The four people in the Divine Court all had dark expressions.
The guardian of this layer of the Divine Country opened his mouth and demanded an arm, which they found completely unacceptable. Losing an arm meant losing at least half of their overall strength.
In this perilous Divine Country, their powers were already suppressed.
It was akin to a direct death sentence.
"This deal doesn’t leave us any room for survival. This gatekeeper wants us dead." In the shadows, someone gritted their teeth, glaring hatefully at the young girl standing not far away.
The likes of Minor Celestial Officer and River Deity knew this situation all too well.
The two exchanged glances and immediately dismissed the idea of using force; no one could tell the depths of this gatekeeper’s power, and acting rashly would be a dead end.
If they wanted to leave this place, they needed the flower in her hand.
"Do you know which layer of the Divine Country this is?"
Minor Celestial Officer inquired.
With a smile, the little girl counted on her fingers, and after a while, she said brightly, "This is already the fourth layer. If you want to buy the flower, you need to pay a sufficient price."
The Black Moon Divine Country had many entrances and consisted of five layers, with the first four guarded by gatekeepers. The fifth layer was the true Divine Country, the resting place of the Divine Spirits.
The Black Moon, now on the fifteenth, was already mad, and naturally was not in the fifth layer.
Even so, this former resting place of the Divine Spirits had drawn the attention of countless people, with many continuously venturing inside over the years, hoping to gain benefits from it.
People die for wealth, birds for food.
This is an eternal truth.
The four had not expected to reach the fourth layer, already so close to the core; Minor Celestial Officer had speculated before coming that Kaz might have entered the fifth layer.
The price to enter the fifth layer was steep indeed.
The four pondered a compromise.
Days had passed in the Divine Country.
Baiyu, after much exploration, finally found a place resembling an exit. During the entire process, the Black Moon Mark showed no changes.
It was a door of light resembling a Shelter passage.
But unlike a Shelter,
This place was extremely sinister; all around was pitch-black void, as if trying to devour everything.
As Baiyu approached the giant door,
The flower, which had been exchanged for a strand of his hair, drifted out, integrating into the door, which emitted a hazy moonlight and opened with a boom.
Behind it was a constantly rotating vortex.
"This is it. The Black Moon Divine Country should be a layered Divine Country, not just a single plane. This should lead to the next layer."
Cang Yan’s tone was somewhat excited.
Baiyu had also learned some secrets about the Divine Country during this time.
Although Cang Yan seemed unreliable, the knowledge in his head was useful.
"If I can’t find traces of Qiong Jiu and Pang Fei in the next layer, nor figure out how to control the Simulation Realm’s expansion, I will have to retreat."
Baiyu’s eyes flickered as he plotted a retreat route.
If the expansion continued, he had two options: one was Erza, but this choice was not reliable as the situation on Erza was unknown and the condition of Qiong Yue was uncertain.
Secondly, he could stay in the Divine Country.
It was better than staying outside, being devoured.
As long as East Prosperity Imperial’s rescue arrived, it wouldn’t be too late to leave.
Baiyu’s thoughts flashed, and he immediately stepped into the black vortex.
The fifth layer of the Divine Country.
Desolate, gray, and decaying.
There was no longer any vitality here. The land was black, cracked for miles, and the dark red sky resembled a shattered mirror with bursts of blood light.
Giant creatures wandered the land, devoid of consciousness and any signs of life.
These were all once followers of the Black Moon.
But the fifteenth’s madness had rendered them lifeless, and even the Divine Country was dead and dilapidated; the prosperity of the first four layers was merely an illusion.
In the center of this Divine Country was a massive Black Stone Plaza.
The plaza was surrounded by pillars, each carved with bizarre images depicting the former glory of the Black Moon.
There was a round pool with a diameter of hundreds of meters, its surface engraved with all sorts of strange divine patterns, illustrated with a series of eerie murals.
This pool had once dried up and had been dried for many years.
It was once a place where the fifteenth’s Black Moon responded to the prayers of followers, with divinity water flowing in the pool, a true divine treasure.
After the Black Moon went mad, the Divine Country fell into ruin, and the pool dried up.
It turned into that Black Moon in the sky, appearing only once a year.
The pool was filled again.
Boiling blood churned within.
In the center of the pool was a giant pillar. Tied to the pillar were numerous figures from Linjiang.
Pang Fei, Qiong Jiu, Dong Chunsheng, and others.
All of them were bound to the pillar by a blood-red chain, unable to move, and the suppression of this Divine Country had reduced their powers to a nadir.
At the top of the pillar, there was a small recessed niche.
A purely black eye, but within its pupil seemed to be a myriad of stars, a strange eye.
This eye was called the Eye of the Black Moon.
Kaz preferred to call it the Eye of True Wisdom.
It was the most powerful S-level Sealing Object on him, which made the Prison Warden of Hades Prison wary of taking action against him and compelled the officials of East Prosperity Imperial to use suppressive gas to detain him for three years, such a terrifying magical item.
Because the officials of East Prosperity Imperial also aimed to acquire the Eye of True Wisdom.
They feared Kaz’s final desperate struggle, fighting to the death, using his extraordinary abilities to pollute this S-level Sealing Object, leading to mutual destruction.
Moreover, within the Abyssal Ascetic Association, there always existed the art of reincarnation.
This was also a reason for the rapid development and growth of the Abyssal Ascetic Association; immortality exerted an immeasurable allure on ordinary people. Reincarnation was akin to an alternative immortality.
And more enticing than immortality.
Without full assurance, the officials of East Prosperity Imperial dared not truly execute Kaz, which was a challenge when dealing with High Tier Extraordinary individuals.
Unlike High Tier Martial Artists, whose martial prowess was unparalleled.
High Tier Extraordinary individuals were more mysterious, with more bizarre abilities, and equally difficult to deal with.
If High Tier Martial Artists are likened to lions, then High Tier Extraordinary are serpents in the shadows; both can threaten lives, but many would rather face the lion than the serpent.
"The true function of the Eye of the Black Moon is to activate this Divine Pool, making it function again. Its foresight and sensing abilities are merely a superficial use of Divine Power, and every use requires a painful price.
As a top-tier S-level Sealing Object, the Eye of the Black Moon is not such a simple thing."
Kaz stood in front of the Divine Pool, watching as it gradually filled with blood, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. On his neck, a faint Black Moon Mark shimmered.