Chapter 123: Since We’re Already Here

In Hub Town, Qiao Ming, unable to withstand the pressure from his captain, once again inquired about the progress with Zhuyin.
You know, that’s the Chrono Weapon, the closest thing to a Century Weapon.
The terrain aggregation at the Crimson Moon level can sometimes be extremely vast. Just crossing several mountains teeming with wild beasts within half a month is already a daunting task for ordinary people, let alone dealing with those “demons” brimming with bizarre abilities.
With this weapon, stabilizing an A-class intersecting zone would naturally bring many benefits. The most direct effect would be saving a great deal of time on prolonging the recovery of the chronological principal.
Outside a simply decorated wooden coffee shop, Zhu Yin sat by a round table, reading a newspaper, and said:
“I’ve already found a formidable guy who’s willing to help you all search. Well, here’s some good news—those A-class mountains that fell into the Lost-Frequency Zone have already been located.”
On the nearby chair, Qiao Ming, wearing a plaid shirt jacket, widened his eyes.
“You actually found them! Oh, thank heavens! Who is he? Can he make it inside there?”
With the A-class mountain range that his city had sunk into within the vast Lost-Frequency Zone being found so quickly, Qiao Ming’s biggest worry was already alleviated.
If luck sours in finding a lost-frequency twilight scene, it might take months—or longer—to locate. Over time, the vitality within those zones will wither, eventually turning into barren wasteland, gushing countless black springs and streams, rapidly collapsing the terrain. After that, finding any trace of it in the Lost-Frequency Zone becomes even more impossible.
The quadrilateral model on Zhu Yin’s chest emerged, with a thin line refracting into the void.
“As it happens, he’s right nearby. How about you take a look for yourself?”
Then another broken line emerged from his chest, shooting toward Qiao Ming beside him.
Vast dark clouds appeared in Qiao Ming’s sensory vision. In front of him, several mountain peaks towered, and a young man stood amidst a patch of forest beyond the mountains.
Upon seeing these mountains, Qiao Ming’s eyes lit up:
“That’s it! This is where my teammate entered. I saw it when communicating with him! Let me think – the last place I spoke to him should be that mountain.”
He slightly raised his finger, but to the sensory image, it was unclear which mountain he was pointing at.
On the other side, Yang Zicang also caught an extra voice in the sensory image. It came from an unfamiliar young man seated beside Zhu Yin; his whole being radiated the sharp combat aura from scuffling through the swampland.
{Are you referring to the third mountain from the inner left?}
“Yes!” Qiao Ming nodded.
Yang Zicang’s heart sank. That was the mountain where the apparition had appeared.
{I just went there. What’s your teammate’s name? I’ll try to contact him through the model later.}
“We call him Xue Lao’er. Since our city has ‘Cursmancers,’ everyone uses pseudonyms to address each other.”
Curse practitioners? Yang Zicang thought of his own city’s elderly custom of using monikers, but now was not the time to ponder that. He briefly described his experiences over there, without revealing how he had entered.
After hearing Elliptic’s account, Qiao Ming was stunned. “You’ve already been inside? That was so fast!”
“That’s not the point of the issue. By the way, someone from my side has entered this mountain before, and they all said there were spirit-based illusion attacks inside. Did Xue Lao’er encounter such attacks at the time?”
“No, after they entered, they chose a scene with many beasts from several terrain scenarios. With our fake Century Weapon in hand, they stabilized quickly. It took about ten days for the terrain to undergo aggregation, and they hadn’t experienced any spiritual attacks before that.”
That is to say, the spirit-based illusion attacks indeed came from the final terrain that appeared. Once the illusions of the monsters or objects inside emerged, they covered an area of tens of square kilometers.
Yang Zicang took a deep breath. If he successfully obtained such an ability or item, it would be a treasure capable of covering nearly half the city.
Although Qiao Ming had never entered that A-grade gathering point, he had experienced many areas through his teammates’ Mental Link. Following his guidance, the two of them entered the mountain.
Not long into their deep advance, Yang Zicang felt his thoughts uncontrollably drift toward terrifying and gloomy places. He even began to hallucinate, sensing that the person beside him had ill intentions.
But at every such moment, the aroma emitted by the incense pellet in his pocket continuously interrupted his wild thoughts and kept him clear-headed.
“This incense pellet is truly a wonderful treasure.”
Luo Bin finally began to take this pellet seriously.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the grass and trees in the forest.
“Roar~”
A massive creature with cyan skin covered in thick, bulging veins and bloodshot eyes charged down the hillside like the wind, crashing through trees with loud cracks as it rampaged like a tank.
Swoosh!
Before it could get close, the White Shadow Thought-Dragon dashed out in an instant and snatched its thought entity in one bite.
Bang! The cyan-skinned mutant beast immediately lost vitality, tumbling down the slope like a wrecked car, carving a trail of dirt until it stopped at the bottom, motionless.
[I harvested 43.7N.]
Qiao Ming saw the phantom suddenly appear behind Yang Zicang, causing the chair under him to creak incessantly.
He looked up at Zhu Yin in disbelief:
“This… could this be a thought entity nightmare?”
“Uh-huh.”
Zhu Yin casually picked up the coffee cup and took a light sip, acting as if nothing was amiss.
Qiao Ming swallowed hard. A silver-white model actually had its own thought entity nightmare. That meant that guy, after creating the model, had fully tamed another thought entity nightmare! How did he do it?
A few possibilities flashed through his mind, but they were all quickly dismissed. After thinking it over with no conclusion, he sighed softly:
“As expected of the deputy overseer. Even a friend from the lost-frequency zone possesses such formidable skills.”
“Haha, not bad, not bad.”
Zhu Yin smugly gave a slight shake to the newspaper spread out in his gloved hand.
Qiao Ming forced a strained smile. He wanted toask Yang Zicang how he had done it, but ultimately held back from voicing the question.
To probe someone’s deepest core secrets right off the bat would seem akin to challenging their status—how could anyone cooperate with you then? Better to find the sword first; that was the practical priority.
Luo Bin glanced at the giant beast rolling down and twitched the corner of his mouth.
A mutated beast of this level in the former crossing grounds would have definitely given anyone who entered a rough time, yet it was easily slain in Yang Zicang’s hands.
“Bro, next time for this kind of puny fry, there’s no need for you to step in—let me handle it.”
“OK.”
After delving another two or three li deeper, Yang Zicang said to Luo Bin:
“Expand your model and see if you can find someone named Xue Lao’er.”
Far away in Hub Town, Qiao Ming grew tense upon hearing Yang Zicang’s words in the sensory image.
Qiao Ming was now torn with contradictions—he both wanted to find Xue Lao’er and was somewhat afraid of finding him.
Qiao Ming thought silently to himself: Xue Lao’er, it’s not that I, Big Brother, don’t value your life—I just hope you can protect the Chrono Weapon and return it; otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.
Luo Bin expanded his model and broadcast the words he was about to speak.
{Whoa, buddy, are you guys in that newly emerged mountain? You’re not insane—how are you protecting yourselves?}
“Get lost. Xue Lao’er, where are you?!”
[An anonym invested 20N in me.]
{Brothers, can you let us invest a bit? We need to enter that Crimson Moon-level area and get a share of the time sequence.}
“Yeah, yeah, that’s right, kind-hearted fat brother, please have mercy. There should be plenty of maddened beasts in there—just help us kill some monsters and earn a bit of lifespan, okay?”
[Renxiu has invested 100N for me.]
[Zhang Shanlu has invested 52N for me.]
Dozens of investments of varying amounts came in one after another.
“What the hell is this!”
Luo Bin quickly returned all these sequence time investments, but in an instant, several hundred years’ worth of new investments poured in.
“Please, I beg you.”
Luo Bin didn’t expect that in this backwater place, these people would be so enthusiastic, instantly investing two or three thousand sequences’ worth of time, insistent that he go kill a few maddened beasts before they’d be satisfied.
Luo Bin turned his head to look at Yang Zicang beside him—no wonder the little bastard beside him didn’t come handle this himself.
“Damn it, are these guys all short-lifers? Should we kill a few for them?”
“Since we’re here anyway.”
No sooner had Yang Zicang finished speaking than several muffled low roars sounded in the forest. With branches continuously snapping and breaking, several frenzied beasts resembling mad bulls with bloodshot eyes rushed out of the woods.
“I’m on it.”
Without waiting for Yang Zicang to say anything further, Luo Bin grasped Ma Chao’s Fen Yun Sword and charged forward.
The iron hooves of the frenzied bulls pounded the ground like thunder. Luo Bin charged straight at them, ducking low to evade the curved horns with a nimble roll, slipping beneath the rampaging bull’s belly and thrusting out his sword.
Swoosh!
As he withdrew the sword, he instantly rolled away, dodging the spurting hot blood, then pushed off with his foot and rushed toward another frenzied bull behind.
“Moo~”
The bull’s front legs gave way, collapsing to the ground and quickly withering.
[I obtained 32N.]
{Awesome, bro!}
{Be careful of branches on the right scraping you—that could deduct several days of timing.}
{One sword strike killed that fierce beast—impressive! Dude, how about that guy next to you? Should he invest? He hasn’t made a move yet?}
Yang Zicang stepped forward a few paces, keeping his fragrance close enough to Luo Bin.
Luo Bin swiftly finished off three bulls’ lives, but the commotion from beasts further behind continued without cease. In these mountains, such beasts by the tens of thousands likely still lurked.
[I gained 38.2N—all thanks to me, the grand quadrilateral.]
[I got another 21.3N.]
Yang Zicang watched Luo Bin’s movements quietly, showing no intention to intervene.
But in the mind link, many—whether stunned by Luo Bin’s agility or eager to latch onto this powerful enforcer to continue earning their dividends from timing—couldn’t stop churning out sickeningly syrupy praise.
{It’s rare to see such an agile fat guy in the mountains.}
{Bro, I’ll lend you another five hundred cycles! Hey, everyone, quickly transfer me some cycles. I have an investment opportunity, hurry up.}
{Good heavens, that’s at least one to two hundred cycles’ worth of time in a flash, isn’t it? Fatty Bro is truly incredible.}
Yang Zicang shrugged nonchalantly while Luo Bin, basking in a sea of praise, eagerly plunged into the forest, seeking out the wild beasts deeper within. This worried Yang Zicang so much that he hurried after him, shouting, “Hey, have you lost your mind!” {where} suggests the starting man turns order word slightly altered—sticking with a closer structure.)
{If only I could go in there, acquiring life-energy that fast would be incredible.}
{Don’t envy it. Even if you could enter, there’s no way you’d be able to eliminate those ferocious beasts as quickly as they do. Just one toss in the air, trampled by those stampeding cattle—how your few scraps of lifespan would stand up to that.}
That remark got straight to the heart of the matter.