Chapter 461: The Mysterious God Storage Land

Ning Wei certainly wasn't foolish enough to think the man at the bottom of the Thunder Valley had suddenly erupted with power and shattered the dark lightning with a single punch.

The truth was obvious. The key lay in the zither music Yan Jing had played beside him.

To think such an ability actually existed...

Ning Wei narrowed his eyes.

It would be one thing if this ability only worked on a single person, but if it could affect a crowd... He took a deep breath.

Inside the Thunder Valley, the Haidu convict stared in sheer disbelief upon realizing he had survived.

With no time to overthink it, he broke into a mad sprint toward the Thunder Valley's exit.

His speed had increased by more than just a fraction; he seemed to transform into a gust of fierce wind, darting to the mouth of the Thunder Valley in mere seconds before weeping with joy.

Only then did he seem to sense something. He raised his head and looked toward the distant cliff edge of the Thunder Valley.

Gazing up at the source of the zither music, he let out a faint sigh and offered a deep bow toward Yan Jing.

Then, he remained where he stood, making no attempt to flee.

Since the man could help him pass the Thunder Valley, he could just as easily ensure he never left the God Storage Land.

Even taking a massive step back, if he did manage to leave the God Storage Land, he would ultimately still be inside the Great Prison.

There was no need to be foolish.

But while he reasoned this way, others ultimately failed to read the situation.

After making it through the Thunder Valley, one man went wild with ecstasy. Caring for nothing else, he bolted straight into the distance.

Yet before he could get far, Yan Jing suddenly blocked his path.

Before the man could even speak, Yan Jing reached out and knocked him unconscious with a single slap.

He then carried the man by the collar back to the Thunder Valley's exit.

"You're not bad."

Yan Jing looked at the man with the Anchor Tattoo on his arm and smiled. "Which sea group do you belong to?"

"Reporting to Milord, the Cultivator sea group."

The man hurriedly cupped his fists and bowed.

"A good place. What is your name?"

Yan Jing asked with a smile.

"This lowly one is named Xishun," the man reported, offering a name that completely mismatched his bulky physique.

Yan Jing nodded. "A good name. How did you get in here?"

"My father was once the Commander of the Third Regiment in the East Lake Prefecture. During the war between the East and West Lake Prefectures, he defied orders and led the Third Regiment to retreat. The higher-ups held him accountable for desertion, and I was implicated along with him," Xishun stammered slightly.

He had profoundly experienced just how powerful that surge of energy within his body had been a moment ago.

Facing Yan Jing now, his heart was filled with terror. He didn't care whether the man before him even knew what the East Lake Prefecture or the East-West War was.

Yan Jing nodded. "Understood."

Shortly after, he brought over Ning Wei, who had been waiting at the cliff edge for quite some time.

"Let's go."

Yan Jing said, taking the lead as he walked forward.

"I thought you would use this gorge to refine your body."

Ning Wei remarked.

Others might not be able to do it, but the Yan Jing standing before him could definitely reap benefits from this Thunder Valley.

Yan Jing shook his head. "There isn't much meaning to it."

He wasn't in his original body. Even if he increased the physical strength of Wen Xu's vessel, it wouldn't feed back into his true self. It would only be a waste of time.

Currently, the Tier and strength of his other identities would gradually rise to match his original body's level. As far as he was concerned, he only needed to focus on improving his main body's power. As for what the system meant by "helping other identities find their future paths," he still didn't have any clues.

Right now, the most pressing matter was to thoroughly investigate this God Storage Land as quickly as possible.

The group continued forward, and the mountainous terrain ahead gradually widened from its earlier narrowness.

After walking for several hundred meters, Yan Jing stopped and looked at the mountain wall beside him.

A highly inconspicuous depression could be seen on the right-side rock face. At the far end of this depression, just like elsewhere along the road, grew several extremely dense, large trees.

Yan Jing stepped forward. Through the gaps between the tree trunks, a pitch-black cave entrance was revealed in the back.

"This should be the 'exit' mentioned on the map."

Ning Wei said.

He frowned and peered inside, but it was completely dark. He couldn't make out any specific details at all.

After discussing it with Yan Jing for a moment, he woke the man whom Yan Jing had knocked out earlier and said, "You can go."

The man stared at the cave entrance before him in a daze.

Once he realized that the two men in front of him were genuinely going to let him go, he was overjoyed. Looking back every three steps, he squeezed past the tree trunks and entered the so-called "exit."

Not long after the man disappeared into the cave, Ning Wei gently lifted his fingertips. Gurgling streams of translucent matter surfaced in the surrounding air. Unlike the remnant souls he had summoned before, this resembled a fluid—an energy completely distinct from Weird Energy.

Soul substance.

In the history of the Wizard Tribe, there had also been Wizards who excelled in the power of the soul. Through Wen Xu's memories, Yan Jing had already figured out the Pathway of Ning Wei before him.

[Soul Tether]

A Pathway adept in the power of the soul.

It was exceedingly niche.

Compared to a more widely distributed Soul Pathway like [Ten Thousand Souls], the advantage of this Pathway was that, although it was significantly weaker in terms of the soul, it didn't require abandoning the physical body.

A few seconds later, Ning Wei frowned and shook his head. "It's a bit strange."

"His soul substance has completely vanished."

"Soul substance is different from other energies. It constantly emanates. Even if he passed through this exit and went to another realm, it shouldn't have disappeared this quickly."

"By the same logic, even if he died, the soul substance he left outside earlier still shouldn't have vanished so rapidly."

"It's as if... something followed his soul substance out and devoured every last bit of it."

And yet, he hadn't sensed the existence of any such thing.

That was the strangest part of it all.

Hearing this, Yan Jing pondered for a moment before nodding. "Let's go."

He had a few theories, but they still required verification.

The group continued forward. After walking for another few kilometers, their field of vision narrowed once again. Only after they passed through a long corridor did the space suddenly open up into a vast expanse.

What appeared before them was an endless wilderness. At the far end of this wilderness stood an indescribably massive volcano.

It was like a chimney bridging heaven and earth. Even though they were several thousand meters away, its dark red peak still occupied the majority of their vision, piercing straight into the dense underbelly of the clouds.

Its broad base sprawled across half the wilderness. Orange-red magma spread from top to bottom like blood vessels, gurgling as it flowed.

A massive, deafening rumble echoed over The Plains, and the mountain's body trembled continuously.

The volcano before them was no dead mountain range. That rumbling was the exact prelude to an impending eruption.

"Let's rest for today."

Watching the veil of night gradually fall before them, Yan Jing spoke softly.

The group found a low-lying depression in the terrain and began to make camp on the spot.

Amidst the darkening sky, that distant volcano seemed to become the sole existence between heaven and earth. Its orange-red glow cascaded downward, casting a brilliant radiance over the wilderness.

"What are the hints on the map?"

Ning Wei looked toward Yan Jing.

Yan Jing pulled out the map and laid it in front of Ning Wei.

"The magma mountain erupts once a day. At that time, the magma will drown everything in its surroundings at a terrifying speed, lasting for several full hours. At the peak of the magma mountain, there are two magma vents. One can be used to refine artifacts, while the other can be used to leave the God Storage Land. Within the magma rivers of the magma mountain, there are treasures left behind by predecessors that you can attempt to salvage, but beware of magma fish."

"Do not spend the night at the foot of the magma mountain or on the mountain itself." "We can deduce a few points now," Ning Wei said flatly. "First, the guy who wrote this definitely has an ulterior motive."

"Otherwise, he wouldn't have deliberately labeled a place that annihilates souls as an exit."

"Furthermore, the map must have been drawn after the fractured era," Yan Jing said softly. "In the Thunder Valley, he said we have to rely on corpses to cross. And for this magma vent at the peak of the magma mountain, he said it can only be used to refine artifacts."

"This shows that, in his view, none of the people who find the map later would be capable of crossing these places using their physical bodies."

Ning Wei nodded. "What's the next step?"

This God Storage Land was far more complex than it appeared, and he didn't know what it would take to thoroughly investigate it.

According to the instructions, they needed to investigate for a month before the mark would guide their return.

And now, only ten days had passed.

"Let's go up the magma mountain and have a look."

There were only three or four days left before the Dungeon began, and the final day had to be reserved for forming a team for the Dungeon. Looking out at the vast expanse of The Plains before him, Yan Jing knew it was already impossible to fully investigate the God Storage Land before then.

Thoroughly investigating the magma mountain right in front of them would have to be enough.

As for what came after, they could only take it one step at a time.

Yan Jing still remembered some of the hints from after the mission underwent its mutation.

The first was to collect divine souls.

The Inner World System stated that if they didn't hold a single divine soul in their hands, the mission would be at a disadvantage.

There were relevant records of divine souls in Wen Xu's memories; they were the remnant souls of individuals above the Tenth Tier.

A single Deity possessed roughly tens of thousands of divine souls.

However, despite having been in here for so long, Yan Jing still hadn't seen any.

This led to the second point that appeared after he used his honorary title to mutate the Dungeon.

The God Storage Land had entered its revival ahead of schedule.

Revival...

Yan Jing recalled the mysterious man he had seen earlier and felt that it might be connected to him.

There was also this map in his hands.

Yan Jing felt the mysteries surrounding this place were only piling up.

Previously, he had thought this was merely an abandoned trial ground for aberrants, but it now seemed that was only a fraction of the truth.

Deep into the night.

Yan Jing, who was sitting on the ground chatting with Xishun, suddenly stood up. Looking toward the pinpricks of firelight rising from the pitch-black wilderness in the distance, he smiled. "Let's go. They've arrived."

He ordered Xishun and the others to extinguish their campfire, and then he and Ning Wei walked toward the distant firelight.

The biting wind blew past.

Gathered firewood crackled and popped in the flames. A group of figures wearing Black Robes, their skin painted with mysterious runes, sat in a circle around the campfire, warming themselves.

—

They had all come from other regions and had already been in this wilderness for several days, fully figuring out the volcano's eruption patterns.

Compared to other regions, this was clearly a much safer location.

"I wonder how Milord is doing."

Wuercha said.

As one of the rare Fifth Tier experts within the tribe, after hearing Yan Jing's arrangements, he had resolutely taken on the task of leading his tribesmen into the God Storage Land.

"Lord Deity will be fine."

A young girl beside him spoke up. She and Wuercha were childhood sweethearts. Even though Wuercha had tried everything to stop her, she had stubbornly followed him into the God Storage Land.

"Of course."

Wuercha took a deep breath. "I'm just worried there's no one to help Milord with the menial chores."

Suddenly, the person responsible for keeping watch using Anomalous Energy Detection raised their head and whispered, "They're here."

With a whoosh , the campfire was instantly extinguished. Everyone pulled several scrolls from their pockets.

These were the paintings Yan Jing had drawn for them before coming here.

Over these past few days, the reason they had managed to survive without relying on injections was entirely thanks to these paintings.

But in the very next moment, a firelight flared to life above them.

"Wuercha."

An incredibly gentle and familiar voice rang out above their heads.

The crowd looked up, their gazes instantly freezing.

Sensing that utterly pure wizardly power, in the next second, they all dropped to one knee in unison and called out, "Milord."

"Have you seen this before?"

Yan Jing smiled as he pulled the map out of his pocket, while Ning Wei passed over a torch from the side.

By the light of the fire, everyone finally realized that several figures clad in prison uniforms were following behind Yan Jing.

Was this... had he conscripted all these people?

Truly worthy of being Milord.

Wuercha placed a hand over his chest and spoke in a deep voice, "Milord, we have one as well."

"Where did it come from?"

"We spotted it by the Glacial we came from."

The Glacial...

Yan Jing took the map Wuercha handed him and nodded inwardly.

Sure enough, this map was different from the previous one.

They had just recently conscripted a group of people, and nearly every group possessed at least one map like this. Moreover, there were slight, nuanced differences in how they were drawn.

More importantly, all of these maps had appeared not far from where everyone had initially entered.

This God Storage Land was larger than imagined.

Moreover, a mysterious entity was laying out a scheme.

Judging from the current situation, this entity might have already been inside the God Storage Land for quite some time. Perhaps... for many years.

Interesting.