The Gentleman at the End
Chapter 552 - 550 The Great Tree Between Settlements

Chapter 552: Chapter 550 The Great Tree Between Settlements

The journey was longer than expected, and William initiated another topic inside the carriage—a topic that a coachman could not freely disclose.

"Does anyone have any speculations or guesses about the ’Evil Illness’ associated with the Tenth Abyss?"

For this kind of question, Jin quickly clasped his head and leaned back, "This kind of reasoning and analysis are exactly your cup of tea, right William? I’m too lazy to think about it; it’s not much of my concern anyway."

Though Jin refused to participate, Lord Price sitting across was all serious,

"Hmm... as the coachman explained, the abyssal effects relate to replication, specifically replicating the most prominent traits of an individual. If my memory serves me right, the mask that coalesced on my face was fundamentally made of hair.

When I tore the mask, I could clearly feel its texture, extremely similar to my own hair, and even superior in terms of its ’rooting’ ability.

Moreover, the hair replicated by the abyss could coalesce into a singular entity. Had I not disrupted its entirety by burning part of the mask with a moon spot, my own strength would have been insufficient to tear it off."

"Targeting an individual’s most prominent traits to replicate, not only perfectly replicating but even improving in some aspects, and also featuring integrity... Perhaps a special type of replicative virus?

I wonder what kind of mask would appear from my ’Condensed Face’."

After a brief exchange, William had already grasped a rough direction and sat cross-legged, focusing on his physical state.

The abyss material he had indulged to wander within his body had proliferated significantly during this time and now could be suppressed just as the coachman had stated.

Forcing the abyss material to be unable to replicate normally within the body, compelled to flow from the face and undergo condensation.

But William didn’t do that,

Intuition told him not to restrict the abyss prematurely; he absolutely had to indulge it for an extended time to ensure these substances sufficiently understood his body.

He even took a more daring step, removing the ’umbilical cord’ limitation around his neck, officially letting the abyss material enter the brain area.

This act stunned Yi Chen, who was sleeping in the aquarium, awake; after all, the Madness Brain is the Open Source hub, and any issue could lead to permanent sequelae.

"William, you’re becoming crazier and crazier." Yi Chen’s voice came through.

"Crazy? No... This is at most rational gambling—aren’t we clients of the Duke? It’s normal to gamble.

Besides, with the small grape still in my head as insurance, if the Abyss Virus wants to attack the Mad Shell Virus, it can immediately activate the Evil Sun.

Based on my inferences and feelings, the so-called ’Condensed Face’ isn’t as simple as the coachman described or rather he intentionally omitted some details to increase my failure rate.

The ’Condensed Face’ is more than mere suppression; if the abyss content inside isn’t sufficient, the resulting mask would inevitably be impure, perhaps not even achieving the basic structural build.

Since I’ve embraced the abyss, I should take it all the way—if even the body can’t be offered, how can one speak of pilgrimage?

Thus I made such a gamble, using my body as both sacrifice and vessel, to maximally nurture the abyss material within... especially the trunk representing ’New Birth’ is a perfect site to nourish the Abyss Pathogens.

When the Abyss Pathogens inside me have replicated and grown to their limits, that would be the best moment for Condensed Face."

"William, you’ve gotten better, call me when it’s critical."

...

[Abysmer Settlement]

Centered around an ancient tree that transcends conventional concepts, numerous bungalows have been constructed,

Scattered among the settlement are vast numbers of black candles, seemingly a candle per bungalow,

which illuminate the entire village’s appearance and structure with dark light, forming an almost mazelike arrangement of thousands of intricate bungalows, requiring a lengthy detour through this bungalow area to reach the central ancient tree.

The carriage stopped at an entrance on the outer edge of the settlement.

William also spotted the large tree at the center of the settlement at first glance,

"A person?"

The tree in William’s eyes appeared more like an obese giant with its entire body transformed into tree bark, with a visibly twisted and deformed skull growing on its top,

Six pairs of thymus structures hung in the middle of the trunk, continuously oozing out pathogenic fluids.

The branches served as elongated arms, and these arms had been replicated extensively, presenting a lush, flowering and fruiting state.

However, the fruits hanging above were not from the tree itself, but rather, they were put there by humans.

Those ’Treasure Hunters’ who came to the Extremely Dark Land for exploration and chose not to accept the Abyss were ultimately hung up there, with the ’ropes’ around their necks being the capillaries between the arms, supplementing nutrition to the large tree.

The coachman simply explained,

"Abyss Watcher - Black Tree person, Lord Calimus. He is the strongest visitor in history, not only completing the ultimate pilgrimage but also having long interactions with the Abyss.

Legend has it, he willingly chose to serve the Abyss and became a guardian. The ’Pilgrimage Road’ lies right beneath him..."

"It’s indeed transformed from a patient."

"Good luck to you, outsider~ I hope you can go far enough, even complete the ultimate pilgrimage, so I can get a high enough commission.

By the way, I highly advise against your friends setting foot in the settlement; they haven’t accepted the Abyss, and once they enter, they will be considered ’intruders.’ You might be powerful, but you definitely can’t withstand the number of people here.

Moreover, Lord Calimus is not someone to mess with.

Goodbye, brave outsider."

With the coachman’s departure, William and his group stopped at the entrance of the settlement.

"Well, let us part here, thank you for accompanying me this far.

If you don’t see me after you have finished exploring, or if you encounter a crisis and need to evacuate, just head to Rat City and wait for me.

If the waiting time is too long, go about your own affairs.

I will surely walk out of the Abyss, though I can’t estimate how long it will take."

Thirteen’s small hands kept fidgeting in front of her. Just as she was about to say something, Jin’s arm grabbed her and led her away,

"Alright, let’s go! Don’t dawdle here, and don’t bother William anymore... right, William? I can see you’re eager to head deeper; stop suppressing and pretending, hurry toward the depths.

If you die here, I will look down on you."

"Okay, I’ll try not to die." William gave Jin a gentlemanly bow and then turned to Mr. Price, the lord of Rat City, "Mr. Price, let’s talk about our deal when I come back. You must follow me to ’that place,’ which has the finest cuisine of the Old World."

"Hmm."

William did not linger any longer, turned his back, waved goodbye to everyone, and entered the settlement of the Abyss inhabitants alone.

From walking to jogging to finally sprinting... just as Jin said, he couldn’t wait anymore! Now that he had verified the existence of the Tenth Abyss and figured out the path and method to reach it, what remained was just to complete this journey.

He was eager to see what that hidden ’Path’ between the Abysses looked like and was eager to reach a higher level and return to Zion.

Ignoring the indescribable Abyss inhabitants around him, William soon made his way to the center, to the presence of the Abyss Watcher - Black Tree person, Lord Calimus.

Many Abyss inhabitants were kneeling in the "Great Tree Square" performing Abyss prayers, trying to complete ’Condensed Face’ under the tree.

William found the outermost empty area, sat down, and joined in...