Chapter 381: Adventurer's 'Ghost Story' (12)

The outskirts of Lyon Town.

This place is located outside the defensive wall of the town's main district, inhabited by the town's lower-middle class residents.

The buildings in the outskirts are generally shabby, various basic facilities are very weak, and public order is also poor; the advantage is free passage, suitable for recluses.

Among them is a slightly aged two-story wooden building, which is the new residence Luosen found for himself.

The house is built on the highest point of a dirt slope, ten to twenty meters away from surrounding buildings, and around the house there is a small yard enclosed by a thorny fence, in which a patch of multicolored royal poinciana flowers is planted.

At a glance, there is nothing special about it—just a resident with modest means and a bit of refinement.

But this is merely appearance.

Beneath the wooden building lies a hidden, fairly spacious basement, newly dug out by Luosen using the Building Transformation Technique.

At this moment, on the transformation table in the basement lies a strong middle-aged warrior, fine in every way except that his right arm is empty, almost severed at the root.

"Mr. Luosen, can my severed arm regenerate?" the warrior asked cautiously.

Luosen sat beside the transformation table, carefully analyzing the warrior's blood vessels: "Of course, but what compensation do you intend to give me?"

The warrior showed a hint of embarrassment: "I've brought all my savings, they're in my wallet. If that's not enough, I can only give you an adventure story I personally experienced in my youth—would that be acceptable?"

Luosen's gaze swept over the warrior's knife-carved wrinkles and the patches on his clothes, and he smiled: "Certainly. Please go ahead."

The warrior breathed a sigh of relief and immediately began his tale.

"When I was young, about ten years ago, I was twenty-seven and a somewhat famous young swordsman."

"I was a restless person, so I joined an expedition team, roaming about in adventure, daydreaming of finding hidden treasure or discovering a gold mine in the wilderness, fantasizing about striking it rich overnight."

"One year, I arrived at Northern Blue Stone City and witnessed a bizarre incident in a brothel."

Saying this, the warrior's eyes involuntarily showed fear.

"Mr. Luosen, you know adventurers can't hold onto money; once we have some spare cash, we'll definitely find a way to spend it."

"The ways to spend money are basically just liquor, gambling, or women, and I prefer women."

"That day I earned some money and went to meet an old lover I was familiar with to catch up."

"I knew her lodging; that day I also didn't see the madam, so I went straight to her room to find her. Just as I was about to reach her room, I heard a very strange sound I had never heard before."

Upon saying this, the fear in the warrior's eyes grew stronger.

His heartbeat quickened, his breathing deepened, and these were all natural reactions, not feigned.

"That sound was like someone dying and groaning, like someone exerting all strength but having their throat choked, mixed with the sound of a wooden stick stirring cream. Sir, I know you must be thinking dirty thoughts, assuming I'm describing the sounds of lovemaking. But I swear by the Eternal Blazing Sun, this is absolutely not that kind of sound."

Luosen laughed: "I believe you didn't hear wrong; continue."

The warrior nodded slightly.

"The sound came from a room at the end of the hallway; I was both afraid and curious, not knowing what to think at that moment, I hesitated a bit, gathered my courage, and sneaked over to observe."

"I saw a door, and the sound was coming from behind it."

"I peered through the crack of the door, and what I saw is an image I will never forget in my lifetime."

The warrior's fear intensified, his eyes widened, and his uninjured left hand instinctively gripped the transformation table tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"The room was dark; I could vaguely see a woman lying on the bed, apparently naked, legs spread wide, and then a person crawled out from between her thighs!"

"The woman emitted a suppressed moan; what crawled out was not an infant, but a person—a grown woman with long hair!"

"The woman's hair was wet, seeming to have blood or amniotic fluid; I couldn't see clearly, but as she crawled out I heard a 'jī li gū lū' sound."

"After the woman crawled out, she began to clean the slime off her body quickly and skillfully, as fast as an ordinary child; once clean, she stood up and turned around."

"There was still some light in the room, coming in through a small window; as she turned, a beam of light fell on her face."

"To be honest, that moment terrified me greatly!"

"That person's appearance was exactly the same as the woman on the bed! And when I turned my head to look again at the woman on the bed, I found her body had become extremely emaciated, as if her internal flesh and organs had been drained, leaving only an empty shell."

"I was terrified out of my wits, I ran desperately out of that brothel, and that very night fled Blue Stone City, never to return there since."

Luosen listened attentively, and after the warrior finished, he asked: "What's the name of the brothel? On which street is it located?"

"Joy and Love, 271 Salty Water Lane."

"The prostitute I knew was named Molly, with a mole at the right corner of her mouth and a bluish birthmark on her left thigh. If she is still alive, if you tell her 'Coyote Olide,' she will surely remember me, because back then I made her scream in pleasure."

The information was very detailed, the tone natural, and Laifu judged it to be true.

The value of this story was also quite good, so Luosen said: "Good, I accept this as payment."

While speaking, he had already applied the finely tuned Life Technique to the warrior's severed arm.

"Your severed arm feels a bit itchy; this is a symptom of arm regeneration."

"After returning, eat more meat and bones to nourish the regenerating arm; in about half a month you will have a brand‑new arm."

"Meat is expensive, and your savings aren't much, so you don't need to give me anything."

"Now, go back wherever you came from."

While speaking, Luosen also used a Dreamwalk Technique on the warrior.

The warrior then rose, like a sleepwalker, and staggered along the underground passage, moving straight ahead.

The underground passage was of course also dug by Luosen; inside it is pitch dark, with many side paths installed and many detection sigils set up, the exit lying over 500 meters away, so there's no need to worry about intrusion. After the warrior left, Luosen went to the adjacent basement.

"Lilin, I've now heard three stories like this."

"The plots are all similar: 'a person, like a crab shedding its shell, gives birth to themselves.'"

"Once could be imagination, twice could be hallucination from rumors, but three times makes one feel that there might truly be something worth investigating behind this."

"Tirra Lilin countered: 'Your Majesty, what do you think?'"

"Once I advance to the 13th Ring, I'll look for a chance to go to Blue Stone City and investigate the situation carefully."

He has been residing in the outskirts of Lyon Town for over two months, and has also been devotedly cultivating for over two months.

He can feel that his power is only a hair's breadth away from the 13th Ring.

According to Adela's cultivation description, compared to the 12th Ring, the soul strength of the 13th Ring will increase by an order of magnitude, while the soul scale changes little, increasing by about thirty to forty percent.

Greater soul strength will greatly increase spell power and make control of mana more precise.

In the time magic field, this manifests as the ability to clearly sense a certain fundamental attribute of spacetime.

What specific attribute it is depends on the Creator's gift.

In the Eternal Empire's cultivation description, this phenomenon is called 'Spacetime Element Perception'; in the Dawn Empire's description, it is called 'Dimension Mastery'.

This is very important, because an excellent element perception can even greatly erase the power gap between low and high rings.

So Luosen now wants to increase his soul strength as quickly as possible to see what element he can perceive.

Besides, even if after going outside he drops back to a low ring due to the environment, it's fine, because as long as the environment is suitable and there is enough power source, he can immediately rise again.

Such is Tiralilin at this moment.

She was once a 22-ring powerhouse, but after arriving in this half-plane and with sufficient solar essence support, she only took two weeks to return to the 13th ring and is quickly recovering to the 14th.

If nothing unexpected happens, she can return to the 22nd ring within at most one year.

Meanwhile, hearing Luosen say that, Tiralilin said, 'Then I'll cultivate too.'

Thus, each of them took a corner in the secret room and focused on cultivation.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another five days passed.

That day, the moment Luosen finished cultivating, he felt his soul tremble slightly and faintly heard a 'Crack' sound of ice splitting.

Then he saw a cluster of 'blue light'.

It was strange; he clearly saw things even with his eyes closed, and the 'seeing' was very clear.

This blue light was very peculiar.

From afar it looked like mist; up close, its structure was extremely fine and constantly moving according to a very strange regularity that cannot be simply described.

Luosen contemplated it for a while and then understood the nature of the 'blue light'.

"Oh~ So the Extinction Law Sword contains the Extinction element!"

"It lets the probability wave drop to zero, thereby smoothing spacetime wrinkles, causing spacetime extinction—that's how it works!"

Then he also discovered.

"Both the law sword and dagger possess Extinction power, and their craftsmanship is excellent, but they are greatly suppressed by this half-plane."

"No, it should be said that it is out of tune with the world's spacetime law, causing the Extinction power to greatly diminish."

If they could be tuned, the power of the Extinction Law Sword and Godfall Dagger could at least increase by an order of magnitude.

That is, at a distance of 100 meters, he went from one sword every five seconds to one sword every 0.5 seconds.

If other powerhouses sensed the Extinction element, they would either use it to craft Extinction-type magical devices or spend a lot of time setting up Extinction arrays.

The reason is that the Extinction element is truly too complex.

But Luosen possesses Laifu, so based on that element he can directly develop a immensely powerful Spacetime Extinction technique.

It is more flexible and he need not worry about his weapon being stolen.

Luosen secretly rejoiced: 'Not bad~ This element is really not bad.'

Looking again at Tiralilin, she had actually returned to the 14th ring and was already charging toward the 15th.

She also reactivated two spacetime elements, namely 'Eternal Light' and 'Mass Mastery'.

These two spacetime elements are quite peculiar.

This is naturally good news.

The bad news is that although her soul strength increased and she awakened an element, she lacks Luosen's abnormal casting ability, so her combat power increase is very limited.

Even if she one day reaches the 22nd ring, her combat power would probably be on par with Patenuoluosi and Adela.

After another five days, Luosen basically became familiar with the newly acquired Extinction element and also developed some usable Extinction techniques.

Coincidentally, Baron Eliot also needed to go to Blue Stone City, so they could travel together.

"Lilin, let's set off."

(End of chapter)