They heard footsteps coming from afar.
A black stone was originally rolling on the abandoned streets of the Rose District. After hearing the footsteps, it suddenly stopped and pretended to be an ordinary stone.
Angor and Boiling Gentleman stepped over the small stone.
Angor sensed something and stopped. The spirit power he placed behind his back gave him a strange view of his surroundings.
The seemingly inconspicuous black stone suddenly started rolling. As it rolled, a black mark appeared on the ground. These black marks looked insignificant at first. But upon closer inspection, Angor realized that they were not just marks. They were actually a swarm of small, winged insects.
They looked insignificant, but Angor's expression changed when he saw what they looked like.
Angor once went to Ness' library to study the manuscripts left behind by the legendary wizard, "Heart of Insects" Insecott.
In Insecott's manuscripts, there was a type of insect called Dragondropper. It took up a lot of space in the book, and Insecott even created an entire category for it.
These dust-sized insects were not very powerful on their own. However, when they gathered together, even if they only reached the size of a water droplet, they could easily devour dragon flesh and demon blood.
Dragondroppers were the true symbol of group consciousness.
Insecott's nickname was "Heart of Insects" because he liked to study insects that possessed group consciousness and calmness. Dragondroppers were one of Insecott's favorite supernatural insects.
Unfortunately, this terrifying swarm of insects had already disappeared into the long river with the passage of time.
Angor felt a little emotional when he read about Dragondroppers. Because the Dragondrop Worm had a third order burning reaction, it could be used as a unique high-level alchemy flame in alchemy. However, with the extinction of the Dragondrop Worm, the flames produced by the third order burning reaction also disappeared.
Angor did not expect to see Dragondroppers again here.
However, Angor did not feel anything right now. Instead, he felt a deep sense of anxiety. Dragondroppers were extremely dangerous insects. The more of them there were, the more damage they could cause.
If so many Dragondroppers appeared in the outside world, it would be a disaster.
Even Rein's team might not be able to get rid of all of them. They might even cause more trouble.
Compared to illusions and illusions, Dragondroppers could cause more damage.
And there were so many of them … He couldn't imagine what kind of trouble they would cause once they left the Astral Pool. The only good thing was that the dragondrop also needed the nightmare aura to unleash its full power.
"Mister Shava?" Boiling Gentleman turned around. Angor could not see his face, but he sounded curious about why Angor stopped.
He paused for about two seconds, but his mind was already filled with thoughts.
"Nothing." Angor's expression did not change. He kept walking as if nothing happened.
Boiling Gentleman looked behind Angor and saw a swarm of Dragondroppers. Why did Lady Shava stop to look at them? Why did she have to do that?
Although he had doubts in his heart, Boiling Gentleman did not ask. Seeing Shava continue to move forward, he temporarily put aside the doubts in his heart and continued on his journey.
Angor walked calmly along the way, but his mind was still in turmoil.
Before he could get over the shock caused by the Dragondroppers, he sensed more terrifying presences coming from the abandoned houses surrounded by fog. Some of the presences showed their true faces.
And these were all powerful monsters. Almost all of these monsters could be recorded in the legend section of "Where the Magical Monsters Are".
If these monsters came to the real world, they could cause as much damage as Dragondroppers.
Boiling Gentleman noticed that Angor kept glancing at the houses around them, so he quickly explained, "The creatures here are all projections from Rose District. But they're all normal creatures. Anyone with a bit of personality, like Rose Baron, would choose not to be projected here."
Angor was speechless. These monsters that could wreak havoc in the real world were only "ordinary" in Boiling Gentleman's words.
Well, it did make sense.
When he visited Nether City, he saw a large number of monsters, ranging from apprentices to wizards, in the sewers of Nether City. Nether City was located at the edge of the Nightmare Realm, and the monsters here were already so terrifying. If the monsters were closer to the core of the Nightmare Realm, they would be even scarier.
The Rose District in the Land of Sinners was probably closer to the core of the Nightmare Realm, which meant the monsters here were stronger.
Angor understood the reason, but it was still difficult for him to accept the fact that these terrifying monsters lived peacefully in this place.
Still, the Nightmare Realm was the Nightmare Realm. There was no need to follow the logic of reality here.
There was no such thing as complete logic here. There was only endless absurdity and unfathomable weirdness.
Maybe it was because he had seen too many monsters, but his mind became calmer as he reached the end of the journey. Or rather, it wasn't really calmness. It was more like numbness.
The monsters did not attack them anyway, so they could just treat it as a visit to a zoo.
They walked for about ten minutes in the abandoned Rose District. There was still a long street in front of them. Boiling Gentleman suddenly stopped and led Angor to a dark river.
The water was as black as ink. Angor was not curious about why the water was black because he saw several giant skeletons in the river. They were already dead, but they still emitted an intimidating aura.
These skeletons were probably the price of being curious.
Angor just followed Boiling Gentleman. In this strange world, it was better to keep one's curiosity in check so that they could live longer.
They walked along the river for a while and saw a bridge glowing with rainbow light.
The rainbow-like bridge was very eye-catching in the dark abandoned Rose District. It had its own aura that attracted people's attention.
Angor would never step onto the bridge if he was exploring by himself. The brighter something was, the more likely it was to be a trap.
However, Boiling Gentleman stopped at the edge of the bridge. Their next step was to cross it.
Boiling Gentleman did not cross the bridge right away. Instead, it waited for a few seconds. As the ground trembled slightly, a glowing stone tablet suddenly rose from the rainbow bridge.
The stone tablet opened its mouth and spoke in a long tone.
"Rainbow Mountain is the holy territory of food. To enter, you must answer three of my questions! If you answer correctly, you may cross. If you answer incorrectly, you may still enter the mountain, but as an ingredient … "
The stone tablet opened its eyes and stared at the people who crossed the bridge.
The stone tablet did not react to Boiling Gentleman. It knew who Boiling Gentleman was, but rules were rules. Anyone who wanted to cross the bridge had to follow them.
However, when the stone tablet looked at Angor, its eyes suddenly stopped.
…
"What's one plus one?"
"What's the name of the mountain behind me?"
"What's the color of the water in the river?"
Angor was still puzzled when he stepped on the rainbow bridge. He thought the three questions would be very difficult, but they were actually so simple. The answer to the second question was the exact same as what the stone tablet said.
Boiling Gentleman saw Angor's expression and knew what he was thinking.
"Actually, if Lady Shava answered incorrectly and said that the water in the river is colorful, the bridge will let you cross," Boiling Gentleman explained in a plain tone, "because you are Lady Shava."
If someone else tried to cross the bridge, they would not be able to answer the questions no matter how hard they tried.
Even Boiling Gentleman himself would be asked some difficult questions when trying to cross the bridge.
However, Boiling Gentleman usually did not cross this bridge. He had other paths that led to different areas of the Land of Xinnai. This time, he chose this path because he wanted to show Lady Shava the progress of Xinnai's arrival.
Master Nuka secretly arranged this task for him so that he could help Lady Shava gain a better understanding of this place. It would be best if Lady Shava agreed to attend the banquet on the day of the moon sacrifice.
Boiling Gentleman was not a member of Nuka's faction, but since he came to the Land of Xinnai, he had to obey Nuka's orders. Nuka's task this time was not against the rules, so Boiling Gentleman would not refuse.
Angor was surprised to hear Boiling Gentleman's words. Then he calmed down and cleared his mind. No wonder the questions were so simple. It was because of Shava's identity.
The journey from the Flower Garden to this place proved that Shava's identity was very useful in the Nightmare Realm. That was probably the most important thing he learned after entering this ruin.
He didn't think of himself as Shava after all, so he felt a little strange when he realized this. Still, he was the one who gained the upper hand, so he quickly adjusted his mind to face the next step.
…
As soon as they stepped onto the Rainbow Bridge, they were surrounded by a thin layer of mist. When they stepped off the bridge, the mist immediately disappeared, revealing a tall mountain with undulating peaks.
Angor looked back. The Rainbow Bridge was still there, but there was a forest on the other side. Below the bridge, there was no longer a black river but a pink one.
When they were near the river in Rose District, Angor clearly saw that the other side of the river was also an abandoned city. The other side of the Rainbow Bridge was definitely not Rainbow Mountain.
But now that they crossed the bridge, everything changed. Just like the chimney in Flower Spirit Garden and the mushroom in Rose Castle Garden, the bridge was a medium that connected to other areas.
Angor now understood that each area did not have a direct path to another area. They had to use a medium.
Even if they could find one, it would not be easy to cross the bridge.
The chimney in Flower Spirit Garden was possessed by a lunatic, so anyone who wanted to leave had to get permission from the lunatic. The mushroom in Rose Castle Garden had a passage in its mouth, so the medium could become a passage or be devoured. To cross the Rainbow Bridge, one had to go through all three problems.
The more Angor learned about the Land of Sincerity projected by the Nightmare Realm, the more powerless he felt.
He might be able to use his identity to travel freely. But if a war really broke out, human wizards would not be able to break into the heart of this place.
Boiling Gentleman saw Angor standing there for a long time and thought his plan was exposed. "Lady Shava, we'll reach the Bewildering Candle Passage after Rainbow Mountain."
Angor nodded. "Let's go then."
Boiling Gentleman led Angor to Rainbow Mountain in the distance.
The place was called Rainbow Mountain because it was surrounded by a large number of rainbow circles. The circles looked like colorful cotton candy, which made the place look like a young girl.
However, Angor knew that there was no "girl" on the mountain. Instead, it was a glutton who looked like a meatball — Davosia.
Speaking of which, the person he liked the most at the banquet was Davosia. The man claimed that he would turn the Book of Madness into rainbow candy, but as long as he was given something to eat, he would eat it regardless of whether it tasted good or not.
Compared to the complicated feelings of the other guests, Davosia's desire was pure and unyielding.
It was easy for Angor to deal with him.
However, Angor only liked Davosia because of what happened during the banquet. It would not be good enough in the grand scheme of things.
After they entered the Rainbow Mountain range, the first thing they saw was a large number of trees with fruits growing on them. These fruits smelled sweet, but if they looked down, they would find that under these fruit trees, there were corpses struggling to reach out their hands.
Angor sensed traces of illusions around the fruit trees. Perhaps the trees used illusions to lure people into their traps and kill them to feed the fruit trees.
As an illusionist, Angor really wanted to see what kind of illusions these trees could create.
However, after he and Boiling Gentleman stepped into the fruit forest, they did not show any signs of being attacked by illusions. Clearly, their identities had once again granted them "immunity".
After passing through the fruit trees, they arrived at the foot of the mountain.
Angor thought they were going to climb the mountain, but Boiling Gentleman did not take him into the forest. Instead, they came to a raised stone platform at the foot of the mountain.
Angor noticed that there were many runes drawn on the platform.
Furthermore, these runes were all demonic runes!
There was a rune platform in the territory of a nightmare creature?
The runes were so complicated that it was hard to see them clearly. However, as an enchantment alchemist, Angor was very good at analyzing runes. He soon found the general pattern.
It was probably a short-distance teleportation array.
Angor wasn't surprised by the result. He was more concerned about the runes on the teleportation array, which looked familiar to him.
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