Chapter 867: Chapter 867

"We are attempting to land, expected to reach the landing site in three minutes."

Accompanied by the mechanical voice over the communication channel, the four people inside the space capsule began to concentrate and hold their breaths.

The landing animation began to appear on the screen, clearly indicating the current position of the entire lander.

According to the planned route, the whole lander would follow a parabolic trajectory toward the surface of the transparent planet, constantly checking the landing conditions of the transparent planet to detect whether there were any ’solid’ entities on which to land.

The porthole still showed a blood-colored starry sky, but it was hard to tell if it was an illusion—as the lander continued downwards, the outside blood-colored starry sky also seemed to be ’approaching’ them.

The entire space seemed to warp from outside.

Up to now, people still didn’t know whether this transparent planet had a solid form.

At this moment, a crisp alarm sounded from beneath the display.

Everyone’s spirits jolted as they looked toward the display where a line of red text reading [Planet Surface Detected] was blinking across the entire screen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, according to the information transmitted by the radar, we have detected a ’region’ below that appears to be the surface of the planet,"

The Speech Master’s voice echoed in the communicator,

"However, the data is somewhat strange. The appearance of the planetary surface seems unstable; it is sometimes there and sometimes not, and the location of each appearance varies, so we can’t plan a landing route based on this entity,"

Meanwhile, as she spoke, the entire lander began to shake violently.

"We have detected... it’s... electromagnetic..."

With the violent shaking, the Speech Master’s voice began to be obscured by complex noise.

"It’s an electromagnetic storm,"

Li Cheng looked up at the three people beside him, "This transparent planet does not have purely physical properties, so we may not be able to land using purely physical methods."

"Should we try that bizarre tale sent by He Ao?"

At this moment, amidst the violent shaking, Jie An spoke.

Without any hesitation, everyone immediately picked up their cell phones.

They had already set their phone numbers to speed dial and immediately made the call.

Accompanied by several harsh beeping sounds, the phone exited the dialing interface.

Jie An was stunned, "Does this ritual require a signal to work? Where are we supposed to find a signal now?"

"It’s probably not a signal issue."

Li Cheng dialed his phone again, and after the phone interface automatically closed, he looked up at ’Hao Yi’.

"Calling ourselves may not be the real ’core’ of this ’ritual’,"

Sitting in the corner, He Ao put down his phone and pondered,

"The person who propagated this bizarre tale originally may have made some directed ’modifications’ and ’simplifications’ to the ritual to allow it to spread more widely and be realized more easily,

"Usually, such a specially modified ritual would only correspond to specific items, or be used in specific areas."

"Does that mean the ritual might only work on the ground?"

Jie An quickly asked, "Then does this ritual have nothing to do with this transparent planet?"

He Ao shook his head,

"If the item responding to this simplified ritual is indeed related to this transparent planet, then it is highly probable that this ritual shares some underlying commonalities with the true, unmodified ’ritual’ of the transparent planet,

"If we had more information related to this simplified ritual, we might be able to infer to some extent the true, unmodified ’ritual’ of the transparent planet."

While speaking, the shaking of the entire lander intensified.

"Where do we go to find more information now?"

Jie An gripped his chair and pressed his helmet.

At that moment, Li Cheng had turned his gaze toward the communicator and quickly asked, "Is there any news about He Ao?"

Hearing this, Jie An and Goya also looked up at the communicator.

After a brief pause, the voice of the Speech Master rose from the communicator amidst severe electric interference, "Minister He... has not... messaged...zzz."

He Ao stood with his longsword in front of him, gazing at Kavina.

From the previous ’clashes,’ it appeared that Kavina’s strength wasn’t very strong, but in reality, it had to be above B-level, otherwise, she wouldn’t have started with the confidence to pin down He Ao.

However, the energy circuit within her body wasn’t strong, and it seemed like she had also ’concealed’ her own power somehow.

"You are strong and smart,"

Kavina, too, was looking at He Ao, "but don’t think that holding the Lantern Core means you can control the power of this castle, it was originally mine."

Thick, twisted darkness flowed out from beneath the castle’s brilliance and surged into her body.

He Ao, without any hesitation, reversed his grip on his sword and leapt forward, slashing at Kavina’s face.

Kavina leapt backwards, her body arching backwards in a backward somersault, landing in a half-kneel like a nimble black cat.

Twisted black lines like scattered lightning wound around her body, gushing out like a tide.

Everything around He Ao was instantly covered by darkness, his field of view completely disappearing.

He Ao opened his other hand, and the black ashes he held were shining with a dim light, dispersing the murky darkness around him.

At that moment, He Ao turned around, blocking with his longsword behind him.

Accompanied by a crisp sound, the slim silhouette that leapt from the darkness had its pitch-black short blade blocked by the broad black sword.

This slim silhouette quickly leapt back, disappearing again into the surrounding darkness.

At the same time, He Ao lifted his hand, looking at the black ashes in his palm.

Blurry memories surfaced in his mind.

This thing seems dangerous, I must throw it away.

Just then, an orange-gray ring flashed at the center of his pupils.

Feeling the memories becoming clearer in his mind, He Ao clenched the floating ashes in his hand.

Two different memories were entangling in his mind, constantly affecting his cognition.

Anyone else might have already gone mad.

At this moment, a shout came through the darkness behind He Ao.

He Ao turned to look behind him.

The figure of Komo was gradually disappearing into the brightness at his side.

Komo... this guy seemed to be Kavina’s man?

In the instant this memory flashed through his mind, He Ao lifted his broad sword, slashing directly at Komo.

Komo’s face changed—he was much slower than He Ao and couldn’t dodge in time.

Just as He Ao’s blade was about to reach him, the broad black sword suddenly spun, slashing directly into the darkness at the side.

Accompanied by the sound of clashing blades, Kavina’s silhouette emerged in the darkness.

She seemed not to have anticipated that He Ao would suddenly reverse his sword to this side, guarding in haste, her pitch-black sharp blade shook from He Ao’s slash.

He Ao smoothly sidestepped and pulled his sword, the tip sliding under Kavina’s sharp blade and flicking it upward, disarming her, and without hesitation, thrust forward, piercing toward Kavina’s chest.

Kavina suddenly pulled away, but her chest was still pierced by the sharp blade as blood aglow with green light splattered out.

Her figure swiftly disappeared into the darkness.

"Stay back, be careful of contamination."

He Ao glanced at Komo, who was still in a state of shock beside him, and reached out to grab his collar, tossing him upward.

Kavina’s memory modification skill was indeed nauseating.

Komo’s body was violently tossed out, cutting through the darkness with a whistling wind, rushing towards the direction of the hall’s stone doors.

This guy, staying here, had a much higher mortality rate than hiding.

Then He Ao immediately withdrew his sword and vanished into the darkness in an instant.

Kavina’s physical fitness was roughly around 6000, almost the same as He Ao’s when both his Fist Technique and Super Memory were doubly activated.

But her ability to disrupt memory perception and to create a darkness that suited her greatly enhanced her overall combat effectiveness.

In the brief skirmish that had just occurred, He Ao had also seen the true energy circuit within her body.

Her energy core was also a linked triangle.

This creature was no longer human.

A normal B-level would not have a physical fitness close to 6000 after possessing such strong supernatural abilities.

He Ao looked down at the black ash he held in his hand, and the orange-gray ring in his eyes lit up again.

His naked eyes could still see nothing, but with the aid of the Eye of Truth, the distorted darkness around him began to transform into swaying lines.

Among these chaotic lines, a slender figure almost made up of lines was rapidly closing in on him from behind.

But He Ao, as if he hadn’t seen the figure, continued to grope in the darkness.

And just as the figure came close to his body, he suddenly turned and slashed backward with his sword.

Kavina, bursting out from the darkness, swiftly dodged backwards, but was still struck by He Ao’s black broadsword, tearing open a huge gash in front of her.

This time, Kavina did not retreat back into the darkness, but instead distanced herself and looked up at He Ao, clenching her teeth.

Twisted flesh sprouted from her wound, coiling together.

"I admit you are strong, but after all, you are a human,"

she coldly stared at He Ao, a peculiar symbol, black and resembling both a book and a mountain range, outlined on her forehead, "Let me show you what true power is, accept the wrath of the Great Being."

The encompassing darkness surrounding the entire space suddenly contracted, transforming into a twisted sphere, hovering in front of her, forming a barrier.

The entire castle trembled violently in that instant, sharp wails emanating from the thick walls, the rich darkness uniting together, condensing into a liquid almost as dense as a tangible.

"You are fortunate to witness the grace of an Angel’s strength."

Kavina stood up, looking at He Ao obscured by darkness, "You are lucky to have obtained an incomplete Angel-grade item in the ruins. But it’s nowhere near comparable to a real Angel."

As she spoke, the darkness covering He Ao poured down on him like a cover.

Countless drops of pitch-black liquid in He Ao’s field of view bloomed like dark black flowers and then swelled. In an instant, the entire hall dimmed down.

Countless shadows from these black droplets rapidly expanded, transforming into distorted bubbles that filled the entire space and rushed towards He Ao.

A terrifying and crazed aura spread throughout the hall.

Komo, whom He Ao had thrown to the stone door, had long hidden behind the wall outside the door, no longer visible.

He Ao watched the continuously spreading distorted bubbles. They were piled up on one another, and within each bubble, it seemed countless twisted and crazed creatures were slaughtering.

A strange attraction came from these bubbles. As they approached, they seemed to want to pull He Ao into them.

Invisible resentments and ravings spread around He Ao’s ears.

Under the spread of these bubbles, the floor beneath He Ao’s feet began to rapidly disintegrate, consumed, and He Ao seemed to see the illusions that appeared within the bubbles after the floor had disintegrated.

These seemingly harmless bubbles appeared to contain a power to devour everything.

He Ao quickly moved sideways, attempting to circumvent the bubbles.

But those clusters of bubbles almost moved in sync with his body, appearing almost exactly in front of him no matter how he moved.

At the same time, these bubbles were also spreading to He Ao’s sides and above his head, enveloping him as if a starving behemoth, devouring everything around, and continuously spreading in front of He Ao.

He Ao took a few steps back, distancing himself from the bubbles while raising his broadsword. He covered the tip of the sword with Divine Sense and reached toward the nearest bubble.

This probe was incredibly brief; almost instantly, as the tip touched the surface of the bubble, he withdrew the black broadsword.

In that brief moment, the Divine Sense enveloping the sword was almost completely consumed. This weapon, already enhanced by Divine Sense, showed clear signs of corrosion at the tip.

He Ao did not believe his flesh and blood was stronger than the broadsword.

His Divine Sense also could not cover his entire body to protect it from being devoured under such extensive contact.

As the expansion continued, the bubbles rushing towards him picked up speed and spread across the entire ceiling of the hall.

With distortions akin to a roaring contamination, the mass of bubbles towering dozens of meters high pressed down on him like a collapsing mountain.

Watching the multiplying layers of bubbles that seemed to reach him in a blink, He Ao took a deep breath, stopped retreating, and slowly closed his eyes.

"Have you accepted your fate?"

Kavina collapsed on the ground, her complexion pale, surrounded by countless bubbles, her voice hoarse,

"You have talent, but all your struggles are futile. You have never witnessed how powerful the Angels and Divine Powers are. In their eyes, people like you are just slightly stronger ants."

She lifted her gaze to the soon-to-be-engulfed He Ao, her tone mocking, "All your efforts now, and the courage you believe can change everything are just out of stupidity and ignorance."

In that moment, she saw the young man opening his eyes within the dark bubbles, with nested dual orange-gray halos flickering in his dark pupils.

The young man spoke to her, his voice calm and lingering amid the endless contaminated roaring.

A gigantic orange-gray eye nested within an inverted triangle slowly emerged from the void, the twisted, terrifying contamination sweeping through the spreading bubbles like a howling storm.

The bubbles about to touch He Ao’s body seemed to be touched by some invisible force and suddenly disintegrated, the vaguely visible twisted monsters within the bubbles like erased illusions.

Immediately afterwards, like a row of dominoes toppled or soap bubbles under the blazing sun, the mountainous expanse of bubbles disintegrated rapidly with sharp shrieks.

Scattered bubble fragments dissolved in the dim orange-gray light.

Blood seeped through He Ao’s skin, rapidly covering his body; horrible contamination echoed in his mind, tearing at his soul.

"Impossible, impossible,"

Kavina staggered to her feet, her hair disheveled over her shoulders, and the sharp blade reappeared in her hand, "You must die!"

She charged directly toward the disintegrating bubbles, toward the blood-soaked, seemingly ’weakened’ He Ao standing at the center of the bubbles.

He Ao, using fist technique to gather his strength, slightly shifted his stance and raised the broadsword in his hand, powerfully sweeping aside Kavina’s blade.

Then, he reversed his hand and thrust his sword diagonally into her chest, accurately cutting through her three energy convergence points in one swift move.

Kavina opened her mouth, looking at the longsword before her and He Ao, disbelief still filling her eyes.

Blood flowed from her mouth, dripping onto the black blade of the broadsword.

Finally, her breath completely fractured, her head drooped, and the black sharp blade in her hand dissolved into light.

Her body gradually decayed, the ’Angel’ that had bestowed power on her now withdrawing it, though a portion of it was intercepted by He Ao and gathered into the Jade Pendant on his chest.

The Blood-Moistening Jade Pendant, which had released all its strength against the Angel in the Underground Palace and had not recharged, was now conveniently replenished.

He Ao closed his eyes again, then reopened them, the orange-gray halo in his pupils gradually fading, and the eye nested within the inverted triangle in the sky also dissipated.

With Kavina’s death, the spreading ’bubbles’ disintegrated even faster, eventually completely vanishing.

He Ao raised his hand, the green glow in the suspended black ashes rapidly fading like flowing water.

The translucent statue placed on the pedestal also shattered at that moment, its glow merging into the black ashes.

Simultaneously, a violent vibration emanated from the ground below, as pure nothingness began devouring the surrounding space.

The castle and the statue were both parts separated from the black ash; together, they constituted the complete body of this black ash.

And at that time, He Ao also learned the name of this ash.

Echo of the Bygone Days.

He Ao swiftly dashed through the stone door, seeing Komo bewildered behind the wall, grabbed his shoulder, and before the devouring void could reach them, both vanished from this space.