Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2680: Chapter 2681: Into the Void

At first, Kaier didn’t understand what kind of help Angel wanted, and was puzzled when he heard Angel’s voice from the front.

"Alright, this is the place."

Seeing Angel pause, Kaier also stopped his steps, turned to look around, and only then discovered that they were right at the door of the last room.

To the left was the return path to the spiral staircase, while the right was a dark void.

Kaier’s gaze naturally glanced to the left because there was only a path there; the right was already the end. But what puzzled him was that Angel did not look to the left as he had guessed, but instead signaled Kaier to pay attention to the quiet void on the right.

Kaier then looked that way.

However, after looking for a while, Kaier still couldn’t understand what Angel meant, so he opened his mouth and asked, "Sir, is there anything special here?"

Angel: "They can’t see it, but you should be able to feel it."

Other people couldn’t see it, but only I could feel it? Carrying this doubt, Kaier continued to look.

After a while, Kaier hesitantly said, "Sir, do you mean those space rifts?"

Before Angel could answer, Kaier heard Dox’s voice from beside him: "Space rifts? Are there space rifts ahead?"

"Yes, there are... Sir, be careful!" Kaier was about to answer Dox but when he looked up, he saw Dox had already walked to the end of the path, and right in front of him, there was a faint rift hidden in the silent void.

"Be careful, be careful of what?" Dox asked puzzled.

Kaier swallowed his saliva nervously and said, "Sir, in front of you... in front of you is a space rift."

Upon hearing Kaier say this, Dox instinctively prepared to take a few steps back. However, at that moment, a huge attraction force came from the front.

Dox didn’t make any effective resistance and was pulled forward by this force.

When Dox was directly drawn to the front of the space rift by attraction, he finally saw the gap thinner than a strand of hair.

Only, before he could express his surprise, he was torn apart by a ripping force.

Everyone watched helplessly as Dox’s body was torn and fell into the void...

"Sir..." Kaier looked at Angel with a complex expression.

Angel: "What, do you have doubts?"

Kaier quickly shook his head: "No, no."

Angel said calmly: "It’s quite normal to be shredded by a space rift."

Looking at Angel’s serious expression and hearing Dox angrily cursing with foul language in the mind ribbon, Kaier really didn’t know what to say.

Besides, Dox as a bloodline wizard, could his physical standards withstand the space rift; just considering Dox as an ordinary person, the situation just now was very strange.

Obviously Dox had been standing there for a while without being "sucked" by the space rift, but the moment Kaier pointed out there was a space rift ahead, Dox was immediately sucked.

It sounds as if the "space rift" consciously swallowed Dox, but the space rift itself is not conscious, and Dox was merely an illusion. What killed him was not the space rift, but the controller behind it.

No doubt, it was Angel.

Not only did Dox understand this, but everyone else did, including Dox who was "killed". Otherwise, Dox wouldn’t have been cursing in the mind ribbon.

"When the observed object changes from unknown to known, the observer’s status will also change accordingly," Angel explained earnestly, and he explained it within the mind ribbon.

What Angel said isn’t difficult to understand. In short, when the variable is still a variable, it has infinite possibilities; but when the variable becomes a known constant, all ’possibilities’ collapse, leaving only the result exhibited by the constant.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem problematic, but in the current scenario, it’s that when Dox doesn’t know there’s a space gap ahead, his status could be either alive or dead; but once he knows there’s a space rift ahead, he’s definitely dead.

This is apparently illogical.

Dox is not stupid, and naturally can hear the flaw in Angel’s words, he angrily shouted "nonsense" and then began to refute word by word.

After Dox finished refuting, Angel calmly replied, "Who told you that the observed object I mentioned is the space gap, and the observer is you?"

"To be clear, the observed object is you."

After Angel said this, the mind ribbon was silent for a moment until after ten seconds, Vay broke the silence.

"Sir means earlier you didn’t notice the space rift, so... Red can exist in the state of living, when you know there’s a space rift ahead, he will definitely die?"

It means the observer was Kaier, he revealed the fact that there’s a space gap ahead of Dox, which also informed Angel, allowing him to perfect the live illusion.

According to the initial rules set by Angel for the live illusion, life and death are linked to the true world.

What this means is, in the true world, an ’ordinary person’ standing in front of a space rift will certainly be pulled in and shredded into countless pieces. Thus, in the illusion, Dox standing in front of the space rift will of course be affected by the space rift.

However, at first, Angel didn’t detect the space rift, hence the corresponding space gap did not appear in the illusion. After Kaier pointed out the space gap ahead, Angel naturally had to fill in the missing piece of this puzzle, and once the space rift was simulated in the illusion, Dox standing closest to the rift edge got affected.

Angel nodded: "What you said is roughly correct, it can be understood this way."

Vay also showed a look of understanding: "If that’s the case, then it indeed can be explained."

Hearing the conversation between Vay and Angel, setting aside how the others reacted, Dox was still very animated: "Are you a traitor, helping him to cover it all up?"

Vay remained silent, pretending not to hear.

Dox continued: "Moreover, earlier Angel clearly said: they can’t see it, but you can perceive it."

"This means he already knew there was a space rift ahead from the start. So this was completely intentional!"

Everyone heard Angel’s words to Kaier. Dox’s rebuttal was indeed quite powerful.

Angel: "How do you know what I said could be perceived, was the space rift?"

Dox retorted: "If it wasn’t the space rift, then what did you make him perceive?"

Angel was silent for a moment: "Alright, I admit, it indeed was letting him perceive the space rift... But, the space rift he perceived, I really wasn’t aware of it."

This time Angel wasn’t lying.

After all, although he had a brain full of spatial knowledge, his practical experience with space application wasn’t much. Including aspects of spatial perception, Angel was naturally no match for Kaier who had been steeped in the space series for many years.

It was precisely because of insufficient application of space that Angel would let Kaier help instead of taking the field himself.

"Hmph, even if what you say is true, you could completely control the illusion, let me leave first, and then simulate whatever space rift." Dox thought indignantly.

This time, Angel did not refute it because he did have this thought.

"Look, I was right, right? Such a dark thought! You must recognize that his core is black!"

Dox continued to chatter nonstop in the mind ribbon, but Angel no longer responded because he directly blocked the mind ribbon.

"The world is peaceful now," Angel muttered, "should have blocked it earlier."

After muttering, Angel lifted his head and looked at Kaier, whose face was still complex with expression, "Don’t worry about him, let’s continue."

"Continue... with what?" Kaier still didn’t understand what Angel wanted his help with.

Angel: "It’s simple, scouting the path."

Angel briefly explained that scouting meant Kaier manipulating his illusion node to bypass all the space rifts and continue to penetrate deeper into the void ahead.

"...until reaching the limit."

Angel had Kaier sense the space rift earlier to determine Kaier’s level. And Kaier did not disappoint him; in spatial perception, he completely outperformed him.

Kaier’s perception accuracy was precise, but the perception distance was limited; while Angel’s perception distance was long, unfortunately, the perception wasn’t precise.

By cooperating, they could compensate for each other’s weaknesses and sense deeper areas.

Although Kaier was still unclear on the actual operation, he basically understood Angel’s intent.

However, Kaier didn’t understand...

Clearly, there’s no path here, so why does Angel want to continue exploring?

The doubt in Kaier’s heart was also the doubt of others. Kaier didn’t dare to ask, but for the Black Earl and Wise Sovereign, there were no such taboos.

"Why do you want to explore the void in this direction?"

Almost simultaneously, both the Black Earl and Wise Sovereign expressed similar ideas.

Faced with questions from the two big figures, Angel shrugged, "Nothing, just want to make a small attempt."

Make an attempt? What kind of attempt?

The Wise Sovereign instinctively wanted to ask, but remembering the joint questioning with the Black Earl earlier, he guessed that the Black Earl might ask the same question, thus stopping his words.

But to the Wise Sovereign’s surprise, the Black Earl did not continue pursuing the question as if he already knew what Angel wanted to do.

Silence lingered in the air for a few seconds. Just as Wise Sovereign pondered whether to ask, Angel had already begun coordinating with Kaier.

This immediate start was not because Angel didn’t want to reply, but because he sensed that Dox’s "corpse-running" path was nearing its end...

To prevent delays caused by disputes, Angel quickly called Kaier to start the first deep attempt.

What Angel wanted to attempt was, naturally, not simply exploring the void’s end; rather, he could feel that the resonance with the staff before lay deeper in this direction. Thus, he wanted to see what lay deeper within.

Could the Wood Spirit be in the depths?

With this question in mind, Angel began spreading illusion nodes towards the distance. Under Angel’s guidance, Kaier attached his spiritual power to the core illusion node, starting to guide the direction of its advance.

Under Kaier’s guidance, their deep exploration encountered no major difficulties.

Though inevitably, a portion of energy was lost en route, as long as they avoided space rifts, the loss wouldn’t be significant.

As they continued into roughly two hundred meters, Angel faintly sensed they were about to reach the position resonating with the staff before.

But just then, Kaier suddenly halted.

"My lord, something seems wrong," Kaier suddenly said.

Angel: "What’s the matter?"

Kaier: "The surrounding spatial energy is becoming extremely chaotic, it’s very abnormal..."

With Kaier’s explanation, Angel also sensed that the surroundings seemed peaceful, but this was merely a façade. The spatial energy roiling in the void indeed started becoming unstable.

Although the frequency of encountering space rifts hadn’t changed, the speed at which these space rifts appeared and disappeared was much faster than what they had faced before.

For instance, at this moment, Angel saw a space rift appear not far away but was soon covered by a turbulent energy field. This covering did make the space rift disappear, but the danger wasn’t resolved.

Forcibly covering a space rift would increase the frequency of space rifts forming around it, creating a ’danger zone.’ Once inside such a zone, there’s a risk of accidentally stepping into freshly formed rifts.

"My lord, do we continue forward?" Kaier inquired.

Angel pondered for a moment and, after weighing the options, decided to continue forward. Since they were already close to the resonance point, and given the previous resonance, it might indicate that beyond lay a safe zone.

Fueled by this thought, they progressed.

However, they hadn’t gone very far when a crisis unfolded.

A newly formed space rift appeared suddenly near the core node.

This sudden appearance of a rift meant that previously there had been a forcibly covered space rift nearby.

And once such a danger zone forms, it spreads rapidly.

This implied that the area surrounding them might have already become... a danger zone.

Faced with this situation, Angel contemplated whether to withdraw.

Actually, losing some illusion nodes and spirit tentacles wasn’t a big deal for him, at worst he’d feel dizzy for a few seconds, but if Kaier lost his spirit tentacles here, though it wouldn’t be fatal, his spiritual power would be affected, preventing its use for a short time.

For a Transcendent, being unable to use spiritual power is greatly impactful.

And for someone like Kaier, a scholar type, spiritual power is the ticket to exploring the microscopic world. If damaged, he would find it impossible to conduct any research shortly afterward, which would be quite distressing.

Considering this, Angel ultimately decided to withdraw.