Chapter 372: Little Friend, Come Lead the Way

"Thor, the Thunder God, is one of the Twelve Principal Gods of the Gods' Alliance, and among the front-rank powerhouses." Having regrouped, Wei Xin said after hearing Li Jue's account.

"Twelve Principal Gods?" Wen Hanfei was somewhat curious.

He only knew that Thor the Thunder God was a member of the Gods' Alliance, but the internal situation of the Gods' Alliance was not something he could infiltrate to obtain intelligence on.

"They are the twelve people reputed to be the strongest in the Gods' Alliance, and also the Alliance's upper echelon." Li Jue gave a simple explanation.

"Greek mythology? No, Thor the Thunder God is from Norse mythology." Wen Hanfei said.

Greek mythology has the Twelve Olympian Gods.

But obviously they have no connection with the Gods' Alliance's Twelve Principal Gods — at most some Fate Holders' Fate Originals are among the Twelve Olympian Gods.

It's just borrowing a title.

In the Martial World Mythology there are also the Seven Swords and Five Absolutes, all merely borrowing titles, having no relation to the original sources.

For example, the late Dragon King, who never used a sword, was one of the Seven Swords, while Kongming, whose main weapon is a sword, is instead one of the Five Absolutes.

And the numbers aren't seven and five either; not counting the late Dragon King, there are currently eight people in the Seven Swords.

Just like the Four Heavenly Kings having five people, it's perfectly reasonable.

Of the Gods' Alliance's Twelve Principal Gods, eight have been confirmed, while whether the remaining are truly four, the Martial World Mythology side cannot say clearly either.

It's not just that both sides deliberately conceal it; there's also the dynamic change of gods and devils walking the world.

Being a Fourth Stage powerhouse doesn't guarantee one's survival.

While Wen Hanfei and company researched the Twelve Principal Gods, a night quickly passed.

Thor the Thunder God temporarily didn't contact them; likewise, Wen Hanfei and company didn't go to the address Thor the Thunder God mentioned.

Heaven knows whether that place is a trap.

As for the big news Thor stirred up, it vanished without a trace online; not a single key moment was captured, blurry unwatchable videos were harmonized the moment they appeared, and legitimate news media were only vague and ambiguous.

Early the next morning, Tang Luo completed checkout procedures, and the two people and one cat soared into the sky.

Amid the thick cloud layers at high altitude, Tang Luo sat on the dragon's head as Ao Yulie flew forward at high speed.

Tang Luo's clothes and hair didn't sway in the slightest; the surroundings weren't cold, but rather very warm.

All gale winds and low temperatures were isolated outside by Ao Yulie's magical power; the service could be called thoroughly attentive.

Xiaotian Quan on Tang Luo's knees slept extremely comfortably.

"Master, go straight down?" Ao Yulie spoke, body descending.

"Go straight down." Tang Luo said.

They didn't deliberately go to surrounding areas to investigate the situation; they merely confirmed the extent of the dense fog's coverage from the sky, planning to charge straight in, find the source, kill it, and be done.

Counted as a trial of how exactly the seven strange events are to be resolved.

The area covered by dense fog was a stretch of mountains and forests; the coverage wasn't too small, because of the mountainous hilly terrain.

Not crossing mountains and ridges, there were a total of five roads on the ground connecting the dense fog zone and the outside world.

All had already been blockaded; army garrisons and blockades could be seen.

But it was merely garrisoning; there was no intention of sending people inward to explore.

The reason was simple: these dense fogs are toxic; although they've diffused to this extent they show no sign of spreading outward further.

But once inside the dense fog zone, even fully sealed protective suits have zero effect; one quickly falls into hallucinations, goes mad, and dies.

As for other detection methods, however much intelligence they detected, Tang Luo didn't go investigate.

He didn't need more intelligence.

Descending into the dense fog, Xiaotian Quan shook her head in dissatisfaction; these white mists weren't enough to cause her hallucinations, but they weren't very comfortable either.

"Master, is Fengmen Village the location of the source?" Ao Yulie looked at the bus stop sign and said.

"Probably." Tang Luo looked at the surrounding environment; the fog-obscured visibility had zero effect on them.

The poison that can make ordinary people hallucinate, go mad, and die likewise has not the slightest effect.

This bus stop's location is precisely where Tang Luo's second mission appeared.

Of course, the surrounding macro environment hasn't changed, but the bus stop has changed — it was rebuilt, looking much better than before.

And that roadside house seen that time has become a collapsed abandoned building.

But several more houses have appeared by the roadside.

Ao Yulie stood by the road, looked at those houses, pondered briefly, raised a hand, and a Palm Heart Thunder blasted out.

The house's main gate was blasted open, turning into a pile of char; inside, lightning flashed.

A moment later, a foul smell wafted out.

One could clearly feel the surrounding dense fog instantly thin somewhat.

"Still a mushroom farm." Tang Luo said.

These houses are one of the dense fog's origin sites, and likewise corpse-mushroom cultivation sites.

Without a doubt, these dense fogs are exactly what the corpse mushrooms seen before emitted; previously it was black fog, now it's white fog.

Probably a different variety.

Ao Yulie blasted out several more Palm Heart Thunders, electrocuting the corpse mushrooms inside the remaining houses into char.

"Let's go." Tang Luo said.

The mountain path hasn't changed; it's still that one path; following it leads to that Feng Family Village.

Ao Yulie shook and transformed into a white horse.

"Clip-clop" hoofbeats echoed in this quiet, unpeopled place, like Silent Hill.

Soon, Tang Luo and company neared Feng Family Village's territory; a stone stele with blurred illegible characters could be seen standing by the road.

The buildings ahead suddenly increased greatly; rows of houses lined the roadside, not sparse and scattered like just now.

The dense fog still had no change; it didn't become thicker because of nearing the core area, nor thinner by much.

But not long after, the dense fog suddenly surged, and on the road ahead that had originally been empty, several dozen figures gradually appeared.

They walked unsteadily, at a very slow speed, their skin iron-blue, eyes hollow — typical zombies.

After they approached within a certain distance, these corpses' speed abruptly increased; the White Dragon Horse opened its mouth and spat out a "Gale Wind" that blew past.

These corpses were instantly dismembered, not a drop of fresh blood flowing out; instead, a large amount of white mist dispersed.

Making the surrounding dense fog even thicker.

"Someone has intruded."

Near the center of the dense fog, someone opened their eyes and spoke.

The position he was at was the edge of a clearing.

What the clearing was originally used for could not be known; its current function seemed to be for sacrifice, or perhaps it was also an entrance?

Its surface was covered in a dark red blood color, obviously having been soaked in fresh blood for a long time.

In the center was a hollow five meters in diameter, leading underground.

Stone pillars still stood around the hollow.

Atop those stone pillars were carved some human head portraits, as well as corpse mushrooms.

There was no white dense fog here, but from the hollow, a wisp of swirling mist would occasionally drift out — at first glance it seemed like black mist, yet it shimmered with five colors.

"Go deal with it."

The man who had just spoken sat cross-legged, wearing a cyan robe, a "Feng" character embroidered on his chest.

Behind him stood several people, also with a "Feng" character on their chests.

However, these people's clothes were white, very similar to burial shrouds, exactly the same as what the Feng family member Tang Luo had encountered wore.

Obviously, the color of the clothes represented, to a certain extent, the status of Feng family members in this mist world.

As for those who were not Feng family members — well, if lucky, they were probably muddleheaded slaves; if unlucky, they were the zombies seen just now, and the soil for planting corpse mushrooms.

"Yes."

The five white-clothed Feng family members accepted the order and left, heading straight for Tang Luo's direction.

After about ten minutes, they heard a burst of hoofbeats.

The surrounding white dense fog was their "partner," providing the intruder's general position; after approaching within a certain distance, it outlined the intruder's appearance in their minds.

Just why would the intruder be riding a horse? It felt very strange.

Strange as it was, these Feng family disciples' movements did not hesitate in the slightest.

The five people dispersed, encircling toward Tang Luo, their speed so fast they resembled cheetahs hunting prey.

"Hiss—" Ao Yulie let out a horse's neigh, opened its mouth and spat out a bolt of lightning that instantly split into five, launching a surprise attack at the five Feng family disciples.

The hooves did not stop, continuing forward, leaving behind five charred corpses.

Inside these Feng family disciples' bodies, unsurprisingly, there were also corpse mushrooms.

At first Tang Luo had even drunk a pot of corpse mushroom soup, which helped his recovery at the time a tiny bit.

Now, it would have no effect at all.

"Hm?"

At the sacrificial ground's location, that cyan-clothed middle-aged man's closed eyes opened once more.

He sensed that the auras of those few Feng family members sent out to find and kill the intruder had already vanished without a trace.

Moreover, it seemed they had vanished at the same time.

"Has some skill." The cyan-clothed man murmured, then ordered, "You all go as well."

From the dense fog behind him came some eerie howls, gradually fading into the distance.

Before long, someone walked over from the other side, also wearing a cyan robe, but much younger in age — a young man. He asked, "Seventh Uncle, what happened?"

"An intruder appeared, seems to have some skill. I sent the Low Howlers to deal with it." The cyan-clothed middle-aged man said.

The so-called Low Howlers were people or animals thoroughly parasitized by corpse mushrooms, who had already lost their self-awareness; their strength even surpassed most Feng family white-clothed disciples.

The strongest few among them could even rival cyan-clothed ones.

"Huh? I'll go take a look." The other cyan-clothed young man was very interested.

"Mm." The middle-aged man did not stop him, merely nodding slightly.

Suddenly, his expression changed, and he stood up in one motion.

"Seventh Uncle, what's wrong?" The young man asked.

"The Low Howlers are dead too." The middle-aged man revealed a grave expression.

To be safe, he had sent out a full ten Low Howlers; just their layered howls alone were enough to shock a person to death alive.

He never expected that in the blink of an eye, he could no longer sense their existence.

"The comer is not kind!" The middle-aged man flung his long sleeve. "You brat have good luck — today is still my shift. If it were your shift tomorrow, I'd have helped you deal with it."

"Thanks, Seventh Uncle." The youth said with a smile, his gaze looking toward the area behind the man, hinting that the intruder had arrived.

"Came fast enough." The middle-aged man slowly turned. "Daring to trespass into my Feng family's restricted area—"

Lightning flashed, and the middle-aged man's charred corpse fell.

"So this is the source?" Tang Luo dismounted, walked to the hollow's side, glanced inside, then shifted his gaze onto that youth.

He raised his right hand, thought for a moment, did not bring it down; Tang Luo beckoned to that youth: "Little friend, come over and guide the way."