"What's going on here?"
Heine stepped forward, anxiously examining Zhuo Yang.
The three skeletons were each equally dumbfounded.
Seeing no sign of the incoming energy abating, and Zhuo Yang showing no discomfort, Heine instructed him to stand farther away.
But no matter how he moved, he couldn't break free from this line.
After an initial bout of unease, the man and the three skeletons regained their composure.
Director Sa said, "Brother Yang can't possibly drain all the Holy Light from this well, can he?"
Teacher Xia said, "It's actually not impossible. There are four of these pipeline nodes in total. It's hard to say what would happen if they all connected. Might as well turn Brother Yang into a golden skeleton king."
Zhuo Yang said, "...I think you two just want to see me dead."
Heine, however, made a mental note.
There are three more pipelines like this...
...
The Guard who initially led the way ran off like a madman upon reaching the cave where Matte was and hasn't been seen since.
Trudging through the mine shafts, Director Sa suddenly asked:
"By the way, does anyone here know these mines well?"
Heine had actually been wanting to ask that.
Teacher Xia said, "That's hardly likely. Lifestyle gamers might be familiar. Once this place is no longer a battle zone after being farmed, I've only been here a couple of times."
"What about Brother Yang?"
"Well, how could he be familiar? When he started playing, this was already the Scorching Mountain region, with mines and farms packed with lifestyle players. He just went back and forth between two dungeons and the wilderness..."
Zhuo Yang said, "I might actually know the way."
"What??"
Both were shocked!
At that moment, Heine also noticed something unusual.
As he continued to absorb Holy Light, a faint golden tint started to color Zhuo Yang's Soulfire.
And his bone body, which usually had no warmth, suddenly felt faintly warm, particularly noticeable in the cold mine.
"You know about the Order Shield, right? It has a glow effect that detects evil, the closer it gets the brighter it shines. I feel like my own indicator light on a shield. It's not my senses, but I do know which path brings me closer to the surging Holy Light."
Teacher Xia said, "Let's see you perform at the next fork!"
"...Alright then."
Soon, they arrived at another crossroads.
Zhuo Yang suddenly stopped, staring blankly in a certain direction.
Heine had been keeping an eye on the line attached to him and was the first to spot the anomaly.
"What's wrong?"
He walked over to Zhuo Yang.
Clearly, he would get no response.
"Can you really do this?" Director Sa asked. "Is this how you usually give him cues?"
"What else? We can't just drag him inside, can we?"
Director Sa really wanted to say that was too stupid.
But the next second, he saw Heine murmuring thoughtfully:
"Are you trying to say that there's a similar structure in this direction?"
"Holy shit, really?" Director Sa was astonished.
Teacher Xia said, "Learn something, this is what rapport looks like."
"Let's try this way," Heine ultimately decided, and they hurriedly followed.
Minutes later, they returned to the same junction.
This time, an additional golden thread had appeared on Zhuo Yang, extending from deep within the mine.
But the first one had now faded so much it was almost invisible.
Although the thread could not be broken, it would fade with distance, an indication that the Holy Light could not converge and was dissipating into the air – the further they went the more it dissipated.
But at this moment, Heine was full of vigor.
"Let's go, we continue the search!"
...
Outside the mine.
Bang Bang Bang!
Another series of solid thumps echoed.
Arthur, like a wounded wild wolf, chased after the puppet, relentlessly slamming it with fists, elbows, and shoulders.
Cracks spread like a spider web across the Blood Puppet's armor.
Dylan Gittler watched, his heart bleeding, unable to help but curse:
"Arthur! What kind of madness has taken hold of you? Does old George's son, who has his head in the clouds, really not fear the Gittilers scattered all over the Makala mountain range?"
Arthur, with bloodshot eyes, stared straight at him.
"Give it a try if you think you can!"
"By Sanatos above, this madman!"
Dylan cursed.
The Gittler family was now completely stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He shouldn't have trusted that old fox Donald!
Yesterday, the man wrote saying there was a chance to kill two birds with one stone, one could get rid of little George and pin the crime on the murderer who killed Hunter Jettile.
But the result was that, even after the cost of three lives and three blood worms, the problem wasn't resolved and it only brought about a series of troubles!
This morning, he received another letter from Cui Yeting.
The letter said Donald was a charlatan, his real purpose was to make Arthur dismantle the Holy Light Isolation Device here.
That way, the people from Eternal Dawn could destroy Gittler Manor just like they did the Bone Burial Ground.
Dylan was skeptical, but when he saw Arthur marching from the barracks with people, an imposing sight, he had to believe at least part of it.
When he rushed to the mines, there were people from both Donald's camp and Cui Yeting present.
He wanted to get to the bottom of it, but Arthur didn't give him the chance and charged into the mines with his people!
And so, the battle continued until now.
Dylan was somewhat puzzled, why did little George insist on being Eternal Dawn's lackey?
Wouldn't it be good to be a neutral zone lord?
He was seething with rage thinking about the tremendous losses caused by this senseless battle.
"Mr. Dylon, Cui Yeting will take full responsibility for your losses this time."
As if reading his mind, Jianglu's voice came from the side.
Dylan felt a little better inside.
"Hmph... and the future five years' maintenance fees for the Holy Light Isolation Device need to be waived!"
Jianglu thought to herself with amusement that this fellow really was someone who had been sold but still helped others count the money.
"Three years, no more."
However, she didn't wait for a response, when Dylan suddenly stared blankly in the direction of the mine, his whole person as if petrified.
"Holy Light? Why is there such powerful Holy Light?"
Not only him, his wife Selima showed the same expression, and let out a sharp scream after a short while.
Necromancers often have a heightened sensitivity to the Holy Light.
So only after about ten seconds did Jianglu's expression turn grave.
She, too, sensed that slowly releasing Holy Light...
This isn't good, has the conduit burst?
She was not worried that someone could destroy the Energy Well.
With The Quad-Nations Covenant in place, a Fifth Level caster capable of destroying the well was not allowed to enter here, and someone like her was already at the limit of being admitted.
If it was just a conduit burst, then that was still manageable to repair.
It's just that the explanation would be troublesome.
"Mr. Dylon, this might be..."
Whoosh!
Her explanation was interrupted by an arm that was enlarging rapidly.
She had to hurriedly dodge, barely avoiding a Blood Puppet's severed limb that Arthur had thrown over.
"Hey, little bee, time to come down and sting me," Arthur called out to her.
The man was disheveled and covered in blood, but the blood light around him was intense as if he had just exploded a Blood Slime monster.
Hearing this nickname, Jianglu's face immediately darkened.
Some long buried memories were stirred up.
She coldly vanished into the air.
Her headband gleamed slightly, and a green potion bottle appeared in her palm.
She poured out a drop of the potion and smeared it on her dagger.
Eternal Sleep Potion, a Fifth Level non-lethal poison, 45 Gold Coins/gram.
It was also on The Quad-Nations Covenant's list of prohibited items.
If discovered, she herself would be kicked out of the Makala mountain region.
And Cui Yeting might also excise her just to preserve their membership.
But when an emergency situation collided with personal grudges, she couldn't care less about the consequences.
She fixed her gaze on the back of Arthur's neck, her body as light as a breeze.
Running, leaping, descending!
Her dagger touched Arthur's neck as lightly as a dragonfly skimming the water surface, then moved away swiftly!
Arthur, who was hammering a Blood Puppet into the ground, felt something sting him, followed by a sensation as if all his strength was drained, and his mind became extremely sluggish.
The thick blood light around him receded rapidly; he staggered back two steps, gasping for breath.
"Impossible... what poison is this?"
No one answered.
Arthur's consciousness grew blurry, and he saw the half-dead Blood Puppet rising from the ground, its armor shards and decaying flesh dropping with rustling noises.
But it was steadily approaching him.
He wanted to resist, but he simply couldn't muster the strength.
No...
In the final moments before falling into a deep sleep, he seemed to hear something.
It was the sound of air being sliced, followed by someone's exclamation.
"Good, I'm just in time."
That voice seemed somewhat familiar...