Chapter 264: The Smiling Face on the Wall

Before the Level Two Purification Tower, the group was somewhat startled and uneasy.

The eerie disappearance of the aberrations did not bring them joy; instead, an inexplicable sense of unease welled up.

In this dark cavern, the more bizarre the situation, the greater the horror hidden behind it...

The silence lasted for a while before Jiang Jiang Qinge spoke first: "Regardless, let's activate the Purification Tower first, then... wait for the purification halo to spread, purify this area, and finally conduct an investigation."

No one objected. Although they didn't know where those aberrations had gone, since the Purification Tower was right before them, there was no reason not to activate it first.

After all, an activated Purification Tower could also provide them with a measure of safety.

So the group entered the Purification Tower cautiously. The interior of the tower hadn't suffered any damage, so everyone once again began to activate it.

Hum!

As the Purification Tower bloomed with light and purification halos began to radiate, the group also saw the viscous, chilling black mist in the surrounding area beginning to boil, while gradually showing signs of fading.

Seeing this scene, the group secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

This Level Two Purification Tower was practically a freebie compared to the previous ones. If they weren't still worried about those aberrations that had vanished for no reason, they should have been very happy right now.

The group waited for a moment. After the Purification Tower was fully activated, Jiang Jiang Qinge said: "Maintain formation. We'll probe this area. Don't scatter."

Although moving together to probe was less efficient, it was the safest option. Until they figured out how those aberrations had disappeared, they still needed to maintain the utmost caution.

No one objected. So Jiang Jiang Qinge, Shou Chi Zhong in hand, took the lead and began investigating this ruined area.

The team advanced cautiously, weaving through the ruins. It was said that this ruin had once been a purification outpost long ago, but was later destroyed during a Black Tide. Thus, the many tower-shaped ruins bore a strong resemblance to the current purification outposts.

Li Luo followed the team, keeping his mind focused, his phase force circulating throughout his body, maintaining vigilance.

However, as the team moved along, there were plenty of broken walls and rubble, yet they still hadn't seen any trace of aberrations. Even the pervasive black mist was gradually dissipating.

Were these aberrations cleaned out too thoroughly?

Li Luo frowned tightly. This abnormality truly made one feel uneasy.

Li Luo kept walking. When the team turned a corner of a broken wall, he suddenly stopped abruptly, his expression turning somewhat ugly, because he discovered that all the footsteps around him had vanished.

He immediately looked toward Jiang Jiang Qinge's position and, sure enough, found it empty. Everyone around had inexplicably disappeared at this moment.

Li Luo raised his head and looked toward the Purification Tower. The latter was still radiating light, but that light not only failed to give Li Luo a sense of security, it instead made him feel a chill.

Have I fallen for a trap?

But hadn't the aberrations here completely vanished?

Li Luo's expression flickered between dark and light. His palms rested on the twin blades at his waist, slowly drawing them out, phase force flowing along the edges.

He looked ahead. The wall there seemed to twist at this moment. Gradually, Li Luo seemed to see a smiling face slowly emerging on it.

That smiling face was extraordinarily eerie, its mouth split extremely deep, the inside pitch-black, leading to who knows where.

Li Luo looked at that smiling face, and his mind gradually became somewhat dazed. An inexplicable malice rose in his heart, and then, the corners of his mouth also began to curl up uncontrollably, bit by bit.

Gradually, he was about to sync with that smiling face.

But just then, the "Green Wood Token" hanging around his neck suddenly emitted a trace of coolness, restoring his clarity for an instant.

And in that instant, the two phase palaces within Li Luo's body roared and trembled. Two streams of phase force surged out, directly merging together, transforming into Dual Phase Power.

"Boom!"

Amid the roar of phase force, Li Luo suddenly snapped awake. He hastily retreated, his face pale, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

He closed his eyes, not daring to look at that eerie smiling face on the wall again.

Bang!

But at this very moment, he suddenly sensed a familiar, domineering phase force erupt violently. Light shone forth, like the flames of a deity, melting away all impurity and evil.

It was Jiang Jiang Qinge's Light Phase Force.

Li Luo opened his eyes and found himself in a broken alley. At the end of the alley was a black wall, and now this wall and the nearby broken walls were all in a shattered state, as if smashed apart by some extremely domineering force.

And Jiang Jiang Qinge's graceful figure stood on the broken wall, E Shou Chi Zhong in hand, her features icy cold.

Jiang Jiang Qinge's gaze turned toward Li Luo, and a voice came: "Are you alright?"

Li Luo was still somewhat shaken. That feeling from before was definitely not something ordinary aberrations could bring. The aberrations they had encountered before were worlds apart compared to that previous scene.

"What was that?" he asked, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Malice Huan Jing."

Jiang Jiang Qinge's voice was cold: "To be able to leave behind such a troublesome Malice Huan Jing, it seems a extremely powerful Calamity-level aberration has passed through here."

"Malice Huan Jing, Calamity-level aberration?"

Li Luo's eyes flickered slightly. He actually knew a bit about this. Only extremely powerful high-tier aberrations could construct this so-called Malice Huan Jing, eroding people's hearts without their awareness.

"Where are the others?" he hurriedly asked.

However, just as his voice fell, he saw several disheveled figures dart out from other directions of the broken wall. It was precisely Senior Qiu Bai, Tian Tian, Student Xin Fu, and Bai Bai Mengmeng.

Obviously, they had likely also fallen into that so-called Malice Huan Jing earlier, but with the black wall destroyed by Jiang Jiang Qinge, they had broken free again.

The four of them looked a bit panicked at this moment, quickly leaping over and swiftly regrouping.

"Captain, this Malice Huan Jing is really powerful. It even caught us off guard without us realizing." Tian Tian said, her expression somewhat Solemn.

"Are you two alright?" Li Luo looked at Student Xin Fu and Bai Bai Mengmeng.

The two shook their heads and said: "We had just entered the Huan Jing and hadn't reached the end when we were suddenly awakened by Senior Jiang's Light Phase Force."

Li Luo breathed a sigh of relief for them. This meant they hadn't seen the eerie smiling face on the wall; otherwise, they probably wouldn't have been awakened so easily.

After all, he himself had broken free from the influence of that eerie smiling face precisely because of the eruption of the Dual Phase Power within his body.

"Something seems off here. Was that smiling face on the black wall left by an aberration?" Li Luo looked at Jiang Jiang Qinge and asked.

Jiang Jiang Qinge nodded slightly. Then she stepped forward, and suddenly brilliant Light Phase Force erupted from within her, directly transforming into a torrent of light that swept past Li Luo with a thunderous roar.

Bang!

That torrent containing majestic Light Phase Force directly struck Senior Qiu Bai, who was walking over, blasting him flying backward.

Jiang Jiang Qinge's sudden attack shocked everyone present.

"Nobody move." Jiang Jiang Qinge's cold, piercing voice rang out.

So everyone stood still on the spot, their faces somewhat pale. They believed Jiang Jiang Qinge wouldn't do something like this without reason, and the fact that she was acting this way now meant there had to be some cause...

Their gazes involuntarily turned toward Senior Qiu Bai, who had been blasted away.

And the latter, at this moment, was climbing to his feet with an expression of utter disbelief, and said to Jiang Jiang Qinge: "Captain, what are you doing?"

Jiang Jiang Qinge's golden eyes fixed on him. Then her slender hands formed a seal, and one saw light-attribute phase force condense into a halo of light. The halo rapidly expanded, and finally landed on the ground, forming a ring of light.

"Senior Qiu Bai, step into this 'Brightness Ring'."

Senior Qiu Bai was briefly stunned. He stared at the ring of light on the ground and let out a somewhat helpless laugh.

But that laugh of his made Li Luo instantly break out in goosebumps, because the corners of Senior Qiu Bai's mouth were stretching wider and wider, until they even tore the muscles at the corners of his lips, and fresh blood flowed down along the corners of his mouth.

That smile was exactly the same as the smiling face they had seen on the wall earlier!