Chapter 186 – Remnants of Obsession

North of Tianyuan Territory, approximately over a hundred kilometers from the domain.

Here, the mountains were steep and continuous.

Between two not-so-tall peaks, in a patch of overgrown weeds, a simple gray stone platform was half-buried. Through the intricate and mysterious carvings on the stone platform, faint traces of civilization could be discerned.

Thud~ Thud~ Thud~

A black-armored legion pushed through thorns and bushes, walking as if on level ground along the steep mountain paths.

After just a few days of absence, the weeds had grown wildly again. Hidden among the grass were several goblins that had wandered in from who-knows-where.

Disturbed by the heavy footsteps, they roared and lunged out from the grass. One of them, gripping a sharpened wooden spear, thrust it toward the Skeleton General leading the way.

Crack.

The wooden spear snapped.

The Skeleton General lowered its head, looking down at the goblin that barely reached its knees, casting a large shadow over the creature.

It reached out, its massive hand gripping the goblin’s head, and squeezed hard.

Squelch—

“Very good, full of spirit.”

Lu Liu approached from a distance and instructed the group, “Clear the surroundings a bit more to make it easier for Young Miss Isloria to perform her spellwork later.”

Lu Liu was the temporary commander of this makeshift legion.

Naturally, this legion wasn’t the elite combat corps but a secondary force of elite troops intended to gradually fill the ranks of the hundred-man combat teams.

With many squad leaders possessing self-awareness, even an “outsider” like Lu Liu could command them effectively.

Where was the Undead General?

He was, of course, leading the elite combat corps, exploring and expanding step by step at the forefront of the mapped territory.

General Dolai often operated alone, targeting particularly troublesome monster hordes or powerful wandering monsters. At times, it also took action to eliminate and purify smaller Lands of Filth.

There were also three hunting teams and six transport teams shuttling back and forth through these “relatively safe but monster-infested” intermediate zones.

The hunting teams, while hunting monsters and providing sacrificial offerings, also undertook secondary exploration tasks.

This hidden relic platform in the mountain col was accidentally discovered by a hunting team during a sweep.

The current exploration speed of Tianyuan Territory was several times faster than in the early stages.

However, other newly ascended Lords were exploring just as quickly.

They might not be able to form legions or combat teams like his, but they could hire players to cast a wide net. The “historical remnant” opportunity that the Great Sun Lord encountered was discovered by players he had hired.

The only issue was the reliability of hired players—they had also sold information about the emergence of the historical remnant to several other Lords.

It was to gain the upper hand that the Great Sun Lord entered the remnant realm with insufficient preparation, ultimately losing both his advantage and his forces.

“Great Sun simply isn’t steady enough in his actions,”

Mu Yuan commented sharply.

Although, the Great Sun Lord had no other choice.

He, on the other hand, had options and thus proceeded steadily at every step.

Through the War Falcon’s vision, Mu Yuan observed the circular platform from multiple angles.

After a while, a streak of light flew in from the distance—it was Isloria, stepping atop the River of Stars, riding the river as she arrived. Regardless of the River of Stars’ combat strength, it seemed quite useful as a mode of transportation?

After landing, Isloria nodded slightly to Lu Liu and a few squad leaders, then quickly stepped forward, standing outside the stone platform to observe it intently.Before long, her furrowed willow-leaf brows relaxed, revealing a confident expression.

“It actually works now? Just a few days ago, we had no leads at all.”

Mu Yuan asked.

Isloria replied through the mental link, “You can’t compare it like that. A few days ago, I was still so ordinary, but now I’m an epic-tier lifeform. Of course, I can perceive things differently now.

Ahem, to put it simply, repairing this teleportation array is still very difficult, but… getting it to operate isn’t hard. We just need to do this… then this… and finally this.”

Lord Mu understood!

A little bit.

In essence, it was about forcibly activating the teleportation platform, using this incomplete platform as a foundation to lock onto the destination, and then supplementing it with special energy to achieve the teleportation effect.

Isloria began surveying and operating the array.

She embedded Soul Crystals at several points on the platform and infused them with energy. A faint azure glow gradually brightened, spreading along the array patterns and slowly outlining a formation diagram… one that looked quite different from the original version.

After working busily for several hours, Isloria finally completed her preparations and declared confidently, “I’m not boasting, but this portal will definitely open. However, the entire platform will be rendered useless after one use.”

Given this, to ensure safety and avoid following in the footsteps of Great Sun and other lords, Mu Yuan suppressed his impulse to open the gate immediately.

He began calling for reinforcements.

Deadbone, dozens of kilometers away, handed over command to Red Robe and quickly rushed over with several Bone Buriers and Wraiths.

Elsewhere, Dolai was even farther away, but it whooshed into the sky and arrived at the stone platform earlier than Deadbone.

In the blink of an eye,

Deadbone, Dolai, and Isloria—the three Generals of Tianyuan—had gathered at this inconspicuous location.

Isloria officially began her work, using her skill ‘Starpath Gate’ as a catalyst to activate the entire teleportation platform. Instantly, strands of azure light diffused, not directly teleporting the target on the stone platform away but instead forming a swirling portal over three meters in diameter.

Deadbone immediately reanimated several crippled-level Little Skeletons from the surrounding goblin corpses and commanded them to stagger into the teleportation gate.

After a moment, it nodded slightly and dispatched a Skeleton General to tentatively step into the portal.

“It’s ready. Let’s go.”

It strode forward and stepped into the swirling light gate.

The space on the other side of the teleportation array wasn’t large—it seemed to be a small Secret Realm. The center was piled with various miscellaneous items, and experimental tables were arranged around the perimeter. Whether due to haste or other reasons, the setup here appeared rather chaotic.

Under the influence of time, everything looked somewhat aged.

I wonder if we can find anything useful here,

Mu Yuan thought.

Clank~ clank~ clank~!

A strange noise suddenly echoed. A pile of seemingly inanimate objects not far away began clanking as they assembled and transformed into one mechanical sentinel after another.

Despite being covered in dust, these mechanical sentinels still possessed considerable power.

Thud—!

A Bone Burier who had followed Deadbone promptly took action, swinging its Heavy Sword down and sending the newly awakened, possibly still stiff mechanical sentinel stumbling backward.

The Burier then lunged forward aggressively, executing a mountain-shoulder charge while the Bone Spikes condensed on its shoulders suddenly erupted.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!In the blink of an eye, the mechanical sentinel was skewered in mid-air by a thick bone spike, its body torn open with over a dozen large gashes, its arms broken, and parts scattered all over the ground.

The remaining Bone Buriers and Wraiths quickly dispatched the reactivated mechanical sentinels, rendering no need for the three Generals—Deadbone and the others—to intervene.

Such was the elite force of Tianyuan.

“Now, it’s harvest time, right?”

Dolai rubbed its hands together, its large eyes blinking as it glanced around. But before it could begin its joyous looting spree, another anomaly occurred.

From a deeper area, a faint, translucent silhouette emerged.

His figure was somewhat blurred, semi-transparent, and one could vaguely make out a man in a long robe holding a hardcover book.

He seemed both real and unreal, resembling the shimmering light that often surrounds high-grade Remnant Souls.

But this was no Remnant Soul.

“It’s… a vestige of obsession!”

As soon as Mu Yuan had the thought, the blurred figure in the distance suddenly erupted with a powerful aura. The figure’s mouth slightly opened, the pages of the book rustled as they flipped, and a visible ripple spread out.

Boom—

The Bone Buriers closest to the blast were sent flying as if struck by a truck, crashing into the surrounding stone walls and leaving human-shaped indentations. Their armor and bones cracked under the impact.

Deadbone stepped forward, his Heavy Sword held horizontally to neutralize the incoming ripple force.

He glanced to both sides; broken bones were no major issue for the Bone Buriers, and there was no need for him to intervene with restoration.

“No, the problem is huge!”

All around, the piled debris, like withered leaves, shattered into pieces under the ripple’s assault.

Further away, the laboratory tables and decayed bookshelves also crumbled and collapsed.

Dolai’s eyes turned red with fury.

Seeing the distant figure about to flip the book’s pages again, it angrily opened its mouth and took a bite.

“Crunch—”

Jagged spatial cracks appeared on the blurred figure, swallowing it from top to bottom.

Bang!

The space shattered like a mirror, then seamlessly mended itself—just large enough to envelop the figure completely.

Simultaneously,

as Dolai eliminated this vestige of obsession, a faint orb of light flew out from the spatial rift, heading straight for Dolai.

Dolai opened its mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.

Mu Yuan: “???” Why do you eat everything!

But the next moment,

Ding!

Prompt: Dolai has Devoured the residual power of the vestige of obsession, gaining fragments of the deceased expert’s lifetime experiences.

Prompt: Your Hero ‘Dolai’ has seized a strand of opportunity and stepped into the Half-Step Domain realm.

This chapter is a bit short. Today, I’m dealing with two DEBUFFs—’Intermediate Dizziness’ and ‘Dry Eyes’—and honestly, I just couldn’t type much more…. Time for bed!

(End of Chapter)