Chapter 605: Players, Jiu Feng’s Perception, and the Parasitic Spore Cloud

“Ugh... what the hell is all this?!”

Yu Yuan rubbed his throbbing head. The information was chaotic and disordered—like suddenly being filled with a bunch of irrelevant memories. It was incredibly uncomfortable.

But once Yu Yuan slowly digested it, he immediately grasped the value hidden within that jumbled mess.

“Blood, Absinthe, Stern Father...”

These familiar names made Yu Yuan realize the situation was far from simple.

“Could that eyeball have belonged to Mortarian or Morphis?”

Of course, another possibility crossed Yu Yuan’s mind: that spiritual thought entity that had once absorbed Mortarian’s obsession and Morphis’s consciousness.

Only that spiritual thought entity could have simultaneously possessed all the memories of Mortarian, Morphis, and the cult’s sacrificial ritual.

Although it was just a guess, Yu Yuan believed it was likely the correct answer.

That eyeball might have been the original vessel for the spiritual thought entity.

Only now, with the spiritual thought entity’s demise, the eyeball had also died.

All that remained were these information scraps filled with pollution and twisted knowledge.

Even though Yu Yuan had gained some valuable clues from these information scraps,

He had no desire to endure that experience again.

That ordeal had been far too painful and extremely dangerous.

It was also the first time since acquiring his [Mysticist] talent that he had felt the threat of death.

It made Yu Yuan recognize his current weakness. While he could ignore the dangers of forbidden knowledge...

But...

The [Mysticist] talent wasn’t omnipotent.

A massive flood of forbidden knowledge could still overwhelm his consciousness before the [Mysticist] purified all of it.

Just as Yu Yuan came to this realization, a deafening roar and tremor erupted from a distant area.

Yu Yuan’s current position was on a platform, high up, with a ground surface resembling biological chitin.

He moved through the shadows, stepping to the platform’s edge to look down. The full scope of this civilization relic appeared before him.

Although he had anticipated it, seeing this city—which seemed like a living creature—Yu Yuan still couldn’t hide the shock in his heart.

This was indeed a city, yet not a trace of stone or metal was visible.

All of the city’s buildings appeared to be organisms—or rather, ‘organs’—cultivated through special means.

The transportation network wasn’t paved roads but vines and worm-like creatures. Thick, pulsating blood vessels formed the city’s foundational structure, twitching rhythmically.

Yu Yuan’s location was probably near the core area, as the flesh-and-blood buildings here were taller and more magnificent.

The spot where the roar and tremor originated was much more remote, likely belonging to the outer reaches of this civilization relic.

Because of the height advantage, even from a great distance, Yu Yuan could barely make out the situation there.

A creature, twenty to thirty meters in size, with seven or eight tentacles and covered in pus-filled blisters and malformed organs, was attacking the surrounding flesh buildings.

Further away, waves of mutated creatures charged at the tentacled beast, erupting into combat.

Zooming in with his Combat Detector, Yu Yuan could vaguely make out the tentacled creature’s appearance.

His heart jolted.

“It’s a player!”

He could see clearly: the tentacled creature bore traces of broken mechanical armor—something that simply wouldn’t exist in this civilization relic.

Unlike the other mutated creatures, which only had thick, hardened chitin formed from hyperplastic tissue.

Understanding dawned on Yu Yuan. That player must have made eye contact with the rotting eyeball in the sky.

In the end, under the pollution and twisted knowledge, they had mutated into a monster.

With that figured out, Yu Yuan lost interest.

“Forget it. I’ve seen enough. My goal here is to find resources and knowledge that can help me advance to Silver Rank.

Everything else is secondary.”

But just as Yu Yuan was about to turn and leave, his gaze inadvertently swept over a patch of shadow in the distance. He stopped.

“There...”

He checked his [Concealment] skill. Finding no issues, he turned his gaze back to that shadow.

Two minutes later, the shadow moved, rippling like water.

Then, a man draped in a black cloak stepped out from within.

He stared intently for a few seconds at the distant, already-battling mutated creature. Only then did he turn and leave, once again vanishing into the shadows.

“Tch. So there’s another shadow user here! And that guy’s strength...”

Yu Yuan pondered for a few seconds, then gently shook his head.

Unfathomable!

That meant he was at least Silver-tier.

Yu Yuan didn’t linger any longer. He turned and left.

—

When Mona, Jiu Feng, and Zhi Zhi were released from the Loser’s Cube by Yu Yuan,

Zhi Zhi immediately and eagerly merged into Yu Yuan’s shadow.

Yu Yuan quickly briefed Mona and Jiu Feng on the situation here.

“In short, whatever you do, don’t look up at the sky. Also, there are other players here, and they’re very strong...”

Mona and Jiu Feng’s expressions became serious and solemn.

They understood that the danger here was far beyond anything in Green Forest City.

“I called you out mainly to explain the situation here.”

With that said, Yu Yuan prepared to put them both away again. After all, it was too dangerous here.

Moving alone was always more convenient than with three people.

But then Jiu Feng suddenly looked at Yu Yuan.

“Master, I have a feeling here!” His face carried a hint of confusion and doubt.

Mona looked at him in surprise, as she hadn’t sensed anything unusual.

In contrast, Yu Yuan’s face flickered with a hint of pleasant surprise.

“A feeling? Tell me about it!” He had brought Jiu Feng along to this civilization relic on a whim precisely because, to some extent, Jiu Feng was considered Mortarian’s successor.

Given that Mortarian had always been seeking an heir, Yu Yuan thought Jiu Feng might have some unexpected gains here.

But he hadn’t expected a pleasant surprise so soon after arriving.

“It’s just...” Jiu Feng organized his words as he processed the sensation in his mind.

His gaze fixed on one direction as he said to Yu Yuan,

“It’s just... a sudden urge... an urge to go there.”

Yu Yuan followed Jiu Feng’s gaze and narrowed his eyes.

“That’s... a tower?”

The virtual map on the positioning watch reconstructed itself. After comparing, Yu Yuan confirmed Jiu Feng’s target.

It was the core of this civilization relic—the Place of Divine Rest.

—

Yu Yuan moved swiftly through the shadows.

After merging with Zhi Zhi, his control over the shadows had become even more adept.

He rushed at top speed toward the direction Jiu Feng had sensed.

“I wonder if my current admin privileges are enough to enter the Place of Divine Rest,” Yu Yuan mused.

But just as he was about to leave his current area and enter the next,

Bang bang bang—

A series of continuous sounds came from the sky. Yu Yuan stopped cautiously.

Looking up, a massive cloud of dark green mist appeared in the sky. The mist spread rapidly, quickly covering the entire sky.

Even that corruption-reeking eyeball was obscured.

Furthermore, the mist was slowly descending toward the ground, thick and heavy.

Yu Yuan’s mind raced to recall what this was, and his expression immediately changed drastically.

“This is...” One of the danger annotations for this civilization relic overlapped with what he was seeing.

“Damn it! It’s a parasitic spore cloud!”