Shirong and his two followers Ye Dai and Bei Wen were still descending to the depths of the underground lake. They had reached a depth of nearly a hundred meters, and the barrier that was surrounding them had now reached fifty percent of its original size.

The more deeper they went, the more the rate of shrinking increased. While Shirong was keeping a staunch look on his face all throughout the way, it could not be said the same for Ye Dai and Bei Wen.

Although Young Master Shirong had placated their concerns before, they could not help but get alarmed seeing the shrinking barrier.

They wanted to say something, but the promise of rewards and resources was making them keep their mouth shut. The three men looked like they were traveling in a bubble of some kind, which was nothing but the barrier and it was shrinking at a rapid pace.

'Dammit, this speed is not what I expected. Is the cause behind it whatever that's hiding at the bottom?' Shirong thought in his mind while keeping a calm face.

A depth of two hundred meters was reached and now the barrier had shrunk to a third of its original size, making the three men shift closer.

Ye Dai and Bei Wen's fists were clenched in stress and they were now ready to escape when the danger would present itself. They no longer cared about the resources as long as they lived.

"Young Master Shirong we need to turn back, I do not think this is worth it!" Bei Wen spoke with caution in his voice.

While Bei Wen wanted to believe in Young Master Shirong's previous words, the fear building up in his mind was telling him to escape as soon as possible from the area. Ye Dai was feeling the same, but he did not say anything as he wanted to gauge his response first.

'So they couldn't hold back anymore,' Shirong thought upon hearing Bei Wen's words.

"Just a bit more, I have a hunch that we are very close to the goal. Please hold on for a little bit more." Shirong said in a friendly tone disguising his true intentions.

Ye Dai could perceive something different about Young Master Shirong and decided to no longer hold back.

Bei Wen thought the same, and both were about to act when suddenly a wave of spirit qi spread in the area. The spirit qi was rather concentrated, and all three of them were thrown off by it.

"Huh, Wh-" Bei Wen uttered in surprise.

Suddenly the three men's eyes went wide as they saw the barrier start to shrink at a blinding rate.

"Dammit, what is happening?" Shirong questioned in frustration.

He had certainly not expected for the speed to increase by such an amount as this did not leave him with much time to use his trump cards either. The two men Ye Dai and Bei Wen were utterly terrified and dropped the idea of protesting. Right now, the only person who could potentially save them was none other than Young Master Shirong.

"Quick Young Master Shirong, save us!" Both Ye Dai and Bei Wen uttered in an urgent tone.

Shirong knew that he now had no choice but to return with the two of them. Because if he wanted to save himself, he would have to save them too. If it was a little while ago and the speed of the shirking barrier was slower, he would have had time to activate the trump card secretly and would have been able to escape alone while leaving these two behind.

But now the time required for it was simply not enough and if he did try it openly, he would no doubt get attacked by the two of them.

Shirong withdrew a square plate from his spatial ring and held it in his hand while activating it. He started pouring his spirit qi in the plate, making it light up.

But Alas! The barrier had already shrunk to the point where the three men were stuck back to back and cracks started to appear on the barrier itself.

"OH NO! SAVE US!" Bei Wen pleaded.

"DAMMIT! There isn't much time left, the teleportation badge needs longer." Shirong revealed.

"We're doomed!" Ye Dai said helplessly.

The three men looked at the cracking barrier as water started leaking in from the cracks. They were still able to prevent the water from touching them because of the defensive talisman that they had used, but even that was deteriorating at a great pace.

Just a couple of drops were enough to drain the durability of the talisman by about ten percent.

"Is this how it ends…" Shirong muttered with regret.

He regretted taking the risk and not turning back when he was asked to. He regretted not taking precautions. He regretted that he was blinded by the greed of the Ancestor's rewards and continued on even while the danger presented itself face first. He regretted not leaving the moment he had obtained a great fortune like the pseudo immortal spear that he had found.

Shirong regretted coming to the forbidden area. He closed his eyes as he gave up. He knew that escaping now was impossible unless some kind of miracle happened.

Shirong, Ye Dai, and Bei Wen could feel the barrier touching their bodies and they realized that it had reached the very limit. But just as they were about to give up all hope, something happened.

~Hum~

A humming sound was heard as an even stronger wave of spirit qi was spread around in the area. But this time the three of them were able to sense where it was coming from. The three heads turned to the source of the spirit qi wave.

"The spear? It's doing something?" Bei Wen said feeling surprised.

A first Shirong was taken aback by this and was about to let go of the spear, but then he remembered that they were already close to death and he may as well take a chance.