Chapter 868: It Seems We’re Done for

In the blink of an eye, the three Ice Crystal Giants that Manzi, Lao Hei, and Xiao Hei were dealing with were all defeated by Su Che. The five-member team gathered again, temporarily escaping the crisis.
Manzi could definitely sense the scorching energy Su Che had used. Though full of curiosity, she didn’t dare ask too much unless Su Che himself chose to explain. One shouldn’t pry into others’ secrets.
Tian Yin and Xiao Hei wouldn’t ask a single extra word either. Even if Su Che didn’t explain now, they would eventually find out.
Only Lao Hei, being inside the Immortal Prison, saw no secrets in Su Che’s actions at all.
“I’ve found a way to completely counteract the Frost Poison Mist. No matter how many Ice Crystal Giants there are, we needn’t worry,” Su Che simply explained.
At the bottom of the abyss, the eight members of Zhuo Li’s and House’s teams were still struggling against the Ice Crystal Giants. Unable to defeat them, they could only try their best to dodge, avoiding being completely frozen.
While dodging, they could see that Su Che’s group had escaped the crisis and was now gathered together, whispering and discussing something.
At such a moment, whether it was envy or jealousy, none of those emotions mattered. The most important thing was that they would surely seek help from Su Che.
“Please help us…” Zhuo Li sent a mental message first. At the same time, Manzi also received their pleas for help.
Even that guy, House, sent a message to Su Che: “If you just stand by and watch us suffer, then all of us will remain trapped here indefinitely. As long as one of us hasn’t defeated the Ice Crystal Giants, this crisis will never truly end.”
Su Che remained silent, waiting for something…
After a long while, nothing changed at the bottom of the abyss. It seemed that Zhuo Li, House, and the other Chaos Travelers would be entangled with those Ice Crystal Giants forever, with no end in sight.
For these immortal beings, something lasting thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of years was completely normal—they were already accustomed to it.
But Su Che didn’t have that much time to waste here. His plan was to find a force capable of countering the Origin Demons within 50,000 years, return to his own universe, and retrieve his relatives from Yu Huang Tian’s grasp.
To be honest, compared to others, the thing he couldn’t afford to waste the most was time.

At this moment, even someone as vindictive as Lao He had to admit, “Master, it seems that bastard House is right. As long as one person hasn’t defeated the Ice Crystal Giant, the situation won’t change. If we keep going like this, we won’t be able to hold on.”
“Yes.”
Su Che nodded helplessly. “Even if I don’t want to help them, I still have to. I can’t just make things harder for myself just for the sake of fighting spirit.”
With no more hesitation, Su Che took action immediately. He first went to Zhuo Li and the others, eliminating their Ice Crystal Giants one by one. Then, he slowly took care of the other two, leaving the Ice Crystal Giant facing House for last.
“I warn you—don’t provoke me again. If you do, I can’t guarantee I’ll stay as calm as now.”
Before attacking, Su Che gave House this warning.
House chuckled and replied telepathically, “It’s all for survival. Sneaking attacks won’t bring me any benefits. As long as you can get everyone safely off Devil Island, I, House, won’t cause trouble and will definitely follow your orders. Of course, I understand that.”
“Better that way.”
Su Che snorted coldly before rushing forward and turning the last Ice Crystal Giant into chaos energy.
At the bottom of the pit, there were no more Ice Crystal Giants. The thirteen Chaos Travelers all looked up at the sky.
Of course, they couldn’t see the so-called sky. They were simply waiting to see what would happen next.
Click, click, click…
Suddenly, the thick ice mist above turned into a heavy ice layer. The already hundred-zhang-thick “large lid” became several times thicker. Then, like a piston, it slowly descended.
What’s going on?
Are they trying to crush us to death?
Su Che only frowned slightly, not too worried. With his scorching energy, he could melt large areas of ice instantly—surely he wouldn’t be crushed by it…
Boom!
Before the heavy ice layer could crush them, the smooth and clean ground at the center of the pit collapsed with a loud noise, creating a large, irregular hole over ten zhang in diameter.
Su Che and the others exchanged a glance and immediately understood—it was clearly trying to force them to jump into this hole.
“Let’s go down!”
Su Che nodded and said to Tian Yin and the others, “Since we’re here, let’s make the most of it. Let’s go down and see what’s in there.”

Although they no longer feared the thick ice above or the initial icy mists due to their intense energy, everyone came to Devil Island with the goal of obtaining the Mixed Purple Crystal Fruit. If they were to be easily deterred by anything and lacked the courage to face the unknown, they shouldn’t have taken the risk of landing on the island in the first place. He didn’t know what others thought, but Su Che certainly had no intention of fleeing in disgrace. If he fled now, even if he managed to leave the island safely, he would never have the courage to pick the Purple Crystal Fruit again. Down! Relying on his puppet body, Lao He was the least afraid of death and led the way at the front; Su Che, Tian Yin, and Xiao He followed closely behind. Without much need for words, Man Zhi, Zhuo Li, Haous, and the others could only follow and jump into that unknown cave as well. They didn’t have any intense energy to instantly melt the thick ice pressing down on them, so if they didn’t want to die, they had no choice but to go down. The collapsed cave wasn’t very deep—only about ten zhang—but it led to a deep, dark passage. Undoubtedly, they had to continue forward along this passage. After entering the passage and taking a few steps, they heard a loud rumbling sound from above. It was easy to guess that it must have been the thick ice collapsing and filling the entire crater. After walking along the passage for a while, they reached an end and found themselves in an enormous underground cave. “What a huge cave!” Standing at the exit of the passage, Su Che saw large crystals scattered irregularly along the cave walls, emitting a faint, non-dazzling glow. Countless crystals illuminated the entire cave, revealing numerous holes densely packed on the walls, similar in size to the exit of the passage where they stood. “It feels like the underground nest of some kind of social creature.” Su Che’s heart tightened as he guessed, “Could it be that we’ve stumbled into the lair of a magical beast?” At that moment, Su Che, Tian Yin, and the others still had relatively calm expressions, but looking at Man Zhi, Zhuo Li, Haous, and the others, their astonished and complex expressions clearly told Su Che: Unfortunately, you’re right! Boom! A sound of earth and rocks collapsing came from the passage behind them, sealing off their retreat completely. Moreover, this collapse seemed to have alarmed all the magical beasts in the cave, as soon after, various roars of beasts could be heard coming from all the holes.

There was no time at all for Su Che and the others to discuss a strategy. Soon after, monsters of various shapes emerged from different holes—four-legged, six-legged, dozens of legs, and even those without legs at all. Some were covered in black fur, others in sharp spines, and still others in bumps… Some had one mouth, some two, and even some had dozens of mouths full of sharp teeth all over their bodies… Among the hundreds of magical beasts Su Che could see, none were identical; each one was extremely strange and ferocious. But they all shared one common feature: they all had a long tail trailing behind them, and this tail was not buried in the soil. With their tails not in the soil, these magical beasts remained constantly connected to Devil Island and could not leave it. Su Che had already known this from the soul memories of the tiger-patterned giant. He also knew a basic fact: each Chaos Traveler could deal with at most two magical beasts at a time. Faced with three or more, if they didn’t want to die, they had to turn and run. The physical defenses of the tiger-patterned monsters couldn’t withstand even a few rounds of attacks before they would be killed by those beasts. At this moment, Su Che and his thirteen companions in this underground cave were about to face countless magical beasts—definitely no less than a thousand! Would it be possible for each of them to deal with nearly a hundred beasts? Without even fighting, they were doomed! That’s why Manzi, Zhuo Li, and the others looked deathly pale, their eyes filled with despair. “You idiot!” House stepped forward a few steps, pointing at Su Che and shouting, “Why did you lead us down here? Since you have the ability to melt ice, you should have left from above. Why did you choose this path below? You’ve gotten us all killed!” The other two in his group also glared at each other angrily. Even in Zhuo Li’s group, three people had similar expressions, clearly hating Su Che, the culprit. Su Che remained calm and replied indifferently, “I chose to go down. I chose to seek my own death. That’s my own decision. What does it have to do with you? And you, all of you experienced travelers here for years—why are you following behind these newcomers?” House and the others were speechless, wishing they could rush over and tear Su Che to pieces right away. Of course, everyone knew that at such a critical moment, talking nonsense was useless; it was just an emotional outburst in a desperate situation. “It’s pointless to talk like this,” Zhuo Li sighed softly. “Even if we turn back now, we might not make it in time.”

Go back?
She herself knew this idea was utterly unrealistic. There was no way out—due to gravitational compression, even the smallest piece of rock on Demon Isolation weighed millions of pounds and was extremely hard, rendering any earth-based jutsu completely ineffective.
To go back, one would have to dig a path bit by bit.
Although everyone was a Chaos-level powerhouse and could dig quickly underground, the key issue was whether the thousands of magical beasts gathering around would give them enough time.
These beasts were integrated with the entire Demon Isolation, able to move freely above and below ground. There was no advantage in competing with them in speed on the surface, so what hope could there be underground?
It seems we’re doomed!