Gray Tower, Ancient Wizard Ruins

The orb sank into the Sludge Monster's massive body without obstruction, followed by a muffled boom.

Boom!!!

The thunderous sound echoed through the swamp!

The Sludge Monster's enormous body suddenly stiffened, then violently swelled and twisted from the inside out.

Its dark-red core flickered frantically before abruptly dimming.

Countless chunks of heavily corroded sludge, trailing thick smoke, shot in every direction.

When the smoke and mud settled slightly, all that remained was a huge crater bubbling with corrosive fumes, along with inactive sludge fragments scattered everywhere.

That dark-red core had shattered completely, losing all its luster.

The swamp Sludge Monster had been killed in a single blow!

Luo Lin panted lightly, his face somewhat pale.

That [Corrosive Orb] had nearly drained more than half his mana and mental strength, and the strain it placed on him was considerable.

But as he looked at the result before him, satisfaction appeared in his eyes.

The power of this move had not disappointed him.

Luo Lin swiftly drank a [Lesser Mental Boiling Potion] to ease his mental fatigue, then hurried over to the fallen dead tree.

Most of the Glowcap Mushrooms had been destroyed by the earlier impact and ensuing explosion, but after a careful search, he still found seven perfectly intact, excellent-quality Glowcap Mushrooms amid the broken roots and mud nearby.

After carefully collecting the precious Glowcap Mushrooms and placing them in a wooden box, Luo Lin did not immediately inspect the Sludge Monster's remains for valuable materials. Instead, he endured his exhaustion and quickly left the area.

The battle just now had caused quite a disturbance and might already have drawn the attention of other dangerous creatures nearby.

He found a relatively concealed crack between rocks, set up another warning array, and began meditating with all his focus to recover.

After regaining most of what he had expended, Luo Lin did not dare linger.

The edge of the Rotting Mire was fraught with danger. The commotion from that battle was like setting off firecrackers in the dead of night.

After carefully sensing his surroundings and confirming that no danger was approaching, he quietly rose and set off again.

He now had twelve Glowcap Mushrooms, seven of them of excellent quality—more than enough to fulfill his obligation to Mason.

Yet deep down, his desire to explore the unknown remained unsatisfied.

The rumors Mason had inadvertently revealed about the ancient Gray Tower, along with the region marked "Unknown Force-Field Interference Zone" at the edge of his map, drew him like a magnet.

Since I've already ventured this far... I might as well get a little closer. I'll only look from afar and won't go deeper.

Luo Lin weighed his options.

Risk certainly existed, but opportunity often came hand in hand with danger.

He had some confidence in his ability to conceal himself and sense danger, and he had already recovered most of his strength.

Having made up his mind, he adjusted his route and circled toward the edge of the "Unknown Force-Field Interference Zone" on the map.

The closer he came to the area, the more deathly silent the surroundings became.

The insect calls and beast roars he had heard earlier vanished completely. Even the sound of the wind seemed to have been swallowed by something invisible.

Amid the decaying stench in the air lingered a trace of something deeply unsettling.

The range of his mental perception was compressed even further, while his mental power itself seemed mired in thick mud, its circulation growing markedly sluggish.

He moved ever more slowly, every step soundless as he used twisted dead trees and enormous grotesque mushroom caps to conceal himself.

The effects of [Breeze Dust-Cleansing] were pushed to their limit. It not only purified the air he breathed, but also tried to smooth out the faint energy fluctuations he emitted, reducing the chance of being detected by unknown entities.

The sights along the way grew increasingly absurd.

Luo Lin saw exposed rocks on the ground that had melted into unnatural shapes, as if they had been instantly scorched by extreme heat before being weathered over countless years.

Some twisted metal wreckage lay half-buried in the mud. Its surface was covered in rust, and its style was so ancient that it was clearly not the work of any modern craft.

The free-floating energy particles in the air became extremely inert, yet at certain points they suddenly stirred into tiny, chaotic energy vortices.

All these signs indicated that this place had suffered a tremendous energy impact, or that some source was continuously disturbing the energy field.

Finally, after carefully crossing a gentle slope littered with broken bones and metal fragments, the sight ahead made Luo Lin's breath catch.

It was an incomparably vast depression, deeper than any area he had encountered before.

At its center drifted a gray mist that seemed almost tangible, blocking his vision.

At the edge of that mist, the outlines of several enormous structures could be vaguely seen.

Broken stone pillars jutted from the ground at an angle, while ruined walls lay sprawled like the bones of giant beasts. Everything was covered in black-green collapse marks and entwining vines, radiating an ancient, desolate air.

Most eye-catching of all was an especially tall, indistinct tower-shaped shadow deep within the ruins.

Even reduced to remnants, it was still possible to imagine its former grandeur.

Gray Tower... ruins...

Luo Lin silently repeated the words.

Mason had not been lying. Ancient ruins truly existed here.

Merely viewing them from afar, he could feel a weight and mystery that had spanned an immense passage of time.

He did not rashly approach the core area shrouded in gray mist.

His intuition told him that it was exceedingly dangerous.

Whenever his mental power neared the gray mist, it returned a powerful sense of rejection and distortion, as though the mist itself were a massive and chaotic force field.

Luo Lin carefully swept his gaze across the outer reaches of the ruins.

Among those scattered boulders and broken walls, there might be valuable information or objects hidden away.

But there could just as easily be unknown dangers lurking there.

He could sense several concealed yet powerful presences stationed in different parts of the ruins. They seemed to maintain a certain balance while remaining wary of one another.

Just as he was concentrating on his observations, a faint sound like metal scraping against stone came from the ruins of a relatively intact but damaged hall ahead and to the side.

Luo Lin immediately suppressed every trace of his presence and hid himself completely behind a huge boulder marked by scorch marks, revealing only a pair of sharp eyes as he looked toward the sound.

Beneath the shadow of the hall's ruined portico, loose stones on the ground were slowly pushed aside by an invisible force.

Then, a humanoid figure crawled out of the earth with stiff movements.

It was not a living creature, but a skeleton.

Its bones possessed a dull metallic sheen, and two clusters of ghostly blue flame flickered within its eye sockets.

It held a rusted metal longsword whose edge remained sharp. Whenever its skeletal joints moved, they let out dry clicking sounds.

An undead creature... and a Skeleton Warrior mutated by energy corruption.

Luo Lin immediately made his judgment.

Such undead usually formed naturally only in regions saturated with negative energy, or were awakened by necromancers.

Its appearance on the outskirts of these ancient ruins meant that it was likely an ancient guard left behind here, or a creature that had naturally mutated within this dense energy field.

This Metal Skeleton seemed to be carrying out some sort of fixed patrol.

It slowly walked along the exterior of the hall with stiff steps.

Its ghostly blue gaze swept over the surroundings, radiating cold hostility.

Luo Lin held his breath and watched patiently.

The Skeleton Warrior's strength was unknown, but the energy fluctuations it emitted and its mutated bones were enough to show that it would be difficult to deal with.

A direct confrontation would not be wise.

His gaze passed over the patrolling skeleton and fell upon the interior of the half-collapsed hall behind it.

Through the broken dome and gaps in the walls, he could vaguely make out scattered objects inside—what appeared to be metal chests, as well as remnants resembling experiment tables or bookshelves.

There's something inside...

Luo Lin's thoughts turned.

Entering to explore would be extremely risky.

But this might be his only chance to obtain ancient knowledge.

He carefully observed the skeleton's patrol route and frequency, searching for patterns and possible openings.

At the same time, his mental power cautiously extended outward, probing the energy conditions within the hall and checking for other hidden dangers.

At that moment, an extremely faint roar brimming with savagery drifted over from far behind Luo Lin.

It seemed to come from the direction where he had fought the Sludge Monster earlier.

Immediately afterward, an energy fluctuation carrying the aura of destruction swept across the area like a tide.

Though it was exceedingly weak by the time it reached him, it still made Luo Lin's heart tremble.

A stronger monster was drawn here by the earlier battle...

Luo Lin immediately understood the reason.

This was not a place to linger!

He had to make a decision quickly.