Chapter 78

【If, if there is still a chance... please grant us your mercy once more.】

In a moment of distraction, the words from the furnace emerged from his memory once again.

"It seems I'm quite well taken care of."

Ji Jue sighed: "Someone told me to please grant mercy to more people, but I don't know what the significance of my mercy is, or what the value of my sympathy is.

Prophet, I'm just a small fry. Compared to the sages, I'm not even a blade of grass. We aren't even the same kind, why pin your hopes on me?"

"I originally only intended to make a slight attempt, but after seeing you, I became even more certain," the Prophet smiled, her voice so hoarse. "You are indeed the kind of person who would bestow mercy upon non-human things like us."

"Thank you, Mr. Ji Jue."

She said: "You seem to really treat out-of-control tools like us as humans."

"Isn't that good?" Ji Jue asked back.

"Perhaps."

The tool known as the Prophet laughed, "I'm not sure if this will cause some kind of misunderstanding or error, but please rest assured——"

She promised solemnly: "Before my life ends, I will do my utmost to help you find the Matrix·Non-Aggression, until we are truly liberated from the cycle."

No need for a contract of Heaven and Earth, no need for a guarantee of the Heart Hub.

This is all the compensation a tool can offer.

Center of the Rift Realm, the former site of the Zhong Lou.

The high tower collapsed, bricks and soil piled up into a mountain, and a huge deep pit appeared in the square.

For days, the rumbling sound had been heard continuously.

The fierce and ferocious Homecoming Knights were now crawling out of the pit one by one with large baskets on their backs, covered in dust like construction workers, in a sorry state.

"Mr. Lou, we've already dug more than fifty meters down, and there's still nothing! The brothers can't hold on much longer."

Si Lan, who had temporarily transferred to be a foreman, poked his head out of the tent and asked tentatively: "Is there a possibility... that your instrument is wrong?"

"Impossible!"

Lou Feng glared and refuted decisively.

After days of hard labor, the young master, who had never done any manual labor, was covered in mud, only his hair was still meticulously groomed.

"Absolutely impossible!"

He guarded the observation instrument that was bigger than himself and pointed at the complex data on the screen: "See? According to statistics, one-fifth of the spiritual quality flow in the entire Rift Realm is here. There must be an important node here. If it's not above, then it's below.

I won't be stingy with the reward, Mr. Si Lan, we must speed up the efficiency."

"Uh..." Si Lan hesitated. He didn't mind the employer paying more. After all, everyone knew which was more dangerous between fighting and construction work. Instead, he was happy to do some rough work. How is working not working?

It's just that, as an experienced Rift Realm explorer, he had to offer advice to his employer: "Well, this node you mentioned, could it have already been taken away by that kid surnamed Ji?"

In an instant, Lou Feng's face became even uglier. He subconsciously wanted to curse, but his throat felt a sharp pain. He had cursed too much, and his throat was almost hoarse.

In fact, it wasn't that he hadn't suspected that the grandson Ji Jue had done something, but he had already seen the clock tower. It was just an abandoned old workshop, and there wasn't a single valuable thing in it. What else could he take? Could he carry the furnace away right in front of him?

Moreover, the spiritual quality flow cannot be faked. This is definitely where the key clue lies.

That dog Ji Jue thought he had taken advantage of him. Even if he really got something from the workshop, it was just buying the box and returning the pearl.

The real key was already firmly in his hands.

"Continue!" He squeezed the sound out of his teeth: "I want to see how deep it can be buried——"

The moment the words fell, a loud noise erupted from the pit.

The earth trembled.

Deep cracks appeared on the square.

It was like an earthquake.

"It's through! It's through!!!"

The cheering sound came from the pit, and soon Lou Feng had arrived at the scene.

Beneath the earth, after a long distance of more than seventy meters, was a deep darkness with no end in sight, a huge, unexpected void.

After throwing down a glow stick, one could vaguely distinguish those huge outlines silent in the darkness. It was just like the inside of some precision instrument.

Just a slight observation revealed that the underground space was not inferior to the ground at all.

Without being fooled by appearances, Lou Feng used the simplest and most straightforward way to forcibly penetrate the workshop's barrier and open the passage to the operating layer.

The works and mechanisms supporting the operation of the entire Rift Realm, the workshop modules left by the sage Mercury, were all inside!

"Haha, hahaha, I knew it!"

Sliding down the zipline, Lou Feng looked around at the huge facilities bathed in darkness and light, and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Sure enough, I have to go further down!

Get ready to move forward, Mr. Si Lan.

This time, we are in the lead!"

Sweeping away the decadent atmosphere of the past few days, Lou Feng was radiant and excited to the point of being almost unable to control himself: This time, he didn't believe that dog Ji Jue could run ahead of him again!

Boom!

A loud noise came from afar again.

Vague and blurry, it seemed like another building had collapsed and turned into ashes.

The collapse and breakdown spread silently from the surface...

Just like a machine on the verge of being scrapped, gradually moving toward destruction.

In the same underground, in the deep sewer, in a shelter that was hard to detect.

At this moment, it was a mess.

When the roars, growls, and angry shouts dissipated into the deathly silence, only intermittent whimpers remained.

"Stop, outsider, please!" The ugly figure like a worm crawled on the ground, kowtowing in despair: "There is nothing left here, we have nothing left."

No one responded.

Only empty shells like walking corpses were still persistently sweeping the entire simple campsite, cutting off heads from corpses and sending them to the master.

In mid-air, the looming scarlet figure held half a broken skull.

Intangibly pinching his nose, he scavenged the remaining memories in the corpses, gradually understanding.

"So that's it, deeper underground? I understand..."

He threw down the skull in his hand with no interest, lowered his eyes, glanced at the puppets in front of him who didn't even have the ability to resist, and suddenly smiled:

"As expected of a sage, even a bunch of tools can be shaped like living things. Although they are not qualified as food, they are just right as materials——"

As he spoke, he pointed casually.

Screams rose from the ground.

The figure kowtowing and begging writhed and convulsed violently, his body trembling crazily, swelling, alienating——under the intangible manipulation and deliberate intensification, his consciousness accelerated its splitting and madness, completely transforming toward chaos, and in the end, even his form completely burst.

Only countless fragments and mucus remained splashing.

And right in the corpses, a scarlet figure slowly climbed up, wandering, one empty eyeball after another opened, hungrily choosing people to devour.

Accompanied by continuous bursting sounds, one scarlet translucent shadow after another emerged from the corpses.

Turned into the shepherd's sheep.

"Let's go."

The intangible grinned, waved his hand, pulling the invisible reins, leading the mighty herd into the deeper darkness.

"Where on earth is this going?"

On the other side of the Rift Realm, the figure who had wandered in the ruins for three or four days sighed in frustration. The old white-haired woman carried a huge backpack, just like a hiking tourist, facing the intricate roads in front of her, unable to start.

"Shouldn't there be a road ahead?"

She stared at the map in her hand, comparing it back and forth, and comparing it with the fork in front of her, but no matter how she looked at it, she felt it didn't match at all, it wasn't the same place at all.

After careful thinking, cautious analysis, and solemn consideration for half an hour.

She had to admit that she was lost.

And, it seemed that since entering the Rift Realm, she had never found the right place!

"What a crappy map!"

She threw the map in her hand to the ground and scolded: "It doesn't even mark the directions, it just says you come for a run to find it, what the hell is this looking for!

You old dog, I'm afraid you're fooling me into burning newspapers at a grave, right?!"

In the dust, the tattered map seemed to rise, suddenly flew up, folded into a long strip, and unceremoniously slapped her on the forehead.

Snap, snap.

Just before she was furious and wanted to tear the crappy thing apart, the map unfolded again, and then, right in front of her, turned upside down, drew a circle, marked an arrow, and pointed straight ahead.

【Don't speak ill of me if you can't read the map!】

Then, she understood... this crappy map doesn't seem to be flat, but a vertical structure?

The white-haired woman froze for a moment, her expression twitched, and twitched again, grabbing the map back, "You wasted so much time, you should have said so earlier!"

【Sorry, I didn't expect you to be so bad】

"Shut up!" She was furious: "What era is it, and you're still hand-drawing maps?! It doesn't even have a navigation function or voice broadcast function. Could it be that you dog thing don't even know how to use a smartphone?"

The map was silent, as if it had been poked in a sore spot.

"Humph, let's go."

The old woman who had regained her ground put her hands on her hips and hummed triumphantly, then walked away.

【Wrong way, east.】

"Shut up, I'm scouting! Do you understand scouting!"

Her expression stiffened, she looked around, and hesitated for a long time: "T-test you a question, which side is east?"

【...】

Thus, the map also fell silent.

Only a gust of desolate autumn wind blew by, the overwhelmed map rattled, and offered the final suggestion: 【Anyway, we are here to visit Mercury's grave... why don't you just burn me?】

At this very moment, on the other side of the town, an earthquake roared, ruins collapsed, waking a team of resting Chosen Ones from their dreams.

Cracks spread from the ground along with the earthquake.

Deep and changing light appeared from within.

"Fourth, Fourth!"

The first person to discover it turned back and shouted his companion's name: "Look, what is this?"

"So that's it."

The Chosen One of the Embers, in a simple investigation, saw the changing faint light reflected in his pupils, and couldn't help but be overjoyed.

Underground!

Started running a fever again at 7 o'clock last night, body aching to death, tinnitus continuous. After the fever subsided a little, I coughed non-stop.

Only one update today, sorry.

I have been in a dying, breathless state for the past two days, and I really can't guarantee stable updates, so please forgive me.