Chapter 339: The Gathering of Sages

Seeing the headless corpse of Heracles, Xu Dejun felt his body tremble subconsciously, and he nearly lost his grip on the blade in his hand.

He did not answer Wu Chang’s question, but instead approached cautiously with his blade, saying in disbelief:

"Is he really dead?"

Wu Chang kicked Heracles’s corpse; the headless body fell to the ground on the spot, showing no signs of life.

"Dead as a doornail."

With his head shattered, even someone with the title of Titan had no possibility of survival.

Not to mention that he had already absorbed Heracles’s vitality, temporarily increasing his strength attribute by 90 points.

Speaking of vitality, he had not expected that the Sea Giant’s ability could also stack in the Rational Realm.

It was just that compared to the instance dungeon, the duration of the stacking was pitifully short, lasting only twelve hours.

Although twelve hours was not short and enough for Wu Chang to accomplish many things, it would be better if, like in the instance world, the stacking could last until the next time he entered an instance.

Then he wouldn’t need to return to the Desolate Realm, nor would he need to make any preparations for the World Instance; he could start cleaning up the Light Society right now.

Hearing Wu Chang’s answer, Xu Dejun still couldn’t believe it in his heart; he approached Heracles and gently poked the body with his blade.

The blade easily sliced through the skin without encountering any resistance.

Xu Dejun shook his head; the other party appeared to be truly dead, but why was seeing his death harder to accept than discovering he was still alive?

When Kua Fu and Heracles chased him into the Order Faction’s private space, Kua Fu only stood by as a spectator; it was Heracles who had made all the moves.

Xu Dejun had witnessed Heracles’s combat power more than once.

He possessed monstrous strength and could cleave through players’ skills just by swinging his longsword; the lion-skin armor on his body maximized the advantages of his divinity, capable of simultaneously blocking all damage dealt to him by players.

Combined with his seemingly endless stamina, he could conquer a stronghold guarded by nearly twenty players all by himself.

In Xu Dejun’s impression, Heracles was like someone running a "locked health" cheat; no matter how powerful the attack, even the ultimate skills of hidden classes, could not injure him in the slightest.

Yet what made Xu Dejun even more desperate was that even though the other party acted like a god of war, his attitude in front of Kua Fu remained like that of a lackey.

The Abyss Game did not care about seniority or status, especially in the Rational Realm; if one lacked ability but still acted like a superior, they could be taken out by their subordinates at any time.

There was only one possibility: Kua Fu’s strength was even greater than Heracles’s.

Having witnessed the exaggerated strength of the two, Xu Dejun already doubted whether they were playing the same Abyss Game, or if the Light Society was playing a cracked version.

It was precisely because of this that he had long since lost the will to win, hoping only to buy time for Wu Chang to escape.

Yet that Heracles, who in his heart was as strong as a monster and impossible to defeat, had been dragged into the eerie black mist by Wu Chang and had his head shattered after only a dozen minutes.

Is this right?

He knew Wu Chang possessed the power of Authority, but for Authority to take effect, it also required time.

Heracles would not give Wu Chang time.

This was the Rational Realm, not the Desolate Realm where Wu Chang had repelled Huanxi; Heracles had arrived in his true body, not some projection, and his attributes would not be suppressed by the world’s rules.

Let alone an ordinary Desolate Realm player, even a player in the top ten of the Desolate Realm would not last ten seconds against Heracles.

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

Wu Chang said in a relaxed tone:

"There are no perfect creatures in the world; let alone players, even true gods in the Abyss have their weaknesses. Insight into weaknesses and precise strikes can find an opportunity to win."

"His greatest strength is also his greatest vulnerability. The lion-skin armor grants him immunity to all non-divine attacks, but as long as the force exceeds his own, the lion-skin armor will backfire, doubling the damage he receives."

"Once this intelligence is obtained, it is not difficult to defeat him."

Xu Dejun nodded after hearing this; so that was it, as long as one could be stronger than Heracles’s force, defeating him would be easy—my foot!

How many points of force does Heracles have? Does he think he hasn’t seen it?

In the first stronghold that was broken, there was an Order Faction player who possessed a Cyclops hidden class and was a pure force-specialized player; when activating the class’s ultimate skill, his force attribute could reach 380 points.

He had seen with his own eyes the Cyclops attempt to grapple with Heracles, only to be easily taken down after holding out for three seconds; his arms were violently torn off, and then he was stabbed through his single fused eye by a longsword, dying on the spot.

Conservatively estimated, Heracles’s force value was at least 50 points higher than the Cyclops’s.

In the entire Rational Realm, having a single attribute break 400 was already rare and belonged to the absolute elite.

Where did you, a Desolate Realm player, pull out over 430 points of force?

You’ve stopped pretending entirely, haven’t you?

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

Before, seeing the Light Society play a cracked version of the Abyss Game made him feel like the sky was falling; now, seeing that his own teammate was also a cheater, he suddenly felt much more balanced.

"This is not the place to talk; there was another Light Society member with the codename Kua Fu who was acting with Heracles."

"Once locked on by him, he can follow even into a private space; noticing that Heracles hasn’t returned, he will catch up sooner or later, so we must find a way to shake him off first."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and reached out toward Xu Dejun; as he waved his palm, a ball of light the size of a ping-pong ball appeared in his hand as if by magic.

"This is the reason he could lock onto you—a special spatial coordinate containing divinity; its existence turned you into a mobile spatial teleportation array, a trivial little trick."

Wu Chang possessed the Eye of Law-Breaking and was a master of spatial magic who had seen the roots of space; combined with the God-Slayer’s sensitivity to divinity, it would have been difficult for him not to notice the ball of light above Xu Dejun’s head.

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

Wu Chang shrugged and said: "A little."

Xu Dejun frowned; he had been to two private spaces before, and no one had discovered the spatial coordinate above his head; "a little" wouldn’t be enough to discover Kua Fu’s methods.

No, you’re a Desolate Realm player; how can you be distracted enough to master spatial magic while your force attribute overwhelms Heracles?

Exactly how many attribute points do you have?

He took another deep breath, silently reminding himself that this was a teammate, then said:

"Have I shaken off Kua Fu’s lock now?"

Wu Chang shook his head: "The spatial coordinate set by Kua Fu contains divinity; even if discovered, it is not so easy to clear."

He slowly applied force with his fingers; the space in his palm twisted, forming a vortex of air, with electric light flickering faintly within the vortex.

With the combined effort of the God-Slayer and Divine Thunder, he crushed the ball of light in one grip, brushed off the divine residue from his hand, and said:

"Now you are safe."

Xu Dejun: "Cheater."

Even though it was a teammate, he couldn’t hold it in this time.

Wu Chang: "What?"

Xu Dejun shook his head, "Nothing, follow me; I know a place suitable for talking."

Wu Chang followed Xu Dejun to an empty private space.

Xu Dejun had been traumatized by Kua Fu’s pursuit; even though Wu Chang said he had helped him shake off the lock, and he believed Wu Chang had no reason to lie to him, he still chose a place that wouldn’t implicate others.

After the two sat down, Xu Dejun briefly organized his thoughts and then revealed the intelligence he had risked his life to deliver to Wu Chang.

"Beware of the World Instance; the Light Society has tampered with it."

Wu Chang narrowed his eyes; tampering with the World Instance was indeed explosive information.

"Tell me in detail."

Xu Dejun took out the metal card Wu Chang hadn’t accepted earlier and, while playing the content inside, explained the ins and outs to Wu Chang.

Since they last parted, under Xu Dejun’s mediation, the Order Faction in the Rational Realm had gradually integrated and begun looking for a chance to turn the tables.

The initiator of the changes in the Rational Realm was the Evolution Faction, but what they truly feared was the Light Society behind the Evolution Faction.

Therefore, after the Order Faction integrated, they temporarily skipped the Evolution Faction and investigated the Light Society directly.

By making a move at this juncture, the other party’s goal must be related to the World Instance; following this clue, they indeed made a discovery.

The World Instance was different from other instances; when Wu Chang first obtained the temporary management authority of the Desolate Realm, he had seen the World Instance in the middle layer from an administrator’s perspective.

It was a massive entity that traveled entirely between the Desolate Realm and the Rational Realm, as if carving out a 1.5 layer between the first and second layers of the Abyss.

When it fully formed, it would turn into a massive Pillar of the Present World, temporarily connecting the Desolate Realm and the Rational Realm.

The Light Society had integrated the temporary management authority of the four major organizations in the Rational Realm and was attempting to catalyze the growth of the World Instance toward the Rational Realm through the influence of the temporary management authority on the middle layer, intervening in the World Instance in advance.

Speaking of this, Xu Dejun sighed:

"Fortunately, His Excellency Heping acted righteously to prevent the Light Society and the Evolution Faction from taking over the Desolate Realm; otherwise, with the temporary management authority of both realms, the World Instance would have fallen completely under the control of the Light Society."

Wu Chang asked in confusion: "Temporary management authority can influence the World Instance? I don’t remember having this function."

Xu Dejun explained: "Temporary management authority cannot directly influence the World Instance, but as long as the management authority is strong enough, one can lock onto the approximate coordinates of the instance in advance."

"As long as one can lock onto the plane where the World Instance is located, there are many ways to connect to it; the most common method is the power of faith."

"The scene playing now comes from an Order Faction player skilled in infiltration; he possesses an extremely rare S-rank stealth skill that even gods cannot detect."

Accompanied by Xu Dejun’s explanation, the scene in the metal card changed accordingly.

The scene showed a standard candid camera perspective; Wu Chang had seen this perspective many times on Lao Si’s computer, and he had reason to suspect that the cameraman had once worked in a special profession.

The angle of the lens was extremely careful; some sequences were even more cautious; just looking at the shooting angle in the frame, one could feel the cameraman’s meticulousness.

Despite the careful movements, the cameraman didn’t miss a single detail.

The cameraman was worthy of being the S-rank King of Stealth; high-tech security access control, occult rituals, defensive magic, cultivator arrays...

One obstacle after another seemed not to exist in front of him, and he passed through them easily.

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

The altar was covered with yellow talismans drawn in cinnabar; the dense, thick paper talismans were comparable to the small advertising cards posted in the hallways of old apartment buildings.

The talismans were like fish scales, tightly wrapping the massive bluestone altar; on the top level of the altar, four people were adjusting something.

One of them was over ten meters tall and very conspicuous; Xu Dejun introduced to Wu Chang that this person was Kua Fu, a former member of the Management Bureau and once the most excellent breaker in the Abyss Game, bar none.

Among the other three, one was wearing a full suit; the suit was expensive, but worn on him, it exuded the cheapness of an insurance salesman.

This unique temperament was unforgettable once seen; it was none other than Wu Chang’s old friend, Mercury.

His appearance was within Wu Chang’s expectations; it seemed that no matter what evil deeds the Light Society committed, his participation was rarely absent.

And the identities of the remaining two on the altar became intriguing.

One of them wore a tightly wrapped robe, making it impossible to distinguish their gender; on the back of the robe was embroidered a giant crescent moon with a vertical pupil. The last person was a woman, dressed in revealing clothing, with a tattoo of a golden goblet entwined by a snake on her well-defined abdominal muscles.

Judging by their symbols, they came from the Serenity Sect and the Bliss Sect, respectively.

As the natural enemies of the Believer Circle, these four major organizations were now actually mingling with two of the three Evil God cults.

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

During the Misfortune-ridden dungeon, the second candidate for Saint of the Serenity Church, Fearless, had appeared beside Lin Jiang, helping Lin Jiang pass the dungeon and send the highest administrative permissions of the four major organizations to the Rational Realm.

Wu Chang absolutely did not believe that Fearless had acted because of a personal friendship with Lin Jiang.

The Serenity Sect had already been in contact with the Evolutionists; now, there was simply one more, the Bliss Sect.

Of the three Evil God cults, only the Apocalypse had not participated, but given the Apocalypse’s nature of enjoying chaos, their non-participation was likely even more troublesome than joining.

Wu Chang rubbed his brow; with these guys gathered together, it could be said that all the sages had arrived, and the World Dungeon was even livelier than he had imagined.

After finishing up here at the Divine Kingdom, it seemed he would need to pay Yu Na a visit to see if he could contact the leader of the Apocalypse, Christine, through her.

Although that woman was a bit crazy, she was quite easy to talk to, and since she and Lyman were at odds, she might reveal some intelligence under the guise of causing trouble for Lyman.

Having made up his mind, Wu Chang turned his attention back to the candid video playing.

He could see two players from the Believer Circle trying hard to convey something to Mercury, especially the mysterious robed person from the Serenity Sect, whose fingers were occasionally writing occult runes in the air.

Through the scattered runes, Wu Chang could vaguely tell they were discussing issues related to faith.

Moreover, judging by the attitude of both sides, this was not their first cooperation; one could even say their collaboration had reached its final stages.

The person filming the video was extremely patient; they had remained hidden in the shadows, faithfully recording everything.

The discussion in the video lasted for nearly three hours, and under the hands-on teaching of the two veteran charlatans, Mercury seemed to have gained some insight.

As he wrote a contract on a talisman paper and pasted it at the very core of the ritual altar, a violent wind suddenly rose.

The fierce wind blew tens of thousands of yellow talismans on the altar, and the talisman papers shook at the same frequency, as if the entire altar had come to life.

A dazzling light gathered at the top of the altar, then shot straight into the sky, disappearing into the clouds.

The light shattered the sky, and on the other side of the sky, another sky—similar yet different—was revealed.

Xu Dejun stared blankly at the video; no matter how many times he saw the scene of human power shattering the plane barrier, he felt shocked.

If it had been a month ago, this scene really would have stunned Wu Chang, but having seen Ailin establish a large-scale Divine Kingdom with his own eyes, he did not have much of a reaction to this.

The function of the altar seemed to be simulating a Pillar of the Divine Kingdom, only they had changed the method from connecting faith planes to locating them via temporary administrative permissions, then violently connecting to a strange plane.

It was difficult, but not enough to be scared.

After opening the plane through the altar, Mercury and the others left the altar, and the King of Stealth who filmed the video also finished recording and withdrew from the space where the altar was located.

The image finally froze on the stone altar, and Xu Dejun pointed to the ring symbolizing the sun on the altar and said:

"Lord Peace, you must pay attention to this symbol. After obtaining the intelligence, our members who are familiar with the Believer Circle speculated that the Brightness Society intends to use the name of gods to establish contact with the plane where the World Dungeon is located; this symbol is their avatar."

"If you see a similar symbol in the World Dungeon, you must be careful and stay vigilant; the other party is very likely to have become a believer of the Brightness Society."

Wu Chang nodded and said: "Thanks for the reminder, I will be careful."

Xu Dejun cupped his hands and said: "Sorry, right now we members of the Order Faction are already overwhelmed maintaining our existence in the Rational Realm and cannot provide more help for the time being."

"The task of stopping the Brightness Society's conspiracy from here on can only rely on Lord Peace and everyone from the Wilderness Realm."

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

"I have a question. The player who recorded the content has extremely strong stealth abilities and showed no signs of being spotted by the Brightness Society until the very end. Since that is the case, how did you get targeted by the Brightness Society?"

Xu Dejun gave a bitter smile and said: "What other reason could there be? Of course, after waiting for the intelligence, someone passed the information to the Brightness Society and betrayed us."

"Kuafu and Heracles blocked the area near the private space and almost wiped out everyone who knew; there were four metal cards in total, and the four of us scattered to escape, buying time for the other members. I don't know how many of us will survive in the end."

"If it weren't for the photographer being alert and only maintaining one-way contact with a very small number of people, I'm afraid they would also be in grave danger."

Wu Chang sighed after hearing this and said:

"In your current state, you can barely protect yourselves. If the mole mixed into your team isn't rooted out, I'm afraid you won't last until the World Dungeon begins."

"Since I'm already here, I'll see this through to the end. I'll go with you and help you take out the mole who leaked the information."

A Wilderness Realm player claiming to help a Rational Realm player find a mole sounded ridiculous, but coming from Wu Chang, Xu Dejun felt it was perfectly reasonable.

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

Wu Chang asked: "Have you agreed on a meeting point for later?"

Xu Dejun shook his head and said: "No, but if necessary, I can initiate a temporary assembly."

Wu Chang glanced at the remaining duration of his temporary power and said: "Then assemble them now; I'm in a hurry."

(End of chapter)