The Wizard's Secret Journey

Chapter 258 Respectful Greetings (4k)

Lynn's pupils suddenly contracted, and a chill ran down his spine and spread to his limbs and bones.

This was clearly the annihilation gray spot he had seen before!
"Damn it!"

Lynn didn't hesitate for a second before activating the Black Moon Enforcement Order, attempting to teleport to an even higher altitude!
The light from the law enforcement device flashed, but then suddenly went out, sending Lynn a message that it could not be transmitted!

'This gray wind can actually isolate space?!'
'How could this be? The gray spots I encountered before didn't... Could it be because there are so many gray spots now that they've coalesced into a gray wind?'

Lynn was startled, but his instincts reacted faster than his thoughts.

The next moment, the runes of invisibility shone brightly in his mental sea, and Lynn's figure plummeted downwards at such a speed that it left a blurry afterimage in his place.

Above, the wind, composed of countless gray specks, descended silently, its speed slow but carrying a despairing sense of oppression. Wherever it passed, even the deathly silence permeating the ruins seemed to be swallowed up.

Swish!
Just then, a dark shadow suddenly attacked Lynn; it was the pitch-black, rotting monster.

The monstrous creature did not retreat at the appearance of the gray wind; instead, it seemed to be provoked by Lynn's rapid movement, letting out a muffled roar. Its massive body suddenly turned, charging with a savage momentum to intercept Lynn's descent.

However, as Lynn plummeted, he remained vigilant about the movements of the dark, rotten monster below. At this moment, his expression darkened, and just as he was about to collide head-on with the monster, he activated the Traceless Rune with all his might, causing his body to deflect at an extremely tricky angle in mid-air, narrowly missing the monster.

However, the rotten monster immediately changed direction and relentlessly pursued them.

Lynn cursed inwardly. This rotten monster's aggressiveness and alertness far surpassed any he had encountered before, and it had become a deadly obstacle. He glanced upwards out of the corner of his eye; the gray wind above him had descended further, now less than a hundred meters from where he had been hovering!
'This can't go on.' Lynn's expression hardened, and he activated the Black Moon Enforcement Order once more!
This time, however, he did not use the teleportation ability of the Black Moon Enforcement Order, but instead planned to use imprisonment on the pitch-black rotten monster!

However, just before Lynn activated the Black Moon Enforcement Order to imprison its power, the pitch-black, rotting monster suddenly stopped all its movements and simultaneously sent Lynn a rather familiar message:

"Good evening, esteemed Black Moon Enforcer!"

Lynn was taken aback, but the Black Moon Enforcement Order had already taken effect, and the dark, rotten monster was immediately imprisoned in the narrow space.

In this critical moment, Lynn didn't care about anything else; he looked up at Graywind.

The overwhelming gray death ghoul continued to descend. Initially, it was three or four hundred meters above the ground, but in a short time, it had already dropped to a position of one hundred and fifty meters.

Lynn felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on his heart. He looked down at the ruins below, and all he could see were broken walls and rubble.

These ancient buildings had long since decayed under the erosion of time, but even if they were all intact, Lynn did not think they could withstand the terrifying gray winds above.

If he had continued, he would most likely have only extended his life by a negligible few dozen seconds.

Lynn's eyes flashed, his mind racing faster than ever before! Finally, he raised his head and released the black, rotten monster from its restraints.

This rotten monster was unlike any he had ever encountered before; it was not only more powerful and intelligent, but it also responded to the Black Moon Enforcement Order.

The information emanating from the dark, decaying creature easily revealed that it was a puppet creation of the Black Moon Academy—Lynn had already deduced this from the Black Moon runes within them. However, Lynn couldn't rule out the possibility that these decaying creatures were accidental creations. Only now, with the dark, decaying creature sending a respectful greeting, did Lynn realize that the decaying creature, or rather, the dark, decaying creature before him, was something akin to a Black Moon relic.

The Silver Ring Academy stated in the mission that these rotten monsters and strange dangers like the Gray Spots were caused by the Gray-White Catastrophe.

Since the Rotten Monster is a creation of the Black Moon, then the Otherworldly Spirit is also a creation of the Black Moon. It can even be inferred that the Gray Spot may also be a creation of the Black Moon.

Of course, there is a strong connection between the Rotten Monster and the Otherworldly Spirits, while Gray Spot does not have such a strong connection with either of them. But even if Gray Spot is not a creation of the Black Moon, at least Lynn can learn about the surrounding situation through the Black Rotten Monster, which is a creation of the Black Moon, and find out... whether there is a place here that can resist the existence of Gray Wind.

Thoughts can only last a moment. In reality, after freeing the dark, rotten monster from its restraints, Lynn immediately gave the order:

"Take me to the nearest safe place, where I can withstand the gray winds from above!"

Lynn wasn't sure if the Black Rotten Monster understood his command, but it did move. It flew downwards, and as it passed Lynn, it gave a respectful salute. The Black Rotten Monster, with its humanoid body, made this gesture remarkably lifelike; the only flaw was that its eyes remained cold and unwavering.

Lynn had no choice but to trust it at this moment. The gray wind covered a vast area, almost without end, so he could only flee downwards and follow the black, rotten monster.

The pitch-black, rotten monster flew very fast, descending a hundred meters in the blink of an eye and landing on the ground.

Lynn stared at its retreating figure with hopeful eyes.

But the dark, decaying monster soon came to a slow stop beside a collapsed stone pillar, and made no further moves.

Lynn flew closer and closer, the gray wind overhead getting ever stronger, giving him no time to even feel fear.

His breathing became heavy, and each heartbeat felt like it was hitting his ribs.

Lynn stared intently at the black, decaying monster that had stopped moving, then followed its gaze to the massive, collapsed stone pillar in front of him.

Is this a safe place?

Judging from the size and craftsmanship of the stone pillars, this must have once been a magnificent building. But now, eroded by time, it is nothing but a gray ruin.

Most of the buildings in the Greywood Ruins look like this; not only are they decayed and collapsed on the outside, but the items inside have also mostly turned into worthless dust and debris.

It is said that only in that core area, which is always shrouded in thick fog, are there a large number of well-preserved buildings and artifacts.

Without a second thought, Lynn practically rushed to the stone pillar, observing it intently.

This stone pillar is incredibly thick, with jagged fractures and a thick layer of ash covering its surface, making it indistinguishable from the countless collapsed building ruins around it.

In the face of life and death, Lynn's perception was pushed to its limit, and he pushed his secondary reality vision to its extreme.

He strained to scan the broken section of the stone pillar, and then to everything around it.

There was no obvious portal, no energy fluctuations, nothing at all!

Cold sweat beaded on Lynn's forehead. The gray wind descended another several dozen meters, now officially entering the low-altitude zone of eighty meters. It blocked out all sound, making the world incredibly quiet, suffocating as if one were drowning.

Lynn took several deep breaths, gripped the Black Moon Enforcement Token, and once again commanded the dark, decaying monster: "Open the entrance to the safe zone!"

The dark, rotten monster froze for a few seconds, then shook its head.

Lynn didn't know what it meant by the shaking of its head. Did it mean that the safe place was destroyed and there was no longer a portal, so the entrance could not be opened? Or did it mean that the safe place existed, but it could not open the entrance?

But the dark, decaying monster's actions were not finished. After shaking its head, it took another step forward, bent down, and moved the huge stone pillar aside, revealing the ruins below.

Lynn realized what was happening and immediately bent down to dig downwards with the black, decaying monster that had thrown down the stone pillar!
A moment later, Lynn felt a cold, hard touch on his fingertips. It wasn't soil, but some kind of polished stone slab with strange patterns!

The dark, decaying monster stopped digging. Lynn instinctively gathered a lightning blade and struck the cold stone slab surface. Boom!
The lightning blade, capable of piercing through gold and splitting stone, struck the surface of the stone slab but achieved no result. This, in turn, highlighted the extraordinary nature of the stone slab.

Lynn quickly realized what was happening and pulled out the Black Moon Enforcement Token.

The stone slab did not react at all, even after Lynn affixed the enforcement order to it.

Lynn took a deep breath and tilted her head back.

During this time, the gray wind overhead dropped dozens of meters, to less than 20 meters from the ground, and the air seemed to become thick and heavy.

Lynn could even feel a slight stinging sensation on his skin, a harbinger of the terrifying power emanating from the annihilating gray spots.

“There’s no time!” A resolute glint flashed in Lynn’s eyes. He took a deep breath and activated the active sensing of his Black Moon Spirit Body.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Lynn has not activated the active state of the Black Moon Spirit Body since arriving at the Gray Forest Ruins.

But at this moment, no trouble is trouble anymore.

hum-

After a certain adjustment deep within his soul was completed, Lynn looked at the stone slab again and immediately felt something was different.

Under the active sensing of the Black Moon Spirit Body, the patterns concealed by ash revealed an extremely faint, almost seamless, dark glow. These were not the magical array circuits commonly found in the Gunn wizarding system, but rather… twisted, complex runes with an indescribable rhythm!

'This is... the Black Moon Rune!' Lynn was shocked.

The runes on the stone slab were extremely complex, dozens of times more complex than the most complex Black Moon runes Lynn had ever seen!
He couldn't understand it at all.

But that doesn't matter, because the stone slab also sent that familiar greeting to Lynn—

"Good evening, Your Excellency Black Moon Holy Son!"

"I command you to open the portal!" Lynn said in a deep voice in his mind.

"As you wish."

hum-

Suddenly, a small orange-yellow "spark" lit up in the center of the stone slab. At that moment, the stone slab was like a piece of paper, and the spark quickly burned a regular, circular hole, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Below the hole was not soil, but a bottomless darkness, from which a stream of air carrying dust and a musty smell emerged.

Without the slightest hesitation, and without even having time to check if it was safe below, Lynn leaped into the silvery hole the instant the gray wind was only thirty meters above his head!
The instant his figure disappeared, the dark, rotten monster also transformed into a shadow and followed closely behind, disappearing into it.

"Shut down the portal!"

"Yes, Your Excellency, Holy Son."

hum!
A flash of orange-yellow light appeared, and the runes on the stone slab quickly dimmed and subsided. The hole closed instantly, as if it had never existed, sealing itself perfectly. Only the ashes and rubble pried up at the base of the stone pillar proved that what had just happened was not an illusion.

Almost at the same moment, the gray wind, composed of countless annihilated gray spots, silently descended, covering the stone pillars, the ruins, and the spot where Lynn had just stood.

There was no earth-shattering sound, only a chilling silence. Everything swept by the gray wind, whether decaying buildings or hard rocks, was as if erased by an invisible eraser, its surface instantly covered with fine holes, then silently turned into the finest dust, merging into the wind and becoming part of it.

On the ground, only a completely "sweeped" and despair-suppressed gray-white expanse remained.

……

"How's the situation?"

In the space, which was entirely silver-white, like liquid silver, a cold, middle-aged male voice suddenly rang out.

“Reporting to Lord Silver Ring, the Annihilation Gray Wind is still ongoing,” a blond man wearing a third-tier platinum badge respectfully replied. “However, according to observations, the gray wind is merely clinging to the surface and is not eroding downwards. If those wizards are clever, they should have a chance to survive.”

When do you think the gray winds will stop?

The blond man hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "...I don't know, Your Excellency."

Silence fell over the silvery-white space.

After a long silence, the Silver Ring Wizard finally said slowly, "This time, I misjudged."

The blond wizard remained silent and made no comment.

The devastation of the Gray Forest ruins he had just seen flashed through his mind, and he sighed softly.

The Silver Ring Wizard continued speaking to himself:
"Those strange spirits and rotten monsters are indeed creations of the Black Moon Academy and the gray-white calamity tide. But those gray spots are not creations of the Black Moon Academy."

"It's more like... some kind of calamity, or some kind of mechanism, activated by that gray-white disaster tide."

"The mechanism—" The blond wizard paused, puzzled, "Does Lord Silver Ring mean..."

The Silver Ring Wizard, however, had no interest in explaining. A shadow crossed his eyes, and he changed the subject, asking:

"I heard there's been a big fight going on in Silver Ring City recently?"

"That's right, Stephens and Bradley had some conflict, but it's all resolved now."

"I remember Bradley was only a second-tier wizard. How could he have clashed with Stephens, a third-tier wizard?" the Silver Ring Wizard asked in confusion.

"It seems that Bradley offended Stephens over some academic matters, but it has all been resolved now. Stephens has forgiven Bradley."

"I understand." The Silver Ring Wizard nodded calmly.

He simply took a step forward, and the scenery around him changed rapidly. The next second, he was above the Gray Forest Ruins.

The Silver Ring Wizard's indifferent eyes reflected the gray forest ruins below, completely covered by gray winds, and he seemed lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)