“Which side is safer?”
Lin Ye looked at Little Guardian.
“Neither side is safe, and there are a lot of strange things here, so my judgment might not be accurate either.”
Little Guardian observed the platforms around her, unsure which way to go.
The edge of the platform connected to three pathways leading to other platforms. One pathway was nearly vertical, connecting to a platform above their heads, while the other two led to platforms below them.
A corpse lay sprawled in the center of one platform, and an old television set sat in the middle of the other.
Lin Ye didn’t bother trying to sense anything here with his mental energy. There were no safe items here that he could perceive.
“Where do you all think we should go?”
Lin Ye decided to consult his teammates for their opinions.
“That corpse looks a bit dangerous… the TV doesn’t feel right either. How about we check out the one above?”
Alice could gather information by creating phantoms.
No one suggested trying to fly here. Since pathways were set up, leaving the platform might attract some kind of dangerous thing.
“Alright, let’s take a look up there.”
Lin Ye stepped onto the pathway, which was only a few centimeters wide and angled at nearly ninety degrees, moving upward. The pathway was only a few dozen meters long, so they reached the platform quickly.
At the center of the platform was a pitch-black vortex. As soon as they stepped onto the platform, all the pathways around them vanished.
“A trap?”
Mia looked at the vortex in the middle of the platform with confusion.
“Let me try.”
Alice created a phantom of Lin Ye. The moment the phantom Lin Ye approached the vortex, it was sucked inside.
Two seconds later, a bag of potato chips flew out of the vortex and landed in front of Alice.
“The best handmade potato chips in the world… human flesh flavor.”
Alice picked up the chips, her expression turning a bit awkward.
“This should be a vortex for trading. Only by completing some kind of trade can we leave here.”
Lin Ye took the black Book from his pocket and used the Spiritual Parasite to record its contents. During the process, he discovered that the Book itself was a somewhat dangerous mental construct.
The Spiritual Parasites that came into contact with it all showed varying degrees of Alienation, transforming those parasites into artworks of stunning beauty.
After recording all the information inside, Lin Ye tossed the black Book into the vortex. Five minutes later, a figurine-like object flew out and landed in front of Lin Ye.
It was an incredibly beautiful Humanoid Figure. Lin Ye couldn’t even determine its gender. Just looking at it filled him with a wonderful feeling, as if it were the embodiment of beauty itself.
Lin Ye instinctively picked up the figurine and put it into his pocket.
The vortex continued to spin, but no pathways appeared around them.
“An item of that quality isn’t enough either… then maybe it requires a certain number of trades, or maybe everyone has to complete one.”
Mia took off her nurse’s cap and tossed it into the vortex.
A second later, a blue Syringe flew out and landed in front of Mia.
Mia picked up the Syringe with an annoyed expression, as if she knew what it was.
Still, no pathways appeared. Little Guardian hesitated. She didn’t have anything to trade.
“Here, consider this your wages from me.”
Lin Ye took the ring from his pocket and placed it in Little Guardian’s hand.
“This is too precious. You can give me something else, anything.”
Little Guardian didn’t want to trade away this ring. It was the first item Lin Ye had ever given her.
“You’d better not think about half-assing it. This place is dangerous, and so is this vortex.”
Lin Ye didn’t want to waste an unknown relic either, but to him, Little Guardian was far more important than any relic.
Little Guardian tossed the ring into the vortex. Ten minutes later, a pure white, beating heart flew out.
The heart didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, it floated like a living thing in front of Little Guardian.
“…It doesn’t seem dangerous.”
Little Guardian touched the heart in front of her, and it melted into her body like liquid.
“Is that okay?”
Lin Ye often ate the organs of living things, but this method of integration was clearly different from eating.
“It should be fine. That heart is very… pure.”
If there were any issues, Alice would have stopped the heart in advance.
“The pathway has appeared. Which one should we take?”
Mia also thought it was fine. She suspected that heart might be a very famous item, but she found it hard to believe they could get something like that from a place like this.
If it really was that item, then Lin Ye had hit the jackpot.
“No way… If I’d known, I would’ve traded a valuable item.”
Staring at the spot where the vortex had vanished, Mia muttered to herself.
Now she couldn’t trade even if she wanted to.
Six platforms surrounded theirs. Besides the one with the deity’s remains, there were three platforms above and two below.
They could only see what was on the two lower platforms.
One platform was covered in black Eyeballs, and the other was painted with colorful patterns.
“I think we should pick one of the three above.”
The Eyeballs were watching them curiously. Meanwhile, just looking at those patterns from a distance made Lin Ye feel his mind going blank.
“Can we climb up and then come back? Or send a phantom to check the situation?”
After seeing that heart, Mia felt a sense of urgency.
This place might be even more dangerous than she thought.
“I don’t recommend that. It might trigger something very bad. If you don’t want to split up, we’d better just pick one pathway.”
Little Guardian said seriously.
“Then let’s go with this one. I think this one looks better.”
Alice pointed to a pathway that was one meter wide and angled upward at sixty degrees.
“Alright.”
The four of them climbed up the pathway and stepped onto the platform. There was a white cube on it, and a strange weapon was embedded in the cube.
The weapon looked like a pure white tree branch, with many branches splitting off from it.
“Whoever pulls out this weapon shall become the master of the world.”
Alice read the words carved on the cube.
“Looks like we don’t have to pull it out. We can just go to the next platform. But what does ‘master of the world’ mean? This is a mental world. Would pulling out this weapon make someone the master of the mental world?”
Lin Ye looked at the branch curiously. As a master spiritual energy item maker, he could glean a lot of information just from the surface of such an item, but he couldn’t figure out this branch’s function at all.
“…I think someone mentioned this thing to me. It should be a relic that can turn a qualified being into the main body of a world. I’ve heard plenty of strong people got screwed over by this thing. One deity even nearly got tricked to death by it.”
Mia felt a bad feeling. What kind of godforsaken place had they stumbled into?
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