Chapter 164: Incident

Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Incident

The location of the totem was so hot it was hard to ignore. Not the scorching heat of fire, but a smoldering heat from within, as if a glowing coal were smoldering right beneath the skin.

Jeremy raised his hand to look. The pattern that had faded over the past few months now glowed brilliantly again, as distinct as if it had just been carved.

The Ashbloom Flower lying in the middle of the six-pointed star shifted from a dull gray to a fresh blood red. Accompanying that, the dragon patterns coiling around the star also flashed with golden sparks, running along the patterned lines like an electric current.

And along with the heat, Jeremy clearly felt a force pushing him toward the palace. Not strong. But persistent, like a hand placed lightly on his back.

He turned to ask the others beside him.

Everyone shared the same feeling. Phoenix had even taken a half step forward without realizing it, only snapping back when Leon pulled him back.

Evelyn pressed her hand against the burning back of her hand, her thumb rubbing over the star’s lines, her voice casual: "It seems the dying wish is related to these ruins."

"That’s all we can assume for now," Jeremy replied.

Leon didn’t care much. He flicked his hand as if to shoo the heat away: "We had to go in anyway. Consider it on the way now."

"Let’s go in and take a look first. But it’s better to be careful."

"Alright."

"Yeah."

After a short exchange, the five maintained their formation and advanced.

Even though everything in this sea area was a part of the Wasteland, the former glory of the palace was still hard to conceal.

The full view could not be seen from the outside. But just the exposed parts alone were eye-catching enough that it was hard to look away — rows of pillars carved with rolling wave patterns, sections of walls inlaid with seashell shells that had faded yet still reflected the light from the golden path into faint rainbow streaks. On the main domed roof, a headless statue still maintained a posture of raising both hands to the sky.

To avoid getting lost, Jeremy extended the Lumina Ribbon, tying one end to his own wrist, then looping it around each person’s wrist one by one, knotting it carefully.

If the ruins the Aiqier beastkin had mentioned were truly located in this palace, then this place was definitely not simple.

Otherwise, it would have been snatched by someone else ages ago, and wouldn’t be their turn.

Everything should warrant an extra level of vigilance.

The main gate of the palace was an ice jade door three times the height of a person, embossed with the image of two fishes with their tails intertwined. It was not locked. Merely left slightly ajar, revealing a pitch-black narrow gap.

Jeremy gave it a light push. The door opened without a sound.

Stepping over the threshold, the group thought they would see the true appearance inside — a grand hall, a corridor, something.

But what appeared was instead an identical ice jade door. Same size, same image of two fishes with intertwined tails, similarly left slightly ajar.

Jeremy had a bad premonition and turned his head to look back.

A vast expanse of white. No door they had just passed through. No blue sea area. No path they took to get here.

He instructed the four behind him — "Stand still, don’t go anywhere" — then stepped back out, intending to check if that white expanse was real or not.

But passing through the white expanse, what appeared was not the entrance from earlier.

But rather another ice jade door. Identical. Unclear where it led.

This situation was quite similar to the maze he was once trapped in during the Cat and Mouse game. Could they have fallen into a loop again?

Jeremy was just about to turn back to remind his teammates to be careful, but when he spun around, he horrifyingly realized: whether it was Lucius, Evelyn, or the other two, all of them had vanished in the short few seconds he had turned his back.

Not a single silhouette. Not a single sound. Even their auras were wiped clean, as if those four had never stood here.

Jeremy lowered his eyes to look down at his wrist.

The Lumina Ribbon was still wrapped there. But the other end drooped down, hovering in the water.

It had been severed. In silence. At some unknown point.

He reached out and touched the cut. The ribbon’s body instantly crumbled into mush, dissolving like paper ash, drifting away.

"..."

That scene made Jeremy’s heart completely sink.

Although the Lumina Ribbon was not an innate Sacred Weapon, it was still an A-rank magical artifact after all, possessing the effect of not being severable by any blade or sword. Throughout the twenty days on the Cat and Mouse island, it had taken hundreds of slashes without ever fraying a single thread.

Being severed in the blink of an eye without anyone knowing... It seemed the exact moment they stepped through the ice jade door, they were pulled into a type of illusionary space. And the thing that severed the string was not a blade, but the very rules of this space.

Jeremy stood frozen on the spot for a moment, trying to contact his teammates. Voice transmission — no response. Magic Spirit card — the screen only displayed a gray line of text "No signal". Releasing his spiritual consciousness — it was swallowed the moment it touched the white expanse.

All failed.

Half an hour later, he was forced to admit: wanting to regroup in a short amount of time was harder than ascending to the heavens.

But standing idly in one spot was no solution either.

The white expanse around him was being gradually squeezed narrower as time passed. At first, he had seen it as boundlessly wide. Now, on the left and right sides, two faint white walls had appeared, and with every passing minute, they inched a bit closer. Waiting indefinitely would sooner or later result in being crushed into meat paste.

Jeremy glanced at the totem on the back of his hand — now glowing red as blood, even aching sharply with every heartbeat.

Pondering for a moment, he summoned his Sacred Weapon in its scythe form, deciding to yield to the invisible pushing force from the totem and move forward.

On his hand and Evelyn’s group’s hands were this very mark. If the thing pushing him was also pushing them, then perhaps everyone would be led to the exact same endpoint.

Although unclear how high the probability of success was, at this moment he could only think in a positive direction.

Jeremy massaged his forehead, following his intuition and stepping forward.

First door. Second door. Third door.

Every door was exactly identical, down to every crack on the embossed fish tails. He tried marking the fifth door with a small carved scratch. Reaching the sixth door, that scratch was already present in that exact spot.

After passing through the tenth door, his head suddenly ached more violently.

His chest also began to feel uncomfortable, as if an invisible hand were gradually constricting it.

Breathing became arduous — every inhaled breath required effort.

It was at this point that Jeremy finally realized: his thinking had been interfered with by some kind of power at some unknown point.

The headache had been there since the third door. The shortness of breath had been there since the sixth door. Yet he hadn’t found it strange at all, merely thinking it was because he was tense.

...His reaction this time was too slow.

If not for the final pain being too distinct, he would have even continued to assume he was just feeling irritable.

Realizing something was wrong, Jeremy immediately pulled an antidote from his bracelet, downing it completely in one gulp.

But terrifyingly, it had not even half a fraction of an effect.

Conversely, as if the medicine had just touched something inside, all the blood in his body suddenly rioted. Before he could react, blood frantically broke through his skin and surged out — from the pores on his arms, from the back of his hands, from his neck — flowing incessantly.

A pain that tore apart every muscle fiber swept through his entire body.

Blood oozed from his seven orifices — eyes, ears, nose, mouth — rendering everything before his eyes into a blindingly red blur, completely unable to see anything clearly. In his ears was the rushing sound of flowing blood.

What the hell is this...

His mind was so foggy that Jeremy could not even make a clear-headed judgment.

He could only rely on the reflexes Griffin had carved into his bones — pulling out a defensive magic tool, intending to envelop himself first before figuring out a way to heal.

His finger found the activation switch.

But before he could press down, a formidable power struck straight into his soul. Not into his physical body. But straight inside, into the place that no barrier layer could shield.

Jeremy’s body buckled. The magic tool in his hand dropped with a thud onto the white stone floor, rolling a turn.

His entire body collapsed. His consciousness completely faded.