My Misfortune Crushed Instances-Chapter 172: Clues and the Soul-Splitting Yin Evil Curse Talisman
Crackle, bang, boom!
Li Rui was level 25, while the Secret Realm of Peach Blossom Spring was for levels 21-25.
To the monsters here, he was the boss.
Moreover, possibly the kind of overpowered boss that couldn't be defeated at all.
Watching those spirit monster resentful spirits and living corpses fall one by one in the mine, Hea Yang's mind was already in chaos.
Just at this moment, he heard Li Rui shouting.
"Don't just stand there, get involved!!"
For these quest events, if you don't put in any effort, you'll be deemed as passive and won't receive rewards.
Hea Yang was jolted awake from his daze, quickly took out some damage items from his inventory, and threw them at the enemy group.
He was level 21 and didn't dare rush into such a large wave of monsters.
After a battle that wasn't very difficult, these Yin Sha were cleared away.
[Main Quest Update, Five-Colored Cave 1/1.]
Li Rui put away the Big Black Umbrella.
"Wait for me, I'm going to pick up the quest items."
A side quest required an item drop from one of the elite monsters, Li Rui had to go back to collect it.
He searched the ground for quite a while and finally saw a faint light at the mine exit. He walked over and collected the item, turned around, and found the cave was still chillingly cold.
Spirit monsters are creatures nurtured by Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, not to mention the Forest Spirit tribe; these vegetation naturally had spirits. Even earth spirits and stone spirits were legitimate life forms.
The entire cave was filled with dead creatures, and the resentment here probably wouldn't dissipate anytime soon.
"However... how was the initial evil spirit formed?"
"Could it be transformed from spirit monsters that died unexpectedly? But normally, regular Forest Spirits seldom form resentful spirits."
As Li Rui pondered, he casually opened Blood Eye to take a look.
At this glance, he did notice something unusual.
"Come over here."
He called Hea Yang over, leading him back into the cave, stopping in front of an indentation in the stone wall seen from the entrance.
"Bro, what's up?"
Hea Yang had no resistance now, clearing a third of the main quest in just two hours, this Secret Realm was steady as can be.
Standing before the stone wall, Li Rui activated the Shenxiao Thunderbolt Heart Scripture, unleashed a Thunderbolt Palm, only to see the previously standing wall crumble like mist, revealing a deep entrance.
"This is some kind of illusion." Hea Yang felt amazed.
Li Rui nodded, opened the Blue Silver Lamp Ring to illuminate, and led the way inside.
Beyond the illusion was a stone chamber, round on top and square below, with smooth walls, as if cut with sharp blades complemented by powerful cultivation.
Around three of the walls were chains, suspending three bodies, not Forest Spirits, but humans.
The bodies were already desiccated but not decomposed, chains piercing through their chests and tied into a knot in the center of the chamber.
A blood-red talisman adhered to the knot, covered with incomprehensible symbols that made one's scalp tingle, as if a single glance would blow one's mind.
"Back up, if anything feels wrong, just run."
Li Rui said, waiting for Hea Yang to retreat out of the stone chamber before approaching himself, activating the Shenxiao Thunderbolt Heart Scripture, peeling off the talisman with a Thunderbolt Palm.
"Ah——"
A piercing shriek resonated within the chamber, as if to pierce the ear drums.
Li Rui cautiously activated Blood Eye, saw nothing but felt the room cool considerably.
At the same time, he received a prompt.
[Search for Clue: 1/4.]
?
Li Rui blinked.
What kind of bull is this, asking me to search without any explanation? The guide didn't mention this.
He scanned around, spending ten minutes searching the chamber, found no clues, only the talisman scraped off by Thunderbolt Palm, intact without fragmenting.
Picking it up, he discovered it was something storable in the inventory.
[Soul-Splitting Yin Evil Curse Talisman (Damaged)]
[Description: If filled with items containing abundant Spiritual Power, it might be repaired.]
Abundant Spiritual Power?
Li Rui directly dragged a strengthening material onto it, realized the material was indeed consumed, and the talisman showed a progress bar.
0/100.
"A 25-level ordinary strengthening material couldn't even push 1% of the progress?"
Li Rui muttered, unperturbed, because his inventory was brimming, not feeling a pinch.
Ding.
He threw another batch in, the strengthening progress reached 3%.
Seeing potential, he threw in a vast amount of strengthening materials, knowing they were just piling up otherwise.
Finally, the progress bar filled to 100%, revealing a new item.
[Soul-Splitting Yin Evil Curse Talisman.] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
[Type: Item.]
[Rarity: Epic.]
[Effect: Tear soul apart, convert to Evil Qi, producing a wicked flame to devour surrounding creatures. Note 1: Wicked flame's effect is related to soul strength. Note 2: Can only affect deceased souls. Note 3: Effective on targets below level 50.]
[Usage: 1/1.]
[Eternal: No.]
Li Rui frowned.
In summary, you must first kill a target and then blast its soul, the resulting strength related to the deceased's level.
However, with such stringent usage conditions, the power should be considerable. In any case, having it is better than not, I'll keep it.
Exiting the stone chamber, he looked at Hea Yang: "Did you get any new prompts?"
"Prompts? No, none at all."
Hea Yang shook his head in bewilderment.
Li Rui thought perhaps he hadn't put in enough effort, otherwise, he should've received the clue collection task, what a pity.
The pair completely left the mine, running towards the Cold Pool, along the way as per the Daffodil Spirit's requirement, they found its sibling's remains, which was a garlic patch that had grown into a large clump.
"Find the biggest one in the center and bring it back for him."
The pair spent several minutes searching and dug up the garlic patch's ancestor.
"Next target, Cold Pool speedrun, quickly drink potions and heal if needed!"
Li Rui gulped down Spirit Recovery Potions vigorously, Hea Yang also hurriedly replenished status, and after a few more minutes, they ran along the mountain path to the next task location.
.....
Superpower Division Headquarters.
In Minister Zhuo Feilong's office, apart from himself, several other high-ranking members of the Superpower Division were present.
"Everyone, I just received news that Chen Changming, Qingwen Province's head of Profound Spirit Association, encountered Zuo Qiutian and another mysterious figure during clearance, was overpowered and killed, fortunately without soul dissipation, only suffered some consciousness damage."
He said, "From the data, the frequency of the merging of real-world NPC activity aligns with increased overlap with current reality, we need to analyze the correlation, which concerns the safety of our world."
"Additionally, we must focus on researching strategies to combat world NPCs, preventing Secret Realm agents, especially high-level combatants, from suffering losses, learn from past lessons, and adapt to current circumstances, and promptly find more effective countermeasures."
One person said: "Minister Zhuo, I remember the Silent Forest incident involved that rising agent named Li Rui, right? Since he managed to rescue someone from Zuo Qiutian, could there be valuable experience to learn from?"
"That's right, Brother Feilong, why is that file still classified? I think it could be beneficial for everyone to check it."
Zhuo Feilong gestured, immediately silencing the others.
"It's just a single case, no need to place too much emphasis. Others have successfully repelled NPCs like Zuo Qiutian, better to look for solutions on a broader scale."
He said this while thinking privately.
The method of talking one's way out, not everyone can learn it, indeed.
