159: Chapter 159 My family ran away!

The terrifying lizard smashed three gaps through the group of Children of the Wind.

The largest lizard at the lead clamped its jaws onto the left arm of the Elder of the Children of the Wind right in front, its barbs-filled upper and lower jaws snapping shut with a crisp sound of cracking bones.

The greyish-white ice shell of the Child of the Wind shattered under the puncture, and the chilling aura gushed out from the wound, condensing into a very thin layer of white frost on the lizard's scales.

The lizard shook its head, flinging the entire Elder to smash into the nearby group of Children of the Wind, toppling several smaller individuals that were charging forward.

Tu Ziguan was running out of even the ammunition inside his luggage.

"Brother Feng! Have your lizards hold out a little longer! My ammo is almost gone!"

Third Princess leaned against the pillar of the viewing platform, the Rhan-Tegoth fragment inside her throbbing unsteadily, each throb making the group of Noph-Keh grow more restless as they moved closer to her and then retreated.

The blade formation of the Imperial Guards had shrunk to its absolute limit, tightly guarding the outer perimeter of Third Princess and Xu Liujing.

Xie Feng stood at the edge of the viewing platform, his right hand maintaining the magical power output for summoning mythos creatures, while his left hand pressed against the edge of his right eye socket.

Tawil's silver-white Void Realm was slowly unfolding deep within his consciousness, and that tactile sensation of spacetime permeated his entire brain.

Brain Matter shrieked as it ran out from within, clinging to Xie Feng's back.

Yog-Sothoth's mark activated Xie Feng's thinking speed.

His gaze swept over the Noph-Keh on the plaza that were still locked in combat with the Children of the Wind.

This group of giant beasts clearly wasn't summoned; running over from afar meant it wasn't a summoning spell, but rather a Contact Nophke.

Contact Nophke could only reach individuals already existing nearby.

This group of Noph-Keh originally lived near the Northern Wilderness, not rushing all the way from Hyperborea.

The primary habitat of Noph-Keh has always been Hyperborea. Why would they appear in the Northern Wilderness? Were they driven out?

"No way..."

A terrible thought flashed through Xie Feng's mind.

These guys were either migrating out of Hyperborea or converting their faith to the Wind-Walker Ithaqua.

Hyperborea's civilization couldn't have already perished by now, right???

Suddenly, Xie Feng remembered when he was delivering food to the God of Toads Tsathoggua in the imperial city.

Legend has it that Tsathoggua originated from N'kai, the completely dark subterranean dimension. Tsathoggua held a mid-to-high status among the Great Old Ones, but its worshippers were exceptionally numerous, including a portion of prehistoric civilization and many alien races.

In prehistoric Hyperborea's Mu-Thuran, he was widely worshipped. The worship of Tsathoggua prevailed for a time and eventually replaced the worship of the elk goddess Yhoundeh, and even Tsathoggua itself left N'kai to come beneath Hyperborea, until Hyperborea was destroyed.

After its destruction, it naturally returned to its hometown—the N'kai Caves.

Xie Feng remembered that the place where he opened the Spacetime Gate in the imperial city seemed to be the N'kai Caves...

(Remember that, hehe.)

"Then what the hell is the point of going! Isn't it already gone!?"

Xie Feng batted away a Noph-Keh with another strike of his rod, shouting in a breakdown.

He never expected the timeline to be such a coincidence. When the imperial family went exploring a few centuries ago, the wizard civilization of Hyperborea still existed, but after a few generations, it just happened to catch up with their extinction. No wonder the ancestors interviewed wizards living on the fringe; was Hyperborea completely done for?

Damn it, wouldn't this trip have been for nothing then?

What about Third Princess's fragment? What about the path paved by Emperor Zhou Weixi? What about all that boasting he did with Zhou Shudan in the Hall of Supreme Harmony plaza?

Then Yog-Sothoth's mark suddenly illuminated a path.

"Damn... In the end, it's still going to turn into dog biscuits. I feel like I'll end up fighting the Dog King sooner or later."

Xie Feng muttered back and forth, finally grabbing Brain Matter off his back and hurling it away.

Brain Matter tumbled several times in the air, cursed very quickly in Shaggai Insect language, and then landed precisely on Lu Mingyuan's forehead. Its chitinous carapace rubbed against the surface of the skull a few times before burrowing straight into the brain.

It hooked itself up to Lu Mingyuan's neural network, and concisely communicated the Spacetime Gate's target coordinates in Lu Mingyuan's mind using spiritual fluctuations that an entity like the Yithians could understand.

As Brain Matter spoke inside Lu Mingyuan's head, Lu Mingyuan cast a look as if looking at a psychiatric patient, then activated a Spacetime Gate right beneath the feet of that group of traveling merchants while reminding them.

"Don't leave the imperial city from now on. Just do some work inside the imperial city. Going outside will get you entangled with weird anomalies, remember that."

Ten fingers traced a silver-white radiance in the Void Realm, and the Spacetime Gate silently unfolded beneath the feet of the traveling merchants at the edge of the plaza.

Sure enough, the Spacetime Gate remained stable, and Ithaqua's influence continued.

As soon as Lu Mingyuan finished speaking, Third Princess shoved a token branded with the imperial crest into the Spacetime Gate, which happened to land on the chest of the oldest traveling merchant.

That token was enough for this group of grime-covered Northern Wilderness traveling merchants to settle down in the imperial city and do some small business, without being interrogated as vagrants of unknown origin anymore.

The traveling merchants expressed their utmost gratitude.

Xie Feng stood at the edge of the viewing platform watching that group of traveling merchants support each other and disappear on the other side of the Spacetime Gate, and noticed that quite a few were unconscious, yet surprisingly few had gone mad.

He had originally thought that these Mortals would suffer mental collapses en masse after witnessing the transformation firsthand at the sacrificial site of the Children of the Wind.

A normal person facing the transformation of the Children of the Wind would lose at least several points on a SAN check.

But apart from the few who had passed out, the rest of these traveling merchants could actually walk on their own, support each other, and even remember to pick up the goods dropped on the ground.

A thought crossed Xie Feng's mind: The Mortals of this era had much stronger mental resilience than he had expected.

But there was no time to think about it in detail right now.

Driven by that shrill screech, the Children of the Wind on the plaza reorganized their ranks.

Xie Feng knew that all this anger was directed at Third Princess; Ithaqua didn't care at all whether the others ran or not, He only wanted Rhan-Tegoth's tentacles, only wanted that key capable of undoing the Seal of the Old Gods.

As long as Third Princess remained standing on the plaza, the Children of the Wind would not relent, the blizzard would never truly cease, and that Great Old One secretly maintaining this siege from afar would keep waiting.

But unfortunately, this Great Old One was not one that presided over wisdom, and a malicious spawn of Yog-Sothoth was already standing on the field.

Xie Feng shouted loudly.

"Everyone, gather toward me!"

Third Princess, Zhou Jinglan, Xu Liujing, and the rest immediately gathered toward the center, with the Imperial Guards and Cultivators forming a sturdy circle.

"A dying struggle! Hand over that woman, and Father will not consume all of you."

The city lord's head transformed back into a human shape, attempting to bewitch them.

Unfortunately, the only response he got was Xie Feng's middle finger.

"A lesser Great Old One that still has to go out hunting every day and look for humans to reproduce with? And you won't consume all of us?"

The expression on Xie Feng's face was extremely punchable.

"What are you acting all high and mighty for? Aren't you just a beggar kneeling under Hastur?"

"Bastard! I'm going to kill you!"

All the Children of the Wind present completely lost their sanity from these words, turning into gusts of blizzards that swept forward.

Xie Feng seized the opportunity to cast a Spacetime Gate; of course Ithaqua wouldn't fall for such an obvious taunt.

Sure enough, Xie Feng's Spacetime Gate lost stability, and the destination became uncertain once more.

"Sigh... I knew it. Oh well, no choice then."

Xie Feng turned his head to look at the others, and his face blushed slightly.

"Why do I have to make a fool of myself in front of so many people every single time?"

Ithaqua seemed to realize something, and a figure quickly appeared in the city.

A violent storm appeared, within which a giant human face could often be seen, distorted, deformed, and filled with anger.

This was the Death Walker, one of Ithaqua's Incarnations, also known as the "God of the Frenzied Storm".

"Stop acting, bro. Remember, the ending of a TRPG isn't just about combat, it's also about escaping successfully!"

Xie Feng had everyone gather once more, then slowly pressed his right hand against his cheek, revealing three eyes.

His face was bright red.

Under Tu Ziguan's shocked gaze, he shouted a phrase.

"Amaterasu!"

(Hehe, remember?)