novelraw Chapter 304: The Plague Heart’s Guidance
Chapter 304: The Plague Heart’s Guidance
Storage room zero was a veritable frozen hell.
Lin Jie's first sensation upon stepping inside was cold, a bone-chilling low temperature that felt like steel needles piercing his skin and bones.
This place was far larger than he had imagined.
Thick icicles hung from the towering arched ceiling, while the ground was covered in a thick layer of ice.
Among the maze-like crisscrossing metal shelves hung the eviscerated carcasses of various creatures in different forms!
Lin Jie could identify several species unique to the Louisiana swamps documented in the archives: the mangled remains of a "Swamp Ogre" similar in size to a bear, the skeleton of a skinned "Tree Hag," and several juvenile alligators.
This was old Delacroix's private collection hall, his sacrificial display room used to curry favor with the so-called "plague god"!
Suppressing the rising physical discomfort from witnessing all this, Lin Jie cautiously navigated through this museum of death.
His folding blade, [Silencer], was gripped in his hand, ready to deal with any sudden developments.
However, he knew the White Ghost was following behind him, lurking in the deep shadows cast by those shelves, so he wasn't too tense.Finally, in a circular, altar-like open area at the deepest part of the freezer, Lin Jie stopped.
He saw the ultimate objective of this trip: a... sarcophagus of ice.
A large sarcophagus formed from a single block of "plague ice" that emitted a green phosphorescent glow!
Sealed within that translucent, low-quality emerald-like ice was the very culprit responsible for this disaster: old Delacroix himself!
He was preserved in the state described in the diary just before his death, wearing a luxurious silk robe covered in frost.
His face was frozen in a bizarre expression of madness, a mixture of greed for immortality and the profound terror of being consumed from within by the UMA.
His body had completely merged with this block of "plague ice."
Vascular, writhing green mycelium grew from his orifices and beneath his skin, deeply rooted into the deepest layers of the ice.
He was no longer a "human."
He was a core relay station, assimilated by the UMA's power, reduced to an empty husk responsible for spreading corrupt energy outward!
Lin Jie stepped forward. "A Frozen Throne, interesting."
He could feel powerful waves of negative emotional mental impact continuously radiating from the ice sarcophagus.
Even through the thick ice, he could faintly "hear" old Delacroix's soul wailing deep within the sarcophagus.
"Must deal with this quickly, otherwise if I stay too long, I'll end up just like him."
Lin Jie muttered to himself. Every second he lingered here, his mind faced another degree of contamination risk.
He quickly retrieved the final three silver plates inscribed with purification and conduction runes, prepared for him by the Baroness, from his backpack.
But this purification process would be ten times more perilous than the one in the church!
Because the spiritual energy contained within this node was far more powerful and violent than the previous one!
In a situation requiring precision and stable operation, any extraneous, uncontrollable factor could lead to catastrophic consequences.
Lin Jie took a deep breath, focused his mental energy to the utmost, then reached out to place the first silver plate directly in front of the ice sarcophagus.
However, the moment his fingertip touched the surface of the ice layer radiating a sinister chill—
The corpse of old Delacroix, sealed within the ice, twitched several times, and its eyes abruptly snapped open!
"Not good." A sense of foreboding flashed through Lin Jie's mind.
The next second, [Reverberation Touch] was forcibly triggered.
A mixture of the madness and despair old Delacroix had accumulated over months erupted violently!
This memory impact coalesced into a "psychic spear," stabbing towards the brain of the only living being nearest to it—Lin Jie!
Lin Jie's mind went completely blank in an instant.
He felt himself being dragged alive into old Delacroix's shattered mental world.
He saw how old Delacroix, on a stormy night, filled with a fanatical craving for immortality, brought that black ritual vessel resembling a demon's heart back to this slaughterhouse.
He saw how old Delacroix used the blood and wails of countless living livestock to feed and please the ancient deity slumbering within the ritual vessel.
He saw that black heart finally crack open under old Delacroix's expectant gaze.
Then a terrifying monster over three meters tall, with a giant pig's head, walked out from within.
He saw how old Delacroix, in extreme agony and terror, watched helplessly as his body was gradually consumed inch by inch by the green mycelium.
He saw how his soul was extracted by that devil and imprisoned within this gradually chilling husk, forever denied salvation!
"...Save... save me..."
A remorseful, aged consciousness wailed deep within Lin Jie's mind.
"...Kill... kill... me..."
In the face of this terrifying psychic storm, a mixture of the Kingdom-class UMA's primordial power and the extreme negative emotions of a human facing death, Lin Jie's mental defenses were pathetically fragile, beginning to crumble inch by inch!
His vision began to darken, his will began to dissolve.
Fortunately, the Zen force field lit up once again like the sturdiest lighthouse in the depths of his mental sea.
Lin Jie's nearly torn-apart will desperately surged towards that light.
He pinched himself. The pain, mixed with the protective power of [Serene Heart], allowed his nearly submerged consciousness to reclaim clarity!
"Get out!"
Lin Jie squeezed these three words through gritted teeth.
He concentrated all his mental energy into a single point and fiercely slammed it against the aging consciousness trying to assimilate him.
"Pfft!"
Lin Jie spat out a mouthful of blood, staggering backward and colliding with a metal shelf.
But he had ultimately succeeded in breaking free from that fatal mental invasion.
"Must find a way to deal with the side effects of Reverberation. This isn't the first time it's been forcibly triggered." He gasped for breath, thinking with lingering fear.
As he pondered, a figure wearing a white mask had, at some point, appeared before the ice sarcophagus.
The White Ghost had also sensed Lin Jie's danger and chose to intervene at the most critical moment!
He abandoned trying to set up a complex alchemical formation and extended his prosthetic limb, [Emptiness].
The prosthetic limb penetrated the half-meter-thick layer of hard ice. The corpse of old Delacroix inside the sarcophagus, whose eyes had already opened, trembled violently.
He looked down at his own chest.
A pure white "ghost hand," not belonging to this world, was slowly emerging from his chest.
And in the palm of that "ghost hand" was tightly clenched a corruption core that had mutated into pure green, crystal clear like crystal yet frantically pulsating.
The White Ghost tightened the five fingers of his prosthetic limb.
"Crunch."
The corruption core serving as the final node was crushed in an instant!
The eerie, faint green phosphorescent glow on the ice sarcophagus dimmed.
The opened eyes of the frozen corpse lost all vitality, returning to lifelessness.
The third spiritual node, purification complete!
Leaning against the shelf, panting, Lin Jie began to ponder just how deep the true strength of this masked, silent guy before him really was.
"Go."
The White Ghost withdrew his brass arm, now covered in green cracks and clearly having suffered significant energy backlash, from the ice sarcophagus.
Then, from beneath his white mask, he uttered the longest sentence since joining this team.
"...Go... kill... the boss."