Novel Full Chapter 422
In Lin Jun’s perception, the Abyss was like a roaring river—information flowed through it endlessly, never staying in one place.
The summoning circle he was using now, roughly a third- to fourth-tier array, was like cutting a hole in the ice over that river and waiting for whatever lived beneath to crawl out.
Lin Jun’s method differed: he could actively plunge his consciousness in and “fish” things out, which made the process considerably more efficient.
What he managed to pull up, however, still depended on luck.
After tailing the demon army for two days, all he’d drawn up so far were useless scraps.
The Abyss spawned all sorts of bizarre life—many of them apparently not even designed for fighting or survival.
There were candle-beasts that displayed beautiful illusions when lit, doll-men that only knew how to beat a monotonous drum… such frivolous creations gave Lin Jun a whole new appreciation for the Abyss’s diversity.
When he encountered useless things, he still had to waste effort personally destroying them.
Compared with those, the shadow worms counted as “top-tier” for recent yields.
If not for Aiden’s concealment abilities, the messy summoning setup would have been discovered by demon sentries long ago.
When someone had enough resources and time to prepare, they could hide very well.
The demons weren’t stupid either. Despite repeated harassment, their main force still advanced steadily—just a half-day slower than planned.
At this rate, they’d reach Redstone City within a day or two at the latest.
“Come on, something useful!” Lin Jun muttered as he kept drawing.
Aiden beside him took another mana potion with an expressionless face.
Although he swallowed the potion, his mana showed no obvious recovery—his stomach felt like it was full of water.
Like staying up late on energy drinks, these supplements had diminishing returns.
Overuse not only reduced effectiveness but required a long recovery afterward.
“Boss, sorry to spoil the mood, but I’m almost at my limit.”
Seeing Lin Jun absorbed in summoning and not answering, Aiden sighed and looked up.
Black clouds swallowed the moonlight; the night sky was ink-dark, and distant thunder rolled—the forecast promised a heavy storm.
At that moment the Abyss circle flared again. This time what rose from it seemed different: two light-orbs suspended in midair, gradually coalescing.
The thunder from the horizon grew louder.
“Aiden, come back alive and I’ll compensate you.”
“What?” Aiden clearly didn’t understand what Lin Jun meant.
“Run!”
Crash—!
A blinding bolt of lightning struck. The scout Pujis standing before Aiden vaporized instantly.
One of the already-solidified light-orbs was struck by the lightning; more bolts followed in quick succession. Gale-force winds blew toward the orb, forming an ever-larger vortex.
The other orb, not yet finished, vanished the instant the Puji was struck.
“What is that?!” Aiden realized disaster had struck and turned to flee.
He swallowed another restoration potion regardless—if it could squeeze out even a little extra mana it would help.
A stray arc of lightning brushed his back; his mana shield shattered.
Before he could cast again, a chunk of wind-whipped timber slammed hard into his face.
“I can escape! I can escape!” he forced himself up through the dizziness and, face streaming blood, ran for his life.
…
Aiden’s carefully laid concealment array collapsed the instant the first lightning struck.
In the demon camp several perceptive demon elites simultaneously looked toward that direction; the sudden burst of frenzied magical energy shone like a torch in the night.
Receiving the report, Cenophen charged out of his tent with giant axe in hand and a triumphant laugh: “Finally I’ve caught those damned rats! They’re—”
His voice cut off.
Cenophen’s eyes widened as he stared at the storm giant formed from wind and lightning not far off. The cruel smile on the pig-faced duke’s face faded.
“Why would an elemental spirit of this caliber appear? And its condensation speed—”
No one could answer him.
Worse, the storm giant emitted a thunderous roar and, whipping a gale, charged straight for the encampment!
“Hoo-ooo—!”
Cenophen bellowed. In a flash his body swelled to twice its size; steam rose off his reddened skin like a roasting beast. Even his great axe glowed with searing red heat.
“All troops—engage!”
At his order, countless spells and arrows rained toward the storm giant.
Cenophen leapt forward headlong, axe roaring down with earth-splitting force—
…
At the same time, people on Redstone City’s walls witnessed the horrifying scene.
When the colossal silhouette of the storm giant rose above the horizon, despair rippled through the defenders.
Their already precarious situation now had an even more terrifying enemy.
But soon someone noticed something odd.
Though too far to see clearly, the storm giant seemed to have smashed into the demon ranks—had their summoning ritual run wild? The chief mage Ivan guessed.
The half-dragon Gal burst into laughter: “Serves them right! This is the demons’ punishment!”
Night Owl poked Gal. “Don’t laugh.”
“Why not? Isn’t it funny their luck turned?”
“Because it looks like it’s heading this way.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Perhaps… it really is…?”
——
Lin Jun had lost vision in that area the instant the scout Pujis were struck by lightning.
Suddenly two LV70+ [Frenzied Spirits] appeared, and the control effect on that low-tier Abyssal ritual was completely ineffective—Lin Jun knew trouble had come.
He only managed to warn Aiden with a single shout.
Lin Jun hadn’t even decided what to carve on Aiden’s tombstone—he hoped Aiden wouldn’t just die right then…
But Lin Jun didn’t have time to worry about Aiden. Trouble had broken out in his own backyard as well.
At the exact moment the scout Pujis was struck and destroyed, the unfinished light-orb seemed to adhere to his soul and instantly leapt across infinite distances, plummeting above a patch of Mycelium Carpet in the North.
That bizarre orb condensed in seconds, then sank beneath the carpet into the deep earth and finally disappeared from Lin Jun’s perception.
At first Lin Jun was puzzled—everything around seemed normal, and he even suspected the thing had simply dissipated as its mana ran out.
Only when heavy snow began to fall across the North with no warning—in a season that should have been turning to summer, when temperatures dropped instead of rising—did Lin Jun realize something terrible had happened.