On the Ark.

Blue Poison, standing next to Lin Ye, also showed a surprised expression: "Mephisto?"

"Who is that?" Chūmaru had never heard of this name before and looked at Lin Ye with some confusion. "Why did I see him in a dream?"

“A notorious person…” Blue Poison was about to explain to Chanwan when she saw Lin Ye move. “Doctor Lin Ye?”

Lin Ye had originally intended to reload. Since twenty-five Originium bullets hadn't killed Mephisto, he figured he'd just fire another twenty-five. He was certain that the face he'd seen on the water's surface wasn't some rotting corpse; it was definitely Mephisto! The guy he'd seen countless times in his dreams!

Lin Ye was deeply wary of Mephisto. Although he had tormented the latter countless times in his dreams, from another perspective, he had also been tormented by Mephisto countless times. In the nights immediately following his departure from Kjerag, whenever he closed his eyes, he would always return to that dark corridor, always see that grinning demonic boy. This wasn't his ability at work; it was a genuine nightmare. Messiah had told him that once Mephisto realized that the so-called nightmare was actually Lin Ye's ability, then Lin Ye's ability would cease to function.

Understanding is Lin Ye's only weakness.

In Lin Ye's view, once his abilities became ineffective against Mephisto, he would lose his best means of dealing with him. Lin Ye was genuinely afraid of being targeted by Mephisto, whom he considered an "incarnation of evil." This was why he risked his life to kill Mephisto in Kjerag; he knew that if Mephisto left Kjerag alive, his future would be...

Mephistopheles did indeed leave Sherag alive.

Lin Ye's hands trembled slightly.

He tried to change the magazine, but his hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the gun. Mephistopheles' smiling face, visible beneath the water, kept replaying in his mind, as if saying, "I'm back." He couldn't hold back any longer. He tossed Vector aside, grabbed the hilt of Maple's sword, and walked straight towards the underground river.

Since the Guardian Gun can't kill you, then I'll use the God's Blade.

It was as if a beast's voice was roaring in Lin Ye's mind.

We absolutely cannot let him escape again. Even if we have to chase him to hell, we must cut off his head!

Just as he was about to rush into the underground river, Chūmaru grabbed him and then shoved him away.

Without using the Leaping Wave Strike, the strength of humans and demons is clearly not on the same level. Lin Ye was easily pushed away by Chūmaru, staggering back two steps before falling to the ground. Then, he angrily roared at Chūmaru, "What are you doing..."

"Are you crazy?" Chūmaru said, frowning. "Trying to swim in the underground river?"

"you!"

Enraged, Lin Ye drew his sword, Maple. With a clear, resonant sound of the blade being drawn, the crimson blade was positioned between Lin Ye and Chōmaru.

Then, Lin Ye was stunned.

Chūmaru narrowed his eyes slightly: "What, do you want to fight me?"

"No, it's not?" Lin Ye murmured, staring at the blade of [Maple]. "What am I doing?"

"What are you doing? You've even drawn your sword, and you still won't admit it?" Chūmaru's voice gradually turned cold. "If you want to fight here, I'm willing to oblige."

Blue Poison interrupted Ch'en: "That's enough, Ch'en. Physician Lin Ye's condition was clearly not right just now."

Lin Ye looked at Lan Du: "What happened to me just now?"

"You...don't you remember what just happened?"

"No, no, no, I remember, I remember..."

Lin Ye covered his head.

How could he not remember what had just happened? [Maple] was still in his hand. But why did he do that? Why was he so angry? Why did he want to rush into the underground river to find Mephisto? And why did he want to attack the cleavage that had stopped him?

Why is this happening...? This isn't him at all. Even if he's certain he saw Mephisto, would he really do something like this out of fear of Mephisto? This is complete irrationality, complete madness. He's even trembling with fear, and hasn't fully recovered yet, but he has no idea why he's so terrified.

"Dr. Lin Ye, you didn't seem right just now." Magellan leaned closer, his face full of concern. "Is the pressure too much? How about we call it a night? We've already found Miss Skadi's communicator anyway."

“No, there’s no need.” Lin Ye shook his head. “I’ve recovered. Now that I’m here, how could I go back like this? I was just… just…”

He didn't know how to explain it either, until Magellan asked in a surprised tone, "Dr. Lin Ye, what's in your pocket?"

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment, then looked down and noticed a faint white light emanating from one of his pockets.

He quickly reached into his pocket, grabbed what was inside, and took it out.

"This is..." Lin Ye exclaimed in surprise, "The amulet that Liz gave me?"

"Amulet? Speaking of Liz... is she the White Demon from Sarkaz?" Magellan asked.

Lin Ye nodded.

"What... is this amulet for?" Magellan asked curiously. "Is it for lighting? But it looks a bit dim."

Lin Ye shook his head: "Of course it's not for lighting. I already said it's a talisman. It can trigger Liz's ability—[Sanctuary]. [Sanctuary] can help me block magical attacks..."

Lin Ye froze halfway through his sentence.

Everyone present heard Lin Ye's words and grasped the key words.

"A magical attack? It actually has that ability?"

"It seems pretty powerful, no wonder it's the power of the White Devil... But why did it suddenly light up?"

Blue Poison seemed to realize something, turned to look at the underground river, and murmured, "Could it be..."

"It detected a spell attack." Lin Ye stood up, gripped the talisman tightly, and the next second, the [Sacred Domain] surrounded him.

Then, holding the [Maple] in one hand and the talisman in the other, he walked to the underground river again.

Everyone was looking at him.

The next second, the black sludge in the river gradually dissipated, replaced by... endless corpses and rotting flesh.

Everyone was stunned.

Chapter 321 Take a look, isn't that Skadi? (3K)

When the light of the Sanctuary illuminated the dark lake, everyone present held their breath in unison.

Rotting flesh, corpses, and that dark green "river water." This sudden, nauseating scene made everyone present almost disbelieve their eyes. Whether it was an illusion or their sense of smell had been unleashed, the stench of decay assaulted their senses, making everyone's faces turn pale.

Magellan was the first to succumb, immediately covering his mouth and nose, his eyes welling with tears. It was unclear whether he was affected by the horrific scene before him or by the unbearable stench. Lin Ye thought it was the latter, because he was closest to the "river" and felt the smell most acutely. If it weren't for his two years of experience as a veterinarian in Chernobog, he probably would have vomited right then and there.

The other three performed much better. Although their complexions weren't great either, they were noticeably better than Magellan and Lin Ye.

Chūmaru took a few steps back, his voice filled with disbelief: "What, what's going on?"

"An illusion?" Shuangye squinted, making a guess, but then felt something was off, so she shook her head. "It shouldn't be."

“It’s definitely not…” Magellan, after all, was once a member of the Rhine Life Research Station, and his ability to adjust was second to none. Although he hadn’t fully recovered, he was much better than before. “I don’t know how to explain it. Because I’ve never encountered anything like this before.” Chūmaru turned to look at Magellan: “What’s wrong? Wait, wasn’t your drone filming here the whole time? Didn’t you notice anything unusual?”

"That's exactly what I wanted to say, you see."

Magellan's expression was very complicated. She showed everyone the microcomputer that controlled the drone, but the screen showed the "underground river" in front of them. The river was filled with rotting flesh and bones. There were also many flies in the camera, probably attracted by the light, and they surrounded the searchlight and were also captured by the camera.

"Is this what you're filming now? What about what happened earlier?" Chūmaru asked. "Where's the normal river from before?"

"...This is what we filmed before."

"What?" Chōmaru didn't react, and Shimoba's brows furrowed slightly.

Magellan tapped the screen twice to bring up the shooting time and the current time. Then everyone realized that the photo had been taken ten minutes earlier.

Everyone was stunned.

“I don’t know why this happened,” Magellan said softly. “I’ve never encountered anything like this before. I’ve gone through all the previous photos and watched the videos. When my drone found the underground river, it looked just like this.”

"But how is this possible?" Chūmaru's face was filled with disbelief. "You weren't..."

“The images I saw on the drone before were completely different from what I see now, but all of what I saw before is gone.” Magellan’s expression was complicated. “If I weren’t here, I would have suspected that my computer had been hacked.”

Shuangye slowly took off her headphones and murmured, "I can't believe this happened. I just can't understand it."

Lin Ye then looked at Lan Du, the person most qualified to speak present.

Blue Poison sighed softly: "We've been hypnotized."

"Hypnotized?"

“Yes, although we don’t know when it started, we were definitely hypnotized.” Blue Poison looked at the talisman in Lin Ye’s hand and said slowly, “It’s a very powerful hypnotic spell. Otherwise, Doctor Lin Ye’s talisman wouldn’t have reacted, and the spell wouldn’t have been lifted after the talisman took effect.”

"But this magic can hypnotize people, so how can it hypnotize machines?" Chanmaru clearly didn't believe Blue Poison's explanation.

Blue Poison looked at Magellan and asked, "Although I don't know much about machines, I think this sorcerer doesn't need to deceive the machines; deceiving our eyes is enough. We can't see through them even standing in front of the river, let alone through machines. And, Miss Magellan, what do you consider to be your drone?"

Magellan couldn't quite understand Blue Poison's words: "What?"

“Let’s try a different approach, Miss Magellan. Do you consider drones to be your third, or even fourth, pair of eyes?” Blue Poison asked.

“Of course.” Magellan nodded and said matter-of-factly, “Of course I trust them. I developed them and they’ve been with me for so many years. I’ve long regarded them as my extended eyes.”

“That’s it.” Blue Poison nodded. “Since this spell can deceive our naked eyes, it’s not impossible for it to deceive the mechanical eyes as well.”

"No, that can't be the case."

It was Lin Ye who spoke. He had regained about 70-80% of his composure and believed that the Mephistopheles he had seen in the water was also an illusion. After a moment's thought, he rejected Blue Poison's guess and said, "Mechanical eyes and human eyes are completely different structures. No matter how powerful this technique is, there's no reason it could fool a machine."

Blue Poison looked at Lin Ye with a puzzled expression: "What's going on?"

“I think the photos and videos taken by the drone are always real, it’s just that Magellan can’t receive them.” Lin Ye looked at Magellan. “Because you still need to receive the information that the drone transmits to you through your naked eyes. So, as long as this technique hypnotizes our naked eyes, it blocks the source, and all the real things can’t be transmitted to our brains.”

After thinking it over, everyone felt that Lin Ye's explanation was more reliable than Blue Poison's.

"Ah, never mind all that nonsense," Chūmaru said. "In short, we've all been fooled, haven't we?"

"Yes."

"How could this happen without anyone noticing?" Chūmaru looked around. "Where exactly is this place?"

“This is where Miss Skadi suffered her misfortune,” Blue Poison said softly. “Now we finally understand what Miss Skadi faced that night. Moreover, this spell is not just simple hypnosis. Doctor Lin Ye, your emotions just now were clearly abnormal.”

Lin Ye nodded.

"Speaking of which, Dr. Lin Ye," Blue Poison asked Lin Ye, "you just said you saw Mephisto underwater?"

"Hmm. But that must be an illusion."

“I know it’s a hallucination, so that means Miss Skadi also experienced the same hallucination as you?” Blue Poison said. “Do you remember? Before Miss Skadi went missing, she called your name.”

Lin Ye's mouth dropped open slightly: "You mean, Skadi also saw my face underwater?"

"That's probably it." Blue Poison nodded, then asked, "Who is Mephisto to you?"

"Of course they are enemies."

Chūmaru nodded: "I understand. You can see the face of your enemy underwater, just like you see that moldy thing, and Miss Skadi sees you."

“...I think your reasoning is very illogical. No, it sounds somewhat reasonable, but I couldn’t possibly be Skadi’s enemy.”

"Who knows?" Chūmaru said, arms crossed. "Maybe Skadi has been wanting to kill you for a long time..."

"Miss Chūmaru, isn't it a bit inappropriate to joke around at a time like this?" Magellan said weakly.

"...I was clearly analyzing the problem very seriously." Chūmaru was somewhat hurt.