Abyss Sequence-Chapter 373 - 30: Changes in the Abyss

A dozen days passed in a flash, and again it was time to set off for a trade journey to Alfheim.

Trucks from the Pension Association, Bao Han Company, and the Crimson No.2 Merchant were already waiting at the checkpoint. Yan Luo drove an armored vehicle slowly towards them.

The Abyss Academy had started its term early, so Wang Lingyu, as an ordinary student, had to stay on Blue Star to study and couldn’t join Yan Luo and the others on their journey to Alfheim.

Fortunately, she was quite understanding and didn’t make much of a fuss.

[Everyone, please check if all your team members are present.]

Helena’s voice echoed in the team channel.

Although Yan Luo had rejoined the group, Helena was still the captain of the convoy escort team.

After all, Yan Luo wasn’t familiar with these matters, so it was more appropriate for Helena, who was familiar with these tasks, to lead.

On this matter, Helena indeed did well.

This time on their journey to Alfheim, there were no special tasks; both Sasa and Yan Luo would be traveling with the group.

Sasa planned to focus on studying the demons of Alfheim, analyzing how Blue Star might evolve based on the condition of those creatures.

Yan Luo had informed Sasa about the increasing materialization of the Abyss, which was the main reason for Sasa’s research on demons during this trip.

Once headcount was completed, the convoy set off, entering the Crimson Abyss.

Hunters passing by inquired whether they could join the convoy to Alfheim, expressing their wish to see it.

With the decision-making power, Helena thought for a moment before deciding to refuse.

She wasn’t sure if the other hunters were Abyssal Believers or what they might do in Alfheim. Without being able to control them like her own members, Helena refused their request.

The passing hunters expressed regret.

They were truly curious about the elves and wanted to visit Alfheim to satisfy their curiosity.

The convoy passed through the Abyss Entrance, entering the Crimson Abyss.

They encountered no demons until reaching the designated location to open the space portal.

However, just as they were preparing to open the portal, the light falling from the sky turned from red to white, suddenly bathing the Crimson Abyss in daylight.

Yan Luo, not using the filter mode of his goggles, noticed this immediately and rolled down the window to look outside.

"What’s going on?" Sasa, sitting in the passenger seat, asked in confusion.

"Turn off the filter and you’ll see."

Hearing this, Sasa’s curiosity was piqued. She turned off the filter mode and immediately noticed the Crimson Abyss had become as bright as day.

Sasa widened her eyes, "What on earth is happening?"

Nobody knew why the Crimson Abyss had transformed in this way. The last time it turned to daylight, it lasted only a few seconds, but this time the change persisted longer.

Logically, such a situation should not occur because the Abyss was merely a testing ground provided by a higher civilization to a lower one.

The testing ground, remnants from the knowledge of a vanished civilization, shouldn’t display such abrupt changes.

This time, the daylight lasted for about a minute, then the Crimson Abyss returned to its original state.

— The change lasted too long!

Yan Luo furrowed his brows as Helena’s inquiry reached his ears.

[Yan Luo, should we continue to Alfheim?]

"Of course, we should go," Yan Luo answered immediately, "With the changes happening in the Abyss, the elves might have experienced similar things. We can obtain some related information from them. Even if it requires exchanging with Blue Star’s technological knowledge, we must acquire it!"

The changes in the Abyss could harm Blue Star, so Yan Luo had to figure out what was happening.

[Understood.]

With Yan Luo’s decisive response, Helena informed the entire group: [The plan remains unchanged. We’ll continue to Alfheim!]

Sasa took out the Jade to open the space portal for the convoy.

Members of the Red Rose Warband, acting as escorts, drove their armored vehicles in first, followed by the trucks one by one.

Once all the other vehicles had passed through the portal, Yan Luo started his armored vehicle and proceeded towards it. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It was then that his sharp eyes caught a few grains of sand on the central control panel.

Yan Luo immediately asked Sasa to collect those grains of sand, intending to send them for analysis upon returning to Blue Star.

There was no sand in the Dark Forest, as the area’s underground water resources were abundant, making soil erosion unlikely.

There were no traces of fire line pythons in the vicinity, so the presence of sand was impossible.

Yan Luo had an intuition — these grains of sand might have come from ’elsewhere.’

It couldn’t be Alfheim because he had already closed the car window before opening the space portal.

It was from ’elsewhere,’ belonging neither to the Crimson Abyss nor to Alfheim!

Hearing Yan Luo’s account, Sasa fell into contemplation.

Yan Luo’s intuition was usually spot-on, not due to premonitions but by deducing ’unknown information’ from the existing clues.

In short, Yan Luo could infer things based on known information that he hadn’t consciously realized.

Perhaps it was the wind passing by his ears, a scent tickling his nose, or sunlight shining down from the sky — factors that his sensory system subconsciously gathered and chemically reacted with certain knowledge in his mind, leading him to believe these sand grains originated from elsewhere.

"...other Abyss?" Sasa murmured to herself.

Yan Luo’s mind was filled with knowledge about the Abyss. He was thoroughly familiar with the Crimson Abyss and had extensive knowledge of other abysses as well.

If Yan Luo claimed to be the person who knew the most about the Abyss in this world, everyone else could only come second.

Even those professors who had studied the Abyss for decades knew less about it than Yan Luo did.

His mind was like an encyclopedia of the Abyss; thus, there was a basis for his judgment that the sand grains came from elsewhere.

Hearing Sasa mutter to herself, Yan Luo’s mind quickly churned, leading him to a conclusion.

"The abysses with desertified areas include the Scorching Sun Abyss, Nether Abyss, Flame Prison Abyss, and Barbaric Abyss. Anything from the Nether Abyss carries a chilling aura, so it didn’t come from there; the wind from the Barbaric Abyss has a fishy smell, so it’s not from there either; it could have come from the Scorching Sun Abyss or the Flame Prison Abyss."

Why did Yan Luo believe the sand came from another abyss?

Because, in his impression, the Abyss was a ’space-weak’ area, and he couldn’t use the Jade to open a space portal anywhere else on Blue Star — only near the Abyss could he do it.

Considering this, Yan Luo raised an eyebrow, "Could the Abyss be ’fusing’?"

Yan Luo drove the armored vehicle at the tail-end of the convoy as a rear guard.

While he pondered these issues, the convoy was approaching Gass City.

Hearing Yan Luo’s words, Sasa said, "You might be onto something. When we get back to Blue Star, let’s tell the others about this so everyone can think about it together."

One person pondering an issue clearly doesn’t compare to a group thinking together — except in mathematics.

Yan Luo nodded, driving alongside the convoy as they crossed through the Gass City barrier, overtaking on the way to the city gate, and arriving at the front of the convoy.

Gass City only acknowledged Yan Luo and Sasa as the leaders of the convoy, and the Lord mainly dealt with them.

But just as they were about to drive through the gate, Sasa’s expression changed drastically, and she ducked under the dashboard.

She spotted a familiar figure at the gate. Although she hadn’t seen that face before, she was certain the elf was ’Number Two’!

"What are you doing, Sasa?" Yan Luo turned his head in confusion.

Only then did Sasa remember, she hadn’t told him that there was an elf wanting to be her mother.

Just as Yan Luo questioned Sasa, an elf stood at the front of the convoy.

The elf was a voluptuous woman with golden hair and a teardrop-shaped mole at the corner of her eye, exuding a gentle and pitiful aura.

She asked Yan Luo softly, "Excuse me, do you know where Sasa went?"

Sasa quickly raised a finger to her lips, signaling Yan Luo not to reveal her location.

Yan Luo opened his mouth, yet found himself unable to lie; he closed it, letting Helena answer instead.

[No idea.] Helena’s voice transmitted through the speaker into Yevgenia’s ears.

Yevgenia lowered her gaze, showing a melancholic expression, sighed, and stepped aside from the front of the convoy.

Only then did the convoy enter the city.