Kale stood in front of the shattered wolf head crystal, his hands trembling slightly. The power of the wolf soul in his body gradually subsided. However, that strange dark aura hadn't completely dissipated. It seemed to be hidden deeper in the fissure, quietly watching their every move.
Cangzhua scanned the surroundings warily, his ears twitching slightly. "Something's not right."
Dailin stepped forward, furrowing her brows as she stared at the fragments of the shattered crystal. She gently ran her fingers over them, and the remaining spiritual power danced at her fingertips. "Although this crystal is broken, its core energy hasn't completely vanished."
Yize narrowed his eyes and twirled his short scimitar casually. There was a faint hint of unease in his smile. "Perhaps it's just the appearance of the fissure, and the real abyss is still waiting for us to go deeper."
Kale was silent for a moment, then turned to look towards the depths of the fissure. It was still shrouded in darkness, and a blurry stone door loomed indistinctly, as if not even light could reach it.
"Let's keep moving forward," Kale said in a deep voice and took a firm step forward.
Cangzhua followed closely behind. Dailin and Yize exchanged a glance, both shrugging helplessly and then catching up with the group.
The aura in the depths of the fissure grew stronger. The ancient wolf clan runes on the stone wall began to distort, like a curse left by some forbidden existence.
"These runes... seem to have come to life," Yize stared at the wall and pointed to a wolf head carving on it. Black liquid flowed from the eyes of the stone wolf and slowly dripped onto the ground, turning into wisps of black mist.
Kale stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes. "Prepare for battle."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black mist from all directions seemed to be summoned and converged, condensing into three figures. They were wearing tattered cloaks, their faces were pale, and there was a bloodthirsty light flickering in their empty eyes.
"Shadow slaves..." Dailin murmured in a low voice, and her face suddenly darkened.
Shadow slaves were the most loyal followers of the shadow envoys. They had already sacrificed their souls in the abyss and became puppets of the darkness. They were silent and specialized in hunting down intruders in the fissure.
"It seems the shadow envoy has long known that we're here," Cangzhua growled, and his sharp wolf claws glinted with a cold light in the darkness.
The bodies of the shadow slaves twisted slightly. In the next moment, they rushed towards Kale like ghosts. Kale reacted extremely quickly. His long sword sliced through the air, and the blade light fell like a bolt of thunder, directly slashing at the shadow slave in the front.
"Ding—"
The blade was actually blocked by the shadow slave with his bare hand. Black energy spread
along the blade, trying to corrode Kale's weapon.
"Don't let them get close!" Dailin raised her hand to cast a spell. A flame ignited in her palm and turned into a fire snake that swept towards the shadow slaves. The flame landed on the shadow slaves and exploded instantly, knocking one of the shadow slaves back several steps. But just a moment later, his body quickly returned to normal.
"Shadow slaves can't be killed," Yize flashed past, and his short scimitar precisely sliced across the neck of a shadow slave, knocking off a head. However, after rolling a few times on the ground, the head floated up strangely and reconnected with the body.
Kale's heart pounded wildly. These shadow slaves simply couldn't be eliminated by conventional means.
"Kale, they're just incorporeal forms. Their real bodies are hidden beneath the fissure," Dailin said urgently, a trace of anxiety in her voice. "We must find their source and destroy it completely."
Upon hearing this, Kale quickly scanned the surroundings, trying to find any clues. Just then, from behind the stone door of the fissure, a deep chanting sound rose, like some ancient sacrificial ceremony.
"Over there!"
Kale rushed towards the stone door without hesitation. His long sword slashed down violently, and the stone door broken, revealing a narrow passage. At the end of the passage, an eerie blue light flickered on and off, as if some existence was sleeping there.
The shadow slaves all stopped moving the moment the stone door shattered, as if they had lost some kind of control and stood there dumbfounded.
Yize raised his eyebrows. "It seems I like this path."
Cangzhua snorted. "You'd better be careful. The abyss won't let us go so easily."
At the end of the passage, an altar slowly emerged. In the center of the altar, a pitch-black heart was floating. The heart was beating slowly, and with each beat, the darkness of the fissure deepened.
Dailin's face suddenly changed. "That's the Blood Source Heart of the shadow envoy!"
Kale narrowed his eyes and slowly walked towards the altar. However, when he was just a few steps away from the Blood Source Heart, a cold voice rang in his ear—
"Put down your weapon, inheritor of the bloodline."
A slender figure slowly emerged from the darkness.
He was wearing a dark purple robe, with silver hair hanging down to his shoulders and scarlet eyes. It was— the shadow envoy, Sykes.
"You're finally here, Kale," Sykes's eyes were sharp as he stared directly at Kale. The corner of his mouth curled into a meaningful smile. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."
"Sykes!" Cangzhua roared, and his wolf claws slapped heavily on the ground, causing the ground to crack like a spider web.
Sykes didn't care at all. His gaze remained fixed on Kale. "Do you think you can really destroy the darkness of the fissure?"
Kale slowly raised his long sword, his gaze firm. "No matter what, I will give it a try."
Sykes chuckled. "Then let me see if you're worthy of being the inheritor of the Wolf Soul King."
As his words fell, the Blood Source Heart began to beat violently, and the darkness of the fissure surged wildly, engulfing the entire altar...