Chapter 1928 - 1927: Well Shadow

Upon hearing the song, He Ao was momentarily stunned.

Because he had heard this song before, on the path leading to the Netherworld.

He looked down, staring at the faintly visible water surface in the well.

The water surface didn’t seem to be still; it was constantly flowing.

It’s as if this dry well tapped into an underground river, showing the surface of the river.

But the surroundings of the well shaft were sealed.

This river seemed to be between illusion and reality, ’passing through’ directly from the well shaft.

A word popped into He Ao’s mind.

’Nether River’

Is this well actually connected to the Nether River?

He Ao was momentarily stunned, then slowly shook his head.

No, the Nether River shouldn’t have such properties closer to the truth, this small segment of the Nether River should just be part of this ’Well Shadow.’

Are various powers coming together to form this well?

So is this well a ’composite well’?

He Ao stared at the reflection in the well.

What was puzzling was that the Well Shadow displayed strong anomalies when it first emerged, but now that it was entirely in He Ao’s hands, it seemed just like an ordinary model toy, lacking anything divine.

Only by looking inside could one see the flowing river.

Under He Ao’s gaze, a subtle reflection began to appear on the illusory river water.

The reflection was first of He Ao’s body, but the proportions were off.

This well was now only the size of He Ao’s palm, held in his hand, and looking from above, according to normal optical structure, the reflection in the well could at most cover He Ao’s head and a part of his shoulders.

But the actual reflection in the well included He Ao’s entire upper body, even the ’dry well’ in He Ao’s hands was reflected.

It looked as if He Ao stood by a well of normal proportions, looking down while supporting the edge.

Of course, this wasn’t the ’strange’ feature of the well’s reflection.

In the reflection, above He Ao’s head, was a bright blue sky with white clouds drifting by.

He Ao raised his head, looking at the sky above.

The heavy clouds still hung low over the sky, though the blizzard had been torn apart by a recent fierce force, and the clouds had been torn into a large hole, but at this moment, clouds from other areas were quickly spreading over to fill this hole.

In any case, this sky had nothing in common with the clear blue sky in the dry well.

So the reflection in the well wasn’t a real scene.

He Ao lowered his head, staring at the blue sky and white clouds within the dry well.

Is this why the object is called ’Well Shadow’?

But how to use this thing?

Quickly, He Ao’s mind flashed with the system’s introduction, ’The Well Shadow can reflect what’s in a person’s heart and answer their inner doubts.’

Is this an automatic answering machine?

He Ao pondered for a moment, looking at the reflection in the well, and began thinking, ’The subsequent Talent Sequence of the Secret Wizard.’

As he pondered, the flowing water surface began to tremble slightly.

It was as if something was thrown in, creating ripples.

And with these ripples, the reflection in the well began to blur quickly.

Immediately, He Ao felt some invisible force rapidly drawing away his life force.

Is this the ’price’?

The power from the Main World continuously poured into his body, replenishing his life.

The martial artist standing on the earth cannot die.

But this drawing was too much, was the question this difficult?

And in this extraction of life, the reflection in the well gradually formed a new scene.

It was a fragment of stone, lying quietly on ice.

This scene only lasted a moment, then quickly disappeared, returning to the original scene of blue sky and white clouds.

He Ao was silent for a moment.

The life force just extracted felt like it could drain a normal angel dry, if not, leave it half-alive.

If it weren’t for the strong support from the Main World, he would have given up on asking questions directly.

But in the end, this was the scene he got.

What do the stone and ice mean?

Wait, this scene looks vaguely familiar.

He Ao quickly communicated with the Main World, gathering his consciousness to the ice field in the middle of the desert.

——

West Land Mote City

He Ao stood by the window, looking at his reflection in the window, glanced at his own face.

At this moment, his body was a clone, but he adjusted his appearance to match his original body’s.

Now that his original body held a higher status, things were going more smoothly.

Then he controlled the clone to push open the office door and walked in.

At this moment, Mote City was already past midnight, but the office lights were still on.

Hearing the entrance sound, a small head lifted from a pile of complex documents, looked at He Ao, and was momentarily stunned, "Sir, why are you here?"

"You’re still working overtime?" He Ao glanced at Lin Chichi buried in the documents and smiled, "No matter how urgent things are, you should go to sleep now."

"Sigh," Lin Chichi ran her fingers through her messy hair; she no longer looked as cute and delicate as before. Leaning back in her chair like a languid doll, she sighed, "There’s just too much going on in the sect, sir. I think you need to expand the office staff."

"Alright," He Ao nodded slightly, "Ask the Research Institute if they can lend some people."

"Really?" Lin Chichi looked up somewhat incredulously, straightened her body, and glanced at He Ao.

"Don’t tell me you just mentioned it casually; otherwise, I’d have to reconsider." He Ao laughed.

"No, of course not." Lin Chichi shook her head quickly, then sternly said, "I’m serious!"

Then, looking at He Ao, she asked curiously, "Sir, what are you doing here so late?"

"I came to check the anomaly reports from the past few days," He Ao smiled, "Initially, I was going to contact Yan Yue once I arrived; since you’re here, any anomalies from the sect lately?"

"Aside from the previous relic advent incident," Lin Chichi glanced at the files before her, "nothing particularly special."

"Any reports of witnessing abnormal scenes? Like, illusions?" He Ao pondered and asked.

"Is there?" Lin Chichi paused, then seemed to recall carefully, "Seems like there’s an elderly person on the edge of the Western Lands; she said her house collapsed when she got home. But when the sect’s staff went with her, they found her house perfectly fine. Eventually, her family came over, claiming she always had mental issues, hallucinating and hearing things."

Lin Chichi sighed, looking at He Ao, "Only the sect would get such cases. The three major organizations would usually directly pass it to the local authorities, not even reaching me. That’s why the sect needs office staff, at least to optimize these processes, which can significantly reduce workload."

"Agreed," He Ao nodded slightly, smiling, "There are always various problems from the organization’s inception to its maturity."

"Sir, would you like some coffee?" At this moment, Lin Chichi seemed to finally come to her senses, stood up, and looked at He Ao, asking somewhat awkwardly, "I probably only have instant coffee powder here."

"I’d be fine with some plain water; don’t trouble yourself. I’ll get it myself." He Ao interrupted Lin Chichi, who was getting up, walked to the water dispenser, took a paper cup, and turned on the hot water.

"Sir, is Hao Yi off on a long trip?" Lin Chichi stood there awkwardly, seemed to remember something, and asked softly.

"Why do you ask?" He Ao took the cup, sipping on it, and looked out at the open window nearby.

Outside, the city had fallen silent, many lights had gone out, and the dim night covered the city.

"Feels like I haven’t seen him for a long time," Lin Chichi sighed.

"You met for the first time on the ’Velora’?" He Ao asked casually.

"Yes," Lin Chichi nodded, "At that time, Velora had all kinds of inexplicable rules, I nearly died there, but it was Hao Yi brother who saved me."

"I heard him mention it," He Ao gazed out the window, taking a sip of water, "but from another version. He said you were brave and resourceful, and willing to sacrifice. To help him achieve the plan, you even chose to sacrifice your own life, a commendable young lady."

"Did Hao Yi brother also mention me to you?" Lin Chichi was evidently a bit surprised, with a hint of uncontrollable happiness on her face, "Actually, it was all his praise. I’m not that capable, his plan was indeed reliable, so I was willing to cooperate with him."

"He wants to recommend you to me for learning martial arts," He Ao took a sip of water and smiled, "He has to introduce you somehow."

"Hehe." Lin Chichi awkwardly scratched her head.

He Ao drank some water, looking towards the window.

In just a moment, the tranquil city transformed into blazing flames, each building becoming a pile of collapsed ruins.

And at the center of these ruins, a giant pillar soared into the sky, piercing the firmament.

In these ruins, there was no sound of humanity, no life, not even a trace of birds could be seen.

What remained was the eerie sky illuminated by the light of fire, and the sky-piercing giant pillar.

"Sir, sir, what’s wrong?" Lin Chichi’s call rang by He Ao’s ear.

He snapped back to reality, once again looking out the window, where the night remained quiet and serene.

Second time now.

This time lasted longer than the one he saw in Antarctica.

He turned his head and looked at the somewhat puzzled Lin Chichi, "Nothing much, can you tell me about the ’Illusion’ incident you just mentioned? Is there any information I can see?"

"Yes, yes." Lin Chichi nodded quickly, opened the laptop in front of her, "I’ll look it up for you."

He Ao withdrew his gaze, took a sip of water, and quietly watched the view outside the window.

The long night covered the silent street, the night peaceful and natural, just like every night.

——

Desert Center

Velora crossed the ice plains, opening the door, and He Ao’s original body stepped off the train.

He lowered his head, looking at the scattered stones on the ground.

His steps halted on the edge of one stone block, this stone lay on the frozen ground, its image gradually overlapping with that in the well.

He Ao crouched down, gazing at this stone block, then picked it up, examining it carefully.

A few traces still remained on this stone block, with densely packed runes which were previously carved on it, now completely dim and devoid of divine presence.

Except for these patterns, the stone block itself had no divine essence.

Of course, the divine essence of these stones did not originate from them.

He Ao held the stone firmly and looked around at the scattered stone blocks.

These stones used to be a stele standing here, with the prophecy of the apocalypse inscribed on it.

Naturally, all this was the handiwork of the Holy Master.

After the Holy Master’s advent, He Ao once again destroyed this stele.

But He Ao had no doubt, as long as the Holy Master wished, He would still find a way to restore this stele.

But like someone pulling a fishing line, it’s not the fishing line itself that moves, but the fisher.

The capability is not with the fishing line, but with the person behind the fishing line.

He Ao once again lowered his head, glancing at the stone block in his hand.

This stone block didn’t seem to have any divine essence itself.

So, the reflection in the dry well, pointing to this stone, was merely trying to imply something to He Ao?

Hinting at an indescribable existence?

For instance, a Divine Being?

And the divine being associated with this stele is the obvious—Holy Master.

So, is Secret Wizard’s subsequent promotion related to Holy Master?

?

Is this reasonable?

It’s harder than dealing with Dreamer Talent Sequence, cooperating with the Old Coin to steal things while tricking Old Coin, the difficulty isn’t even on the same level as directly confronting Old Coin.

He Ao couldn’t think of any method to obtain the subsequent Talent Sequence of Secret Wizard from the Holy Master.

Nonetheless, it’s just a Talent Sequence for Secret Wizard, isn’t it? At least, more than the Holy Master must know the Secret Medicine formula.

He Ao pondered for a moment, raising his hand, and once again took out that dry well.

"What is the subsequent Talent Sequence for Secret Wizard? What is the formula for the Secret Medicine?"

Accompanied by his inquiry, the strong suction reappeared, but this time, the life extracted was considerably less than before.

Soon, a picture emerged in He Ao’s field of view.

A stone held in a person’s palm.

He Ao glanced down at his palm, and the figure in the picture also glanced down at his palm.

It was the very stone in his hand.

He Ao: ...

No wonder there was less extraction of life force, it was a repeated search.

Compared to a good friend, this ’Well Shadow’ indeed falls short, after all, a good friend can directly answer relevant questions, though the price paid might be much higher too.

The consultation fee for ’Truth’ isn’t a small sum.

He Ao exhaled, put away the stone in his hand.

Looks like the Secret Wizard seeking promotion likely can’t bypass the Holy Master.

He Ao glanced at the final subtitle in his view.

[Due to comprehensive evaluation reaching Legend, the Top Player Challenge task has been updated for you.]

[Current Challenge Progress:]

[Legend Level: 70]

[Congratulations! You triggered the achievement ’Guide’]

[Guide: Effective only once, upon achieving this achievement in the current Copy World settlement, the player receives an additional 3 Exchange Stars.]

[Congratulations! You triggered the achievement ’Guide’]

[Guide: Effective only once, upon achieving this achievement in the current Copy World settlement, the player receives an additional 3 Exchange Stars.]

[Current total amount of Exchange Stars: 47]

Wait, what does this mean, did it bug out?

He Ao rubbed his eyes.

How did the Guide trigger twice? Isn’t this effective only once?

This single-time effectiveness means only valid for the current Copy World settlement, right?

But why did it trigger twice?

He Ao suddenly thought of something.

[Under the Starlight: When a player’s comprehensive evaluation surpasses 9.5 and achieves dazzling achievements in the Copy World, there is a probability of triggering. At the final reward settlement, it’s easier to trigger achievement effects, and a specific achievement may be triggered twice.]

He seemed to have just triggered ’Under the Starlight.’

Does the final Exchange Star settlement also count as final reward settlement?

Seems like, genuinely caught a bug?