Chapter 165: Interlocking

Lin Yifan fell to his knees, clutching his head tightly with both hands, his nails digging deep into his scalp.

His vision was a sea of blood-red, and his ears were filled with countless mad ravings.

The twisted faces in those gray-white light pillars were invading his consciousness directly through some eerie mental link!

【Warning! Warning! You are suffering from spiritual pollution!】

【Please clear the pollution immediately!】

【Please clear the pollution immediately!】

The system prompts flashed wildly; each jump of the scarlet numbers made Lin Yifan feel as if ten million steel needles were stirring his brain marrow.

He trembled as he reached for his waist, and with his last shred of consciousness drew his machete, slashing fiercely into his thigh!

The intense pain from the flesh finally gave him a moment of clarity, but the blood flowing from the wound was actually gray-white blood mixed with gray mist.

And within that gray-white blood, Lin Yifan actually saw tiny worms wriggling!

Although those worms were only as thick as a strand of hair, Lin Yifan was all too familiar with them—they were the larval stage of the Maggot Human Bone!

Lin Yifan gasped a breath of cold air, his whole body shivering with chill.

He had always thought that the Maggot Human Bone was merely a shadow that had mutated under some circumstance.

But now it seemed that the Maggot Human Bone was actually formed when gray-white mist eroded the body, polluting the spirit and turning a living person into a Maggot Human Bone.

Realizing this, Lin Yifan suddenly felt a sense of despair!

Because up to now, he had no idea how to stop the impending mutation.

Could it be that he could only watch helplessly as he turned into a walking corpse composed of worms?

At that moment, a message from Ruan Qingtang came through.

Lin Yifan barely managed to open the message: "Captain, the sky on my side suddenly appeared gray light pillars, all plants are withering, and the whispering voices that had disappeared before have returned!"

"Ah! I feel my head hurting so much, I feel like I'm about to go crazy! Am I going to become a madman? What should I do? What should I do? I don't want to become a madman! Captain, please save me!"

Seeing these two messages, Lin Yifan's face was full of a bitter smile.

He also wanted to save them!!

But he couldn't even save himself now!

Lin Yifan struggled to lift his head; the azure light of the Myriad Waters Source was being eroded by the gray-white, and within the water droplets countless twisted shadows surged, making one's scalp tingle at a glance.

Moreover, he felt that his mental link with this artifact was being forcibly rewritten.

He was about to lose control of the Myriad Waters Source!

Would it all end like this?

Lin Yifan looked up at the sky, his eyes complex and enlightened!

However, at that moment Lin Yifan suddenly saw a azure light pillar appear in the northwest direction!

That light pillar instantly surged toward him; he didn't even have time to react before seeing that azure light pillar appear before him.

Yet unlike what he had imagined, this light pillar neither attacked him nor attacked the Myriad Waters Source.

Instead, it directly struck the gray-white light pillar, the two light pillars entwining like two giant dragons locked in combat.

"What on earth is going on?" Lin Yifan's face was full of astonishment.

But the next second, he discovered that all the pain had vanished!

Even the gray-white blood on his thigh had actually returned to bright red.

Only the blood that had dripped to the ground, with its immobile wriggling maggot larvae, proved that he had indeed been just a step away from being polluted by the gray mist and mutating into a Maggot Human Bone.

Although he still didn't know exactly what had happened, escaping the danger of becoming a Maggot Human Bone, Lin Yifan still breathed a sigh of relief.

He quickly grabbed a piece of cloth and roughly bandaged his thigh wound, then others lifted their heads to look toward the Myriad Waters Source.

Fortunately, without the gray-white light pillars enveloping it, the Myriad Waters Source returned to normal and once again began absorbing the gray-white mist.

And the speed was increasing, as if it were racing against time.

And above the Myriad Waters Source, the blue light pillar that had come from the southwest, Lin Yifan finally saw clearly what it was!

It was actually a water pillar!

Moreover, Lin Yifan could even see the source of this water pillar—it was precisely the water pool where he had previously undertaken the treasure chest quest.

Because the gray-white light pillars and the blue light pillar illuminated the surroundings, and with the mist absorbed by the Myriad Waters Source, Lin Yifan could actually see clearly the terrain within a radius of several dozen li.

Thus he could clearly see that the small water pool was like a laser emitter, and that pale blue water pillar was the laser beam emitted.

Lin Yifan suddenly thought of the dense runes etched at the bottom of that small water pool.

Before, he had never understood what those runes were for.

He had even suspected that the water pool was the source of the Heavy Rain Disaster, and that he had obtained the Stabilizing Water Stone there, making him increasingly convinced of this guess.

But now it seemed he had guessed wrong!

That water pool was not only not the source of the Heavy Rain Disaster, it might even be a kind of formation.

And this formation should be specially designed to work with the Myriad Waters Source to combat the will of the gray mist.

In this way, everything could finally be explained!

It was precisely because he knew there would be a Heavy Rain Disaster that he had thought to search the surroundings for a water source, hoping to stop the disaster from arriving.

It was precisely because he went to look for a water source that he found the water pool, and by the water pool's edge received the Special Treasure Chest Quest.

It was precisely because he accepted the Special Treasure Chest Quest that he entered the water pool's bottom, discovered those runes, and completed the quest to obtain the Stabilizing Water Stone, as well as that Purple Treasure Chest.

And it was precisely because he obtained the instance transfer talisman from the Purple Treasure Chest that he could enter the instance and acquire the Myriad Waters Source.

Thus this chain of events, each link interlocking, if any link were missing, the subsequent ones could not proceed.

Lin Yifan could hardly help but suspect that his life had already been controlled by someone.

Was it that everything he was experiencing now, every step he took, every action he performed, had been prearranged for him by others?

But why would they do that?

Lin Yifan didn't know!

But now, even if everything he guessed is true, he can only continue to move forward step by step.

After all, the weak have no room for choice!

Only the strong have!

Lin Yifan raised his head and gazed at the 【Source of Ten Thousand Waters】; his desire to grow stronger couldn't help but deepen a bit.

And at that moment, a new task message appeared before his eyes.