The Wizard of Truth: Starting with Analyzing All Things

The Howling Cave lives up to its name.

Before they even began to delve deeper, the wailing, seemingly originating from the depths of their souls and a mixture of pain, resentment, and madness, surged like a tangible tide, wave after wave crashing against everyone's minds. Even the elemental shield erected by Wizard Walter could not completely block out this noise that directly affected the mental realm. Everyone's expression was unusually solemn, their mental energy draining away like a dam bursting.

The cave's interior was even more winding and eerie than the Ridge Canyon, with a maze of passages and honeycomb-like holes riddled with perforations on the rock walls. The wailing sounds emanated from these holes, amplified and emanating from them. The air was thick with a bloody, shadowy energy; under [low-level energy vision], the entire cave resembled a gigantic, writhing dark organ.

"Stay close! Don't get separated!" Walter's voice was muffled against the backdrop of wailing. "Lilith, the contamination level?"

"Far beyond Ridge Canyon! There are at least two core pollution sources, possibly more!" Lilith gripped the violently trembling detection compass, her voice trembling with barely suppressed tension. "And... the pollution here seems to possess some kind of... activity! It's actively repelling and eroding us!"

As soon as he finished speaking, countless long, thin, whip-like tentacles made of shadow energy suddenly emerged from the holes in the rock walls on both sides, lashing wildly at the group with a piercing shriek!

"Defend!" Barton roared, raising his shield to block. The other guards also used their own methods.

However, these whips were numerous, incredibly fast, and extremely agile. They weren't primarily designed to cause physical damage; each strike carried a powerful mental impact and corrosive influence! The shields flickered violently under the lashes, and the apprentices felt the wails in their minds grow clearer, as if countless hands were tearing at their sanity.

Luo Wei immediately tried to construct a "barrier of tranquility," but the external interference was too strong. His newly formed milky-white force field shattered in less than three seconds under the lash of countless whips and the interference of mental noise! ​​He groaned and his face paled even more.

"This won't do!" Edgar's figure flickered awkwardly between the whip's whiskers, his stealth greatly diminished under this indiscriminate area attack.

Walter's eyes narrowed, and he slammed his staff on the ground. A burst of blazing fire erupted from him, instantly incinerating most of the nearby whip whiskers. But more whiskers immediately regenerated from the holes, seemingly endless.

"We must find and destroy the source of this wailing! Otherwise, we'll be worn down and die here!" Walter roared. "Love! Sensing the direction of the source!"

Despite the mental discomfort and the pain of the backlash, Luo Wei fully activated his "Eye of Truth." In his special vision, the wails seemed to transform into countless distorted energy ripples filled with negative emotions, and the sources of these ripples were scattered in at least three directions deep within the cave!

"There's a powerful source of mental pollution on the left front, right front, and directly above!" Lowe reported urgently. "They...they seem to have formed a huge resonance field through the cave's structure!"

Acting separately is extremely risky, but concentrating our forces to defeat them one by one is too time-consuming!

Just then, Lilith suddenly pointed to an inconspicuous side path behind her, covered by a thick fungal carpet: "That path! My detectors show an abnormally high concentration of contamination there, and... there's a strong life energy reaction! Not a shadow creature, more like... some kind of contaminated magical plant? It might be a mutated form of the Peacebloom!"

Tranquility Flower? A thought struck Luo Wei. If it was a mutant, its energy properties might be even stronger, making it key to creating a more powerful Soul Amulet! Moreover, destroying a source of pollution could weaken this damned Howling Field!

"Master Walter, I suggest we split up!" Barton gritted his teeth. "You take the main force to deal with the sources on the left and right fronts! I'll take a few men, along with Rowe and Lilith, to that fork in the road to see if we can destroy the source of the mental pollution and obtain the materials!"

This is a risky plan. But there doesn't seem to be a better option at the moment.

Wizard Walter quickly weighed the pros and cons, glancing at Rowe and Lilith, then at Barton and his two reliable high apprentice guards, and finally nodded: "Alright! Keep the communication runes open! If you encounter any insurmountable danger, immediately call for help and retreat! We will rejoin you as soon as possible!"

The team immediately split into two groups. Walter led the majority of his men, braving countless whip lashes, and struggled to advance towards the sources of pollution on the left and right front sides.

Barton, Rowe, Lilith, and the two guard apprentices turned onto the darker side road.

The wailing from the side path seemed to have subsided somewhat, but the pollution concentration was alarmingly high. The fungal carpet here was as thick as a rug, soft and yielding underfoot, as if stepping on the entrails of some creature. Black spores floated in the air, hissing and corroding upon contact with the shield.

"Be careful, these spores are highly corrosive and mentally polluting!" Lilith warned, while sprinkling some powder to form a faint purifying halo around everyone, temporarily resisting the spores' erosion.

After venturing nearly a hundred meters into the fork in the road, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a small cave. In the center of the cave grew an extremely eerie plant. It largely retained the silvery-white leaf shape of the Tranquilizing Flower, but the plant was magnified several times over, and its flowers had turned a purplish-black, like twisted human faces, constantly opening and closing, emitting even sharper, soul-piercing howls! Its roots penetrated deeply into the ground, connecting with the shadow energy network of the entire cave, radiating powerful waves of mental pollution!

[Target Analysis: Howling Flower (Deeply Contaminated Tranquilizer Variant)]

[Energy Attributes: Extremely chaotic mental pollution, shadow symbiosis.]

[Characteristics: Powerful area-of-effect mental attack (Wailing Howl). The root system is connected to the cave's energy field; destroying its flowers can interrupt a localized Wailing Howl, but will trigger an energy backlash. The core of the root system contains highly concentrated 'Twisted Tranquilizing Essence' and 'Shadow Crystals.']

Just as they were observing the demonic flower, another unexpected event occurred!

Suddenly, the fungal carpet at the cave entrance bulged, and three figures dressed in Grey Tower attire appeared silently, blocking their retreat! The leader was none other than Marco, who had previously invited Rowe! He wore a smug smile, while the other two were high-ranking apprentices with cold expressions.

"What a coincidence, Apprentice Rowe," Marco clapped his hands and laughed. "It seems we've got our eyes on the same target? This 'Wailing Demon Flower' is excellent material for crafting certain special mental attack artifacts; we, the Gray Tower, will gladly accept it. As for you... now that you've seen it, we'll just have to ask you to stay here forever!"

Betrayal! Or rather, it was a conspiracy from the very beginning! The people of Gray Tower had been lying in wait nearby, waiting for them and the Demon Flower to weaken each other, or to strike when they were vulnerable!

Barton roared, "Grey Tower scum! How dare you collude with the Shadow forces?!"

"Collusion? No, no, no," Marco grinned slyly. "We're just good at seizing every opportunity. We'll take care of you, get the Demon Flower, and then stage a scene to make it look like you were killed by the Shadow Monster—perfect!"

The battle erupted instantly! Barton and his two guards roared as they charged towards Marco and his companions, engaging them in a fierce fight. Although Marco was only a high-ranking apprentice, he seemed stronger than he appeared, and he fought Barton to a standstill. The other two Grey Tower apprentices, however, entangled Barton's guards.

"Love! Lilith! Quickly, find a way to get rid of that demonic flower!" Barton roared as he desperately fended off Marco's attacks. He knew that only by stopping this damned wailing would they have a chance of survival!

Lilith immediately took out several bottles of potent purification potions and tried to throw them at the demon flower, but there seemed to be an invisible force field around the demon flower, and the potions were mostly neutralized by the dense shadow energy halfway through, so the effect was minimal.

Looking at the wailing demonic flower, then at Barton and the others locked in a fierce battle, and at the menacing Gray Tower enemies, Luo Wei's heart sank to the bottom. A desperate situation! This was a true desperate situation!

His mental energy was less than half after the previous depletion and backlash, and forcibly constructing a large field would likely cause it to collapse immediately. The people of the Gray Tower wouldn't give him time.

What should I do?

His gaze was fixed on the demonic flower, his mind racing at an unprecedented pace with the aid of the Book of Truth. Destroying the flower would trigger a backlash… the core of its roots contained twisted tranquilizing essence and shadow crystals… the energy field was connected…

An extremely risky, almost insane idea flashed through his mind!

He no longer tried to fight against or purify the massive polluted field, but instead... merged with it and guided it!

He recalled the feeling when he successfully inscribed the "Solidified Talisman," the concept of "Energy Flow Trajectory," and the flaws in the Shadow Priest's energy field!

He needs to find a point, a fulcrum that allows his meager strength to shift the entire situation!

"Lilith! Give me a bottle of your potent purification potion! Also, buy me three seconds, and don't let anyone disturb me!" Lowe spoke rapidly, his eyes filled with a desperate resolve.

Although Lilith didn't understand what he was going to do, she had no other choice at the moment. She stuffed a bottle of golden potion that emitted a strong holy aura into Rowe's hand, then resolutely stood in front of him, waving her hands to scatter large amounts of paralyzing dust and entangled vine seeds, temporarily slowing down the Gray Tower apprentices who were trying to approach.

Luo Wei took the potion, but instead of throwing it at the magic flower, he... uncorked the bottle and poured half of the shimmering golden liquid onto the simple "sturdy talisman" he had made earlier!

scoff!

The simple, solid field on the talisman clashed violently with the sacred purifying energy, emitting a blinding light and becoming extremely unstable, as if it might explode at any moment!

Just as this extremely unstable balance was about to be broken, Luo Wei poured all his remaining mental energy, like a spring compressed to its limit, into the collapsing talisman! He didn't want to stabilize it, but rather... to precisely control the direction and manner of its collapse!

He pinpointed the most crucial and vulnerable "energy node" connecting the roots of the demonic flower to the energy field of the cave—a fleeting flaw captured by the "Eye of Insight" in a desperate situation!

Go!

He suddenly threw the extremely unstable energy ball in his hand, which shimmered with a dangerous golden-black interwoven light, like throwing an invisible flying knife, precisely at that node!

There was no deafening explosion.

There was only a faint "pop" sound, like a bubble bursting.

The moment that unstable energy came into contact with the energy node, the conflicting energy within it, under the precise guidance of Luo Wei's mental power, did not explode outward. Instead, it transformed into countless extremely fine energy threads, like the most precise scalpel, which carried out a brief, localized, and directional "energy annihilation" along the tiny "trajectory" and "crack" inside the energy node!

Click!

It was as if the crisp sound of something breaking echoed on the level of the soul.

The core of the demon flower's root system, which was connected to the cave's energy field, was instantly severed by this incredibly precise strike!

"Awooo—!!!"

The wailing from the demonic flower abruptly ceased, transforming into a punctured, painful, and incredulous hiss! Its enormous blossom trembled violently, its color rapidly shifting from purplish-black to ashen gray! The powerful mental pollution field that had enveloped the entire cave deflated abruptly, like a punctured balloon!

At the same time, because the connection was forcibly severed, a runaway, backlash of shadow energy surged violently towards the demonic flower itself along the broken root system!

boom!

The demonic flower began to disintegrate from the inside, turning into a thick, swirling black mist!

"Now!" Lowe shouted with his last breath.

Lilith reacted extremely quickly, throwing the remaining half-bottle of potent purification potion into the collapsing black mist!

The sacred golden light clashed violently with the out-of-control shadow energy, purifying it and emitting a violent energy roar!

When the light faded, the demonic flower vanished, leaving behind only a small patch of dark silver, twisted crystal radiating chaotic yet powerful energy, and a few drops of liquid resembling black gemstones—the [Twisted Tranquilizing Essence] and [Shadow Crystal]!

Without the support of the Demon Flower's Howling Field, the howling sounds from the main cave passage were noticeably reduced.

This sudden turn of events stunned both sides in the midst of battle.

Patton and his men were greatly encouraged!

Marco and the other two's expressions changed drastically!

They never expected that Luo Wei could use such an unbelievable method to instantly eliminate the Howling Demon Flower, which even they found troublesome!

"Retreat!" Marco made a quick decision, knowing that the situation was hopeless. He feinted and quickly disappeared with his two men into the passage they had come from.

Barton and the others did not pursue. They were exhausted and, more importantly, they wanted to protect the exhausted Rowe and collect the spoils of war.

Luo Wei slumped to the ground, panting heavily, his face as pale as paper, unable to move even his fingers, but his eyes were unusually bright.

He did it! In the face of despair, he found that glimmer of light and used his accumulated knowledge and abilities to transform it into a... Blade of the Field that cuts through the darkness!

Although the cost was enormous, he survived and gained unexpected benefits. The [Twisted Tranquilizing Essence] and [Shadow Crystal] seemed to contain some strange and powerful force.