newbobooks Chapter 318 Exit of the Dungeon
Chapter 318 Exit of the Dungeon
"What are they talking about?" Fang Shuo leaned against the window, watching Yan Xun and Xie Qingdu on the lawn.
When they saw the NPC Xie Qingdu, after being resurrected as a paper doll, turn into a physical body and fall off, they were even more dumbfounded. "What's going on?"
"Something feels off," Shu Fan said, looking around at everything outside. "Was that really Xie Qingdu?"
At this moment, Ning Hengyuan was facing away from the white house, and the players inside could not see his appearance clearly—they just habitually assumed that the other party should be Xie Qingdu, who had been killed and buried underground.
“I feel something’s not right,” Lin Wen said. “The body type doesn’t seem right.”
“But besides Xie Qingdu, there’s no one else, right?” Fang Shuo said.
He had half his body on the windowsill, wanting to lean out and see what was going on.
"Hey! The notification that the hidden quest is complete is here!" The crew-cut man had been staring at his quest list and found that the hidden quest was already completed. He had no interest in deducing the truth at all and just wanted to leave this unlucky instance.
Strangely, the instance did not open an exit to let them leave immediately after the hidden quest was completed.
Even with the feedback from the crew cut and his own system, the system only gave a formulaic response; the exit point hasn't been opened yet.
Others also noticed this to some extent.
"What's going on?" Du Yun asked. "Logically, you shouldn't be able to leave the instance just by completing the hidden quest."
“This should be a dungeon where the boss controls everything,” Lin Wen said. “I reckon we won’t be able to leave until he decides to let us go.”
Fang Shuo cursed the dungeon boss for being despicable, "Should we attack together or..."
"Save your breath," Duan Songen said, looking at the commotion on the lawn. "Yan Xun sent us up here, he probably has other plans. Let's not cause him any trouble."
"I heard from them that you have other preparations?" Ning Hengyuan could hear the conversation of the players in the white house.
"What preparations?"
He looked at Yan Xun and said, "Let me hear it."
“Actually, I think you made a mistake in one thing,” Yan Xun said.
"what?"
"Xie Qingdu knows he will return to dust." He was referring to Ning Hengyuan's previous comment that Xie Qingdu was naive and believed his grandmother's claim that exchanging souls with Ning Hengyuan would suppress him.
"He knew and still believed it?" Ning Hengyuan said dismissively. "Do you think he's a fool?"
"Perhaps he felt that a condensation of Yin energy from heaven and earth would be just right, eliminating the need for such scheming," Yan Xun said.
Ning Hengyuan's smiling expression vanished; when he wasn't smiling, he looked somewhat gloomy. "It sounds like you know him quite well, Yan Xun."
"I definitely understand him better than you do."
Ning Hengyuan seemed enraged by those words, "Who do you think you rely on to live?"
"Are you out of your mind, taking the story as reality?" Yan Xun asked. "Do you really think I'm that little beggar who admires you?"
“They’re all fake,” Yan Xun said.
"Only you would take a fabricated story seriously."
Upon hearing this, Ning Hengyuan was about to say something more, but Yan Xun could only see his mouth move, but could not hear any sound from him—Ning Hengyuan probably realized this as well, and his expression changed from anger to sarcasm.
"Never mind," Ning Hengyuan said finally.
"Since you still think so highly of Xie Qingdu, why don't you stay here and keep him company?"
As soon as Ning Hengyuan finished speaking, the entire instance seemed to come back to life instantly, and the lights in the houses that had been turned off suddenly came on.
Even the ground began to emit wisps of black smoke.
Yan Xun heard the sound of orderly footsteps and saw his parents, Shuangshuang, the muscular man, and others appear at the door of the white house.
Next came the other neighbors who had appeared earlier.
They were all turned into mindless paper effigies, controlled by Ning Hengyuan.
Yan Xun stepped back and took out the Book of Corruption from his backpack—
The eyeballs on the cover blinked rapidly, and the moment Yan Xun opened the book, Ning Hengyuan's body instantly turned into minced meat.
But the other party's spirit descended upon the paper figures he controlled at an even faster speed.
Yan Xun cursed inwardly for being cunning.
Perhaps because he had obtained the power of blue gold, he felt no influence whatsoever when he opened the book again.
Ning Hengyuan's mind was too scattered and fragmented, making the Book of Corruption, a tool more suitable for acting on a single target, unsuitable.
'What kind of prop is this?'
Ning Hengyuan's voice came from all directions.
'Isn't this the angel's collection?'
The paper figures made the same sound.
Yan Xun suddenly looked up and felt a deeper gaze upon him—he guessed it was the one in the Garden of Bones who had finally discovered that he had taken his books.
Just as Yan Xun was about to send "Gui Yuchong" out to entangle the paper effigies, he suddenly felt a very light breeze brush against his cheek.
And then...
Flames that shouldn't be in the community suddenly appeared in mid-air, like will-o'-the-wisps, scorching these paper effigies.
"Xie Qingdu!!!" the burning paper figure shouted this name.
The previously closed dungeon exit also appeared at this time.
Although Shu Fan and the others were still confused, they decided to leave immediately, leaving only Lin Wen and Du Yun in the end.
Lin Wen looked at Du Yun, "Aren't you leaving?"
"I was wondering why you didn't leave," Du Yun said, puzzled. "Yan Xun is my older brother; he'll share your troubles, you know?"
He said this as he ran out of the white house, shouting, "Big brother, I'm here to help you!"
Lin Wen glanced at it and followed.
The paper figures were burning in the fire, but after they burned out, you could see translucent souls floating around them.
Yan Xun saw several familiar faces...
Ning Hengyuan, whose body had been destroyed by the flames, was even more enraged!
He glanced left and right, then aimed at Yan Xun's body and was about to crash into it—but was trapped by something like a birdcage.
There was a crying face on the birdcage, which looked very lifelike. When Ning Hengyuan was caught in the birdcage, the face immediately turned into a smiling expression.
Yan Xun looked at the birdcage that had returned to Lou Yanchuan's hands, wanting to ask something more, but the side effects of the Book of Corruption finally arrived—
In particular, Yan Xun used it twice in a row, relying on the fact that his body had been modified by Lan Jin.
He became an idiot in a short period of time.
Yan Xun stared blankly at Lou Yanchuan, then at the burning houses... He actually had many thoughts in his head, but they seemed to be trapped by something inexplicable, shrouded in a layer of fog.
Lou Yanchuan slowly approached him. "Have you really become an idiot?"
Yan Xun turned to look at Lou Yanchuan, tilting his head, "...Lou Yanchuan?"
"Looks like you still remember who I am."
Yan Xun didn't understand what these words meant, and just laughed foolishly.
He watched Lin Wen and Du Yun run towards him. He remembered who they were and that he seemed to be wary of something about Lin Wen, but he couldn't remember what to do.
"Yan Xun," Lin Wen said, "we're here to help you."
Yan Xun tilted his head, "...Okay!"
Lou Yanchuan smiled and looked at Lin Wen. "Long time no see... no, it should be, this is our first meeting."
"Grandpa."
Lou Yanchuan looked at the old man with a surprised expression, and then the flames enveloped them all.
Yan Xun looked at his burning hand, but he felt no pain; instead, he felt a cool sensation.
It felt like the gentle breeze that had blown before.
Flames brushed across his hair and cheeks, causing his paper doll body to burn rapidly.
He thought he heard a voice.
'Yan Xun.'
I'm very happy.
'goodbye.'
The flames grasped his hand again, and then the raging fire completely destroyed the entire community.
Countless souls were released from the bodies of the paper effigy.
Yan Xun saw two people emerge from Lin Wen's body, the second being an old man—but the old man's smugness didn't last long before the burning flames consumed his soul as well.
The community has disappeared, and the instance has been shut down.
Yan Xun was taken to Huisu's territory by Lou Yanchuan.
Li Wu was also in the conference room. He watched Yan Xun being led away by Lou Yanchuan—he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"You still made a mistake?" Li Wu asked suspiciously. "Did you drug him?"
Lou Yanchuan made Yan Xun sit in a chair in the conference room, then turned to look at Li Wu, "In your heart, am I such a lawless outlaw?"
“A desperate fugitive, perhaps,” Li Wu said.
He walked up to Yan Xun, who gave him a big smile, without a trace of sarcasm, and said, "Hello!"
Li Wu slapped himself.
Yan Xun immediately became anxious, "Why did you hit yourself?"
He reached out and touched Li Wu's face. "Does it hurt?"
Li Wu, trembling, pressed down on Yan Xun. "What happened?" he asked Lou Yanchuan, turning around.
Lou Yanchuan moved Yan Xun and his chair aside, saying, "Your brother Li Wu is a germaphobe, don't touch him."
"Oh." Yan Xun nodded, then shook her head. "I won't touch it."
"Side effects of the props," Lou Yanchuan said succinctly.
He briefly recounted the events of the previous instance, then pulled out the birdcage item, saying, "That thing is here."
Li Wu glanced at the black mist raging wildly in the birdcage. "How do you plan to use it?"
"I've refined it," Lou Yanchuan said casually. "Someone in the guild needs their items enhanced."
“I never expected…” Lou Yanchuan looked at the black mist in the birdcage, “that someone would still remember the Divine Kingdom.”
"And all I remember is the Kingdom of God."
“He’s been in the instance for so long, and they say he has his own consciousness, but all he has are those memories,” Li Wu said nonchalantly. He took the birdcage from Lou Yanchuan and looked at Yan Xun, who was staring blankly. “How long will this state last?”
"He didn't say." Lou Yanchuan leaned against the table. "It could be a few hours, or it could be a few days."
"Let him stay in the guild for now."
“I remember there are empty rooms here.”
“Many of the members’ dormitories are empty,” Li Wu said.
"Why don't you stay at my place?" Li Wu said. "My rooms are bigger."
"Isn't my room bigger?" Lou Yanchuan asked.
"Are you sure?" Li Wu looked Lou Yanchuan up and down. "I think you two will fight once he's sober."
Lou Yanchuan was about to say something like, "It's like if he were in your room, you wouldn't fight..." but then he thought about how Yan Xun and Li Wu usually got along, and could only remain silent.
Li Wu also got the answer from Lou Yanchuan's silence. He patted Lou Yanchuan on the shoulder and said, "I'll take him to rest first."
……
After waking up, Yan Xun only wanted to kill himself.
Aa ...
Especially after he caught a glimpse of Li Wu sitting in a chair reading documents, he decided to suffocate and commit suicide.
"Awake?" Li Wu noticed the movement on the bed and immediately put down the documents in his hand and stood up.
Yan Xun closed his eyes and pretended to be dead.
“Strange?” Li Wu muttered to himself as he sat on the edge of the bed. “I clearly felt that you seemed to have woken up just now.”
He reached out to touch Yan Xun's forehead, then watched helplessly as Yan Xun, who was pretending to be asleep, opened his eyes. "You're awake."
"Then why pretend to be asleep?" Li Wu put his hand down.
Isn't it because it's embarrassing? Yan Xun thought, but he couldn't say it out loud, so he could only dawdle as he got out of bed.
"The old man died too?" He recalled the scene he had witnessed.
"What about the rest?"
“Most of those released souls returned to their own bodies,” Li Wu said. “Although I don’t understand the underlying principles, Xie Qingdu must have protected their bodies and souls, preventing them from being completely assimilated.”
When Xie Qingdu was mentioned, Yan Xun thought of the flames that had been burning.
Because they need to use their own territory to suppress Ning Hengyuan, there can be no sparks of violence within the community.
Ning Hengyuan was captured, and there was no need for him to keep this community and territory any longer. He simply burned it all to the ground, and he himself became just an ordinary wisp of air in the world.
As Yan Xun thought about this, he suddenly felt something was wrong with his body.
He felt like there was something stuck to his back... He took advantage of the moment when Li Wu turned his head and pulled the thing off his back.
It's a tiny paper figure, no bigger than the palm of your hand.
Upon realizing that Yan Xun had discovered it, the little paper figure even moved its hand.
Yan Xun wanted to confirm, but then he saw Li Wu turn around again, clutching the paper figure in his hand. "I didn't expect Xie Qingdu to be able to burn even the old man."
“I remember he absorbed some blue-gold power at the time.”
As he said this, the paper figure he was clutching moved slightly in his hand, as if to say that he had made it himself.
“His power may indeed be greater than we thought,” Li Wu analyzed. “Ning Hengyuan’s formation can strengthen Yin Sha and create very powerful things. Although he suffered the consequences of his own actions and was suppressed, once the ritual was completed, the malice and Yin Qi still gathered towards Yin Sha.”
“After Xie Qingdu lost his body, he became a complete Yin Sha, which is equivalent to losing the limitations of a human body,” Li Wu said. “He was never human to begin with. He was probably like that before because he subconsciously felt that he was human, so he set many standards for himself to be human.”
"Without a body, one can only act according to instinct."
Yan Xun listened absentmindedly to Li Wu's words, the paper figure in his palm moving around, making him feel a little itchy.
"Now that I've recovered, I'll head back first."
"Don't you want to rest a little longer?" Li Wu asked.
"I feel like I've almost fully recovered," Yan Xun said. "The side effects of the props have also disappeared."
"That's true. I heard that your prop will attract that person's attention, so I'm still a little worried."
Yan Xun knew he was referring to the angel in the Garden of Bones, but according to what the witch had said before, this angel was currently too busy to care about him for the time being.
Ultimately, the Guild of Regression is someone else's territory; for him, his own unfinished villa is still more reassuring.