber silently put away his own sword."

  "...Diss."

  "I say, Dice, the impression you give people doesn't seem too good!" Francis said jokingly. "Is it your appearance that's scaring them? That's really something! Hahaha..."

  "A bunch of cowards! Hmph!" Dais's face turned slightly red as he closed his eyes.