Chapter 817: Super Double

When Varnak's figure vanished into the mirror's surface, Lu Mi reluctantly placed the books on the table into the Traveler's Satchel.

He stood up, left the room, and walked to Zhu Li's door, tapping lightly twice.

Zhu Li opened the door quickly, hugging a blanket to her chest, her shoulders exposed like two piles of snow illuminated by moonlight at night.

"I didn't mean to disturb you!" she said, with a faint hint of anticipation.

Lu Mi spoke as if to himself:

"Varnak invited me to join him against Guxin and Ablis, at the ruins of Dades Agricultural Company."

Without waiting for Zhu Li's reply, Lu Mi turned away and descended the stairs, shrouded in the night's slumber, gradually merging with the darkness.

…………

Inside the hollow shrouded in war mist, before four statues facing each other in pairs, Guxin, wearing a half-tall silk top hat, said to Ablis, clad in a black jacket with red patterns:

"We can't be sure if the clues tied to Varnak are bait—whether we'll step into a trap soon."

Ablis, hands in his pockets, chuckled:

"So here we are."

"Whether there's a trap or what kind of trap, as long as our strength is great enough, we can render their schemes useless and force them to swallow the bitter fruit of their own failure."

Guxin nodded slightly:

"Yes, I once heard a saying: even a thousand eggs united cannot crack a single stone. What we need to do now is become the stone ourselves."

"Last time, we weren't certain we could lock onto Varnak, so we didn't risk activating the altar's greatest power, to avoid waste. Now, we can give Varnak a 'surprise.'"

Ablis chuckled:

"Not using it last time was good too—perhaps the illusion made Varnak concentrate all the targets we wanted to eliminate in one place, so we can deal with them all at once."

Here, Ablis glanced around and sneered:

"I thought Lu Mi would return here these past few days, so I specifically had you leave the 'Lamp of Calamity' on the altar to lure him into using it. I didn't expect him to be such a coward."

"He must have come," Guxin said, his knowledge of the altar's surroundings precise and detailed. "He tried multiple times to damage the statues but failed, causing the altar to draw power from the earth to repair itself, creating minor alterations. Hmm, I never expected him to resist that craving and summons—never lighting the 'Lamp of Calamity' on the spot. Among Hunters, such self-control is an outlier among outliers."

Ablis lifted his chin:

"Go ahead and perform the ritual."

"Heh, first check if the 'Lamp of Calamity' has been replaced or tampered with. A Hunter who doesn't cause some damage isn't living up to the path's name."

"Do you doubt my caution?" Guxin laughed, stepping closer to the half-height stone platform and picking up the lamp filled with semi-solid, semi-liquid pale yellow grease.

He studied it carefully, then sniffed the scent it emitted, and finally inserted his finger near the wick, tapping twice.

Guxin immediately withdrew his finger, igniting the pale yellow grease clinging to it with a brilliant white flame.

A scent of warmth, allure, faint perfume, and rust swiftly entered his nostrils. He half-closed his eyes and nodded gently:

"No problem."

Ablis smiled in response:

"Where did you learn the method of crafting the 'Lamp of Calamity' and its corresponding covenant ritual? It's quite remarkable."

"You'll find out later. After we complete this task, we'll be true companions," Guxin smiled.

He turned, facing the four statues and the 'Lamp of Calamity,' and pulled a small blue-clad iron soldier, palm-sized, from a hidden pocket, placing it on the half-height stone platform.

Isn't this just Trill of the Fourth Era? What's hard to guess? Why keep it secret… Companion, heh… Ablis began to move backward, striving to put distance between himself and Guxin.

It was an instinctive precaution.

Eventually, Ablis stopped fifteen meters away, watching through the thick mist as Guxin lit the oil lamp, sat cross-legged on the ground, and entered meditation to complete the covenant experience.

In just a few seconds, Guxin, amid the alluring faint perfume, "saw" a dense fog.

Unlike the war mist in the hollow, this fog was dyed a deep black.

It enveloped a city without visible boundaries, revealing only faint outlines.

Guxin drifted, half-dazed, half-aware, toward a certain place—familiar as if he'd been there before.

After an indeterminate time, he arrived before a towering structure reduced to a mere silhouette, plummeting swiftly into its sinister, terrifying base.

There seemed to be a well here—a well fused with darkness.

Guxin repeated the purpose of this covenant ritual over and over, fighting the growing numbness.

He neared the well and gazed into its depths.

He immediately "saw" moss-covered stone slabs, "saw" iron-black chains fastened to the well's inner walls, their bas-reliefs blurred, indiscernible in detail.

"I can now see the inner walls of the ancient well?"

"Before, I never could…"

"Is this effect so strong because I'm drawing closer to the Great Entity?" Guxin felt a surge of delight.

Eagerly, he shifted his gaze to the dark, deep surface of the well.

The dark, profound water rippled gently, gradually coalescing into a figure.

Guxin strained to see—and suddenly spotted patches of brownish bark.

They were embedded on a face, evoking an indescribable horror.

"Bark…" Guxin gasped, overwhelmed by confusion.

Why was bark appearing here?

Shouldn't it be steel and blood?

Guxin instinctively looked down at his hands and saw patches of brownish, slightly rusted bark rising on his knuckles.

This… Guxin's pupils dilated violently as he turned his gaze back to the dark, deep surface of the well.

He clearly saw the reflection of the figure.

It was himself!

His face was entirely covered in mottled bark!

The next instant, the bark writhed inward, sinking, turning flesh-toned.

They became moist, embedded spores nestled in living flesh, each bursting open as if about to expel countless naked little figures.

Guxin's terror shattered its limits—he snapped his eyes open, breaking free from the covenant experience.

Huff… As he gasped for breath, he saw the iron soldier on the half-height platform rapidly swelling, soon reaching three or four meters tall, its eyes now iron-black, no longer the fierce crimson glow.

The spear it carried was swiftly covered in brilliant white flame tinged with blue.

"It succeeded…" Guxin steadied himself, no longer so tense.

He believed the anomaly he'd just experienced was due to his growing closeness to the Great Entity—a deepening of past covenant experiences—hence the distinct differences and heightened details.

"I've grown stronger…" Guxin stood, extended his right hand, and extinguished the still-burning 'Lamp of Calamity.'

"This is the iron soldier with partial power and rank of a 'Ironblood Knight'?" Ablis walked slowly back from fifteen meters away.

"Yes. Treat it as a weakened 'Ironblood Knight,' not comparable to Varnak's," Guxin answered with full confidence.

He hadn't yet examined what benefits or knowledge he'd gained from the covenant experience.

Ablis took a few steps, then suddenly stopped.

He looked at Guxin and smiled sardonically:

"Your hair has grown longer."

My hair… Guxin turned his head and saw his brown hair had grown from above his ears to his cheeks.

He suddenly had a suspicion:

Has this covenant experience brought me closer to the 'Witch' Path?

With this doubt, he lowered his head.

As expected, he saw his chest slowly swelling, lifting his shirt, wool sweater, and suit jacket.

Almost simultaneously, Guxin smelled a faint milky odor.

Milky odor… Guxin froze again.

Does the 'Witch' transformation cause this?

He was about to ask Ablis about other changes when he saw his partner stepping backward, one slow step at a time.

Instantly, he felt the three- to four-meter-tall iron soldier behind him bend its back, its metallic head pressing close to his ear with a clanking, scraping sound.

The iron soldier emitted a metallic voice, whispering:

"Mother."

"Mother… me?" Guxin looked down in bewilderment and saw his abdomen swelling visibly before his eyes.

Seeing this, his mind went numb—he felt as if he'd been reborn.

Ablis, still retreating slowly to avoid triggering anomalies, saw Guxin turn toward him and smile with a radiant, maternal glow—yet his blue eyes were icy, profoundly evil.

…………

BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted in a suburban district marked by a volcanic crater. White fireballs gathered, rolled into the sky, gradually turning crimson, producing thick smoke.

In the ruins of Dades Agricultural Company, Lu Mi and Varnak hidden in the underground chamber both sensed the quake-like tremor.

Based on the direction of the quake, Lu Mi quickly deduced:

"That hollow filled with war mist?"

"An intense explosion happened there?"

"Ablis and Guxin wanted to prepare before confronting Varnak, so they lit the oil lamp I'd seasoned—and an accident occurred?"

Lu Mi immediately shouted to Varnak:

"Situation changed!"

Shuowan ， Tatuolileyinyingshengwuzhuangtai ， Zhijie " Chuansong " Xiangduiyingjiequ 。

【100】 Shuowan ， Tatuolileyinyingshengwuzhuangtai ， Zhijie " Chuansong " Xiangduiyingjiequ 。

【100】 He shed his shadow-being state and directly "teleported" toward the corresponding district.

He did not directly choose the hollow entrance shrouded in war mist as his destination, fearing that the earlier explosion had been a trap set by Albus and Guxin!

Only a Hunter knows how treacherous a Hunter can be!

(End of Chapter)