Richard smiled strangely before turning around.
The gate opened once again, giving him a way out.
He stepped calmly into the air. However, just as he was about to speed up, he glanced back.
The 29th floor.
He saw someone standing before its gate, an old tree man with a body made of wood and hair formed from golden roots.
He stood around 2.5 meters tall and had a pair of wings woven from countless roots.
As Richard observed him, he could vaguely sense an immense power emanating from him.
The old man turned around after noticing his gaze, revealing a pair of golden eyes brimming with vitality.
Even his face was made of wood.
He smiled at Richard.
Richard nodded politely in return.
With an aura like that, he could already guess who this person was.
Golden Tree Ancient Sovereign, the founder of the Golden Leaf Auction House.
The Fire Spirit Queen had once told him that this figure was comparable to a Chaos Master.
Right afterward, the old man took out a black key that seemed to be forged from darkness itself.
He inserted it into the keyhole, and the gate slowly opened.
A moment later, he entered, causing the gate to close once again.
Richard had no idea what lay beyond that gate.
But he wasnāt familiar with the old man. He chose to leave immediately.
Who knew what the old man might do now that he had no business there anymore?
Richard felt that his gains had already been worthwhile, so he headed straight toward the entrance of the World of Death.
He was ready to leave.
The journey was smooth and uneventful. When he arrived, he found the area surprisingly crowded.
The people of the Ancient Barbarian Tribe were lined up in front of the gate.
They seemed to be waiting for someone, but they werenāt preventing others from leaving.
Richard quickly guessed that they were waiting for Grace.
He looked around before approaching Carla and the others, who had yet to depart.
Carla visibly relaxed the moment she saw him.
However, Richardās calmness was immediately disturbed when he noticed Ethanās arrival.
This Ethan wore a red robe.
The gloomy expression on his face was impossible to hide.
He looked as though he wanted to devour someone alive.
Then the darkness in his expression reached its peak when he spotted Richard hidden beneath his cloak.
Yet he stopped himself before walking toward him.
His eyes shifted toward the Barbarian King.
"King, if you want to force that girl to surrender, just capture her lover," Ethan said, shocking the Barbarian King, everyone present, and even Richard himself.
"Who is her lover?" the Barbarian King asked directly.
His voice thundered across the area.
"That man!" Ethan pointed straight at Richard.
Richard could only roll his eyes.
"Boy, show yourself!" the Barbarian King roared as he charged toward Richard with boundless fury.
"Barbarian King, do you dare?" Carla shouted angrily.
"Little girl, who are you?" the Barbarian King responded with an even louder roar.
"My grandfather is the strongest ancestor of the Order of the Crimson Veil. Do you still dare?" Carla shouted back.
Upon hearing that, the Barbarian King paused briefly, but he still continued forward.
"I would rather die than fail to reclaim my Ancestorās Skeleton!" he bellowed.
"We would rather die as well!" the other barbarians responded.
They immediately followed the Barbarian King as they charged toward Richard.
Carlaās expression darkened.
She had not expected her background to fail in stopping them.
She glared at Ethan with intense anger, knowing he was the mastermind behind everything.
She simply couldnāt understand why he had dared to expose Richardās identity.
Richardās expression turned serious.
He couldnāt claim that he could face the Barbarian King with his current strength.
Naturally, asking the skeleton for help in front of so many people was not an option.
"Hmm!!!"
After thinking for a moment, he finally absorbed 0.015% of the Heavenly Waterās Energy.
The last time, merely 0.01% had granted him tremendous power, despite how weak he had been back then.
Now he was far stronger, yet he was using even more of the Heavenly Waterās energy.
When he simultaneously activated Black Heart Hidden Power, he instantly became certain that his energy had reached a level comparable to that of Peak Rulers.
Only he himself knew that.
Boom!
He unleashed that power forward.
It immediately transformed into an overwhelmingly terrifying pressure that shook the space of the World of Death.
The members of the Ancient Barbarian Tribe, each over a hundred meters tall, instantly slowed to half their speed.
Even the Barbarian King was no exception.
No one had expected such a terrifying pressure to erupt from him.
Of course, those observing carefully could tell that he was using some form of external power.
But that didnāt matter.
Richard didnāt choose a complicated attack.
He simply released a wave focused entirely on the Barbarian King.
And he didnāt forget to send a Mind Attack as well, causing the giant kingās body to stagger.
Then, as the wave struck him, he was blasted away violently.
In a single instant, he was thrown so far that no one could see him anymore, as though he had been teleported away.
Everyone froze in shock upon witnessing the scene.
They blinked repeatedly, unable to believe what they had just seen.
"Carla, letās go," Richard said, unwilling to remain there any longer.
He stepped through the gate of the World of Death, returning to the real world.
Carla immediately followed him, not even bothering to gather the other members of the Order of the Crimson Veil.
No one could recover from their shock right away.
But once they did, they all arrived at the same conclusion.
"H-He must be Richard," someone said.
"Yes, heās the only one rumored to have a relationship with Miss Grace Moonshadow."
"So heās really back. I heard he entered a place capable of changing oneās fate."
"My ancestor said that place possesses a significant time difference. Only one day passes for him, while an entire year passes for us."
"Is that really true? Did he only train there for a single day?"
"That should be the case. Yet that single day has changed many things. Though perhaps his cultivation realm hasnāt improved at all."
"If his realm hasnāt improved, how strong can he really be? This time he only relied on external power."
"Even external power shouldnāt be enough to make him this strong. For the Barbarian King to be defeated in a single strike, his own strength must already be extraordinarily high."
"..."
The crowd continued discussing among themselves as they stared at the gate through which Richard had vanished.