Sealed Land

The target vanished.

At that moment, amid a burst of wind and snow that came from nowhere, one large and one small figure simply disappeared without a trace.

Concealed by the snowstorm, few noticed the path the two took when they left. Even if anyone had, they could not have stopped them.

From a certain perspective, this was simply bullying people from another dimension.

Outside the Sandbox, Lin Tuo did not even raise his hand any higher. Once they had escaped the encirclement, he casually found a spot and set down the Avatar and Hua Xi.

He then shifted his consciousness back inside.

"We're safe." Only when Hua Xi heard Lin Tuo's voice again did she let go and open her eyes, only to discover in astonishment that she had arrived in an unfamiliar area.

From her perspective, she had only felt wild winds whistling past her ears. Then, it seemed as though her feet had stepped onto some strange "soil," while her body was briefly lifted before descending again.

Well, it was as if some force had drawn her along and carried out a relocation.

It truly was an experience she had never had before.

"You..." Hua Xi blinked and looked at Lin Tuo. She wanted to ask something, but in the end, she shut her mouth. The confusion and curiosity in her eyes only deepened.

Lin Tuo had no intention of explaining either. He merely said, "All right, let's continue."

The Western Mountains were not large. Thus, a few hours later, Lin Tuo's trail was spotted again. Combined with his earlier "disappearance," some people guessed that this might also be an Extraordinary Ability.

Well, an ability that allowed teleportation within a certain range.

"But does such an ability really exist?" Many people had similar doubts.

After all, while a certain percentage of Evolvers developed Extraordinary Abilities, most of them were related to the body, more like the evolution of some bodily function.

For example, some had an extremely keen sense of smell, some possessed exceptional eyesight, while others could sense changes in the weather... An ability like teleportation was simply far too rare.

Yet these doubts did not seem important.

The hunters of Floating Apocalypse only knew that the Three Major Powers' encirclement had completely failed, and the mysterious expert's rating had been adjusted to the unprecedented SS-Rank.

Nor did this failure cause the Wasteland's local powers to give up. On the contrary, it only strengthened their resolve to kill Lin Tuo.

A powerful individual who could be controlled might still be worth recruiting. But if that person's power was too great to control, then without question, killing them was the safest course.

Yet what baffled them immensely was that the mysterious man seemed to possess some kind of precognitive ability. Every time, he almost perfectly evaded their encirclement in advance.

Either he left beforehand, or he activated "teleportation." After several rounds of this, not only had they gained nothing, they had also delayed the three factions' exploration progress.

As a result, they had no choice but to devote more energy to advancing deeper into the Great Western Continent.

And with mixed feelings, they discovered that because of Lin Tuo's clearing operation, which had dealt with a great number of powerful mutant beasts, their exploration progress had actually sped up severalfold.

It had to be said that this was rather ironic.

Another day passed amid this strange atmosphere.

Lin Tuo still followed his own rhythm, tempering his body and eating. When he killed another Snow Bear and climbed a mountain peak, he unexpectedly found that there were no more enemies ahead.

Light snow fell beneath the dim sky.

Before them lay a chaotic valley. Beyond it stood only the final mountain peak.

And in the distance stretched a boundless, dark, gloomy sea.

That was the Endless Sea.

It was also the end of this continent.

"We actually reached the edge of the continent..." Wrapped in a thick cotton coat and carrying a rifle on her back, Hua Xi stared at the ocean in shock. This was the first time she had ever seen the sea.

"If I'm not mistaken, that mountain should be a laboratory."

Lin Tuo looked ahead through his scope and discovered obvious traces of human construction at the mountain's summit, base, and waist. In particular, the summit clearly held a large, discarded antenna.

"It should be. According to legend, the Mad Emperor began the Cataclysm in the final mountain by the Endless Sea." Hua Xi's expression was complicated.

After a brief silence, Lin Tuo let out a breath. Feeling the fatigue accumulated in his body from continuous battles and Body Tempering, he said:

"Come on. Let's go take a look."

Through "teleportation," the two arrived outside the Great Western Continent Laboratory in only a dozen seconds.

The laboratory entrance was halfway up the mountain, a large door that had been half-sealed shut.

When Lin Tuo brought Hua Xi there, the one large and one small figure stood alone outside that imposing gate. Both of them fell silent.

The laboratory gate was unusually plain, without any signs or decorations. There was only a white jade Statue placed there.

Perhaps because it had been caught up in the explosion back then.

The Statue had been severed at the waist, its upper half fallen into a nest of snow, still maintaining the posture of gripping a teaching pointer.

This was a Statue of Lin Sheng. Yet its facial features had been deliberately polished away.

Over the past few days, through Hua Xi's accounts, Lin Tuo had learned that after he left back then, the Chi Kingdom Ruler had erected statues of him, which were passed down for a hundred years.

Until later, in the final years of his life, the Mad Emperor of the New Dynasty used forceful measures to destroy every Statue within the country and forbid anyone from commemorating the Sage.

Yet unexpectedly, one had been preserved here instead.

Did he want me to witness this experiment with my own eyes?

Lin Tuo stared at his own Statue, this speculation rising in his heart.

Shaking his head, Lin Tuo raised a hand and thoroughly shattered the Statue. He stepped forward and forcibly pried open the metal gate. It was already on the verge of collapse, and with only a little force, he tore open a crack.

"Let's go in and take a look," Lin Tuo said, then took the lead inside.

After passing through a corridor, the view suddenly opened up, revealing a massive, spacious experimental hall.

Thirty years had passed, yet the place still retained its old appearance. Only the machines and wiring had been damaged, leaving everything covered in rust.

Some areas even showed signs of collapse.

Hua Xi followed carefully, looking around. Suddenly, she stepped on something and let out a startled cry.

"They should be researchers who died back then."

Lin Tuo looked at the dry bones on the ground and spoke in a low voice.

The bones of the dead were scattered throughout the hall.

Judging by the traces, a riot seemed to have erupted here once.

Lin Tuo found it difficult to guess the details of what had happened here back then. But from the postures in which those dry bones had died, they had clearly suffered beyond measure.

"They should have been the first humans affected by radiation."

Lin Tuo sighed inwardly. For some reason, when faced with these sinners who had destroyed an entire civilization, he could not summon much anger. His heart merely felt heavy, and his expression was silent.

After taking a few more steps, Lin Tuo's gaze finally landed on a somewhat special skeleton on the ground.

It wore a bright yellow coat exclusive to royalty. Due to the environment inside the mountain, it had unexpectedly retained its original color.

The bones appeared to belong to an old man, seated against the wall. Above his head was a shattered "window" through which the sea could be seen. At this moment, they could even hear the quiet sound of waves.

In its shriveled hands, it held a dark-green metal box, with several rotten cables attached to its base.

The words "Detonator" were written on it.

Clearly, this was the dead Mad Emperor, the man who had personally ended Chi Kingdom's centuries-long rule and established the New Dynasty—the first and only emperor of that dynasty.

Click.

As Lin Tuo approached, perhaps due to the vibrations in the ground, the Mad Emperor's skeleton suddenly swayed and fell apart. It could no longer maintain its seated posture, and the box in its hands also dropped to the floor.

A dark-green, ancient-looking square seal rolled out from the bones and across the ground.

Lin Tuo's gaze fell upon it, and his eyes shifted.

Judging from the inscription on it, this was unmistakably the so-called Extraordinary Item capable of influencing other people's minds: the Secret Seal.

So this thing really was here.

However, countless cracks covered its surface. Its edges were broken, and it was somewhat dim. It seemed that it had suffered irreversible damage during the events of that year.

Lin Tuo thought for a moment, then reached out and picked it up.

Yet at that very moment, when he touched the strange seal, the Evolution Sandbox's Virtual Panel automatically appeared in his vision.

A line of text he had never seen before appeared on it:

Special item detected. Analyze it?

Lin Tuo froze, growing even more curious. The Evolution Sandbox actually had such a function?

Analyze.

A progress bar that vanished in an instant immediately appeared on the Virtual Panel.

Analysis complete

At the same time, a stream of information flooded into his mind. It was the Evolution Sandbox's analysis report on the Secret Seal:

Attribute: Natural mineral Extraordinary Item (suspected to have been washed by an Aether tide, altering its own structure and gaining Spirituality, thereby becoming an item with certain special abilities)

Rating: Low-grade

Status: Severely damaged, on the verge of breaking

Ability: By consuming Aether, it can affect the minds of living beings within a ten-meter radius, producing an effect similar to hypnosis. Duration, number of affected individuals, and so on are dynamically related to the amount of Aether consumed...

Negative effects: It will exert a certain mental influence on the holder, such as amplifying obsessions, paranoia, loss of reason, madness... Long-term use is not recommended...

"Y-You... what's wrong?" Inside the laboratory, Hua Xi saw Lin Tuo staring blankly at the Secret Seal in his hand.

Concern appeared on her face. After hesitating for a moment, she stepped forward and tried to call out to him.

"Ah, it's nothing." Lin Tuo came back to his senses and gave the little girl a reassuring smile. Then, looking at the Secret Seal in his hand, he said with feeling, "I was just... a little surprised."