The group walked on the plateau. The rising sun gradually warmed the earth, and a warm breeze made the temperature pleasant.
"Someone's following us."
Tang San glanced back and saw a flying-type Soul Master soaring through the air, openly following them.
"It's someone from the Spirit Hall. Don't worry about it. Let him keep an eye on us; we'll just do our thing."
Flander had noticed him earlier and secretly transmitted a message: "If you find anything good, don't let him see it. Keep it to yourself."
Everyone nodded; no one wanted to be targeted by the Spirit Hall.
However, resources on the plateau were limited, and good things weren't plentiful.
At least Lin Bai hadn't found anything.
With so many people, their speed was affected. When they reached the location where Lin Bai had encountered the Star Servant Spirit, which was the outer area of the Star Titan's corpse, Lin Bai became wary, preparing for the Star Servant Spirit's retaliation.
But after advancing five hundred meters, the expected retaliation never came.
Meanwhile, somewhere Lin Bai wasn't paying attention, a rumor quietly spread.
"The Beast God's divine essence is the source of the curse. Slaughtering all the orcs will break the seal, allow us to find the Beast God's divine essence, and ascend to godhood!"
It's unclear who first heard this news, but after several rounds of transmission, the rumor quickly spread throughout the entire plateau, even reaching some orc tribes.
Out of awe or reverence for other orcs, the orcs dared not do anything out of line.
Adventurers, however, had no such concerns, especially since they didn't consider the creatures in dungeons as their own kind, particularly orcs.
Soon, the news reached Chrysanthemum Douluo's ears, and he discussed it with Ghost Douluo.
"Old Ghost, go find a way to verify the news. If it's wrong, forbid everyone from killing orcs. If it's true… we'll hold off Chen Xin and the others until the Pope arrives."
"No problem. I'll slaughter a small tribe and then judge the rumor's veracity based on the whereabouts of the souls."
Ghost Douluo's cackling laughter echoed through the void, and his black shadow flashed and disappeared.
Yue Guan remained expressionless, glancing up at Sword Douluo in the distance before lowering his head again to silently await Ghost Douluo's verification result.
Lin Bai, who rarely interacted with others, was slow to receive the news. Upon receiving it, he immediately realized that the Star Servant Spirit was responsible for spreading it.
Since he possessed a Time-Space Godhood, the Star Servant Spirit's attacks against him were futile, so it simply overturned the table, targeting humanity's inherent greed with a message urging humans to hunt orcs to free itself.
"Fortunately, it instinctively concealed something; otherwise, if the dungeon had directly indicated that optional mission two was complete, those who heard the rumor would immediately understand its truth."
Lin Bai's thoughts flashed, and he glanced at Tang San and the others beside him, considering how to break the deadlock.
"Going to find the orc guide now might make us seem like enemies. According to the rumor, the beast transformation curse originates from the Beast God's Godhood. Should we still go?"
Dai Mubai raised a very serious question. If there was hope of obtaining the completion reward, he certainly wouldn't mind taking the risk, but working for the Spirit Hall was hardly worth the risk of fighting.
Flander understood immediately and nodded, saying, "Your strength is a bit weak. I'm very interested in the seal mentioned in the rumors. The locations of these villages might be related to the seal. I'll search from the sky; you cooperate with me on the ground."
Flander knew nothing about seals; he was just making excuses to avoid being watched.
The flying-type Soul Masters behind him couldn't hear the telepathic communication, and as long as Flander and the others didn't stop, they wouldn't interfere.
Cooperate?
Lin Bai rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought. He considered how he had removed the curse. Could it be that the curse required a similar force to attract and coordinate with it to be quickly removed, like… the sealed core of the array?
Perhaps there were special methods to activate the core; the orc tribes might have records of such methods, perhaps hidden in their daily customs.
Lin Bai's eyes lit up. He paused, realizing that even without activating his divine spark, he needed to find a core first.
He looked around, but there wasn't a single landscape on the plateau that matched the style of the magic arrays he had seen before. However, he had seen the magic array that sealed the Astral Titan, and he could deduce the core based on the distance.
Lin Bai quickly calculated in his mind, slowing down. The others didn't notice and followed suit, leisurely advancing towards the higher ground.
"Don't slack off!"
the Soul Master in charge of monitoring shouted. As a member of the Spirit Hall, he was arrogant, showing no fear even towards Flander, who was stronger than him.
Flander, however, dared not make a move, gritting his teeth and holding back. "Wait a moment, let us rest for a while."
Ma Hongjun and Oscar exchanged glances, their hearts burning with anger, yet powerless to change anything.
Half an hour later, Lin Bai suddenly raised his head, his eyes gleaming with dazzling wisdom. He had finally deduced a node in the magic array. If his deduction was correct, as long as he could find a way to stimulate the curse at the node, such as actively resisting beast transformation, it might be possible to have the curse absorbed by the seal.
But doing so required a high level of skill. First, his soul strength had to be high enough; otherwise, if his soul was absorbed, it would be troublesome.
"Hehe, I'm not playing along!"
Lin Bai gave the middle finger behind him, a white light flashed in his mind, his consciousness became incredibly clear, everything around him became illusory, and he entered the hyper-time flow, quietly reversing time.
"No!"
The Star Servant Spirit sensed the spacetime fluctuations, guessed what Lin Bai knew, and let out a painful wail, unable to believe that Lin Bai could think of a way to unlock the level so quickly.
But Lin Bai had too many cheat codes; no information could escape the Eye of Appraisal. Deducing the answer from the result was, of course, simple.
The fluctuations in time subsided, and Lin Bai returned to the moment he had just retrieved Ying Tian. Taking advantage of the Star Servant Spirit's surprise at the spacetime fluctuations, Lin Bai flew at full speed, reaching a magic array node at a speed of 100 meters per second.
"What are you doing?"
The Star Servant Spirit had just asked when it saw Lin Bai's face contort, about to transform into a human face. It immediately panicked and cried out, "No, you can't do this!"
But how could Lin Bai do as it wished? He activated his Innate Dao Body with all his might, resisting the beast transformation curse, and drawing the curse out of his body along the suction force of the unknown space nearby.
*Poof!
* The curse condensed, and a black cloud of smoke was drawn from Lin Bai's body, suddenly disappearing in mid-air.
[Dungeon: Calamity of the Mad Beasts has been cleared]
[Main Quest Completed: First Clear Reward - Rare Quality Skill Book - Sheep Transformation, 50,000 Universal Experience, One Random Purple Armor Piece.]
[Optional Quest: Quest One Completed, Reward - Rare Quality Equipment, Cloud Dream Cloak]
Mission Two completed, reward: Legendary quality skill book, Blade Storm/Psychic Storm (choose one).
Mission Three completed, reward: Legendary skill book/item, Astral Leap/Star Source (choose one).
(End of Chapter)