Bai Cha didn't quite know what to say. You didn't tell her what you wanted to do in advance, so how could they know what to do?
Soon, everyone received the directive from the plane. They lined up and automatically spread out into a circle.
Everyone was silent. Bai Cha stepped forward first, her aura like a rainbow. Perhaps it was because the intermingled red and green patterns on Bai Cha were too peculiar compared to the pure green colors on everyone else. Seeing Bai Cha step out, everyone seemed to have a tacit understanding, acknowledging Bai Cha as their leader.
"Begin."
Bai Cha's soft two words propelled the entire team's momentum to its peak. Huge illusory figures appeared behind everyone – the initial forms of their respective resonant dragons, accompanied by a rich green light that spread out in ripples. For a moment, it matched the momentum of the Dragon Mother galaxy.
To Bai Cha's surprise, out of six people and four Holy Dragons, one was also a Demonic Dragon. Bai Cha had thought that perhaps only she, a dragon with such a perverse nature, existed.
Gently raising her jade hand, Bai Cha's gaze was sharp. The crimson blood energy instantly condensed into a single point and separated from the green light. The blood-red light was like a needle, piercing into the Dragon Mother galaxy's body in an instant.
The Dragon Mother galaxy immediately trembled, as if it had encountered a hot potato. It rapidly retreated a distance. During its retreat, several people had already finished accumulating power. The green life energy converged, and a massive beam of light surged upwards, enveloping the Dragon Mother galaxy completely.
Under the coverage of this green light, the distorted galaxy was like a person falling into the sea, their speed greatly reduced by the undertow.
Soon, the Dragon Mother seemed to react. Although resistance remained, it still pushed forward forcefully.
"It hasn't used its true power; it intends to accumulate strength and attack in one go once it gets within a certain range," the plane's will transmitted again. "Keep it occupied. My power will give you enough time to obtain my crystals and the strength to resist it."
Bai Cha secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as time could be bought, that was enough. She wondered how long it would take, and it seemed she would have to ask Mo Yuntian to have the astronomy team make an assessment.
Athena glanced at Bai Cha. Although the crimson thread was fleeting, she was closest to Bai Cha and had noticed something.
If that power was indeed unleashed by Bai Cha, it would be terrifying. That blood-red power had actually made a demiplane retreat half a step. This was a power none of them possessed, but the power always felt strange, eerie, and dark.
The delay plan proceeded smoothly. By the time Bai Cha returned to the ground enveloped in blood-red light, Guanyao's group was still standing obediently on the sports field, none daring to move.
"They didn't go in?" Bai Cha looked at the perfectly lined-up ranks, all staring at her, feeling inexplicably confused.
She remembered these people coveting the non-existent treasures inside, so why were they still standing there?
"Perhaps they were frightened by your power just now," Lucifer said with a smile. Although they knew the source of this power was suspicious, it didn't prevent Bai Cha from being the one to steal the spotlight.
Lucifer was quite pleased with this.
Bai Cha had no choice but to wave at Gu Zitan. Only then did the teachers begin to organize those who wanted to enter into teams.
Bai Cha had already announced that no one would be protected in the secret realm, and those who were not essential should not enter. However, judging by the situation, few people had listened to her. Almost half the school intended to enter.
Treasure was always a huge temptation for most people. In the early days, when the world had not been so thoroughly developed, some people had found treasures, either soaring to success or solving crises. However, such situations had not occurred for a long time.
Therefore, even if she said there was no gold inside, there would naturally be "gold diggers" flocking to it.
"Hey, aren't we going in?" Lang Mo stood behind Bai Cha, his broad back and muscular build like a gorilla. A small dragon stood on his shoulder, its eyes wide. Just looking at its gaze, it seemed as unintelligent as its owner.
"This mission isn't about being first," Bai Cha glanced at Lang Mo. "Don't cause trouble when you go in."
This secret realm, to put it bluntly, was a reuse of waste from several abandoned world bubbles spliced together. The Earth plane had given advance notice that it needed to contain the Dragon Mother plane and couldn't monitor here constantly, so there were definitely dangers.
Of course, if they couldn't overcome this little bit of danger, they wouldn't be the chosen ones.
Therefore, to prevent accidental injuries, Bai Cha only allowed a few elites to go in for training, to find crises and improve themselves. The others were to stay outside. Someone like Lang Mo, who only knew how to charge forward, might cause trouble if he got heated, and it would be difficult to clean up.
Lang Mo felt a bit wronged by Bai Cha's disdain, but thinking that he did indeed tend to cause trouble, he could only quietly find his good brother, Mo Ziye, and squat to the side.
As for Mo Ziye, he knew that Bai Cha didn't seem to hold grudges, but Bai Cha not holding grudges didn't prevent him from feeling awkward. He really wanted to apologize to Bai Cha. He had indeed been hot-headed that day and said things he shouldn't have, but there were too many people, and he was too embarrassed to go.
"Alright, let's go." Seeing that everyone who wanted to enter had gone in, Bai Cha finally stood up and led her people in. After taking two steps, Lucifer grabbed her hand.
Bai Cha turned back in surprise, only to see Lucifer smiling gently, his smile very innocent.
"We don't know what we'll encounter. When entering the vortex gate, please hold me tightly to prevent getting lost, my master," Lucifer said with a smile.
Well, it made sense.
Bai Cha thought for a moment, nodded, and pulled Lucifer into the strange vortex.
However, neither of them expected that they had underestimated how tricky this plane was.
As soon as they entered the vortex, the familiar dizziness swept over them, but the hand in her palm became illusory. Bai Cha endured the dazzling sense of weightlessness and turned her head, only to find Lucifer dissipating like foam.
Both of them looked shocked. They quickly raised their hands to grab each other, but grasped nothing. Then, even Bai Cha's storage bracelet shattered with a "crack."
What was going on!
Bai Cha was startled, but her vision lit up. Looking closely, she found herself in a jungle. Trees of varying heights and bushes intertwined. She could vaguely see swamps. The surroundings were silent, with no one around. Occasionally, she could hear insects chirping.
Separated?
Bai Cha felt inexplicably confused. If separating Lucifer and herself was understandable, then what was the deal with her storage bracelet shattering?
The World Tree had already told her that this was an abandoned world bubble that had been grafted. No matter how abandoned it was, it was still a world. How could she go back in a short time? Would she not eat or drink?
"Hey! Can you hear me?" Bai Cha shouted into the air. She didn't know how to address the World Tree, as the World Tree was just her own description of the specific form of the Earth plane.
Should she directly call it the Earth plane? It felt strange.
The surroundings were very quiet, with no sound at all, and no familiar will pressing into her mind. Bai Cha couldn't determine if this was a test from the World Tree or if something had gone wrong for other reasons. Since this was the case, Bai Cha could only explore the surroundings first.
However, just as Bai Cha intended to fly into the air to observe the surroundings, her expression changed again.
Whether it was due to this special world bubble or not, the power related to dragons could not be used at all.
This was undoubtedly fatal for those students who relied solely on draconic power. Those who were left with only physical fitness found it unrealistic to survive in this unknown, deformed world without eating or drinking.
This was completely different from her last visit. Last time, when she came, there was no interference with machinery, equipment, or power.
"Crisis alert, uncontrollable danger doubled. Non-essential personnel, non-elite personnel, evacuate this place. The vortex gate will close in ten minutes."
A will entered everyone's minds. What made Bai Cha speechless was that this will actually used her voice, but the tone was stiff and robotic, lacking emotion.
"Do you need to? Don't you have your own voice?" Bai Cha said helplessly. She turned her head and found that the vortex gate she had entered through was indeed standing behind her.
It seemed that everyone had this way back. As long as they returned, this should be the last retreat the World Tree left for them.
"They... don't know I'm... using yours... for convenience," the World Tree's will transmitted intermittently, like encountering signal interference during a phone call, vague and indistinct.
"I was... by you... crisis uncontrollable, I give you the last..." the World Tree's will intermittently transmitted into Bai Cha's mind. "As long as you... don't die... return then... if it's really... then..."
The words were too intermittent, and Bai Cha was confused.
"Dying here means truly dying outside. As long as you don't die here, you will be unharmed outside! Those who don't want to die, get out!"
The last sentence was expressed clearly by the World Tree, and when it reached everyone's ears, the voice even increased in volume, sounding as if it was quite upset with the Dragon Mother plane.
Although the Earth plane's will was infected by the Dragon Mother, fortunately, its meaning was expressed clearly, and Bai Cha understood the general idea. The meaning was that it was being held back by the Dragon Mother plane and couldn't look after the people inside. Those who were fine should leave quickly, and if they died, they would truly die.
She just didn't know how many people would listen to her advice. Bai Cha had long announced that there were no treasures inside, yet thousands of people were scrambling to enter. As for the few crystals they needed to find, ordinary people didn't need them, so why bother.
However, the World Tree had used her voice to scold someone earlier, so perhaps quite a few people would listen to her advice and retreat. After all, Bai Cha knew that she was quite "infamous" in the school, and a considerable number of people were afraid that she would settle accounts with them later.
The jungle was quiet, lush with green trees. Bai Cha moved through it like a swift swallow in the forest, fast as lightning. Wherever she passed, there were no traces left behind, not even a single leaf trembling. Following the low-lying terrain and a faint sound, she stopped by a pool of water after a while.
Bai Cha squatted down and fiddled with her clothes. She unfolded a blade from her collar and made an incision at a point on her left collarbone. She dug out a miniature ear stud from the flesh and blood, washed the bloodstains in the water, and hung it on her left ear.
"Received reply." Hearing the sound of energy fluctuations from the biological communicator, Bai Cha secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that even if this world was interfered with, it wasn't intelligent enough to eliminate all tools. As long as it was slightly concealed, it could still be used.
When each Shadow member underwent human modification, they would also implant various miniature devices internally. The mature bio-engineering was linked to their lives. As long as they were alive, their connection would not be broken.
These were disposable items that required gene extraction for production, costing extremely expensive. This was something that even Bai Cha would feel pained about.
Bai Cha patiently waited while cleaning her wound and bloodstains. If she had taken out the communication ear stud in the jungle just now, there would have been a bloody smell. Before she knew how this world truly was, it was better to be cautious.
Soon, familiar voices sounded one after another. None of them could not be contacted, which put Bai Cha slightly at ease.
"Little Bai, I'm with Little He." Meng Qinghuan paused, as if organizing her words. "It's all barren mountains here."