Thanks to Priest Huinv's willing sacrifice, they eliminated an 8th Tier monster without expending any of their own strength.
However, neither Li He nor Lang Jiao knew how long her life force could stall the enemy. The moment the monster Chu Zhan completely vanished, they ordered an immediate fifty-meter advance.
At this fifty-meter threshold, a ring of massive monsters hovered in the air. Every single one possessed the physical resilience of a 7th Tier Priest.
Fortunately, the group only needed to break through; they didn't have to kill every last one.
Li He, Lang Jiao, and Yu Hai—the leaders of the three major camps—forged the path at the very front.
Like a trident, they pierced straight into the monsters' encirclement.
Surprisingly, once they crossed into the fifty-meter zone, the density of the monsters dropped significantly compared to the outside.
Their sizes were noticeably smaller, too.
Suddenly, the spatial rift in the distance became clearly visible!
But without the three leading Priests spearheading the assault, the flanks fell under immense pressure.
Li Ban's group had just crossed the five-thousand-meter wall of monsters when a defending Priest on the left flank was struck down.
The two Priests guarding Priest Dong Yi didn't hesitate; they immediately shielded him and pushed their way over.
However, the people trailing behind them were cut off by the surging monsters, trapped on the outside forever.
With the left flank severed and the right flank attacked from both front and back, their formation rapidly crumbled.
The strike team was split into two.
Ming Kai glanced back, only to see the companions who had been right behind him transforming into monsters.
Absolute shock covered his face.
A moment later, someone grabbed Ming Kai's shoulder. It was Tail, dragging him along as she continued to charge forward.
"Keep up! If you don't, you'll be left behind!"
Cat Girl seemed to be shouting at Ming Kai, but she was just as much warning herself.
Catching sight of Tail and Ming Kai rushing over, Li Ban breathed a small sigh of relief.
The team's defensive perimeter had been completely shattered.
Everyone was simply sprinting toward the spatial rift.
If anyone was intercepted by a monster now, they had to fight it alone.
Still, it was obvious that the twenty-odd people who had broken through had formed their own distinct inner circles.
Priest Dong Yi and his two guards grouped up with Li Ban's squad of four.
Their smooth cooperation moments ago had forged a baseline of mutual trust.
Ahead of them, Priest Lang Jiao and Priest Li He had each formed their own small factions.
Overall, though, the survivors remained roughly clustered together rather than scattering completely.
Every Priest knew that within this fifty-meter zone, there were at least two more 8th Tier monsters.
Riding the momentum of their charge, they managed to reach the thirty-meter mark from the rift relatively unimpeded.
The long, lightning-like spatial rift was now clearly visible.
It hung vertically in the air, like a jagged gap torn through the world.
Its upper and lower tips were incredibly narrow, radiating a space-distorting power that made passage impossible.
The only area Li Ban and the others could pass through was a three-meter span in the center.
For safety's sake, a maximum of three people could pass through at a time.
Any more than that, and whoever was pushed to the edges risked being shredded by the spatial power.
The closer they got to success, the more tense the camp leaders became.
If they couldn't safely cross this final stretch, all their prior efforts and sacrifices would amount to nothing.
Yet, just as the vanguard breached the thirty-meter mark, the inevitable happened.
An 8th Tier monster suddenly materialized in front of the group.
It also wore a white Priest's robe, but above its neckline, there was absolutely nothing.
Its unmutated human arms opened and closed. Shockingly, a powerful surge of spiritual rhinoceros pulsed from its palms.
"A spell?! How can it use spells?" Priest Yu Hai, who had been fighting in silence this whole time, finally lost his composure and cried out.
Monsters lacked reason and couldn't use spells—this was universal knowledge among the survivors of the Recycling Station.
But right here at the continental rift, a monster capable of casting spells had actually appeared.
Though shocked, the Priests didn't forget they were in a battle.
Li He immediately unleashed a large-scale Protection Spell, guarding himself and the few people nearby.
He ignored anyone further away.
Priest Lang Jiao blinked directly to the headless monster's flank. He thrust both hands forward, and two massive, twisting chains shot from his palms to entangle its body.
Acting in perfect sync, Li Ban grabbed Tail while Zhu Yao grabbed Ming Kai, and the four of them dodged to the sides simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Priest Yu Hai instantly cast a massive curtain of starlight, enveloping the headless monster in an attempt to lock down its movements.
At the same time, Priest Dong Yi, who had stayed out of the fighting for a long while, finally made his move.
Realizing that the headless monster could cast spells, he immediately knew he had to suppress its abilities.
Priest Dong Yi directly launched a Terror Spell—a technique specifically targeting beings with a rational mind.
Though a foundational spell, in the hands of a powerful caster, it could become devastatingly effective.
He aimed to use it to interrupt the headless monster before it could cast again.
However, things didn't go nearly as smoothly as planned.
Before Priest Lang Jiao's twisted chains could even touch the headless monster, an explosive shockwave erupted from its body, blasting the chains away.
Priest Li He had barely erected his Protection Spell when he watched a wind-blade-like attack intentionally curve around his barrier, cleanly and precisely severing the head of a 7th Tier Priest standing right behind him.
Priest Hao Ze was standing directly behind that 7th Tier Priest. Feeling a sudden thump against his chest, he looked down just in time to see half a human head plummeting toward the ground.
He sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and rage.
Rapidly cycling his spiritual rhinoceros, he retaliated by launching a Wind Blade Spell of his own.
The headless Priest's second wind blade struck at almost the exact same moment. But right before it clashed with Hao Ze's spell, it suddenly split in two.
The twin blades bypassed him entirely, slicing toward the Priests on his left and right.
Fortunately, the Priest on the left reacted in time. With a wide-area Spatial Quake Spell, he forced all the incoming wind blades to instantly dissipate.
But any spell related to spatial manipulation drained a massive amount of spiritual rhinoceros.
The moment he cast the spell, the man took a step back, signaling that he needed time to recover his spiritual rhinoceros.
Just then, Priest Yu Hai spoke up, his face grim. "My starlight can't control it at all!"
His ugly expression stemmed partly from the enemy's sheer power, and partly from wounded pride. Li Ban had just successfully locked down an 8th Tier monster earlier, yet he couldn't manage the same feat.
He was clearly a 7th Tier Priest, stronger than Li Ban!
Before the rest could fully process this, Priest Dong Yi chimed in. "The Terror Spell had no effect either."
Letting go of Ming Kai's shoulder, Li Ban acted on a sudden hunch. He dashed over to Priest Hao Ze's side and cast a Starlight Domain on the headless Priest.
It was equally useless.
The creature could still move and continue its spell attacks.
Only then did Priest Yu Hai's complexion improve slightly.
At the very least, this proved he wasn't inferior to Li Ban.
Seeing this, Li Ban blurted out, "Its brain isn't in that body!"
"Someone is controlling it remotely."
Priest Li He, who had focused entirely on observation and defense without attacking, had reached the exact same conclusion.
"They can control it remotely from this far away?" Priest Yu Hai asked in dismay.
"Damn it. If its master is over a hundred meters away, there's really nothing we can do but try to bypass it and force our way through," Priest Lang Jiao grumbled, already eyeing the path behind the headless Priest.
But he also knew that whoever got closest to the rift right now would draw all the attacks.
Pushing forward first just meant becoming the prime target.
So, before the headless Priest could shift its focus onto him, Priest Lang Jiao blinked back into the safety of his own inner circle.
Because his group was positioned in the second echelon, much like Li Ban's, they had only suffered minor splash damage. Not a single person among them had died.
But looking at the headless corpse of the 7th Tier Priest from Li He's squad, everyone understood: one careless mistake, and they would be next.
A monster that could cast spells and one that couldn't were two entirely different leagues of threat. It was the difference between heaven and earth.
Certain that the headless Priest was being controlled by an outside consciousness, Li Ban didn't retreat to the rear. Instead, he scanned his surroundings, hunting for the one pulling the strings.
He refused to believe the controller was hiding far away.
He deduced that controlling the headless Priest required a clear line of sight, free of massive monster swarms, otherwise the signal would be interrupted.
That had to be why the monster density within this final fifty meters was so incredibly sparse.
Priest Li He and Priest Dong Yi were scanning the area as well, clearly sharing his train of thought.
Bizarrely, the moment Li Ban exposed its mechanics, the headless Priest halted in its tracks. It stopped attacking, simply letting the weaker monsters within the fifty-meter zone continue their harassment.
'Even if it's remote control, in this place, they have to be using spiritual rhinoceros. So why can't I trace the source of the fluctuations?'
Li Ban grew increasingly puzzled. His gaze swept over the mob of humanoid monsters, before realization struck and his eyes locked onto—
—the rift itself.
'Are they hiding inside the rift?'
'No. When I traversed that small spatial rift in the Trash Realm, I learned that spiritual rhinoceros can't directly penetrate through a rift. The caster must physically cross over to use spells. Therefore... the controller is standing right behind the rift!'
The moment it clicked, Li Ban immediately used his Mind Spell to warn the other Priests.
"They're behind the rift!"
Receiving Li Ban's warning, Priest Lang Jiao and Priest Li He exchanged a sharp glance.
At a critical juncture like this, only the two of them had the speed to reach the back of the rift fast enough.
As the only two Solar Priests present, they naturally assumed that anyone else who tried would just be slaughtered halfway there, serving as nothing but cannon fodder.
Though they had been holding back in the previous battles, cunningly conserving their strength to the absolute minimum, it didn't mean they were afraid of a head-on clash.
Now that they were at the final threshold, their true power would be the decisive factor.
In that single shared look, their minds aligned. They readied themselves to blitz the controller behind the rift.
But then, something completely unexpected happened.
Just as the headless Priest went still, and just as Priest Lang Jiao and Priest Li He prepared to strike, a voice no one could have anticipated echoed through the air.
"After that brief skirmish, you should now have a slight understanding of our power."
Ever since they breached the center of the Sea of Monsters, things beyond their comprehension had been happening one after another.
Not only could monsters cast spells, but now they were actually speaking.
The voice came from directly behind the spatial rift.
Before the two Solar Priests could make their move, a figure voluntarily emerged from behind the tear in space.
The monster that revealed itself this time was a massive, mechanical Flying Shuttle.
It possessed a spindle-shaped exterior built entirely out of silver, block-like metallic granules. Its smooth, flowing lines radiated an aura of futuristic, high-tech elegance.
There was no visible sign of its propulsion system.
Whenever it spoke, waves of brilliant blue-purple light rippled across its silver metallic hull, looking ethereal and elegant.
Li Ban's eyes widened.
'This Flying Shuttle... why does it look exactly like the Trash Realm's Main Brain?'
But the master of the Trash Realm's Main Brain was supposed to be Gu Yi!
The Main Brain had even called Li Ban "Director" before, and it knew about the General's existence.
Was this Flying Shuttle the actual Main Brain, or just a mechanical entity that happened to share its appearance?
If it had nothing to do with the Main Brain, that would be one thing.
But if it was the Main Brain, or perhaps a Main Brain at a different stage of progress...
Then what was its relationship with the Director here?
Li Ban's mind raced. 'The Director once said he had a special method to transmit a vital message to the outside world. And now, something that looks exactly like the Main Brain is sitting right next to the rift. Could this be the Director's tool?'
For a moment, Li Ban couldn't figure out where the Director's true allegiances lay.
Was he on the side of the humans in the Recycling Station, or the side of the monsters?
"Our? Who are you?" While Li Ban was still lost in shock, Priest Li He spoke up.
"We are the many Priests who perished in the Sea of Monsters. The Main Brain selects brains that have not completely lost their viability and uploads their data. Our consciousnesses have fused into a single collective. You may call us... the Divine Offspring."
This time, Li Ban wasn't the only one shocked. Every single Priest froze.
Divine Offspring.
This was a title reserved exclusively for 9th Tier Priests.
Yet this piece of technology was casually claiming the title of "Divine Offspring" for itself?
Was it mocking them, or did it truly possess equivalent power?
Priest Lang Jiao, who had been itching to launch a sneak attack just seconds ago, skidded to a halt. His face turned extremely ugly.
"You dare call yourselves Divine Offspring?" Priest Li He narrowed his eyes, infuriated by their blasphemous claim.
"If measured as individual minds, we cannot compare to a Divine Offspring Priest. But after thousands of years of integration, our cognitive strength, depth, and the completeness of our Wizard Embryo Fragments have far surpassed any Divine Offspring. We only need to merge the consciousnesses of one hundred and twenty-three more Priests, and we will be ready to ascend as a Great Wizard."
"Ascending to Great Wizard requires severing the mortal corpse! What the hell are you things supposed to be?!" A 7th Tier Priest, unable to stomach the sheer arrogance, cursed aloud.
The voice from the Flying Shuttle didn't waver in the slightest, utterly immune to their anger.
"That is precisely why we are superior to Divine Offspring Priests. We do not need to sever the mortal corpse."
"We have no mortal corpse."
Priest Dong Yi stepped forward, his expression grave. "Do you truly believe you can ascend to a Great Wizard just by mashing enough Priest consciousnesses and Wizard Embryo Fragments together?"
"Becoming a Great Wizard requires absolute deductive processing power and the foundational root to nurture a world. We possess both."
Until now, Li Ban only knew that a Great Wizard needed to sever the mortal corpse. He had no idea what specific abilities the ascension actually demanded.
But judging from the expressions of the high-tier Priests, the Flying Shuttle wasn't lying.
The Sea of Monsters grew eerily quiet. Even the stragglers within the fifty-meter zone halted their attacks.
The Flying Shuttle's voice echoed once more.
"For you Priests to have reached this place, your strength and willpower must be immense. We formally invite you to join the Divine Offspring."
"Within the Recycling Station, you individuals have zero chance of ever becoming a Great Wizard. Join us, and your consciousnesses will not perish."
"This is your final opportunity to ascend."