202: puzzle

The "tasks" of the Demon Suppression Division were far more tedious than Li Dong had imagined.

To put it plainly, they were just cleaners.

Following Lin Yue's squad, they wove in and out of the forest, clearing away beasts, plants, and even rocks that had grown into bizarre shapes after being corrupted by divinity.

"Front left, seven o'clock direction, three 'Twisted Wolves', one 'Corrupted Walker'." The Cultivator responsible for reconnaissance in the squad reported in a tight, lowered voice.

Lin Yue waved her hand, and the squad immediately formed a crescent formation, acting as if facing a formidable enemy.

"Ready, fire!"

Several crossbow bolts engraved with runes pierced through the air, flashing with silver light, and accurately pinned themselves onto the monsters.

"Roar!"

The monsters, feeling the pain, did not fall; instead, they were provoked into an even greater frenzy of ferocity.

The flesh where the bolts had struck them writhed crazily, as if trying to force the rune-inscribed arrows out by sheer strength.

"Damn it! The pollution concentration has increased again! Standard rune arrows are becoming ineffective!" A Cultivator cursed in a low voice.

Lin Yue frowned deeply and drew her long saber: "Form up, prepare for melee combat."

To the side, Li Dong was so bored he almost yawned.

He looked like he was on an outing, hands clasped behind his back, following slowly at the very end of the team.

Seeing the nervous appearance of the Demon Suppression Division members, he couldn't quite understand it.

How big of a deal could it be?

"Um... Captain Lin." Li Dong spoke up.

Lin Yue didn't turn her head, her voice squeezed out through her teeth: "Speak if you have something to say."

"Are you always this... um, grand every time?"

"Shut up! Stay in the back if you don't want to die!" Another Cultivator roared, clearly treating him as a burden that needed protection.

Li Dong shrugged.

Fine then.

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers lightly at the few monsters that were roaring and charging over.

Snap.

The sound was crisp.

The members of the Demon Suppression Division, who were preparing for a life-or-death struggle, suddenly felt their vision blur.

Those mutated monsters that made their scalps tingle, like balloons that had been pricked, instantly shriveled up before they could even let out a scream.

Their entire body's violent divinity power, along with their life force, vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a few dried-up husks that fell to the ground with a "thud" sound.

The air went quiet.

Everyone, including Lin Yue, froze in place, maintaining their ready-to-strike postures, their expressions strange.

The expression on the face of the Cultivator who had roared at Li Dong was particularly spectacular.

"You... what did you do?" he asked, stuttering.

"Oh, just cleaned up some trash." Li Dong looked innocent. "I saw you guys were struggling quite a bit."

Lin Yue silently retracted her long saber, gave Li Dong a deep look, said nothing, and just waved her hand to signal the team to continue moving forward.

But from then on, no one dared to treat him as a burden again.

Along the way, Li Dong probed indirectly and finally managed to extract some useful information from the taciturn Lin Yue.

"You call this thing an 'Evil God'?" Li Dong pointed at the corpse of a monster he had just "dealt with".

"Celestial Demons from beyond the realm, bringing down divine punishment and corrupting all things. If not an Evil God, what is it?" Lin Yue's voice was cold, as if stating an ironclad fact.

"Beyond the realm... Celestial Demons?" Li Dong almost laughed out loud.

What an ancient term.

It seemed they knew something was invading, but their understanding remained at a very superficial level. They didn't know that these so-called "Evil Gods" were merely terminal sales representatives for some massive entity.

"Has your Demon Suppression Division never thought about looking for the lairs of these 'Evil Gods'?"

"We have." Lin Yue's footsteps paused, and she looked toward the depths of the valley, her eyes becoming complex. "And we found them too."

Li Dong followed her gaze.

The end of the valley was shrouded in a thick, impenetrable black fog. The mist was not naturally formed but consisted of a visible, pure malice and pollution.

On the edge of the black fog stood countless massive stone pillars. Each stone pillar was engraved with dense silver runes. These runes connected to form a massive, circular Seal array, locking that black fog tightly within the valley.

Even from a great distance, Li Dong could feel what a terrifying power was hidden behind that Seal.

That power made the divinity core in his Sea of Consciousness start to throb restlessly.

It wasn't fear; it was excitement.

Like someone who had been hungry for three days smelling the aroma of roasted meat.

"This is the 'Number Zero Lair'." Lin Yue's voice carried a trace of heaviness. "The first Evil God descent point discovered by the Demon Suppression Division. A hundred years ago, to Seal it, three Nascent Soul Elders and thousands of Golden Core Cultivators all perished here."

"The cost was that high?"

"Because the thing inside cannot be killed." Lin Yue looked at those rune-inscribed stone pillars. "We can only trap it. But even so, its power will slowly seep out, turning the surrounding area into a hotbed for mutations. Our task today is to clean up these 'scraps' created by the seeping power."

Li Dong didn't speak again.

He stepped forward, came to the nearest stone pillar, reached out, and gently touched the cold runes on it.

Hum—

The moment his finger touched the runes, the divinity core within his body and the ancient stone slab deep in his Sea of Consciousness lit up simultaneously.

A familiar feeling surged into his heart.

These runes... actually had a somewhat homologous aura to those on the ancient stone slab.

This was not something the Demon Suppression Division could create. This was some kind of older, more powerful Legacy.

"Don't touch it!" Lin Yue hurriedly called out to stop him.

But it was already too late.

Li Dong not only touched it, but he also channeled a wisp of his Void Realm power from his fingertips into the energy circuit of the rune Seal array.

In an instant, the structural diagram of the entire Seal array, as well as the core object it was suppressing, clearly appeared in his perception.

It was an "anchor point".

A divinity anchor point that was a hundred times purer and a thousand times more powerful than the one he had encountered in the Northern Territory!

It was like a heart rooted deep within this world, beating slowly and powerfully; with every beat, it emitted toxic pollution outward.

This rune array of the Demon Suppression Division was like a giant cage, locking it up.

But it was precisely because of this cage that the so-called "core" could not project more massive power over. That was why this world hadn't been instantly overwhelmed.

So that was it.

The source of the disease was here.

The instant Li Dong peered into the core of the anchor point, a cold, grand will, following the anchor point, crossed the endless Void Realm and violently slammed into him!

It was that "boss"!

It had detected the intruder!

However, this will, which was enough to cause a Nascent Soul Cultivator's mind to collapse, was shredded to pieces the moment it touched Li Dong's Sea of Consciousness by the joint effort of the ancient stone slab and the divinity core.

Even... Li Dong's divinity core took a small sip in the process.

Hmm, the flavor was quite strong.

"What are you doing! Step back!" Lin Yue rushed over, grabbed Li Dong's arm, and tried to pull him away.

But she couldn't budge him at all.

Li Dong stood there, as if he had merged with the earth.

"Captain Lin." Li Dong withdrew his hand, turned his head to look at her, his expression very serious. "This Seal of yours won't last much longer."

Lin Yue's complexion instantly became extremely ugly.

She certainly knew.

Over the years, the light of the runes on the stone pillars had become increasingly dim, while the black fog in the valley had become increasingly dense.

"Do you have a way?" She stared at Li Dong, asking this question almost through her teeth.

This was almost wishful thinking, but after seeing Li Dong's incredible methods with her own eyes, she couldn't help but ignite a glimmer of hope in her heart.

"Yes." Li Dong nodded, speaking lightly.

Lin Yue's breathing stalled for an instant.

"I need to get close to that core." Li Dong pointed to the center of the black fog. "Only by getting close can I, to the greatest extent... um, weaken its power."

"No!" Lin Yue refused without even thinking. "That is an absolute forbidden zone! If a Nascent Soul Cultivator enters, they will be completely corrupted and mutated within ten breaths!"

"That's you guys." Li Dong smiled. "I am not."

He looked at Lin Yue's eyes, which were filled with struggle and disbelief, and added, "You've seen it with your own eyes; those things are useless against me."

Lin Yue fell silent.

She couldn't refute it.

This man treated divinity pollution like food.

"I need to report this to the Elder Council." She spoke with difficulty; this was her bottom line.

"Fine." Li Dong shrugged indifferently. "But I suggest you hurry. I feel... the thing inside is about to wake up."

Lin Yue's heart tightened, and without further hesitation, she immediately took out a communication Jade Slip and began to report upward.

Li Dong then turned his gaze back to the churning black fog.

Weaken?

What a joke.

He sneered in his heart.

What he saw was not some Evil God lair that needed to be weakened.

That was a gluttonous feast that had been prepared long ago, just waiting for him to enjoy it.

Now, what he had to do was convince the "waiter" here to open the door to the private room for him.

The surgery was about to begin.