Chapter 271  : Chapter 270: Leaving the First Layer of the Abyss!

The situation at the fifth array was very dire, more than a third of the human casualties had mounted up. Just when they seemed on the verge of losing, reinforcements arrived from the third array.

“Brothers, I, Long Aotian from the third array, am here!”

With a thunderous shout, Long Aotian led the charge into the fray.

The embattled group at the fifth array, which seemed to be on the brink of collapsing, was overjoyed at this development.

“Thanks to the brothers of the third array!”

With the addition of over seventy people, the situation at the fifth array turned around instantly.

After a fierce battle, the squad at the fifth array finally achieved victory.

“Retreat!”

Realizing that victory was out of reach, the remaining Demons finally chose to retreat.

Just as they began to leave the fifth array, they were astonished to find over seventy people stationed outside.

These were the reinforcements from the third array who had arrived after their clean-up of the battlefield.

“There are still people here? Where did they come from?”

The remaining Demons were boiling with rage. They had been on the edge of victory only to have it snatched away by the newly arrived humans.

Moreover, they had attempted to escape, but were yet again thwarted.

“Once we get back, we’ll make those slackers pay!”

A Demon powerfully muttered, “Which area did we not hold down right…”

At this point, they knew it was futile to resist any further. Offering little resistance, they handed over their dead bodies.

Du Gang and the others had managed to successfully clean up the battlefield.

With this victory they had achieved, the Demons finally issued the order to retreat.

The factions, still engaged in fierce battle, all halted their attacks at this moment.

The human side did not recklessly charge, instead they stayed in place. After all, the Demon clan’s strongest Controller’s power was dwindling, but there was still a significant number of operators and destroyers.

“Brothers of the third array, thank you…”

The survivors of the fifth array expressed their gratitude continuously.

Upon hearing their words, the people from the other three arrays curiously looked towards those of the third array.

Unexpectedly, these newcomers to the Abyss had achieved such remarkable results so soon. They truly were prodigies!

The others all agreed with their achievements, feeling them well-deserved.

Long Aotian and the others stood tall under the gazes of everyone, taking great pride in their accomplishments.

Nothing could compare to the excitement of earning respect in front of their peers.

At this moment, many couldn’t help but feel grateful. They were glad to have followed Du Gang. Otherwise, to achieve such results, they would have had a long way to go.

Even Zhu Qing nodded in approval, “You of the third array did well, now you can go to the big dragon pit…”

Upon hearing this, Long Aotian and the others smiled. They could finally obtain essence.

Soon, they arrived at the big dragon pit, which was indeed empty.

“Du Gang, are there any precautions for fighting the big dragon?”

Upon arriving, everyone turned to Du Gang, curious about his insights.

Du Gang only laughed, “No particular precautions… Once the big dragon respawns, everyone can focus their attacks on it…”

“After the big dragon dies, it will drop third-level essence. Everyone can pick some up…”

Pausing here, he emphatically added, “Everyone, whatever essence you pick up is yours. Others cannot take it away!”

“Understood!”

“It’s all about speed. My speed is not slow!”

Everyone chuckled, each confident in their own speed.

Only Da Zhuang and Qiao Bing were somewhat frustrated. They both only had operator strength and were considered the weakest among the group.

However, they had no qualms. After all, they were included in this team thanks to Du Gang. Otherwise, they would not have had the qualifications to be here.

Seeing them, Du Gang laughed, “I’ve already reached the essence absorption limit in the first layer of the Abyss. So, I’ll divide the essence I pick up between you two!”

Hearing this, the two were thrilled, thanking him profusely.

Hearing this, Long Aotian quickly asked, “Du Gang, can you share some with me too?!”

“Bug off!”

After some bantering and waiting, the big dragon finally respawned.

Everyone began to unleash their might, bombarding the dragon with powerful attacks.

Among them, Long Aotian and Long Aoshi were the most passionate.

“Damn, calling you ‘big dragon’…”

While Long Aotian was swearing, he was also furiously attacking.

As a member of the Dragon Clan, he was very unhappy having such an inferior dragon race being treated like a monster to be hit.

“Boom, boom, boom!”

The attacks went on furiously.

The big dragon roared as per usual, but unfortunately, no matter how much it roared, it couldn’t change the situation.

A minute later, the big dragon was slain and the third-level essence scattered across the red earth.

“Grab it!”

As soon as the order was given, everyone moved, quickly heading towards the scattered essence.

But at that moment, a bolt of lightning shot out from the crowd. Before anyone could reach the essence, it dived into the red earth and began to race around crazily.

Every time this red lightning darted past, the essence on the ground quickly disappeared.

“What’s that?!”

Everyone was momentarily stumped, but soon they recognized him as Du Gang who had stopped to pick up the essence.

“Du Gang?”

It was a shock to everyone. They didn’t expect Du Gang’s speed to be so fast.

In the blink of an eye, he had scooped up more than a dozen essence pieces.

“Damn it!”

Long Aoshi cursed, then quickly sprung into action.

As he moved, everyone else did too, like dominos triggering a chain reaction. Actions were swift and soon, the essence that had been scattered on the red earth had been completely scooped up. Everyone had at least thirty, and some even grabbed up to sixty or seventy pieces.

But the one with the most was Du Gang. He had grabbed more than two hundred pieces of essence.

In the envious eyes of everyone, Du Gang divided the more than two hundred pieces of essence in half and handed them to Da Zhuang and Qiao Bing. He chuckled, “You guys better absorb it quickly!”

Da Zhuang and Qiao Bing had the least amount, only thirty. But with Du Gang’s addition, they suddenly had the most. Nearly two hundred!

That is to say, they could absorb the essence to the limit in half a month or at most twenty days.

For the entire next half month, everything was quite stable. The Demon Clan didn’t find a better way to recapture the Big Dragon Pit, as no one on their side was willing to deploy a flag formation on par with the Five Elements Formation that Zhu Qing had used.

On the sixteenth day, Zhu Qing finally achieved the honor he had been aiming for- leading the first counter-offensive in the depths of the Big Dragon Pit.

With this achievement, Zhu Qing began to entertain thoughts of stepping down.

The military, too, didn’t engage in an arms race but didn’t insist on Zhu Qing and the others holding on to the Big Dragon Pit.

After all, the interests of Zhu Qing, Qin Jingshuo, and others in the first layer of the abyss had reached their peak. There wasn’t much else to be gained thus prolonging their stay wouldn’t benefit their development.

On the Demon Clans’ side, knowing well that the human side couldn’t afford the attrition, they didn’t send someone stronger either.

So, on the sixteenth day, both human and demon clans returned to their usual calm, and the balance was restored to the Big Dragon Pit.

After these sixteen crazy days, Da Zhuang, Qiao Bing, Long Aotian, and Little Hawk King all reached the maximum level for their level three essence.

In other words, pretty much everyone in this batch had maxed out their level three essence. This was one of the reasons why the military granted Zhu Qing his achievement.

This incident showed that these group of people has a strong background, and they could influence some military decision to an extent.

Of course, the military that oversaw the ancient city were segmented, with each six layers managed by a different part of the military.

……..

“Du Gang, are you really leaving?!”

At the moment, Du Gang was saying his goodbyes to the other four members at the Communication Zone.

Du Gang nodded with a smile, saying, “I’ve stayed here long enough, it’s time to leave!”

“You guys still need quite some time to max out your level two essence…”

“Alright!”

They understood that Du Gang couldn’t stay here like them.

“Hey, it’s not like we’re saying our final goodbyes, is it really necessary to make such a big deal?!”

Long Aotian was saying carelessly, “Isn’t it just a year? You go first, after a year, we’ll come and find you in the second layer of the abyss!”

Du Gang laughed and said, “Okay, I’ll wait for you in the second layer. But you guys need to be quick. If you’re too slow, I might have already moved on to the third layer!”

With that, he turned to the four of them and said with a smile, “Could I ask you guys for a favor?”

“What favor?”

The four of them asked with curiosity.

“Ahem!”

Du Gang coughed lightly and said, “Could you go out and do some publicity for me?”

“Publicity?”

The four of them were stunned, not understanding his meaning, “Publicity for what?!”

Du Gang laughed, “Not much, just help me publicize that I plan to go to the second layer of the abyss!”

“You know, reaching the second layer of the abyss at the First Tribulation divine spirit stage is quite an achievement…”

The four of them looked at each other in silence.

Long Aotian’s mouth twitched, “Du Gang, I thought you were a practical guy. I didn’t expect you to have such a quiet and low-key side too!?”

As he spoke, he waggled his eyebrows, “Are you trying to gain some fame to attract some girls?!”

Du Gang turned his head away without saying anything.

Attracting girls?

Does that compare to the thrill of leveling up?

The main reason he wanted them to do this was to attract those with ill intentions towards him.

Over this period, he had been getting information about the conditions in the second layer of the abyss from Qin Jingshuo and others. Knowing that the layout there was similar to the first layer of the abyss, which also featured ruins, he concluded that the teleportation ability of the ruins should also work on the second layer!

And the conditions to use it possibly still remained – the death of gods!

He was feeling a bit frustrated: Zhu Qing, who also appeared to be a young man like him, had already reached the third layer of the abyss, while they were still playing in the first layer.

This made him feel a little unwilling. So, he wanted to gather all the essence from the second layer of the abyss as quickly as possible, and then go to the third layer to check it out.

Previously, Little Hawk King’s uncle, who served in the Demon Suppression Army of the abyss, had said that the more dangerous the place, the faster the cultivation speed.

Mixing with divine spirits of the First Tribulation in the third layer would certainly bring about terrifying dangers.

The progress of his cultivation practice was much too slow now, so he wanted to feel the crisis and speed up his cultivation.

“Just say it, are you guys going to help me with this or not?!”

Qiao Bing looked at him with a smile, “Du Gang, are you serious? If you are then I will definitely help you with the publicity!”

Du Gang’s cheeks began to turn a bit red, although he didn’t have any intentions of attracting girls, these people were insisting on it. He was left with no choice but to brace himself and nod, “Of course I am serious, you guys should help me publicize it!”

“Alright!”

With laughter in his eyes, Little Hawk King readily agreed, “It’s rare you have this kind of request, I must help you arrange it!”

With that said, the four of them swaggered off, leaving him behind and Du Gang could even make out their murmuring, “You go east, I’ll go west.”

Although the four of them joked a lot in front of Du Gang, they were very efficient in their actions. Not only did they publicize it themselves, they also hired quite a few talkative individuals to publicize it on behalf of Du Gang.

In just three hours, news about Du Gang filled the Communication Zone of the First Tribulation.

Everyone knew that Du Gang, a First Tribulation divine spirit, planned to go to the second layer of the abyss for his cultivation.

Even those who didn’t know Du Gang’s name started asking about him. When they found out about his track record, they were amazed.

“This Du Gang is really powerful!”

“In just over two short years, he has already reached a level where he can go to the second layer of the abyss!”

“My God, I’ve been here for three hundred years, and I’m still stuck on the first layer of the abyss, but he’s already going to the second layer…”

Under the deliberate work of Long Aotian and others, many young girls started to fantasize about Du Gang’s name.

“I heard that this Du Gang is a wealthy and handsome young man who can also change his size…”

“Change his size? What do you mean?”

“What do you think? Of course, it’s that…”

“Oh, I’m so embarrassed! He actually has that kind of ability?!”

Many women who had been through trials and hardships became parched and thirsty after hearing about Du Gang’s special ability, wishing they could chase after him.

Not to mention these women, even some men, felt incredibly envious when hearing about Du Gang’s ability to change his size.

Even, some passionate people started shouting, “If we have sons, may they be like Du Gang!”

Hearing the rumors, Du Gang was speechless, but as long as the goal was achieved, it was satisfactory.

In just two short hours, many people had come and gone from his house.

Besides people like Qin Jingshuo, who were originally mixed in the second layer of the abyss and wanted to win him over, there were indeed many spies who came to watch his actions.

Naturally, Du Gang declined Qin Jingshuo’s overtures to join his team with a smile. When he pulled his ambush, it would inevitably expose some of his secrets, so he couldn’t join a team.

Upon noticing the malicious spies, Du Gang gave a cold sneer.

“It’s about time, I can leave now!”

He hoped these people could help him activate the ruins of the altar by making some contributions…