secret dice.

Chapter 796 Mysterious Voice

The suddenly appearing high-level monster, although its level cannot be seen, judging from its health points, even considering the racial and size bonuses, this thing is at least level 50 or higher!

With its powerful attributes and the added advantage of its level, Luo Jun might be alright against this monster's attacks, but Mu Lan Shi would definitely not be able to withstand it!

"Sister Mu, step back, I'll handle it!"

Luo Jun blocked Mu Lanshi behind him, swung his fist, and was about to rush forward when suddenly he saw a sharp arrow fly past his ear. It was covered with a ball of white light and drew a strange arc as it shot straight toward the giant scorpion!
The giant scorpion noticed the arrow and raised its giant pincers to try to knock it down. However, the arrow seemed to have a life of its own, deftly bypassing the hard shell and accurately shooting into the giant scorpion's mouth!
That wasn't all. Under the influence of the manipulation force, the arrow darted around in the soft tissue inside the giant scorpion's body. Although monsters in the [game] world don't have the same life-threatening consequences when vital organs are damaged as they do in reality, the arrow's constant movement still caused continuous damage!

Luo Jun watched helplessly as the giant scorpion struggled in agony, its health bar slowly but steadily decreasing.

"Sister Mu is amazing!" Luo Jun turned to look at Mu Lanshi, only to find that the blue bar above her head was also decreasing.

A skill that allows continuous casting... and judging by the rate at which her mana bar is decreasing, she'll probably run out of mana before she even kills the giant scorpion!
However, just when the giant scorpion's health was down to nearly a third and Mulan Shi's mana was almost depleted, she suddenly widened her eyes, and at the same time Luo Jun noticed that a huge wave of light elemental energy burst out from the giant scorpion's body!
The giant scorpion's body twitched, and beams of white light suddenly emanated from the gaps in its joints and carapace. After trembling for a second, it went limp. Looking at the blood level above its head, it was empty, and its corpse instantly turned into pieces and materials scattered on the ground.

Clearly, Mulanshi detonated the orb of light attached to the arrow in the end. However, the light magic she was proficient in could switch between healing and damage, meaning that a single effect wouldn't be very strong. So how did she manage to wipe out the giant scorpion's remaining nearly 5,000 health points in one go?

“I didn’t expect it to be this hard to kill…” Mu Lanshi gritted her teeth: “The monsters on this floor are really powerful!” As she spoke, she took out a bottle of blue magic potion and poured it down her throat. Her blue bar immediately recovered to about a third.

This magic potion restores mana proportionally, restoring 30% of your mana upon consumption, with a maximum of 1,000 points. It's more expensive than regular mana potions with a fixed value, but because the maximum value is lower, it's still affordable. Mulan bought several extra bottles to keep on hand before leaving.

"Sister Mu, what's with that move? It's so powerful!" Luo Jun exclaimed as he tidied up the materials.

“My Exploding Light Orb can scatter hundreds of light swords. It’s generally used in open areas to deal with large numbers of weak monsters. Exploding from within the body maximizes the power of this move and deals massive damage!” Mulan Shi gasped for breath. “However, the effect of level suppression is too obvious. I was shocked by its damage resistance as soon as I started using it. After calculation, the Exploding Light Orb can only deal about five thousand points of damage, so to be on the safe side, I had to use up all my magic to reduce its health.”

“We really can’t stay on this floor any longer. You should come down with me quickly.” Mu Lanshi pulled Luo Jun and started walking back.

Luo Jun hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Okay."

The two arrived at the platform at the entrance. Mulan Shi consumed one hundred points of magic, and a moment later, the two returned to the tombstone on the forty-ninth floor.

Although you can only teleport from the first-floor tombstone to the entrance of the forty-ninth floor, and cannot directly reach the tombstone itself, since it's a floor you've already cleared, you can return directly to the first-floor tombstone from the forty-ninth floor tombstone.

This can be considered a perk for players who escape from the Tower of Babel.

"Are you ready?" Luo Jun placed his hand on the tombstone and slowly infused it with magic. Immediately, a magical halo appeared around Mu Lanshi. A moment later, the scene before her eyes changed from a swampy jungle to a blue sky, white clouds, and green grassland.

"Phew... finally back." Mu Lanshi breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to ask, "Luo Jun, what's next... eh?"

To her surprise, Mulan Shi found that there was no one behind her; she was the only one standing beside the Goblin King's tombstone...

"He didn't come down?" Mu Lanshi was taken aback. Just then, another light shone on the tombstone.

"Looks like there's a bug, there's a delay..." Mu Lanshi breathed a sigh of relief, but after the light circle disappeared, a small team appeared instead...

"Hey? It's you!" Coincidentally, this was the same team that had led the way for them before. The sword and shield warrior in the lead smiled shyly at Mulan Shi: "What a coincidence, we run into each other again after finishing the mission. Where's your companion?"

Mulan Shi froze, turning to look at the cold tombstone: "He... stayed on it..."

"Huh? Dead?" The sword and shield warrior was very surprised. The mage next to him said regretfully, "I told you not to challenge such high levels. See, something went wrong..."

“No…no…” Mu Lanshi shook her head. She had no mood to explain to anyone else. She turned and placed her hand on the tombstone: “I have to go back!”

However, when she tried to activate the tombstone to return to the forty-ninth floor, she was told that she did not have enough magic power.

That's right, to return directly to the forty-ninth floor, you need 4,800 points of magic power, but Mulan Shi only has about 1,000 right now...

Mulan gritted her teeth and took out another magic potion: "There are four more bottles. Climbing ten floors at a time, that should be enough..."

But before she could drink the medicine, a voice called out to her.

"Miss Mu? Is that you?"

Mu Lanshi was slightly taken aback. She turned her head and saw five people walking towards her. The leader was a tall middle-aged man, Shi Lei!

"Mr. Shi?" After being in the [game] world for so many days, she finally met an acquaintance!

"So the person the receptionist was talking about, the one who's been looking for us, is you?" Duan Feilan, standing behind Shi Lei, leaned in and smiled.

Clearly, the three Zhendan players knew Mulan Shi, while Thomas and Ying were not very familiar with her. After being introduced to each other, they learned that she was a Class A official from the Zhendan Yuanxiu Association headquarters.

"Aren't you an office worker? How come you've come here to be an explorer?" Mu Ning asked.

"It's a long story..." Mu Lanshi said, "It seems that one of the people who was with me stayed on the fiftieth floor!"

"Yes, I heard there are two people looking for us." Duan Feilan asked curiously, "Who's the other one?"

"He is Luo Jun!" Mu Lanshi said Luo Jun's name, but everyone else looked confused.

"Who is that?"

"You don't know him?" Mu Lanshi was taken aback for a moment, then realized, "That's right, you were already in this world during the Tianyuan Tournament... He was the champion of this Tianyuan Tournament!" "The champion of the Tianyuan Tournament?" The group was all surprised to hear this. Shi Lei said, "I heard that Ling Yao also participated in this Tianyuan Tournament, right? The champion wasn't him?"

"It's a bit complicated..." Mu Lanshi shook her head: "Ling Yao broke through to the Feather Transformation Realm in the semi-finals, but withdrew from the finals to consolidate his realm..."

"What?!" Upon hearing this, the others were even more astonished: "Ling Yao actually broke through? How old is he? Not even thirty yet, right? To ascend to immortality at such a young age, I dare not say it will be the last time, but it is absolutely unprecedented!"

"Back then, his father, Ling Jue, was considered to be the youngest to ascend to immortality, but unfortunately, fate was cruel to him... Even before Ling Jue's accident, he was already older than Ling Yao is now."

"This is truly amazing talent! His future is limitless!"

After a few sighs, everyone remembered the real champion: "This young man named Luo Jun, even if he is not as good as Ling Yao, is definitely a top-level player to have made it to the finals!"

"Well... let's confirm when we see him!" Mu Lanshi pointed to the tombstone: "It's very dangerous for him up there. I don't have enough mana to teleport up directly!"

"Let me do it." Shi Lei stepped forward. He was already a peak expert, and his level had now exceeded seventy. With the addition of skills and talents, his magic value exceeded 30,000, making him one of the top experts among S-rank mercenaries!
He walked to the tombstone, reached out and touched it. The blue bar above his head instantly diminished slightly, and then everyone present was surrounded by glowing halos. A moment later, they arrived at the entrance to the forty-ninth floor.

"Let's go to the Crocodile King's tombstone!"

…………

Meanwhile, Luo Jun, on the fiftieth floor, had already arrived at the abandoned ancient city.

Without Mulan Shi's burden, he directly activated Void Moon Stepping. When his figure swept across the desert, the monsters lurking beneath the sand didn't even have time to react. It wasn't until Luo Jun stood in front of the palace that a rumbling tremor came from the ground.

Then the ground beneath his feet rose high, and the surrounding ruins collapsed one after another. A huge, round mouth full of sharp teeth appeared under Luo Jun's feet, as if a swimming pool had grown out of thin air from the sand!

Luo Jun snorted coldly, his toes touching the ground as he leaped high into the air, and the huge mouth also rose from the ground, like a giant pillar supporting the sky, chasing after Luo Jun!

"The legendary death worm?"

Luo Jun chuckled, then somersaulted in mid-air, head down and feet up, and with a powerful push, he plummeted downwards at an incredible speed, crashing directly into the mouth of the death worm. A sound of flesh being torn apart filled the air, and almost instantly, the giant worm was skewered like a candied hawthorn, its health bar reduced to zero, and its enormous corpse lay on the sand, turning into materials and body parts.

With 220,000 HP, it should be a high-level elite monster... Luo Jun collected the dropped materials and turned to look at the huge palace.

The battle that had just taken place altered the terrain of the ancient city, but it had no effect on the palace whatsoever. The call that Luo Jun heard came from deep within the palace.

“Standing here and listening, it’s getting clearer and clearer…” Luo Jun frowned: “Who is it, what is it that is calling me?”

Luo Jun stepped into the palace.

Unlike the severely weathered ancient city outside, the palace interior, although also showing signs of age, is remarkably well-preserved, with brightly colored murals on the walls and statues of ancient warriors standing on both sides of the spacious corridors.

Luo Jun walked through the corridor and came to a two-story-high door. He raised his hands and gently pushed it. The stone door, which had been sealed for countless years, slowly opened with a heavy scraping sound.

Inside was a spacious circular hall, at the very center of which sat a colossal statue of a goddess draped in a long robe. Surrounding her were twelve giant stone statues of varying forms. On the floor in the center of the hall was a massive magic circle, surrounded by a ring of braziers. At the very center was a high platform with a rectangular altar on it. Beside the altar were two human-shaped statues: the one on the left held a curved dagger in its hands, while the one on the right held a small axe…

The feeling is that if someone were lying on that rectangular table, these two statues would be performing surgery on that person... or rather, performing some kind of ancient, evil ritual!

"Is this a palace or an altar?"

As Luo Jun was wondering, the door behind him suddenly slammed shut, and then the braziers around the altar lit up, and the eyes of the huge dog-headed human-bodied statue at the very back also lit up with a red light.

"Lie down!"

A voice entered Luo Jun's mind, the same as before, but in a different language, yet he could clearly understand its meaning.

Luo Jun frowned, stared at the huge monster for a while, then smiled slightly and surprisingly walked to the high platform in the center of the altar and lay down on the altar.

"Very good!" The huge statue's eyes lit up again, and then the two stone statues beside the table suddenly moved, their weapons thrusting down at Luo Jun who was lying down!
…………

At the same time, the entrance to the fiftieth floor lit up, and soon, Shi Lei, Mu Lanshi, and others appeared.

"Luo Jun is not here!" Mu Lanshi said anxiously, climbing out of the sandpit and looking towards the ancient city in the distance. "He must have gone that way!"

"That's presumably where the boss of this floor is located, so we haven't dared to go near it easily," Shi Lei said. "Does this kid really have that much guts?"

"I'm afraid he's just ignorant and arrogant," Thomas scoffed.

"How strong is this level of BOSS?" Mu Lanshi had experienced the giant scorpion at the entrance. If even the small monsters were so powerful, one could imagine how strong the leader must be.

“We’ve encountered the Crocodile King on the 49th floor, and it undoubtedly possesses the combat power of the Ascension level,” Shi Lei said. “According to the official strategy team, the monsters on every tenth floor are much stronger than those on ordinary floors, so this boss on the 50th floor must be a strong Ascension level monster. Even the Ice Queen probably wouldn’t be confident of defeating it, so we are strictly forbidden from approaching!”

"Wouldn't Luo Jun be in even more danger?" Mu Lanshi said worriedly. "He is an important talent in the association. I can't let him die here like this."

“But…” Shi Lei hesitated. At this moment, Mu Ning suddenly pointed to the ancient city in the distance and said, “There… there are sounds of fighting.”

Shi Lei glanced at it and said, "Let's go take a look! Prepare the escape scroll. If anything seems amiss, we'll retreat immediately!"

(End of this chapter)