"Boom~rumble~rumble!~"
"Whoosh~boom!"
Amidst the roaring explosion of giant flames, a large pit appeared instantly in the marshy mud around Jiang Si Shan. The water in the swamp evaporated, the mud turned into something like ceramic, and the scattered rusty weapons melted into molten iron, revealing its extreme heat………..
"Hmph, a bunch of trash. I came here to collect corpses, but now I have to do it myself!"
Beside the giant flame stood the middle-aged man who had suddenly appeared. He held a staff with many runes carved on it, quite peculiar in its design, and shouted coldly.
As he spoke, he scanned the black-clothed assassins lying in the swamp not far away with cold eyes.
"What?"
Suddenly, the middle-aged man's expression changed, because a hand suddenly shot out from the giant flame, heading straight for his chest.
"Bang!~ Pfft!"
Before the middle-aged man could react, his chest caved in, and he was sent flying back, spitting blood.
"Whoosh~boom!"
At this moment, the giant flame pillar the middle-aged man had launched at Jiang Si Shan parted to the sides and dissipated.
"Xiao…Xiao Xiao… you… you…."
Jiang Si Shan looked at Xiao Xiao, who was not far in front of him, with a look of shock.
Because it was Xiao Xiao who had just acted to block the middle-aged man's sneak attack with the giant flame… not Ye Feng…
Judging by the arcane energy fluctuations emanating from the flame, its power was no less than that of a Gold Seventh-Rank Arcanist's attack… yet it was blocked by Xiao Xiao's hand…
Xiao Xiao made a hollow with her hand, blocking the raging flames. Thus, although the flames seemed to be aimed directly at Jiang Si Shan, Ye Feng, and the others, they did not harm those within the hollow…
"Oh, I'm Gold Seventh-Rank now!"
Xiao Xiao waved her hand, extinguishing the residual flames, and then turned to speak to Jiang Si Shan.
"I..."
Hearing this, Jiang Si Shan was greatly disheartened…
One Ye Feng was already enough, and now even Xiao Xiao…
"Ugh~woo~!"
At this moment, the middle-aged man, who had been sent flying back spitting blood by Ye Feng, let out a pained groan, then his body went limp and he stopped breathing.
"What the heck… that guy committed suicide?"
Seeing this, Ye Feng was quite surprised, because his palm strike had been controlled in terms of force, only meant to heavily injure the opponent, not kill him.
Immediately, Ye Feng ran to the black-clothed assassins who had been scattered by him. He found that without exception, they were all dead. It seemed they had bitten the poison sacs hidden in their teeth, just like the middle-aged man, and committed suicide…
"Xiao Shan, who did you offend? They actually sent out death warriors!"
Ye Feng looked at Jiang Si Shan with some bewilderment.
"Uh…."
Jiang Si Shan used his staff to prop himself up and stood up from the muddy swamp. "Their goal should be to prevent me from obtaining the Concealment Stone…"
"Right, the Concealment Stone, are you looking for that thing to hide some treasure?"
Hearing this, Ye Feng looked at Jiang Si Shan with curiosity.
"Hide… hide treasure?"
Jiang Si Shan looked at Ye Feng with a look of bewilderment.
"Isn't it?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly. He had obtained a Concealment Stone from Shen Bo Tian before, which could be used to protect special items. During a battle, when he desperately needed to use the Spirit Nourishing Grass to restore his mental strength, he had relied on the Concealment Stone for cover…
Moreover, the Seven-Star Hidden Cage containing the Strengthening Fruit that Wu Ye Lan had given him not long ago was also composed of eight Concealment Stones at its base…
"Uh… Ye Feng, I'm not sure if the Concealment Stone you're talking about is the same as mine~"
Jiang Si Shan came back to his senses. "The Concealment Stone I'm talking about is a very rare ore located deep underground in the swamp!"
"This ore is not a precious resource for Arcanists like Arcane Origin Stones, nor is it good-looking. It's a grayish-white stone!"
"Although this Concealment Stone looks ordinary and cannot be cultivated, it holds extremely special importance to me, and to the entire Jiang family!"
Speaking of this, Jiang Si Shan changed the subject. "Ye Feng, you should know that Arcane City is protected by an extremely large arcane formation, right?"
"Hmm!"
Ye Feng nodded. "Arcane City is surrounded by zombies and various monsters… But because of the formation, the people inside are very safe. Zombies and monsters cannot enter! And I heard that if the formation of Arcane City is destroyed, it will automatically repair itself?"
"Yes!"
Jiang Si Shan paused. He looked around and lowered his voice. "In fact, the protective formation of Arcane City has a core formation, and it is the existence of that core formation that allows the protective formation to operate normally!"
"That core formation is a formation called 'Annihilation'… I'm not very clear about the specifics… I only know that the formation is very important and has strong destructive power!"
"More than twenty years ago, my father participated in the deployment and design of the protective formation of Arcane City… The core Annihilation formation was personally maintained by my father… Because of this, our Jiang family holds a certain status in Arcane City…"
"Later, with my father's passing… the Jiang family gradually declined… Especially since the Jiang family now has very few experts… and the maintenance of the protective formation is due to arrive for major repairs soon…"
"If I still can't manage…"
He trailed off, looking quite dejected.
"Maintaining the core of that protective formation requires Concealment Stones? Is that why you came to this Black Marsh?"
Ye Feng pondered for a moment and guessed.
"Yes!"
"I have always claimed to the outside world that we have enough Concealment Stones, but…"
Jiang Si Shan sighed. "So I came to the Black Marsh, the place where my father discovered and excavated Concealment Stones back then… But not only did I gain nothing, I was even ambushed…"
"Can you take me to that place underground where there are Concealment Stones?"
"Boom~rumble~buzz!"
"Boom~!"
As soon as Ye Feng finished speaking, a burst of fire suddenly erupted in the distance, a major explosion occurred, and the entire ground trembled.
"Si Shan, that place wouldn't happen to be where there used to be Concealment Stones, would it?"
Ye Feng turned to look at Jiang Si Shan.
"Hmm!"
Jiang Si Shan's face was very grim.
"The assassins carried signal flares. They should have used them to report immediately after completing the mission!"
"The person who arranged the assassination may have reached the agreed time but did not receive the signal of successful assassination… So they had someone blow up the place where there might be Concealment Stones!"
As he spoke, Qiao Ying showed the signal flares he had found on the black-clothed assassin to Ye Feng and the others.
Hearing this, Jiang Si Shan's expression became even grimmer.
"Big Brother, this person is only Silver High-Rank, why can he unleash Gold Seventh-Rank flame attacks?"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's somewhat confused voice sounded.
…