Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 408 - Chapter 408 Chapter 412 Academic Exchange

Chapter 408: Chapter 412 Academic Exchange Chapter 408: Chapter 412 Academic Exchange Since leaving the mountaintop, Fenna and Morris had been constantly battling the replicas emerging from the mist–they couldn’t remember how many monsters made of Prime Element they had obliterated on their way, but one thing was clear, no matter how many they destroyed, these monsters would always be swiftly replenished from the mist.

Simply killing these replicas was useless.

Morris gazed into the dense fog, occasionally a faint silver light flowing in his eyes as he tracked the sporadic flashes of thought appearing in the mist, trying to pinpoint the controllers of these monsters.

After a while, he suddenly looked up in a direction, “This way.”

Fenna immediately reached out to grasp the air, condensing a new giant sword from the omnipresent mist, and stepped to walk ahead of Morris.

They navigated through the fog, crossing the deserted streets, barely making out the locations of nearby buildings with the help of the dim streetlamps, while sounds from afar occasionally reached their ears–sometimes it was the City-State Guards battling monsters, sometimes weird wails and roars, and sometimes what seemed like cries for help right next to them.

But at those locations crying for help, there was only surging black mud.

The fog flowed, and the outlines of the buildings in the mist seemed to flow along, the vague silhouettes coming alive; towers in the mist transformed into giants of flesh, rooftops spreading into huge tentacles and eyestalks, even the streetlamps alongside began to sway, their dark poles bending like soft plants, their lights turning into clumps of murky yellow eyes.

Just then, a low, gentle prayer suddenly came from ahead, snapping Morris out of his thoughts, and also causing the scenery before his eyes to revert back rapidly.

Fenna was softly praying–layers of ripples, like water waves, emanated outwards from her, disturbing the dense fog.

“Be careful, something in the fog can disturb one’s mind,” Fenna said without turning her head after finishing a prayer. “We’ve been in this mist too long.”

“Actually, it’s not a big deal,” Morris casually replied. “Occasional hallucinations and auditory illusions are normal for me; I’ve grown accustomed to them.”

“…I should talk to Heidi about your ‘healthy attitude’ the next time I communicate with her.”

Morris’ lips twitched momentarily as he was about to say something, but just then, a flowing mist suddenly drifted by, and he momentarily lost sight of Fenna.

The old scholar immediately stopped in his tracks, calling out attentively while looking around, “Fenna?”

The fog silently flowed; there was no response to his call.

Morris’ nerves tensed gradually, as he swiftly scanned his surroundings.

Unbeknownst to him, the surroundings had turned into endless pale mist; the buildings that were faintly visible in the mist had vanished without trace, even the dim streetlamps had disappeared from view, and in this pale, chaotic depth, he suddenly spotted something.

Those were enormous shadows, like incredibly huge towers, but a closer look revealed they were slightly swaying and writhing, seemingly the tentacles of some gigantic sea creature, reaching from the sky to lick the objects on the earth–Morris was unconsciously drawn to the vague contours of that huge tentacle, his stare fixing as if he could derive truths and mysteries from its enormous terrifying shadow–

The next second, Morris furrowed his brow and shook his head.

There was no truth in this thing; it was just a kind of bewitching illusion.

“Hmm?”

A voice suddenly emerged from the mist, seemingly surprised, and Morris instantly looked toward the direction of the voice–seeing that the huge illusion had disappeared, and a tall, thin figure was walking out of the mist.

“You are actually unaffected–that’s truly surprising.” The tall, thin figure solidified, revealing itself as a middle-aged man clad in a dark blue coat, holding a black leather-bound book in his hand; behind him, a black chain extended from his neckbones into the air, ending in a Smoke Dust Jellyfish-like creature that was fluctuating inconsistently.

Morris remained silent, just staring at the Heretic symbioting with the “Smoke Dust Jellyfish,” fully alert and watching the other’s every move.

“Don’t be so tense, old man; I actually don’t mind having a chat with you. After all, the final day of ascension has already come; I have plenty of time now,” the middle-aged man smiled unusually calmly, “I’m really curious, after witnessing the form of our lord, why weren’t you affected–you can see those illusions, which means your spiritual sight is indeed sufficient, but you…didn’t go mad?”

“Sorry, my mind has always been healthy, I’m not confounded by some bewitching illusions,” Morris replied calmly, silently reciting the name of the God of Wisdom Rahm in his mind. “Where did you take my companion?”

“Don’t worry about others so soon, old man, you should–”

The Heretic’s words were cut off mid-sentence as Morris suddenly focused his eyes, pointing toward him: “Romonsov’s Inequality Set!”

Massive knowledge condensed into words, torrentially pouring into the target’s thought processes, causing the Heretic’s figure to shudder as if in pain, bowing his head.

But just as Morris was about to launch a second mental assault, a strong sense of vigilance suddenly rose in his heart; he forcefully closed his mouth and stifled his thoughts–as nearly at the same moment, he saw the Heretic suddenly raise his head with a trace of mockery in his eyes.

The backlash from the mental assault occurred instantaneously, and Morris felt a bout of dizziness–fortunately, he reacted in time, and the dizziness was not severe.

“It’s a pity,” the Heretic spread his hands and mocked the swaying old scholar, “I’m not very scared of this…”

“Boom!”

Before the Heretic could finish speaking, the Smoke Dust Jellyfish floating behind him had begun to violently contract. The next second, along with the sudden expansion of the jellyfish, a huge black fireball appeared in front of the Heretic–exploding with a roar in the air, the next second it smashed right into Morris’s position!

Black smoke spread all around, even causing the dense fog nearby to tremble violently. The Heretic looked at the still lingering smoke with regret and shook his head, “So many ‘shells’ destroyed by the mental shock, did you think I would appear unprepared? Unfortunately, knowledge isn’t the same as wisdom.”

“Clink–Crack!”

The sound of something falling to the ground suddenly came, interrupting the Heretic’s monologue. He immediately widened his eyes and summoned the power of violent winds with a spell to disperse the black smoke–a shattered Prism appeared before him.

On the fractured surface of the Prism faintly lingered an illusion of Morris.

“A Prism? ‘Optical Deception’?!”

The Heretic suddenly reacted and looked toward a nearby direction, almost simultaneously, Morris’s figure appeared on what was previously an empty piece of land.

That figure raised his right hand towards him, and in a slow, clear tone, spoke word for word, “McAffinity conjecture and proof.”

However, this time, the Heretic symbiotically linked with the Smoke Dust Jellyfish didn’t even sway. Without disguise, he directly grabbed the chain floating behind his neck, drawing power from the Profound Demons while staring intently at the old scholar not far away, “Sorry, actually I graduated from the Mathematics Department of Moco City-State Central University…”

“Click.”

The crisp sound of the gun’s mechanism suddenly entered his ears, another figure of Morris directly appeared behind the Heretic, a revolver pressed right against the back of his head.

“Bang!”

After a gunshot, the body with a gaping hole in the head collapsed, the symbiotically linked Profound Demon swiftly dissipated with a scream.

“You didn’t say you graduated college earlier.”

The old scholar blew on the barrel, put away his gun, and shook his head, while in front of him, the other “Morris” figure evaporated like morning dew. Where the illusion vanished, a small crystal Prism fell to the ground and shattered.

Morris looked at the shattered Prism with some heartache, disdainfully prodding the Heretic’s body with his cane.

“Wasted two Prisms–and your college diploma.”

In the midst of their conversation, the surrounding fog suddenly started moving again, the scenery hidden in the fog rapidly returned, outlines of buildings and lights reappeared in Morris’s vision, then he saw Fenna running towards him quickly.

“Are you alright?!” Before she could get closer, Fenna nervously spoke out, “You suddenly disappeared…”

“I thought you disappeared,” Morris waved his hand, “It seems it was just some temporary illusion… wait a second.”

He suddenly remembered something, and at the same time he spoke, Fenna also abruptly stopped a few meters away.

“First confirm if it’s real,” they said in unison.

Then they exchanged a glance, again speaking simultaneously, “Homeloss!”

“It seems it’s real,” after confirming there were no abnormalities on either of them, Morris nodded, “Better safe than sorry.”

Fenna quickly noticed the Heretic’s corpse on the ground, her expression changing slightly, “Did you handle this?”

“Encountered one with a high degree,” Morris nodded, “Had some academic exchanges, lucky I had a better problem-solving approach.”

Fenna: “…?”

(The comic “Sword of Dawn” which is currently being serialized on B manhwa needs your support! This is already one of the last standing comics, and honestly, it is also the adaptation project I am most satisfied with, so… those who have been hoarding can start selling!)