LWGP - Chapter 245
Chapter 245: Mist Land
After leaving the island, Wang Jiu paid no more mind to Old Ryan or the Black Witch Organization. She headed for the final destination that her items had locked onto several times.
It was the most treacherous area in the Asabia Devil Islands, a place shrouded in a perennial mist. This mist contained a potent hallucinogenic poison that directly affected the mind. Even now, few players in the Third Spacetime possessed talents or skills offering mental resistance. Aside from professions like the Great Prophet that specialized in the mind, others had to rely on their own varying levels of armor unless they had a specific item.
This phenomenon was actually the same in the Second Spacetime, where Qing He and the others had come from. The Fourth Spacetime, however, had managed to create a thin mental armor membrane on their mechas using advanced instruments.
Because of this poison, the mist-filled land before Wang Jiu was known as the Devil's Eye.
She flew into the Devil's Eye, ignoring the mist. After flying for an unknown amount of time, she saw a vortex in the sea.
No, to be precise, it was a sinkhole in the ocean floor, a massive opening roughly three thousand meters in diameter. Countless streams of seawater flowed over its circular edge, cascading down like a waterfall. Sharp, barbed mountain ridges jutted out from within the opening. The largest ridge in the center had a prominent flat platform. At first glance, it seemed small compared to the hole's diameter, but it was actually quite large upon approach, over a hundred meters across. It resembled a mystical land from a fantasy novel, a place where a great master might live in seclusion, detached from worldly affairs.
Below, there was only darkness, devoid of light, but the faint sound of rushing and splashing water could be heard.
There was likely an independent world down there.
Wang Jiu felt a sense of déja vu, recalling a casual chat with the Old Lady about how the Earth's mountains and seas were boundless, as were its secrets.
This was clearly one of Earth's secrets.
System: "The spirit power here is already very dense. The spirit vein is just below."
Wang Jiu grunted in acknowledgment. To ensure there were no hidden dangers, she flew down.
Down, ever downward, she entered a world of waterfalls. Passing through the subterranean lake and dark currents where the water crashed, she followed the air circulating through a massive cavern system. She could feel the downward slope of the interconnected passages as they extended deeper.
At a depth of over twenty thousand, nearly thirty thousand meters, the oxygen was almost gone. Even the flow of water had slowed.
It was very strange. The water grew viscous, its movement sluggish, as if time and space itself were slowly coming to a standstill. But all around were spirit vein crystals.
There was no ore, just pure spirit vein crystals. They were embedded in the cavern walls and floated in the water, translucent and shimmering with a hazy glow. It was like a magical world, but what made it somewhat terrifying was that their light only traveled a very short distance. This wasn't their fault.
It was the space itself.
The dominant element in this space was darkness. Wang Jiu felt as if she had suddenly entered the night, a night filled with endless stars.
She sensed… infinitely deep secrets and danger.
Stopping, Wang Jiu hovered in the air, gazing at the still-bottomless world below. A nerve in her head throbbed. It felt as if something was luring her downward, promising infinite opportunities, while another stray thought warned her not to go.
After a moment, Wang Jiu decisively turned and flew back up.
The System couldn't help but feel impressed. Wang Jiu was extremely self-aware. She knew she had come down to scout for any hidden dangers that might interfere with her rescue mission. Now that she had confirmed there were no living creatures at a depth of nearly thirty thousand meters, she was ready to pull back from the brink.
As for what great opportunities lay below, that was not her current objective.
Wang Jiu quickly returned to the top of the opening. The spirit vein was continuous, with no obstruction between the upper and lower sections. She didn't need to set up her position down below.
After all, the power of darkness below was too heavy, which would be detrimental to the Old Lady's return.
Flying to the largest platform, Wang Jiu then flew back into the mist, deploying several surveillance eyes within it. She also set up more outside the mist. Standing between the mist and the open sea, Wang Jiu surveyed her surroundings and threw out a pile of Puppets. The Puppets transformed into various shapes and began to radiate outwards, patrolling the area with the mist at its center.
Then, Wang Jiu entered the mist and returned to the platform.
An altar, a soul-summoning plate, a great spirit-guiding array, a soul-fixing banner, soul chess, a soul-gathering coffin, materials for sculpting a living body…
The System watched as Wang Jiu sat cross-legged on the ground, purchasing one expensive item after another. It also watched her sell off all her resources.
Tens of millions at a time. A quick calculation showed it was at least 300 million points.
Now, all the items and materials combined had cost a total of 100 million.
What a spendthrift.
The System should have cursed Wang Jiu like that, but it held its tongue. Perhaps it was beginning to understand her.
Wang Jiu was completely focused, preparing the materials to sculpt the Old Lady's body. Once she summoned and gathered the soul, she would have to create a living body in a very short time and ensure it was compatible with the soul…
The project was massive, and no mistakes could be made. The reason she had gathered so many materials was to prepare several sets: one for practice, one for the actual use, and another as a backup.
During the days Wang Jiu was completely absorbed in her work, it turned out that in the supposedly uninhabitable waters of the Asabia Devil Islands, there were three hidden islands.
Arranged in a triangle, they were secluded and mysterious, but undoubtedly powerful. Everyone who came and went carried a strange aura.
An aura of blood.
They had all returned from various places.
The old butler walked out of the ancient castle, looking at the sky over the sea and at the returning "bloodline members." A glimmer of light appeared in his eyes.
The master would be waking up soon.
"A few people on my end have left."
"Mine too."
"Yours as well?"
Qing He and Xie Lu went to see Song Yuanqiao. A nerve was throbbing in Song Yuanqiao's temple and his expression was grim, but he reacted quickly. He immediately began to assess the trustworthiness of their internal personnel. Thanks to the previous revelation of "Song Yin's" identity as a Holy Son, the central leadership had felt worse than if they'd eaten shit. After Song Yuanqiao voluntarily requested an investigation into himself and the Song family, the central government seized the opportunity to conduct a historically brutal review of key personnel in various departments, and they really did uncover quite a few people.
As for where those people went afterward…
Don't ask. To ask is to be told it's unspeakable.
In any case, if the families of these people were innocent and didn't cause trouble, they were fine. If they did, the entire family would disappear.
Thunderous methods, brutal deterrence.
The central government's inner circle might not be the cleanest now, but it was definitely cleaner than that of other countries.
Still, Song Yuanqiao was cautious. He had a private chat with number one, and soon a small group was formed.
The head of the department that studied the Black Witch Organization, the Ryan family, and various other dangerous groups was a chubby old man.
In fact, Qing He noticed that many of the leaders present were old men and women.
After all, most were technical talents. Young people had risen through dungeoneering in the apocalypse, but there were some abilities they could never possess in their lifetime.
Qing He and Xie Lu were there, as were Swan and Roy.
Swan was a little excited but maintained a polite and somewhat feigned etiquette. However, the man had clearly seen Huaxia's meteoric rise and wanted to establish a connection. He also wanted to use the central government to eliminate Old Ryan, and his sincerity in this was genuine.
Once they were seated, number one's attitude was clear, and he went straight to the point.
"If Old Ryan is not dead and has planted so many pawns within our and other countries' important territories and departments, then his ambitions are obvious. You just said that several pawns you were monitoring have disappeared?"
After receiving confirmation, number one pondered for a moment before saying, "He's about to make a move, targeting Wang Jiu. But before that, he must recover his strength. I believe that not all of his bloodline died on that island back then. A smart man doesn't put all his eggs in one basket. I think he had already placed people carrying his bloodline outside to spread, controlling some of the more outstanding talents among them to carry out his plans. Just like these people planted under your command—their identities are not low. You must have vetted them before. If they passed the first wave of screening, then they must have had no apparent connection to the Ryan family on the surface."
Indeed, Swan and Roy agreed with this point.
"I suppose the ones returning this time are also his bloodline. He can use these bloodlines to recover… then go after Wang Jiu. After obtaining power from Wang Jiu, he will finally activate his hidden pawns to launch an attack on us."
Song Yuanqiao had analyzed Old Ryan's strategy.
Everyone exchanged glances. So now, those bloodline descendants were returning to their deaths?
"Prepare yourselves. It's best to stop him at this step!"
"Split into two teams. One team will consist of our strongest prophets. Spare no expense to predict Old Ryan's hiding place. The other will be a combat team. We must ensure we have at least twenty King-level combatants."
Number one made a swift decision, also preparing to join forces with the leaders of other trustworthy nations.
He couldn't control his enemies, but his allies had to be on the same page.
With several countries working together, twenty King-level combatants could be assembled quickly.
To ensure the accuracy of the prophecy, Roy had Swan contact Gamma and the other person still on the island, asking them to collect any remaining flesh or fur from that Crawler.
If it was allowed to survive nearby, it must have had contact with Old Ryan or his other trusted subordinates in the castle. Using it as a medium, they could indirectly pinpoint his location.
In the ancient castle, a group of bloodline members was ecstatic. They would finally get to see their ancestor, their faith.
Countless System NPCs, as a collective, silently watched their service targets rush to their deaths. They couldn't help but sigh. Indeed, freaks like Lao Wang, who had eyes growing even on her hair, were rare.
The people of the world were mostly foolish, easily bewitched and exploited. And then… they became pigs and dogs for others, were destroyed for others, became stepping stones for others.
In a dark basement, a corpse sat on an ancient stone chair, watching them motionlessly.
Before the thousand-plus people could get a clear look at their ancestor, clang, the stone door behind them slammed shut.
The corpse lifted its head, revealing a rotten, skeletal face. Its eyes were a murky, grayish-yellow, and its once-dazzling blond hair was now gray. It seemed to let out a low laugh.
Ghostly and cold.
On the platform in the mist, Wang Jiu had already successfully forged a living body. The steps were clear in her mind. She summoned the Bloodthirsty Beast, preparing for the official procedure, but she suddenly looked into the distance, as if she had sensed something through the mist.
To the southeast, that aura, both familiar and nauseating.
The old bastard was getting anxious.
Lowering her gaze, Wang Jiu remained unperturbed. Just as the Bloodthirsty Beast was about to obediently call out to its master, she used a soul-extraction item worth five million points to disintegrate its soul.
System: "…"
What a pitiful slave.
Wang Jiu spent an entire night separating all the souls the Bloodthirsty Beast had devoured. Finally, at dawn, she found the Old Lady's soul.
Comments
Post a Comment