68: Chapter 68 We absolutely mustn't have one more spectator.

"Master Huo." Xie Feng began to probe, "You said earlier that you have guarded this place for decades. Is the thing underground a fragment of Cthugha? The Voormis serve the God of Toads, and you are about to leave now. Why did you not leave three months ago? The Seal had already begun to loosen by then."

Xie Feng did not dare to speak too bluntly either. If he were to say right to the face of the Voormis that the God of Toads was thoroughly eaten to death by Cthugha, Master Huo would probably blow up at him. He could only probe by beating around the bush.

The two charcoal-like specks of light in the light gray eyes of Master Huo narrowed slightly.

"Before the Great Cultivator pressed it into the earth veins back then, he made a deal with our ancestors. The Great Cultivator provided the Seal, and the Voormis provided the surveillance. The Seal is on the ground, and the surveillance is underground. Both sides guarded it together for six hundred years. Past City Lords of the Tianque Sect all knew about this deal, but only the City Lord knew. The City Lord of this generation died five years ago when his Breakthrough to the sixth realm failed, and he did not manage to pass the word down."

"Holy crap! No wonder I only saw Elder Han and did not see the City Lord here; he actually died of sudden death?!"

Hearing this, the heart of Xie Feng sank at the bottom.

Therefore, past City Lords of the Tianque Sect all knew that a group of Voormis was monitoring the Seal deep underground, but the previous City Lord died too suddenly, and this secret was cut off with him. Elder Han had been kept in the dark from beginning to end, and the information chain of the Tianque Sect had broken.

This was not even the most fatal part. Master Huo said the terms of the deal were "the Seal on the ground, and the surveillance underground." Now the Seal side was barely stabilized, yet you are going to run away?

Does that not mean a huge problem has occurred on the surveillance side!?

"So what went wrong on your side?" Xie Feng asked.

"The entire Seal structure is like a gourd. Your Seal is the upper half, but now the bottom of the gourd is leaking. Even if the top is good, it cannot hold water."

Master Huo looked at Xie Feng and said, "If the Seal completely fails, the Voormis are responsible for destroying it before it fully awakens. The Great Cultivator left behind a forbidden spell, buried in the deepest part of the underground mine tunnels, which can only be activated by someone who knows magic. Once the forbidden spell is initiated, it will melt the entire geothermal fissure along with the fragments. But at the same time as it melts, all remaining heat will be released, and the geothermal Ore veins beneath Ranhuo City will be completely blown up."

The one-eyed Voormis stuffed its tobacco pouch back into its mouth, its voice muffled: "The forbidden spell is already prepared. We were preparing it three months ago when the God of Toads descended its revelation. Now the Seal is stable, and you have relit the runes, but the fragments have not fallen back asleep. It is only waiting, waiting until it has observed enough to break through the Seal at any time.

We do not intend to leave the forbidden spell until the day it has observed enough. Before we leave, we will set the forbidden spell to a standby state and set the trigger conditions: once the fragments break through the third circle of runes on the inner layer of the Seal, the forbidden spell will automatically activate. Then we will evacuate along the underground mine tunnels. By then, regardless of whether the fragments wake up or when they wake up, the forbidden spell will melt them before they break through the last layer of the Seal."

"The city will also blow up at the same time it melts," Xie Feng said.

"It will blow up," the old female Voormis held the grayish-blue Ore in her arms from a different angle, "but we have guarded this wretched city for six hundred years. We do not plan to let it blow up worthlessly. Before the forbidden spell activates, there will be an extremely short delay, probably enough for a sufficiently strong early-warning spiritual power wave to surge out from the underground fissure, giving the City Defense Mansion enough time to sound the city-wide alarm and allowing a portion of the people to evacuate. We can only say this much, kid. You would not expect us to die together with humans, would you?"

She pulled the grayish-blue Ore closer into her arms. "Are you going to forge this staff or not?"

The brain of Xie Feng spun rapidly; he finally strung together a series of scattered clues.

Therefore, the reason these Voormis were retreating was that a forbidden spell was buried deep underground. Once triggered, the entire city would be turned upside down, and they had to retreat to the far end of the mine tunnels in advance so as not to be sucked in. However, he could not show his cards to Elder Han about this. Elder Han did not know anything about the deal of the ancestors, nor did he know about the existence of the Voormis. If he went to Elder Han right now and said "a group of Voormis has buried a self-destruction program beneath your house," he would only be treated as a spy on the spot, and the fragile cooperation agreement between the two sects would directly collapse.

Furthermore, no one would believe it either; who knows how many people on the side of the Tianque Sect understand Cthulhu Mythos knowledge.

Master Huo was willing to spill these details to him, ultimately out of regard for the statue; the Voormis still regarded him as the favored one of Tsathoggua.

Xie Feng thought that of course he was not a favored one, but revealing his trump card at this moment would do him no good at all.

"Forge it or not?" He held the statue up again and thrust it forward, "Forge it."

It would be foolish not to take advantage!

"But I want to go with you to set the forbidden spell."

Xie Feng paused, "I have a homologous mark of Cthugha on my body. Master Huo definitely knows the relationship between Cthugha and Tsathoggua better than I do. If you do not want the forbidden spell to be sensed in advance by the fragments of Cthugha, you had better let me use the Gate Guide to mask the mana fluctuations of the forbidden spell."

These words were half true and half false; the relationship between the two Great Old Ones was true.

The rest were all fake! Although the mark on his body was also emitting heat, it belonged to the King of Volcanoes. Anyway, they did not believe in Cthulhu, nor could they tell the difference.

Xie Feng had to figure out the specific burial location and trigger mechanism of the forbidden spell, and later discuss it at length with Elder Qin and the Third Princess to see if they could find a way to evacuate the entire city before the forbidden spell was triggered. Xie Feng also knew that telling the truth to the Voormis was useless; these old fellows had guarded this place for six hundred years, and before leaving, they would not abandon the initiation of the forbidden spell for a vague expectation like maybe the whole city can evacuate.

Master Huo stared at him for a long time. Deep within the pupils of those light gray eyes, two charcoal-like specks of cold light flickered slightly. Then he extended three thick claws and shook hands with Xie Feng.

"Deal. The staff will be forged now, and after it is done, I will take you to the underground mine tunnels." He pulled the iron hammer up from the ground, and the cold crystal Ore dust on the hammer head fell patteringly in the morning light.

Xie Feng placed the statue on the spread-out claws of Master Huo, felt out a jade token from his sleeve, and sent a spiritual message to Tu Ziguan: There is a situation at the mine pit, bring Elder Qin to the West Slope. Do not make a fuss. Then he sent another separate one to Elder Qin: Master Huo is a Voormis, and there is a forbidden spell underground. Bring Tu Ziguan over, and do not bring Elder Han.

Of course, Elder Qin would not understand, but with Tu Ziguan to explain, it was about the same.

The one-eyed Voormis had already laid out a very thick black iron anvil on the ground. The old female Voormis placed the grayish-blue Ore on the anvil, and several Voormis squatted down around the anvil.

Master Huo raised the iron hammer, and the cold crystal Ore dust on the hammer head burst into a small, extremely bright grayish-blue light mist in the morning light. When the first hammer fell down, within the spiritual power perception of Xie Feng, the flowing grayish-blue light mist deep inside the Ore suddenly expanded outward in a circle following the rhythm of the hammering. The cold crystal components inside the Ore were being awakened by Master Huo through forging.

The key point was that this hammer blow was silent; the sound of forging was wrapped by an extremely thin barrier of mana. Master Huo was forging with mana, not spiritual power.

No wonder Gu Jian said Master Huo relied on something else for blacksmithing; it turns out he relied on mana.

When Master Huo was blacksmithing, every hammer blow poured the mana of Tsathoggua into the Materials, and what was forged out was by no means an ordinary Magical Artifact, but a Cthulhu-style magical weapon.

Xie Feng squatted beside the anvil, following the hammering rhythm of Master Huo with his spiritual power perception, engraving the position, angle, and force of each hammer drop into his consciousness. He needed to know how the rune circuits of this staff naturally formed during the forging process, so that if something went wrong with the staff later, he could repair it himself.

He did not know Voormis communication arts, and this thing definitely did not come with after-sales service.

Suddenly, Xie Feng looked at the cold crystal in front of him and trembled all over.

This thing could not be related to the Lord of the Ice-Flame Circle, Aphoom-Zhah, could it?

No way, I really do not want to add one more audience member!