Chapter 946 - Release
Strangely, the dimensional crack was unstable. Even before the female comrade could land in the secret realm, she was swept away by the void. Thus, only he and his male comrade had landed here. Then, they experienced the crazy suction power of this world on their Soul Power.
Both of them had done their best not to use any Soul Power, but his comrade could not endure for long. After traveling about 20 to 30 kilometers, he collapsed on the ground and lost consciousness. Soon after, he became a dried-up corpse.
At that moment, Grai knew that this place would be his grave.
The moment he knew this, he felt a sense of release.
Between his benefactor and his close friend, he had chosen his close friend but was forced to betray his benefactor in the process. Grai could not forgive himself. He wanted to die, but he could not simply choose to kill himself.
Every person who had the pure bloodline of the Blood Race would have the blood of their ancestors flowing through their bodies. They would be seen as a continuation of their ancestors’ lives by the Blood Race. Thus, from the moment you were born, you were not simply living. Instead, you would bear the weight of your Blood Race ancestors living in your body. If you harmed yourself, you would also harm your Blood Race ancestors. This was a huge form of disrespect and a large mistake. It was the most serious form of betrayal towards the entire family! If he chose suicide, even if he died, his soul would not be redeemed. When he went to the afterworld, he would not be able to face his ancestors and family.
This obsession had been deeply embedded within them. They could not betray their bodies under any circumstances. As a member of the Blood Race, unless they died from old age, they could only die on the battlefield.
Thus, he had chosen to come to the frontline base and sign up for the assault team. He followed a group of comrades to the most dangerous places in the battlefield. Every time, he would be the one in the lead. However, it was precisely this unusual valor that always scared the Octopus people he countered. He managed to survive as a result of a strange combination of circumstances. Furthermore, the survival rates of the assault teams he belonged to all rose as a result… Grai was also speechless. He wanted to do his best in battle and die, but he managed to survive every single time. This was extremely awkward. Only those who had personally experienced this would be able to understand his helpless sense of sour delight.
It was much better now, and he did not even need to fight. Grai had a relatively vast amount of knowledge. Unlike how Wang Zhong constantly wandered aimlessly throughout his life, Grai benefited from his experience of spending a lot of time in the library, both in the Holy Land and in the Federation. Although knowledge of the fragment world was of no use to Heroic Souls, he still grasped a good understanding of it.
Thus, Grai very quickly confirmed that he was in a fragment world that was on the verge of destruction. In this kind of place, he could enter, but could not escape. As a mere Heroic Soul, he could not even hope to recapture the Will of this fragment world, let alone hope that someone would come to save him. This place would eventually become his grave.
Although he was much stronger than his comrade, death was the only outcome in this place. Grai did not care about how he spent his time and did not even deliberately resist the suction force this world had on his Soul Power. After burying the corpse of his comrade, he continued forward.
At first, he did not have any objective. He followed his senses and instincts to travel forward in a certain direction. There seemed to be something strange about this direction, and his consciousness led him there. Thus, before he died, he wanted to explore what was going on and resolve the uncertainty in his heart.
For this, he endured throughout the journey. The closer he got to there, the weaker the suction force on his Soul Power was. However, the extent to which it was weakened was highly restricted. The continued consumption of his Soul Power caused him to weaken very quickly. The Soul Power in his body had already been used up, but unlike ordinary humans, Grai’s bloodline contained an unusually powerful energy that allowed him to sustain this consumption.
Thus, he managed to walk further and further, until he reached the castle that was filled with piles of corpses.
The corpses that filled the entire place shocked Grai slightly, but he immediately flashed a smile. So this was the case. No wonder he wanted to come here. The heavens were kind and were afraid that he would be lonely after his death. Thus, they left behind so many people to accompany him. Although they were Octopus people who spoke different languages and were not as friendly as Senior Wang Zhong, they could still be considered partners.
However, it was a pity that he no longer had the power to walk towards the castle. Almost everything from his body had been absorbed, leaving only his skin covering his body. His eyes were deep-set, and countless purple veins had started to protrude from the surface of his skin. Luckily, he had achieved what he had wanted. Grai was already satisfied. The relaxation of his consciousness allowed him to collapse among the corpses outside the castle.
He thought about a silly joke that Senior Ma Dong had talked about in Tianjing. When he opened his eyes again, a night had passed. When he closed his eyes, his life flashed past his eyes…
The corners of Grai’s mouth curled into a smile. Then, he closed his eyes.
However, his extremely weak consciousness was stuck in a dark void. His surroundings felt very cold. It felt as if his weak consciousness would be completely frozen and dispersed at any time. However, he could faintly hear someone calling his name from the void. But at that moment, even if he wanted to respond, he was too weak.
His consciousness gradually dispersed in the darkness and cold. However, it felt as if his surroundings slowly started to shine and become warmer. It gently engulfed his broken consciousness, allowing him to recover quickly. He even rapidly grew stronger…
His self grew more awake, and his surroundings were as bright as day. However, he was still in a void.
Grai wanted to escape this void but bumped into walls wherever he went in the light. But at the same time, the light was nurturing and guiding him, allowing him to feel an ancient power coming back to life within his body. He even saw a few majestic images he had only seen in paintings of the Blood Race.
They were his Blood Race ancestors. They emitted a bright light and sat in front of him like majestic and powerful deities. They were so holy that he could not offend them and could not help but bow down to them. However, he could not bow down to them either. To his shock, he gradually realized that the Blood Race ancestor sitting in front of him seemed to be Grai himself…
When he finally realized this, it was as if he had gained a thorough understanding of the ideas in his mind. The walls in his surroundings suddenly disappeared. Grai opened his eyes. The slight confusion in them quickly disappeared, like how the dreams dispersed in his mind. A familiar face appeared before him.
Wang Zhong!
“Seni—” When he saw Wang Zhong, even though he had just woken up from a major dream, his first reaction was to be dumbfounded. When he left the Wanderlust Team, he had heard that Wang Zhong was causing huge trouble in the Imperial City of the Octopus people. Furthermore, this place was thousands of kilometers away from the north base. Why was Senior Wang Zhong here?
Wang Zhong was one year older than him. At first, they had met by coincidence. He had chosen to study at the Tianjing Academy because of how special Tianjing Academy was. Although this was a city that belonged to the Federation, the 10 Great Families of the Federation did not often appear here. Thus, it was also more suitable for him to hide here. Furthermore, he would not have to worry that he would attract coveting gazes and probing from the 10 Great Families because of his excellence. Furthermore, it was also a coincidence that he had chosen the Prodigy Society. He was rather curious and interested in the strange person who had gotten the highest marks in theory but the lowest in combat, yet could still join in the high-gravity training to temper his body.
However, through various interactions with Wang Zhong over the past two years, they had grown to trust each other. They had fought side by side multiple times and relied on each other many times. This was completely different from the cruel training camp he had experienced under Solomon. Wang Zhong’s passion and enthusiasm brought many positive things to Grai, who was full of hate then.
It could be said that he was very heavily affected by Wang Zhong, to an extent that outsiders could not even imagine. Even though they did not call each other brothers, in Grai’s subconscious mind, he felt that Wang Zhong was somewhat similar to his elder brother who had brought him to hunt in the outskirts. He was also someone who was worth trusting and relying on. As an orphan himself, this was what he lacked most.
Thus, he instinctively wanted to call him Senior, but after some hesitation, he did not manage to call him. He immediately realized that Wang Zhong had definitely come just to find him. He had entered this dangerous place for the sake of a ‘traitor’ who had hidden by his side, and did not seem to care about the danger around him. How many people would be able to do so, even among his loved ones? Grai was very ashamed. He viewed Wang Zhong as an important close friend, but he was a spy who had been planted by his side. No matter whether he had betrayed Wang Zhong, he felt that he was not suitable to call his close friend by such a sacred name. He did not even dare to look at Wang Zhong’s eyes.
However, Wang Zhong seemed to understand his inner thoughts. After being stunned for a moment, he immediately felt extremely gratified and pleasantly surprised. It was fine as long as this person was alive! Wang Zhong also took a deep breath. Then, he briskly walked over and smiled. “Why aren’t you able to call me by that name? Once a Senior, always a Senior!”
Wang Zhong did not blame him, nor did he put on any airs. He did not do anything unnecessary either. He simply said a few words, as if they were greeting each other after a meal. The hopeless situation they were in did not seem to exist in that moment.
Grai’s eyes turned slightly red, but he eventually raised his head slowly.
“I’m sorry!”
“This fellow. Are you really the Grai I know? What can we not talk about together? If you really want to repay Solomon, there is more than one way. Give him something even bigger!” Wang Zhong smiled. When he saw that Grai was awake, his heart that had been in suspense finally returned to normal.
“First, have something to eat.” Wang Zhong did not talk about much more. It was not the time to talk about such things.
Grai laughed bitterly. “I cannot overcome this. Not only did Solomon save my life, he also helped me overcome the worst difficulty I faced back then.”
Wang Zhong looked at Grai and sighed. “I wanted to let you see this after you recovered. You cannot just look at the surface for some things.”
As he spoke, he passed some materials to Grai. This fellow was truly a frank boy. Wang Zhong had spent so much effort to save him, but he was still conflicted.
“I do not dare to say that this plan was definitely done by Solomon, but the Kaiser Empire was definitely planning to destroy your family. They deliberately made you an orphan who had endowments and a hatred towards the Federation.”
Wang Zhong did not say much. This was probably a huge hit to Grai.
Grai understood his own race much better. Back then, everyone had been relying on animal blood for a living. Suddenly, a vicious blood-sucking incident had occurred, and the people in his family were rather shocked. Then, not long after, the Federation army had arrived. Thinking about it now, there were many problems with these. Grai looked through the content in the materials very carefully. Everything proved that Wang Zhong’s ideas were right. After all, he was a Dandelion and knew a lot about their experiences.
So everything had been a nightmare.
“Senior, I’m sorry!” After a long time, Grai, who had recovered his physique, apologized once again.
“We are brothers. Next time, if you have any problems, don’t run into a dead-end by yourself. Now, here’s the problem. We managed to come here, but how do we get out?” Wang Zhong shrugged his shoulders helplessly. He knew that Grai had to be saved, but he did not have a way to get out.
If Wang Zhong could save Grai, even if he ended up in deep danger, it was not a problem for him. Furthermore, once Grai had resolved his problems, he was not afraid of anything. They were very calm as they faced the situation before them. It was as if they did not perceive this as a deadlock.
It was not difficult for a practitioner who had lived in the Fifth Dimension for a long time to escape from a secret realm. After all, if they were able to come in, they would definitely be able to get out. They just had to go out from the way they had come in. But now, the problem was, how did they get here?
They shared their experience in entering this dimensional secret realm and immediately realized that they had entered from the same place, a lake. However, the way they had entered was different. Thus, the lake was a pathway that connected to the outside world, and was constantly moving in real life. Furthermore, Grai did not emerge from a lake. Instead, he had dropped from the sky. However, according to what he remembered, when he looked up at the sky, he did not sense the existence of a pathway or a dimensional crack.
At the same time, Wang Zhong also clearly remembered that he had indeed emerged from a lake. However, he had emerged from a lake that was almost dried up, and the water level was only at his waist. He would be able to see whether there was a pathway in the lake, but he did not see a dimensional crack or pathway at the bottom of the lake.
There was a way in, but there was no way out. This was very strange and completely different from the rules that ordinary dimensional secret realms followed. They could not be treated in the same way. This strange world was filled with mysteries everywhere. For a moment, it seemed as if they did not know where to start. There did not seem to be any clues.
“Let’s look around and explore the castle. We’ll see if we can find any clues.”
Situations without any clues incited their passion to challenge the situation.
They walked past the hills of corpses and went into the castle. Then, they realized that corpses were also piled up within the castle. Every single street, lane, path, or house was filled with the corpses of the Octopus people. These Octopus people did not seem to have died because of the death of the fragment world. Instead, they had experienced a despairing massacre. Many of them had their heads severed or their waists snapped. Their broken limbs and bones were everywhere. There were also many Saint-leveled experts. They recognized these experts from the golden armor they wore on their bodies.