Chapter 76: The Unrememberable

"Yes, yes, Su Mu's methods are certainly bizarre. But rest assured, Chairman. No matter how strong he is, he's no match for The Unrememberable you spent a fortune to acquire. As far as I know, this is already his second time entering the Abandoned District. To ensure nothing goes wrong, I drank a Memory Potion, slipped into the Abandoned District early, and threw quite a few scavengers into the dense fog. The Unrememberable is even stronger now. There is absolutely no way he makes it out alive this time."

"Excellent." Qian Zihao nodded in satisfaction. "The Unrememberable is incredibly unique. I had to hire a Silver expert whose abilities countered it just to secure it. Below Silver, unless it's a Transcendent with Future Sight, anyone who faces it will die."

With that, he grabbed an exquisite pastry from the side and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing vigorously.

"The day the Murong Family Head announces the engagement is getting closer. As long as we take care of this batch of Transcendents, Mengli definitely won't be able to recruit anyone else on such short notice, let alone find the Eye of Gold. In the end, she'll have no choice but to obediently marry me, heh heh..."

A lewd smile surfaced on Qian Zihao's face, his mind already seemingly playing out the fantasy of pinning that devastatingly beautiful body beneath him. Originally, he had just wanted to marry a random female noble so he could become a noble himself. He never expected an illegitimate daughter like Murong Mengli to look so surprisingly good. This way, he got the best of both worlds!

"Chairman Qian, I heard that the people working for the Murong family's second young master and fourth young miss also seem to have gone to the Abandoned District..."

Qian Zihao gave a mocking smile. "I spent a massive fortune to get my hands on The Unrememberable. Naturally, I have to find someone to reimburse me."

Han Yu's expression abruptly tightened. "You mean to say, the eldest young master is involved as well?"

"Hmph, you aren't completely stupid. I have a good relationship with the Murong family's eldest young master, so naturally I need to help him become the family heir. Since I could use the Gold Leaf to trick Mengli, I could just as easily feed the same information to her siblings. For the sake of clues leading to the Eye of Gold, those people will definitely send Transcendents into the Abandoned District like moths to a flame.

"Meanwhile, the eldest young master, who actually knows the inside story, gets to sit back and watch them burn through their own forces. When the time comes, so what if he doesn't find the Eye of Gold? With everyone else's strength crippled, how will they compete with him?"

Han Yu grew even more shocked, a deep sense of awe welling up within him toward the large, fat man in front of him. It was no wonder this man had managed to become the richest man in Star City despite being an ordinary person. This scheme was truly brilliant.

Without spending a single cent, he was playing a whole crowd of nobles in the palm of his hand. The only thing he actually spent money on—The Unrememberable—was being reimbursed by the eldest young master, and he was probably making a tidy profit off it to boot.

"Brilliant, Chairman! You have my utmost admiration. It's just... if no one can find the Eye of Gold, then what about the Murong Family Head..."

"Hmph, that old bastard should have died a long time ago. I paid a premium to buy his daughter, and he actually had the audacity to demand half the mining rights to the Mithril Mine? Do you really think his children actually want to find the Eye of Gold to extend his life? It's all just an act. If he doesn't die, who cares if he appoints an heir? He'll still be the one calling the shots in the Murong family."

Han Yu only felt waves of cold run down his spine. The sheer darkness among the nobles was enough to make even a Transcendent like him tremble.

...

...

"The fog... it dissipated?" Yang Dongqing stared at the barren wasteland in a daze. There was not a trace of fog anywhere around them.

Logically speaking, after charging through a doorway completely engulfed in fog, they should have entered a foggy world, but the reality was exactly the opposite.

"The door... the door is gone too?!"

The door they had just come through had long vanished; there was nothing left in its place but empty air.

Su Mu carefully examined this barren wasteland. The ground was entirely bare, covered in crimson soil without a single plant in sight. The terrain was incredibly uneven, with some sections rising up like dunes and others sinking deep into the earth.

Suddenly, his gaze flickered, locking onto a half-meter-deep depression. A person was lying right there!

"Yang Dongqing, go take a look." Faced with an anomaly, Su Mu sent Yang Dongqing to investigate.

Yang Dongqing pursed his lips in displeasure, but he still walked over. This time, without the interference of the fog, their memories weren't being actively eroded.

Yang Dongqing first prodded the person with his foot. Seeing no reaction, he carefully reached down to check for breathing.

"He's dead."

Su Mu walked over, leaning on his Snakewood Cane. The deceased was a man with a completely unfamiliar face. However, his state of death was very peaceful, as if he had died suddenly without noticing a thing. Moreover, there were no wounds on his body whatsoever.

"He must be a Nightmare Apostle from the Bronze Coffin," Su Mu said with absolute certainty.

Yang Dongqing stared blankly. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Aren't we the only two from the Bronze Coffin?"

Su Mu didn't explain further. The reason he was so certain was that he could sense lingering traces of his own mental fluctuations on the corpse, proving that he had previously hypnotized this man.

The two of them continued walking forward. Along the way, they discovered more and more corpses; the count soon surpassed thirty. Every single one of the dead had a peaceful expression and no visible wounds.

Judging by the residual mental fluctuations, eight of the dead belonged to the Bronze Coffin. It was unknown where the rest came from.

"It seems we aren't the first ones to arrive here. People were here before us." Su Mu adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. The Abandoned District was a godforsaken place that basically no one ever visited, yet judging by their clothes, several of these corpses were from the Upper District.

Why would people from the Upper District come here?

Was it also for the Eye of Gold?

Just as he was pondering this, he suddenly heard a pair of footsteps coming from behind a small hill not far away, sounding like two people walking.

He leapt up. His body, strengthened by the Immaculate Heart, was as light as a bird, swiftly vaulting him to the top of the little hill.

He focused his gaze and immediately furrowed his brows.

By this time, Yang Dongqing had also followed him up. When he saw the two people over the ridge, his expression changed drastically.

It was two men—one was slightly balding and wore a white dress shirt, while the other had a fully tattooed arm. They looked like perfectly normal humans, but what really made Yang Dongqing pale was the little monster crouching on the tattooed man's shoulder. It had stark white skin all over and a pair of fleshy wings on its back.

The little monster had no face, only a massive mouth on its head. It plunged its bare arm straight into the tattooed man's skull, digging around before yanking out a clump of thread-like material and stuffing it into its mouth. The truly bizarre part was that there were no wounds whatsoever on the tattooed man's head.

Furthermore, the tattooed man and the balding man didn't seem to notice a thing. As if completely unable to see the little monster, they just kept walking.

"Watch out for the monster!" Yang Dongqing bellowed.

Startled, the tattooed man and the balding man turned their heads to look at Su Mu and Yang Dongqing, a flash of pleasant surprise crossing their eyes.

"Are you guys trapped here too? We're currently looking for an exit to leave this hellhole."

Yang Dongqing grew incredibly anxious. He couldn't understand why the two men couldn't see the little monster. He waved his arms wildly. "Hey, tattoos! On your shoulder! There's a monster on your shoulder!"