Life Game In Other World
Chapter 415: The Ritual (Long - Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 415: Chapter 415: The Ritual (Long Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

The classically ornate train passed through the gentle mountain pass.

On both sides of the pass were steep cliffs, with just a narrow path available for passage.

Driving through this mountain gap naturally offered a unique scenic experience, but once ambushed, there would be little room to maneuver in the short term.

Drip—

Accompanied by a sharp and brief alarm sounding in his earpiece, He Ao burst out in an instant.

Simultaneously, he saw Wu Lan, on the same side as him, also charge out.

Yang De and Ji Po on the opposite side rushed out as well.

Four sharp tent pegs penetrated the gravel mixed with weeds on the ground in the blink of an eye.

Under the bright sunlight, a tent-shaped vast space slowly and swiftly arose.

From He Ao’s perspective, it was as if the air in front of him had turned into jelly, and even the light seemed to ripple slightly within it.

And the long train was entirely enveloped by this jelly-like space.

Its slowly moving wheels came to a halt, as if the brakes had seized, and it stopped right in its tracks.

When it realized it couldn’t move forward, ripples slowly surfaced on the rigid train cars, which seemed to be made entirely of steel.

The carriages began to writhe as if they were alive.

Meanwhile, He Ao, standing outside the train, felt a tremendous force surge from inside the tent peg in his hand, as if it wanted to burst from the ground and fly away.

"Hold on!"

Yang De’s voice came through his ear, "Support is on its way!"

He Ao exerted his strength fiercely, firmly holding down the tent peg in his hand.

The actions of the Velora on the inside of the tent space were temporarily halted.

He Ao didn’t relax; he knew this was a B-level sealing item, and it was just the beginning.

The next second, the immobilized train erupted into even more violent contortions; slivers of distorted space appeared around it as it seemed to want to break through space and leave.

A force several times stronger than before burst forth from the tent pegs pinned to the ground.

He Ao pressed down, mobilizing part of his body’s strength to hold down the tent peg, while at the same time, he felt a surge of twisted thoughts beginning to erode his mind.

These thoughts came from the tent peg beneath his hand and seemed to be the contamination from the item sealed within the tent space.

He Ao glanced at Wu Lan in the distance, whose charming cheeks started to show a flush that only appeared after vigorous activity, indicating that this impact was nearly reaching her limit.

The next second brought an even more potent onslaught.

He Ao pressed down on the tent peg, his attention shifting inside the carriage.

—

"What’s happening?"

Lin Chichi turned her head to look at the windows on both sides, which had been reflecting the outside scenery but were now covered in an ink-like black substance, cutting off the passengers’ view.

At the same time, everyone inside felt that the train seemed to have stopped.

"It seems someone has launched an attack from outside."

Luo Luo said somewhat hesitantly.

Her eyesight was better than Lin Chichi’s; she had seen figures flashing outside the windows, but then the windows were blackened, and she could no longer see what happened next.

However, it was clear that those ambushing the train this time were stronger than those from the World Tree before.

When the people from the World Tree came out, the train didn’t seal the windows at all.

At that moment, He Ao’s clone had already made his way to the front of the carriage, near the carriage door.

The roof above his head had already started to undulate intensely.

The space outside this train was completely sealed off, but the inside remained unchanged from usual.

He Ao placed his hand on the carriage door, and as the train gathered more and more strength to break through the space, its ’structural integrity’ within the carriage weakened.

He Ao had noticed this on several occasions when pulling the compartment doors; when the train passed through a tunnel, the compartment doors would become slightly more fragile, because the train was directing its strength to ’pass through the tunnel.’

However, during free time, the compartment doors could be opened freely; He Ao could open the doors anytime he wanted, unable to test how much they had actually weakened.

The situation in this car was similar to when it had passed through the tunnel, except that more of its strength was being used to break through the external blockade; its internal structural integrity was likely weaker than when it was traversing the tunnel.

He Ao placed his hand on the handle and pulled hard.

The carriage door, which had been airtight, was ripped open to reveal a gap in an instant.

However, the carriage door that had been pulled open quickly retracted, attempting to close the gap.

At this moment, Lin Chichi and Luo Luo also noticed He Ao’s actions and swiftly ran over.

"Push!"

He Ao glanced at the two and, without saying much, signaled for them to grab onto the carriage door.

Although their strength was not much compared to He Ao’s, any additional force was still helpful.

"I’ll nod, and then we start pushing."

As soon as He Ao spoke, he nodded slightly.

All three pushed at the same time, and the once-tiny crack was pulled open again.

The hairline gap quickly widened, to the width of one finger, then the width of a palm, and then two palms wide.

At that moment, the sight of the next carriage appeared before them.

Directly opposite the carriage door was a narrow, long corridor leading to the next carriage door, with two large, glass-encased, roiling blood pools on either side of the corridor.

Within the blood pools, vague human-shaped carcasses could be seen bobbing up and down.

Seeing this scene, both Lin Chichi and Luo Luo felt a chill down their spines.

At this moment, the ceiling above their heads writhed, and several pitch-black tentacles slid down from above.

He Ao seemed not to notice these dark tentacles and continued to rhythmically lead the other two in exerting their strength.

This time his force far exceeded his previous attempts, instantly pulling the carriage door halfway open.

Then he grabbed Luo Luo and Lin Chichi by his side and pushed them hard, charging into the corridor behind the carriage door.

He had called the two over to pull the door so that they would be in a position that was easier to grab hold of.

In the instant the three of them rushed through the door, the dark tentacles followed closely behind.

The carriage door that had been pulled open snapped back, severing the dark tentacles and dropping them to the ground.

He Ao let go of the two and started to look up at the blood pools on either side.

"Ugh—" Lin Chichi, unable to bear the sight, instinctively retched, but she quickly composed herself and huddled trembling beside He Ao,

"Brother Hao Yi, are these all people inside?"

"Perhaps," He Ao pondered for a moment, closely observing the two blood pools, "these might be the ’players’ who participated in the game before us."

Hearing this, both Lin Chichi and Luo Luo fell into silence.

"Does this mean that this car never intended to let us leave?" Luo Luo said in a low voice.

He Ao didn’t reply but continued to watch the two blood pools intently.

These two blood pools reminded him of something—the ’Blood Canal’ that Elijah had constructed on the roof of the Mining Consortium building for the Grim Reaper’s Descent Ceremony.

He Ao stretched out his hand to touch the outer wall of the blood pool, and a series of twisted and chaotic screams briefly echoed in his mind.

These blood pools also soaked the twisted souls within them.

A sense of foreboding rose in He Ao’s heart.

He continued forward with Lin Chichi and Luo Luo, as the ceiling above wriggled, extending tentacles that spied on them from a distance.

It seemed these tentacles were afraid of damaging the blood pools on either side, so they hesitated to strike.

By then, He Ao had already reached the next carriage door.

This carriage door, unlike the previous sliding ones, had a handle and swung open.

He Ao grabbed the handle and pulled hard.

The door trembled slightly, slowly being pulled open, but it didn’t crack open a gap.

The door was stronger than any sliding door they had encountered before.

——

Outside the tent

The pushing force from the tent pegs was getting so strong that even He Ao was starting to struggle to keep his peg down.

And not far away, Wu Lan’s face had turned red, but she was still desperately holding down the tent peg under her.

Despite this, the entire tent space was beginning to show slight instability.

As the containment was about to break, the train inside the tent space began to disturb the spatial constraints even more violently.

In a flash, everyone was caught off guard. Wu Lan was nearly sent flying by the tent peg, but she still managed to control it with difficulty.

"Hold steady."

Yang De’s deep voice came through He Ao’s earpiece; he seemed to be forcefully suppressing the tent peg under him too.

For only four C-levels to control a B-level Transcendent item seemed somewhat difficult.

He Ao looked towards the sky,

It was time.

Almost at the moment his thoughts flickered, the pressure under his hand suddenly lightened.

The Vinora, which appeared as if it was about to break free from its restraints, was once again caged.

He Ao’s gaze stayed on the tent-like space. The Vinora’s reactions seemed weaker, while the structure of the tent space appeared stronger.

As their burdens lessened due to this trade-off, He Ao and the others felt a sudden decrease in pressure.

This power was somewhat eerie.

And as He Ao felt the pressure in his hand lighten, a refined-looking middle-aged man quickly emerged from the other side of the mountain hollow.

His steps were slow, yet his speed was extremely fast, as if each of his strides covered much more ground than they should have.

He Ao watched this refined man, who also saw him and nodded slightly in his direction.

It was an acquaintance...

Liu Zhengyun, Liu Nan’s father.

"Director Liu, that was quite a tough ordeal for us!"

Wu Lan suddenly shouted out loud.

"Good."

Liu Zhengyun smiled and nodded his head.

As He Ao wondered about Wu Lan’s actions, a somewhat playful voice suddenly resonated in his earpiece, "This guy’s a major player; of the three directors, he’s the wealthiest. We in the overseas division earn our keep with our lives. Never miss an opportunity to increase our funding."

It was Wu Lan’s voice.

Reasonable...

He Ao’s gaze returned to Liu Zhengyun.

Liu Zhengyun took two steps and arrived at the outermost part of the tent space, reaching out towards the twisting train inside it.

He aimed to subdue the train first, to bring it back to Central Earth for research on its properties and secrets.

If it were a normal situation, the Velora would have fled at the sight of a B-level, not revealing itself at all, which is why Yang De pulled He Ao along to keep the train detained.

Up until now, their mission seemed to have come to an end.

With Liu Zhengyun joining in, the force on the tent peg under He Ao was dissolved until it was barely noticeable.

Under Liu Zhengyun’s ability, the Velora’s reactions became more intense.

Yet, He Ao had an inkling that things were going too smoothly—actually, they could have held on until Liu Zhengyun arrived without the need for four C-levels.

The overseas division had heavy responsibilities and few hands. Among the four department heads, besides He Ao, the others were usually overwhelmed with official duties and wouldn’t waste the already scarce manpower.

He Ao raised his head, looking into the distance.

A gentle breeze stirred the grass slightly.

In the depths of the dense woods, something seemed to lurk.

——

Inside the vehicle

While most of the vehicle’s strength was engaged in the standoff with Yang De, He Ao’s clone exerted force abruptly, pulling on the door handle once more.

This time, he managed to create a gap by pulling the door ajar.

He quickly turned to the side, one hand pressing against the wall, the other pulling the door.

"Ah!!!"

Accompanied by an angry shout, the door was completely pulled open, with strands of pitch-black, thin threads stretching out like candy floss, sticking to the doorframe.

He Ao swiftly drew his Shadowless Sword and cut these ’threads’.

Lin Chichi, who had been waiting to one side, quickly passed through the door with her companion.

And He Ao also turned and stepped through.

At this moment, He Ao finally entered the front of the vehicle.

There was no engine machinery here, nor any control panel.

In the place of a control panel, there was a throbbing mass of flesh, pulsating like a heart.

Blood-red lines covered the walls and floor, converging on that central mass of flesh that served as a control console.

Lin Chichi, having just undergone the baptism of the Blood Pool, wasn’t so easily shocked anymore; she turned her head, looking around, "The windows here are also sealed."

"Mm."

He Ao nodded his head, surveying the space around him.

He squatted down, examining the dense blood-colored lines at his feet.

These lines were intricately arranged, seeming to follow some special pattern.

Outside, He Ao briefly allowed his main consciousness to descend onto the clone inside the vehicle. He activated Super Memory, quickly memorizing these patterns, then his consciousness swiftly returned to the main body.

The intricate lines organized themselves in his mind, then connected one by one.

After pondering for a moment, He Ao mimicked the pattern just revealed inside the blood-red pearl, connecting these intricate lines together within a plane.

A huge, arc-triangle shape, constructed of countless complex lines, emerged in his mind.

It was a Ritual Array!

——

He Ao, back in his own body after the ritual, glanced at the others. Everyone’s attention was fixated on Liu Zhengyun; no one noticed his brief spell of distraction.

It was then that the roar of engines could be heard from a distance.

Everyone turned their heads, looking into the distance, where several people in white uniforms with gold collars were riding sleek mechanical motorcycles out of the forest.

People from the World Tree!

Meanwhile, Liu Zhengyun, who was suppressing the Velora, looked ahead.

A golden, flashy mechanical motorcycle surged ahead of the rest, and its rider was a white-bearded elder in a pure white robe.

The white with gold collars signified the C-level of the World Tree. Judging by the reverent way the C-levels around were treating the elder, he seemed to be a B-level from the World Tree.

"Liu, we meet again."

The deafening sound of a helicopter’s whirring came from the sky as a blond, muscular man in a simple vest, half-naked, leapt down with his back to the ground.

Boom—

He smashed into the ground, creating a deep crater in the hard, gravel surface.

Another B-level.

He Ao glanced at Wu Lan beside him, who had a surprised look on her face; she apparently didn’t know.

He then looked to the other side; Yang De’s face was grim and surprised.

But it seemed somewhat exaggerated.

Things were starting to get interesting.