Translator: Lonelytree
Instantly, Gu Jun felt like he was experiencing a million nightmares, like a million madmen were screaming into his ears at the same time. Among the screams, there was one that sounded very much like the joyful yet maddening proclamation of Barzai. Nightgaunts in thousands hid behind the screams and tore at him in the darkness as they tried to yank him back into the abyss. The overwhelming pain was dulling his consciousness. The next moment, he was bogged down by even more illusions, there was a stormy sea, wilted forest of trees and endless tragedies… The shadow that had corrupted his mind was more than just a psychological tumor, it was a coagulation of the nightmarish power.
“Ah!” Gu Jun gritted his teeth to shelter his last shred of rationality and dragged out that imprint that looked like both a branch and an antler in his heart. Using his mental power, he connected the imprint with the carving on the rough stone that his right palm was pressing against… The horizontal lines on the sides of the imprint were coming alive! In that moment, he could see the connective system within his body bonding with the branches of the Ancient Seal. Even the thick black smog in his mind was connected. The black smog rippled like it was slammed into by a giant boulder. Gu Jun knew this was the crucial moment. He focused his mind and ushered the black fog towards his right hand, and through it, into the old stone!
‘Go and face the thing that you despise! Go and corrupt this seal!’ The black fog raged against it, causing immense pain within Gu Jun. It lashed against his mind with indescribable revolt. However when the black fog touched the branches of the old seal, it dissipated instantly. The old rock was slightly trembling but it was still holding on…
At the same time, Gu Jun could feel the dark energy polluting his mind receding. Even though it had not transmuted into his own mental power, it was retreating. It did not take long for his physical body to reach its threshold. Every inch of his skin felt like exploding. His head felt as heavy as a mountain. The old stone had also started to shake more conspicuously, a sign that it was time to end the ritual. Gu Jun trained his focus and pulled his right hand back. Instantly the connection snapped. His body shivered and pain ate at his every nerve.
“Ah…” He gasped from pain. He noticed he was already covered in sweat and his right hand was trembling uncontrollably and every vein in it was bulging.
“Mr. Nightmare Man.” Peacock gesticulated frantically but Kathlyn failed to translate because she could not understand most of the technical terms. Peacock and the rest were shocked because they had not seen so much evil power being cleansed at one time. Kathlyn’s group was shocked because the imprint on the old stone suddenly glowed before turning black but the blackness disappeared instantly once the Nightmare Man let go.
“Is that some kind of magic…?” Kathlyn gasped in shock.
“No, not magic.” Gu Jun took a deep breath and felt much better. It was like he had just been given a deep tissue massage, yes it would be painful during the process but after the fact, one would feel much more relaxed. He looked at the stone and his eyes burned with passion. “This is a relic used to neutralize mental corruption.”
He saw a notification pop inside his mind. “Your mental corruption was depleted, corruption rate decreased by 3 percent, current rate is 21.68 percent.”
‘3 percent?’ Gu Jun was overjoyed, it was much higher compared to the 0.3 percent from one showing of Nightmare Wonder but he did notice the difference between the two. This time, it was a depletion but during the nightmare wonder, it was a digestion. Having something forcibly yanked out of one’s body was different from naturally assimilating it as one’s own, the former would be more taxing to the body but it appeared to be more effective. Now he understood why the land’s travellers only had one cleansing every 3 days, but math-wise, he would not have enough time to complete his mission within a week. So it meant that he would have to take a risk, could he do it once every 2 days or perhaps he could try leaving his hands on the stone longer during each session?
“What do you mean?” An inanimate object had come alive, if that was not magic, what was?
Gu Jun studied the old stone in his hands, it did not appear to be physically different from before but something had changed… He believed it could be used repeatedly but there was an upper limit, like a machine would break after a certain number of uses. But for now, it should be able to hold on for quite a while. The content of the Pnakotic Manuscripts flashed across his mind, there appeared to be a chapter on how to use this Ancient Seal. And the chapter included how to select the suitable rock and how to carve the seal…
Even though the memory was flickering, Gu Jun’s heart was racing, this imprint was the medicine he was looking for!
It was also the medicine to cure ‘Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan training syndrome’ and ‘spell casting syndrome’, it was far more useful than common drugs like olanzapine, fluperamide and Lamictal. From the incomplete Carlot Spell book, Gu Jun confirmed that the people from the foreign civilization would suffer from sacrifice after using their spells too. But he now believed the foreign civilization also had their own method of cleansing the corruption, perhaps it had to do with that fountain of the Goddess of Life. Or else even if the Carlot Doctors had the readiness to sacrifice, it could not support a whole civilization should all the doctors succumb to madness after using several spells and rituals.
Undeniably this was currently a problem facing Phecda but with the Ancient Seal, the situation could be swiftly turned around. However, with Barzai as a cautionary tale, Gu Jun knew that the Ancient Seal was not going to help the common human overcome the power of gods… it would merely help one cast away the darkness in one’s mind via channelling the divinity, in that manner, it was similar to a holy seal.
“Peacock,” Gu Jun said seriously, “This stone is indeed a sacred relic.” A technology that utilized rationality to counter the darker effect of spell learning and casting.
“Hmm…” Peacock nodded. The rest’s expression practically said, ‘but of course’. Peacock explained further, “Mr. Nightmare Man, it has to be because this relic is personally carved by the Phecda Hero!” Gu Jun turned to study the rock again and many questions surfaced in his mind…
This group of people from the future said that ten thousand kindles came from the old world to dreamlands and they carried this relic with them, proclaiming that it was a legacy left behind the Phecda Hero. If he brought the stone back to Phecda now, it would become his legacy, wouldn’t it? They said the City of Kindle needed the Pnakotic Manuscripts but now Gu Jun also realized Phecda needed the Pnakotic Manuscripts to settle its imminent problem. The shadow had arranged all these, to help him gain the manuscript and then the sacred stone… Was it trying to help Gu Jun stop the ‘Phecda Chaos’?
Gu Jun could not figure it out so he put it on the back burner for now. He continued to ask Peacock about the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan. According to Peacock, the fourth chapter was to strengthen one’s mental power, the fifth chapter could summon a larger flying mental creature, it was similar to Nightgaunt, known as Larger Nightgaunt. Other than that, she added a warning, for those who had been corrupted by the darkness in the third chapter, when they tried to summon a Larger Nightgaunt, it would adopt a corrupted physical existence, the casters would become corrupted themselves.
Gu Jun frowned. ‘Turning mental existence into physicality? What kind of power would that be… Is it similar to how the system provided me with reward items?’
“We are not familiar with the 6th and 7th chapter either.” Peacock said with some disappointment. “We are unable to train for it, whenever we try, there will be a resistance that forbids us from going further.”
“Hmm…” Gu Jun thought to himself, he wondered if it was related to the Ancient Seal… Perhaps Wang Ruoxiang who had not interacted with the Ancient Seal would have no problem continuing…
He then asked for more details but there was no more new information. So he stood up and announced, “Okay, time to go to Warburton.” Then the group brought their luggage and the stone and checked out from the hotel. They searched around the gas station and did find the vehicles of the others. Gu Jun still used the same old rock to break into the cars.
The six people were separated into 2 cars. Kathlyn would lead the way in the first car while Gu Jun followed behind her. It would take 4 hours of driving to go from Barrow Creek to Warburton. When they arrived, Wu Siyu would land at the headquarters as well.
The yellow sand rolled. The two cars drove down the empty highway. In the driver’s seat, Gu Jun placed his hands on the steering wheel and looked ahead.
‘Dirty-minded Yu and my friends, no matter how the road ahead is like, I have returned so we will traverse it together.’