CHAPTER 1166: CHAPTER 597: THE PATH

"Who activated the mechanism?"

Liszt immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. The pyramid wouldn’t change suddenly; someone must have triggered something.

"I don’t know!" Number 7 and Number 9 shouted in unison, "I didn’t notice anything unusual."

Number 19: "Could it be because we lifted that stone brick?"

"Impossible! There are no traps that delay for so long."

"But none of us triggered any traps!"

"Maybe it’s a hidden one, quick, let’s find it!"

Although Liszt didn’t know what would happen next, his professional knowledge told him that it usually wouldn’t be a good thing.

But Rod wasn’t in a hurry. He quickly read the latter half of the content on the stone brick and understood the principle and usage of the divine artifact called the "Sealing Spirit Platform."

In simple terms, the function of the "Sealing Spirit Platform" is to raise a large special Spirit’s Curtain, attempting to isolate the Black Mist.

But in reality, this special Spirit’s Curtain did not succeed in isolating the Black Mist. Instead, it began to gather the nearby Black Mist, rapidly increasing its concentration, even to the point of generating Source Black Fog.

The Source Black Fog is the Black Mist in its true form. Once it appears, it will inevitably cause massive, irreversible pollution. Moreover, powerful Black Fog Symbionts will continuously be born within the Source Black Fog, spreading the pollution rapidly.

The Ancient Gods were unwilling to give up and thus expanded the area of the Spirit’s Curtain to avoid the genesis of Source Black Fog.

This was the origin of the Black Fog Wall that Rod witnessed.

However, even with the expanded area, the Black Mist within the Black Fog Wall reached the degree of the Third Derivation.

It can be said that the "Sealing Spirit Platform" did not achieve any meaningful effect.

This was a completely failed experiment, with no possible improvements.

During the Fire Epoch, a Human Kingdom named "Sigles" spent a hundred years proving this point.

Later, "Adam Yareel" spent his entire life repeating the paths of the former and came to the same conclusion.

But ultimately, what shattered his faith was his discovery in one test that the Black Mist had an unstoppable diffusibility.

It could permeate from the Material World into the Sea of Source, and also from the Sea of Source into the Material World.

This indicated that the Black Mist was not a polluting substance; it was essentially an existence similar to the Source Law. The Black Mist humans see is just a special manifestation of this Dark Law after "Quantification."

"Adam Yareel" used a special metaphor to explain this matter: if the universe composed of Three Realms is a soul, then the Black Mist is the Source Law within that vast soul.

Nothing can completely seal it off.

This discovery proved that the path of sealing the Black Mist was impossible.

Even if he created a miraculous miracle and improved the Spirit’s Curtain to an ideal degree, he still could not isolate the Black Mist.

Finally, "Adam Yareel" in a tone of reverence, elaborated on the structure, characteristics, and usage of the Sealing Spirit Platform, extolling the unimaginable wisdom and inaccessible power of the Ancient Gods, and ended this text and his life with a string of monotonous laughing characters.

"You are not a failure."

"You are the pioneer holding the torch high; your light illuminates the path ahead for us, preventing us from going astray."

Rod politely placed the stone brick back to its original place, stood up, and said loudly, "Come over, you don’t need to search anymore."

Liszt raised his head in shock, "Sir Zero, did you discover something?"

Rod nodded, casually pointing to a semi-circular protrusion on the distant wall, and said, "That’s the mechanism. Lifting it upwards can control the expansion of the Spirit’s Curtain, while pressing it downwards can retract the Spirit’s Curtain to its original size, compressing the Black Mist further."

The four turned to look and indeed saw the semi-circular protrusion pointing downwards.

Liszt exclaimed, "This isn’t a hidden mechanism, how did it get triggered? What will happen with the Black Mist compression?"

Rod succinctly replied, "It will produce Source Black Fog."

"What?" The four all exclaimed, and the sharp-eyed Liszt even noticed that the Black Mist at the top was becoming denser, a thrill of fear involuntarily rising in his heart.

Number 9 urgently shouted, "Quick, quickly push it back!"

Rod shook his head and said, "Can’t do it, not until this operation is completed can it be restored."

Perhaps due to the contraction of the invisible Spirit’s Curtain, the Black Mist was pressing down bit by bit.

Number 7 cried out anxiously, "Then what do we do? Let’s hurry and use the marker to escape!"

"Don’t rush."

Rod smiled.

"We can shut down the Sealing Spirit Platform."

Liszt exclaimed in surprise, "You’ve found a way to shut down the Sealing Spirit Platform? The switch at the top can’t be moved at all!"

"It can be moved, as long as enough Spirit is infused."

Rod lightly leaped to the top of the Sealing Spirit Platform.

With a glance, he spotted the circle of purple disk beneath the central mechanism.

Liszt and the other three laboriously climbed up, following Rod’s gaze, and also noticed the difference in the purple disk.

"Hey? The Star Marrow here has very high spiritual conductivity."

Rod squatted down, pressed his hands on the purple disk, and with a single thought, the Spirituality from the Dream Realm poured out.

Purple light immediately lit up on the disk.

Liszt said happily, "Worthy of you! You truly are the king of exploration!"

Number 7 and Number 9 exchanged smiles. For them, there was no better teammate than Rod, who had a powerful fighting force, was unafraid of pollution, had space ability, possessed an incredibly high Spiritual Energy, knew multiple languages, had a keen mind, and was adept at navigating sewers.

This was simply a dream-like polymath, the kind of person the Investigation Legion could only dream of having.

Only Number 19 noticed something was wrong: "How much Spirit do they require? How much have you infused?"

Rod did not reply. After infusing the first wave of Spirituality, the altar seemed to be activated, frantically absorbing his Spirituality.

Fortunately, the Spirituality in the Dream Realm reached 1.33 million. If it had been his own Spirituality, it would have been drained long ago.

But as time passed, the altar’s absorption accelerated, and even 1.33 million Spirituality wasn’t enough.

Rod said in his mind, "Book, sacrifice the Great Demon God."

The Book of Knowledge had long had this idea, and without a word, it jumped onto the altar, fulfilling Rod’s command.

Lines of white text flashed before his eyes.

Soul Without Spirit +4.5 billion

Spirituality +450,000

Source +3 portions

Nightmare Fuel +35 portions

Mysterious Spirit Fragment +1 portion

Soul Residue +460,000 portions

——

"Hahaha, a bountiful harvest! A bountiful harvest!"

The Book of Knowledge laughed maniacally, rushing to the Sun Tower with the Soul Without Spirit in hand.

It seemed that this guy was really eager to repair the Sun Tower.

Rod originally wanted to ask what the "Mysterious Spirit Fragment" was, but it looked like it would have to wait.

The newly acquired 450,000 Spirituality immediately resisted the altar’s suction, and before the Spirituality dropped below 100,000, it was finally filled.

The entire trapezoidal altar radiated a purple light, as a booming sound emanated from within the altar, with the continuous clattering of mechanisms.

Accompanied by a loud explosion, the mechanism at the top of the tower visibly loosened.

Rod grasped the lever without hesitation and gave it a strong push.

With a rumble.

The entire altar trembled, then sank downward, sending countless dust particles flying, enveloping the entire space.

Rod felt something swiftly brush across his face, like an invisible curtain being retracted from the altar.

In the sky, the dense Black Fog began to dissipate; the pressure formed by the curtain no longer existed, causing the higher-order Black Fog to naturally start disassembling, thinning out but covering a wider area as lower-order Black Fog.

The inside of the pyramid was quickly shrouded in Black Fog.

However, this level of Black Fog couldn’t break through the defense of the Red Tear Stone and pose a threat to them.

Liszt looked at Rod and asked, "So... the Black Fog Wall has dissipated?"

Rod nodded, "Yes."

"We can cross over the Sword Edge Mountain Range?"

"Yes."

Overwhelming joy rose in Liszt’s heart, but years of strict training by the Investigation Legion kept this commander from showing too much, to avoid disrupting his calm thoughts.

However, numbers 7 and 9 couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and the laughter seemed contagious, causing Liszt to no longer hold back and laugh out loud.

The laughter quickly filled the space, as Liszt and his team embraced each other, then came over to hug Rod, even attempting to express the highest courtesy of the Investigation Legion—a kiss.

Rod decisively rejected the affectionate gestures of the bald one, the one-eyed one, the bearded one, and the odd one.

Having these folks kiss him, he’d have nightmares for half a year.

"Don’t rush to celebrate."

Rod said with a smile:

"I have an even bolder idea."

He opened his arms toward the altar.

"I wish to take it back."

Liszt exclaimed, "What?"

Number 7 said urgently, "Is that possible?"

Rod nodded, "It was impossible before, but now it is, thanks to that unfortunate failed Adam Yareel, who lingered in the Divine Tower for forty years with just a Residual Fire, surviving solely on Monster Ash."

"In his research, he found that in the initial construction of the Sealing Spirit Platform, it wasn’t locked within the Divine Tower. The seven Ancient Gods created a Spirit Core for the altar, fixing it to the earth with special power; as long as the earth remains unbroken, the altar cannot be moved."

"However, the Spirit Core retains the imprint of the seven Ancient Gods, and only if any one of the seven Ancient Gods takes action can the Spirit Core’s restriction be lifted, allowing the altar to be moved."

Liszt frowned, "The seven Ancient Gods have either long perished or been corrupted, how can we lift it now?"

Rod smiled, "I’ll give it a try; perhaps there’s a way."

With that, he jumped off the altar and went to the other side.

On the middle step, he found a piece of high Spiritual Energy conductive Star Marrow.

This was a recessed wall with seven different-shaped slots.

One of them was in the shape of a sword.

Rod retrieved the Destiny Divine Sword left to him by the Ancient God of Destiny Yanosadag from the Dream Realm.

With a swish.

He inserted it.

The entire trapezoidal altar began to quiver, emitting a loud humming noise.