Free Web NovelChapter 491: Chapter 488: Unknown Secrets (Part 1)
Mo Qi patted the ring hanging on his chest. Following a sensation in his heart, he passed through a particularly dense stretch of forest, and the view before him suddenly opened up.
It was a vast lake. The surface was as smooth as a mirror, without the slightest ripple, as if time and space had stood still.
In the heart of the lake lay a small island, several hundred feet across, upon which stood a low, thatched hut.
Mo Qi’s heart skipped a beat as he felt a sharp pang of unease.
He frowned and stood his ground. He clapped one hand over the mouth of the Pig Emperor, who was just about to speak. With his other hand, he gripped the Scab Chicken’s neck, silencing it.
"What’s wrong, Mo the kid?" The Pig Emperor knew Mo Qi had discovered something and quickly asked via telepathic transmission.
Mo Qi replied, "Don’t you think it’s a little too quiet here?"
The Pig Emperor pushed Mo Qi’s hand away and turned to look.
The lake before them spanned thousands of acres, yet despite the vast, open space, there wasn’t even a breath of wind.
Moreover, a lake this large, situated deep in a dense forest, should have been teeming with life. Yet not a single ripple had disturbed its surface. freeweɓnøvel.com
At first glance, it seemed perfectly calm and peaceful, but a second thought sent a chill down the spine, filling one with an unnerving dread.
"And have you noticed?" Mo Qi transmitted again. "Ever since we reached the lake’s edge, we haven’t heard any other sounds."
The Pig Emperor froze. Hearing Mo Qi’s words, it finally understood the true source of its unease.
During their treasure hunt through the dense forest, Mo Qi and the Pig Emperor hadn’t encountered the slightest danger.
It wasn’t that the forest was safe. On the contrary, it was home to powerful and ferocious Demon Beasts, as well as many of the Abyssal Demons Mo Qi had encountered before.
The reason they had been able to hunt for Treasure unimpeded was that Mo Qi and the Pig Emperor had sensed the creatures’ locations in advance and avoided them.
But throughout that journey, the roars of beasts, sounds of battle, mournful wails, bloodcurdling screams, and a cacophony of other bizarre noises had echoed ceaselessly through the forest.
And that was why the silence now was so profoundly eerie.
The Scab Chicken stared wide-eyed at the great lake, a veritable tsunami of shock crashing through its mind.
’Holy shit! Isn’t this the lakeside retreat that old coot Ku Mu built out of unrequited love? It’s also the heart of this entire mountain range!’
The way the Scab Chicken looked at Mo Qi changed completely.
’He can’t actually be old man Ku Mu’s bastard son, can he?!’ it wondered. ’Otherwise, Ku Mu would never have let him trespass here! This place is more precious to that old coot than life itself!’
While the Scab Chicken was silently badmouthing Elder Ku Mu, the hidden Elder Ku Mu was equally shocked.
’Looks like this kid really can sense the exact location of a Treasure. And his target from the very beginning was that crazy lass’s stuff.’
Elder Ku Mu seemed to think of something. He took a deep breath, then sighed heavily.
’What in the world is the connection between him and that crazy lass? It can’t be as simple as him just being her chosen one! She must have hidden something from me!’
By the lake, Mo Qi raised an index finger to his lips, gesturing for the Scab Chicken to be quiet.
The Scab Chicken nodded repeatedly, indicating that it wouldn’t make a sound, and only then did Mo Qi release it.
"Mo the kid, there’s something strange about this lake water. It’s right in front of me, but my Divine Sense can’t seem to lock onto it. It’s like a living creature, constantly moving around, impossible to pin down."
Mo Qi’s expression darkened. "The path we took to get here... it’s gone," he said.
"Huh?"
The Pig Emperor turned to look. The dense forest was gone. Behind them was a vast expanse of white, as if shrouded in mist.
The Pig Emperor flew up and tried to charge into the mist but was blocked by a force at its edge, unable to go any deeper.
"We’re trapped." The Pig Emperor flew back to Mo Qi’s shoulder. "Mo the kid, take a look. Is this an Array?"
Mo Qi nodded. "It’s an Array, but its grade is too high. Even with the Chaos Scripture’s help to analyze it, it would take at least a hundred years for Array Breaking."
It wasn’t that the Chaos Scripture wasn’t powerful enough. The problem was that Mo Qi’s own Cultivation Realm was too low.
Furthermore, his relationship with the Chaos Scripture was far from that of master and servant. From a certain perspective, he lacked the ability to actively control it at all.
In most past instances, it was the Chaos Scripture that had taken the initiative to help him.
The Pig Emperor fell silent. A hundred years was nothing to it. Back in the Wailing Abyss, a single nap could last longer than that.
But for Mo Qi, a hundred years was far, far too long.
He couldn’t possibly spend that much time just on Array Breaking.
"I can feel that the clue my mother left is on that island in the lake, inside that thatched hut," Mo Qi said suddenly.
"Then should we just go for it?" The Pig Emperor scratched its belly. "I don’t think your mother would harm you."
Hearing this, Mo Qi took a deep breath and lifted his leg to step forward, but found he couldn’t complete the step.
Or rather, he couldn’t find a place to put his foot down.
Because the moment he tried to step, the surroundings spun rapidly and changed. Everything became dreamlike.
The great lake vanished, the island in its center was gone, and the thatched hut had transformed into a bottomless abyss.
There was no path ahead!
At that moment, Mo Qi’s Cultivation began to regress at a terrifying speed.
Vajra Realm... Purity Realm... Refining Divine Being... Qi Refining... Refining Essence...
Finally, he became an ordinary person.
A cold sweat instantly drenched Mo Qi’s entire body.
’How could this be happening?!’
He tried to contact the Chaos Scripture but found he couldn’t even look inside his Sea of Consciousness.
The Creation Golden Body Technique didn’t respond either, and a profound sense of weakness washed over him.
’My Cultivation... it’s all gone?!’ freёwebnovel.com
An unprecedented panic rose in Mo Qi’s heart. He could feel that this was all real, not an illusion.
"Pig Emperor, what do I do?" Mo Qi asked subconsciously.
However, he received no response from the Pig Emperor.
Hm?
Mo Qi glanced to the side, but the Pig Emperor was nowhere to be seen.
’What’s going on?’
’Where did the Pig Emperor go?’
He looked down, and even the Scab Chicken was gone.
’Something’s wrong. Very wrong!’
Mo Qi began to doubt his own senses.
’Is this all really not an illusion?’
Looking at the abyss at his feet, Mo Qi decided to take a risk.
’If it’s an illusion, then the abyss is fake. Stepping across shouldn’t be a problem. At worst, I’ll just fall into the original lake.’
’If it’s not an illusion, then I’ll just have to accept my fate.’
’Either way, it’s better than being trapped in this dilemma.’
With this thought, Mo Qi gritted his teeth and stepped out over the abyss.
He felt the ground give way beneath his feet, his body lost its balance, and he began to fall into the abyss.
’I’m done for!’
’This is bad,’ Mo Qi thought grimly. ’I gambled and lost!’
The abyss seemed bottomless. His descent quickened, and the light above grew more and more distant.
Slowly, Mo Qi’s consciousness began to fade. The sounds in his ears were no longer just the wind but were joined by other, peculiar noises.
