Keep attacking girls and try not to be killed by them

"Coincidentally", early this morning, before daybreak, Jiang Ran had already gone alone to explore the outskirts of the Wacono volcano ruins, and was surprised to find that there was not a single person around this so-called headquarters.

In line with the principle of safety and caution, Jiang Ran did not rush to go deeper, but summoned a black shadow clone and let the clone enter the interior of the volcanic ruins on his behalf to explore the way.

Not long after, Jiang Ran came to the conclusion through his black shadow clone: ​​the main base of the Wakeno volcanic ruins seemed to have been abandoned by the Snake Shadow Society.

The unexpected result made Jiang Ran quite disappointed.

He originally thought that he would be able to find the "Fortune-telling Rabbit Spirit Nevinason" in the next two days, but the clues were suddenly cut off.

Helplessly, Jiang Ran could only return to Yanji City for the time being. According to the plan, he needed to confirm the equipment upgrade and production plan with the craftsmen today, and he couldn't go back too late.

That’s why we later encountered Elder Minghei and his men visiting.

·

Disappointment aside, Jiang Ran's discovery that the Snake Shadow Society's headquarters had been abandoned was not entirely a bad thing.

Ever since he made an agreement with Viviana last night, Jiang Ran has been worrying about how to resolve this matter.

If Viviana really wanted to act with Jiang Ran, it would firstly put Viviana's personal safety in danger, secondly, it would add unpredictable difficulty to Jiang Ran's actions, and thirdly it might "add fuel to the fire" of the already difficult situation.

The first two points are easy to understand, so I won’t elaborate on them. However, the third point is quite special and needs to be explained in detail.

The reason why Jiang Ran thought that something would "add fuel to the fire" was because he had foreseen the possibility that Viviana would meet with Wei'er and "Endless Abyss·Mishasha" in the ruins of the Wakeno volcano.

Try to imagine that when Jiang Ran was busy rescuing the fortune-telling rabbit spirit Navinason, there were countless powerful enemies around him, and if he was not careful, he would be surrounded and trapped in a tough battle.

As a result, Viviana and Wei'er met without any warning, and then that damn "Endless Abyss·Mishasha" jumped out as if she had been lying in ambush in advance, and then started to add fuel to the fire with a smile, pushing Jiang Ran into the fire.

If something like this really happened, Jiang Ran was not confident that Viviana would still stand on his side.

By then, Viviana, who was originally a teammate, would turn into an enemy. Add to that Wei'er, whose condition was unknown, and "Endless Abyss·Mishasha", who was already a clear enemy, and other enemies of the Snake Shadow Society. It could be said that even if Jiang Ran had nine lives, it would not be enough to kill him.

Therefore, the fact that the Snake Shadow Society’s headquarters in the Wakeno volcano ruins has been abandoned is not entirely a bad thing for Jiang Ran.

·

"All that's left is to find a time to ask Viviana to go for a walk around the ruins, and then we can fulfill this promise safely..."

Jiang Ran looked at the shortcut outside the window and muttered to himself.

According to the original plan, Jiang Ran was supposed to go to the weapon shop "Flame" and the armor shop "Ice" to talk to the two craftsmen.

However, the unexpected acquisition of the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" made Jiang Ran change his itinerary. He planned to give the craftsmen one more day to fully consider the plan, and he would use this day to travel back and forth to the Wakeno volcanic ruins again to investigate where this so-called "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" would take him.

Jiang Ran left as soon as he said he would, and walked as fast as he could all the way to the ruins of the Wakeno volcano.

Mount Wakno is a dead volcano, or a dormant volcano. In any case, according to residents in the surrounding area, this volcano has not erupted for hundreds of years.

Around the volcano, there is lush vegetation, and the fertile volcanic ash soil breeds a large amount of life.

Jiang Ran arrived here with ease, and then began to explore the interior of the ruins for the second time.

To enter the ruins of the Wacono volcano, you first need to climb to the crater, then enter from the crater and descend all the way into the volcano.

With the physical fitness of a fifth-level combat professional, Jiang Ran could climb and descend as if it were flat ground. It didn't take long before he arrived at a rock platform in the crater. He followed a path with obvious signs of artificial construction into the ruins of the Wakeno volcano.

(Okay, now I have to find it slowly.)

It was obviously not an easy task to find the so-called "secret door". Jiang Ran was ready to turn the ruins upside down, but he did not expect that just when he was about to start, the "Wakno Sensing Door Stone" actually emitted light by itself, as if to lead Jiang Ran the way...!

9.115 - Traps

(Oh? Could it be that this "Sensory Gate Stone" also has a built-in pathfinding function?)

Looking at the glowing "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" in his hand, Jiang Ran was a little surprised and a little delighted.

He tried shaking the "sensing door stone" around and found that as the direction and position changed, the brightness of the "sensing door stone" would also change accordingly.

If the brighter the light, the closer it is to a "hidden door", then Jiang Ran has already figured out the mystery of this sensing door stone.

(But...it's a bit strange...)

Jiang Ran pondered as he followed the instructions of the "Sensor Doorstone." He was puzzled. Why did the "Sensor Doorstone" have such a mechanism that could automatically find the way to the door? If the designer's intention was to hide the contents of the "door," wouldn't this navigation function be counterproductive?

Imagine that if the "Sensory Doorstone" is likened to a "key", then this is a "key" that will lead people on the way.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of icing on the cake function is not a big deal, but once the key is accidentally lost, or stolen or robbed by someone else, then this "guide function" is just helping others to get to the source, right?

(Emmm… Anyway, let’s continue to be cautious.)

Jiang Ran always does what he says. He immediately summoned a black shadow clone and asked the black shadow clone to walk in front with the "sensing door stone". He followed behind at a distance of about 40 to 50 meters, so that he could run away immediately if the situation went wrong.

After being so cautious all the way, Jiang Ran finally arrived at the end of a dead end inside the Wakeno volcanic ruins under the guidance of the "sensing gate stone".

·

If it weren't for the "sensing gate stone" leading the way, this dead end would be just an ordinary dead end to Jiang Ran.

Now, with the help of the identification information, Jiang Ran immediately began to let the black shadow clone look for any sunken places on the rock wall. If there was, it would most likely be the "appropriate position" to put the "sensing door stone" in.

Not long after, the black shadow clone relied on the luminous guidance of the "Sensing Door Stone" to find the groove where it could be placed. Then, under Jiang Ran's command, the "Sensing Door Stone" was placed into the groove.

Jiang Ran retreated far away at the first moment, waiting to see what would happen next in this dead end.

However, what he didn't expect was that even though he had retreated nearly a hundred meters away, he was still caught in the trap of this dead end...!

·

The change happened without any warning. Not long after the black shadow clone embedded the "sensing door stone" into the groove on the wall, the entire Wakeno volcanic ruins began to shake violently.

Jiang Ran initially thought it was an earthquake and immediately began to evacuate to an open area. However, the terrain collapsed much faster than Jiang Ran could evacuate. With a loud "boom", the ground cracked in an instant, causing Jiang Ran to lose his footing!

(Hashrate Increase, Overload!)

In a flash, Jiang Ran immediately activated his skills, entering a state where the flow of time was slowed down five times, and then used his "all-round vision" to find a shadow that could be teleported to in the first place. He then activated the skill "Shadow Escape Step" to move himself to a relatively safe place.

At the same time, Jiang Ran did not forget to summon another shadow clone, and asked the shadow clone to take out the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" from the collapsing rock wall and throw it to himself.

However, safety is only temporary. Jiang Ran had just received the sensing door stone when the next wave of crisis came!

In this drastic change of terrain, there is no eternal safety, only temporary resting places. After just a few seconds, the so-called "safe foothold" was also caught up in the continuous collapse!

Seeing himself falling towards the unfathomable underground fissure again, Jiang Ran remained calm and made an escape plan while falling.

To this day, he no longer knew whether his calmness was natural or due to the blessing of "Goddess of Courage, Eret". In any case, not falling into fear was undoubtedly of great help in such a life-or-death moment.

Relying on his calm mind and 360-degree all-round vision, Jiang Ran adjusted his position while falling to avoid being buried underground by the falling rocks.

Adjusting position is easy to say, but it is actually extremely difficult for humans who cannot fly.

The reason why Jiang Ran was able to do this was that in addition to his skill "Shadow Step" which could be used for displacement, he also had "Double Shadow Step" and "Teleportation" as alternative movement options.

Thanks to his extremely calm response, Jiang Ran finally survived the collapse of the Wakeno volcanic ruins.

When the collapse finally stopped, Jiang Ran stood on the ruins, feeling lucky that he was the one who fell into the trap. If it were an ordinary person, his body would not be found even after he died.

·

"Oh, I didn't expect it to be a trap."

Jiang Ran looked up at the crater above his head, then looked down at the rubble and ruins beneath his feet, and felt that he had underestimated the "ancient race" behind this "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone".

Looking back now, since I had already noticed the strangeness of the "luminous mechanism" at that time, I should have slowed down and made a long-term plan instead of just trying my luck with a fluke mentality.

Fortunately, Jiang Ran is still alive and not even injured. It can be considered a blessing in disguise.

Next, he had to figure out how to escape from deep underground in the volcano.

(No...wait, it's not time to give up yet...?)

Perhaps because he was unwilling to give up, Jiang Ran suddenly had an idea.

·

Jiang Ran thought about the whole thing and found that the lighting pattern of the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" might be worth pondering.

First, Jiang Ran put himself in the shoes of the "real owner of the sensing door stone" and analyzed the design ideas of this trap.

The real owner's idea is actually very simple. That is, when the sensing door stone is lost or stolen, as long as the recipient has bad intentions and wants to get the hidden "treasure" himself, he will be lured into the trap by the luminous mechanism of the sensing door stone and buried alive.

If that's the case, then the place where the trap is set must be far away from "a certain treasure". So in other words, as long as Jiang Ran searches in the direction of the faint light from the sensing door stone, maybe he can find the real "hidden door"?

(It's interesting, worth a try...!)

Thinking of this, Jiang Ran immediately became motivated. Fortunately, he still remembered to retrieve the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" in the chaos and danger just now. Now this thing can come in handy again.

(Vakno Sensing Gate Stone... This time you have to take me to the real treasure hiding place.)

9.116 - Underground Palace

I thought the situation was a dead end, but now it turned around because of Jiang Ran's sudden inspiration.

It is no exaggeration to say that only someone like Jiang Ran, who did not forget to pick up the key props even when in life-threatening danger and always insisted on thinking until the last moment, would have the opportunity to find the last ray of hope in a hopeless situation.

Now, the plan for another action has been thought of, but Jiang Ran did not put it into action immediately.

Before officially launching the second operation, Jiang Ran first checked his own condition and found that the remaining magic power was not sufficient, so he chose to set a stupid lolita alarm clock, and then took a nap for an hour and a half, and then set off again.

This time, Jiang Ran's way of finding the way was exactly the opposite of last time. He would move in the direction where the light of the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" became dimmer.

When encountering a situation where he needed to climb upwards, Jiang Ran would use the "Glowing Magic Stone" and the "Throwing Stones" method to artificially create a suitable shadow, and then use the Shadow Escape Step to move quickly.

In this way, Jiang Ran climbed over the collapsed area and came to the other side of the Wakeno volcanic ruins.

·

(I see, the only area that collapsed was the one just now.)

Jiang Ran examined the terrain and surrounding conditions, then continued to move forward inside the extinct volcano.

With the experience from last time, Jiang Ran only took half an hour to reach the place that seemed to be the "final location":

A cliff that looks like nothing at first glance.

Looking at the cliff with no clues at all, Jiang Ran asked his shadow clone to use the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" to explore each place inch by inch.

After he summoned twenty or thirty black shadow clones to take turns, he finally found the hidden mechanism on an inconspicuous rock wall.

At first glance, the rock wall looked no different from the surrounding rock walls. However, after the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone" was placed on it and pressed down, the rock wall automatically sank in, revealing a groove that was just big enough to hold the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone".

The somewhat different yet familiar development made Jiang Ran nervous. This time, he pushed it directly to two hundred meters away, and then shouted to let the black shadow clone put the sensing door stone in.

After the black shadow clone did as he was told, within a few seconds, the entire cliff began to emit a low rumbling sound, which made Jiang Ran mistakenly believe that he had fallen into a trap again and was about to collapse.

Fortunately, what happened this time was not a collapse, but a "win".

I saw a gate-like wall slowly opening to the left and right with the rock wall mechanism as the center, revealing the space hidden behind the cliff.

If he hadn't successfully triggered the mechanism, Jiang Ran really wouldn't have realized that there was such an automated "gate" hidden on this ordinary cliff.

(I was expecting something like a teleportation magic circle... Mechanical structures like this are quite rare in this Prison Star world.)

Jiang Ran sighed for a moment, then immediately summoned two more shadow clones, and let the three shadow clones form a team to enter the dim path inside the rock wall gate.

As for himself, of course he would wait outside for the shadow clones to gather information.

·

After some cautious and somewhat insane exploration, Jiang Ran was finally able to basically confirm that there was no danger inside the "gate".

At this time, Jiang Ran personally entered the "secret passage" inside the gate on the cliff, and followed the stone road down to the deeper part of the Wakeno volcanic ruins.

Looking at these neatly laid steps, Jiang Ran could be sure that this path and the space it led to were definitely man-made.

In other words, he was finally beginning to get closer to the truth about the "Wakno Sensing Gate Stone".

Following the stone path, Jiang Ran finally came to an underground ruined palace. The palace was not large, only one story high, and covered an area of ​​about 500 square meters.

The interior and exterior walls of the entire palace were carefully paved with bricks and were built very neatly, as if they did not belong to this abandoned underground world.

Inside the palace, two rows of treasure chests are neatly arranged, waiting for the right person to open them.

(It seems like it's more than just a coincidence that Snake Shadow uses this place as its headquarters...)

Jiang Ran took a deep breath and felt that what was happening was quite ridiculous.

He speculated that the reason why Snake Shadow occupied this position was probably because it had obtained some information about the "ancient race" and wanted to monopolize the treasures of the "ancient race".

However, the Snake Shadow Society does not have the most crucial "key", which means that their years of hard work are just to guard the treasure land for the "ancient race".

On the other hand, the Feiqi family, although they had the key to the "Wakno Sensing Gatestone" a long time ago, they never put it into action, and only pinned their hopes on meeting an appraiser who could solve the mystery one day.

This time, if the Feiqi family and the Snake Shadow Society had not been enemies, and if an unknown force had not been looking for trouble with the Feiqi family, Jiang Ran would not have come here by accident.