Night of Despair-Chapter 497: Mission 495 One

Absolute Balance Isolation Zone

Inside the Floating City, within one of the deep Light Windows.

Harvey and another young blonde twin-tailed female mage guided Yu Hong to the location of the new coordinates.

In the vast, dimly lit Black Castle, the trio was surrounded by emptiness, with no other human figures in sight.

The stone bricks beneath their feet, each more than ten meters long and wide, were the primary building blocks here.

A large number of cross-shaped, rhombus, and circular mysterious symbols were scattered on the walls, making the place seem a bit chaotic.

As they walked, Harvey and the other stopped halfway.

"Hey Yu, nearby is the Source Disaster frontline of our Absolute Balance. Want to take a look?"

"Can I?" Yu Hong was quite interested.

He also wanted to know how the Arcanists fought.

"Of course you can." Harvey felt it was a pity, wishing to spark Yu Hong’s interest in arcane arts.

"Since you just arrived, you’re not clear on the difference between arcane and spell. How about I tell you briefly?"

"I’m keen to hear." Yu Hong saw his enthusiasm, clearly in a recommending state.

While taking a turn, Harvey began to describe with a slightly proud tone, raising his voice.

"What we call spell actually refers to all supernatural abilities that can be released. Whether innate or learned over time, all can be classified as spells. But the arcane is different."

"Spells can be learned without thinking. You can rely on talent and brute force. But the arcane requires a spirit of exploring mysteries. We divide elemental energy into many disciplines, exploring deeply and researching its essence in an extremely specialized manner. Academicization, in-depth exploration, that’s the essence of arcane!" Harvey’s eyes shone when speaking of arcane.

"Impressive!" Yu Hong said sincerely.

"Glad you understand. The simplest explanation for arcane is the art of exploring mysteries. Thus, for Great Arcanists, many things in the world hold no secrets. But...." Harvey shifted his tone, "this is the source of Arcanists’ strength, and also our great weakness. Great curiosity and the thirst for knowledge when exploring mysteries, make any Arcanist almost powerless in the face of rampant curiosity. Consequently, some Arcanists have gone astray."

As Harvey spoke, he led Yu Hong quickly to a side hall on the left.

There was a floating red oval portal here.

From its center, many red chains extended, linking to the surrounding walls.

"This is the Principle of Balance. We use the power of multiple Source Disasters to counterbalance, creating a long-lasting defense system." Harvey explained.

"Besides sealing the contact point, Arcanists actively patrol the surroundings, counteracting any Source Disaster radiation as soon as it’s detected."

Harvey continued, "I’m one of them. Besides the patrol, there are Magic Statue Masters who, alone, can control thousands of soldiers to repel Source Disaster monster attacks."

He turned in another direction, heading to another side hall.

Shortly, the three arrived at a second hall.

On the surface, it looked no different from the previous one.

But Harvey went straight to the teleportation portal in the middle.

Swoosh!

He vanished.

Yu Hong and the other Arcanist followed suit.

After a flash of red light, the three appeared on a towering city wall.

Harvey, in the lead, continued walking along the city wall.

"This is Wind’s Edge, as the name suggests, it’s the frontline of the Wind Disaster." He pointed his magic wand towards the outside of the right city wall.

He pointed to the distant gray-black ground, where giant black spheres like hot air balloons rolled.

Occasionally, many tiny dots like lice would split from them.

Upon closer inspection, Yu Hong found that the tiny dots were actually numerous tall black statues.

As soon as they came out, they wandered around the ground, patrolling.

"Each of these spheres is a unique base for the Magic Statue Masters. Inside are tens of thousands of magic statues, ready to respond to any possible Source Disaster monster." Harvey explained.

"Don’t be fooled by each statue only being the size of a building. In reality, inside them are Self-Destruction Cores. Once in desperate situations, they instantly self-destruct. The resulting annihilation effect can instantly destroy almost all nearby material energy, even breaking down the structure of Immortal Energy. As you know, Immortality is just a type of reconstruction, a more stable and stronger form than ordinary constructs. But this reconstruction can still be broken. Annihilation Effect can do it."

Yu Hong nodded slightly. By now, he’d estimated the number of those giant spheres and felt a bit numb.

Already having seen over a hundred of these enormous spheres in his vision, he knew this was only a small portion.

With the trio continuing along the city wall top, the scenery on both sides transformed from black plains to dense tree sea, then from tree sea to a vast sandy desert.

Finally, crossing the desert, they arrived at a rugged and steep snowy mountain range.

Amidst the snowy white, there was a grape-shaped black void suspended in the air, continually emitting black smoke.

"We’ve arrived, this is it." Harvey stopped, flashed forward, and instantly moved to the front of the black hole.

Yu Hong and the other Arcanist followed with instantaneous movement.

"You can teleport short distances too?" Harvey and the other were a bit surprised.

"A little, not much." Yu Hong nodded.

"What a pity." Harvey sighed and didn’t continue.

Yu Hong could guess what he regretted, but there was no choice. If he hadn’t accepted the Black Ship Contract back then, he wouldn’t have reached the Floating City today.

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"When do you plan to go inside? Your ship can directly come over and dock nearby." Harvey asked.

"Is this the depths of the Wind Disaster?" Yu Hong replied.

"According to the teacher, yes. But it’s too chaotic inside, with too much radiation interference. It strongly repels the power of order. So, once Arcanists go in, professional order-side beings like us would immediately trigger a boiling reaction, and either we get expelled out, or this coordinate entrance is destroyed entirely by violent fluctuations." Harvey explained.

"So the Savior Ship isn’t as repelled?" Yu Hong asked.

"Exactly, the Savior Ship’s structure is fundamentally crude, bringing a more stable and less precise whole. The principle of the order side is the more precise, the less tolerance for errors and distortions." Harvey nodded.

"How dangerous is it?" Yu Hong asked again.

"I don’t know, but that is the price, isn’t it?" Harvey smiled.

Yu Hong fell silent.

"Okay, when to set out?"

"Up to you."

"Then let’s go now."

Yu Hong turned around and headed back.

"I’m starting to admire him a bit." The other young blonde twin-tailed Arcanist spoke up.

"So am I." Harvey nodded.

"My father was like that, with absolute decisiveness and extraordinary action, he successfully escaped the original world and came here. He reminds me of my late father." The female Arcanist sighed.

Harvey said nothing, just patted her on the back.

*

*

*

Half an hour later.

The massive Black Black Spirit slowly floated, and under the arcane purple aura, it sailed into the black hole deep in the snowy mountains.

The black hole had been enlarged many times, enough to allow the slowly entering ship.

Yu Hong sat alone in the ship’s Main Control Room, looking outside through the ring-shaped window.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Black Black Spirit felt as if yanked by something, accelerating rapidly inward, diving into the black hole, and disappearing.

The circular window in front of Yu Hong turned pitch black.

But in the next second.

The darkness receded.

Gurgle...

A string of bubbles floated upward, skimming past the window.

Yu Hong steadied himself, quickly adapting to the changed gravity, and looked outside again.

Outside the window, Black Black Spirit floated amid countless liquid layers like a deep sea.

Absent of Wind Disaster’s special lines, only countless black smoke surrounded them, continually swimming like living beings.

Below the window, in the distance stood a solemn and dark, seemingly magma-soaked and ignited black city.

The city was mainly of cathedral style, full of fierce and sharp decorations everywhere.

Between the buildings were cobblestone paths as if drenched in oil, reflecting light.

On these paths, some strangely twisted creatures tottered around, wandering.

"A city? A city even in the depths of the Source Disaster?!" Yu Hong squinted, scrutinizing this bizarre city.

Whoosh.

In the distance outside the window, a sharp building tip suddenly sent a giant shadow flying.

It was a completely black rock statue with wings on its back.

Holding a giant sword and with a solemn expression, it flew straight toward Black Black Spirit.

With a thought from Yu Hong, Black Black Spirit’s outer side automatically gathered the giant shadow of Agrius’ avatar.

Swoosh!

The two shadows approached rapidly, colliding fiercely in mid-air.

Bang!!

A circle of shockwave rippled open.

Agrius forcibly battered the opponent, rolling it away, but just as it was about to continue pursuing.

Whoosh!!

From below in the city, a dense swarm of similarly black stone winged statues rose into the air.

In an instant, before Yu Hong could control it to return, Agrius was inundated by a mass of winged statues.

The connection broke.

Yu Hong maintained a solemn expression, continuing to summon Fear Shadows, channeling the full force of the Tai Ling Skill’s Immortal Realm energy.

In an instant, countless Cai Jing Taoists and Tong Ange appeared around the Black Black Spirit.

Seventy-three Cai Jing emerged, the maximum number Yu Hong could maintain a balance for with full strength.

"All this time, it’s been about running and hiding, I’ve had enough, this time I’ll try a frontal assault!" Perhaps the parting of teammates stirred his emotions.

An unspeakable pressure squeezed Yu Hong’s chest, rarely did he no longer hide, but instead truly unleashed all his power without restraint.

Spirit Light covered the bodies of seventy-three Cai Jing Taoists.

This summon wasn’t a weakened version like before, but one that compressed his power as much as possible, mimicking the original strength of the Cai Jing Taoists.

This meant massive continuous output helped Yu Hong see his current maximum power level.

"Go."

He murmured to himself, watching the seventy-three Cai Jing Taoists materializing outside the window.