Mosquito Monster, Holy Shrine, Hope of a Breakthrough

"Buzz—"

With bloodshot eyes, the boy leaped into the air, transforming into a small black arrow, just over a foot long, amidst the billowing black smoke.

The black arrow tore through the void like lightning traversing the underworld. Its black trajectory circled Ronan as he strolled along, and wherever it passed, monsters, regardless of size, even those with a strength of the fourth rank, all exploded.

Ronan would occasionally stop to collect valuable monster corpses into his Space Ring, while Aihaxia would clean up the remaining remains.

Undead Arts minions are probably the easiest to feed; they can grow from anything unclean.

As Ronan walked, he explored the various things in the waterway, including several more similar Artisan Ghost. One of them was even at the fourth rank and could unleash some strange Nether Ghost spells.

It is estimated that it was a wizard of Keldim in its previous life, and the spellcasting instincts remaining in its soul made it a "Nether Ghost wizard"-like being.

However, Ronan found no more written clues on these ghosts, let alone any relics, which had long since decayed and turned to dust.

Ronan searched for spell nodes along the way, not just the spell nodes of the waterway lighting system. He tried to uncover more of the truth about the destruction of Keldim back then. After all, the things that the Artisan Ghost could see in his lifetime were too narrow. What it knew was not necessarily the whole truth.

Unfortunately, most of the spell nodes were damaged. Ronan explored straight out for more than ten kilometers, illuminating a few areas sporadically, like a curious traveler who had stumbled into an old house covered with cobwebs and wiped away some of the grave dust and grime.

"Gurgle gurgle—"

The Ghost Arrow displayed its might, reaping the deformed and putrid lives along its path. Aihaxia, the Ghost Arrow's true form, was "eating" with its mouth full of oil. Its entire body was filled with turbid and dense darkness and Undead Aura, surging like boiling water. Black smoke billowed around it, and its form was already developing in a grotesque and twisted direction.

Ronan frowned slightly. This was also a problem with Undead Arts servants. If they consumed too much flesh and remnant souls at once, their massive and complex will would dilute their original consciousness. The result of this was that they were prone to undead backlash.

Ronan was already feeling that he was about to lose control of Aihaxia's violent [Bloodthirst] "rebellious" thoughts. Fortunately, he had taken multiple precautions for Aihaxia. In addition to the normal Master and Servant restrictions, there was also the black cowbell of the Bone Bell that could forcibly control him.

Just as Ronan was considering taking Aihaxia back to the Cowbell Space to recuperate for a while, a loud buzzing sound came from ahead.

Ronan extended his mental energy and saw a skeleton covered in mud and moss, kneeling in a position facing a broken stone wall of a waterway, its hands seemingly still tightly embracing something.

Above the top of this corpse, a cloud of "Black Mist" swirled and danced.

Describing it as Black Mist is not accurate; it's more like a swarm of insects. Strangely, each individual in the swarm resembles a charred fragment of a book page burned through by fire, not at all like a living creature, yet it keeps fluttering about eerily.

As Ronan's gaze fell upon the black swarm of insects, a loud buzzing sound arose, and the black swarm flew straight towards Ronan.

Ronan's eyes flickered slightly. The "expanded" Aihaxia let out a violent and suppressed growl, instantly transforming into a small black arrow that shot rapidly toward the swarm of insects.

"Bang!"

The black Ghost Arrow collided with the black swarm in mid-air without any resistance, and the latter exploded with a "bang".

However, Ronan showed no sign of relaxation; instead, his brows furrowed slightly.

The swarm of insects that had exploded then quickly regrouped, their aura seemingly rising even higher.

"Bang! Thud! Thud!"

Ronan repeatedly used the Ghost Arrow to [Penetration] and destroy the insects several times.

The swarm's aura intensified, while the turbulent, chaotic energy of Aihaxia subsided somewhat.

Ronan could finally confirm it—this bizarre swarm of black insects was actually able to draw power from Aihaxia during battle, using it to strengthen itself! "Buzz buzz buzz—"

On the empty Aqueduct Ruins, the buzzing of the swarm of insects grew louder, and its size was about a quarter larger than when Ronan first saw it.

The swarm wasn't flying particularly fast, and it was repeatedly blasted apart by Ghost Arrow, so it never managed to get close to Ronan. However, it never changed its direction of travel, and if things continued this way, it would eventually reach Ronan.

Ronan remained calm, but with a slight thought, the Ghost Arrow, which had been darting through the void like a fish, suddenly stopped, followed by the lighting of inexplicable runes on its body.

"Buzz—"

A strange and eerie sound rang out, and the slightly trembling Ghost Arrow suddenly emitted a ring of black ripples.

[Doomsday Sound]! This is the first time Ronan has unleashed this power since he inscribed the entire [Doomsday Sound] rune into Aihaxia's body.

The innate abilities of the Comb-boned Demon Snail, a creature also from another world, may also contain some of the mysteries of the Echoes of the Past Spell Inheritance, driven by the power of Nether Ghost!

Black waves swept rapidly across the swarm of insects.

This time, the entire swarm exploded upon first sight.

Then, before they could reassemble, the second wave of sound waves arrived.

Like waves of black tide relentlessly washing over everything, the eerie swarm of insects finally began to undergo new changes.

The densely packed "insect corpses," resembling fragments of black pages, fell downwards. Finally, at the center of the swarm, a bizarre and grotesque Mosquito Monster with a ferocious appearance was revealed.

This was definitely the biggest mosquito Ronan had ever seen. It had a body with three hooks, and its back was covered with dense, transparent wings. Its mouthparts were soft, but looking directly into its scarlet eyes would give you a slight feeling of your soul being pulled.

It seems that this bizarre Mosquito Monster not only sucks blood and flesh, but can even suck out souls.

Ronan twitched his index finger slightly, and the trembling Ghost Arrow in mid-air adjusted its tip, aimed at the Mosquito Monster, and suddenly disappeared. The naked eye could only catch the black ripples spreading in the void, which suddenly turned into peaks and valleys to one side, like the tip of a huge transparent spear.

Upon striking the Mosquito Monster, its body exploded with a "pop," turning into countless droplets of blood mist.

Then, a wisp of black smoke appeared, and all that could be seen was Aihaxia, his soul form re-emerging, slowly wiping the corner of his crimson mouth with the back of his hand.

"You're quick enough."

Ronan shook his head and didn't rush to put Aihaxia away. Instead, he walked towards the decaying corpse beneath the place where the dead Mosquito Monster had been hiding.

The bizarre Mosquito Monster that can absorb souls is definitely a monster from another world. Its strength is only at the fourth level, but its characteristic of getting stronger the more it fights is enough to make it a nightmare for ordinary Level Four Wizard.

In other words, the Ghost Arrow, inscribed with the [Doomsday Sound], was powerful enough to easily kill it.

Reaching the remains, Ronan gently flicked his sleeve, his powerful Spiritual Force Field sweeping away the surface soil and moss. Unfortunately, too much time had passed, and the remains beneath crumbled and dispersed.

A broken black stone slab was revealed, and there seemed to be writing on it.

Ronan casually bent down, and the moment his fingers lightly touched the stone slab, his eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

"The Holy Shrine Stone?!"

Somewhat surprisingly, he quickly picked up a piece of broken stone, not even bothering to check the writing on it.

"That's right, it is indeed made of the material of the Holy Shrine Stone."

Ronan examined the stone slab in his hand carefully, his expression strange.

He had personally handled several Holy Shrine and was extremely familiar with the unique black stone that carried the Holy Shrine Power.

Looking down at the inscription on the stone slab below, pieced together, it revealed only a short sentence. "They attempted to... use the power of the altar to transform the Magic Creature that emerged from the cracks."

The last character was written very hastily, as if the writer had died before finishing the writing.

"It ultimately failed?"

Or rather, the process of building the waterway undoubtedly unearthed a passage connecting to another world, releasing Magic Creature from that world—this was merely the cause. The real catastrophe was caused by the wizards of the Keldim Empire conducting some unknown secret experiments on this basis, which ultimately could not be contained.

Ronan's speculation is not without merit; often, overconfidence is the very cause of utter [Catastrophe].

Just like the Ancient Secrets Moriel once told him, the arrogant and conceited ancient wizards misused the World Stone, ultimately leading to a dramatic change in the entire world order. Of course, Ronan wasn't interested in verifying this point at the moment; his attention was entirely focused on the word "altar" on the black stone slab.

"Does this refer to the Holy Shrine Altar?"

He took out a jet-black stone sphere directly from his Space Ring. There was a crack on the stone sphere, but unfortunately, no light could seep out from the crack.

The defensive Holy Shrine Power was completely used up by Ronan during the Minotaur's Maze incident.

Ronan lightly patted the surface of the stone sphere, a faint magical fluctuation emanating from his palm. The next second, in a vision visible only to him, he saw—

Inside the black stone sphere, dozens or even hundreds of translucent black lines instantly radiated outwards!

Ronan was stunned for a moment, then his expression turned to one of deep surprise and delight.

Could dozens, even hundreds, of Holy Shrine Altar be buried within Ancient Waterway?!

His [Ascetic Body Forging] skill has been stuck at Master Level 1599 for a long time, so he has taken the initiative to go out several times to find the Holy Shrine Power that can help him break through [Ascetic Body Forging].

However, after several attempts, the Holy Shrine they found were either already opened or not the ones they wanted.

Moreover, each Holy Shrine is located in a rather remote and unknown place, and often after a long journey, all that is gained is a disappointment.

This needle-in-a-haystack approach, combined with a gamble, was already making Ronan quite weary.

Now, a glimmer of hope suddenly appeared before Ronan's eyes.

"With dozens, even nearly a hundred Holy Shrine Altar, even if it's purely by chance, I should be able to stumble upon one at least once..."

Ronan took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing emotions.

He no longer needed to wander aimlessly in this competitive trial concerning the "Child of Spirit Lake," or even higher positions.

Since we're exploring anyway, why not search for the Holy Shrine we want while exploring the Ancient Waterway?

Just then, Aihaxia, who was guarding his side, suddenly let out a slightly uneasy growl.

Ronan looked up and saw Aihaxia staring at a direction in the darkness ahead, with a sense of impending doom and an urge to try.

He extended his mental energy to investigate and soon "saw" a swarm of black insects, more than ten times larger than the ones that had previously occupied the area, buzzing and emitting a thunderous rumble as it rapidly approached.

Ronan picked up the stone slab from his feet, narrowed his eyes slightly, and stood up.

"A fifth-tier Mosquito Monster?!"

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