"Then let's go."
Stephen laughed coldly and added, "If you're lying to us, I'll twist off your heads and use them as toilets."
Edward swallowed, cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
This guy was a pure madman; Edward believed he could stab him at any moment.
He had to stay vigilant at all times.
"Don't worry, it's not a lie. Besides, that goblin will certainly exceed your expectations and become your prey," Edward spoke respectfully.
After speaking, the group headed towards the magic teleportation point.
In the desolate Gobi desert within the Sword Kingdom's western borders, dust and wind danced together, filling the sky.
They could only squint as they moved forward, but their noses and mouths were filled with sand.
This harsh environment led to an absence of people and even very few creatures.
Lin Tian rode steadily on Fiona, their normal traveling speed akin to riding an electric scooter.
This exhausted Gobu Kuang and the others.
They followed behind, eating animal flesh and replenishing their strength just to barely keep up.
Finally, they reached a small desert, where a huge mine pit could be seen ahead.
"Is that it? I don't want to stay in this godforsaken place any longer. Boss, let's hurry up and go!" Gobu Shan said tearfully, his body protected by evil bones now turned brittle.
He looked as if he were covered in golden breadcrumbs, all sand.
As he prepared to jump off into the desert, Fiona warned, "Wait, do you see those strange sand shapes? If you go down, you'll definitely get bitten and lose a chunk of flesh."
The sand below formed small circular ripples.
On closer inspection, many such circles could be seen.
Gobu Tian suddenly spoke in surprise, "I didn't notice earlier, but there are many big worms under the sand!"
From his perspective, one could barely see half of the worms' bodies.
They resembled centipedes, with huge pincers like iron clamps.
Each one was at least several meters long.
They lurked below, quietly waiting for prey to take the bait.
"This area is deserted, with a severe lack of magical creatures, but it can still develop king variant goblins thanks to these sand worms. They provide ample food and breeding tools for the goblins," Fiona explained.
Then, magic arrays formed under her feet, glowing faintly.
She carried Lin Tian, walking on air!
They avoided the sand worms' hunting grounds and reached the mine pit entrance.
Gobu Kuang was stunned. "A centaur can fly! But how do we get across?"
Fiona didn't care about them, only bringing Lin Tian over.
At this moment, Gobu Tian took out a void dagger and created a portal with Void Escape.
He then flew to the opposite side and opened another portal.
"You two, come over!" Gobu Tian said.
Though he didn't fly high or fast, he could at least fly.
Thus, they safely crossed over.
In the middle, they saw the spiral path winding down and the massive cave that seemed bottomless.
Lin Tian couldn't imagine how much had been mined here.
The width alone exceeded three thousand meters.
Fiona explained, "The Sword Kingdom is powerful because their elite soldiers' swords are made of special elemental iron. This is the elemental iron mine."
Elemental iron, plus the sand worms outside.
Lin Tian pondered, making everyone stay alert.
The Goblin King below wouldn't be easy to deal with.
Goblins adapted to their environment, and the sand worms and elemental iron would only make them stronger.
They began descending into the mine.
They initially expected it to get darker, but after about a thousand meters, they started turning.
The mine's passage was enormous, thirty meters high and hundreds of meters wide.
The walls emitted a faint glow from various minerals.
It was like a dream world.
Fiona led the way with Lin Tian.
She knew well where the king variant tribe was; during their previous wandering, she and her people had survived in this mine.
Sadly, due to food scarcity, they left.
There wasn't even grass to eat here, and they had lost ten of their people to starvation, a painful lesson.
They continued walking for a while, and the light ahead grew brighter.
It was clear that the light wasn't from the minerals but from fires.
Lin Tian also smelled a familiar scent in the air.
Goblins…
This environment made hiding difficult; entering rashly meant starting a fight.
"Gobu Tian, go check the situation," Lin Tian said.
Regardless of the enemy's strength, Lin Tian wouldn't act without absolute certainty.
Soon, Gobu Tian stealthily approached and remained undetected.
When he returned, his expression was a bit surprised.
"Boss, there are at least ten thousand goblins here. Excluding the king variant, there's one overlord variant, three leader variants, fifty hero variants, over three hundred big variants, and the rest are low-level."
"The key is, it's not just us. There's also a human adventurer squad lurking at another mine entrance, planning to raid this goblin tribe."
Upon hearing this, Lin Tian was also a bit surprised.
"Humans? What are their capabilities?"
"Not sure, but judging by their emblems, they're a legendary-level team. Their strength must be significant," Gobu Tian replied.
Legendary level, huh.
Lin Tian pondered, estimating their combat power to be over 4,000.
Their overall average should be around 5,000.
Currently, Fiona had the highest power at over 9,000, he himself had over 7,000, and Gobu Kuang had 6,800.
Gobu Tian and Gobu Shan were close to 6,000.
They could completely overpower them.
"I'll go check it out first. You all wait at the corner for my command," Lin Tian revealed an evil smile and walked over.
The outskirts were where the small goblins lived.
Luckily, Lin Tian looked exactly like a low-level goblin, allowing him to blend in perfectly.
Even if they sensed something was off, they would only feel confused, not attack.
After all, where else would goblins come from in a place like this?
"So hungry, I really want to taste human flesh…"
"I'm sick of eating sandworms, can't even catch a sand lizard."
"Don't even mention humans, I've never seen one in my life!"
In the outskirts, the low-level goblins were complaining.
Even when sleeping, they had to curl up in sand pits.
There were no leaves or branches to build shelters here.
There were plenty of rocks, but low-level goblins couldn't make stone houses.
Lin Tian naturally walked in.
Immediately, several low-level goblins looked at him with confusion.
"Sniff sniff, why do you smell different?"
As they spoke, they licked out sticky, disgusting tongues like hungry wolves.
They approached, sniffing carefully.
Seeing their sinister faces like little demons, Lin Tian felt a bit nauseated.
However, he noticed something peculiar; they all had a layer of hard shell armor on their bodies.
Probably because of the sandworms.
"I peed on myself a while before," Lin Tian said impatiently.
He pushed these guys aside and walked toward the center.
Goblins were bullies by nature.
Seeing him so strong and unusually powerful, they dared not ask further.
They felt as if their bones were being crushed.
Lin Tian crawled up to the top of the mine, overlooking the tribe.
Unexpectedly, it was quite large.
They had even captured a large number of sandworms, probably for breeding.
In the middle, a massive stone house likely belonged to the Goblin King.
With his keen skills, Lin Tian spotted a few shadows in stealth gear on the mine wall.
They almost blended into the surroundings.
Their power levels were all around 5,000, with the strongest at 6,000!
This made them top-tier even among legendary adventurers.
Seeing them lurking without making a move, Lin Tian decided to lend a hand.
He walked outside the stone house and called out, "Boss, I found a treasure, come and see!"
Following his words, a strong, green goblin walked out of the pitch-black stone house, resembling Piccolo from Dragon Ball.
He was about as tall as a human.
With a fierce demeanor, the aura of a superior radiated from him.
His eyes were full of disdain for everything.
He was the Goblin King.
Looking at Lin Tian coldly, he said, "Treasure? Bring it here."
"Take a look…" Lin Tian began, but suddenly found the Goblin King squatting in front of him, his bloodshot eyes staring at him closely.
So close!
There was murder in his eyes!
"Haven't I said many times, in my presence, low-level goblins kneel, big variants bow, and hero variants lower their heads?"
The Goblin King threatened menacingly.
Just as he was about to crush Lin Tian, he noticed what he held.
His eyes lit up, and he snatched it immediately.
"This looks like a magic item! Where did you get it?!"
"I found it outside," Lin Tian said with his head down, trying to hide the murderous intent in his eyes.
It was just a low-quality tenth-tier magic shortsword, stored in his space ring, of no real use.
Giving it to him didn't matter much.
But for the Goblin King, it was a treasure.
"Good stuff! I'll spare your life."
"How could a small goblin find such a magic item? Is it really that easy to find?"
The adventurer captain on the wall sighed.
He wanted to find one too.
He had been waiting for an opportunity, but now the Goblin King had obtained a tenth-tier magic shortsword.
It would be even harder to kill him.
[Goblin Bug: Lv95
Race: Goblin
Profession: None
Title: Goblin King
Health: 2500
Strength: 900
Defense: 999
Skills: Command, Bite, Death Sandstorm, Rebirth (after death, can transform into a cocoon and evolve into a new form, greatly increasing power)
Equipment: Feis Shortsword
Overall: 7100]
Now that he had the tenth-tier magic item, his combat power had greatly increased.
He broke through to 7,000.
"Boss, I…"
Lin Tian was about to expose the adventurer squad above, intending to let them fight first.
But suddenly, the Goblin King leaned in close again, menacingly saying, "Did I allow you to speak? You low-level scum seem quite ignorant. Do you want to die?"
He wouldn't be grateful for Lin Tian finding the weapon.
If he was unhappy, he would kill any goblin he wanted.
Lin Tian calmed himself, afraid he might kill him on the spot, triggering his Rebirth skill and making him harder to deal with.
If they fought and both sides got hurt, the adventurers would benefit.
He continued, "Boss, I want to say there are many humans above!"