Chapter 64: The Tribulation of the Elf Girls (V)

The Blood Ant tribe's priest began to chant an ancient incantation.

On the altar, red runes flickered and covered the entire surface, with threads of blood-colored energy winding around each one.

These blood-colored threads crossed and intertwined, even piercing through the delicate bodies of the cat-girls, continuously extracting their power.

Wails of misery echoed across the altar.

When the chanting ended, the cat-girls' demonic sources had been drained, leaving behind only beautiful husks and hollow Souls.

They would be transported to the old castle to become playthings for the nobility.

"Select the suitable ones," the black-robed Elder instructed in a low voice, his eyes sweeping tremulously over the Elf Girls.

These Elf Girls were each a precious treasure.

Their spiritual sources contained a rich life force, which was exactly what the insect race most desperately wanted to obtain, a fact that left the black-robed Elder trembling with excitement.

The gray-robed priests slowly walked in front of the Elf Girls; the silent atmosphere pressed down until the air felt almost frozen.

The Elf Girls had their shoulders tightly gripped by Blood Ant guards, their hands pinned behind their backs.

They trembled, wanting to break free, but were helpless.

Upon approaching, the priests removed their hoods, revealing hideous insect faces.

Green antennae extended from the tops of their heads, swaying in the air and emitting an unbearable stench.

They placed their tentacles against the Elf Girls' cheeks or foreheads, testing their Aptitude one by one.

"This one won't do."

A gray-robed priest coldly remarked as his antenna lightly brushed across an Elf Girl's forehead.

"This one won't do either," another priest said with dissatisfaction.

Li Ya's heart was pounding violently; she stared nervously at the priest before her.

That hideous insect face drew closer to her, its green tentacles waving through the air and emitting a fishy stench.

She couldn't help but want to retreat, but she was tightly gripped by the Blood Ant guards and unable to escape, forced to watch as the antenna gradually closed in on her.

The antenna, like a winding snake, slowly touched her cheek, continuously exploring her fair, delicate face.

"No! I don't want to die! Wuwu…" She cried in a breakdown, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

The gray-robed priest showed no emotional fluctuation, continuing to meticulously probe her quality with his antenna.

"This one is a high-quality specimen," the gray-robed priest said excitedly a moment later.

"Good, take her down and begin the refining process immediately," the black-robed Elder said, trembling.

The Blood Ant soldiers led Li Ya through winding underground tunnels, finally arriving at a secret chamber.

The secret chamber was vast, filled with thick, viscous liquid that surrounded the entire space, essentially making it a pool.

In the center of the chamber floated a sphere, emitting a faint, eerie glow.

Below the sphere was a narrow path, suspended above the liquid and leading to the chamber's entrance.

Along the path, there was a yellow-green Soul lamp at intervals, their weak light flickering like the whispers of a Soul, eerie and sinister.

The Blood Ant soldiers tugged on the iron chains, walking along the suspended path.

The other end of the chains was bound to Li Ya's hands, and she stumbled as she walked.

With every step she took, the yellow-green Soul lamps beside her extinguished; the eerie light reflecting on her face revealed the fear in her heart.

Her eyes gazed powerlessly ahead, not knowing what fate awaited her.

Finally, they arrived in front of the central sphere.

The sphere emitted a faint, eerie glow, like a floating nightmare.

Tentacles extended from the sphere like countless black snakes, lunging frantically toward Li Ya.

After the tentacles wrapped around Li Ya, they dragged her inside the sphere.

The inside of the sphere was filled with regenerative liquid, the foundation upon which the insect race relied for survival.

Once dragged inside, the tentacles sliced through her skin, allowing the regenerative liquid to better modify her body.

Li Ya felt a sudden, sharp pain; she wanted to call for help, but the entire sphere was filled with regenerative liquid, and she couldn't even breathe, let alone call out.

Li Ya felt every corner of her body being mutated, and her Soul was gradually fading away.

She could only curl her body, press her hands together, tears sliding from the corners of her eyes, and weakly pray that Sal could appear in time to save her.

Meanwhile, on the other side, on the altar.

The Blood Ant soldiers were rough, ignoring the Elf Girls' struggles and cries, fixing them one by one to the stone pillars of the altar.

The thin gauze on their bodies was already torn, revealing fair and trembling skin as delicate as newly bloomed flowers.

These delicate flowers were filled with fear in their eyes; some could not help but sob, tears sliding down their cheeks;

others bit their lips, attempting to maintain their final shred of dignity.

"Elders, begin," the black-robed Elder commanded, and all the gray-robed Elders exerted their power in unison.

Accompanied by the deep, ancient chanting, the blood-colored runes on the stone surface of the altar slowly lit up.

Countless slender red threads poured out from the runes, wrapping around their slender bodies.

The threads clung tightly to their tender skin, slowly tightening, intending to completely extract their spiritual sources.

The girls' faces were pale, their expressions pained, and some had already slipped into a semi-conscious state.

Just as the light of the runes grew increasingly dazzling, a figure hid like a ghost in the shadows at the base of the altar—Lin Fan.

His cold, stern face revealed a hint of sharpness and composure, his sword-like brows slightly furrowed as he had already calculated his plan of action in his mind.

Attacking directly could dismantle the altar, but the load on the world-breaking pendant would be immense, perhaps even unable to support him in completing the entire rescue mission.

However, the collapsed state of the microscopic world gave him the perfect opportunity.

Acting at the microscopic collapse points would not only make the destruction appear "natural" but also perfectly cover his tracks, creating an accidental disaster.

[Quantum collapse, in layman's terms, means quantum states are like clouds, unclear;

once you observe them, the mist immediately disperses, and the state becomes fixed.

This is the world's self-consistency mechanism, which self-consistently turns anomalous information into explainable results.]

"Since I have to act, I'll put on a perfect performance of 'Final Destination'," Lin Fan's mouth curled slightly; it seemed he was about to do something big.

He flicked his finger lightly, and a trace of imperceptible spiritual energy was injected into the structural core at the base of the altar.

He accurately captured those microscopic collapse nodes, and through the vibration of his spiritual energy, caused the operation of the runes to begin experiencing subtle disturbances.

At the first collapse, a stone pillar supporting the rune energy suddenly snapped, rubble splashed, and the rune light flickered.

At the second point of loss of control, a Soul lamp shook violently, teetering on the edge, and finally smashed into the spiritual energy node behind the Blood Ant Elder.

Boom! Energy surged and exploded directly, shaking the Elder until he staggered backward.

"What is happening?" the Blood Ant Elder roared, waving his massive arms as he tried to stabilize the altar.

However, Lin Fan's performance had only just begun.

At the third collapse, the core of the Formation suddenly crumbled, the red threads that had originally bound the Elf Girls snapped in an instant, and the girls fell powerlessly to the ground.

"Now is the time."

The rune core began to vibrate violently, and red light flashed frantically.

Lin Fan micro-adjusted the position of the collapse points, his spiritual energy piercing into the core as precisely as a needle and thread.

"Boom!"

A violent shockwave swept across the entire altar, and the ground shook violently. The girls were swept up by the blast of air and thrown backward.

The passage was narrow and winding; such an explosion should have caused them to crash into the hard rock walls.

However, the red threads that had originally been wrapped around them seemed to possess self-awareness; they suddenly tightened, wrapping each girl into a translucent cocoon.

These cocoons were sent deep into the passage by the thrust of the explosion like meteors, avoiding all sharp stone spikes and collapsing rubble along the way.

Ahead, above the passage, a dilapidated stone bridge began to disintegrate due to the explosion's tremors.

Huge boulders were teetering, just right to block the cocoons' path.

Lin Fan's gaze turned slightly cold as his spiritual energy permeated once again.

"Crack!"

The huge night-luminescent pearl on the bunker roof rolled down quietly, smashing precisely onto the passage floor below to form an inclined slide.

The cocoons, pushed by the explosion, slid forward along the inclined slide, carried by inertia.

During the slide, a section of iron chain at the top of the passage suddenly snapped due to the structural collapse, swinging down toward the bottom.

"Snap!"

The iron chain did not hit the cocoons but instead lay across the bottom of the slide, becoming a natural ejection track.

The cocoons leapt up under the elasticity of the chains, flying over the narrow cavern and landing steadily in another safe area.

The aftermath of the explosion continued, and the entire altar area turned into a Hell of fire and collapse.

Meanwhile, the girls inside the cocoons had already been cleverly sent to the end of the passage.

The red threads loosened, and the cocoons gradually dissipated, revealing the Elf Girls, who were weak in breath but unharmed.

They opened their dazed eyes, still shaken, but had safely escaped the danger.