Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon
Chapter 397 - 396 Unresolved Mysteries

Chapter 397: Chapter 396 Unresolved Mysteries

The bottom level of the cave was in total chaos.

The fishermen of the City of Defense had never seen such terrifying monsters before; their tentacles were as soft as rags, yet could easily sever a person’s body, and their carapaces could still move after being cut by knives and stabbed with guns. It often took the lives of a dozen people to eliminate just one monster. What was even more chilling was that they could pop up at any time from right beside you, perhaps a friend... perhaps a family member. One moment you’d be fighting side by side, the next, they’d turn into an inexplicable enemy.

This was devastating to their morale.

"Have you still not been able to contact the host?" Zhang Zhiyuan yelled as he sprayed a distant potted plant monster with gunfire, calling out to Qianyuan Meiko behind him.

The latter was arranging for the evacuation of the crowd—in order to prevent new potted plant monsters from emerging among the people, she required everyone entering the cave to line up in even numbers and stand face to face, monitored by the remaining special action team warriors. As soon as any odd behavior was detected, they could be eliminated immediately.

"My situation is the same as yours! If you can’t get a response, of course, I can’t contact them either!" Qianyuan Meiko shouted back, "How much ammo do you have left?"

"Two magazines, plus three rifle grenades. If even one more potted plant sprouts up, I’ll be completely out!"

The single-shot muskets simply couldn’t suppress the monsters of the Heretical Cult.

Zhang Zhiyuan hadn’t expected that after barely fending off the company’s siege and returning to the cave without even time to celebrate, they’d be caught off guard by the sudden mutation of the potted plants. Although these monsters were not as strong as the batch they encountered at Magnificent Castle, to the unarmed residents they were terrifying slaughterers. They had already dealt with three of them, and were nearly out of combat resources.

But what worried him even more was the situation with Chaoyang—Paradise rarely failed to respond to players, and if the host was in trouble, it was as if their trump card had been pulled, leaving them utterly hopeless against the Evil God.

Just then, a violent wind swept through, shredding the monster in front of Zhang Zhiyuan into a pile of limbs and fragments.

The Angel flew out of the darkness and landed in front of everyone, still holding onto Chaoyang, who wore a Sichuan opera mask.

Seeing the two of them, Zhang Zhiyuan couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief; the long-absent sense of security returned.

"Where did you two go? Why didn’t you send a message?"

"It’s a long story," Chaoyang asked urgently, "Have you seen Franwick Yuss?"

He was slightly taken aback, "Come to think of it, I indeed haven’t seen him for a long time."

"Didn’t you call him away earlier?" Potland also came over, looking at Ailuodi with some confusion.

"He ran off."

"...Ran off? What do you mean?"

"Franwick is involved with the Heretical Cult. Maybe he was controlled, or maybe he did it willingly. In any case, the monsters that appeared here were all released by him."

Ailuodi explained briefly. Perhaps the seeds were planted by Li Qiang, but that detail was now insignificant.

Potland was shocked, "The fisherman leader... and the Heretical Cult? How is that possible!?"

"Hurry and get everyone out of the cave, go to the seaside, to the Lower City District, anywhere; this place has become exceedingly dangerous!" the Angel urged.

"So you two are still alive... The contract suddenly terminated, and I thought you had already..."

Kokomoqi also revealed herself from the shadows—due to her severely depleted energy, she did not rashly join the battle but had been watching from the sidelines, invisible.

"It was a close call," Chaoyang remarked, "It’s really good that you’re fine too."

"I’m not that easy. You’re looking for Franwick, right? I’ve seen him."

"Where is he?"

The Magic Goddess pointed at the deep pool on the north side of the cave, "He went through that water and should have gone to the other end of the cave. I intended to have someone stop him, but at that time, everyone was suddenly attacked by an evil creature, leaving no one to spare for the task."

Chaoyang and Ailuodi exchanged a glance, "Well done, we’ll pursue him right away."

"Hold on!" Potland quickly called out to them, "This body of water is not easy to cross... In the past, only the Haiwei People could easily reach the other side. After adding pumps, it still takes an entire night to drain the water, and by dawn, one must dive following a guide rope, having to hold their breath for at least a minute. After morning, the water level rises again, and the pumps can’t keep up."

No wonder Bariff mentioned in his journal that the decrease of Haiwei People slaves had slowed down the excavation progress.

"That’s not a problem, I can grant you the ability to breathe underwater." Kokomoqi spoke again, "Not just breathing, but also to swim faster, and to remain completely dry..."

"You’re truly a miracle, come on then!" Chaoyang exclaimed excitedly.

"But... I no longer have enough energy to cast spells..."

"No problem, we’ll replenish your wishing power soon." Chaoyang took her by the hands, lifting her onto his back.

"What about us?" Zhang Zhiyuan asked.

"You and Qianyuan Meiko will take care of getting these people out of here," he replied. "Don’t worry, we will surely win this battle."

Reaching the edge of the pool, Chaoyang bit his finger and fed the wishing power to Kokomoqi. She, no longer finicky, sucked it in, and her hair regained its former luster. Then from her pouch, she took out three fish scales, placing one on each of their foreheads, "All set, let’s dive."

"That’s it?"

"Of course, miracles sometimes appear in the simplest of forms."

Chaoyang took a deep breath and pinched his nose as he dived in. The water was chilling to the bone, making him shiver involuntarily. But soon he found that the accumulated water did not wet his skin at all, but enveloped him like a film. He tried to swim and found he could easily shoot forward several meters with a single kick, as if all resistance had vanished!

This was too miraculous!

Giving Kokomoqi a thumbs-up, Chaoyang took the lead and swam towards the other side of the deep pool. Through the Spiritual Rhinoceros Vista, he could see the water was about six or seven meters deep, the bottom strewn with various skeletal remains and unrotted corpses. Heaven knows how many people have died here in total. The guide rope mentioned by Potland was nowhere to be seen, probably cut by Franwick Yuss after he crossed the water.

"What do you plan to do next?" Ailuodi followed behind him, using telepathy to ask, "Stop Franwick from summoning the Evil God?"

"Not sure yet, we’ll have to play it by ear."

"Eh, I thought you had it all figured out." The Angel said in surprise, "What was that about dual shadows you mentioned earlier? The first stage and the lead are followers of the God of Causality, what about the second one?"

Chaoyang turned back, pointed at Ailuodi, then at himself.

"Us?"

"Our group, the members of the expedition that took the train. In fact, the green light didn’t even affect the nearby Thistlefort. Otherwise, with Paradise’s reputation spread, you would have had a large number of followers by now."

Indeed, the second stage had been set by the Primordial God Unfathomed—specifically, the Unfathomed imprisoned in the City of Defense fifteen years later!

This was a struggle between gods, and they were the chosen participants by the divinities.

"Uh... so does dual shadow refer to Unfathomed and the God of Causality?"

"No... the dual shadow in the puzzle represents the different forms of the same entity; they are both Unfathomed, but one from fifteen years ago and the other from fifteen years later!" Chaoyang boldly speculated, "The Unfathomed from fifteen years later that pulled us into the City of Defense probably did so to prevent its arrival from fifteen years ago!"