Chapter 219

Chapter 219: Assemble

On their way back they encountered the Giant Devil Mosquitoes again, but luckily nothing much happened with the Great Stink Bomb Fruit. Sarelli asked Bai Yi for one for the sake of repelling the Giant Devil Mosquitoes when they inevitably came again, but, sadly, Bai Yi refused him because there were only three of the Great Stink Bomb Fruits left. The one in Nancy’s hands right now was for backup and for concocting potions, while the other two were intentionally left behind on the tree by Bai Yi.

The Great Stink Bomb Fruits were definitely good stuff, it had the effect of enhancing the strength of the absolute life field after consuming it. Yet, Bai Yi’s team did not pick the tree clean. In reality, after eating ten of those fruits, the effect of the Great Stink Bomb Fruits had already diminished to a very small level. There were a total of 24 Great Stink Bomb Fruits, Bai Yi’s team ate eleven and they picked another ten for the other people who entered LV2. Of course, the bunch of LV2s hadn’t known what they were eating. They only felt that the taste had a great impact and it seemed to be beneficial to their body. However, due to each person not eating a lot of it, they weren’t too clear about the effects either.

As for the remaining two fruits, Bai Yi felt that if there was somebody who could bear the intense stink and eat the fruit anyway, then it was that person’s fortunate encounter. Bai Yi wasn’t the kind of person who would selfishly desire to completely possess something good once he saw it.

One could say that he was altruistic or stupid, but this was the way Bai Yi did things.

Though Bai Yi didn’t give Sarelli a Great Stink Bomb Fruit, he still gave him a small test tube of the fruit’s fluid. After all, they had already taken the mysterious fruit for themselves, it wasn’t a bad thing to smooth relationships when they could.

Holding the piece of Soul Release Wood, the group of them came to the pier and the people who stayed back to guard the place greeted them. Nothing much had happened on their side. After assembling, the group split off once again and Sarelli and his team went flying off in the helicopter.

“What happened? Something seems off between you guys,” Betsy asked.

“We fought for a fruit and they weren’t happy about it.” Bai Yi shrugged.

…

“Sarelli, where are we going now? Back to Australia?”

Only Sarelli’s team members were on the helicopter now. Seeing that Sarelli wasn’t replying him but just observing a small piece of Soul Release Wood, Rupert called out for Sarelli loudly again.

“Sarelli!”

Sarelli lifted his eyes, “Go to Westport. There’s a frontline research facility by the United Nations there.”

“Frontline research facility? Why didn’t we hear about this before?” Rupert immediately asked in surprise.

“Tell you guys? So that you guys can leak it to Bai Yi afterward? A bunch of idiots – one of you stupidly grabbed a bug you knew nothing about! Let’s hope the frontline research facility has a way to treat the injury on your hand! And you, Rupert! Why did you piss there so unthinkingly?” Sarelli asked with a calm and collected expression. Now, Sarelli exerted his authority over them without showing his anger, completely different from the feeling of a minor character he had while they were with Bai Yi.

“This…you know things like pissing, sometimes you just can’t hold it in?” Rupert said embarrassedly.

“Tsk, moron. But this is good too, Bai Yi will probably treat us as real newbies now.” Sarelli scolded again and didn’t continue to speak. The few helicopters then flew towards the direction of Westport.

“Sarelli, I heard that you also came from the Devil Isles, is that true?” After a while, Rupert asked again. Actually, the rest of them were very curious too.

“Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t ask about,” Sarelli gave him a glance but didn’t explain.

Rupert just shrugged with an expression of helplessness. However, only Sarelli knew that he really did come from the Devil Isles. It was just that he came from the northern island and was one of the United Nations’ men.

It was needless to say just how important Devil Isles was as a natural ecosphere for activated cells research. At the very beginning of the change, all countries had already placed high importance on that place. Not only the frontline research facility, but there were also a lot of soldiers that got sent there, just that not many of them survived. Sarelli could be sure that among the thousand-plus LV2s on the southern island, there were definitely soldiers sent by the various countries. As for which country they came from and how many of them there were, he wouldn’t know that.

Loyalty, huh?

Sarelli looked at his own hands. In the beginning, when he was selected for this mission by the military, the only request from the higher-ups was absolute loyalty because this wasn’t just a simple mission. He’d believed that he was loyal enough too but after four-plus years of living in Devil Isles, seeing his companions die from various dangers, and transforming into a monster himself, how much of that loyalty was still left in him now? More than likely, he was just following his habits by continuing to report and serve the United Nations.

Were there people from other countries on Bai Yi’s team?

Sarelli closed his eyes and thought about it. Suddenly, Rupert shouted. “Team Leader, there’s a flying evolved life form coming towards us!”

In a moment, Sarelli jumped out of the helicopter. A pair of wings spread from his back, colored patterns appeared on his face, and he roared at the flying evolved life form coming towards them. That kind arrogant and domineering appearance, and the traces of oppressive pressure coming from his body wasn’t much inferior to even Bai Yi. If Bai Yi could see what Sarelli looked like now, he would find something familiar.

…

“Woolf, long time no see.” Mavis waved to Woolf.

“Long time no see! Is it ok for you to be outside like this?” Woolf looked at his friend from the past, happy, even though Mavis was just a spiritual body now.

“It should be fine if it’s just a short period of time. I still have some things to tell Bai Yi,” Mavis smiled and said.

“What about Heloise and Vala?” Mavis took a look at the group and asked.

“Many things happened,” Bai Yi recollected the things that occurred.

“Did their souls disappear?”

“No. They are in this piece of Soul Release Wood now. That’s also how we found out that Soul Release Wood could absorb and preserve people’s souls,” Bai Yi said.

“The environment here isn’t too good. Let’s return to the city and let Heloise and Vala out so we can finally all come together again.” Mavis said as traces of hurt appeared on her face listening to Bai Yi’s words. The Devil Isles was really too dangerous. Since the beginning, her companions died one after another for various reasons. But luckily with Soul Release Wood, they could at least preserve the souls for now.

“OK!” Bai Yi nodded.

Momo had called out Heloise and Vala’s soul occasionally in the past as well, but every time they came out their souls would become fainter. After a few times, they came to understand that the environment of the outside world wasn’t suited for souls, so Heloise and Vala rarely came out after that.

Once they returned to the center of Wellington, Heloise and Vala drifted out from the piece of Soul Release Wood and hugged Mavis.

“Hey, you don’t know just how little space there is in this piece of Soul Release Wood! I almost suffocated to death! If not for Momo being able to talk to us from time to time, we would probably grow sick from getting trapped inside,” Heloise grumbled upon seeing her.

“Don’t grumble for now. Your souls are a little corrupted; follow me to the tree’s core to purify yourself!” Mavis looked at Heloise and Vala and immediately said.

“Purify?”

“Right, purify. I’ll explain the reasoning behind it later!” Mavis nodded and led Heloise and Vala and flew towards the tree’s core.

After Heloise and Vala were purified, everybody could tell that their souls were indeed a bit different. All of them finally gathered again and listened to Mavis talk about her experiences. Mavis had already become a spiritual body when Wellington had started changing, so her point of view was completely different than that of a normal person.

“Undoubtedly, Ghost City Welling was an Underworld,” Mavis started to explain.

“Underworld!”

“Right, Underworld. This is my understanding of it!”

“The Underworld refers to an accidentally formed special environment in which souls can exist. However, the formation of such an environment is coincidental, and this environment would succumb to the erosion by the main world if it’s special layout got damaged. After those few buildings collapsed, it was as if a hole opened in the Ghost City and the Underworld qi gradually leaked out and dissipated. My guess is that this special layout got broken.” Mavis explained.

“That’s probably the case. Aren’t there ghost sightings in a lot of places like those ancient battlefields or murder locations? In the end, all of those became legends due to a lack of evidence. Most probably, the environment changed and the accidentally formed Underworld eventually got eroded by the main world and disappeared. The souls lost the conditions for survival and also disappeared in the end.” Bai Yi nodded.

Alodia held the laptop and recorded all of this information.

“Then, is there a possibility to artificially create an Underworld?” Alodia suddenly asked after recording the details.

Everyone heard and immediately stared at each other. A man-made Underworld? There seemed to be examples of such things in the ancient legends of many countries.

“Pyramids!”

“Terracotta Army!”

“Ancient Tombs!”

“Great Netherworld Formation!” Bai Yi also mentioned.

Everybody else heard and immediately looked at Bai Yi dumbly. The other places were familiar, but what was this Great Netherworld Formation that Bai Yi spoke about? Bai Yi couldn’t help but laugh to himself and started to explain to the others. He only mentioned it on a whim actually. Didn’t those cultivation or fantasy novels always have something like that?

“Bai Yi you are really…!”

The others finally understood and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“A man-made Underworld is possible in theory, but we won’t be able to reach an accurate conclusion in the short term.” Bai Yi said.

At this time, Bai Yi thought about the image Heloise drew of Ghost City Wellington when she flew up into the sky. Great Netherworld Formation: if they could reconstruct the arrangement as seen in that drawing and refine it, could they really create the kind of formations they saw in novels?