In the pitch-dark underground, the glow of the Mordo Fang Chamber began to waver. The crowd stared at this bizarre, suddenly-appearing eye.
Its pupil darted around in every direction until it finally fixed on Yang Zicang.
Faint murmurs and whispers emanated from within.
— “Why… did someone make a place like this…”
— “I should never have come… I’m going to die at that guy Yang Zicang’s hands…”
— “Why did I go out shopping that day? I should have just stayed home. Why did I have to come to a place like this…”
“What was that sound?”
“Is it a speaker?”
This thing, a cross between an eyeball and a speaker, had a pupil that vibrated like a speaker diaphragm.
The group wasn’t sure what these voices meant.
“Could it be… the voices of people who died in the Monarchy Temple of Magic?!”
Yang Zicang quickly realized what they were. As unlikely as this place was for them to show up, he knew—these were frequency-loss thoughts.
This is a frequency band that can only be detected in the testing room of Lost Illusion Company!
“These are the last intense thoughts of the dead!” Yang Zicang shouted from the flying carpet, “Everyone, be careful not to resonate with them.”
There is no protection from Starlight Illusion here. If your thoughts involuntarily resonate with these final mental frequencies laden with strong emotions, it could have a serious impact on you.
……
All teams that crossed the Xuan Lake waterway and entered the core area of the Demon Gear Millwheel found a thing like this hovering above their heads.
“What are these?!”
Some people listened intently to these sounds and then became dazed.
{Be careful, don’t pay attention to these sounds, or you’ll get lost.}
As Yang Zicang and his team kept issuing warnings through the expanded Financing Model, some began to cover their ears, while others chose to distract themselves by talking to each other.
{Someone actually recognizes my voice.}
A voice from an alien world, filled with strong malice yet seemingly sealed by some kind of energy, appeared in everyone’s hearts.
One by one, eyeballs appeared in the rooms before the Hall of the Magos Larynx.
“This monster looks really strange.”
As the crowd talked, suddenly everyone in the teams that had a “speaker eyeball” floating above their heads heard a voice in their minds.
[I am being stared at by the Defender.]
“The Defender!”
“It’s the monster in the Hall of the Magos Larynx!”
Although most people who received the news pretended not to care, some couldn’t help but instinctively listen to the vague murmurs coming from the horn-like eyeballs.
“Is it really that serious? We’re still far away.”
“Yang Zicang is this nervous, so the sound waves must be somewhat dangerous. Have the Red Model help set up a force field.”
In a Mordo Fang Chamber, a young man with a sweatband tied around his head looked up at the horn-like sphere hovering above him and cursed while swinging his weapon:
“So what if you’re a Defender? Hiding behind and playing dirty is useless. If you’ve got guts, come out and face me!”
The eyeball instantly emitted a sharp, high-frequency hum!
The surrounding monster corpses released blurry shadows from within, which gathered and lunged at the man in an instant. The skin on the man’s body rippled like wind-swept water, and then he exploded with a bang.
The team members in the Mordo Fang Chamber barely glimpsed this when a deafening wave of sound spread in all directions, shaking their eyeballs.
—Buzz~ Crash~ Whoosh~!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several people were instantly reduced to splatters of flesh and blood by the resonance of the sound.
Humanoid shadows rose from the bodies of the entire annihilated team, merging into a single new entity amidst the sound waves.
Below the Eyeball Speaker, amidst the rhythmic tidal storm-like sounds, the surface of this figure, which seemed to flicker with several different silhouettes, constantly fluctuated, forming a soldier’s image before gradually fading into the sound waves.
The voice of Dignity resonated with intent.
{The Cliff Gate of Sekbode has absorbed one copy of the Common Frequency “Listening Observer.”}
{Seven copies of the “Listening Observer” remain before the Defender becomes complete.}
Hearing the voice of Dignity, the people on the flying carpet tightened their hearts.
“It’s bad. These people might not even get to see the Defender before they die.”
……
The reflection of the water curtain was cast onto the ground and stone walls by fiery red rays of light.
Inside a concave platform resembling a sunset viewing terrace, the stone door was tightly shut. Before it, a dark-faced humanoid creature emitting a rotting stench let out low growls. Behind the monster, an energy tether connected to the heavy stone door, which had already cracked open a slit.
Moments ago, it had still been a bizarre eyeball continuously emitting sounds.
“Mr. Mark.”
Julia’s sword, coated in golden radiance, carved a sharp arc, sending a dark-faced gorilla-man with a vaguely human-like face flying with a single strike.
“Your strength… is worthy of becoming my servant,” the monster’s hoarse voice echoed through the stone chamber. “Give up resistance, and I grant you the right to exist eternally within the ruins.”
“Your methods of beguiling hearts are far too crude.”
{Sis…ter…}
“Diudiu?!” She whirled around sharply, her pupils contracting. “Mark! What are you doing!”
Diudiu’s eyelids closed heavily.
Mark, who had been entrusted to temporarily look after the little girl, was now placing her, who had just awakened moments ago, into a stone coffin that had appeared from nowhere—she was growing drowsy again.
Mark, who looked like a disheveled scholar, lifted his gaunt face.
“This is for her own good too. Since she’s long been dead, her soul should be allowed to rest. From now on, I’ll look after this body, which contains incredible power.”
Mark began to push the coffin lid closed with effort.
“Stop it!” Julia shouted angrily as she turned, but the ape-like monster by the stone door seized the opening. Its massive palm covered with red-and-black long hair struck her heavily on the back with a whoosh.
Bang!
Julia crashed to the ground like a kite with its string cut, dust erupting. The monster pursued relentlessly, its claws shimmering with a bloody red light aimed straight for her throat.
[Super funding now at 9999N!]
[I received a total of 6734.3N from 3 people, and since I am the Great Quadrilateral, I can quadruple it!]
“Hahaha, truly heaven helps me—perhaps this is what they call good deeds begetting good rewards!”
Mark, who had been somewhat worried about Julia’s combat prowess, was instantly overjoyed.
He never expected that arriving just a step ahead would allow him to discover such an “undead” being.
Now there was no need to covet the Moon Angel anymore.
“You, put down… Diudiu! She has already… regained her humanity!”
How swift was the ape-man monster’s action? Julia’s timing of the super financing was quickly nullified.
Mark, having closed the stone coffin, finally contained it as an energy entity. Because the newly placed Diudiu still retained her living sentience, it floated beside Mark, not disappearing entirely like when Cheng Yunze stored his own body.
A mad grin spread across his face as he said, “Miss Julia, I’ll take my leave first. May you be blessed with good luck and hold out a little longer, giving me enough time to get far away from danger, heh.”
With successive strikes of giant claws, the rock beneath the woman shattered violently under the brutal assault.
“Julia!”
Just as Mark was about to turn around, a familiar male voice suddenly came from deep within the tunnel—so familiar it felt to Julia like she had fallen into a dream.
The woman’s eyes trembled instantly. “Mor… riley?”
Whoosh! Three Born Treasures instantly cut through the air and appeared directly in front of Julia. One of them slammed into the monster, flipping it over with the force of a scattergun bullet.
“Morrie!” Julia looked at the figure in disbelief.
When Mark saw this man, his expression changed drastically. Without a word, he immediately prepared to circle around with the floating energy coffin.
Morrie rushed toward Julia, his heart full of excitement, eager to tightly embrace the woman he had longed for day and night. But then he heard Julia, barely suppressing her urgency, say, “Quick, save Diudiu!”
“Diudiu?”
“In his coffin!”
Mark, whose face was gaunt, turned to look at Morrie and warned, “I suggest you stay out of this, Mr. Morrie. Even though eliminating you would be a heavy blow to Yang Zicang, now is not the time.”
Morrie locked his gaze on the tiny silhouette of the girl inside the translucent energy coffin. A short sword slid out of his sleeve. The dark force from decades of martial arts cultivation emanated from his body as he charged forward with a fierce surge of momentum.
“Put her down, and I’ll let you leave. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?”
At that moment, a squad of people emerged silently from the shadows of the passageway.
Mark was overjoyed. “Yunze!”
Cheng Yunze nodded to him, then shifted his gaze to Morrie, who had stopped in his tracks ahead.
Behind the crack in the door, a second energy umbilical-like cord extended, and a humanoid silhouette gradually materialized through the cord.
Lines flickered across Cheng Yunze’s chest as he rapidly conjured the Skeleton of Light in his hand.
Julia pressed her sword back into the chest of the crimson creature. Though the blade could not destroy this monster that seemed impossible to kill outright, it at least prevented it from recovering too much stamina.
Julia turned to face the imposing figure she had dreamed of day and night. “Darling, use your marker!”
Morrie pivoted and quickly tossed a barbed clamp to Julia.
However, with a “clang,” a dark shadow flashed in the distance. A spear shadow streaked across the sky, precisely nailing the iron grappling hook component from mid-air onto the stone wall.
“Even if Lü Bu himself, the one who shot an arrow through an axe’s eye at the camp gate, were here in person, he couldn’t have done better than me.”
Zhao Yun gently pressed down on the black hat on his head and appeared under the door opening at the other end of the main hall.
As this figure appeared with an eyeball-like speaker, a new energy umbilical cord extended from the gap in the stone door.
Cheng Yunze turned to look at Zhao Yun and snorted through his nose, saying, “I never expected that Xiongying Group’s blockade of Yang Zicang would only last less than two minutes.”
The muscles of Zhao Yun’s cheek twitched as he gritted his teeth.
“So, now that you’re here, do you plan to help your city win the ranking, or are you here for revenge?” Cheng Yunze sneered without any restraint.
Zhao Yun merely endured it and cast a glance at him, then fixed his gaze on Morrie.
“Blame it on the fact that the teammate you chose is Yang Zicang.”
Morrie instantly felt a tremendous sense of crisis surge over him. He still had an extra grappling hook in his hand, but Morrie chose not to use it.
“Julia!” Morrie showed a resolute expression, gripping the grappling hook and turning to rush toward Julia, “Use it!”
Zhao Yun’s Zilong Lord instantly expanded to three stories high, leaping like a miniature mountain in two or three strides toward Morrie, and slammed a fist down. Seeing this giant Demonic Nightmare’s approach, Morrie gnashed his teeth, pushed Julia’s body aside, and crushed the “Dispatcher” Ability Sphere from Yang Zicang. Two figures drifted like dancing butterflies, darting in two directions.
Morrie twisted his body with a double bend and rushed toward the right end of the great hall.
He could not bring the risk of the attack upon Julia!
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