Calamity of Tomorrow-Chapter 423 - 422 Rituals

Zhou Bai continued to read through the work manual.

"Everyone has gone mad, and they've begun to slaughter each other."

"This place isn't the relics of the previous heavenly court; it's a trap!"

"Everyone is mutating; they want to eat people, with parts of their bodies turning into those of animals."

"I don't know how much longer I can hold on... I am so hungry too, I really want to eat, really want to eat Master Ling Miao..."

The work manual had no more content past this point, the rest was a complete mess of scrawls that looked like the result of a madman's scribbling.

'Hmm? The content of this work manual is different from the information that Wolf Head, Xiao Hun, and the others told me,' Zhou Bai thought to himself: 'Is someone lying? Or could it be that... Xiao Hun and the others have been deceived as well?'

After the ten minutes were up, Zhou Bai started selling the old magical treasures and elixirs he had found. His laziness value kept rising and in a blink of an eye, it increased by 100,000 points, reaching 470,000 laziness points.

Zhou Bai thought to himself: 'I am still 30,000 laziness points short of learning the 'Genesis Galaxy Collapse' technique.'

The woman said, "Is it done?"

Zhou Bai immediately replied, "Yes, yes, just keep staying inside this Guihai Black Evil, and your intelligence will gradually recover."

"By the way," Zhou Bai asked curiously, "what exactly happened here? How did these people die? Do you have any other problems? Tell me, and I can heal you."

Recalling the miraculous healing abilities of the flying sword, which could even cure transmissible intellectual disability, hope flickered across the woman's face as she looked at Zhou Bai and said, "I... I have been turned into a Yin spirit... It was all those gods from the Plague Department... Damn those gods from the Plague Department!"

Seeing the woman starting to babble incoherently, Zhou Bai felt helpless within: 'Sigh, I already felt she was a bit low on intelligence, now it has decreased even more, making it even harder to extract information. This conversation is truly exhausting.'

Conversing with her felt like questioning a four or five-year-old child, with answers all over the place and sometimes even contradictory, extremely inefficient.

"They lied to me... this place isn't the relics..."

"Every square... every pavilion... they all have a special meaning..."

"They ate me... it hurts... it hurts so much..."

"It was all the orders of the Plague Department... I saw Lord Yan Zhen come in to set up the Array..."

"Grudges... bloodlines... vendetta... these are what have trapped us..."

"They... it was them... they ate me..."

...

Listening to every word the other party said next, Zhou Bai listened and analyzed, piecing together a context based on this woman's, or rather, Master Ling Miao's statements, combined with the earlier work manual.

They were an exploration team from the Plague Department 50 years ago, tasked with scouting various sites of predecessors, collecting materials on Daoism and Daoist scriptures.

After hearing that the relics of the previous heavenly court's celestial palace had been unearthed, they came here for exploration.

Then, one strange event after another unfolded, culminating in the entire team going insane and eventually turning on Master Ling Miao, devouring her.

But Master Ling Miao discovered she hadn't truly died; rather, she was trapped in this celestial palace by the Array, wandering through the pavilions and towers like a lost spirit.

Afterward, the entire celestial palace was sealed into the void, where she wandered alone in this space for 50 years.

Until now, monks sent by the Plague Department entered, their bloodlines once again igniting Lingmiao Shangren's hatred and madness.

Accompanied by Lingmiao Shangren's recurrent appearances before them, these descendants began to go mad, even starting to mutate.

And when they all mutated, Lingmiao Shangren would devour them...

"Killing a person's physical body, trapping their remaining soul here after death, yet still preserving some degree of sanity, how is this done?"

"No, Lingmiao Shangren's state... is probably mutated already, only it seems she has retained some ability to communicate? Is this also a technique of the Heavenly Court?"

"And... according to Lingmiao Shangren, are all these monks sent by the Plague Department the descendants of the monks who devoured her back then?" Zhou Bai thought to himself, "Hatred, bloodline, resentment, and whatever else the Plague Department did to these people, making them attract each other here, these people will one by one mutate and then be devoured by her."

"The persistence of Lingmiao Shangren in devouring comes from resentment built up over 50 years. This is not some emotion or thought but the result of being twisted day after day within this Array, in this space sealed into the void."

"Even my 'Fool' ability cannot change her persistence."

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"50 years ago, those people devoured Lingmiao Shangren."

"50 years later, Lingmiao Shangren, accumulating endless resentment and hatred in the void, seeks to devour the descendants of those people."

"This is completely some kind of ritual, but what is their actual purpose?"

Suddenly, the Heavenly Demon's comment flashed through Zhou Bai's mind.

"Using human monks to create mutated weapons... Could this be the goal of the Plague Department? Whether it's the exploration team from 50 years ago or the one from 50 years later, both are just material for creating mutated weapons."

The more Zhou Bai thought about it, the colder his heart became. If all this were true, then it meant the Heavenly Court's research on twisting and mutation far surpassed humanity's, and to achieve certain goals, they nearly stopped at nothing, completely disregarding humanity, morality, and these matters.

"But there's still a problem, what about the soldiers that Gu Lan saw? There are no clues related to them in Lingmiao Shangren's talks or the work manual."

"And if they complete this ritual, why create a place that looks just like the previous Heavenly Court's palace?"

Zhou Bai asked, "Hey, if you devour them, what will happen?"

Lingmiao Shangren's face showed an expression of immense anticipation, "Devour... Revenge... Liberation!"

As they were speaking, Gu Lan suddenly started to convulse next to them, his face subtly changing, gradually becoming twisted and ferocious, like that of a snarling wolf.

Zhou Bai's expression changed slightly, "Is the mutation starting?"

...

Xu Dela looked at the image on the screen, a bit unclear about what exactly was happening on Zhou Bai's end. After all, they could only see the images but couldn't collect the sound.

On one hand, the distance needed to collect sound was too close, risking detection, and on the other hand, monks frequently used sound transmission and Primordial Spirit force to communicate, which greatly increased the difficulty of intercepting mobile phone conversations.

In their surveillance footage, that was Gu Lan walking back and forth, and then suddenly, it seemed like Hei Sha of Guihai wrapped up a bunch of treasures and vanished.

Gorinich said, "It feels like Gu Lan has completely taken control of Zhou Bai? Or has the two started to cooperate?"

Xu Dela, "Both are possible. Zhou Bai is someone who can bend and stretch. It's very likely that he is assisting Gu Lan under suppression. Anyway, whatever the case, when they come out, they will be suppressed by us."

"Wait, there's a change in Gu Lan, it seems he's starting to mutate?"