CHAPTER 337: CHAPTER 337: IF THE SEAL CAN’T BE BROKEN, THEN CIRCUMVENT IT_1

The enormous body of the Titan King collapsed cataclysmically as his Health hit zero. The errors, now devoid of a host, began to dissipate from the corpse. Without an objective, they coupled with other errors, eventually merging into the Erroneous Sins of the Fallen Players and NPC rebels.

However, this act did not strengthen these two Erroneous Sins; instead, it acted as an accelerator for their fusion. The original timeline for the fusion process was unclear, but now, it could be accomplished within at most three days.

Perhaps an alternative version of the Game System would be born by then.

However, Wang Linchi currently had no time for that, as he was busy gathering from the Titan King’s corpse.

The Corrosive Conversion on the Titan King’s body reacted after his death, rapidly dissolving. If Wang Linchi hadn’t acted quickly, he wouldn’t have salvaged even a speck.

"How’s the collection going? Is it useful?" Ye Tian asked as he walked over.

His timing was perfect, approaching to ask right after Wang Linchi finished his collection. Otherwise, seeing how occupied Wang Linchi was, Ye Tian would have felt bad disturbing him.

"I don’t know." Wang Linchi had no idea if it would be useful; he had been focused on collecting it. Its usefulness would have to be determined by later research.

"Well... if you don’t know, why are you collecting it?" Linghu Sen remarked, having overheard Wang Linchi as he approached.

"I haven’t researched it yet, so how would I know what it’s useful for?" Wang Linchi retorted, then continued, "What now? Weren’t you planning to go to the second underground layer?"

Wang Linchi naturally had no intention of joining them at this point. For him, it was best to tackle things one at a time—first completing the collection of bloodlines from the Elemental Giants. With this time difference, by the time they reached the second underground layer, Ye Tian might have already subjugated all the races there. He could then just reap the benefits without much effort.

"We can’t get in; we’ve been blocked. That’s why we thought you could come take a look and see if you can remove the obstacle," Ye Tian said, having approached Wang Linchi because he believed he could solve the problem.

"If even you can’t solve it, how could I?" Despite his words, Wang Linchi’s body moved honestly towards the entrance.

Upon closer inspection, it indeed was a bit problematic.

"This thing is somewhat like a diaphragm structure. Interesting." Wang Linchi noted after a careful examination that it wasn’t a typical barrier.

He forcibly scraped off a small chunk of the tissue for further testing and found it to be inactive.

He initially suspected the structure to be a part of the Sky God’s body tissue, but now he couldn’t be certain; it had been dead for too long to detect anything.

"Look around, there might be some kind of mechanism," Wang Linchi suggested.

Ye Tian shook his head. "We already searched. If there was one, we wouldn’t have come to find you."

"That makes it troublesome. This thing seems to be artificially sealed, not a natural structure," Wang Linchi concluded after his inspection. To open it, they either had to find the specific method or resort to brute force.

"Then this implies a very serious problem: what’s below might not be as tame as we imagine."

"It might be a seal."

"You know what a seal is, right? It’s used to trap a bunch of powerful enemies that can’t be completely defeated." Wang Linchi also tried to use his Thought Field for a more in-depth study, but naturally, he found nothing.

The structure was too thick, and its material had inherent insulating properties, making penetration impossible for Wang Linchi.

The spiritual power derived from his Soul Series System was indeed quite outdated in this world.

"It seems we really have no options left," Ye Tian said with a touch of helplessness upon hearing this.

"However, if you want to get into the second underground layer, it’s not entirely impossible," Wang Linchi abruptly stated, offering Ye Tian a glimmer of hope.

This took Ye Tian by surprise. "You can break this seal?"

"I can’t. But when I examined it just now, the seal only covers this small area." Wang Linchi thought the person who did this must have been incredibly careless. "We can dig down next to the seal and bypass it."

"Is it really that simple?" Linghu Sen was astonished; he never would have imagined that a seal could be compromised by such shoddy work.

"Maybe they ran short of materials and only managed to seal this small section," Wang Linchi mused, though it seemed unlikely.

But then again, this seal was situated right beneath the Titan King’s rear end. Even without this seal, it would not have been easy for whatever was beneath to get out.

Ye Tian was able to kill the Titan King only because the Titan King had his Health bar displayed to Players and was forcibly reduced to -1 Health. Wang Linchi, on the other hand, couldn’t have defeated him, let alone other life forms that might be underground.

Essentially, the true seal should have been the Titan King. In this context, the Titan King was the lock, and this barrier was the door. A door without a lock offers virtually no security.

"So, what’s its purpose then?" Linghu Sen asked with a puzzled expression. It couldn’t just be a useless ornament, could it?

"It does have a purpose. This thing can isolate rules, preventing the Erroneous Sin from entering the second underground layer even if we’ve reached the first," Wang Linchi further deduced.

A door, without a lock, can’t stop thieves. But even if merely pushed to, it can still block wind and rain—unless someone forces it open.

"So if we bypass this seal to reach the second layer, wouldn’t we be directly bringing the errors over?" Ye Tian asked pointedly.

"Exactly," Wang Linchi answered straightforwardly.

If the door is fine but you knock down the wall, then the wind and rain will definitely get into the house without needing to go through the door.

"Then let’s just forget about it. There’s no need to go in; we currently don’t lack..." Ye Tian didn’t want to endanger the lives in the second layer because of his actions.

When they entered the first layer, they were unaware of their situation; their actions had been unintentional.

Now that they knew, they naturally wouldn’t knowingly repeat the mistake.

"Your intention is good, but with the Titan King dead and without such a prominent scapegoat to draw aggro, this seal won’t last much longer," Wang Linchi interrupted Ye Tian.

Ye Tian was reluctant, yet the errors were spreading. The seal couldn’t hold for much longer; it would either transform into an Erroneous Sin or fail due to the errors.

From the moment the errors invaded the Underworld, they were destined to never stop spreading.

"This..." Ye Tian fell silent. He had never anticipated such a situation.

"Actually, I’m quite curious. What exactly did the Underworld experience back then to necessitate such measures?" Wang Linchi was also curious. It couldn’t possibly be due to a disaster related to rules, could it?

"That’s not what we need to consider now. Is there any way to stop it?" Ye Tian wasn’t interested in what happened in the Underworld back then; he just wanted to prevent the imminent spread of errors.

"If I had that kind of ability, would I still be here chatting with you? I’d have gone to the surface world and become someone truly formidable by now." Wang Linchi obviously lacked such abilities. He could, at most, ensure his own well-being. As for saving the world, he wasn’t capable of that.

Wang Linchi had realized that Ye Tian saw him as an omnipotent expert. If Ye Tian didn’t understand something, he’d ask him; if something else was beyond him, he’d still ask Wang Linchi. At least the Yan Ming King only asked him for Soul Skills, but Ye Tian seemed to want to wring him completely dry. He was just being paid with Elemental Giants, yet they weren’t treating him like an employee, but more like a personal wishing well.

"Preventing the errors? You might as well give me a knife and tell me to go take down the Game System; that would be simpler," Wang Linchi complained.

This was like giving Wang Linchi ten dollars and telling him to earn ten billion—not in Zimbabwean currency, but in Spirit Stones, which didn’t even exist in the real world.

His words made Ye Tian chuckle sheepishly; he hadn’t expected such a vehement reaction from Wang Linchi.

"So, should we..." Ye Tian hesitated.

"Better a swift pain than a lingering one. All we can do now is try to secure an advantageous position," Linghu Sen chimed in. In this regard, he shared Wang Linchi’s view: if they couldn’t even protect themselves, how could they protect others? Following a leader like Ye Tian was good, but Linghu Sen himself was not that kind of person.

"I’ll think it over and give you an answer tomorrow." Ye Tian couldn’t help but be indecisive; this wasn’t about one person but the future of countless lives.

"Alright, you think it over. We’ll start digging first. If you disagree tomorrow, we can just fill the hole back up," Wang Linchi suggested, a proposal that Linghu Sen supported.

Ye Tian agreed. He thought Wang Linchi had a point; it was wise to prepare for both possibilities.

From Wang Linchi’s words, it seemed there was a considerable distance between the first and second layers of the Underworld, which would undoubtedly require substantial effort to excavate.

Actually, Wang Linchi had no idea about the distance; he was just speaking off the cuff. Even if it turned into a wild goose chase for them, it wouldn’t affect him.

"Then I’ll go make arrangements immediately." Linghu Sen acknowledged and then departed.