There were two passageways behind the blonde leader.
One was narrow, less than two meters wide.
The other was wider, about three meters across.
The floor of the three-meter passage bore rutted wheel tracks left behind over years of use.
'They must transport supplies through here frequently. The large cargo probably goes down this way.'
Yet Li Ban still chose the smaller tunnel.
He figured the most valuable items certainly wouldn't be kept in a massive warehouse.
Shortly after entering the tunnel, however, his path was blocked by a security door that had clearly been scavenged from elsewhere.
He could easily use the Rending Technique to shatter the lock core.
If he forced it open right in front of them, Li Ban wasn't sure if his current mastery of the "World Without Me" spell would be enough to keep him completely unnoticed.
'Should I just kill them?'
But attacking someone would break his spell.
He was less than two meters away from the tunnel entrance; anyone in the main hall might see him.
Alternatively, he could just slaughter everyone out there.
But the spiritual rhinoceros that would consume far exceeded what he was currently using to maintain "World Without Me."
Was it worth it?
Given that waste element wasn't exactly easy to come by, he couldn't afford to act so recklessly.
Just as Li Ban weighed his options, movement echoed from the hall. The crowd dispersed.
The blonde leader, accompanied by a frail, gaunt man, headed straight for Li Ban's tunnel.
Li Ban glanced back and quickly stepped aside, clearing the way so the two men wouldn't bump into him.
'Ah, what a shame. To do what Xiao Suo does—making people subconsciously step aside while remaining completely ignored by them—requires far more complex control over one's mental intent. A perfectly good "World Without Me" has just been reduced to basic Invisibility.'
It couldn't be helped. Li Ban wasn't a true Star Glow Priest yet; only his mental strength met the standard.
But as for what they meant by cultivating the heart and "parting clouds to see the stars," he still hadn't a clue where to begin.
Pressed against the wall, Li Ban watched the two men carefully unlock the heavy door and step inside.
The moment the second man crossed the threshold, he shut the door behind him.
They didn't leave even a sliver of opportunity for anyone to follow.
But Li Ban got in anyway.
He had slipped through the narrowing gap above the second man's head just as he entered.
Past this door, there were no further lines of defense.
It was just a bandit den, after all, not a regular military base.
Li Ban didn't bother waiting for them and simply forged ahead on his own.
After a dozen meters, the narrow passage suddenly opened up.
But what appeared before him was a series of bizarrely designed cages.
Carved into the massive cavern were over a dozen cells.
There were large enclosures formed by iron bars set into the rock; smaller, freestanding iron cages; and coffin-like iron boxes sealed on all sides save for a tiny viewing window in the front, from which muffled thumping sounds echoed, leaving whatever was inside a total mystery.
Several of these cages held a monster.
Their limbs were bound in iron chains, and their various gaping mouths were gagged with hay and stones.
Some were still struggling, while others looked completely dead.
Li Ban even peeked through the small window of an iron box and spotted the same kind of hand-monster they had just slaughtered over a dozen of.
Every single one of the monster's massive fingers was balled up and tightly bound with ropes and chains.
The exposed palm was pierced through with a thick spike, leaving the creature suspended in midair.
'Keeping monsters in a cavern this big? Are they researching something?'
There was another exit on the side of the cavern. Li Ban walked a few steps over and found a heavily locked iron door at the end.
Peering out through the observation hole, he saw two more guards stationed on the other side, though this seemed to lead back outside the mountain—a secondary exit.
Li Ban doubled back and found the blonde leader and the gaunt man standing in front of one of the cells.
The monster inside had six arthropod-like limbs.
Its massive, mantis-like scythe forearms were bound and hoisted midair.
It had four agile insectoid legs bristling with sensory hairs—the lower halves were clearly insect, while the upper halves gradually transitioned into human thighs.
Its torso was structurally human, though the proportions were unnervingly elongated.
And at the top, right where a head should be, sat a sweeping, umbrella-shaped insectoid mandible.
The blonde leader wore a grave expression. "This is the second bug-man we've caught. You know how many resources it takes to capture one of these things. I expect this transplant to succeed."
The gaunt man looked particularly frail next to the leader, but he wasn't cowed by the man's imposing presence. He replied calmly, "Never expect a highly complex experiment to succeed on its second trial."
The blonde leader narrowed his eyes.
The gaunt man continued, "However, to maximize the success rate, I suggest we use someone with immense willpower this time."
"How many bandits have strong willpower? Most of them are petty thieves who wouldn't even let an empty Tricycle pass unrobbed."
Recalling their earlier conversation in the hall, the gaunt man couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. "It really is tough on you, a Priest, having to endure such subordinates."
Li Ban, hiding in the corner, widened his eyes slightly. This blonde leader was actually a Priest too?
"That is all in the past. Bringing it up now is meaningless." The blonde leader clearly didn't want to discuss his history and urged, "I'll find a way to capture a few—"
He paused. "No, actually, we have an excellent test subject right now. Do you remember that woman, Zhu Yao?"
"I remember. A very famous woman. She made it halfway through the Northern Continent Rift. A shame she was crippled in the end, though."
"Making it halfway isn't a shame; making it to ninety-nine percent is." The blonde leader lowered his gaze. "Unless you're a Great Wizard, you can't reach the rift. Even Solar Priests have fallen on that final stretch of the path. As for Divine Offspring Priests, they can't even enter the Recycling Station before those Great Wizards carve them—"
Mid-sentence, the blonde leader abruptly shut his mouth.
Li Ban was so startled he nearly broke his concealment. He hastily steadied his mind.
Beside the leader, the gaunt man was clearly hearing this for the first time as well. He looked shocked. "Carve what? Carve them up? Or—"
"Don't ask questions about things that don't concern you," the blonde leader snapped, refusing to say another word.
"Claude, just what Tier of Priest are you?"
"I'm not a high-Tier Priest. I just stumbled upon a few secrets." The blonde leader pointed at the cage. "All you need to know is that Priests in the Recycling Station cannot leave. If we want out, we have to use other methods. Once I bring you Zhu Yao's head, you will perform the head transplant surgery as quickly as possible."
A head transplant surgery?
Was this blonde Claude planning to graft a human head onto a monster's body?
Wouldn't that just turn the person into a monster?
Li Ban had never imagined that a gang of bandits would be conducting human experiments like this.
Zhu Yao had already told him that anyone here who ate human flesh would turn into a monster.
And monsters were originally human. Aside from the bodies that had merged with insects, eating any other part of them would also trigger the mutation.
Supposedly, there was once a powerful camp leader who, out of nostalgia for his old life, liked to turn his dark rye and other plants into noodle soup.
But one day, someone spiked his soup with a certain "ingredient." That camp leader immediately mutated into a monster and slaughtered nearly everyone in his camp.
After that, no one dared to get creative with their meals. Everyone obediently stuck to making wheat flatbread.
The wheat flatbread was made by grinding the grain and pressing it tight. If any other materials were mixed in, the color wouldn't be purely black, making it extremely easy to spot.
If eating even a tiny morsel of human flesh could turn a powerful camp leader into a monster, grafting an entire human head onto one was infinitely worse.
At any rate, Li Ban didn't believe for a second that Claude's insane plan could succeed.
Originally, Li Ban had only come here to steal some valuables.
But looking at it now, if he didn't deal with these lunatics immediately, they were going to come for Zhu Yao.
That was absolutely unacceptable!
Zhu Yao was his current teammate and a crucial part of his plan to leave the Recycling Station.
'Whatever,' Li Ban thought, staring at the two men as his mental intent rapidly shifted. 'I have to spend this bit of spiritual rhinoceros anyway. Besides, since this Claude is a Priest too, he's bound to have plenty of good loot on him.'
Terror Spell!
Boom!!!!!
A soundless hum erupted. Claude and the gaunt man collapsed to the ground simultaneously.
The gaunt man instantly bled from all seven orifices. His eyeballs ruptured, and brain matter, mixed with fragments of his eyes, oozed from his sockets.
A Terror Spell unleashed by Li Ban at full power was naturally devastating.
Claude, however, was still alive.
After hitting the floor, he miraculously still had the strength to resist the Terror Spell and was slowly pushing his upper body up.
"A Terror Spell? Which Lord Priest is this?"
Half-propped up, Claude cried out in a mix of panic and deep reverence, hoping Li Ban would show mercy.
"I have Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit and vital intelligence! Please, my lord, spare my life!"
But in the very next second, Li Ban's Rending Technique descended upon Claude's head.
Claude barely managed to conjure a protective barrier around his skull.
Instantly, a white fruit appeared in his hand—the Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit he had just mentioned.
"My lord! My lord, whatever you need, just tell me! I will offer it all up to you without the slightest defiance!"
Yet Li Ban remained hidden.
Standing in the corner of the cavern, he simply intensified the Rending Technique bearing down on Claude's head.
Feeling his barrier cracking bit by bit, Claude finally realized that this powerful, hidden Priest had no intention of answering him or revealing himself.
With his only countermeasure proving useless, Claude resorted to shouting.
"My lord, I am backed by a powerful Solar Priest! If you kill me for no reason, he will—"
Claude didn't get to finish his threat.
Li Ban's Rending Technique split his head open like a watermelon.
The corpse became one of the dead.
Claude's limbs were still twitching on instinct.
The hand holding the white Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit high in the air still seemed to be begging Li Ban for mercy.
But it was nothing more than the unconscious reflex of a corpse now.
The "World Without Me" spell finally lost its effect, and Li Ban's figure materialized in the cavern.
He walked slowly over to Claude's body and took the Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit from the upraised hand.