Opportunity.

Ethan looked at the desolate city swallowed by the forest outside the window, his gaze gradually growing deeper.

Seven unpurified rank F energy crystals had been able to push both him and Laira up to Black Iron tier 2. This result completely exceeded Ethan’s ordinary understanding.

According to the knowledge he had learned at Aurora Academy, to advance from Black Iron tier 1 to Black Iron tier 2, an ordinary Awakened needed at least about fifteen purified rank F energy crystals. If they also had to share energy with a Partner, that number would only be higher.

But he had only used seven.

What’s more, those were wild crystals mixed with Void energy.

In a normal situation, this kind of crystal couldn’t be absorbed directly. The corrupted energy within would erode the Awakened’s body, causing the energy channels to mutate, the will to be affected, even gradually turning them into half-living, half-dead creatures like those Undead just now.

But Ethan’s Heaven’s Gate didn’t reject them at all. On the contrary, when the energy from the crystals entered his body, his Heaven’s Gate had actively crushed the impurities, broken down the corrupted portion, then retained the portion of energy that could be used.

This wasn’t normal.

Ethan muttered in a low voice: "Is it because my Heaven’s Gate is different from an ordinary person’s?"

His Heaven’s Gate had been opened after passing the ninth-floor anchor point of the Abyss Tower. Not only did it reach rank S, it also had the ability to evolve after every nine floors cleared. That point alone was completely different from anything he had learned in the textbooks.

If this Heaven’s Gate truly could process a portion of Void energy, then his cultivation speed in the Anomalous Coordinates would be far faster than his original prediction.

But there was still another possibility.

Perhaps the energy concentration in the crystals at the Anomalous Coordinates was inherently higher than in the areas outside. It was also possible that the corrupted Void energy itself was the reason the effect increased.

Right now Ethan didn’t have enough data to conclude.

Nor did he intend to trouble himself with speculations that had no answers.

At the very least, he had confirmed one thing.

The wild energy crystals in this place could help him and Laira grow strong quickly.

In the Anomalous Coordinates, that was more important than any explanation.

Laira stood near the broken window, her amber-red eyes still warily observing the street outside. After sensing that Ethan’s aura had stabilized, she turned her head back and asked: "What are you thinking about?"

Ethan replied: "I’m thinking about how many crystals we need to keep leveling up."

Laira curved the corner of her mouth slightly. "Then let’s go hunting."

Ethan looked at her. "No rush. First we have to figure out where the space is more stable. The Academy needs stable coordinates to send supplies, and we need a temporary refuge that’s safe enough."

Laira nodded. "Alright. But if anything comes near, I’ll burn it all."

Ethan was about to reply when a strange sound suddenly rang out in his head.

ZZZZ—

Not a sound from outside.

Nor the sound of wind.

It was like a sharp frequency stabbing straight into his skull, cutting across all of Ethan’s thoughts in an instant.

His expression immediately changed.

Ethan braced one hand against the wall beside him. The pain erupted too suddenly, far more intense than when he actively used [The Eye of Truth]. The feeling was like countless thin metal threads scraping through his brain, while simultaneously pulling both his eyes hard toward something far away.

Blood dripped down from the corners of his eyes.

Only a few drops.

But the pain made Ethan’s breathing turn heavy.

Laira immediately appeared beside him. She steadied Ethan’s shoulder, her voice dropping low: "Ethan, look at me."

Ethan forced his eyes open.

In his somewhat blurry vision, he saw Laira’s face very close. Her amber-red eyes no longer carried their usual free-spiritedness, only worry and a cold killing intent.

Ethan said through gritted teeth: "Something... just swept across this place."

Laira didn’t ask further.

She immediately wrapped her arms around Ethan.

Her dragon wings spread open behind her back.

"Let’s go."

The moment Laira’s voice ended, she had already carried Ethan and charged straight out of the small house.

Boom!

Almost at the same time, the entire house behind them blew apart.

Not burned by fire.

Nor torn apart by space.

It was like being slammed straight down by a colossal force from outside, crushing the entire concrete structure into countless fragments. The walls burst apart, the floor flipped up, the rusted steel bars bent like dry grass. Dust, stone, and fragments of glass shot out across the air.

Laira carried Ethan in flight through the thick cloud of dust. Her dragon wings swept hard, creating a current of hot wind that pushed the large fragments off to either side. A slab of concrete nearly as wide as a door shot straight toward them, but the moment it got close, the dark red flame swept across the edge of Laira’s wing, cutting it into two halves.

Ethan was still held against her chest.

The blood at the corners of his eyes hadn’t dried, but his mind had quickly cleared up.

He raised his head and looked into the distance.

Among the ruined buildings swallowed by the trees, a colossal black shadow was standing atop a snapped bell tower.

It was a dragon-like creature.

But not a true dragon.

Its body was only a long, gaunt skeletal frame, like a giant winged lizard drained of all its blood and flesh. Two tattered bone wings spread open on either side, the wing membranes with only scattered patches of skin left, dry and black as coal. Its spine extended into a sharp bone tail. Each joint had grown patches of dark red and purple-black crystal, exactly like the Undead in the house just now, but with a far heavier degree of corruption.

Its two eye sockets burned with a green flame.

But when Ethan saw it, that green began to slowly turn purple.

Like something inside the monster had just been awakened.

[The Eye of Truth] almost activated on its own.

A faint layer of information appeared before Ethan’s eyes, but was immediately scrambled by countless chaotic symbols.

[Corrupted creature detected.]

[Void Bone-Wing Dragon.]

[Level: Silver tier 10.]

[Status: Mutated.]

[Additional status: Resonating with the Void.]

[Danger: Rising.]

[Warning: Do not continue observing.]

Ethan immediately forced himself to stop.

The pain in his eyes eased a little, but his expression still wasn’t pleasant.

Laira had also seen that monster. Her amber-red eyes immediately turned cold.

Laira said: "That’s not a dragon."

Ethan asked: "You know it?"

Laira replied coldly: "A winged lizard corpse gnawed apart by the Void. It dares to stand before me in that shape."

Ethan heard the killing intent in her voice.

If this were a normal situation, Laira might have charged straight in and incinerated the monster to ash. But right now she didn’t do that. Ethan was still in her arms, and the Anomalous Coordinates around them weren’t necessarily stable.

More importantly, that monster wasn’t looking at Laira.

It was looking at Ethan.

That made an uncomfortable speculation immediately surface in Ethan’s heart.

Perhaps it had been drawn by the Void energy he had just absorbed.

It was also possible it was because of [The Eye of Truth].

To creatures eroded by the Void, he was now like a torch that had just been lit in the darkness.

Ethan said in a low voice: "Laira, it’s locked onto me."

Laira replied briefly: "I know."

She held Ethan tighter. Her dragon wings beat hard, her body immediately flying in an arc around a high-rise building covered in vines. Behind them, the Void Bone-Wing Dragon raised its head.

Screech—

A piercing shriek rang out.

Not like the roar of a dragon.

But like thousands of fragments of bone grinding against one another.

The space around it began to warp. The patches of red-purple crystal on its skeletal frame all lit up at once. The purple flame in its eye sockets blazed up violently, then streams of purple-black energy quickly converged in its mouth.

Ethan saw it clearly.

That wasn’t ordinary flame.

It was corrupted energy blending high temperature with the eroding force of the Void.

If hit head-on, even if Laira could resist it, he might not necessarily be able to withstand the aftershock.

Ethan immediately said: "We can’t block it head-on."

Laira replied: "I know."

She didn’t turn her head, only using all her strength to accelerate. Her dragon wings spread wide and then beat hard. The air was torn apart, creating a current of hot wind trailing behind her back. The ruined buildings flashed by on either side at extreme speed. Tree roots, rotted signs, and broken window frames all turned into blurry patches of gray-green in Ethan’s field of view.

But the Void Bone-Wing Dragon had finished gathering its energy.

Its mouth opened so wide it nearly detached from its jawbone.

A sphere of purple-black flame appeared among the sharp bone teeth.

Right after —

Bam!

The air around its mouth blew apart.

The fireball shot out like a supersonic artillery shell, tearing through the space ahead, dragging a long streak of purple-black light charging straight at Laira and Ethan at a terrifying speed. The buildings in its path began to crack apart from the pressure before even being touched. The vines on the walls burned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Laira gritted her teeth.

"Ethan, hold on to me tight."

Ethan didn’t ask.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

His eyes ached sharply again. But this time, Ethan didn’t force himself to look at the monster. He looked at the trajectory of the fireball.

A very thin red line appeared before his eyes.

Not a weak point.

Not a death point.

But the only path of survival left.

Ethan said hoarsely: "Left. Three meters. Then drop down."

Laira didn’t hesitate.

Her dragon wings immediately closed halfway, her body, which had been flying straight, suddenly tilting hard to the left.

Right behind them, the purple-black fireball shot past.