353. Containment

However, things always take unexpected turns.

Just as Li Aoz felt he had opened the door and found a shortcut to the mission, Mirrid suddenly disappeared.

When Li Aoz woke up, the entire village was surrounded by a gloomy and decaying death aura. The original fragrance of bone broth had been replaced by the stale smell of rotting wood, and even the wooden bed he had specially brought to sleep on had become a dilapidated floor.

He immediately sensed something was wrong and got up to search the village, but he couldn't find even a single animal footprint anywhere he went.

"It's gone."

Li Aoz then turned his head and tore open a spacetime rift, instantly arriving at the mountaintop. The houses were locked, and the view was desolate. Although there had been some damage before, it was not to the point that even the ceiling was destroyed.

It was as if a century had passed in the blink of an eye.

Li Aoz's gaze darkened slightly. He lowered his head and picked up a handful of soil from the ground.

The ground was dry, not like it had rained, and there were no traces of radioactive material.

At five o'clock in the morning, the Qualia Rain had just washed everything away. He and Mirrid walked down the hillside side by side and discussed the moon.

However, when Li Aoz looked back now, the stone path had been washed away by the flash flood and was now crooked, with only a small portion remaining. It was completely different from the path he had walked on at dawn.

bass--

Li Aoz drew his crimson Curse Blade with a backhand motion and walked step by step toward the shrine gate.

Bang—creak! Li Aoz calmly kicked the door open and entered the shrine, his [Eye of Truth] scanning the surroundings.

There were no dazzling, mythical beasts here, nor any young boys or girls singing Qualia-Direction.

The empty, dilapidated Dojo exuded the scent of earth and moss. Only a skeleton sat on Prayer Mat, its head bowed, its clothes tattered, and arrows and bullets scattered at its feet, seemingly spilled from its body.

"This is..."

Li Aoz was filled with doubt. He stepped forward, raised his sword, and pried open the skull, revealing the nameplate on his chest: Miread Fenny, Head of Mount Yali Shrine. "... Mirrid?"

Li Aoz was taken aback.

Gaa gaa—

A crow cawed and flew across the treetops, and Li Aoz immediately became alert.

crow?

How could there be any living creatures in a place where it Qualia Rain?

Unless it is...

He immediately turned around, strode out of the shrine gate, and a series of footsteps immediately followed. Li Aoz his sword in one hand, ready to unleash his Aoneng at any moment.

"Go up! It's right in front of us!"

A mobile force in bright silver armor, armed with guns, quickly spread out. A masked Void Warlock spun a sixteen-sided die with one hand, creating a purple virtual cover for the warriors to set up a dense formation.

Their armor was very strange, as if the Kevlar worn by modern soldiers had been replaced with chainmail and plate armor from the era of cold weapons. Each of them wore a purple canister at their waist to charge their weapons.

But compared to their bizarre attire, Li Aoz was more concerned about the menacing aura emanating from them.

Like an airtight cloth covering the mouth and nose, the trachea trembled and shook constantly, almost unable to contract, and the air passing through brought a sharp, stinging pain.

Suffocation, the intensity of suffocation.

Ita rank (7).

Li Aoz's hand gripping the sword trembled involuntarily; his biological instincts were sounding an urgent alarm! Without exception, everyone standing here was an elite Ita-class warrior.

There were more than 30 Mobile Team soldiers. Although they had no spiritual enhancements, the mysterious and empty aura and pure biological strength they exuded already surpassed 90% of the creatures in the Abyss.

That's not all.

Li Aoz looked at several heavily armored soldiers in the crowd, their black armor making them exceptionally tall and wearing purple goggles. Their aura was even more intense and violent; it was none other than Theta.

But even so, it's still far from enough.

Li Aoz continued to look forward, his true vision penetrating the crowd. He noticed an even more terrifying aura on the mountain road behind, like a frozen giant mountain, constantly emerging from the deep sea.

Pat, pat, pat—

"It was quite a search. I never expected that such a spy could infiltrate the council. Fortunately, the Kingdom Council is incredibly capable and can find even a body that has been dead for forty years."

A dull sound rang out, and a tall, burly figure appeared in front of Li Aoz.

"What do you think? The Sealed Object —'Succubus'."

He stood with one hand on his hip, his face covered by a strange crow mask. Upon seeing Li Aoz, he immediately rested his chin on his hand, his hook-like claws pawing at it as he jokingly said:

"It seems like you've already been abandoned."

He wore armor far more exquisite and luxurious than that of ordinary soldiers, with lifelike carvings emerging from the black, openwork armor, and white feathers fluttering in the wind, further enhancing his majestic and tall figure.

However, despite his strong physique, he was a hunched-over cripple, with his left leg empty below the knee, walking by pounding the ground with his knee.

He bent down, pressing his knees to the ground, his raven feathers trembling, his gaze level with Li Aoz's.

"It's so sad that the more beautiful the person is when they're held up high, the more pitiful they become when they're discarded."

"Who... are you?"

Li Aoz spoke, asking with difficulty.

"Knight of the Kingdom Council - 7th on the High Table, ' White Crow ' Evans".

The crow-man bowed with an elegant posture.

He tilted his head slightly and asked:

"Don't be too nervous, relax, we mean no harm."

Ah... Huff... Huff...

However, from Li Aoz's perspective, even in front of the other party, maintaining his current composure was extremely difficult.

——Yota (9)

This is the limit of strength in the Abyss, below Kapa (10), before descending into the Star Abyss.

Although he was only at the initial level of Yota, just being in the same space as the other person made Li Aoz feel as if time and space had frozen into ice, and the heat in his body was uncontrollably overflowing outwards.

This is not an illusion.

For the Iota-rank, they are already top-tier beings in this universe, and their every move is enough to affect the fragile Abyss.

When Evans breathes, the energy in the surrounding space is drawn in and rapidly converges into his body to sustain his powerful physique.

The Iota-rank, in the universe, is almost equivalent to the main battleships or carrier battle groups of an Interstellar Civilization. Unlike the Kappa-rank, which is an absolute weapon for decisive battles, the Iota-rank represents the limit that people without talent can reach by climbing the path.

Above this, mortal bodies will be unable to withstand the excessive power, shatter completely, recreate their physical bodies, and be reborn as gods.

Even those who reach the Iota-rank purely through biological strength are no exception.

In other words, what stood before Li Aoz was the limit of the abyssal creatures.

"... If you're here to see Miread Fenny, then I'm sorry, you're too late."

Li Aoz shook his head and said.

"Oh, let's put Mirrid's problem aside for now. We'll find that spy who's infiltrated the Kingdom Council sooner or later, even if we have to dig three feet into the ground."

Evans looked at Li Aoz and laughed, "I came here for you, succubus who fell from the sky. You don't seem to understand what it means to be a Sealed Object without any mental abnormalities, do you?"

"I really don't know."

Li Aoz grinned. Judging from their reactions, even if he tore open a spatial rift, he would be instantly killed.

Putting everything else aside, just the Evans alone made Li Aoz give up any intention of resisting.

It's useless. Faced with absolute overwhelming power, no matter how much the Bloodfiend Style spreads the damage, the remaining damage will still kill you.

Therefore, Li Aoz had no intention of resisting from the beginning, and simply said:

"Could you please explain to me what my value is?"

"Certainly."

Evans spoke, he raised his hand, removed the mask from his face, and his tentacle-like growths writhed. He opened his gray beak, and his six eyes emitted a faint purple light.

"Prolonged abuse of the power of the Void will lead to corruption, as you should know. The more Erije you inject, or the longer you rely on the Sealed Object to fight, the more your body will gradually transform into a Void creature."

Then, limping, he approached Li Aoz step by step, opening his claws and greedily saying:

"Only a pure, Sealed Object can extract reliable, safe, and pollution-free Alejie."

The tumor on his face twisted, and a mouth grew out of his cheek, moving closer and making longing sounds:

"Lioz, I will give everything you have to the Kingdom Council ... Don't think of this as a sacrifice, as if you were offered up..."

Boundless flesh and blood spread from the gaps in the armor, like a torrent, quickly engulfing the feet of Li Aoz.

"No, that's not it. This is an opportunity. You should be grateful... the council always manages to get resources to where they are most needed."

He reached out his large hand, grabbed Li Aoz by the waist, and pulled him up, opening his mouth wide as he defended himself:

"But before that, let me help the council coordinate something first..."

With that, he swallowed Li Aoz's head whole.