"Return to the trial?"

Ding Zhensi asked in confusion, "That doesn't seem reasonable, like we're not on some leisure vacation.

Judging from the description in the diary, even for the Hero Team where Theresa and others are, the process of completing the trial was arduous and painful.

It's impossible to feel guilty for not bringing Ken·Jones along last time,

and then return to the Sacred Mountain after a while to clear the trial again with Ken·Jones this time."

"It indeed doesn't seem reasonable."

Li Ang nodded and said, "The reason for their return is likely related to the wishes they made twice.

Though we don't know what they wished for, one thing is certain, Theresa encountered an accident during her second return to the Sacred Mountain.

She either actively or passively remained here until the end of her life."

Li Ang pointed to the wooden bed, calmly saying, "The living atmosphere in this room is quite dense,

The fireplace has been used frequently, and the pillowcases have signs of long-term washing and wear.

She lived here for a long time, relying on those two Arm Aggregations to provide food during the period."

"Arm Aggregation?"

Ding Zhensi turned his head towards the two distorted creatures at the door and in the hallway, showing a strange expression, "What the heck are these,

they can't be a human transformation project..."

"Let me see."

Li Ang stepped forward, touched the Farmer-type Arm Aggregation lying at the door, extending plant fibers to pierce its skin,

melted the plant threads shortly afterward, withdrew his hand, and did the same to the Arm Aggregation in the hallway.

After probing with Swamp God Power, Li Ang stood up slowly, saying, "They are partially human."

"Partially human?"

Ding Zhensi asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the Shadow Monster in the Underground Palace?"

Li Ang raised his chin towards a bundle made with a retractable net carried by the Kui Ox mecha's back, casually saying, "Similar to the Shadow Monster, these two Arm Aggregations are also artificial creatures.

The materials are human and magical beast limbs."

Liu Wu Dai frowned and asked, "Are you saying the Shadow Monster and Arm Aggregations were made by the same person?"

"I rather think it's two groups, using similar bio-modification techniques, each created them."

Li Ang cautiously said, "The craftsmanship of the Shadow Monster is clearly superior, without dissection you can't see the seams,

compared to that creature, these two Arm Aggregations seem like clumsy imitations.

Of course, the term clumsy is relative here,

the Arm Aggregations have survived here for at least fifty years, showing no signs of completely breaking down — somewhat like necromancy."

Ding Zhensi frowned, "Necromancy? Isn't Theresa a priest?"

"Why couldn't a priest use necromancy,"

Li Ang casually said, "The highest realm of Divine Arts, revive the dead, flesh and bone,

isn't essentially different from necromancy that twists life and death, maintaining cycles.

Moreover, healing spells are indeed suitable for bio-modification techniques."

While speaking, Li Ang released spiritual energy towards the fainting Arm Aggregation, scanning its memory.

Ordinarily, a level four mentalist wouldn't dare to casually delve into other creatures, especially artificial ones' minds,

fearing their chaotic and disorderly mind pulling themselves in, losing their own sense of self.

However, Li Ang, having already ascended to demigod status in another field, possesses an iron-strong psyche, leaving no need for excessive caution.

After an inspection, Li Ang's brows furrowed, withdrawing his mental tendrils.

The Arm Aggregation's brain has clear seams,

low intelligence, chaotic mind, and disordered memory,

aside from some pre-set programs (farming crops, cleaning floors, patrolling floors, guarding its master),

it merely holds a small fraction of fragmented memory fragments, barely providing some useful information.

Liu Wu Dai acknowledged Li Ang as a mentalist, asking, "What did you see?"

"Some fragments,"

Li Ang slowly responded, "The memory capacity of the Arm Aggregations is poor, only remembering particularly profound impressions.

The first scene is when they were created — they saw Theresa, who appeared to be in her twenties, and naturally felt submission towards her. The specific scene isn't this room but the room where I was teleported to, the one containing Iron Maiden instruments, surrounded by severed limbs and blood. Theresa wore an eerie smile on her face.

The second scene, Theresa, around her thirties, already residing in this room, suddenly went mad, tearing up a diary, burning the fragments,

The third scene, Theresa, older, still within this room, using her nails to cut into her palm."

"Does that mean the actions of creating the Arm Aggregations, destroying the diary, and harming her palm were done by Theresa herself?"

Ding Zhensi pondered, saying, "Got mentally broken from being trapped here for so long?" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"It might also be due to the effects of the wish granted."

Li Ang rubbed his palms casually saying, "Let's not worry about it now, we've gathered all the room's information, let's continue exploring.

Theresa and the Shadow Monster undoubtedly have some connection.

The events transpiring about them are definitely closely linked to the conditions for clearing this mission script.

Fortunately, Theresa stayed in this room for a long time, delegating all tasks to these two Arm Aggregations,

I just need to..."

Li Ang released the mental suppression exerted upon the Arm Aggregations,

activated [Sensory Invasion] and [Suggestion],

prompting the two Arm Aggregations to gradually rise.

"Take us along the safe path, heading upstairs."

Li Ang uttered a command, and the two Arm Aggregations immediately moved forward, rushing down the hallway.

"I made them perceive me as Theresa herself."

Li Ang explained to his two companions while following the Arm Aggregations, "Within their bodies is an instinct to navigate the various floors,

able to actively avoid potentially dangerous rooms.

Their movement speed is faster than if we were to explore ourselves."

The three players strode through the hallways and rooms, leaving directional symbols along the way while consistently calling Hoenhem and others on the walkie-talkie broadcast channel.

The Sacred Mountain's entire internal building isn't strictly designed following modern architectural concepts, with no strict division between layers,

floor heights vary in different areas, sometimes leading to nesting and overlapping between floors.

Li Ang and the others climbed upwards for about twenty minutes using hallways, stairs, and tunnels,

finally stopping at a red-carpeted hallway where the muscle memory of the Arm Aggregations ceased — the furthest distance they've been before.

Going further would push beyond the Arm Aggregations' cognitive range.

"They can only come this far."

Li Ang snapped his fingers, allowing the two exhausted Arm Aggregations to return on their own, then turned to look at the corridor ahead, "The vertical height we've just climbed is approximately 537 meters. Along the way, we didn't see anything unusual,

like, any creatures."

"Isn't that quite normal?"

Ding Zhensi said, "The Holy Mountain has been sealed for at least fifty years. As we came, many of the traps in the rooms had already been completely damaged due to disrepair over the years.

Even if there were living creatures here before, they surely must have died long ago."

"That's not what he's talking about."

Liu Wu Dai spoke softly, "Even if the creatures here died because the buildings of the Holy Mountain fell into disrepair, what about their bodies?

What about the bodies of the past heroes?

If the sudden halt of the Holy Mountain was caused by the Shadow Monsters plundering the Holy Mountain Gate Stone,

the teleportation halos would have shut down, isolating the interior and exterior of the Holy Mountain,

then the heroes who were in the Holy Mountain at the time should have been trapped here to death, just like Theresa.

But as we walked all this way, we haven't seen any remains of heroes or other creatures."

"Wait,"

Ding Zhensi's face showed a strange expression, "Could it be that those bodies were used by Theresa as raw materials to create the Arm Aggregations..."

"It's possible."

Li Ang was about to continue speaking,

when he heard crackling noises coming from the walkie-talkie.

"Hello... Can you... hear...?"

David's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

Li Ang squinted his eyes, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said in a deep voice, "I can. This is Li Rising. I've already regrouped with Ding Zhensi and Miss Liu. Where are you?"

Sizzling——

The walkie-talkie was filled with piercing noise, and David's voice came intermittently and was unclear, "I'm in... Room... Monster... Sign..."

It was inaudible.

Li Ang's expression remained unchanged, and he directly gave up on attempting to continue communication through the walkie-talkie channel.

While the communication was not completely severed, he took the walkie-talkies from Liu Wu Dai and Ding Zhensi, pressed the button (to save on walkie-talkie battery consumption, only one of Li Ang's was turned on just now),

and placed the other two walkie-talkies at the far end of the corridor.

The communication range of the walkie-talkies is a very wide spherical space,

since they couldn't ascertain David's location through verbal communication,

the only option was to use triangulation to pinpoint the exact location of David's walkie-talkie.

Li Ang's move was immediately understood by Liu Wu Dai and Ding Zhensi,

each holding a walkie-talkie, the three of them moved along the corridor, up and down,

finally, before the signal was completely lost, using whether there was noise from David in the walkie-talkies as the standard, they locked onto David's direction through triangulation.

"Roughly diagonally upwards, let's go."

Li Ang put away the walkie-talkie, and the three team members set off in a fierce dash.

In the buildings of the Holy Mountain, there was also a restriction against using summoning skills,

but fortunately, the players moved swiftly, and all the rooms that should have had mechanical traps were ineffective due to disrepair over the years,

the path was relatively smooth, they sped along like the wind.

"I remember Hoenhem said the walkie-talkie's communication range is 10km, right?"

Ding Zhensi controlled the Kui Ox Mecha, running as he spoke, "10km in diameter, meaning a 5km radius, how much further do we need to run?"

"Maybe not as far as we think,"

Li Ang said, "A 5km radius is the theoretical maximum communication distance,

some other factors might also affect communication stability.

Such as the building materials in the Underground Palace that could devour sound and energy,

and spatial spells that could stretch space — this [Lightning Eleven Walkie-Talkie] after all, is just an excellent quality communication tool, and it's even part of a combination set,

the mysterious degree of a single tool might be even lower.

It can't resist so many external factors..."

The three of them turned a corner, and in the T-shaped corridor ahead, they suddenly saw a pattern drawn in spray paint on the ground.

The pattern was a large red arrow pointing to the left of the T-shaped corridor,

at the edge of the arrow pattern, spray paint droplets had accumulated, along with the engraved name of David.

"David's mark."

Ding Zhensi's eyes lit up, "He actually thought of marking his route to his teammates with patterns when communication was cut off, just like us."

Should it be said, he's worthy of being in the same first-tier player as Li Rising? Even the way of thinking when tackling scenarios is quite similar.

"The spray paint hasn't completely dried yet,"

Li Ang wiped the spray paint on the ground with his fingers, glanced around, and saw similar patterns on the corridor floor in the direction before and after the arrow, "He should be nearby, let's go."

————

Rumble!!

Countless thunderbolts rained down like raindrops,

David fled desperately through the gaps in the lightning, the Judgement Spear in his hand radiating dazzling golden light, attracting the bucket-thick thunderbolts from the sky, preventing them from striking him.

At this moment, his location was approximately in a space filled with brilliant starlight.

The ground, walls, and ceiling were all covered with twinkling starlight.

David stood on the lowest level of the space, diagonally above him was a majestic and towering Mage Tower.

The Mage Tower was built from dark green stone, studded with countless gems, and carved with densely packed arrays of unknown functions,

around it, numerous Crystal Floating Cannons hovered, and from time to time, they would light up and release thunderbolts, aiming at the David below.

At the top of the Mage Tower, there hung a Dark Throne forged from black metal. A towering man sat in the throne, resting his head on his arm,

although his face couldn't be seen clearly, his lazy demeanor was easy to imagine.

Rumble!

Thunderbolts shot out, almost tearing the sky apart,

David was hit by a bolt, his upper clothing charred and torn apart,

his skin cracked and bled profusely.

"Ugh!"

David spat out a mouthful of blood, not hastening to heal his wounds, but quickly stuffing the walkie-talkie back into his pocket.

His body experienced real and profound pain, as if his brain had been immersed in boiling hot water, the stabbing pain was unbearable, yet David didn't pause for a moment, continuing to flee desperately through the raging thunderbolts.

The man atop the Mage Tower, seeing David's sorry state, smiled slightly, waving his hand to unleash more lightning.