Chapter 323: Energy Mist and an Unexpected Rescue

Jier used his axe and Long Sword to advance deep into the Magic Beast's abdomen. He had to slice through the fixed peritoneum tissue of many Magic Beast organs blocking his path, then push these massive Magic Beast body tissues aside.

The closer he got to the organ in the depths that emitted penetrating blue-white light, the more uncomfortable Jier felt; a sense of nausea kept rising from his stomach, and his head throbbed incessantly.

Moreover, as time passed and he drew nearer to that place, he felt increasingly unwell.

Yet precisely because of this, Jier knew all the more that he had to quicken his pace and movements; after all, that glowing thing looked for all the world like it was about to self-destruct.

He had to stop this, otherwise, staying inside the Magic Beast's carapace, his end surely wouldn't be very pleasant. Afterward, it might even be difficult for Hunters to find any traces he left behind in the Magic Beast's flesh and blood.

Using the Long Sword to cut, he sliced open the organ peritoneum that blocked his way, while the axe chopped through the small, twitching muscles that hindered his advance, and finally, he arrived before this miraculous organ deep within the Magic Beast.

Many thick Blood Vessels connected to this spherical glowing organ, suspending it here in a small cavity; it looked just like a spider crouching on a web, waiting for prey.

Large amounts of luminous material were infused into the central organ through these Blood Vessels, and the organ then converted much of this luminous material, which seeped out in the form of Energy Mist. These floating luminous substances gathered in this cavity, and as soon as Jier made contact, they penetrated his armor and touched his body.

"Hiss, that hurts." Upon contact with this stuff, Jier pulled back his extended arm as if he had been scalded by hot coals. With these luminous substances shining, the light here was actually very bright. He took off the armor Glove on his arm and carefully examined the skin that had just touched the luminous Energy Mist.

There were no wounds on the skin, and touching it with his hand didn't hurt; it seemed the pain from just a moment ago might have been an illusion.

But Jier lifted his arm to his Faceplate to look closely, and the result shocked him.

The area that had made contact just now, upon closer inspection, was actually faintly glowing with a blue-white fluorescence, though it wasn't very obvious.

Jier lowered his arm, put the Glove back on, and looked up at the organ right before his eyes, his mouth tasting bitter.

But he had no time left; not to mention how close he was to this glowing organ, the pain in his stomach was becoming more pronounced, and his head was gradually growing dizzy.

The Magic Beast's inner monologue beside his ears seemed to be getting clearer, and he even felt as if he could perceive the emotions naturally radiated by the Magic Beast from its words.

The Energy Mist released by the glowing organ not far away was increasing, and the sense of death it brought told Jier he had no time left. He didn't know when some bad changes might occur here next.

He didn't want to rush up recklessly like a moth to a flame, so he first drew his Dagger and threw it hard toward the glowing organ.

At such close range, there was naturally no chance of him missing the target. The blade of the Steel Dagger stuck firmly into the surface of the glowing organ, but it only pierced in shallowly and brought about no other changes.

He only had to take one look to know that this was not enough.

After a moment's thought, Jier made up his mind: he would face death to find a path to survival.

Taking a deep breath of the strangely scented air, Jier lunged forward, instantly passing through the floating Energy Mist around the glowing organ; although it brought immense pain in an instant, Jier gritted his teeth and hacked fiercely at the organ with the axe and Long Sword in his hands.

*Squish, squish. *

Two consecutive large wounds were dealt to the glowing organ, and the large amount of luminous material filling it gushed out from the wounds, drenching Jier from head to toe.

He felt as if he were being roasted in a fire, or like a piece of dough being baked and heated in a scorching furnace.

"Ahhhhh!!" Unable to hold it in any longer, Jier screamed in agony.

Those luminous substances and the surrounding Energy Mist were like sulfuric acid, causing Jier, who was in contact with them, to collapse to the floor of the cavity in pain.

Jier even felt as if his brain were being melted by these things, but since he could still register pain, clearly it wasn't. His whole body was twitching in agony, and he simply could not continue the action of destroying this thing.

He gasped for the surrounding air, not caring that every time he inhaled, the Energy Mist drawn into his lungs brought him more pain, causing his lungs to twitch and cough.

Yet his hands never let go of the two weapons he gripped tightly, even though he was now in such pain that he couldn't even faint.

In the last shred of consciousness remaining amidst the pain, Jier, like a pile of mud, could only swing his arms upward while rolling on the ground, using the sharp axe and Long Sword to hack apart the Blood Vessels supplying material to the glowing organ.

Although these were attacks made while rolling in agony, for these vital Blood Vessels, it was enough.

Many Blood Vessels near the ground were severed by his back-and-forth attacks, and the luminous material inside gushed out, spilling onto the floor of the cavity. Soon, Jier could only lie in these liquid luminous substances.

But aside from being stimulated into even more pain, there were no further changes.

Barely adapting to this immense pain for a moment, Jier roared, lunged up from the ground, and leaped to embrace the glowing organ suspended in mid-air; his final bit of consciousness drove him to swing his arms and sever the last few Blood Vessels on the upper part of the glowing organ that were still transporting luminous material.

Then, he collapsed onto this fallen glowing organ, hugging it as he lost consciousness.

While unconscious, his limbs twitched from time to time, and his breathing stopped once, but was then stimulated by the surrounding luminous substances and Energy Mist, causing his diaphragm to twitch and drive his breathing again.

After a good while passed like this, the surrounding Magic Beast organs gradually stopped working, and the Magic Beast slowly died.

However, the dead Magic Beast was attracted by the axe Jier held tightly in his hand; a small portion of its soul was eventually bitten off by this axe and absorbed into it. The Long Sword in Jier's other hand was also eager to try, but in the end, it just soaked in the luminous liquid on the cavity floor, vibrating and bouncing for a while, and after discovering it could do nothing, it helplessly quieted down.

But the massive, violent Magic Power in the surroundings was not to be trifled with; it eroded the only living creature at the scene, carrying out the final task the Magic Beast had entrusted to it.

Until, with a 'pop', a yellow light emerged from a spot on the cavity floor, and a tiny sprite, no taller than a hand, wearing a hat and sporting a large beard, appeared sitting on a large Snail Shell.

It looked at everything around it with a surprised expression, then cautiously flew toward Jier, who was lying on the ground.

Along the way, the surrounding Energy Mist tried to attack the sprite, but it was attracted by several Storage Gems manufactured by Elves that the sprite took out from its Snail Shell, and all of it flew into the gems.

Once a gem was filled and emitted a strong blue-white light, the sprite would take out another. But it didn't have many gems with it; after all the gems it carried were used up, it had to do it itself.

The sprite jumped off the Snail Shell and landed on Jier's Helmet; it first jumped a few times as if gleefully, making the Helmet go *bang-bang*, until the axe in Jier's right hand began to vibrate, at which point the sprite finally settled down, took a very miniature paintbrush from the small vest it was wearing, pierced through Jier's armor, and began writing and drawing on Jier's body.

While writing something, it muttered discontentedly to itself.

After messing around for a while, it grew lazy again and made faces at the pained Jier, as if Jier's current painful appearance satisfied it greatly.

But Jier was being eroded by the Energy Mist and the luminous liquid, his breathing growing weaker and weaker, and his heartbeat gradually sinking.

At this moment, a small Metal Ring flew out from the sprite's vehicle, and this object suddenly flew over and tapped the sprite on the head.

The reprimanded sprite picked up the hat that had been knocked off, very unhappy, because under its hat was a scalp with hardly any hair left. This secret of the little sprite was revealed along with the falling hat, which made it jump up and down, flying back and forth in the cavity.

The Metal Ring ignored the sprite, turned illusory for a moment, and then landed, piercing through Jier's Glove and putting itself directly onto Jier's finger.

After venting its emotions, the sprite discovered there was no one else around besides Jier, then immediately put its hat back on its head, and even used a string it had found from somewhere to tie the hat firmly to the top of its head.

Feeling secure, the little sprite finally jumped onto Jier, pierced through his armor, and used the miniature paintbrush to write something invisible on Jier's body.

Jier felt as if he had a dream.

In the dream, he had returned to that Ancient Elf Ruin.

But he looked left and right, only to discover that everything around him could not yet be called a ruin.

In the passageway built of Silver Metal Plate, there was light without shadows.

Every certain distance, one could see glowing pedestals shining.

Jier even felt that in the entire passageway, only one glowing pedestal was needed, and the surrounding Silver Metal Plate would naturally reflect this light throughout the entire passage.

But he touched the things around him, and they all felt illusory; when his arm touched them, he could feel nothing.

Just like a ghost.

A ghost?

That's right, am I dead?

Only then did he suddenly recall the events from before: he had been inside the Magic Beast, and the beast, seemingly defeated, was about to use Magic to self-destruct?

"So, I'm already dead then," he said in a low voice.

It felt rather strange; even if he were dead, he should have been near the Magic Beast, so how had he returned to this Elf Ruins?

And it wasn't even the Elf Ruins as they were now.

Jier looked at the Silver Plate reflecting light all around; these precious metal plates had many tiny, flowing lights on them, not the kind of random light flow, but one that could be seen at a glance to be artificially manufactured and controlled, with fixed logical energy flow routes.

He narrowed his eyes, feeling that his previous assessment of these Silver Plates as mere precious metals seemed a bit superficial.

This kind of thing clearly had some other additional uses, and it was likely the primary use; reflection and precious decoration were just their most superficial functions.

But Jier soon let out a breath, feeling what was the point of these things anyway. He couldn't even be sure if he was alive or dead right now.

The only thing he could be sure of was that everything around him was not real. Because an Elf Ruins in such good condition only looked like this ten thousand years ago.

He stayed in place for a while, feeling it was meaningless, so he strolled toward the depths of what was once the secret Research Base of the elves.

If his guess was correct, the area ahead was the massive underground space where the main research took place.

This massive underground space was used by him for the bats to live in during the winter, and he wondered what it would be like here now.

He followed the passage downward, and after arriving inside, he stood by the high balcony railing and looked down, only to see something incredible.

A huge, strange Monster, half-plant and half-animal, was rampaging at the bottom of the Elf Research Base. It bared its fangs and brandished its claws, its limbs, which resembled tree vines, constantly grabbing and swinging everything around it.

But that was all it was; after all, the ones conducting research here were not the physically weak scientists from his previous life; these elves were each very formidable individuals.

Several elves floated in mid-air, each covered in thick Magic shields, watching the Monster rampage below while even chatting as they drew closer.

Jier recognized one of the female elves; she was the very one he would always see before.

He speculated that the ring that had always allowed him to enter his dreams was most likely the property of this female elf. And it was certainly not something unimportant.

He looked down with curiosity, then felt the distance was too great to see clearly, so he walked around the stairs on the side, watching as he slowly walked downward.

Those elves were all wearing excited expressions, gesturing with their hands as they chatted with their colleagues. Jier guessed that the Monster below, which looked dangerous but posed no threat to the elves at all, was the very thing that excited these researchers.

Could it be that these things were locked behind the doors that couldn't be opened in the ruins?

It looked alright; its body was huge, and its swinging tentacles were flexible and powerful, but that was all.

Besides, even if it really was this thing, at least ten thousand years had passed from the time the ruins were abandoned until now. In such a long time, countless things had turned to ash.

Just like the huge tree above the Elf Research Base.

Ten thousand years had passed, and that great tree was left with only broken walls and ruins.

The Monster, which was 'fooling around' wantonly below, was randomly grabbing any items placed on the bottom floor, swinging, smashing, and throwing them. The elves didn't care; after all, they were just daily necessities, and the important Research Base facilities had protection. A Monster that looked like it had no intelligence probably couldn't even open a door, let alone destroy the base.

But just as the Monster's tentacles grabbed a carved Stone Statue at the bottom of the base, that female elf became anxious; that Stone Statue was of her hero father, and she had carved it herself after returning. To her, it had very important emotional significance.

But fortunately, that Stone Statue had the Magic protection of the base and could not be destroyed by a Monster with weak strength, which made her heave a sigh of relief.

However, after the Monster fiddled with this Stone Statue for a while, it actually pulled the Stone Sword, which served as a decoration, out of her father's Stone Statue's hand.

This thing was also recognized by the base as part of the base facilities, so within the range of the base's interior, it was also protected by powerful Magic.

After the Monster obtained this thing, it swung it wildly; the Stone Sword, protected by Magic, was incomparably hard and immediately scraped large areas of things around it into a mess.

The other elves looked at the female elf; the female elf patted her head and puffed out her cheeks, then floated down angrily. With her hands opening and closing, she released a large amount of Freezing Qi, freezing the Monster, which was not cold-resistant at all. Its tentacles hung down one after another, swaying listlessly.

The female elf kicked the frozen Monster tentacle, causing this green tentacle, which was clearly like a tree vine, to shatter into pieces, and the Stone Sword fell down.

Picking up the Stone Sword, which was as tall as she was, with her hand, the female elf seemed to sense something and glanced at Jier, who was standing on the stairs to the side.

This glance made Jier's scalp tingle.

Jier, with his scalp tingling, opened his eyes.

He took a breath, and the cold air rushed into his nasal cavity and lungs, which greatly refreshed his spirit, and his consciousness immediately became clear.

Opening his eyes, he found that he was currently in a small Tent, his armor had been taken off, and he was covered by a thick animal hide, with the same animal hide beneath him.

Turning his head, he found a female lying beside him. This woman, wearing thick and messy clothes, looked like one of the six people they had rescued from the Bandit Camp.

She was lying beside him, snoring softly, looking like she was fast asleep.

Jier felt all over his body and was surprised to find that there was no discomfort in his body. The pain caused by coming into contact with those glowing mists in the cavity inside the Magic Beast seemed to be memories he couldn't recall.

He only remembered that he seemed to have lunged onto the Luminous Organ at the very end, and then his consciousness was gone.

But judging from the current situation, he seemed to have finally stopped the Magic Beast's self-destruction; of course, more importantly, he had saved himself, who had been trapped inside the Magic Beast.

Carefully getting up, Jier tiptoed to wrap an animal hide around his body, which was only wearing undergarments.

He was now particularly curious about what had happened after he fell unconscious.

There were voices of people talking outside the Tent, as well as the sound of the young Hunter and the rescued female singing together.

It sounded like the battle was already over.

Jier didn't want to wake the female sleeping beside him, so he opened the cloth curtain of the Tent with his bare feet and walked out.

The weather outside was very good; the wind and snow of many days had stopped, and a sunny day had appeared. It was just that the temperature was still very low.

Wrapping himself tightly in the animal hide, Jier found that not far away was the huge body of the Magic Beast, only some snow had already fallen on its body, making it look like a small hill covered in snow.

He turned his head to look around and found that a campfire had been lit nearby, along with five or six simple Tents. The Hunters were all gathered around the campfire, roasting themselves, and each was roasting and heating some food or new simple wooden Bow and Arrow.

The warhorse of Knight Lanisha was also leaning against the campfire to keep warm, but he didn't see its owner; where was the lady Knight?

Looking past the campfire, several wooden racks had been set up not far away. Interestingly, five Bandits were hanging in the air with their hands tied. Those guys could only touch the ground with their tiptoes, so they had to rack their brains to keep their hands from being pulled off while hanging. Their mouths were stuffed with cloth, so they couldn't vent their full belly of resentment and could only hoard all their curses, waiting for their accomplices to come and save them.

But they themselves actually knew that no one would come to save them. This Bandit Forest for wintering had recently experienced such a large series of events that all the surviving Bandit Group, except for the one or two Bandits sent out to scout, would only hide themselves more covertly and would never send anyone out again.

Jier looked at the sun above his head and for the first time felt that this thing, which was extremely annoying in the summer, looked exceptionally kind now.

"Hoo." He let out a breath, shook his head, and walked toward the Hunters who had seen him stand up.