A week later, the Lighthouse hovered silently ten thousand meters above the Intersecting Canyon.
"Beneath us once lay a bustling city. When the catastrophe first struck, violent tectonic plate movements caused them to collide.
This ultimately formed the intersecting canyon we see today.
Later, the area was gradually eroded by the Mana ecosystem, becoming part of the wasteland.
In the center of the canyon, beneath the 'Flower King,' there is a spring; through that spring, one can enter the interior of the 'Ichor Pool'."
Bai Yuekui pointed to the holographic image of the Intersecting Canyon on the command console and explained:
"However, successfully entering that spring is no easy task."
"After absorbing human life essence, Phage Beast from all over the world converge on this canyon to "pay tribute," hoping to be empowered by the Flower King and evolve to a higher level.
Consequently, countless Phage Beast stream in and out of the canyon every day.
Moreover, the spring itself is guarded by Monarch-class Phage Beast—and not just one of them.
So, our battle plan is as follows..."
Below the command platform, the troops had formed up into two distinct groups.
One formation consisted of a Heavy-Duty Exoskeleton combat squad made up of the Lighthouse's elite Hunter Corps members.
The other formation was an "Awakened" ability-user combat squad from Dragon Bone Village.
Standing right between the two squads was Goku, holding a chicken drumstick.
With the battle about to begin, he naturally needed to fill his stomach first.
"Once you go down there, avoid getting bogged down in combat as much as possible; conserve your strength and wait for us to emerge." Finally, Bai Yuekui gave a serious instruction.
Her original battle plan had been for the combat squads from the Lighthouse and Dragon Bone Village to clear the path as much as possible.
She and Goku would conserve their energy so they could enter the "Scarlet Miasma" zone in peak condition.
However, Goku felt this was unnecessary; even a Monarch-class Phage Beast wouldn't require much effort for him to handle.
Besides, he claimed to have a method for rapidly recovering his stamina.
Consequently, the plan was revised: Goku would clear out all the Phage Beasts in the Misaligned Canyon, and then the two of them would enter the Scarlet Miasma zone.
The mission for the two combat squads was changed to standing guard at the canyon to receive them upon their return.
Success would be ideal, of course.
But if the mission failed and they had to retreat, she and Goku might be critically injured, requiring the squads to escort them back to the Lighthouse for recovery.
She believed in preparing for the worst-case scenario; having lost her memories of her previous entry into Scarlet Miasma, she didn't know exactly what kind of dangers awaited them inside.
Even though she felt Goku's strength gave them a high chance of victory, she couldn't ignore the consequences of potential failure.
"Understood!"
The members of both squads responded in unison.
Only then did Bai Yuekui step into the "Abyss-Walker" mech that had been prepared nearby and nod to Goku.
Goku finished his last chicken leg, had everyone hold hands to form a circle, and then stepped forward to take hold of them before instantly teleporting away.
They reappeared on a sheer cliff face within the Misaligned Canyon.
Looking down from the edge, the group gasped in shock.
"So many Phage Beasts!"
The intersecting canyon passages below were densely packed with the creatures.
There were the weakest Spine-Bugs, as well as more powerful Earth-Roarers and Thorn-Eels, along with evolved high-level types like the Flower-Beast and the Twin-Jaw Beast.
The variety was staggering—a vast array of creatures, some familiar and others never seen before. They were converging in an orderly fashion from all directions, lining up one by one beside the giant Mana Flowers scattered across the canyon floor.
Those giant Mana Flowers extended countless tendrils to pierce the chests of the Phage Beasts, sucking in all the "Life Source" the beasts had gathered and channeling it into the bloody vortex at the central spring.
At the same time, the flowers fed energy back to the beasts based on the amount of Life Source they had contributed, triggering their evolution.
The more Life Source a Phage Beast had collected, the more energy it received in return, and the faster it evolved.
Even a lowly Spine-worm could potentially evolve into a Monarch-class Phage Beast.
"There... there are so many. Can we really kill them all?"
Even those who had witnessed Goku fight couldn't help but harbor some doubts now.
The number of Phage Beasts here was more than a hundred times greater than what they had faced in that previous city.
"Goku, how does it look?"
Bai Yuekui looked toward Goku with a hint of concern.
Goku glanced down and replied without the slightest sign of pressure:
"Leave it to me!"
With that, he pulled a blue-glowing "pillow" out of his box.
That "pillow" was none other than the artifact he had obtained after defeating a Frost Giant in Asgard: the Casket of Ancient Winters.
Because it constantly emanated a freezing chill, he had been using it as a pillow.
But he knew this artifact was capable of far more than just serving as a headrest.
According to the method Odin had taught him, if he possessed sufficient power, he could even activate the artifact to plunge an entire planet into an ice age.
Now, he intended to harness the power of the Casket of Ancient Winters to freeze the entire canyon.
In truth, he could have killed every Phage Beast in the canyon using his Ki blasts, energy spheres, and breathing techniques.
However, doing so would waste a significant amount of Ki, and if things went wrong, he might accidentally collapse the canyon, potentially damaging the entrance to the Scarlet Miasma Zone. He had Senzu Beans to fully restore his ki at any moment, but he didn't want to waste them unless absolutely necessary.
After all, should food supplies ever run low, Senzu Beans could serve as a meal.
An extra Senzu Bean was essentially an extra life; even using one to replenish energy after training was a great use of the resource.
Alternatively, he could forgo using ki and simply engage in hand-to-hand combat, taking out one Phage Beast with a single punch to clear them all out.
However, that would be physically exhausting, and he had no interest in such one-sided slaughter.
The main reason, though, was that those Phage Beasts weren't edible.
If they were edible, he would have hunted a bunch more to store in a box as emergency rations.
"Freeze!"
Wielding the Casket of Ancient Winters, Goku channeled a small amount of ki to activate the rune-mark Odin had inscribed upon it.
The Casket instantly unleashed a powerful torrent of freezing cold, spreading forward as if it were endless.
Using Bukujutsu (Flight), he steered clear of the spring's source and darted rapidly from one end of the canyon to the other.
The terrifying cold wave swept across the entire canyon, freezing the landscape and the countless Shi-ji Beasts below.
Just then, a series of furious roars erupted from deep within the spring; over a hundred Monarch-class Phage Beasts crawled out.
"So... so many of them!"
The onlookers, who had been marveling at Goku freezing the canyon, broke into a cold sweat the moment they saw a hundred Monarch-class beasts appear at once.
Goku aimed the Casket at the Monarch-class beasts, instantly engulfing them in the freezing torrent.
However, Monarch-class Phage Beasts were far superior to ordinary ones; relying on their immense strength, they quickly broke free from the icy restraint and lunged at Goku.
"Perfect!"
Seeing this, Goku put away the Casket and, with a single punch, instantly obliterated the attacking Monarch-class beast.
With his potential unlocked, his base combat power had doubled; even without using Giant Magic, he could instantly take down Monarch-class Phage Beast.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Goku transformed into a blur, appearing repeatedly before those Monarch-class Phage Beast—literally taking them out one by one with a single punch each.
To the astonishment of everyone watching, in less than a minute...
...he had completely obliterated the hundreds of Monarch-class Phage Beast, despite their terrifying auras.
"Alright, we can enter the Scarlet Abyss now!"
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