Chapter 356

Deep in the Flesh Forest, the "Explorer One" golem was moving slowly in autonomous mode.

Its black-gold metal body looked particularly abrupt in the twisted organ jungle.

Every step landed on the moist flesh ground, making a nauseating stomping sound, like the feeling of stepping on a fresh corpse.

Luo En monitored the golem's actions through a spiritual link, but his attention was distracted a bit by another matter at this moment.

The conversation with Maxim during the descent just now gave him a chill that went deep into his bones.

"Master Maxim, do you remember Mentor Corinna?"

He asked tentatively at the time, his tone trying to remain casual.

"The silver-haired school mentor, a young witch who always wore a mask."

Maxim's reaction at the time was still clearly imprinted in Luo En's memory.

This wizard first frowned.

Those dense scales wriggled slightly while thinking, making a slight friction sound, like the sound of snakes shedding skin.

His expression turned from confusion to deep unease, and finally into a kind of near-fearful blankness.

"Corinna?" Maxim repeated the name, his voice full of emptiness:

"This name... completely strange."

In his turbid eyes due to abyss pollution, painful struggle flashed.

As if something was struggling desperately in the depths of his memory, wanting to float to the surface, but was suppressed to death by some indescribable power.

"Silver hair, mask, my colleague at the Black Mist School..." Maxim's voice began to tremble:

"I should know such a person, I should remember... but... but..."

He suddenly stopped his words and held his head tightly with both hands.

Those silver scales began to writhe violently, as if some living thing was crawling crazily under the skin.

"Damn it! Why do I feel this name is so familiar, yet I can't remember it at all?!"

Maxim's voice carried despair and anger:

"It's like someone used red-hot iron pliers to forcibly rip something important out of my brain!"

His emotions were too agitated, to the point that the abyss aura outside the Void Skeleton shield began to restless.

Those twisted faces outside the barrier turned toward their direction one after another, emitting silent mockery.

Youteer frowned and glanced here, seeing it was someone Luo En knew, and didn't say anything more.

"Master Maxim, calm down." Luo En's voice remained steady:

"The abyss environment will amplify negative emotions; you need to control yourself."

"I'm sorry... I lost my composure a bit." Maxim took a few deep breaths, trying hard to calm his emotions.

But the look he gave Luo En carried a kind of indescribable suspicion:

"Luo En, that person you just mentioned... did she really exist? Or... or are we all experiencing some kind of collective hallucination?"

"She certainly existed." Luo En's voice was firm, but his heart also gave birth to some wavering:

"Mentor Corinna, a cutting-edge wizard sent by the Crystal Spire to the Black Mist Jungle.

She was the guide who brought me from the Kingdom of Falu Ke to the school, and later became Trish's mentor."

"Trish?" Maxim's expression became even more confused: "Another completely strange name..."

"You and Mentor Corinna should be very familiar." Luo En's voice carried a certain inductive nature:

"You two were once members of the same exploration squad, having gone deep into the sixth layer of the abyss together."

"No... impossible..." Maxim said in a hoarse voice:

"I have never explored the abyss with any female wizard; my teammates should all be... all be..."

He suddenly stopped, a more terrifying expression appearing on his face.

"I... I can't even remember the names of any teammates!"

His words were full of despair:

"I remember having teammates, remember fighting side by side, remember sharing life and death... but their faces, their names, are all a blank!"

That kind of fear from the heart made this veteran wizard who had experienced countless life-and-death tests tremble like a child.

It was like something had wiped out some important people in his memory!

Maxim's emotions had fallen to the extreme:

"I can remember techniques, remember knowledge, remember various details... but those people, those important memories, are all gone!"

Luo En looked at this gray-haired, prematurely aged man whose emotions were on the verge of collapse, and felt quite empathetic in his heart.

"The scope of influence of the Land of Oblivion is wider than what Professor Youteer described." He analyzed silently in his heart:

"Not only will those directly devoured be erased, but even part of the memories closely related to them will also be affected."

This was a chilling discovery.

If the Land of Oblivion truly possessed such powerful reality-rewriting ability, then the entire history of the wizard world might have huge gaps.

How many important figures, events, and even important knowledge inheritances had been completely erased by this power?

And they, these survivors, didn't even know what they had lost.

"Master Maxim." Luo En finally spoke, his voice carrying a certain comfort:

"Maybe I remembered something wrong; the abyss environment is indeed prone to false memories."

This was a well-intentioned lie.

Although Luo En firmly believed in this in his heart, he didn't want Maxim to endure more pain.

After all, what could knowing the truth do?

Those erased people might never come back.

"The abyss environment is indeed prone to hallucinations; maybe you confused other people's memories."

Maxim loosened his clenched fists and shook his head with a bitter smile:

"Also... if there really were such companions, how could I forget? We lived and died together, faced those indescribable terrors together..."

His voice became lighter and lighter, as if convincing himself:

"Memory is indeed not very reliable. Especially after staying in the abyss for a long time, many things become blurred."

But Luo En could see that Maxim didn't actually believe his own words.

There was deep confusion and fear in the other party's eyes.

Like someone who had lost an important memory puzzle piece, knowing something was missing, but unable to find it back.

Now, back in the Flesh Forest, Luo En could still feel that bone-chilling coldness.

Corinna, Trish... did they really exist?

Those memories about them were so clear:

Corinna's untimely sense of humor under her cold appearance, her face that was scarred beyond recognition by abyss erosion after taking off her mask;

The cheerful smile Trish would occasionally reveal when meeting him privately, her full yearning when talking about the future and a wider world, and her smug look when showing him her wood elf pointed ears...

But if everyone forgot them, then how could the authenticity of these memories be verified?

"This is the most vicious part of the Land of Oblivion." Luo En smiled bitterly in his heart:

"It not only took away life, but also took away the meaning of existence; the erased people don't even have the qualification to be mourned."

However, as a rational researcher, indulging in this kind of emotion was of no help to him.

What mattered was extracting valuable information from this phenomenon.

"At least now I know that my special soul structure indeed possesses a certain resistance."

He quickly adjusted his mindset: "This resistance is not only effective against abyss erosion, but also has a protective effect against reality-rewriting attacks."

This was an important discovery, meaning he would have an advantage over ordinary wizards when facing similar threats.

Withdrawing these thoughts, Luo En began to focus on the task at hand.

Through the spiritual link, he could feel "Explorer One" approaching an area with a heavier abyss aura.

"Captain Miller." He turned to the veteran who was on alert:

"I need to perform a divination to determine the direction of the next action."

A trace of worry flashed in Miller's single eye.

As a veteran explorer, he knew the risks of performing divination in the abyss. "Understood, Wizard Ralph." He didn't say any nonsense and immediately began to command the team members to establish a defensive camp:

"Listen up, guys! Set up the defensive circle according to standard procedure!"

The experienced exploration team showed amazing efficiency.

Blake, while cursing the disgusting environment around him, skillfully set up alert runes around.

These runes were active runes drawn with the blood of special abyss creatures, capable of sensing and alerting any hostile existence approaching in advance.

"Damn Flesh Forest." Blake complained in his unique rough voice:

"Every time I come here, I feel like I've crawled into some giant monster's belly."

Camilla rolled her eyes at him while assisting in setting up physical barriers:

"Blake, watch your language. In this kind of environment, your complaints might be heard by things that shouldn't be heard."

"Ha! Let those monsters come!" Blake patted the battle axe at his waist disdainfully:

"My axe is craving to taste some fresh flesh!"

Although he spoke boldly, his hands didn't slow down at all, and those defensive runes were arranged airtightly by him.

The other two team members were responsible for building a temporary shelter.

They used special sound-insulating materials to build a relatively closed space, which could effectively block various spiritual interferences in the abyss environment.

Finally, Miller personally took out a precision device that Luo En had never seen before.

This device looked like a mixture of some kind of living organ and mechanical parts.

The most strange thing was its "eyes."

Those were dozens of observation devices of different sizes, which would rotate autonomously, scanning the surrounding environment.

"This is the 'Box of Silence' newly developed by the observatory."

Miller explained while carefully debugging the equipment:

"The abyss environment is full of various spiritual interferences, including whispers of ancient existences, wailing of the dead, and disordered signals emitted by chaos itself."

After the equipment was activated, the surrounding environment immediately underwent subtle but obvious changes.

The vaguely audible twisted whispering sound disappeared, and the nauseating feeling like countless bugs crawling in the eardrums was also greatly reduced.

The suffocating pressure in the air seemed to be separated by an invisible barrier.

"I don't quite understand the production principle of this thing."

Miller continued, his single eye flashing with the pragmatism unique to a veteran:

"But I know it has saved many people's lives. Ordinary divination rituals are almost impossible to perform in the abyss environment; those interferences not only affect the accuracy of prophecy but may also attract some... attention that shouldn't be attracted."

His voice was very low:

"I have seen diviners perform rituals in the abyss, and as a result, they summoned wandering ancient souls. Those things are particularly sensitive to divination activities; once targeted by them..."

Miller made a throat-slitting gesture, the meaning self-evident.

Luo En nodded with satisfaction.

This professionalism was exactly the reason he chose the Miller squad.

In this extreme environment, the importance of experience and equipment didn't need to be stated.

In the protected environment with complete equipment, he began to take out divination tools.

But unlike the astrolabe used usually, he couldn't see the stars outside in the abyss environment, so he needed to use other divination methods.

As a qualified astrologer, Luo En certainly mastered a variety of divination techniques.

Although astrological divination was the most accurate, it was by no means the only choice.

"Need to think carefully... in this kind of environment, which method is most suitable."

First is blood divination, which is one of the oldest and most dangerous divination methods.

Through the life information contained in the blood, the prophet can peek into certain fragments of fate.

But this method requires using the diviner's own blood, and there is a high probability of attracting the attention of related evil existences.

Second is bone divination, using special bones for divination.

Bones of different races contain different prophetic characteristics.

Human bones represent wisdom and death, beast bones symbolize power and wildness, while the bones of abyss creatures can sense changes in chaos.

There is also rune divination, predicting the future through the combination of ancient runes.

This method is relatively safe, but requires deep knowledge of runes.

Moreover, the divination results are often obscure and difficult to understand, requiring a large amount of time for interpretation work, which clearly isn't available at this time.

Finally, there is dream divination, which is the most mysterious and uncontrollable method.

The diviner needs to enter a special meditative state, allowing consciousness to contact the boundary between dreams and reality, from which to obtain prophetic information.

But this method is extremely dangerous, even more so in the abyss environment.

If one is not careful, consciousness could be lost in the depths of nightmares forever.

Considering the current environment and mission requirements, Luo En finally chose blood-bone combination divination.

This is a composite technique that fuses the advantages of blood divination and bone divination; although there are still risks, it is relatively controllable.

He took out a set of carefully prepared divination tools from the storage bag:

Seven finger bones from different abyss creatures, each treated specially;

A divination plate carved from obsidian, with dense patterns like blood vessels on the surface;

And seven special candles that emit a special fragrance that guides the soul when burning.

The special number seven is destined to be linked with mystery.

"The core essentials of blood-bone divination are..."

Luo En reviewed the theoretical points in his heart while arranging the tools.

He lit the candles, each emitting a different scent when burning:

Rotten sweet fishiness, metallic rust, floral fragrance...

These scents mixed together, forming a strange smell between sweet and foul.

"The bones of abyss creatures are particularly suitable for predicting the future related to chaos, because they are born with the ability to sense the energy fluctuations of the abyss."

He gently pricked his left middle finger, letting a few drops of blood fall into the center of the divination plate.

The moment the blood touched the obsidian surface, those vessel-like patterns lit up instantly, emitting strange red light.

This light was not stable; it was flickering regularly like a heartbeat at this moment, as if this dead object had gained life.

Next, Luo En held the bones in his right hand and closed his eyes to begin meditation.

He needed to inject his spiritual power into these bones, awakening the ancient memory fragments sleeping within them.

As meditation deepened, he felt his consciousness begin to split.

Part of it remained in reality, feeling the temperature, humidity, and the breathing sounds of his teammates;

The other part sank into a deeper level, contacting the ancient memories contained in those bones.

At that level, Luo En saw unsettling scenes:

Corrosive insects crawling in the underground labyrinth, their compound eyes reflecting countless possibilities of death;

Shadow spiders weaving the web of prophecy at the top of the Flesh Forest, each thread connecting to the fate of a creature;

Blood-tear flowers, when absorbing pain, would briefly see the future of the sufferer...

Memory fragments began to fuse in his consciousness, forming a brand-new way of perception.

He could "see" the dangers hidden in the surrounding environment and feel the fluctuations of fate threads.

With the end of the visual change link, the bones were thrown into the divination plate by him.

From this link onwards, it was no longer under the control of his magic.

The bones in the plate began to arrange themselves automatically under the action of blood.

They seemed to be performing some kind of strange dance, sometimes gathering, sometimes dispersing...

(End of chapter)