Li Ban looked back at the temporary portal.
Because of the earlier malfunction, the portal was now shut completely.
Li Ban was still drenched, but the column of water from Heaven Beyond Heaven had washed away the gore that had previously spattered his clothes.
"Let's hurry inside," one of the priests said.
Only four priests were left waiting here.
Zhu Yao.
Priest Hao Ze, who was also waiting for someone.
And two other priests.
These two happened to be the ones who originally guarded Priest Dong Yi.
In truth, before Li Ban returned, two other priests had already entered the rift.
But they had fought alongside the others until the very last moment.
So when they said they wanted to head in early, Zhu Yao hadn't objected.
Although Zhu Yao and the Director had prepared two temporary portals in advance, the others weren't as confident as she was that Li Ban could return from Heaven Beyond Heaven. Once the enemies were dealt with, their reluctance to wait was completely understandable.
When Li Ban finally arrived, Priest Hao Ze glanced at the sky.
"You all go in first," he sighed suddenly. "I'm going to look for my brother."
"Hao Ze, Priest Hao Yang wouldn't want you to look for him," one of the priests urged.
It was a tragic truth they all recognized: Priest Hao Yang had lured away a portion of the monsters and still hadn't returned. It was highly likely he was already dead.
Just like how the two departed priests hadn't believed Li Ban could make it out of Heaven Beyond Heaven.
But Priest Hao Ze shook his head. "I just figured it out. I don't actually have to leave the Recycling Station."
He looked back at Li Ban and smiled. The authoritative air of a priest faded from his face, replaced by a boyish earnestness. "Could you give me some White Seeds?"
Li Ban pulled a pouch from his Cubic Space and tossed it straight to him.
Hao Ze caught the pouch. Just feeling the shapes inside, he knew they were White Seeds.
There had to be over a hundred inside.
Even as a priest carefully hoarding his resources in the Recycling Station for so long, he had never amassed this much spiritual rhinoceros.
Had Li Ban given him all his remaining White Seeds just because he knew he could leave the Recycling Station?
"I—" Hao Ze hesitated for a moment, but ultimately didn't refuse.
He knew that once he left the vicinity of the rift, returning would be nearly impossible.
While the 8th Tier monsters here had been temporarily defeated, the Sea of Monsters still teemed with powerful beasts. Without the deliberate control of the Divine Offspring Flying Shuttle, they would soon flood the fifty-meter area again.
Even if he found Hao Yang, the two of them likely wouldn't be able to force their way back in.
The path carved out by dozens of priests wouldn't remain open for long.
The White Seeds Li Ban had given him weren't just a lifeline; they were the foundation he needed to survive after turning back.
Gripping the pouch, he offered a wry smile. "I'll shamelessly accept this. Although we might never meet again, if you ever need anything in the future, just give the word."
Li Ban waved goodbye. "Then please look after Wanghai Cliff."
To help them escape the Recycling Station, the Director had exhausted millennia of accumulated resources. For the foreseeable future, its defenses would be at their absolute weakest.
Having a few priests genuinely protecting the place would make it much easier to weather this vulnerable period.
Although Li Ban still wasn't entirely clear on the relationship between the Director and the airship, their all-out support was undeniable.
The group bid their farewells. After watching Priest Hao Ze march resolutely back into the horde of monsters, they turned and stepped into the Northern Continent Rift.
Inside the rift lay a somewhat unstable spatial tunnel.
The tunnel was surrounded by a dim, starry void.
The immediate area was completely empty; only in the extreme distance could a few faint stars be seen.
The tunnel was barely a hundred meters long. Looking up, the exit on the other side was clearly visible.
Tail was the last to enter. She was also the only Spirit Practitioner among the five.
For some reason, she hesitated as she stepped inside, seemingly gripped by fear.
"Don't worry. Once we're in, I'll protect you with my Starlight Domain," Zhu Yao told her.
Away from the Sea of Monsters, Tail, who couldn't fly, would naturally struggle to move on her own. She had to be carried by clouds and mist or protected by starlight.
Although Zhu Yao had recovered some energy while waiting for Li Ban, she was still in the worst shape of them all.
After leaving the Recycling Station, they might end up in the Dark Side of the Universe or a world crevice. Neither was safe, and they would very likely need to fight again.
So Zhu Yao was arranged to walk in the rear with Tail.
Meanwhile, Li Ban and the other two priests cleared the way in the front and on the flanks.
With only the few of them left, they took a moment to introduce themselves again.
Li Ban finally learned that the two priests who had guarded Priest Dong Yi and fought alongside them to the end were named Qiao Guan and Zhan Yan.
Both were recruits brought in by Priest Dong Yi, later joining the Mist Realm faction. They spent most of their time in Lan Province and Yingzhou; other than the Shattered Realm, they rarely traveled anywhere else.
Though both were still mourning Priest Dong Yi's fall, the hope of finally escaping the Recycling Station filled them with emotion, bringing smiles to their faces.
Waiting at the very front, Li Ban watched Tail reluctantly trail behind Zhu Yao. He nodded. "Everyone needs to stick close to me from here on out. We don't know how safe it is out there, so absolutely no acting on your own."
The four of them nodded in unison.
Li Ban noticed that Tail seemed to want to say something. When he looked at her, however, she lowered her head again.
Li Ban knew she was anxious about her recent move to sacrifice Ming Kai, but this wasn't the time to dwell on it. They could only discuss it once they reached a safe area.
Without pressing the issue, he turned and marched forward.
The rest followed closely behind.
A distance of a hundred meters was nothing to a priest. Very soon, they reached the rift's exit.
Li Ban stopped and took a deep breath. "Get ready."
There was no telling what they would face once they left this place.
Lang Jiao stood before the rift's exit, his heart pounding wildly.
After wasting so many years away in the Recycling Station, he was finally about to regain his freedom.
There should be another Lang Jiao out there, he thought. Haha, two of me—that's pretty interesting. I know he exists, but he doesn't know about me. If I kill him and snatch his Wizard Embryo Fragment, could I advance straight to Divine Offspring?
His habitual Black Robe mindset made his first thought how to exploit his other self.
The corners of his mouth curled up. Standing before the exit, Lang Jiao sent out another pulse of his senses.
Sensing no overwhelming premonition of danger, he nodded. At the very least, it wasn't extremely perilous outside. Even if those White Robe priests who had left earlier were lying in ambush, he wasn't afraid.
As an 8th Tier priest, even if he couldn't beat them, couldn't he just run away?
With that in mind, Lang Jiao took a step and emerged from the rift.
Then, he heard a raspy voice.
"Heh, another one comes out. Looks like we'll all get a bite of meat today."
Lang Jiao opened his eyes, and a sea of blood-red filled his vision.
What lay before him wasn't the chaotic Dark Side of the Universe, nor a dim world crevice. Instead, he stood at the bottom of a massive, circular waterfall.
Horrifyingly, the liquid plummeting down wasn't water, but burning magma.
Lang Jiao's first reaction was that this world had fire!
He must have left the Recycling Station.
But his second reaction was danger! Extreme danger! Absolute lethal peril!
The sudden explosion of his danger sense left him drenched in sweat, as if he had just been fished out of the water.
He instantly unleashed three or four spells in quick succession, teleporting away from his original spot before looking back toward the source of the voice.
Only then did he realize that the rift exit he had just walked through was actually the gaping maw of an octopus-like monster.
The gargantuan octopus boasted hundreds of tentacles, some stretched taut, others coiled tightly.
It sprawled lazily in the flowing magma, its body shifting slowly, completely unbothered by the searing heat.
And growing out of the top of the octopus was the upper half of a human.
This half-human was the one who had just spoken.
His waist melded flawlessly with the octopus. His skin was pitch-black, as if carbonized from being baked for far too long.
Yet, this carbonized skin transitioned at the face into a pale, delicate visage.
However, that face possessed a single eye and three mouths.
The two extra mouths were positioned on either cheek.
Bright red tongues slithered out from all three mouths, licking at razor-sharp teeth, as though they had been ravenous for a long time.
Its lone crimson eye fixed on Lang Jiao. It narrowed slightly, utterly devoid of surprise or caution—holding only sheer greed and hunger.
The moment he saw this grotesque human-octopus hybrid, Lang Jiao lost all will to fight.
He actually felt the palpable aura of a Divine Offspring Priest radiating from the creature.
This wasn't just the Silver Flying Shuttle's self-affirmation; it was the overwhelming pressure of terrifying power directly pressing down on him.
He immediately turned and bolted, fleeing upward toward the top of the circular magma waterfall.
But the very next second, his body was completely suppressed, frozen in place.
A tentacle lazily reached up from below, coiled around Lang Jiao, and dragged him back down.
Lang Jiao's eyes bulged wide, but the suppression was so absolute he couldn't even speak.
The monster didn't kill him right away. Instead, it used another tentacle to flip open a large, ashen-black boulder nearby.
Beneath it lay a deep pit.
Casting a sideways glance, Lang Jiao was horrified to see Priest Yu Hai inside—and even Priest Li He, the very first one to flee.
His eyes widened even further as despair flooded his heart.
Every single priest who had entered the rift ahead of him was gathered here.
They had all been reduced to mere torsos.
Their limbs had been wrenched off and carelessly discarded at the bottom of the pit, where they were already showing signs of being cooked by the scorching magma.
Their torsos were skewered like roasted meat. Slender tentacles had been jammed into their mouths and thrust deep into their bodies.
The other ends of these tentacles were detached from the monster entirely, planted into the rock at the bottom of the pit like bamboo skewers.
Thus, everyone was left hanging upside down, waiting to be slowly roasted alive.
Most of their eyes were already shriveled, yet they still twitched sporadically.
The occasional desperate twitch of their heads proved that they were still alive.
They were, after all, priests with incredibly resilient physiques. Even this slow roasting in intense heat wasn't enough to kill them quickly.
But a far more horrifying fate awaited them.
If they didn't cook thoroughly, they would simply be torn to shreds alive by those jagged teeth.
Seeing his impending, despairing future clearly laid out before him, Lang Jiao struggled violently to escape.
Suddenly, he found he could speak.
"I'm an 8th Tier black-robed priest! I can acknowledge you as my master! I'll obey your every command, please don't eat me! I can be very useful!"
The one-eyed monster tilted its head, and the mouth in the front spoke. "What a coincidence. I used to be a black-robed priest, too."
"Used to be?" Lang Jiao feigned confusion while frantically trying to stall for time. "Who are you? What is this place?"
The front mouth split wide open, revealing razor-sharp teeth. "This is the Recycling Station."
"The Recycling Station? How could this be the Recycling Station? There's no fire in the Recycling Station!" Lang Jiao gasped in shock.
"Oh, you must be humans from the Northern Continent. This is the Recycling Station—the Southern Continent."
Lang Jiao's jaw dropped. "The Southern Continent? How is that possible?"
They had fought tooth and nail to break through the Sea of Monsters and enter the spatial rift, only to end up traveling from the Northern Continent to the Southern Continent?
"Both the Northern and Southern Continents have rifts... So that's how it is. So that's how it is..."
Sudden comprehension dawned on him.
"Haha, the rifts on the two continents don't lead outside at all! They're just tunnels connecting to each other! Hahaha, I get it now, I finally get it! There's no escaping the Recycling Station! We can never leave! Hahahaha—"
He threw his head back and laughed maniacally, seemingly driven entirely mad.
The one-eyed monster tilted its head the other way, as if not quite understanding what was so funny. It controlled the tentacle, slowly inching it toward Lang Jiao's mouth.
The thought of the meat skewers at the bottom of the pit snapped Lang Jiao back to his senses instantly. "No, I'm still willing—"
But the one-eyed monster didn't want to listen anymore. "If you're willing to do anything for me, then let me eat you."
Unable to control his own body, Lang Jiao could only watch helplessly as the tentacle binding him elongated, its slender tip forcing its way through his mouth and down his throat.
He could even feel it tearing his esophagus, pushing down his gullet, piercing through his stomach lining, and finally coming to rest near his intestines.
Lang Jiao was then flipped upside down and, just like the others, skewered into the rocks at the bottom of the pit.
The severed tentacle regenerated quickly, effortlessly snapping off Lang Jiao's limbs before retreating.
Even without feeling the pain, Lang Jiao couldn't stop trembling.
The tentacle withdrew. The boulder overhead slammed shut, and darkness swallowed everything.
Gradually, Lang Jiao stopped trembling.
The corners of his eyes even crinkled up in a smile.
There were still a few priests behind him. Thinking about how they would also emerge from the rift, experience the same shock and despair, and end up skewered right next to him...
Being eaten together in absolute despair... It actually seemed kind of fun...
Haha. Hahahaha—
This time, he truly lost his mind.
Sensing the twitching of the bodies on the skewers, the one-eyed monster simply looked down and tapped on the closed boulder, not bothering to investigate what was happening inside.
"So fragrant... so fragrant. Once my good friend gets back, we can eat them together."
"Let's call this feast the Gods' Skewer Banquet."
As if overcome by ravenous hunger, it swallowed hard three times, simultaneously sucking all three tongues back into its mouths.
On the other side, Li Ban, standing at the rift's exit, didn't step out immediately. Instead, he cautiously peered out.
Unfortunately, the rift here was completely sealed. He couldn't see or sense anything of the outside world, as if it had been deliberately blocked off.
"Are we not going through?" Priest Zhan Yan couldn't help but ask, seeing Li Ban pause for so long.
But Li Ban raised a hand, signaling everyone to hold their positions.
He slowly turned around and looked at Zhu Yao behind him.
"Zhu Yao, don't you feel that the spatial rules here resemble the Spatial Guidance Art?"