Benjamin glanced at the blood on the ground twice more, confirming that the three lichs had been completely eliminated, then put away the deep sea realm, turned his head, and said to several mages: "Collect the available materials and return to the academy. Bar."
Several mages were stunned when they heard this.
"...will you return now?"
Benjamin nodded.
When the mages saw this, they naturally did not object. There was enough food and water in the pack to continue, but if Benjamin wished to end the expedition, they would say nothing more. So far, their gains have been quite fruitful.
They stepped forward carefully, took out their special tools, and collected the remains of the undead explosion bit by bit.
But Miles suddenly came to Benjamin's side, his expression not very good.
"We can continue to explore the world of the undead... this is just the beginning." He lowered his voice, "Don't you want to know what else is deeper?"
Benjamin did not answer immediately, but made a silent gesture towards him, then turned his head and urged the mages over there to move faster.
"There's no need to bring those bone fragments with you. Come on, we'd better leave this place within ten minutes."
"Okay, okay..."
A few mages felt a little strange, but they didn't ask any more questions and instead sped up their men's movements. They collected the skulls of the three undead as much as possible, then stored some blood in small bottles, then took everything with them and flew into the air with Benjamin.
"Okay, Dean, let's go."
Benjamin nodded, turned around, and was about to leave this place...
However, at this moment, thick smoke suddenly rose from the entire forest! The bones all over the ground shook violently, the branches of the trees swayed left and right as if there had been an earthquake, and rumbling sounds came from all directions!
Everyone present was stunned.
At that moment, even the water elemental elf resting on Benjamin's shoulder leaned down and let out a sharp scream.
Benjamin looked serious: "It's troublesome, I didn't escape..."
"Master Dean, what's going on?" The male mage asked in a panic, "Haven't the three undead been eliminated? What happened?"
"Because there is something more terrifying sleeping underground in this jungle." Benjamin said while looking around with vigilance, "And our battle just now seems to have awakened that thing unintentionally."
It was only after he opened the deep sea realm that he began to notice something was wrong.
Just as Benjamin filled the lich with water elements, he clearly felt another powerful spiritual power, which was suddenly transmitted towards him. Death, gloom, resentment... complex fluctuations came from beneath the ground, like a sea monster awakened from a deep sleep.
He felt something was wrong at that time.
He asked the system in his mind, and the system told him that it had a very bad intuition. The power of runes contained in the deep sea realm seems to have disturbed something. They had better leave here quickly.
-This is why Benjamin keeps urging them to move faster.
However, at this moment, whatever thing was sleeping underground had obviously woken up completely. The black smoke contained a large amount of dark elements, as well as a death energy similar to that of the Lich, and was directed towards them at an extremely fast speed. Benjamin quickly activated the elemental command and defense, forming a huge semicircular sphere to protect everyone inside.
As a result, black smoke wrapped around the elemental barrier, making a sizzling sound, just like sulfuric acid being poured on a person.
The water element in the barrier was consumed rapidly and evaporated into nothingness by strange power. If Benjamin hadn't been adding new water elements into it, it might have broken in an instant.
Although none of the mages present were good at water magic, they tried their best to mobilize their elemental affinities to help Benjamin defend.
However…
"ah!"
A scream of pain came from beside them. Everyone looked over in shock and saw Miles suddenly holding his head in his hands and squatting on the ground, his face pale and showing an expression of extreme pain.
The mage didn't dare to get close and could only ask from the side: "What's wrong with you?"
Miles seemed to be completely unable to hear their words. He just held his head in pain, unable to make any sound other than a scream.
"His magic immunity field was suddenly activated and began to bite him." The system said, "Don't touch him yet. This thing is too dangerous for humans."
"What should we do?" Benjamin asked in his mind.
"There is no other way. It depends on his own will." The system reminded, "You should deal with the guy from outside first. No matter what... I have a very bad intuition. You shouldn't be here."
When Benjamin heard this, he glanced at Miles who kept screaming a few more times, and finally he could only sigh, and summoned another bubble to protect him and not let any mage get close to him.
Then, he tried his best to sense the black smoke outside the elemental barrier.
"The living... shouldn't be here."
As soon as his mental power was tested, Benjamin was startled. He only heard a hoarse and low voice, as if coming from the abyss, and slowly entered his mind.
Benjamin looked around. It seemed that he was the only one who heard the sound. The other mages were still busy helping to maintain the barrier, and they looked normal.
So, he thought for a while and said in his heart: "We don't plan to stay long, please let us go."
If there is a possibility of negotiation, he does not want to have a head-on conflict with the other party. The world of the undead has a certain degree of restraint on magic. It is so troublesome to solve it with just a few lichs. Now there is another one who is many times more powerful. If you fight hard, you will probably get yourself killed.
He almost regretted killing those three lichs.
They should take people away directly. The world of the undead is more dangerous than they imagined.
"Who... are you? Why does your body smell so disgusting?" A moment later, the voice came again, and Benjamin felt nervous.
Disgusting taste
"Put away the water elemental elves quickly!" the system suddenly shouted.
Benjamin was suddenly enlightened, and quickly used spiritual contact to bring the inexplicably excited water elemental spirit back to his conscious space. And a few seconds after he hid the water elemental elf, the voice came again.
"The smell is gone..."
Benjamin quickly replied in his mind: "Yes, can you please let us leave?"
"No." The voice became gloomy again, "You violated the rules and broke into the world of the dead without permission. I can't let you leave like this."
Benjamin's mood hit rock bottom again.
"What rules? We don't know, and those who don't know are not guilty. You can't blame us for this." He had no choice but to mess around with the other party while instructing the system to detect outside and find a way out.
"Rules are rules." The voice said slowly, "The Ghost Rift divides the world into two, one side belongs to the living and the other belongs to the dead. No one can escape the punishment of the rules if they cross the boundary between life and death without authorization."
Benjamin immediately replied: "Then who are you? What qualifications do you have to carry out punishment for the rules?"
"I am the spirit of the bones sleeping underground here." The voice replied, "Every undead soul has the obligation to eliminate the living people who trespass here, and I must fulfill my duty."
Along with its words, suddenly, the black smoke outside the barrier surged and slowly retreated. The outside sight, which was completely blocked, gradually gave way to a blank road.
Along that road, everyone could clearly see a huge bone dragon, about tens of meters high, crawling towards them.