Chapter 140
Ye Bai furrowed his brow as he watched the gray, indistinguishable child struggle against the grip of two adults. Despite the child's efforts, he was being dragged closer to the magical array, clearly destined to be thrown into the portal.
"Unming, can we reverse the array now?" Ye Bai whispered to the paper figure.
The paper figure replied, "Almost... The portal is opening. Get ready. Once I reverse it, it will only last a short time, so you need to enter quickly—now!"
As soon as the paper figure's voice fell, Ye Bai, who had been poised to act, leaped out from among the cultists.
Following him was a gray donkey that looked completely out of place in this setting.
"Huh?!"
Ye Bai's sudden appearance caused a stir among the crowd. The Infernal Servant's eyes widened in shock. "Who are you?!"
Ye Bai had no intention of answering. He swung his sword at the Infernal Servant.
This half-hearted Infernal Servant had only two skills: fire resistance and a minor demon summoning. Seeing the mysterious figure attack with such ferocity, he hurriedly covered his head to dodge, but still got hit by the sword.
"Eh?"
The expected searing pain didn’t come, leaving the Infernal Servant momentarily stunned. He relaxed, thinking the opponent looked like a powerful warrior, expecting the blow to sever his arm. Instead, it merely grazed his skin, causing minimal damage.
In the next moment, a sharp ice spike shot from behind, piercing through the Infernal Servant's chest.
‘-1734’
With only some fire resistance and zero resistance to other magical damage—especially the ice damage that countered fire—the ice spike reduced his health to zero.
Without pausing, Ye Bai turned and dashed toward the newly opened teleportation portal.
The two henchmen preparing to offer the sacrifice were startled, their movements faltering.
Ye Bai moved like flowing water, casting an ice bolt at each of them, piercing through their chests and sending the two cultists, each with less than 500 health, to their demise.
The struggling child broke free from his restraints and froze in place at the sight of Ye Bai descending from above.
Ye Bai smiled at him, then reached out and grabbed the emaciated little boy.
In the boy's astonished gaze, he was lifted by Ye Bai and then... tossed aside into a nearby shack.
—I’m going to die!
As this thought crossed the boy's mind, he suddenly felt his body lighten, as if he had sprouted wings, soaring upward with a gentle push.
Behind the boy, a wing-like shape flashed by.
A level two gravity spell, Light Feather.
Just as the boy was thrown away, a hand emerged from the sulfurous, scorching portal behind him.
This hand was covered in unusual red skin, muscular, with sharp, inhuman claws at the fingertips.
Upon entering this world, it skillfully opened its palm, clearly a habitual gesture for receiving sacrifices.
However, this time there was no sacrifice; the boy had already been flung far from the center of the gathering.
At the same time, the paper figure sprang into action. The carved lines of the teleportation array on the ground began to move as if alive, transforming in the blink of an eye into a strange new structure.
What had been an outward vortex suddenly reversed!
The hand, having waited long for a sacrifice, extended its forearm and then its entire arm, groping left and right, searching for the offering that should have appeared.
In the next moment, the portal's swirling vortex shifted from outward to inward, creating a powerful cutting force due to the sudden change in flow—
With a 'thud,' the red arm fell to the ground, revealing a clean cut.
"Ah!! My hand!"
A faint, piercing scream echoed from the other side of the portal.
"Now!"
The paper figure's voice rang out, and Ye Bai wasted no time, jumping into the portal, with Ottofis following closely behind.
In the instant that the man and donkey were engulfed by the portal, a tremendous explosion erupted from the fiery passage, sending the gathered cultists flying and obliterating the entire center of the gathering.
...
"Thud..."
The boy who had been thrown out felt as light as a feather, propelled high into the air, and then gently landed, rolling once before stabilizing himself.
Coming to his senses, he realized he had been ejected from the gathering area, and aside from his already dirty clothes becoming even dirtier, he was completely unharmed!
"Boom!"
Hearing the sound, the boy looked back in shock at the gathering area, his eyes reflecting a brilliant flash of fire.
Hidden in the darkness, the living souls who, like gray mice, eked out an existence in this dilapidated city, were drawn out by the explosion, peering curiously.
As the flames of the explosion died down, the boy's gaze flickered. After lingering for a moment, he suddenly darted into the dark shack, disappearing from sight.
...
Such a violent event finally caught the attention of the personnel in the distant fortress.
Once the explosion subsided, a group clad in armor arrived at the center of the gathering.
"What did those Infernal cultists do this time to cause such a commotion?!"
The aftermath of the explosion left the gathering center in darkness, with several charred bodies lying nearby. The central magical array had twisted into the simplest circular lines, and unless another Infernal Servant who knew summoning magic appeared, it would never return to its former state.
Aside from that, the only remaining 'thing' next to the array was a charred mark in the shape of an arm.
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Chapter 100
"Thud."
The Light Feather Boots crunched against the dry, hard ground.
As Ye Bai passed through the teleportation array, a wave of scorching sulfuric air hit him.
The colors before his eyes shifted from the gloomy gray-blue of night to a stark, ominous dark red.
Ye Bai quickly scanned his surroundings, realizing he was in a typical underground landscape, composed entirely of deep black rock and vivid red magma.
Whether it was the 'sky,' mountains, or the ground, everything was made of this hard rock, with rivers and waterfalls of magma flowing through the crevices, illuminating the surrounding stone walls and creating a singular view of the Inferno.
Ye Bai stood atop a high platform formed by massive stones, not far from a 'river' of magma.
Ottofis was beside him, curiously looking around.
Faced with this scene, Ye Bai took out a magic scroll and asked the paper figure, "What layer of the Inferno are we in?"
The Inferno is divided into nine layers; the deeper one goes, the stronger the Infernal creatures become. The ninth layer conceals the core of the Inferno, from which all Infernal beings are born from the magma due to its existence.
"Wait a moment." The paper figure fell silent for a moment, then said, "I can only tell that we are below the fourth layer."
Below the fourth layer...
Ye Bai nodded, his expression growing serious. That meant the Infernal creatures here were at least level 40. If it were the sixth or seventh layer, the active Infernal beings would be above level 60.
Moreover, the higher the layer, the fewer spatial rifts leading to the surface.
Each layer of the Inferno has spatial rifts to the surface, which powerful Infernal creatures find difficult to traverse, but those with divine blood can move freely.
For players, this is akin to a safe save point. So when Ye Bai previously asked the paper figure, he only inquired about how to enter the Inferno; the way back would naturally be through the rifts within the Inferno—much easier than searching for rift entrances on the vast surface.
Although the rifts are active, they usually remain fixed for a period. During the time a rift exists, Ye Bai can traverse between the surface and the Inferno.
This time entering the Inferno, Ye Bai was not confident he could complete the Infernal quest in one go. Her plan was to explore deeper layers and find the corresponding surface rift's location, deciding on her actions based on the situation.
Now, the priority was to determine which layer she was in.
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