"Woo-ong Woo-shuang!"

His mouth moved extremely fast, saying something, while Li Ang's acceleration technique was a bit slower, only catching the last word "shuang," most likely Xiaomo marveling at the effect of the amplification spell.

Under the dual enhancement of spirituality strengthening and speed boosting, he transformed into an elusive phantom, reaching the golem instantaneously.

He was enveloped by six layers of shields constructed with Li Ang's Six-Phase Magic, the first layer, Shield of Light, collided with the golem's fire stream, holding up briefly before shattering, but that was already enough.

At this moment, the golem was slowed down, unable to make any extra counterattack, though the slow spell couldn't last long on the golem covered by the Law Power provided by ancient facilities, this instant already played a decisive role in this high-level battle.

After the Shield of Light shattered, the second layer on Xiaomo was the Shield of Darkness, this layer of power perfectly matched his talent ability, as the dark element was instantly summoned by his shadow control ability, unleashing his full power with shadow streamers trailing behind him like ribbons.

This was the characteristic when he executed the Secret Technique, Li Ang had seen it before and he had grown stronger over the years. Adding spell enhancement, the number of shadow streamers more than quadrupled compared to before.

Morales wielded a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, frenetically stabbing and slashing as if in a dance, each strike during the Shadow Dance carried a shadow attack, cutting through ordinary tough armor like chopping rotten wood.

The Mechanical Creation Furnace Guard wasn't rotten wood, but Li Ang seized it with the Demon's Hand, the Spiritual Piercing puncturing through those extremely complex spiritual structures on its body.

Originally, Li Ang's minimum planned attack was to enhance Xiaomo, allowing him to deal more damage to the Undead Controller, stopping the golem's actions, but the Spiritual Piercing ability from the demon couldn't be completely resisted by even the golem fortified with the Melting and Gathering Law.

Although the effect was weaker than against previous opponents, it still worked.

Or perhaps this power was very close to the Destructive Law.

In the acceleration state, Li Ang's thoughts moved for just an instant, the Mechanical Creation Furnace Guard punctured by Spiritual Piercing suffered break-defensive damage in Morales' Shadow Dance Assault.

The surface armor, firmly held in place by the Melting and Gathering Law, was split under the slashing of the Shadow Blade, the unconditional damage deepened greatly by Xiaomo's high-speed agile assassins, generating massive damage instantly, the body of the Undead Manipulator was cut into pieces, with remaining spirits dispersing around, blown away by the hot wind of fire element without a trace.

The Giant Metal paused in the air, then its structure tightly bound by spirituality and magic power began to disintegrate, collapsing into component parts.

Morales stepped back to Li Ang's side.

"Wow, your support magic over the years has gotten a lot stronger, truly a warrior of the second day of bitter battle always changes drastically."

He said something akin to "the scholar sees the hero after three days" in Nebis Language, Li Ang felt embarrassed to admit that he hadn't reached this level too long ago.

"Let's go then."

The three retreated along the path, however, the undead guards seemed stimulated by something, all summoned the flames of the Mechanical Creation Furnace together, countless Flame Giants raised their legs and charged forward swiftly.

If surrounded by these, even if they managed to take down three or five, it would be futile.

"I'll hold them." Akuya stopped and looked at Li Ang: "There's something after this I'll need to talk to you about, don't wander off before I arrive."

After speaking, the pink-haired young girl's figure immediately dissolved, transforming into a towering tidal wave amidst the blazing flame.

Being a Water Dragon, even if the power of the water clone is weak, the water attribute attack generated by expending all magic power is still extremely astonishing, a dragon's head emerged within this gigantic wave, the image of her true form, the tentacle-headed dragon.

The giant dragon opened its mouth, swallowing the approaching giant figures, the water surged forward, dissipating the flame streams shot from the Mechanical Creation Furnace, though their bodies fortified with Law Protection could resist water flow, they were also battered to a standstill.

Li Ang and Xiaomo bypassed the corridor, running between the collapsed engineering golems and mine carts as they came in, the sound of the guards' movements faded into the distance behind them, not pursuing.

"Phew, it seems they won't leave the range of that furnace." Morales sighed in relief.

Li Ang nodded, not completely out of the "Mechanical City Core," he hadn't yet disabled the spiritual activation.

Leaving the hottest area, the Shield of Water wasn't necessary to maintain, he released the Armor of Wind, dragging the two of them rapidly back along the way.

"Is your friend alright?"

With Morales' insight, he could tell Akuya sacrificed merely a clone, but typically, unleashing such a powerful final strike meant she probably expended a lot.

Li Ang knew the loss of the water clone wouldn't affect a Divine Spirit, and understood her reluctance to casually reveal her identity, so he only assured Xiaomo not to worry.

Then, propelled by the wind, they advanced a good distance, the guards evidently wouldn't return, Xiaomo began to let down his guard slowly and then reclined onto the soft air mass.

"Wow, never thought that the first day of reunion with old friends would be such a thrilling adventure, it brings back some of the old feelings."

After sighing, he laughed again: "But the level has risen much higher than before, if Viel hears about it, he's going to be furious."

"Isn't he planning on retiring and getting married?" Li Ang said.

"Yeah, he deserves it."

Xiaomo lay down with his hand under his head: "He was always a free-spirited person, yet enjoyed attracting attention, eventually unable to extricate himself, with wife and daughter having many complaints."

"Really? I went to Frost Heaven Island not too long ago, didn't notice."

"That's now, remember our raid on Black Stone Cave?"

The crisis faded, mentioning past events and people stirred Xiaomo's enthusiasm, the slight estrangement from their long interval reunion completely vanished.

Black Stone Cave was located on Black Rock Island in the Ignis Sky Realm, where Sub-human races mixed with Dragon's Blood and beast blood resided, their intelligence and power surpassing ordinary Sub-humans, leveraging the volcanic terrain and mineral resources to greatly boost armament, training lesser dragon mounts, riding them to raid extensively, triggering a Tier Five standard joint bounty commission issued by the guild.

At that time, The Soul Apex battled for over half a month, advancing deep into the Black Stone Cave with the other three Sky Cavalry groups, one step away from the Sub-human King's throne, when Viel suddenly had to depart.

"...I remember he said he had to leave for a matter delayed beyond schedule." Li Ang recalled.

Though Viel's later apology was sincere, leaving suddenly disrupted the team by missing a key position, the combat within The Soul Apex was largely planned around Viel, sometimes guarding, sometimes leading the charge, others couldn't fill his role, resulting in The Soul Apex which initially made the largest contribution in battle, ended up third in the reward settlement, receiving much less from the guild.

"Indeed, we found out later, he was already being held by his wife back then."

"What do you mean 'we'? How come I wasn't aware?"

"We're seasoned, you're not concerned with these things."

"You mean Farina and Kitan knew too?"

"Yes."

"..."

"Don't pull that face, it wasn't purposely hidden from you. Viel didn't want it known, and we all pieced it together from our gathered information, now we're telling you, haha."

"Alright, so how come he obeys his wife, yet she has grievances?"

"That's because initially, his wife wasn't aware he was a Sky Knight. In his youth, he was smooth-talking and pretentious, even after having a child, his mind was still full of racing in the sky. At the time, he assured us there were no issues.

"However, Sky Cavalry missions often meant being away from home for a long time, one or two months was manageable, but often half a year or more without seeing each other, eventually leading to conflicts reaching a level he couldn't maintain that lifestyle anymore, forcing retirement. We've always thought he should seek an adventurous partner, flying together harmoniously."

Li Ang reminisced about Viel's wife seen at Frost Heaven Island, indeed she was earnest, prioritizing family and daily life.

"I've heard, just heard, that his daughter often argues with him due to hardly seeing him during childhood. You saw tranquility when you visited, likely because she was away studying."

"Speaking of that, Viel invited me to meet his daughter at Oktos Academy in Thousand Tower City."

"Huh? What's his intention? How many members are in your 'team' now when you saw him?"

"Two."

Xiaomo stared at Li Ang as if having many, many things unsaid, ultimately swallowing them all.

"I reckon that old chap wants you to pose as a high-end Sky Knight, letting his daughter realize how glorious continuing adventure could have been."

"I suspect that's the case too."

...

The two chatted as they arrived at the outermost door.

Expecting to return quietly, they instead encountered Meluna as soon as they reached the entrance.