Chapter 855: Death Crystals

855. Death Crystals

"What do you think?"

Lin Ye asked in return.

"...I'm willing to pay any price, as long as I can make it back alive."

Rex quickly realized what Lin Ye meant.

He simply had no standing to bargain.

"Good, I guarantee you'll make it back alive."

Lin Ye was fairly satisfied with Rex's answer.

"Hey, kid, he's lying to you. A mid-level spiritual energy user can't help you at all. If you're willing to be my slave, I can give you a hand—I'm a high-level spiritual energy user."

The passenger who had interjected earlier walked over.

"I'm sorry, but I've already agreed to serve this gentleman."

Rex took a nervous step back.

"He's just a fraud who loves showing off. Stick with him and you'll die soon enough. Hey, bring out those crates—I'll buy a few for fun."

The man had his eyes on Lin Ye from the start. He could sense the crates were genuine, but he couldn't quite gauge Lin Ye's background.

"Quiet."

Lin Ye glanced at the distant island and said casually.

He wouldn't strike first against a stranger, but Little Guardian liked to incorporate every living being into the mental defense system, so the man had long since become part of the Parasitism Network.

The moment Lin Ye spoke, the man shut his mouth, turned around, and walked back into the ship interior.

"You're not actually a Controller, are you?"

Von noticed that the man's reaction was extremely abnormal.

"Of course not."

Lin Ye calmly swayed the Dragon Fishing Rod.

The ship docked near the islands. This region was scattered with many islands, serving as the last stop before entering the Sea of Death.

Most of the passengers disembarked. Von hesitated for a moment, but in the end he chose not to get off the ship. Instead, he sat down beside Lin Ye and cast a line into the sea.

"...May I ask if I can go down?"

Rex hesitated for a while before finally speaking up.

"Of course you can. As long as you don't run off to certain especially dangerous places, I can guarantee your safety. But even if you go down, you won't get anything good—you might as well stay here and watch me fish."

As long as he was within the coverage of the Parasitism Network, Lin Ye could guarantee Rex's safety.

"I came here to obtain something called Death Crystals. What do I need to do to get Death Crystals?"

Rex figured that rather than running around down there, he might as well be honest and ask Lin Ye about the way to obtain Death Crystals.

"Death Crystals? Those aren't simple things. Never mind you—even I would find it extremely difficult to get a single Death Crystal."

Von kept letting out fishing line. There were no living creatures in these waters at all; if he wanted to catch anything, he'd have to search in deeper waters.

"If you're talking about a kind of black crystal, the crates I fished up earlier had plenty inside."

Lin Ye took out a rusty metal crate from his spatial item and flipped open the lid. Inside, pitch-black prism-shaped crystals were neatly arranged.

"Huh? Can I pick that crate?!"

Von hadn't actually fully trusted Lin Ye before. He was just gambling on a chance. Now he completely believed—this was the most important half hour of his fishing career.

If he didn't catch anything, he'd regret it for the rest of his life.

"Of course you can, but I can tell you this isn't the best crate."

Lin Ye casually put the crate away.

"I really need a Death Crystal. Is there anything you need me to do?"

Rex had only come here to gamble on a chance, even knowing he might die here. He never imagined he'd be this close to a Death Crystal.

"This is a bit of a problem. If you come into contact with a Death Crystal, even I would have a hard time saving you. That way, I wouldn't be able to complete our previous deal."

If not for Rex, Lin Ye wouldn't have noticed anything wrong with these crystals. They truly lived up to the name Death Crystals.

"Then can you use a Death Crystal to save someone for me? I'm willing to do anything for you!"

Rex said excitedly.

"Save someone? Who told you Death Crystals can save people? Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about the name?"

Lin Ye looked at Rex with a strange expression.

"You don't know that Death Crystals can cure Alienation sickness?"

Von also looked at Lin Ye with a somewhat strange expression. This was common knowledge that even ordinary civilians knew.

"...So that's a use for them. But isn't the price of the treatment a bit too high? Is it really worth it?"

This was the first time Lin Ye had heard such a... novel treatment method.

"Besides the high price of Death Crystals, what other cost is there?"

Von looked at Lin Ye, puzzled.

"Using Abyss Crystals to treat Alienation sickness—how could there be no cost? This is like using a nuclear weapon to deal with a tumor. You people really know how to play."

Even in the Middle Ages, there wasn't a treatment method this outrageous.

At worst back then, they'd treat people to death—they wouldn't treat people to the point where even dying became impossible.

"...Abyss Crystals? Are you joking?"

As a high-level spiritual energy user, Von naturally knew what the Abyss was.

"It's not your fault. I didn't notice at first either. If I hadn't looked carefully, I would've been fooled too."

If Lin Ye didn't have the Abyssal Eye, he wouldn't have noticed those crystals were Abyss Crystals at all.

This was the terror of the Abyss—by the time you realize something's wrong, you might already be stepping into it.

"If those really are Abyss Crystals... then where exactly are we heading?"

Von immediately realized a very important question.

"Welcome to the Abyss, my friend."

Lin Ye answered with a smile.

"Can I ask what kind of place the Abyss is? And how am I supposed to save my family?"

Seeing the expression on Von's face, Rex felt an extremely bad premonition.

"The Abyss is a place where the more you know about it, the closer you get to it. So I suggest you don't think about questions concerning the Abyss. As for your family, that's not really a problem. Once we go back, I can help cure them. I'm very good at treating flesh and blood Alienation."

To Lin Ye, no matter how severe the Alienation, it wasn't a big deal.

"No, wait—shouldn't we jump ship? That's the Abyss! If we go in there, can we even get out?"

Von lowered his voice and spoke rapidly.

"Stick with the ship, and you still have a chance of getting out. Jump ship now, and you won't find a way out at all. There are Abyss Crystals here—you don't actually think we haven't entered the Abyss yet, do you?"

Lin Ye hadn't expected to enter the Abyss during an Exploration Mission either. This was the territory of that one.

"That's right! Every time people explore the Sea of Death, some make it back alive. As long as we don't get off the ship, we can leave the Abyss alive!"

Von said with some excitement.

"Leave the Abyss alive...? Have you ever wondered why they were able to leave the Sea of Death alive?"

Lin Ye revealed a meaningful smile.

"...Could it be that they never actually left the Abyss? Then what came back?!"

Von suddenly turned to look at the calm sea surface. There was clearly nothing in the water, yet he felt countless gazes staring right at them.