Chapter 1164: Ruins
After hearing Lin Li’s answer, Edmund didn’t feel that there was anything inappropriate about it, and thus led his team to set off to the depths of the ancient underground city again. On the other hand, High Priest Poer, who was already extremely dissatisfied with Lin Li, seemed to harbor a lot more resentment against Lin Li after hearing what he said. From time to time, he would glare at the team of the Tower of Dusk with his eyes full of hatred.
Lin Li had already seen High Priest Poer’s behavior, but he didn’t take it to heart. The Gilded Kingdom’s team was now led by Saint Edmund who called the shots. No matter what, High Priest Poer couldn’t possibly go against Saint Edmund. Besides, to Lin Li, High Priest Poer’s strength was simply insignificant.
However, as the two teams gradually delved deeper, there vaguely seemed to be a strange sound of murmuring in the air. Besides, the voice seemed to be ringing in their hearts. Even with their ears covered, they couldn’t block out the noises. Lin Li tried to hear clearly what the murmuring voice was saying, only to realize that he couldn’t understand it at all.
Even though he couldn’t understand what message the murmuring voice was trying to relay, Lin Li felt that there seemed to be a bizarre power in the voice that was guiding him along subliminally.
In the beginning, Lin Li thought that it could be that the Immortal King had left something behind again, and was trying to guide him to do something. However, after listening carefully, he realized that the muttering seemed to mean nothing at all. It was as if someone was murmuring meaninglessly in his ears.
Even though he couldn’t understand what message the murmuring voice was trying to relay, nor could he find the source of the voice, Lin Li instinctively felt that something was amiss, and so stopped in his tracks, and addressed Edmund, who was still continuing to lead the team in front. “Wait a minute, Saint Edmund, something doesn’t seem right around this place. Do you have more information about this place?”
Lin Li did not tell them about the voice he heard, and instead hoped that he could find out something that could explain that voice from the information Edmund had. After all, this place was once the sacred land of the Illuminati, and Edmund had to have a significant amount of information about this place since he had led his team all the way here.
However, although the team from the Gilded Kingdom also stopped in their tracks, High Priest Poer, who was standing beside Edmund, snapped in displeasure before Edmund could answer Lin Li. “What’s wrong? What can be wrong here? If there’s something wrong, we’d know better than you. Since you have agreed to follow our lead, just tag along behind us and stop asking so many questions.”
High Priest Poer’s senseless interjection not only took Lin Li aback, the other members of the two teams couldn’t help but be stunned too. Although almost everyone present knew that there was a feud between High Priest Poer and Lin Li, High Priest Poer had always been rather restrained in front of them. They were confused about his sudden loss of composure and manners!
Lin Li soon recovered from the shock, and the anger brewing within him seemed to be threatening to erupt as he couldn’t quite contain it longer. He was not a good-tempered person in the first place, and although he was not considered a vengeful person, he would never let off those who offended him. During the rise of the Tower of Dusk in the Breezy Plains, those who had offended the Tower of Dusk had all ended up turning into ashes. Clearly, Lin Li would never go easy on his enemies.
Hence, after hearing High Priest Poer’s words, Lin Li disdainfully sneered. “High Priest Poer, I have to remind you that I am not one of your subordinates, and my team is not some mercenaries you hired. If you can provide the information I want, we can continue to cooperate. Otherwise, we will at most just go separate ways.”
“Listen up, this is the former sacred land of the Illuminati, not a place for you hillbillies to create a ruckus in. Since you’re here, you’d better comply with our arrangements, and not create trouble for yourself,” High Priest Poer threatened with a sinister gaze as he glowered at Lin Li while pulling out his staff as if he was going to strike as long as they had a conflict.
The threat from High Priest Poer naturally made Lin Li displeased. While stroking the Helios’ Scepter, Lin Li looked at him, and said, “I’m really sorry, but I never leave my fate in the hands of others. It seems there’s no way we can resolve this. As for the trouble you mentioned, I’m not afraid at all. In fact, I’d love to experience it again.”
Although Lin Li’s tone was not as aggressive as High Priest Poer, his words were assertive and sarcastic. He said that he wanted to experience it again because they had both fought once in Helena Port before. During that fight, High Priest Poer suffered a huge loss, and if Lin Li hadn’t shown him mercy then, he would have made a fool of himself in public.
By right, High Priest Poer should have been reciprocative to Lin Li’s act of mercy, but the former had always been haughty and arrogant, especially since he couldn’t stand up for his son at all. Hence, he naturally treated that fight as a lifelong shame. Thus, he obviously wouldn’t reciprocate.
Seeing that the two of them were on the brink of getting into a fight, Elder Zumar had no choice but to intervene. He first said to High Priest Poer, “Poer, you went overboard with your words. President Felic is in a cooperative relationship with us, so he naturally has the right to know the information that is relevant to the exploration. I’d better chat with President Felic while you go cool down.”
High Priest Poer was about to continue to say something, but suddenly felt a gaze being fixed on him. He quickly turned his head to look, only to see that Saint Edmund was staring at him with a hostile expression. He could ignore Elder Zumar, but he could not defy Saint Edmund. Hence, he simply glowered at Lin Li before turning around to return to the Gilded Kingdom’s team.
Elder Zumar watched High Priest Poer leave before he turned back around, and said to Lin Li, “President Felic, please understand that it’s not that we don’t want to share the information with you. After all, it has been thousands of years since we last entered this place, and even though we have some information in our hands, no one knows what kind of changes have taken place after thousands of years.”
Elder Zumar’s explanation was reasonable, but Lin Li did not immediately respond, and instead stood still in place, seemingly having slipped into a trance. Although they couldn’t tell anything on the surface, Lin Li was actually overwhelmed with anger at this point as he simply couldn’t be bothered to care about what Elder Zumar said.
In fact, from the moment High Priest Poer was persuaded to leave, Lin Li seemed to have suddenly snapped back to his senses as he got a great shock from recalling his thoughts just now. Although they were only in a verbal conflict, Lin Li knew that deep down, he really wanted to fight hard against High Priest Poer and kill him directly.
Although Lin Li was well aware that he was quite disgusted by that High Priest Poer, it seemed to be the first time that he had ever felt an urge to kill him. During the previous conflict they had, Lin Li didn’t lose out at all; hence, there was no reason for him to detest him that badly.
At this moment, Lin Li even felt like he wasn’t himself, and that he wasn’t the one who wanted to kill High Priest Poer just now.
At this juncture, Lin Li suddenly thought of the murmuring voice that had been ringing in his ears since he entered this place. Although the murmuring seemed to be meaningless, he had been acting impulsively since he heard it, and even developed the desire to kill. He wondered if his behavior just now was due to the voice.
Lin Li first thought about himself before thinking about the high priest. Although he still felt a strong killing intent when he thought of High Priest Poer, he also felt that there was something wrong with High Priest Poer just now. No matter what, High Priest Poer was an authoritative figure of the Gilded Kingdom, and it didn’t make sense for him not to have the slightest bit of patience. Besides, it couldn’t be because of his character, because he had been rather restrained earlier on.
Could it be that I wasn’t the only one who could hear that voice? That thought popped up in Lin Li’s mind all of a sudden, and he ignored Elder Zumar. Instead, he immediately turned around to look at the many subordinates behind him.
After taking a look at them, Lin Li got a great shock again. Perhaps because of the conflict with High Priest Poer just now, the mages of the Tower of Dusk were also looking at the Gilded Kingdom’s team with a killing intent at this moment. It was as if they would immediately attack the Gilded Kingdom’s team as long as Lin Li issued an order.
Lin Li didn’t even need to ask, as he already had the answer just by looking at the expressions of his subordinates. At this moment, he didn’t say anything more, and simply waved his hand, after which a faintly glowing magic shield immediately enveloped the entire team. In this magic shield, he used the power of the debris of the stars, Holy Light, which cleansed the souls of his subordinates in the process of blocking the influence of the murmuring voice.
Indeed, right after Lin Li cast this magic shield, the expressions of the mages of the Tower of Dusk eased up in the blink of an eye. Of course, their original intention was to protect the prestige of their president, Lin Li. Hence, they weren’t puzzled by their emotions just now.
After doing that, Lin Li turned around, and said to Elder Zumar, “Well, Elder Zumar, since I promised you guys, I naturally won’t leave because of this trivial matter. You may rest assured.”
Can I rest assured? You two were so close to fighting just now! Elder Zumar couldn’t help but mock in his heart, but on the surface, he nonetheless said some polite things, and thanked Lin Li for his understanding.
While Elder Zumar and Lin Li were talking, Saint Edmund had been watching them, but when he noticed that Lin Li suddenly turned around, and added a magic shield to the team from the Tower of Dusk, he, too, turned to look at his own team, only to realize that they seemed to be in a bizarre mood. He then thought about High Priest Poer’s abnormal behavior, and also suddenly thought of something.
Therefore, when Elder Zumar returned, Edmund said something to Elder Zumar before waving the scepter in his hand, and the four vague chaos god statues immediately surfaced around the Gilded Kingdom team. They extended their arms to the sides, and a dim light shield enveloped the team of the Gilded Kingdom.
After the dim light shield isolated the team from the outside world, the people from the Gilded Kingdom seemed to have woken up from a big dream. When they thought about how close they came to fighting with the Tower of Dusk, they were much more agitated than the people over at the Tower of Dusk. After all, many of them had suffered losses because of Lin Li before, and no one wanted to lose their lives over this unnecessary conflict.
After the minor conflict, both teams embarked on their journey again, and continued to walk towards the core area of the ancient underground city under the lead of Edmund.
However, when the team moved again, Lin Li glanced at the team of the Gilded Kingdom, and happened to see that High Priest Poer was looking at them too. Logically speaking, after isolating the influence of the murmuring voice, everyone’s emotions should have returned to their usual state, but Lin Li saw the extreme hatred in High Priest Poer’s eyes.
However, High Priest Poer’s abilities were insignificant to Lin Li. Besides, there was a feud between them in the first place, and Lin Li had already gotten used to it. Hence, he didn’t mind it very much.
As the two teams advanced, the surrounding ruins of the ruined walls gradually decreased and eventually vanished. All that was left was yellow sand, and it was as if they had walked into a boundless desert. Besides, although it was an underground world with no scorching sun above their heads, the light was giving the desert a sweltering heat, as if there were 10 suns side by side in the air.
Lin Li noticed that the yellow sand beneath his feet was not the ordinary yellow sand of the desert, but was somewhat similar in nature to the crystal ball that Edmund had taken out earlier on. Upon a closer look, he saw the yellow sand was made up of extremely fine crystals, each of which emitted a subtle divine power.
He wondered if the crystals could be condensed. If they could, the boundless desert would turn into a huge treasure. However, even though Lin Li secretly used the power of the Domain World, he still could not condense them, and it seemed that there was an unparalleled force between each crystal, making it impossible for them to come together again.
How did this desert come about? Who would create such a desert in this ancient underground city? Lin Li thought of the limited information he had gotten from the ruins outside about things like the God Shrine and Divine Kingdom. He wondered, Could it be that this was once the Divine Kingdom of that ancient god, but it was blasted into dust by a tyrannical and unparalleled force?
Lin Li dared not believe that conjecture himself. The Divine Kingdom was the ultimate form of the Domain World which could be said to have reached the same level as the real world. If anyone could blast a high-ranking god’s Divine Kingdom into bits with a single blow, that person would probably be able to destroy the real world effortlessly.