Chapter 790: Chapter 790

The entire Gu Castle Fortress was sealed off at a tremendous speed!

Lin Lin issued the final order, then shut himself alone in the study.

He had a complete face-to-face meeting with "Hong Zhong."

It was highly likely... He had become a carrier of the Spiritual Poison. Until the exact route of transmission was clear, he had to isolate himself.

Aluer rushed over immediately.

From a distance, this Angel Envoy directly deployed the power of a relic; the "Divine Power" as warm as the ocean enveloped the loft.

After Aluer’s Domain Expansion, the loft seemed to be submerged by a golden ocean. The owl on the relic’s emblem actually "flew" out, taking form with spiritual power, perching on her shoulder, bowing its head to preen its feathers, lifelike.

Under the illumination of the golden light, Aluer’s silver hair was covered with a layer of faint, sacred golden color.

Enveloped by the Divine Power.

She pushed open the door and saw Lin Lin alone, suffering from the "Spiritual Poison."

Under the enhancement of the "Divine Power," she vaguely sensed... Lin Lin’s soul seemed to be tainted with a powerful dark force, and using the "owl’s" Divine Thought, she vaguely saw the answer.

It was a dark flame from the Old World.

It was the power of another Divine Throne!

"Don’t worry, I can suppress this force..."

Lin Lin’s mental state was very poor.

He was at a terribly low point, but what he had just said was not an overstatement.

He truly had suppressed the terrifying poison that had invaded his Spirit Sea and was dissipating it bit by bit in his own way.

In this battle, he had achieved a temporary victory.

But how many in the North Continent could match his level of spiritual power?

If it were anyone else, even an elite member of the Investigation Corps Second Team like "Hong Zhong," they probably couldn’t resist such a high level of Spiritual Poison!

She delivered a very dire message: "The appraiser who conducted the spiritual assessment on ’Hong Zhong’... has died, the cause of death being the erosion by Spiritual Poison."

Lin Lin’s heart skipped a beat.

The appraiser had died...

That meant that Hong Zhong’s Spiritual Poison had already begun to spread more than ten days ago... If the first infected wasn’t himself, then where did the toxins on the appraiser go?

"Because of the ’wind pressure warning’ outside the giant wall, the Gu Castle Fortress is currently operating at full emergency capacity. Recently, several warriors from the Gu Castle logistics troop exhibited symptoms of dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Due to the urgency of the battle situation, they overcame the discomfort... and continued to commit to the preparation tasks."

Lin Lin had guessed what Aluer was going to say, his expression growing increasingly unpleasant.

"Unfortunately... they all had contacts with the ’appraiser.’

Aluer’s voice was low: "The movement in Gu Castle was quick. By the time Hong Zhong’s Spiritual Poison was discovered, isolation measures had already begun... Zhong Yuan is currently in charge of the temporary command. It’s still uncertain whether their symptoms are related to the Spiritual Poison, but just the suspected infected have grown to a scale of one hundred and thirty-one people."

Lin Lin slammed his fist heavily onto the table!

He clenched his teeth, said nothing, struggling against the poison in his Spirit Sea while regretting his own "foolishness."

For over ten days, due to his own mistake, the "Spiritual Poison" had spread within the Gu Castle Fortress!

If only he had noticed it sooner...

If his reaction had been a bit faster...

He would be closer to the truth...

Aluer’s eyes flickered, seeing the man’s "regret," but in fact, he had already done quite well. If Hong Zhong’s body had been taken back by the Investigation Corps, it was hard to imagine what would happen!

The young man, his back soaked with sweat, his broken hair sticking to his forehead, slowly raised his head, using the time it took to take a deep breath to cast aside all these cumbersome and intricate thoughts.

Regret and annoyance were useless.

Now, the most important thing was how to unravel this "perilous situation!"

"The lockdown of Gu Castle... means that the backup requested due to the wind pressure warning cannot enter, right?"

Lin Lin narrowed his eyes.

He spoke hoarsely, "That is to say, the upcoming ’Source Tide’ can only rely on the existing forces within the fortress..."

"A total of two thousand seven hundred and twenty-one people."

Aluer paused for a moment.

She spoke softly, "Actually, two thousand seven hundred and thirty people."

This number was nine more than the official combat personnel of Gu Castle.

The Investigation Corps Second Team still had seven "responders."

Plus the Second Team leader Zhong Yuan, who had just finished his mission in the Duolu River Disaster Realm and rushed here from miles away.

"That really is... encouraging news."

Lin Lin’s voice weakly laughed, because his mental state was too feeble, it was unclear whether the sentence was sarcastic or just a powerless remark: "When the Source Tide arrives, will there be two thousand five hundred people in Gu Castle capable of fighting?"

This was a very cruel question.

The spread of the Spiritual Poison... might still be continuing.

Perhaps the power of the "toxin" would wane, but it was highly likely to cover the entire Gu Castle.

By then, the interior of Gu Castle would be a "poisoned city."

And the other backup troops at the True Wing Defense Line, due to the lockdown, would be unable to help!

Once the Source Tide breached the giant wall... then complicated inland defensive operations would follow!

The Northern Continent had conducted a series of war preparedness drills.

People born beneath the giant wall naturally carried a sense of crisis.

If the giant wall were to shatter... what would they do then?

The biggest trouble after the Source Quality Tide surged inland was the widespread breeding of black spots, along with the collapse of the Northern Continent inland. Once a breach was torn open on the front line, repairing the giant wall would become an impossible task.

Unless the Source Quality Tide completely receded.

If life were left to the elusive "luck," humanity would have perished six hundred years ago.

The commander of the Northern Continent had once proposed a final inland defense plan named "Torch Plan." Once the giant wall shattered, this extremely mysterious and drastic plan would be implemented by the Northern Continent’s True Wing Defense Line before the Source Quality Tide reached the true inland!

"Aluer, take this letter and deliver it to Central City."

Lin Lin pulled open a drawer and removed a crumpled sheet of letter paper, the ink on which was still not dry. He gently blew on it, then enclosed it in a brand-new envelope.

His previous voice contained helplessness, melancholy, and a faint resignation.

The Angel Envoy’s special power ensured she would not suffer the invasion of "Spiritual Poison."

She was the safest person in this city.

Aluer’s expression was complex, "This is..."

"This is a letter to my sister, but please deliver it to Zhu Xue."

"Northern Continent people are very nostalgic; letter exchanges are a longstanding tradition of the Lin Family and also a crucial promise I once made with my sister. Before I ran away from home years ago, I promised her I would write a letter after settling down, to report my safety. As you might know, Central City has tried more than once to capture me and bring me back, monitoring everything here closely. The moment I show any ’wavering,’ they would have sufficient reason to make me return."

"So the letter exchange promise was put off for a very long time. It wasn’t because my sister and I were angry at each other, but rather because I truly didn’t know how to start writing."

"After many years of thinking, actually writing it turned out not so difficult...from starting to finish, it seemingly took only about ten minutes just now."

Lin Lin lowered his eyes and smiled self-deprecatingly, "Indeed, losing face doesn’t matter anymore, perhaps being poisoned makes one act so crazily?"

His mental state was now in another strange "extreme."

Lin Lin’s pupils radiated a blend of black and gold colors.

This unknown Spiritual Poison had indeed shown its "exciting" side on Hong Zhong!

Perhaps, it was such power that was working at this moment.

Lin Lin clutched his wrist and earnestly said,

"Please take my letter, then tell Zhu Xue that if he is willing to solve the current difficulties at Gu Castle, regarding those matters of the Lin Family, I am willing to compromise."

Aluer wanted to say a lot but ultimately held back.

The warm Divine Sea enveloping the attic study dissipated carelessly, all the Divine Powers retreating.

The golden waves no longer protected the attic.

A slender figure with silvery-white long hair, in the last moment as the Golden Sea disappeared, soared into the sky, leapt onto a Source Energy Boat, and navigated the large boat out of Gu Castle Fortress, breaking through the clouds, speeding toward Central City in the south!

The road back to Gu Castle seemed especially bleak.

The laughter and conversation from the journey there were now replaced by only a few scattered exchanges, all about data and road information... After enduring a heavy labyrinthine mission, every member of the Investigation Corps seemed to have a stone weighing on their heart.

They didn’t know how to face those "comrades" at Gu Castle.

Hong Zhong was not a hero.

On the contrary, he was a "bane" who had made an incredibly wrong decision during a crisis.

Gu Shen felt the team’s low spirits.

He hadn’t yet spoken up about the "Spiritual Poison" harbored by Hong Zhong.

Simply being a fellow teammate, he shouldn’t have been privy to this information, and speaking up now would expose Gu Shen’s and the "golden spike flower’s" secret.

Besides... the team’s morale was already low enough.

This news would be like a second heavy blow.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, calculating the time needed for the return journey, a particularly bad premonition surged in his heart.

A tiny stone snapped against the soundproof visor that was already in place.

His thoughts were abruptly pulled back.

This time, the stone didn’t produce a muted, elusive sound.

Rather... it was somewhat grating.

In Gu Shen’s private channel, came Li Chen’s puzzled voice.

"Do you feel that, on the way back, something is not quite right?"

Li Chen’s "Source Eyes" slowly rotated.

He was capturing the flow of Source Quality all around, muttering, "It’s like... the wind has risen?"

(Another Chapter before noon tomorrow)