97

Liu Wei knew about the existence of roads since there was one in Phoenix Village. It would be hard to find someone from Phoenix Village that didn't know about roads.

Knowing how difficult it was to build a road, Liu Wei stopped asking questions. If building a road between Silkworm Mountain and Phoenix Village was as hard as people made it seem, there was no use mentioning a city to city or cross-province road.

Two hours later, Cheng Yang had run into over a dozen hordes. As usual, he slaughtered them all. However, this time he had the added duty of protecting Liu Wei.

Despite that, Cheng Yang earned a lot. However, he hadn't even found a hint of a sign of the instance dungeon.

"Come on! Go a little further. You're less than four kilometers from the village." Cheng Yang softly murmured to himself.

Just as Cheng Yang resumed merrily battling the bushes, Liu Wei pointed to the left and cried out: "My Lord, is that it?"

Cheng Yang stopped and looked in the direction Liu Wei pointed. In between the leaves, he caught a glimpse of white light eighty meters away.

"That's it!" Cheng Yang shouted with joy. Although he couldn't be entirely sure, what else could it be? Even if it was something different, it was probably a treasure.

"Let's go and see!" Cheng Yang said, leading Liu Wei towards the light.

After traveling around half the distance, Cheng Yang confirmed his suspicions. It was, indeed, an instance dungeon.

"Which instance dungeon is this?" Liu Wei asked in a low voice, her face flushed with excitement.

"I don't know." Cheng Yang replied with a sad smile.

"But… didn't you say you saw this instance dungeon in your vision?"

"I did indeed but not the inside of it. My visions are incomplete and usually hard to interpret. Moreover, the world is so big that I doubt even the gods know every detail."

"So that was it. What should we do now? Go back and inform Yu Kai, or just go in?"

"If this is the first clear, we might run into something unexpected. Even if Yu Kai's strength can't help us, I need allies to use my Sacrificial Blood Cloud trump card. Let's call him first before we enter the instance. Even if we don't need help, he can make it easier to clean up the mobs." Cheng Yang replied.

Naturally, Liu Wei agreed. Then, they turned and walked back to Silkworm Mountain.

The search had been an arduous journey, but returning was easy. Even with Liu Wei's speed, it took them less than twenty minutes.

When they got back, they found out that Yu Kai was still out searching for the instance dungeon.

As such, Cheng Yang had to find him personally. It shouldn't be hard. He was traveling with his soldiers, after all. In the pursuit of speed, Cheng Yang decided not to bring Liu Wei along.

Tracking the soldiers was easier than Cheng Yang thought it would be. They had carved wide paths from the forest, cutting away bushes and trampling down the grass. Even though Yu Kai had separated the army into three groups, it didn't take long for Cheng Yang to find him. When he arrived, Yu Kai was fighting a horde of several hundred monsters.

Yu Kai was now a High-Grade Ranger, and although he hadn't learned any of the new skills, his power shouldn't be underestimated. Even when facing a Standard-Grade monster, he was able to slay it quickly.

Since there were more than six hundred left, Cheng Yang didn't sit by idly. He immediately joined the fight.

Cheng Yang decided against using Sacrificial Blood Cloud since the situation was under control and instead chose to maximize his income by using Petal Blizzard.

The scene of Cheng Yang enveloping a group of monsters with deadly petals opened the eyes of Yu Kai's new soldiers. Most of them hadn't seen Cheng Yang fighting before, so his image as a powerful Mage was burned into their retinas.

A few minutes later, when the battle was over, Yu Kai walked over to Cheng Yang while wiping blood off his armor. "My Lord, did you find the entrance?"

Cheng Yang sneered without answering Yu Kai's question. "Buddy, you need to improve your fighting skills. As a Ranger, if you're covered in blood after a fight, that's just pathetic. You have a ranged class, why are playing around with monsters in melee range?"

"I learned that maneuver from you, my Lord." Yu Kai retorted, "Now that my Physical Defense is 6.9, why would I be afraid to fight on the front lines?"

Cheng Yang coughed awkwardly. "Anyways, I found the portal and wanted to inform you. Grab two of your soldiers, and let's go. It will help you get familiar with the instance dungeon so that you can clear it on your own later."

Yu Kai grinned. "I'll be right back."

Yu Kai walked over to his soldiers and picked two of them from the group.

Cheng Yang recognized the people Yu Kai chose. The first was Liu Chengen, the Vice Governor of Silkworm Mountain. The other was Huang Mu, a Summoner with an A-Rank Innate Ability.

After the two soldiers greeted Cheng Yang, the four of them returned to Silkworm Mountain.

When they arrived, they picked up Liu Wei and left to challenge the instance dungeon.

Once they arrived, the group entered without hesitation.

Cheng Yang and the others were somewhat relaxed. The instance dungeon they found was only a Low-Grade one at best with a pseudo-boss at the High-Grade level. Cheng Yang could mop it up all on his own, but even if it turned out to be stronger than expected, the Sacrificial Blood Cloud skill would annihilate it.

As the scene around they warped, the group found themselves on an island. It was around ten thousand square meters and utterly devoid of trees or tall buildings, allowing Cheng Yang to see the entire area. The most intriguing part was that the island was floating in the sky. It was like the flipped over top of a mountain.

In other copies, it was easy to see that the space inside was finite. However, this one didn't appear to have any boundaries. The endless sky stretched out all around them. Cheng Yang couldn't see an edge or a bottom.

However, they now knew the instance dungeons name: Sky God Island.

Since they knew the name, no one was worried about trying to explore the bounds of the instance dungeon. If the name was honest, they wouldn't have to go any further than the island they were on right now.

Cheng Yang remembered an instance dungeon by the same name in his past life. Unfortunately, since he didn't believe there to be one near Cloud City, he didn't look into it too deeply. As such, he wasn't sure as to the exact nature of the instance.

Looking around, Cheng yang couldn't see a single monster on the island. If there weren't monsters, what was the clearance goal?

"I'm going to take a look around. Stay safe." Cheng Yang whispered before walking towards the center of the island. In his opinion, if there was anything weird about this island, it would be near the center. This suspicious was at least partially correct already since there was a ring of hills there.

Cheng Yang walked over the hill and found a deep hole at the center of the ring. There was a faint light coming from the inside.

Cheng Yang walked down and looked inside. A few feet down, there was a narrow passage which seemed to be a part of an underground palace.

"Hey! Come over here!" Cheng Yang shouted to attract the other's attention.

"We need to go down there. I'll go first. Yu Kai will bring up the rear. Since we don't know what to expect, stay on guard." Cheng Yang said once the others arrived.

Yu Kai nodded. Then, they walked inside.

They walked through the hallway without running into any surprises, but when they reached the end, they saw something that shocked them. They were at the top of a massive underground prison complex. Most of it was in ruins, but it stretched down over a dozen floors.

There were easily hundreds of cells, and each one was littered with bones. Most of them were from animals, but others were human in origin.

The most shocking sight was the innumerable monsters that roamed the halls. They were the size of a bull and had a stocky build supported by four thick legs. Stone outgrowths covered their bodies, and additional metal armor was strapped onto them.

"What kind of monster is that?" Yu Kai asked Cheng Yang in a low voice.

"Tel' Rosh. They have a high Physical Defense, and the added armor means that Low-Grade Apprentices can't deal more than a point of damage. Other than that, they're slow and docile unless approached. They should be easy to kill." Cheng Yang reported.

"Should we attack?"

"Yep. Aside from a decent defense, they're just normal monsters. I can see some Standard-Grade ones hiding around here, so watch out."

Cheng Yang raised his stave and sent an Icicle Blast towards the nearest Standard-Grade Tel' Rosh.