Chapter 2140 Profane Wings Merchant Group <TOC> Chapter 2142 Little Seim
Translator: SumTLMan
The young skeleton named Little Red quickly ran into a forest of blackwood trees.
Blackwood trees are unusually tall, making humans feel as if they’ve entered a land of dwarves in this forest entirely composed of blackwood. The dense foliage obscures the sky, rendering the forest as eerie as a realm of specters.
Sanders strolled through the forest, ignoring the occasional shadows that flickered among the trees.
These shadows, resembling phantoms with their incredible speed and glowing green eyes, were terrifying in the dark forest. However, Sanders knew that these were just illusion spells used for monitoring changes in the forest.
This familiar spell was undoubtedly the work of Sumesh.
“Just basic illusionary ghostly shadows, it seems Sumesh is indeed severely injured this time,” Sanders mused to himself.
Soon, Little Red led Sanders to a fork in the road and stopped, turning to look at him as if to convey something.
Sanders knew at a glance that this so-called fork was a psychological suggestion of illusion magic, compressing the choice to either left or right.
But in reality, neither choice was correct. The exit wasn’t at the fork.
Sanders stepped forward against the direction of the fork. With a light touch of his finger, the dense blackwood trees parted instantly, forming a narrow path.
Little Red, excitedly holding a rose garland, dashed down this path.
In the next ten minutes, Sanders encountered several such forks, some with psychological suggestions, some real, and some leading to dangerous dens. To find the correct path in this maze-like blackwood forest required expertise in illusion magic and understanding the caster’s psychology.
For Sanders, this was very simple.
After choosing another correct path, Sanders saw a cottage in the forest lit by candlelight.
Sanders didn’t approach the cottage. Instead, he circled around and gently tapped a tree stump with a rune inscribed on it. The stump, covered in patterns, flickered like water ripples and instantly formed a dark passage.
The cottage was still a trap. Here was the real gateway.
After jumping into the hole and following Little Red’s guidance for about a hundred meters, Sanders finally saw a cavern beside an underground river.
Deep in the cavern was a castle entwined with dark rose vines.
This rose castle, a special magic cottage, was clearly the creation of Flora.
In front of the castle was a petite figure in crimson, wearing a black veil, barefoot, floating slightly above the ground, holding an ornate umbrella, and drifting towards Sanders.
Upon closer inspection, it was Flora, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
Little Red, excited to see Flora, ran towards her and jumped into her arms… and then vanished.
After Little Red disappeared, an adult skeleton slowly appeared behind Flora, nodded gently at Sanders, and then clung to Flora’s back, motionless.
Upon seeing Sanders, Flora’s face and eyes showed a hint of excitement, but she restrained her emotions while greeting him: “Mentor.”
Sanders remained calm from start to finish, nodding slightly without asking any superfluous questions or inquiring why they were still in the radiation zone of the Scarlet Plague believers. He simply passed her by and headed into the castle.
“Sumesh is in the basement’s boiling blood bath,” Flora apparently knew Sanders’ character well and quickly followed up, walking and speaking at the same time.
Sanders asked, “How has he been since he sent the message to me these past days?”
“As long as he doesn’t use an illusion spell with Nightmare aura again, he should be fine for now.”
Sanders raised an eyebrow, “That means you haven’t encountered followers of the Scarlet Plague in these past few days.”
Flora replied, “Half a month ago, the Extreme Sect sent a team of heretics from the Heretical Judgement Hall to this area, targeting the Scarlet Plague followers for their trials. They drew all the attention of the Scarlet Plague followers, leaving them no time to come after us.”
Sanders said indifferently, “Then you’re quite lucky.”
The Extreme Sect occasionally sends peak apprentices of the Heretical Judgement Hall to areas infested with Demon God followers and territories of otherworldly beings for trials. Official bishops restrain the extraordinary beings at the top, allowing the peak apprentices to clear out various followers. These trials have a very high mortality rate, almost a life and death situation each time, and those who survive ultimately become red-robed priests of the Heretical Judgement Hall.
The red-robed priests, being among the strongest in the Extreme Sect, indeed gave Flora and Sumesh a breather from the Scarlet Plague followers.
“Do you still plan to continue investigating the Blood Melting incident?” Sanders looked at Flora seriously for the first time.
After pondering for a moment, she nodded, “Yes, this is my chance.”
Sanders nodded expressionlessly, not commenting on her decision. He had guessed her choice seeing that she didn’t leave the Scarlet Plague followers’ area.
He asked deliberately just to know Flora’s resolve.
Seeing Flora’s unwavering stance, Sanders internally agreed. If one decides to pursue the path of true knowledge, they should not easily miss any opportunity.
Of course, recklessly charging into danger is wrong too. But Sanders was aware that Flora was not such a brainless person.
Soon, under Flora’s guidance, they arrived at the underground boiling blood bath.
The thick smell of blood mixed with the pungent sulfur and steaming white mist enveloped the area.
Through the dense mist, Sanders saw Sumesh.
He wasn’t in the blood bath but was dressed formally, sitting at a table outside the bath, surrounded by a clean barrier. He held a teacup in one hand and was flipping through a scroll on the table, like an elegant noble son.
With a light wave of her hand, Flora made the blood mist and white fog disappear instantly.
Sumesh then noticed the visitors at the door.
“Mentor,” Sumesh’s eyes sparkled as he stood up and greeted Sanders.
Sanders nodded in response as a return of the greeting.
Without much small talk, Sanders directly inquired about Sumesh’s condition, “Can you still activate the Nightmare Domain?”
Sumesh hesitated, “The Nightmare Domain has already been damaged by nearly eighty percent, and I cannot activate it autonomously now. To forcefully activate it, I need a Nightmare Stone for assistance. But, after activation, the Nightmare Domain is likely to continue collapsing.”
Sanders took out a high-quality Nightmare Stone from his pocket space and threw it to Sumesh, “Activate it and let’s see.”
Sumesh, alone, would definitely not dare to activate the Nightmare Domain, as its collapse was certain, not just a speculation. But with Sanders there, he felt somewhat more confident.
Taking the Nightmare Stone and holding it tightly, he said, “I’ll need your help, Mentor.”
As his words fell, Sumesh used the Nightmare Stone.
As the aura of the Nightmare Plane from the Nightmare Stone infused into Sumesh, he immediately began to activate his fragmented Nightmare Domain. With each phantom silhouette emerging around Sumesh, his complexion turned pale, veins bulging on his forehead, and his eyes started to bleed red.
Flora, an outsider, could also tell something was terribly wrong with Sumesh, and she looked at Sanders with some concern.
However, Sanders did not focus on Sumesh at all but was leisurely observing the surrounding phantoms.
The phantoms appeared as a vast black abyss, within which strange silhouettes flickered from time to time. Although these were mere outlines, Sanders, with his experience, could clearly identify the figures they represented: Goat Demons, Serpent-tailed Succubi, Fire Demons, Lava Trolls… Bone Wing Demons, and more.
All of them were species of the Deep Abyss Demons.
They emerged with a terrifying demonic aura. However, these demon phantoms shattered soon after they appeared.
Even the background of the black abyss began to fracture.
The only one that did not shatter was the phantom of a obsidian gargoyle. Although it did not break, cracks began to appear on it as Sumesh stimulated it.
“That’s enough,” said Sanders, confirming Sumesh’s condition.
Sumesh exhaled subconsciously, trying to stop activating the Nightmare Domain. However, he couldn’t stop it at all and could only feel endless pain emanating from his brain, as the Nightmare Domain attached to his mental space began to peel off, as if it would disappear the next second.
In Sumesh’s panic, an image appeared behind Sanders, the image of a black night tower. As soon as it appeared, it enveloped Sumesh’s shattered Nightmare Domain, slowly restoring it with its power.
Gratitude flashed in Sumesh’s eyes; he clearly knew that this was Sanders’ Black Tower Nightmare Domain. He was consuming the core of the Black Tower’s Nightmare Domain to repair his own Deep Abyss Nightmare Domain.
This type of core interchange repair inflicted great damage to Sanders’ Nightmare Domain.
After a while, Sumesh finally retracted his Nightmare Domain, but the degree of fragmentation had reached nearly 85%.
Sumesh gasped for breath, suppressing the stabbing pain in his spirit, and looked at Sanders. He didn’t speak, but his bloodshot eyes were filled with inquiry: Is there still hope for me?
“Mentor, can his Nightmare Domain be repaired?” asked Flora. This time, Sumesh had used the Nightmare Domain several times to help them escape from the pursuit of the god chosen followers of the Scarlet Plague, resulting in his already injured Nightmare Domain nearing complete destruction, which made Flora uneasy.
Sanders looked at Sumesh coldly: “I warned you before, given your current condition, you should not use the Nightmare Domain and should rest for a period. But you, your realm of true knowledge hasn’t fully settled yet, and your Nightmare Domain hasn’t been repaired, but you used it again.”
Flora: “It’s my fault, I invited him…”
Sanders scoffed: “Helping you is one thing, but using the Nightmare Domain is another. His Nightmare Domain is the Deep Abyss Nightmare Domain obtained in the Deep Abyss, killing Deep Abyss demons in the Nightmare Domain could repair it to some extent. Now he can’t go to the Deep Abyss to fight the demons, but when he followed you to investigate the Blood Melting incident, he found that the Scarlet Plague followers were also tainted with the Deep Abyss aura, even the aura of Demon Gods… How could he not be tempted?”
Sumesh’s thoughts were completely transparent to Sanders.
Sanders’ words also made Sumesh ashamedly lower his head. Clearly, Sumesh had willingly used his Nightmare Domain.
The death of the Scarlet Plague followers in the Nightmare Domain, whether it repaired the Nightmare Domain or not, attracted a group of zealots, and in the end, his own almost Shattered Nightmare Domain.
Sumesh muttered in a low voice: “I didn’t expect a god chosen follower to appear.”
Seeing Sumesh’s guilty face, Sanders snorted coldly, no longer commenting on Sumesh’s actions.
“Your current Nightmare Domain is already on the brink of complete destruction, and it seems that the only way is to abandon the Nightmare Domain, spend decades repairing it, and then accommodate a new Nightmare Domain,” Sanders said. “This is also the safest route.”
Sumesh was aware of this method, but he hesitated.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t wait for decades, but… where would he find a suitable Nightmare Domain after the repairs?
The Nightmare Domain is an extremely special half-plane that can only be formed at the intersection of the Nightmare Plane and the real world. Moreover, even if one is formed, it might not suit him.
Thus, it might take much longer than just a few decades.
While Sumesh was entangled in his thoughts, Flora asked, “Mentor, you just mentioned that we almost need to abandon the Nightmare Domain for reorganization. Since it’s ‘almost’, there should be other methods, right?”
Sumesh looked up at Sanders with hopeful eyes.
Sanders replied, “Indeed, there is another method. It involves having a Nightmare Domain of a level far surpassing your current one to repair yours.”
Another Nightmare Domain far surpassing Sumesh’s current level… Upon hearing this, Sumesh’s face paled again; it was impossible.
Flora, who didn’t possess a Nightmare Domain herself, didn’t understand the complexities of these levels, asked, “Can’t your Nightmare Domain work?”
“No,” Sanders paused. “It would have to be at least the level of the Nightmare Domain of Sleepless City.”
Flora had some understanding of the Nightmare Domain of Sleepless City. The so-called Nightmare Domain of Sleepless City is the half-plane under the dome of Sleepless City. It is a near-reality Nightmare Domain, controlled by a powerful creature of the Nightmare Plane. To date, no wizard organization in the Southern Region dared to set foot in it.
Even the dome of Sleepless City has spread to the entire Eternal Night Kingdom. The Eternal Night Kingdom has truly become a place of eternal night, where the sun is never seen.
To repair Sumesh’s Deep Abyss Nightmare Domain, it would require a Nightmare Domain of that caliber, which Flora knew was nearly impossible.
The air instantly fell silent, with hopelessness and helplessness spreading around Sumesh.
Sanders did not speak, just quietly watching Sumesh.
Sumesh’s expression was very dejected. After a long time, he said in a tone of despair, “Then let’s separate from the Nightmare Domain… The sooner we separate, the sooner I can return to the Savage Grottoes to recuperate.”
After Sumesh finished speaking, he closed his eyes to signal Sanders to proceed.
However, Sanders did not immediately act. Instead, as the psychological pressure on Sumesh grew heavier, he pondered and said, “Although my Nightmare Domain cannot help you, there is someone whose Nightmare Domain can.”
Sumesh’s eyes suddenly opened, full of confusion as he looked at Sanders.
Flora also looked over, filled with incomprehension. Sanders had said earlier that at least a Nightmare Domain of the level of Sleepless City was required to save Sumesh’s Deep Abyss Nightmare Domain… If Sanders couldn’t accommodate such a Nightmare Domain, who could hold such a vast one?!
Amidst their burning and puzzled gazes, Sanders softly said, “Angel’s… Wilderness of Dreams.”
Chapter 2140 Profane Wings Merchant Group <TOC> Chapter 2142 Little Seim