Elite Team

"I came here to close the portal at the war base, but with your situation, there probably aren't any portals in the city. Those soldiers likely want me to send the entire city back... they really know how to put people to work."

Thinking about those soldiers' cold, pragmatic utilitarianism that didn't even spare their own corpses, Lin Ye could roughly guess that the three bases they pointed him to would probably be more troublesome, one after another.

"Can we really go back?"

A sliver of hope stirred in Xiya's heart.

"Probably, but do you really want to go back? The people who sent you over there wouldn't want to see this situation."

As the two moved through the ruins, the skinned people following them were gradually decreasing.

"Of course, I don't want to die in a place like this. Whether those people are willing or not has nothing to do with us, just like our opinions have nothing to do with them."

Xiya understood very clearly what consequences Windflower City returning to its original position would cause, but what did that have to do with them?

"Good, I hope you won't regret it."

Lin Ye followed Xiya into the interior of an abandoned factory building. In one corner of the factory, Xiya lifted a floor panel leading to an underground space.

The factory basement was the survivors' shelter.

"Big Sister Xiya is back... who's that guy in the military uniform?"

"That military uniform doesn't look fake, was there someone like that in the city? Could it be..."

"An outsider? Who brought him in? Why don't I see the survivors who went outside?"

...

The underground space was divided into various areas. The air was filled with a mixture of foul odors. Over a hundred survivors were crammed into this narrow underground space, barely surviving.

Xiya gathered everyone together and then explained the current situation to them.

"Sigh, we really aren't in our original world anymore..."

"What do we do? Can that person really send us back?"

"Isn't it bad to bring these monsters back? Can't we find a way to go back ourselves?"

"Bad?! Think about those bastards who abandoned us! I'd rather die than not send these monsters back!"

"They probably had no choice either..."

"We have no choice either. Anyway, I don't want to wait here to die."

...

Lin Ye didn't participate in the survivors' discussion. Instead, he carefully felt the influence of the heads above on his consciousness. After all, no matter what conclusion these survivors reached, what he needed to do wouldn't change.

Underground, the influence of those heads on Lin Ye weakened significantly. He wanted to gradually adapt to this influence.

Only this way could he move normally in this ruined city.

'Maybe I can construct a layer of mental protection... Basic Ritual Studies and the knowledge Little Ye gave me seem to have techniques close to this...'

Lin Ye recalled various pieces of knowledge. He hadn't learned how to construct mental protection because building mental protection was a very dangerous act—it was equivalent to concentrating all of the consciousness's defensive power on the outer layer of the Consciousness.

In this situation, if the mental protection was breached, the Consciousness would have no resistance at all.

'But I can use other techniques to achieve the effect of mental protection...'

Lin Ye closed his eyes, pondering various pieces of knowledge. Soon, he summarized a technique that could handle this situation.

This technique was named by Lin Ye as: Divine Prayer Spiritual Purification Technique.

Simply put, it was offering all 'noise' besides one's core self-awareness to a deity in the form of prayer.

'Theoretically, there shouldn't be a problem... as long as that side doesn't mind... The great Abyssal Evil God wouldn't get angry over a small matter like prayer, right?'

Lin Ye felt it should be fine. Moreover, with the divine seat as a relay, Little Red would probably stop him if there was a problem.

'Actually, I don't necessarily have to pray to the Abyssal Evil God. When I get more proficient later, I could also pray to some acquaintances...'

Lin Ye carefully considered every step of this technique, only opening his eyes after confirming there were no issues.

The survivors had already reached a consensus. They would send people to accompany Lin Ye to the center of the ruins to search for a way to return.

"I can go by myself. You just need to tell me the information about this place."

Lin Ye didn't want to bring along a bunch of dead weight. If he could deal with the heads above, he could use the Compressed Spiritual Energy Blade to clear out those skinned people. Other monsters could be handled slowly.

"Those skinned people are the easiest monsters to deal with in the ruins. The center of the ruins is full of more terrifying things. We can only survive at the edges of the ruins, but we escaped from the center. The terrain there is extremely complex. We can guide you."

Xiya didn't think Lin Ye could enter the center of the ruins alone. That place was no longer a normal world but a bizarre demonic domain. Normal people couldn't even get close to it.

"... Whatever. I'm not responsible for protecting you."

Lin Ye actually wasn't confident about sending this city away either. He could just return anytime.

Since these survivors wanted to take a gamble, he had no reason to stop them.

In the end, besides Xiya, two other survivors would go to the center of the ruins: Doctor Ferrando and the information dealer, Karan.

Ferrando was a young man about Lin Ye's age. He looked a bit effeminate, and his shy smile gave off an unreliable feeling.

Karan was a gray-haired man with a ponytail. He looked very weak, as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

A short adult woman, a crossdressing doctor, a kidney-deficient uncle, and a masked man in military uniform—this was the composition of this team.

"Follow me. I know a safe path to the center of the ruins, but I haven't used this path for a while. I'm not sure about its current safety."

The four left the factory building. Karan led the way in front, Ferrando and Xiya were in the middle, and Lin Ye followed at the rear.

After returning to the surface, the influence of the heads above on consciousness significantly increased. Lin Ye didn't directly use the Divine Prayer Spiritual Purification Technique because he couldn't possibly test a deity's tolerance level, nor could he maintain a prayer state continuously. Therefore, he could only use this move here once, with the duration depending on the deity's reaction.

Karan led them through the ruins. On the way, they only encountered some skinned people, all of whom were dealt with by Lin Ye using the Dragon Fishing Rod.

"You'd better not kill too many skinned people, or it might attract the Skinner."

Ferrando leaned close to Lin Ye's ear and whispered.

"The Skinner?"

Lin Ye could roughly guess what it was, but he still confirmed.

"It's the anomaly that turned the citizens into skinned people."

Ferrando took out a notebook with drawings of various monsters. The Skinner was a thin man wearing a leather coat and a leather mask.

"Not bad. Your drawing is quite accurate."

Lin Ye compared and found Ferrando's drawing skill was quite high. With just a few simple strokes, he captured the Skinner's creepy atmosphere.

"Thank you, it's my hobby... Wait, you've seen the Skinner?"

Ferrando looked up and happened to meet the gaze of the Skinner standing not far away.