At this moment, surrounded by emerald mana, Rat was drilling deeper into the sand like a knife in butter. His speed was terrifying, and even a Tier-1 Legendary King wouldn’t be able to catch up.
’Just who is that terrifying monster!? Even I didn’t see him coming despite my bloodline instinct!’ Rat was filled with dread by just thinking about how Jacob snuck up on them.
With his ample experience, Rat knew that the opponent wasn’t someone they could easily deal with, and without hesitation, he decided to flee the moment Jacob revealed himself.
Moreover, according to the oath contract, Rat wasn’t required to confront any enemy that could threaten his life, and that’s why he ran at the first chance he got.
’Although those guys are also powerful, at least I can sense the danger from each of them. But I couldn’t sense anything from that monster. It was as if...’ At this moment, Rat’s thoughts abruptly disrupted, and his body suddenly froze.
’What?!’ Rat was confused for a moment before he realized that an invisible power had stopped him, and his expression became pale.
However, it was just the start of his nightmare because his body started dragging in reverse, and he didn’t even have a chance to resist. The force pulling him was so strong that he couldn’t even blink, and the speed of the pulling force was even faster than his own drilling speed; he was utterly helpless, like a rag doll.
Thereupon, Rat’s small figure was pulled out of the sand like some wild weed. With appalled expression, Rat saw a tall figure under a hood standing right in front of him, and all he could see was flickering pale white light flashing under the hood.
"You have an unusual bloodline." Jacob casually commented as his Eyes of the Judge flickered with a hint of interest.
At this point, Jacob didn’t need Immortika’s help all the time to appraise and evaluate individuals from different races, all thanks to the Cursed Blood Progenitor and the Eyes of Judge.
Rat was so terrified that he felt his heart stop when he heard Jacob’s eerie voice, and he knew arousing this monster’s interest was anything but a good thing. But he can’t even blink under Jacob’s power, and he could only helplessly let Jacob ’appraise’ him like an item.
At this moment, Rat felt the invisible power wrapping his body vanish, and he could finally move. However, except for trembling, he didn’t dare even to breathe loudly. As for fleeing, he knew it was nothing but a pipe dream after personally experiencing Jacob’s prowess.
"Open the map in your possession." Jacob impassively commanded at this moment.
No matter how aggrieved Rat felt at this moment, he lacked the ability to resist or refute Jacob’s command due to the massive power gap between them.
"I-I can’t..." Rat instantly crumbled under Jacob’s presence and prostrated himself in front of the latter, "O’ exalted king! It’s not like I dare to go against your absolute verdict, it’s because I’m under the soul oath contract, and if I dare to reveal the map in the presence of others than my clients, I’ll die before I can even activate it, and with it the map will be gone!"
Rat wasn’t lying at this moment, and in fact, he was feeling like crying and even cursing himself for getting involved in this mess. He shouldn’t have taken a deal that involved a forbidden region’s secret.
’Clients? So, he’s a hired gun?’ Jacob’s eyes turned cold as ice, not because he thought Rat was lying, but because he knew it would be troublesome to deal with a Zodiac Soul Oath Contract.
However, this didn’t mean he was truly helpless. Jacob flickered his finger and the next moment, Rat suddenly felt like hit by a sledgehammer, and lost his consciousness.
The next moment, Jacob sent Rat into the Mechanized Sovereign Tower and coldly commanded, "Black Mechanic, I want the map in his star watch. How long will it take for you to extract it?"
"As long as he can’t connect with the Star Network, and his privilege is below 6-Star, it’ll take around 25 hours to complete your order, sir."
"Good, once you’re done with the map, store him with other specimens and start analyzing his bloodline and see if there’s any information in our data bank!"
"Will do, sir!"
Jacob nodded in satisfaction. He had invested almost all of his fortune in the Mechanized Sovereign Tower, and Black Mechanic, if it couldn’t even bypass the Soul Star Watch’s personal data bank, he would have gotten rid of it.
’Now that I’ve captured this guide, those guys won’t be able to progress so smoothly anymore, even if they had more copies of the map. Moreover, I deliberately spare them and let them see me, if the Champion King dares to come here...’
Jacob’s eyes flickered with a hint of anticipation before he vanished and headed towards the lava sea again while taking out the Map of the Blazing Constellation.
Following the map, Jacob returned to the lava sea, but this time he took another path so as not to bump into the Star Pirates again. The lava sea seemed to be massive as it pulsed like a giant, slumbering heart—alive, ancient, and waiting.
Jacob stood at the jagged cliff’s edge, his cloak rippling under waves of molten heat. Even with his mastery over the Law of Fire, this place was stifling. Not just the physical heat—it was the weight of it. The concentration of fire laws here bordered on the divine.
’No wonder the Yang Flame was hidden here...’
Jacob’s eyes flickered as the Map of the Blazing Constellation hovered at his side like a blazing guide-star, now brighter than ever before.
Its constellation pattern constantly shifted, chaotic yet precise, tracing spirals and stars as if trying to decode something just beneath the surface.
Jacob stepped off the edge. He didn’t fall. His body hovered above the lava for a moment, then slowly descended. Thin ripples of fiery light spread beneath his feet, forming a floating foothold of condensed flame. The moment he touched the lava sea, the molten waves surged upward like walls of rage—but they didn’t burn him.
Slowly, he walked atop the lava following the map, each step forging temporary fire prints that melted as soon as he moved forward. The deeper he went across the sea’s glowing skin, the more the lava began to react.
At this moment, the map suddenly changed!