Chapter 339

Xu Dejun saw Heracles' headless corpse and instinctively shuddered, nearly dropping his blade.

He did not answer Wu Chang's question, but instead approached cautiously with his blade, disbelief echoing in his voice:

"Is he really dead?"

Wu Chang kicked Heracles' corpse; the headless body collapsed instantly, utterly lifeless.

"Dead through and through."

His skull had been shattered— even a Titan like him had no chance of survival.

Not to mention he had already absorbed Heracles' vital energy, temporarily increasing his Strength attribute by 90 points.

Speaking of vital energy, he hadn't expected that the Sea Giant's ability could stack even in the Rational Realm.

But compared to the dungeon world, the stacking duration was pitifully short—only twelve hours.

Twelve hours wasn't short; it was enough for Wu Chang to accomplish many things. But if it lasted until his next entry into the dungeon world, like in the dungeon world, it would be ideal.

Then he wouldn't need to return to the Wasteland Realm, nor prepare for the world dungeon—he could begin clearing the Light Society right now.

Hearing Wu Chang's answer, Xu Dejun still couldn't believe it. He approached Heracles and lightly prodded the body with his blade.

The blade sliced through the skin effortlessly, meeting no resistance.

Xu Dejun shook his head. The man was truly dead—but why did seeing him dead feel harder to accept than finding him alive?

When Hyperion and Heracles chased him into the Order Sect's private space, Hyperion merely watched; only Heracles acted.

Xu Dejun had witnessed Heracles' combat power more than once.

He possessed monstrous strength, capable of cleaving through players' skills with mere sword swings; his lion-skin armor maximized divine advantages, allowing him to withstand all damage directed at him simultaneously.

Combined with his endless stamina, he alone could overrun a stronghold defended by nearly twenty players.

In Xu Dejun's mind, Heracles was like a character with an invincibility cheat—no matter how powerful the attack, even the ultimate skill of a hidden class, not a single scratch could touch him.

Yet what left Xu Dejun even more despairing was that even though Heracles acted like a war god, before Hyperion, his demeanor remained that of a lackey.

In the Abyss Game, there's no respect for age or hierarchy—especially in the Rational Realm. If you lack power yet pretend to be superior, you'll be eliminated by those beneath you at any moment.

There was only one possibility: Hyperion's strength surpassed Heracles'.

Having witnessed both men's absurd power, Xu Dejun now doubted whether they were even playing the same Abyss Game—whether the Light Society had cracked a hacked version.

Precisely because of this, he had long since lost the will to win; he only hoped to buy Wu Chang time to escape.

Yet the Heracles he had regarded as an unstoppable monster, dragged into the eerie black mist by Wu Chang, had his skull shattered in barely more than ten minutes.

Is this right?

He knew Wu Chang possessed Authority power, but Authority effects still required time.

Heracles wouldn't give Wu Chang time.

This was the Rational Realm, not the Wasteland Realm where Wu Chang had driven off Joy. Heracles' physical body was here, not a projection, and his attributes weren't suppressed by world rules.

Not even an ordinary Wasteland Realm player could survive ten seconds against Heracles—let alone a top-ten Wasteland Realm player.

"How did you do it?" Xu Dejun asked, baffled.

Wu Chang replied casually:

"There's no such thing as a perfect being. Not even players, nor the true gods of the Abyss, are without weaknesses. Understand the weakness, strike precisely, and you'll find your chance to win."

"His greatest strength is his greatest vulnerability. The lion-skin armor grants him immunity to all non-divine attacks—but if your strength exceeds his, the armor backfires, doubling the damage he receives."

"Knowing this, defeating him isn't difficult."

Xu Dejun nodded. So that's how it worked—just need strength greater than Heracles', and victory is easy. Bullshit.

Did he think Xu Dejun hadn't seen how many points Heracles had?

In the first stronghold to fall, an Order Sect player with the Cyclops hidden class—a pure Strength specialist—had reached 380 Strength points when activating his class's ultimate skill.

Xu Dejun had seen it with his own eyes: the Cyclops tried to wrestle Heracles, lasted three seconds, then had both arms violently torn off, followed by a sword piercing through his fused single eye—he died instantly.

Conservatively, Heracles' Strength was at least 50 points higher than the Cyclops'.

In the entire Rational Realm, single-attribute scores over 400 were exceedingly rare—absolute elite status.

Where the hell did a Wasteland Realm player get over 430 Strength points?

You're not even pretending anymore, are you?

Xu Dejun took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to rant.

Earlier, seeing the Light Society play a hacked version of the Abyss Game, he'd felt the sky had collapsed. Now, seeing his own teammate had a cheat too, he suddenly felt much more balanced.

"This isn't the place to talk. There was another Light Society member who acted with Heracles—codenamed Hyperion."

"Once he locks onto you, even private spaces won't stop him from following. If he notices Heracles didn't return, he'll come after us eventually—we must find a way to shake him off first."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow, reached out toward Xu Dejun, and with a flick of his palm, a glowing orb the size of a ping-pong ball appeared as if by magic.

"This is why he can lock onto you—a special spatial coordinate infused with divinity. Its presence turns you into a mobile spatial teleportation array. A trivial trick."

Wu Chang possessed the Eye of Spellbreaking, was a Master of Spatial Magic who had witnessed the Source of Space, and as a Blasphemer, was hypersensitive to divinity—he couldn't help but notice the glowing orb above Xu Dejun's head.

Xu Dejun ventured: "You know spatial magic too?"

Wu Chang shrugged. "A little."

Xu Dejun frowned. He'd entered two private spaces before, and no one had spotted his spatial coordinate. "A little" couldn't have detected Hyperion's method.

Wait—you're a Wasteland Realm player. How did you surpass Heracles in Strength while also mastering spatial magic?

Just how many attribute points do you have?

He took another deep breath, reminded himself this was his teammate, and said:

"Am I free from Hyperion's lock now?"

Wu Chang shook his head. "The spatial coordinate Hyperion set contains divinity. Even if you detect it, removing it isn't easy."

He slowly clenched his fist; space twisted in his palm, forming an air vortex, within which faint lightning flickered.

With the combined force of the Blasphemer and Divine Thunder, he crushed the orb, brushed off the residual divinity, and said:

"Now we're safe."

Xu Dejun: "Dog tag."

Even though he was a teammate, he couldn't hold back this time.

Wu Chang: "What?"

Xu Dejun shook his head. "Nothing. Come with me—I know a quiet place to talk."

Wu Chang followed Xu Dejun to a secluded, empty space.

Xu Dejun had been hunted out of the shadows by Kuafu; even though Wu Chang said he'd broken the lock-on, and even though he believed Wu Chang had no reason to lie, he still chose a place that wouldn't endanger anyone else.

After they sat down, Xu Dejun briefly gathered his thoughts and delivered the intelligence he had risked his life to pass on to Wu Chang.

"Beware the World Replica. The Light Society tampered with it."

Wu Chang narrowed his eyes. Tampering with the World Replica? This information was truly explosive.

"Tell me more."

Xu Dejun pulled out the metal card Wu Chang had refused before, played its contents, and explained the full story to Wu Chang.

After their last parting, under Xu Dejun's connections, the Order Faction of the Rational Realm gradually consolidated and began seeking a chance to turn the tide.

The Evolution Faction initiated the upheaval in the Rational Realm, but what they truly feared was the Light Society behind them.

So after consolidating, the Order Faction bypassed the Evolution Faction and directly investigated the Light Society.

At this critical juncture, their target must be tied to the World Replica. Following this lead, they indeed made a discovery.

The World Replica differs from other replicas. When Wu Chang first obtained temporary administrative authority over the Wasteland Realm, he had viewed the World Replica from the administrator's perspective in the intermediate layer.

It was a colossal entity existing entirely between the Wasteland Realm and the Rational Realm, as if a 1.5 layer had been carved out between the first and second layers of the Abyss.

When fully formed, it would become a massive Pillar of the Real World, temporarily linking the Wasteland Realm and the Rational Realm.

The Light Society had consolidated the temporary administrative authority of the four major organizations in the Rational Realm and was attempting to use that authority's influence on the intermediate layer to catalyze the World Replica's growth toward the Rational Realm, interfering prematurely.

Here, Xu Dejun sighed:

"Thankfully, the Peaceful One intervened with righteous force and stopped the Light Society and the Evolution Faction from seizing control of the Wasteland Realm. Otherwise, with temporary administrative authority over both realms, the World Replica would have fallen completely under the Light Society's control."

Wu Chang frowned. "Can temporary administrative authority influence the World Replica? I don't recall this function."

Xu Dejun explained: "Temporary administrative authority cannot directly influence the World Replica. But if the authority is strong enough, it can lock onto the replica's approximate coordinates in advance."

"Once you can lock the World Replica's plane of existence, there are many ways to connect with it. The most common method is faith power."

"The scene currently playing comes from an Order Faction player skilled in infiltration. He possesses an extremely rare S-rank stealth skill—even gods cannot detect him."

As Xu Dejun spoke, the imagery on the metal card shifted accordingly.

The footage showed a standard surveillance angle—a perspective Wu Chang had seen many times on Lao Si's computer. He had reason to suspect the shooter had once held some special profession.

The camera angle was extremely cautious; certain sequences were even more meticulous. Merely watching the shooting angles, one could feel the shooter's extreme care.

Despite the caution, the shooter captured every necessary detail.

The shooter was unquestionably the S-rank stealth king. High-tech security gates, occult rituals, defensive magic, cultivator arrays...

One obstacle after another vanished before him as if nonexistent, effortlessly bypassed.

As they delved deeper, a massive stone altar over thirty meters tall appeared in the frame.

The altar was covered entirely in yellow talismans drawn in cinnabar—so densely packed they resembled the advertising flyers plastered in the stairwells of old apartment buildings.

The talismans, like fish scales, tightly wrapped the massive green stone altar. At its summit, four figures were adjusting something.

One of them stood over ten meters tall, unmistakable. Xu Dejun introduced him to Wu Chang: that was Kuafu, a former Bureau member, once the greatest breakthrough specialist in the Abyss Game—without equal.

Among the other three, one wore a full suit of expensive clothing, yet on him it radiated the cheap aura of an insurance salesman.

This unique aura, once seen, could never be forgotten—it was Wu Chang's old acquaintance, Mercury.

His appearance was no surprise to Wu Chang. The Light Society's misdeeds always seemed to involve him.

The identities of the remaining two on the altar, however, were intriguing.

One wore a fully enclosed robe, gender indistinguishable, with a giant crescent moon and vertical pupil embroidered on the back. The other was a woman, dressed lightly, with a golden chalice entwined by a serpent tattooed across her sharply defined abdominal muscles.

From their symbols, they belonged to the Quietist Sect and the Bliss Sect.

The four major organizations, enemies of the Faith Circle, were now mingling with two of the Three Evil God Sects.

Xu Dejun found this unbelievable, but Wu Chang had anticipated it.

During the Curse-Bound Replica, the Quietist Sect's second candidate for Holy Son, Fearless, had appeared beside Lin Jiang and helped Lin Jiang pass the replica to deliver the four major organizations' highest authority to the Rational Realm.

Wu Chang refused to believe Fearless acted out of personal friendship with Lin Jiang.

The Quietist Sect had already been linked to the Evolution Faction; now it was merely adding the Bliss Sect.

Of the Three Evil God Sects, only Revelation had not joined. But given Revelation's nature—always eager to stir up trouble—their absence was likely more troublesome than their participation.

Wu Chang rubbed his temples. These people gathering together was truly a gathering of the elite. The World Replica was far more crowded than he'd imagined.

After wrapping things up on the Divine Realm side, he'd need to find Yu Na and see if he could use her to contact Revelation's leader, Christine.

That woman was a bit mad, but easy to talk to. And she had a grudge against Lehmann. If he claimed he wanted to cause Lehmann trouble, she might reveal some intelligence.

Having decided, Wu Chang turned his attention back to the surveillance video playing.

Two Faith Circle players were urgently conveying something to Mercury, especially the robed figure from the Quietist Sect, whose fingers occasionally traced occult runes in the air.

From the scattered runes, Wu Chang faintly discerned they were discussing matters related to faith.

And from their attitudes, this was not their first collaboration—indeed, their cooperation was nearing its conclusion.

The videographer had immense patience, hiding in the shadows, faithfully recording everything.

The discussion in the video lasted nearly three hours. Under the hands-on instruction of two veteran charlatans, Mercury seemed to grasp something.

As he wrote a contract onto a talisman and affixed it to the altar's core, a violent wind surged.

The wind whipped the tens of thousands of yellow talismans on the altar, each vibrating in perfect unison, as if the entire altar had come alive.

A blinding light gathered at the altar's summit, then shot skyward, vanishing into the clouds.

The light shattered the sky curtain, revealing another sky curtain on the other side—similar yet different.

Xu Dejun stared blankly at the video; no matter how many times he watched this scene of human power shattering the dimensional barrier, it still filled him with awe.

A month ago, this sight would have truly stunned Wu Chang, but having witnessed Ailin establish a grand divine realm, he felt little reaction.

The altar's function seemed to simulate the Pillar of a Divine Realm, except they replaced linking faith dimensions with temporary administrative permissions to pinpoint, then violently connect to unknown dimensions.

Difficult, but not terrifying.

Through the altar, Mercury and others departed from the altar; the Stealth King who filmed the video also ended recording and withdrew from the space where the altar stood.

The final frame froze on the stone altar, and Xu Dejun pointed to the circular emblem symbolizing the sun, saying:

"Lord Peace, pay close attention to this symbol. After obtaining the intelligence, members among us familiar with the Faith Circle deduced that the Light Society plans to impersonate a deity to establish contact with the world副本's dimension—this emblem is their avatar."

"If you see a similar symbol in the world副本, be cautious, raise your vigilance—your opponent may already be a follower of the Light Society."

Wu Chang nodded and said: "Thank you for the warning. I'll be careful."

Xu Dejun bowed slightly and said: "Sorry, right now our Dengzhixu Sect members are already overwhelmed just maintaining our presence in the Reason Realm—we cannot offer further assistance for now."

"Stopping the Light Society's plot now depends solely on Lord Peace and everyone in the Wasteland Realm."

Wu Chang examined the metal card Xu Dejun handed him and said:

"I have a question: the player who recorded this footage possesses extremely strong stealth abilities, and there was never any sign the Light Society detected his presence—even at the end. Then how did you get targeted by them?"

Xu Dejun gave a bitter smile and said: "What other reason could there be? Someone leaked the intelligence to the Light Society after we obtained it—someone betrayed us."

"Kuafu and Hercules blocked the entrance to the private space and nearly wiped out everyone who knew the truth. There were four metal cards total—we four split up and fled to buy time for the others. I don't know how many will survive."

"If the recorder hadn't been cautious and had only contacted a tiny number of people one-way, he'd likely be dead too."

After hearing this, Wu Chang sighed and said:

"You're already barely holding on. If you don't root out the mole in your team, I fear you won't survive until the world副本 begins."

"I'll do you a final favor—I'm already here, so I'll go with you and help you kill the traitor who leaked the intelligence."

A Wasteland Realm player offering to help a Reason Realm player find the mole sounded absurd—but coming from Wu Chang, Xu Dejun found it entirely reasonable.

He asked: "That's perfect. Lord Peace, what do you need me to do?"

Wu Chang asked: "Have you arranged a rendezvous point for later?"

Xu Dejun shook his head: "No, but if needed, I can issue a temporary summons."

Wu Chang glanced at the remaining duration of his temporary power and said: "Summon them now—I'm short on time."

(End of Chapter)