Chapter 385 - 4: Part 2

For one thing, this world actually had Spatial Equipment like Storage Rings! The Naisel family’s treasury, at the very least, contained one such ring, said to be capable of holding enough food to feed a thousand people for several years.

Su Zhou didn’t even need a fully-formed piece of Spatial Equipment. He just needed the right Extraordinary Materials to cultivate the Divine Technique for his Personal Space.

As for the situation in Naisel City, Su Zhou had now pieced together a rough sequence of events from the varying accounts of many people.

About half a year ago, Old Duke Naisel had died, and the other members of the Naisel family had also perished in quick succession. Immediately after, teams of Transcendents from an unknown origin had moved into the Duke’s Mansion and seized all power.

It would be an overstatement to call these people tyrannical, but they were definitely cruel and merciless.

Anyone who failed to comply with their regulations would be hanged. In the past few months, dozens had been hanged—some even beheaded—simply for violating curfew or refusing a search. A dozen or so families of commoners who had previously served the Duke family had also been taken away, one by one. All contact with them was lost, and it was clear they had not met a pleasant fate.

The vast majority of commoners no longer dared to linger on the streets, because if they aroused the suspicion of those guards, the best-case scenario was being extorted for a large sum of money.

"But if we leave Naisel City, we have nowhere else to go."

An adventurer, having finished his story, lamented to Su Zhou, "For thousands of miles around, Naisel City is the only place that’s relatively stable and not easily besieged by hordes of Undead and Magical Beasts. So even with those new guys killing, searching, and extorting people everywhere, we can’t do anything but obey and stay indoors as much as possible."

"That’s for sure. Outside of the major Shelter Cities, the smaller towns and villages have all dug underground to live in Mazes where there are fewer Monsters. It’s dangerous, but not impossible to survive."

Another, older adventurer with a scar on his face chugged a cup of wine and boomed, "When I was young, I joined an expedition organized by the Duke to explore the world’s edge. We discovered that most of the world is now shrouded in a gray fog. Inside the fog, there’s nothing but rock and Undead... Eventually, the entire surface will probably be engulfed, and even the Shelter Cities will have to move underground."

Despite talking about what could only be described as a hopeless, apocalyptic future, the adventurers present all seemed accustomed to the feeling. They were even in the mood to joke. "They’ve been saying this apocalypse was coming for a thousand years, but it’s still not here. Guess it’s a procrastinator, too." (That wasn’t the exact word used, but it’s the most fitting description that came through the Soul Communication.)

"Now that you mention it, that’s true! HAHAHAHA!"

Su Zhou watched the adventurers, who could still find a reason to laugh even in such a bleak world, and couldn’t help but nod in admiration of their resilience.

However, he was well aware of his objectives for coming to this world.

One: Find worthy opponents and, through combat, find the inspiration he needed for his True Body.

Two: Find any potential spatial Extraordinary Materials to prepare for the Cultivation of his Personal Space.

Three: Explore this Otherworld and, if possible, find the Silent Lord’s avatar here. Then, by any means necessary, stop it and see if he could prevent this world’s destruction.

’I can be almost certain that the current abnormal state of this world is an Anomaly caused by the Silent Lord’s resurgence. After all, its decay is linked to rot and the Undead. The suppression of the Four Great Elements might also be a characteristic of the Netherworld.’

’And finding the Silent Lord’s avatar shouldn’t be too difficult,’ Su Zhou thought. ’After all, even the Divine Wood relied on the Immortal Banyan Tree to change its world. The Silent Lord should be no different. There must be some powerful entity or object behind this world’s many disasters, the source of all the Undead Monsters.’

’The Powerhouses of this world are busy protecting their people and maintaining the shelters; they can’t spare the effort to search for it. But I, Su Zhou, have no such obligations.’

’Finding the Silent Lord’s avatar could solve the problem at its root. To do that, I need to understand this world’s history and learn the hidden information these common adventurers would never know.’

Having dismissed the other adventurers, Su Zhou sat alone at the table. While eating his grilled fish, he thought, ’And on the way, I’m sure to find plenty of Powerhouses and have some battles with Monsters. I’ll be killing several birds with one stone.’

But just then, his overly sensitive hearing picked up a commotion from the other end of the street—the crash of furniture being smashed and the mingled cries of men and women.

"What’s going on?"

Su Zhou put down his grilled fish skewer. He raised an eyebrow and glanced toward the door.

Nearby, an adventurer who seemed to notice Su Zhou’s interest spoke up in an attempt to curry favor. "Who else could it be but those Transcendents occupying the Duke’s Mansion? There’s a rumor that an heir to Duke Naisel with a claim to the inheritance has arrived nearby. They’re just waiting for a chance to sneak back into the Duke’s Mansion and reclaim control of the Great Array... As soon as the occupiers got wind of this, they started lashing out everywhere like rabid dogs."

"Reclaiming control isn’t that simple, but destroying it is easy. If this heir has any guts and dares to destroy the Sheltering Array of the Naisel shelter, it’ll be enough to ensure those outsiders get nothing!"