God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World!

Chapter 556: High Cardinal Alfonso

While Gabriel was still standing before the ancient knight, another part of the tomb had already become active.

Martial Palace moved through their assigned route with far more order than most of the invited groups. Their formation was tight, their steps were measured, and the cultivator guide at the front rarely needed to speak because most of them already knew how to move inside a place like this.

Gabriel was not there to see it directly, but with the way the tomb was built, several presences still brushed against the edge of his perception from time to time. The paths were linked in a strange manner, so even distant groups sometimes felt closer than they truly were.

Liang walked near the center of Martial Palace’s formation with Evelyn close beside him. His expression remained calm, but his eyes moved often, checking the walls, floor lines, and the faint movement of qi in the air.

Evelyn glanced at him after they passed a broken stone marker. "Why did you ask White Phantom for a spar earlier?"

Liang did not look at her immediately. He stepped over a cracked part of the floor, waited until the others crossed safely, and only replied after making sure the formation was stable.

"I wanted to see how powerful he was."

Evelyn’s eyes moved slightly, but she did not ask the question too quickly. She had served beside Liang long enough to understand his habits, and if there was one thing he could not easily ignore, it was a strong opponent.

"You already suspected he was not ordinary," she said.

Liang gave a faint nod. "He was holding back. I wanted to see his full strength, or even a glimpse of it."

Evelyn became quiet after that.

She understood him well enough. This was the same reason he had personally sent an invitation to Gabriel in the first place. Liang wanted to spar with powerful people, not because he was reckless, but because testing himself against them was part of his path.

Unfortunately, Gabriel had not appeared with Broken Dawn.

Evelyn thought about Sophie’s calm answer at the station and quietly assumed Gabriel was simply busy elsewhere. It was not the kind of matter she could confirm now, so she kept walking beside Liang without saying more.

A few corridors away from them, the Longsword Guild was not having the same smooth experience.

Their guide had already shouted three warnings in less than five minutes, but the monsters kept coming from both sides of the passage. Undead beasts crawled from cracked walls, skeletal guards pulled themselves from old burial pits, and the strange dead qi in the air made every fight more draining than it should have been.

"Hold the left side!" the Longsword leader snapped while cutting down an undead beast that leaped toward him.

One of his members tried to obey, but three skeletal creatures rushed at him at once. He blocked the first, avoided the second by a narrow distance, but the third drove a broken spear straight through his stomach.

"Senior brother!"

Blood spilled from the man’s mouth as his body was dragged backward. The others tried to reach him, but more monsters flooded into the passage before they could do anything.

BANG!!!

A heavy palm strike shattered two undead at once, but it did not change the flow of the battle. More were coming, and the narrow passage had become crowded with bone, rotten flesh, broken weapons, and the cries of wounded cultivators.

The Longsword leader’s face turned ugly.

They had entered this tomb with pride, thinking outsiders were the real problem. Now his own team was being forced to retreat step by step, and each monster they killed only made them realize the tomb was far worse than they had assumed.

The guide’s voice shook slightly. "We need to move before the next wave forms."

"Move where?" one member shouted. "They are coming from everywhere."

The guide did not answer.

The tomb was becoming dangerous now. People were starting to die.

Among all the groups, the Holy Church was moving the most comfortably.

Their path had also been attacked several times, but the monsters here were mostly undead, and that alone changed everything. Holy energy filled their formation, pushing back the dead qi and forcing the undead creatures to hesitate whenever they came too close.

The priests moved with trained order, and the knights stood at the outer edges with shields raised. Behind them, the two High Cardinals advanced at a calm pace, their presence making the surrounding undead restless.

A wave of skeletal soldiers rushed from a side chamber, their rusted blades dragging across the floor.

One priest lifted his staff. "Cardinal."

The High Cardinal at the front finally stopped walking.

He had worn his helmet since arriving in Tianlan, and even now his face remained covered. His right hand rose slowly, and white-gold light gathered above his palm.

The undead reacted immediately, shifting back. Some tried to retreat. Others scraped at the ground, their broken jaws opening in silent panic. The holy energy was their natural enemy, and even without full intelligence, they understood danger.

The High Cardinal did not give them time.

"Cleanse."

The gathered light burst forward.

BOOM!!!

A wide wave of holy force swept through the passage and erased the first line of undead completely. Bones cracked, rotten bodies burned away, and the floor was left covered in pale ash and small glowing marks where the attack had passed.

The Holy Church members did not cheer.

They only continued forward as if this was expected.

The High Cardinal lowered his hand, and for the first time since entering the tomb, he reached up and removed his helmet. His face came into view under the pale light.

If Gabriel or the core members of Broken Dawn were here, they would have recognized him.

This was High Cardinal Alfonso.

The same man Gabriel had humiliated during the Inter-Guild Display Event.

His eyes moved toward the direction where Broken Dawn’s group had gone. He had looked carefully when they arrived, and one thing had been clear to him from the beginning.

Gabriel was not among them.

Alfonso’s fingers tightened around the edge of his helmet. Broken Dawn had entered the tomb without its leader, without the man who had embarrassed him before so many eyes, and without the one person who might have made things complicated.

A priest beside him lowered his head slightly. "Your Eminence?"

Alfonso did not answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed ahead, and the holy light around his body pulsed once, making the nearby undead remains crumble further.

After a few seconds, he finally spoke.

"Continue forward."

The priest nodded and stepped back into formation.

Alfonso placed the helmet under one arm and continued walking with a colder expression than before. His mind had already moved away from the monsters in front of him, because the real opportunity was somewhere else in this tomb.

Broken Dawn was here.

Gabriel was not.

This was the best chance he would get.

His voice lowered until only the nearest priest could hear him.

"Not one of them leaves this tomb alive."