Mushroom Lord in the Underground City-Chapter 373 - 365: The Cube

The surrounding space fluctuated violently like the surface of water!

In an instant, the bright daylight overhead disappeared, and Salian only felt a sense of weightlessness hit him. When he regained his balance, he found himself alone in pure darkness.

Well, not entirely alone; Puki was still on his head.

Salian reacted swiftly, casting the Lighting Technique and the Space Reconnaissance Magic Ball almost at the moment he landed.

The gentle glow dispelled a small area of darkness around him, and the magic ball quickly scanned the surroundings. However, the feedback showed nothing.

His expression turned extremely grim, but not merely because he was trapped in an unknown space.

It was in that split second during the space shift that he caught a very subtle, yet incredibly pure evil magic power fluctuation, and its source... came from the direction of his teacher, Ilo!

"Is it... a problem with the Divine Wood?"

Salian desperately hoped this was just an accident and not something his teacher did on purpose...

"Where is this place?"

Regardless, the pressing matter at hand was to find a way out of this eerie dark prison.

The scene of the space transformation felt somewhat familiar to Lin Jun, akin to an elevator back home, except the destination was different.

The culprit was obvious: Ilo!

He used some kind of Abyss Magic that Lin Jun couldn’t comprehend at the last moment.

However, Lin Jun couldn’t understand how Ilo did it?

This should be something only an administrator can control, and the dormant Divine Wood clearly couldn’t do this, could it?!

Moreover, what exactly is this Elf Mage Chief trying to do?

...

This was an exceptionally vast and empty space; Salian explored it for a long time, yet all around was only void and silence, as if everything was devoured by endless darkness.

Ultimately, it was under the guidance of Puki above his head that Salian finally discovered something unusual.

This made Salian feel even worse.

Along the way, his self-created space detection magic, which he took pride in, seemed genuinely inferior to the chubby little Puki.

Of course, he understood that the detection mechanisms of the two were completely different, with naturally distinct functions, but the embarrassment of being repeatedly reminded by Puki made him feel as if his pride, much like his head, was being repeatedly rubbed under Puki’s rear.

Of course, as a mature Elf Mage, Salian wouldn’t deliberately ignore Puki’s hints due to personal emotions.

Suppressing the slight resentment in his heart, he followed the guidance and eventually discovered a gigantic black cube floating in mid-air.

Its composition was unknown, its surface exhibited an absolute smoothness, dark and devoid of light, solidifying in mid-air without the slightest movement, emanating an unnatural strangeness.

Lin Jun found it somewhat familiar yet couldn’t immediately recall what it was?

Salian cautiously circled the cube for a long time, even casting the reconnaissance magic ball again, but the feedback showed the cube’s location as empty, as if it were a nonexistent phantom.

With no other options, Salian finally risked reaching out his finger to try and touch it.

However, just as his fingertip grazed that smooth surface, he suddenly let out a piercing scream, his whole body toppling backward as if struck by a sledgehammer, both hands clutching his head tightly, writhing and howling in agony on the ground as if subjected to some form of torture.

Lin Jun, who had timely commanded Scout Puki to safely jump off, finally found the source of that familiar feeling upon witnessing Salian’s miserable state!

Isn’t this just like those "garbage information" from the Abyss!

However, unlike those torrents of rapidly flowing information he had dealt with in the past, the information within this cube seemed forcibly fixed by some power.

Anyway, trying is the only way to know.

Taking advantage of Salian still immersed in pain, with no time for other concerns, Puki extended a hypha tendril, lightly touching the surface of the black cube.

Instantly, a grand yet fragmented scene forcibly surged into Lin Jun’s consciousness:

An endless gray-white fog enveloped heaven and earth, with the land within sight decaying and lifeless.

In the distance, an ancient and ruined complex of palaces was slowly detaching from the ground under the influence of some incomprehensible force, rising into the sky, then silently disintegrating into fragments, finally turning into nothingness, utterly obliterated.

The scene’s transition seemed slow, but Lin Jun could clearly sense that the time span displayed in it was likely very long.

With so much content, it’s no wonder Salian was in agony, rolling on the ground.

Lin Jun browsed through all the information in an instant, while meanwhile, Salian was still groaning in pain.

Frankly speaking, Lin Jun thought that Salian had been rather fortunate; previously, those who directly contacted the flowing abyssal information ended up with their heads bursting like watermelons.

Thanks to the contents of this information cube being solidified and limited, otherwise, Salian might not have survived.

After a long time, Salian finally recovered from that terrifying impact, collapsing on the ground, breathing weakly.

"This... what is this?" He mumbled unconsciously, trying to dispel the shock and oppression in his heart with words.

However, a voice he was intimately familiar with came from the darkness, answering his question:

"That is the image of the land beyond the sea, past the mist, a scene from another continent. It is also the future of the land beneath our feet."

Ilo’s figure stepped out from the darkness. With a gentle wave of his hand, the clear glow of an Awakening Technique descended onto Salian’s forehead, effectively easing the lingering pain and chaos in his mind.

"Teacher... what exactly... is going on?" Salian pushed himself up weakly, his voice trembling as he asked.

Ilo did not answer directly; he simply turned around and walked slowly in a certain direction: "Follow me."

Ilo walked steadily in front, and Salian followed silently behind.

This scene seemed no different from countless other times of the master and apprentice walking together, yet Salian’s heart was filled with struggle and confusion.

His teacher’s attitude had explained everything. He wanted to ask clearly but didn’t know where to begin, much less dared to think about how things would develop after asking.

If the teacher truly intended ill towards him, it would be effortlessly achieved.

The disparity in their powers was simply too great.

Ultimately, Ilo led Salian to another similar information cube, although this one’s size was much smaller.

Ilo indicated with his eyes for Salian to step forward and touch it.

Salian took a deep breath, suppressing the fear and doubt in his heart, and reached out his finger once more.

Unexpectedly, this time there was no severe headache caused by the influx of massive information. Instead, the cube contained only a single short phrase:

"The long night of all things arrives as scheduled, the Ark is both our final refuge and the beginning of a new world."