This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 322 Retrieving Ghost Information

Nie Weiyang? Father?

If this were said on Earth, some people would probably find it absurd—Nie Weiyang is simply too young; he has only graduated from university less than a year ago.

But here, Russell just smiled and nudged Bai Yu's shoulder with his own.

“Don’t overthink it,” he said. “The eldest is clearly someone who’s used to taking responsibility for others, even if he doesn’t say it himself. While it does seem a bit like that, according to you, wouldn’t he have been a father a hundred and eighty times already? Oh, not that few…”

“By the way,” he rolled his eyes, “I consider myself on par with the eldest brother. If you think he's like your father, shouldn’t you call me—”

Bai Yu reacted quickly and stuffed a pancake into Russell's mouth.

"Shut up!" he gritted his teeth, then jumped back onto the acacia tree and hung upside down, lost in thought.

A few hours later, the heavy darkness gradually dissipated, and the sky began to lighten.

Nie Weiyang returned with a chill in his body. He shook his coat, brushed off the bloodstains, and said to August, "We have to leave. Your Uncle Russell's animal friends will stay behind to protect you."

"Remember my words, stay here, don't wander off, and wait for us to come back."

August nodded, his young face extremely serious.

Russell pondered for a moment about which animal to keep, and finally clapped his hands, causing Jin Huang to let out a low growl, and then whistled, summoning a roaring straight line from afar—it was a herd of deer, almost every one of them with a strong and elegant figure, their large antlers gleaming with a sharp, cold light, clearly not to be trifled with even though they were herbivores.

Bai Yu's eyes widened: "..."

Russell knew what he wanted to ask, and casually chuckled, "When you left, you temporarily made some little treasures. Look, aren't they beautiful?"

Nie Weiyang stroked the neck of the lead stag, while August walked to the lying Jin Huang and tentatively reached out to touch it. The giant tiger merely let out a low, friendly purr, showing no resistance.

The boy seemed to gain a lot of security from this and sat down next to Jin Huang.

Russell walked to the edge of the camp, closed his eyes, and sang loudly.

A moment later, two robust and sharp-eyed African lions slowly emerged from the morning mist and lay obediently before Russell and Bai Yu.

This is Russell's temporary transportation partner.

"Let's go." Nie Weiyang flipped over and drew a lucky sign.

The engine roared, and the motorcycle phantom shot off like an arrow.

Bai Yu silently leaped onto the back of one of the lions, while Russell rode on the other. The three of them headed towards Mount Main Message without looking back.

The African savanna in the early morning still carried the chill of the night. The engine roar of the Lucky Draw mingled with the sound of lions scurrying across the grass as the three sped southwest toward Mount Mainse.

When passing that familiar cliff again, Nie Weiyang slowed down.

From above, the entrance to the cave is just an inconspicuous crack, but now, there are several fresh corpses around the crack, dressed in the uniform of the Returning Church, their deaths gruesome, as if they were torn apart by a sharp sword and immense force.

“After I left last night, some guests came to visit.” Nie Weiyang said casually, as if chatting. “I took care of them when I came back to check.”

Of course—he left no survivors, didn't let them see his face, and incidentally extracted some information from their minds.

Russell whistled, rode his lion closer to take a look, and said, "Wow, that's ruthless."

"Returning to the sect will be painful for them now; these are all skilled fighters, aren't they?"

“Elite cultists, close to level 40, I wonder how many resources they’ve been fed,” Nie Weiyang said. “They reacted very quickly. The Main Message Mountain is paying close attention to the changes on our side, and they can either communicate remotely or teleport people. I personally think it’s the former.” Bai Yu silently looked at the corpses below, his empty white eyes devoid of emotion, but he subconsciously twirled his short sword, creating a beautiful flourish.

A ray of scorching sunlight shone on the three of them, causing Nie Weiyang to frown slightly due to a subtle discomfort. He suddenly remembered that he should contact Pingdu at the appointed time.

He took the spell-guided radio from his backpack and skillfully operated it—

However, when he tried to turn on the machine, all he heard from the receiver was a piercing noise!
Nie Weiyang's pupils dilated and contracted sharply. His overly sensitive hearing had been damaged. Even though he lowered his voice in time, his ear canals were still itchy, and scarlet blood slowly flowed out during his brief period of deafness.

"Boss?!" Russell exclaimed in surprise.

“…It’s nothing.” Nie Weiyang frowned and blinked, his regenerated eardrums receiving information from his surroundings.

The noise was like the wailing and screaming of countless dead souls, carelessly thrown into a mixer, amplified to low quality, and then mixed with a bit of metal rock—the kind that sounds absolutely awful. Meanwhile, the pointer on the screen, representing signal strength, jumped wildly, but could never lock onto any valid frequency band.

Everyone had good hearing. Even though there wasn't much sound leaking from the receiver, Russell and Bai Yu covered their ears and backed away. Nie Weiyang was also getting impatient, but he frowned and focused, continuing to listen.

After a few breaths, he put down the receiver.

“The interference is very strong and cannot be quelled,” he said in a deep voice. “The Netherworld influence in this area is unusually active. We have encountered a Netherworld interference zone.”

Tsk... This place is indeed more eerie than it appears. The changes in August might be due to interference from the Netherworld.

Russell scratched his head: "Is it those blue crystals down there that's causing the problem? Aren't those things supposed to block mental perception? How come they're affecting radio so much?"

“The influence of the Kaligan Crystal tends to be static and isolating, this chaotic noise... doesn’t seem like its doing.” Nie Weiyang’s gaze swept around and landed again on the deep cave entrance, the phantom of the silver-haired, blue-eyed girl flashing through his mind.

Is it her?
A projection existing in the Netherworld? An emissary of the Glory Space Station? A phantom or... fragment of the soul of an important figure from a previous civilization?
The Homo sapiens's mind records almost everything related to humanity since its formation. As long as she leaves even the slightest trace, Nie Weiyang will definitely find it!

A subtle sense of unease lingered in Nie Weiyang's heart. He activated the lucky charm, signaling Russell and Bai Yu to follow: "Let's leave this area first."

The three of them traveled another three kilometers or so, and the surrounding terrain gradually changed from flat grassland to rolling hills. The annoying radio interference finally subsided by more than half.

Nie Weiyang tried to contact Pingdu again. This time, after a brief period of background noise, the weary voice of the liaison officer, Mu Jue, finally came through intermittently:

"...Yang...can you hear me? This is Pingdu...the signal...is very bad..."

“It’s me, Nie Weiyang. I heard you, Mu Jue,” Nie Weiyang replied. “We are approaching the target area. We encountered a small problem on the way, but it has been resolved.”

Nie Weiyang gave a concise report, omitting details about August and the silver-haired girl, and only emphasizing the Return Church's activity base in East Africa, the existence and destruction of the Golden Tree of God, and the anomaly of the Caligan Crystal.

“The remains of the Sacred Tree are enormous, and its underground roots have spread into the Kaligan Crystal Mine,” Nie Weiyang said, revealing information unknown to the two people beside him. “I cannot take it away in the normal way; so far, I have only taken some specimens. In addition, I have set traps around its main body, hoping that our people can take it away as soon as possible.”

“…Caligan Crystal…and the creation of the Golden God…” Mu Jue’s voice was filled with shock and solemnity, “…Information received…Pingdu understands. Over here…there is new progress in the server excavation…but…the underground situation is complex, and the interference is very serious. Specific information is not yet clear…you must be careful…maintain contact…”

The call lasted only a short time, and the signal remained unstable.

After ending the communication, Nie Weiyang put the radio back in his backpack and said to the two men, "Rest here for ten minutes."

He leaned back in the car seat with the lucky sign, closed his eyes, seemingly to rest, but in reality, he had sunk most of his consciousness into the vast and boundless sea of ​​the human mind.

The ocean of cold mist surges with waves, and countless blurred fragments of humanity—thoughts, memories, emotions—all those broken remnants float and sink like stars and waves in the ocean of time.

He focused his mind, using keywords such as 'silver hair, blue eyes, girl, sadness, white robe, pre-civilization, ghost' and 'Glory Space Station' as clues to search through the flood of information.

(End of this chapter)