Somewhere within the Forbidden Mountains, Santner had no idea where he was. He had led his subordinates deep into the mountain range and had long since lost his way.
On a patch of flat ground, Santner and his men were resting. The weather was far too scorching, and combined with the stifling humidity of the mountain forest, no one wanted to move an inch.
They had been resting in this spot for five or six days now. Santner had been constantly studying that treasure map.
Tap, tap, tap…
Karl returned, drenched in sweat and with parched lips. He reported, "Your Highness, we have returned."
"Have you found a way out?" Santner's eyes were bloodshot, and his cheeks had grown somewhat hollow.
"No." Karl sighed. The Forbidden Mountains were simply too vast. They had been wandering through the range for months and had completely lost their sense of direction.
"Damn it," Santner growled. He threw the parchment treasure map onto the ground and stomped on it fiercely a few times. He was beginning to seriously suspect that this treasure map was a fake.
"Your Highness, please calm your anger," Karl consoled him.
Haa, haa... Santner panted heavily, tossing his head. He hadn't bathed in so many days that his once-blonde hair had turned entirely gray from the grime.
After a good while, Santner calmed down and bent over to pick the parchment map back up. Reason told him that the Forbidden Mountains were so massive that relying on a single map to find a treasure was fundamentally like looking for a needle in the ocean.
"Your Highness, it is time to eat." Karl placed a linen sack filled with wild fruits onto the ground.
"..." Santner looked down at the wild fruits, feeling an immediate sour ache in his gums. Having eaten these tart fruits every single day recently, he was on the verge of throwing up.
"I want meat. I want to eat meat!" Santner growled, his eyes locked intensely onto Karl.
"Your Highness, I will go hunt," Karl replied bitterly.
They were currently deep in the heart of the Forbidden Mountains, surrounded by danger on all sides. The number of carnivorous beasts was countless. Of the two to three hundred beastkin knights who had originally set out, less than fifty remained.
Every time they went out to hunt, beastkin knights died. He feared that a few more would perish this time as well, but there was no helping it. Santner was their master.
"Go quickly." Santner waved his hand, kicked the sack of wild fruits aside, and lowered his head to study the parchment treasure map once more.
"Sigh..." After walking away, Karl let out a heavy sigh. He turned his head to look back in Santner's direction before finally selecting a dozen beastkin knights to enter the dense forest.
Tap, tap, tap...
Karl and his group walked for half an hour. Lush, towering trees surrounded them on all sides, and the occasional roar of beasts echoing in their ears kept them on high alert.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
A sudden, violent roar tore through the air, terrifying Karl and the others so much that they quickly huddled together, staring in the direction the sound had come from.
"My Lord, isn't that beast's roar a bit too loud?" A knight asked in alarm.
"Yeah, that's the loudest roar I've ever heard."
"It's even louder than the roar of the great lion in the Royal Palace."
"..."
The beastkin knights all expressed their shock, yet not a single one suggested going forward to investigate. Just hearing the roar was enough to tell them what kind of terrifying beast it was.
"Let's go take a look. Perhaps it's just two beasts fighting?" Karl stepped forward, his expression fluctuating between dark and pale. He had to figure out exactly what kind of beast it was; their camp wasn't that far away.
"This..." The knights had no choice but to follow.
Tap, tap, tap...
Ten minutes later, Karl abruptly halted his steps, staring in horror at the path ahead of them.
This path looked as if it had been crushed by some colossal behemoth. Trees were snapped in half, and massive footprints cratered the ground.
"My Lord, are we still going forward?" A knight asked in terror.
"Move." Karl gritted his teeth so hard he bit his own lip. He couldn't afford not to go.
He was the first to step forward. The others, left with no other option, drew their weapons and followed, every one of them as jumpy as a startled rabbit.
The further Karl's group went, the more terrified they became. They saw massive gouge marks on several trees—a single glance was enough to tell they had been left by some unknown, monstrous beast.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
Suddenly, a series of violent roars echoed from directly ahead, paralyzing Karl and the others with fear.
Gulp... Karl and the others swallowed hard. They stood frozen for a long while before finally daring to inch forward again.
"Wait... My Lord, wait, look!!" A knight growled in disbelief.
"What is it?" Karl turned his head and saw the beastkin knight staring at the sky. He followed his gaze upward, and his pupils violently shrank. "A miracle of the Divine Kingdom???" He cried out in shock.
A massive, ethereal projection had appeared in the sky—it was a gigantic mountain with a snow-white peak, incredibly majestic and spectacular.
"My Lord, could the Divine Kingdom be just up ahead?" A knight shouted excitedly.
"Let's hurry! The Divine Kingdom! It means immortality!"
"Quick! That beast might just be the divine guardian beast guarding the gates!"
The beastkin knights grew frantic with excitement. They had all heard the legends of the Divine Kingdom—the dwelling place of the gods, the key to eternal life.
Tap, tap, tap...
Karl and his group broke into a wild sprint, their eyes burning with fanaticism.
"Uh..."
A few minutes later, all their fanaticism vanished without a trace, replaced by endless, abyssal terror. Blocking their path ahead was a colossal behemoth, its head lowered as it fed.
It was as if they had been plunged straight from the height of summer into the dead of winter; their hearts turned ice-cold.
"This..." Karl trembled all over, a bone-chilling cold sweeping over him. The giant beast's rows of razor-sharp teeth were currently tearing into the corpse of another massive beast on the ground.
Roar! The behemoth lifted its head, cast a single sweeping glance over Karl's group, and let out a low, menacing growl.
Tap, tap, tap...
In the very next second, Karl and the others spun on their heels and ran for their lives. Their little lives were far more important.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
Accompanied by a violent, earth-shaking bellow, Karl and his men fled even faster.
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200 power stones.
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