210: Chapter 210.....

The black tide remnant key throbbed twice in Li Taiping's palm, its golden surface flashing briefly before dimming once more.

Li Taiping could even feel an emotion emanating from it.

Disdain.

It was like someone used to seafood feasts suddenly being stuffed with a mouthful of moldy salted fish.

"Just make do with it," Li Taiping said, putting away the remnant key. "This place is poor."

The old man on the sacrificial altar had already collapsed limply to the ground.

The faith he prided himself on, the source of power he relied upon for survival, had been sucked completely dry in mere seconds by this man with a broken key.

"Impossible..."

"The Tide Well... How could the Tide Well have run dry..."

The old man muttered to himself, his eyes nearly bulging out of his sockets.

Li Taiping walked over to him and looked down from above.

"Now, can we have a proper talk?"

The old man trembled all over, kowtowing frantically.

"Spare my life, My Lord!"

"Mercy, Lord Tide Return Envoy!"

Li Taiping didn't bother to correct his form of address and asked directly, "Where does the bottom of this well lead to?"

The old man answered tremblingly, "I... I don't know. Generations of priests only knew that if we threw living people down, tidal energy would surge from the well and grant us power. No one has ever gone down there."

Li Taiping walked to the edge of the well and looked down.

Now that the black mist had dispersed, the scene at the bottom of the well was clearly revealed.

This wasn't a well at all.

It was a massive vertical shaft, seemingly bottomless. The walls of the well were carved with ancient and complex runes; though heavily damaged, traces of some sort of seal were still visible.

Li Taiping narrowed his eyes.

His vision far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing him to see extremely far even in the dark.

At a depth of about several hundred meters down the shaft, something was wedged.

It was a corpse.

A thick black chain pierced through the corpse's chest, pinning it firmly to the well wall.

It wasn't the gruesome state of the corpse that made his gaze freeze.

It was the clothes the corpse was wearing.

It was a black combat suit.

On the collar of the combat suit, a platinum iris was embroidered.

An image instantly flashed through Li Taiping's mind.

Anna.

The woman who sailed a platinum-gold ship in the Ghost Sea, its sails painted with a golden iris.

What made his heart skip a beat even more was...

The face of that corpse.

Though it was shriveled and covered in black veins,

Yet the outline, the facial features,

Were exactly the same as Li Taiping's.

A cold, eerie wind blew up from the bottom of the well, carrying an extremely faint sigh.

"You... are late."

The voice was very soft, yet it fell clearly into Li Taiping's ears.

And it spoke in his own voice.

Li Taiping stood by the well, his gaze deep and inscrutable.

The warning from the dungeon entrance surfaced in his mind once again.

[Warning: An unknown self exists in this world.]

[Warning: Do not trust the self you see.]

A cold smile slowly curled on the corner of Li Taiping's lips.

"Interesting."

He turned to look at the old man collapsed on the ground.

"I'm requisitioning this well."

The old man trembled all over and kowtowed frantically. His head slammed against the black stone altar, leaving it covered in blood.

"Please use it as you wish, My Lord! Everyone in the Black Tooth Tribe is at your command!"

Li Taiping ignored him.

He turned and walked over to Grey Bone.

Grey Bone was holding his younger sister tightly. The little girl was still trembling, burying her face in her brother's chest.

Li Taiping kicked the priest's bone staff.

The broken half of the bone staff flipped through the air and landed precisely at Grey Bone's feet.

"Watch the top," Li Taiping said to Grey Bone. "If anyone tries to run, use this to smash their head."

Grey Bone was stunned.

He looked at the bone staff on the ground, then at the thousands of Black Tooth Tribe hunters surrounding them.

Those hunters, who were usually high and mighty, were now all prostrate on the ground, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Grey Bone clenched his teeth and picked up the bone staff.

Although the black crystal on the bone staff was gone, the shaft itself was extremely heavy.

He stood up straight, shielding his sister behind him.

"Rest assured, My Lord," Grey Bone's voice was hoarse. "If anyone moves, I will kill them."