Pant, pant, pant, gasping for breath, Aldrich waved the Dark Cloud sword in his hand with the last of his strength, severing a giant wolf's head.

Around half a day had passed since the group started fighting against the monsters, with only short intervals of time for rest before another wave of monsters would arrive.

Even for cultivators like them, such heavy pressure was very demanding mentally and physically.

Their progress couldn't be considered slow, as the distance they covered was substantial and the number of monsters they killed were numerous. They had exited the hall and entered the deeper parts of the golden castle, yet they couldn't put an end to the relentless monster attacks.

Around Aldrich lay numerous dead monster bodies, and his clothes were drenched in blood, mainly from wolves and spiders, with a smaller number of snakes and other unrecognizable creatures. Normally, anything below the 9th Order of the Minor Origin realm wouldn't pose a threat to Aldrich's prowess. However, in his current condition, where his celestial body's abilities were unusable, he could only rely on his innate battle power, which was equivalent to the intermediate level of the 8th order.

"Young lord! The 2nd captain managed to break through on his side. We must gather and push to escape this encirclement before anything else happens," Charlotte said after dispatching a wolf that was approaching Aldrich.

A shadow of gloom crossed Aldrich's eyes as he replied, "These wolves specialize in hiding and assassination. Their darkness affinity and the environment around us aren't helping at all."

"Let's go!" A determined glint appeared in Aldrich's eyes as he looked at the fallen bodies of the guards and some specialists who had joined their group on this expedition. Rage burned in his heart. "Whoever planned this must pay the price ten-fold!"

Aldrich sheathed his sword and held it in his left hand as he and Charlotte moved toward the other side, where the 2nd captain and the remaining group members were fighting.

While running, two energy stones appeared in his hand. He handed one to Charlotte, saying, "You should try to recover as much energy as possible. We don't know what lies ahead."

An approving glint appeared in Charlotte's eyes as she nodded. "You're right. We need to regain our top fighting prowess as soon as possible."

With a combination of swift movement and Charlotte's efficient disposal of the monsters blocking their path, they soon regrouped with the others.

Everyone had grave expressions. At the start, the group had been forcefully separated due to the fierce attacks, but they could still reach each other quickly to provide assistance. However, as time passed, the distance between group members grew, making it harder to help others and resulting in more lives lost. Now that they had gathered again, a group that had started with twenty members now had less than half.

Only six members remained, with two of them incapacitated. One of the two remaining Formation masters was in better condition, while the other was the 2nd captain, whose injuries from the initial fight were worsening.

Aldrich's gaze scanned the area, and his expression turned grave. "Charlotte, where is Thomas? He can't be dead!"

All the remaining members had cultivations ranging from the True Origin realm to the Great Origin realm, while the monsters ranged from the late stage of the Minor Origin realm to the Great Origin realm.

"We need to reach an open space," Charlotte suggested. "From there, we can attempt to escape by flying, hoping we don't encounter any flying monsters."

Suddenly, a silver light flashed, and Thomas's figure appeared in front of everyone. All eyes turned to him, and Thomas's aura was turbulent, barely under control, indicating he had just come from an intense battle.

"Who did you fight?" Aldrich asked.

Thomas waved his hand, and five bodies materialized on the ground. Two of them were headless, the third was missing his arms, and the last two were covered in injuries, with no unbroken bones left.

The remnants of aura emanating from the five corpses darkened everyone's expressions.

Charlotte's eyelids twitched. "Those are peak Great Origin realm experts, bona fide King-tier. At least tell me you extracted some useful information from them."

Wearing a serious expression, Thomas replied, "I used a secret spirit art to investigate. An army of the dark clans is gathering in a secret chamber underground." He continued, looking at the bodies on the ground, "These five are members of a team called the Beast Tamers. They are responsible for the monsters that attacked us. I found them hiding in a concealed space. After a battle, I managed to kill these five members, but one of them escaped with her life."

"We need to leave now," Thomas urged, "otherwise, we'll be in dire straits once they send more soldiers."

Charlotte pondered, "If they have an army ready, doesn't that mean they weren't targeting us from the start? Perhaps it's us who interrupted their secret plans."

"Not really," Thomas replied. "From what I've learned, they've been preparing for a large-scale attack for a long time. We just happened to choose this ruin for exploration. They likely recognized the affiliation of the previous team that visited the ruins a few days ago, which led to their trap. It seems they've had their eye on us since the moment we entered the ruins.".

" They have been pushing us deeper inside the castle, since the start, it will be very difficult to escape their grasp. all decisions that we make may affect the final results. "

" Thomas, since they are using the teleportation formation to get to this place, can we modify the formation to teleport us to a location of our choosing? " interjected Aldrich.

Thomas's face twitched, " Ahaha, young lord!, It's possible, however, To get to the formation we need to go past the whole army, not to mention the thousands of Minor Origin and True Origin realms soldiers they will have they surely have experts equal to our titled Kings leading the army.".

Suddenly Aldrich's face lit up as he sent his spiritual sense inside his spatial ring a moment later a small disk appeared in his hand!,

" I had brought a concealment artifact with me if it was combined with a high-grade concealment formation I believe that no one in the Origin Transformation great realm would notice us, even if we started dancing in front of them, this would make sneaking around much easier, all we need to do is get there and wait for them to start moving!, by then Thomas can modify the formation and we can use it to teleport outside. "