Chen Dong had already felt the unnatural pressure building inside his body, but it hadn't completely stopped his movements.
Now, however, the pressure felt like it would crush his heart!
He had been about to rush forward and attack Zhai Liu to interrupt his strange ability, but suddenly remembered Li Ban behind him.
Just as he was about to ask if Li Ban was also under attack and if the Core Element transfer had been interrupted, a white bottle flew out from behind him.
It shot straight toward Zhai Liu.
"Give it to him!"
It was Li Ban's voice.
"No!" Chen Dong reached out, preparing to call the ocarina back.
Without the ocarina, he had no way to keep his opponent in check.
Chen Dong hesitated. Zhai Liu, moving with extreme speed despite reacting later, snatched at the airborne ocarina.
Influenced by Chen Dong, the ocarina scattered once more, attempting to fly away.
But Zhai Liu's outstretched palm was covered in blood.
The blood suddenly sprang to life. Like a massive maw, it gaped wide and snapped shut, swallowing the dispersing white jade beetles whole.
Chen Dong immediately felt his connection to the white jade beetles weaken.
But he had no time to worry about the ocarina now. Facing Zhai Liu, he spoke to Li Ban.
"Can you get out?"
"Yes. There's a prompt."
Li Ban looked at the Mission Assistance System, his heart pounding.
[Core Element detected. Task completed. You may log out. Would you like to log out?]
"You go first. Give the item to the Director!"
"Master?" Zhai Liu gripped the blood orb encasing the ocarina with his mutilated hand. His opponent's unexpected cooperation had kept him from landing a lethal blow immediately. "Who is the master behind you?"
Li Ban ignored Zhai Liu, silently commanding in his mind,
"Log out!"
Chen Dong heard a body collapse to the floor behind him.
He let out a long breath, feeling as if he hadn't slept in three hundred years and could finally close his eyes.
Ignoring Zhai Liu, who was glaring at him like a tiger watching its prey, Chen Dong slowly turned around.
The grape-shaped smoke originally stored in the secret room was gone.
Only an empty pedestal remained there.
A smile appeared on Chen Dong's face. Suddenly—squelch!
Zhai Liu mercilessly thrust a single hand right through Chen Dong's chest.
He didn't care what Chen Dong and the others were doing. Since he had obtained the ocarina, there was no way he would pass up Chen Dong's heartblood.
Still, considering the invisible man had voluntarily thrown the ocarina to him, fulfilling his end of the bargain, he was willing to leave Chen Dong with an intact corpse.
Zhai Liu slowly withdrew his hand. Three drops of Chen Dong's heartblood—or rather, Bai Yuechan's heartblood—rested on his fingertips.
Chen Dong's body swayed. Slumping against the open bookshelf, he slowly slid down, leaving only a mottled streak of crimson on the yellow pearwood rack.
Death was approaching, yet a smile surfaced on Chen Dong's face.
Li Ban had succeeded!
The Core Element had finished transferring five minutes earlier than they had planned.
He didn't know if the Mission Assistance System had made an error or if there was another reason, but early was always better than late.
Any resulting problems could be left for the Director to agonize over.
Once he died, he could just log out, find Li Ban and the Director, and offer the Core Element to the Leader!
Their world—was finally saved!
Seeing Chen Dong's smile, Zhai Liu was puzzled.
In recent decades, moles had appeared within every faction in the Wizard World.
The Imperial Court had also noticed this.
However, because these spies were mostly low-tier spirit practitioners or even people without an identity, lacking access to core secrets, they hadn't paid it much mind, merely telling the factions to screen their people carefully.
After all, even without these moles and their unknown motives, the various factions and the Imperial Court were already secretly sending people to monitor each other.
Thus, the mole issue itself was a common nuisance.
But what made moles like Chen Dong unique was that every single one of them was utterly unafraid of death.
That was what had drawn Zhai Liu's attention to their existence.
And now, seeing Chen Dong and his companion, the doubts in Zhai Liu's mind had only multiplied.
Unfortunately, he didn't have the time or energy to dig into it right now.
The noise by the main doors had vanished.
The gasps and screams had stopped simultaneously.
Someone had come in.
Jiang Yue and the other person, who were supposed to hold the line at the doors, hadn't even lasted a few breaths.
Both had been killed.
Zhai Liu was very familiar with the sound of fading life.
To prevent his identity from being exposed, he first hid inside the dead Bai Yuechan's shadow.
Shadow Meld was a peculiar ability; the higher a spirit practitioner's tier, the shorter the time they could hide within a shadow.
A shadow simply couldn't conceal a high-tier spirit practitioner's aura for long.
So Zhai Liu only planned to wait for the others to get close before immediately transferring to someone else's shadow to escape.
If he really couldn't wait, he would just run straight out.
After all, he currently looked like Lin Han. Aside from Du An, no one knew his true identity.
Once hidden, Zhai Liu waited for Wan Chengming or Li Yuan to barge in with a large group of men.
To his surprise, he only heard one person's footsteps.
Even though hiding in a shadow slightly impaired his sight and hearing, Zhai Liu was certain that the one who had entered the doors, killed Jiang Yue, and walked over was completely alone.
"It can't be Li Yuan. That guy never moves without his underlings protecting him. It seems Wan Chengming was the superior fighter after all."
At the thought of Li Yuan's defeat, the corners of Zhai Liu's mouth curled up uncontrollably.
However, as the footsteps drew nearer, Zhai Liu frowned.
"Why are these footsteps so calm? It's as if they aren't worried about the items in the secret room being stolen at all."
Judging by the pace and the weight of the steps, the person approaching was extremely relaxed. It didn't sound like Wan Chengming. Had that bastard Li Yuan won in the end?
Zhai Liu's brain, afflicted by the starving ghost curse, was already starting to calculate how to ambush Li Yuan from the shadows.
If it had been anyone else, he might have been able to suppress the fury in his heart, but this was Li Yuan—his good older brother. There was never a moment he didn't wish for that man to die with rotting guts!
At that moment, the newcomer finally strolled near, turned, and appeared in the doorway.
Zhai Liu, who had been coiled like a leopard ready to pounce, abruptly widened his eyes.
"Why is it Du An?"
It wasn't that he thought Du An shouldn't be here.
It was that he felt Du An shouldn't be here alone.
Even if Wan Chengming had died in battle, the people of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda wouldn't easily let an outsider in!
Yet after Du An entered, he didn't hesitate at all, looking straight at Bai Yuechan's shadow.
"Zhai Liu, you can leave now."
Du An knew Zhai Liu possessed the Shadow Meld ability.
Zhai Liu didn't pretend he wasn't there, stepping directly out of Bai Yuechan's shadow.
"Why are you the one who came over?"
Only after emerging did Zhai Liu notice that Du An's shoulder was slightly deformed; it was likely fractured.
Du An glanced at Bai Yuechan, who was clinging to his last breath. "I came up first to scout the way. Hurry up and go. Resolve your starving ghost problem before you come out again. They will be up soon; don't let anyone see you."
Zhai Liu suspected that Du An was telling him to leave not out of concern for his curse, but because there was something else he needed to do—something he wanted to hide from him.
Zhai Liu hesitated for a split second, but thinking of the starving ghost curse ravaging his body, he nodded.
Nothing was more important than breaking the curse.
Since the doors to the seventh floor were open, the seal was lifted, and the corridor windows were also open, Zhai Liu simply leapt straight out the window.
As he left, he shot a glance toward the main doors.
As far as he could see, no one else had appeared in the doorway or the corridor.
There were also no signs of damage on the door latch.
The moment he vaulted out the window, a question suddenly struck Zhai Liu.
"Jiang Yue, who was guarding the doors, was killed by Du An. But how on earth did Du An open those doors so quickly?"
Watching Zhai Liu leave, Du An finally turned to Bai Yuechan on the floor.
The powerful physique of a 5th Tier Spirit Cultivator allowed him to hang onto his last breath.
But he was merely waiting to die now. In any case, having secured the Core Element, the identity of a 5th Tier Spirit Cultivator was no longer important.
To his surprise, Du An slowly opened his mouth and spoke words that left him utterly shocked.
"It seems Li Ban has logged out successfully."
The dying Chen Dong's eyes, which had been about to flutter shut, snapped wide open.
He stared at Du An, hesitant and astonished. "You know Li Ban's identity? When did you find out?"
Du An thoughtfully crouched down so that Chen Dong wouldn't have to strain his neck to look at him.
"Very early. As early as his first day in the Death Prison, when Cu Miao sent you back to the Laboratory."
Chen Dong's expression changed completely.
His heart, which had almost stopped beating, felt as if it had been injected with a final dose of adrenaline. Spouting blood, it beat frantically, vowing to wring out the last drop of vitality from his body.
"You actually know about the Laboratory... Who... who exactly are you?"
Saying this, Chen Dong suddenly realized the true identity of the man in front of him.
"I see—you are the General."
Deflated, he let out a bitter smile. Though shocked, his mood wasn't terrible.
After all, the Core Element had already been sent out.
It was just... if the General had known Li Ban's identity from the start, why was the Laboratory still able to successfully extract the Core Element today?
Was it because the General had been tied up by the First Prince, Li Yuan?
But why was the General still so calm right now?
A faint sense of unease rose in Chen Dong's heart.
It felt as though something terrible had happened.
Yet he didn't dare think too deeply about it.
Du An rested his chin in his hand, showing a somewhat childish expression.
"You feel very familiar to me. Which experimenter are you?"
Chen Dong suppressed his inner anxiety. He could feel the fire of life inside his body gradually extinguishing.
He was about to return to the lab, and he needed to report this situation to the Director immediately.
He answered casually, "I am Chen Dong. Just a nobody; the General probably wouldn't know me."
Surprisingly, Du An suddenly laughed.
His body trembled slightly. His chin even slipped from his palm, and he simply lowered his head, chuckling darkly.
"Chen Dong? I know you."
"You are not Chen Dong."
Du An suddenly looked up, his eyes bright, his tone absolute.
"Your original name was Gu Yi. You were the first person to enter the Wizard World. Codenamed—General."
"Have you been brainwashed? Do you not even know who you really are anymore?"
Chen Dong wanted to widen his eyes; he wanted to curse at Du An, but no words came out.
The world began to spin, and waves of darkness clouded his vision.
He knew this was his body sending out the signals of death.
"Impossible—" he finally managed to say.
He had to refute that statement first.
"—You... are the General."
Strangely, Du An didn't deny it. "I am."
The unease in Chen Dong's heart intensified.
He kept his mouth open. "You are the General. You are the General who betrayed the Leader... who betrayed the Ring World."
In truth, he didn't produce any sound—only a gurgling rush of air passing through his throat.
Yet Du An understood him. The Ring World—the world he originally hailed from.
It was a term both familiar and foreign.
He continued to nod, not denying Chen Dong's claim. "Yes, I am the General, and I betrayed the Ring World."
Du An saw Chen Dong's gaze beginning to lose focus, but he knew the man could still hear his voice.
So he leaned close to Chen Dong's ear and said in a fast, clear voice, "Therefore, you are me."
"Isn't the Laboratory just a virtual space built from our brain domains?"
Chen Dong's pupils dilated one final time, then scattered.
Bai Yuechan was dead.
Chen Dong had logged out.
Du An pushed off his knees and stood up, moving a bit slower than usual.
He muttered to himself, this time where only he could hear.
"To escape the Ring World's control, I discarded my good personality. The Director made you the supervisor... did he think that only 'I' could find 'me'?"
Du An chuckled softly and shook his head.
"True enough. Last time in the Death Prison, 'I' almost found 'me'."
Looking down at the breathless corpse, the smile on Du An's face slowly faded.
"I gave you a little hint, hoping you wouldn't die in complete ignorance. Still, a world destined for destruction... why even bother struggling on its deathbed?"
He stepped over Bai Yuechan's corpse and looked at Li Ban inside the secret room.
The time limit on the "Invisibility" Plain Ring had expired.
Hurried footsteps echoed from outside.
"Or perhaps... someone can still return?"
Du An hefted the unconscious Li Ban onto his shoulder, turned, and left the room.
He saw Wan Chengming approaching with a few bloodied, injured confidants.
"We still couldn't kill Li Yuan. He's protected by dragon qi; it might be something given to him by the Wizard Lord," Wan Chengming said, frowning.
"Did you catch Yan Jiu?" Du An wasn't surprised; instead, he asked about Yan Jiu, who had fled mid-battle.
"No." Wan Chengming sighed again. "Hah. Two mortal enemies, and we didn't manage to kill either of them."
Du An smiled, comforting the tower master. "It doesn't matter. Someone will naturally deal with Yan Jiu. We just need to keep Li Yuan in our grasp. Tower Master, go quickly and ask the Wizard Lord to uphold justice for us."
"Mhm. I've already sent the request."
One of the anxious confidants couldn't help but interject, "Tower Master, Lord Du, since we couldn't kill Li Yuan and didn't catch Yan Jiu, what if the Contamination Source spreads—"
Du An raised a hand to interrupt him. "That wasn't a Contamination Source."
Everyone froze. Even Wan Chengming asked uncertainly, "Are you sure? If Wizard Lord Wan asks about it..."
"Do you really expect me to make something that even the Priests can't produce? The initial reaction just looked similar to a Contamination Source. Its toxicity could kill a few high-tier spirit practitioners at most, and it has no human-to-human communicability," Du An said calmly. "If the Wizard Lord asks, just push all the blame onto me. Besides, it's about time I went to meet them anyway."
The confidants breathed a long sigh of relief.
In other words, everything before had just been a lie to trick the First Prince!
There was no Contamination Source that would destroy Yu Province.
Furthermore, Du An and Wan Chengming were both perfectly fine staying here.
If it had truly been a Contamination Source, the two of them would have fled ages ago.
Wang Lin, who had followed them up to the seventh floor, didn't crowd around Du An and Wan Chengming.
As soon as he entered the doors, his eyes fell upon Jiang Yue's corpse.
The seven-foot-tall man was gripped by intense grief, tears uncontrollably spilling from his eyes.
He bit his lip and looked up, wanting to find the one who killed Jiang Yue. Even if it was just a corpse, he wanted to hack it twice more.
But when he examined Jiang Yue's body, his jaw dropped in shock.
Her spine had been ripped out.
The one who did this was Du An.
That meant Jiang Yue was still alive before Du An came up here.
Wang Lin stood there blankly, his mind a sludgy mess.
Wan Chengming instructed his subordinates, "Since we can't kill him, escort Li Yuan to the dungeon first. No matter what, we absolutely cannot let him escape."
The crowd nodded. They were now locked in a fight to the death with Li Yuan; they couldn't give him any chance to turn the tables!
Just as he was about to step out of the seventh-floor doors, Du An, carrying the unconscious Li Ban, finally looked back for one last glance at the secret room.
"Take one last look for me, Chen Dong," he thought. "You will understand that my choice was the right one."
When Chen Dong was forcibly logged out, no one came over to help him up.
He opened his eyes, remaining in a daze for a while before he realized he had been forcibly logged out.
He felt terrible. His body felt awful, but his emotional state was even worse.
He clutched his head, curling up into a ball.
He remembered so many things that, for a moment, he didn't dare face reality, only wanting to shut himself away.
But after escaping for only a few seconds, the unshakable sense of duty in his heart forced him to pull himself together.
"Li Ban brought the Core Element back. I don't know... what Du An's motives are, but I must report this to the Director."
He didn't know what to call Du An, ultimately deciding to use his new name in the Wizard World.
Their personalities had already split; neither was the original Gu Yi anymore.
He hurriedly leaned on the supports on both sides of the Experimental Capsule and forced himself to his feet.
The forced logout caused a mental shock, leaving his current state highly unstable.
Climbing out of the Experimental Capsule, Chen Dong staggered and almost fell.
However, he quickly adjusted his balance and walked out of the small laboratory, using the wall for support.
Through the elevator cabin transport, Chen Dong quickly arrived at the twenty-person main laboratory where Li Ban was located.
Inside the main laboratory, almost all the experimenters had climbed out of their Experimental Capsules.
They had all received the mission prompt stating that the Core Element transfer was complete, and without exception, they had chosen to log out.
Presumably, the vast majority of people in the other laboratories had made the same choice.
After all, their bodies were still in this world.
Some of them were excited, some were bewildered, and others were melancholic.
Yet Li Ban was nowhere to be seen among them.
"Where is Li Ban?" Chen Dong asked, puffing out his chest as he walked in.
All the experimenters here were under Chen Dong's charge. They all knew him and genuinely liked the mild-tempered senior assistant.
"As soon as Li Ban came out, he was called away by the Director," a rather steady middle-aged man stood up and said.
"Hah, I heard he got the Core Element. The Director took him and the Core Element away already," another, more energetic youth added.
Jiang Yue, who had logged out a step ahead, frowned. Feeling somewhat desolate, she asked, "Assistant Chen, are all our missions... complete? Does this mean we won't have to go to the Wizard World anymore?"
At her words, the somewhat noisy main laboratory fell quiet.
Everyone looked at Chen Dong.
Chen Dong offered a gentle smile. "The mission is complete, but whether there will be new missions in the future or other situations requiring us to enter the Wizard World will depend on the Director's notice. For now, though, you guys can start thinking about how to spend your upcoming vacation."
After speaking, Chen Dong left the main laboratory.
After a moment of calm, cheers suddenly erupted.
However, a few people remained expressionless or even seemed a bit sad.
Qin You was one of the unhappy ones.
He walked over to his old acquaintance, Jiang Yue, and forced a smile. "Looks like I'll never see my eight wives again. What about you? Will you miss your Tower Master Wan?"
Jiang Yue sighed. "My feelings for Wan Chengming were faked."
She said it out loud, but only she knew what she truly felt in her heart.
Both of them had spent a long time in the Wizard World.
For them, the Wizard World was also a part of their lives.
==
Chen Dong couldn't find Li Ban, nor could he find the Director.
He stood inside the elevator cabin, at a loss as to which laboratory he should go to next.
Suddenly, he tapped his head.
"I'm so stupid. Since the Director has already gotten the Core Element, he must have gone out."
"I should... go out too."
He turned around, faced the wall of the elevator cabin, and raised his hand to knock on it.
A crackle of static echoed, followed by a stiff, synthesized voice.
[Please input command.]
"I am... the General, and I want to log out."
[Command verified. Logging out immediately!]