Chapter 286 : Chapter 286
Chapter 286. Crushed
After Malcolm finished speaking, he wanted to admire Fulan’s current expression. He had often done this in the past, toying with the Spirit Realm wanderers he had set his sights on, then admiring the wonderful looks on their faces.
But this time, when he saw the expression on Fulan’s face, he was rather surprised. He actually saw the corners of Fulan’s mouth lift slightly, and her body was extremely relaxed.
This is wrong.
That thought flashed through Malcolm’s mind, but before he could begin to act, he heard a voice ring out.
“Everyone, move aside! We are the Security Team!”
“So that is it. You knew the Security Team would arrive at this moment, and thought they could save you?”
Malcolm believed he had seen through Fulan’s scheme.
“I am telling you, you are here right now, and I only need a few seconds to kill you with ease...”
Although Malcolm kept talking, the only response he received was the smile on Fulan’s face, which gave him a bad premonition.
“Forget it. You lot, go. Hurry up. We still have to deal with the Security Team.”
Malcolm had lost all patience. In his view, Fulan could not possibly escape death at their hands no matter what, so he no longer bothered to think deeply about the meaning behind Fulan’s smile.
Whether she was bluffing or truly had confidence, he did not care anymore. He directly ordered his subordinates to step forward and attack.
After receiving the order, one of the Yellow-Robed People strode forward and brought his sword down at Fulan. Even now, Fulan’s body still did not move at all.
“Die.”
The Yellow-Robed Man’s longsword fell. Just as he thought his blade was about to cleave into Fulan, it struck nothing at all.
Strange. What is going on? Why did it not hit? The distance I chose should have placed her right at the middle of the blade. Logically, it absolutely should have struck her.
The Yellow-Robed Man thought in confusion.
But when his gaze carefully fell upon the longsword, he saw an unbelievable sight. He saw that his longsword truly had lost half of its original length.
The longsword in his hand no longer looked like a sword at all. It had not even shortened into something like a dagger.
Instead, the forward portion had collapsed backward, and the entire blade had turned into a square lump.
Only now did he realize that he himself could not move at all. His gaze, fixed upon the longsword, could only watch as the metal on it retreated toward him.
First, it swallowed the hilt, drawing the wooden grip into that lump of metal. He could see wood-grained patterns appearing across the metal’s surface.
Then, under his terrified gaze, the solid mass advanced directly toward his hand. The moment it touched him, he felt a pain so unbearable that he could hardly endure it.
His eyes were forced shut by the pain, and several tears flowed out. That pain was like needles stabbing into his eyes.
But after only a short while, he discovered that the pain had abruptly vanished. When he opened his eyes against the lingering ache, he saw a sight that terrified him even more.
And his mouth was actually able to slowly open under that tremendous pressure.
Because he saw his arm, which had already lost all feeling, slowly being devoured by that solid mass. He could see the surface of the solid mass flowing as if it were alive, swallowing him...
And as the solid mass devoured him, it became stained with white, yellow, and red, while also slowly growing larger.
Malcolm looked at the scene before him and could hardly breathe.
He had never seen such a sight before. In the past, he had encountered many enemies he had been completely unable to deal with, but none of those enemies had ever given him this kind of terror.
He had imagined that when he encountered an enemy, he might be killed instantly, or slowly tortured by the enemy before finally returning to the Material Realm.
Neither of those two deaths was anywhere near as shocking as the scene before his eyes.
He saw one Yellow-Robed Man shrink into a small ball in an instant, with no life left in him. Two nearby Yellow-Robed Men stuck together, and although they struggled desperately, it was still useless. Another Yellow-Robed Man could only watch as he was swallowed by a longsword...
Throughout this entire process, he did not hear even the slightest sound. The entire scene was terrifyingly silent.
His pupils contracted to their limit. His body trembled. His hand desperately tried to lift his weapon, yet no matter what, he could not raise it.
Suddenly, a heart-piercing pain came from his right hand, causing several beads of sweat to emerge on his forehead.
That pain vanished in an instant, and with it came the sound of something falling to the floor.
When he used the corner of his eye to look at the scene before him, what he saw made his heart tremble.
His right hand had already swollen into a ball. Its surface showed the texture of red flesh and bone, and it no longer had the shape of its original palm at all.
Below him lay the Sun Domain’s Spirit Realm Guide Item, which he had been holding in his palm moments ago. His hand was gone, so this Spirit Realm Guide Item had fallen to the floor.
At this point, how could he still fail to understand who had done all of this?
Only Fulan would need this Spirit Realm Guide Item, so she had deliberately preserved it and prevented it from fusing with his body.
It seemed the other party did not want him to have even the slightest chance to destroy this Spirit Realm Guide Item, Malcolm thought wildly.
He saw a hand pick up that fiery-red Spirit Realm Guide Item, then wave it at him.
“Goodbye.”
He heard the other party say this.
In that instant, his body could no longer maintain its balance. He fell backward, losing consciousness almost immediately.
But before he lost consciousness, he keenly sensed that his body was curling inward.
Fulan looked at the mixture of flesh, blood, and yellow robes on the ground and felt somewhat nauseated.
Even she had not expected these things to look so “special” once they were paired with yellow as a base color.
The scene remained silent for a while, until the sound of footsteps rang out. Then came the sound of something being pushed aside, and only after that did a voice speak.
“Hello, guest. We are the Security Team of Heart Lake Market. Thank you...”
That member of the Security Team glanced at the disgusting things on the ground and forced down the urge to retch before continuing.
“Thank you for your assistance in helping us deal with these thugs. Afterward, we will revoke the trading privileges of the thug who traded with you, allowing you to retrieve your belongings.”
“Hm?” Fulan was somewhat puzzled. “Did I not kill him? Those Spirit Crystals should have been taken back to the Material Realm.”
The member of the Security Team glanced at the floor beside him, then continued answering.
“Logically, that would be the case. But this is a Spirit Realm market. With the Spirit Realm’s blessing, we can alter the state of transactions.”
“With the Spirit Realm’s blessing, we activated the Spirit Realm’s protection ritual. Before this ritual ends, everyone can only leave through designated exits. That includes death.”
“Although these thugs have already died, all their personal assets will be intercepted and retained by us...”
Fulan understood as well. The general meaning was that this Spirit Realm market truly had something capable of rolling back transactions.
Based on what the other party said, not only would she obtain this Spirit Realm Guide Item, she could also retrieve those Spirit Crystals.
At this point, how could she still fail to understand that the defenses of every Spirit Realm market were practically impregnable, with no way to begin attacking them.
As long as this protection ritual or other defensive measures were activated, those people could not even dream of bringing a single milligram of Spirit Crystals back to the Material Realm.
Thinking about it this way, the Lord of Radiance had still been far too powerful. He had directly pierced through Emerald Market’s defensive measures in one strike.
And he had taken back almost all the Spirit Crystals stored within Emerald Market, leaving not even the slightest opportunity for those inside Emerald Market who wanted to take advantage of the situation to make some money.
This caused Emerald Market to still have no reopening date even now, making people wonder whether it was about to close down.
Those Yellow-Robed People had clearly also heard the news that Emerald Market had been robbed so miserably.
Their minds turned, and they felt that if someone else could rob a market, why could they not do the same?
Thus, greed drove them to try their luck at Heart Lake Market. This time, their target had not actually been Heart Lake Market’s storeroom, but the goods being transported by one of Heart Lake Market’s major clients.
They had originally wanted to test the waters this time, but they had not expected their very first attempt to end with their entire force being wiped out.
Now, all these Yellow-Robed People had been placed on Heart Lake Market’s blacklist. From now on, these people would no longer be able to enter Heart Lake Market.
This was the specific situation Fulan learned from Nora after returning to the Material Realm.
“Why is it that every time I take you to the Spirit Realm, something bad has to happen?” Nora was in an awful mood.
Anyone who ran into this kind of thing twice while visiting a market would not be in a good mood.
“It was just bad luck. Maybe nothing will happen the next time I go up there.”
Fulan defended herself, then said,
“In any case, I have already bought guide items to other markets. Next time, even if Heart Lake Market does not open, I will not need you to keep taking me there.”
Nora glanced at Fulan and also felt that blaming everything on Fulan was not very fair. After all, these incidents were far too large.
No matter how one looked at it, they did not seem like something a small mage like Fulan could be involved in.
“Fine... Did you buy the materials from those magical beasts?”
Seeing Nora ask about Fulan’s original purpose in going to the Spirit Realm, Fulan chose to answer honestly.
“I bought all the basic materials. I also went to the Adventurers’ Guild and posted commissions for all the materials I could need at the first tier. It is just that for the second-tier fishman I wanted, the receptionist said there was no way.”
“That is normal. Those fishmen are all in the deep sea. If someone truly catches one, it will be reserved by someone else before it can even be transported to a harbor. If you really want to find one, you can almost only go to the deep sea yourself.”
Fulan fell into thought, then said,
“I will think about it later. After all, I still have not learned basic modification surgery yet. I have to practice first.”
Hearing this, Nora could not help rolling her eyes at Fulan. She had not even practiced the basics properly, yet she was already rushing to buy materials.