Chapter 467: Breaking the Seal

“Since you’ve agreed, go ahead and join Home,” Qin Ziwen said, extending the invitation to Gray once more.

[You have successfully recruited the Cursed Ghost·Resentful Spirit Legion (Gray Race)]

With the recruitment successful, Qin Ziwen felt a little more at ease.

For now, at least, he could sense its sincerity.

He asked Gray, “When the time comes, I’ll summon the Ghost Ship over. Can you possess it by yourself?”

Gray nodded, then shook its head. “I’ll need your help. First, summon the Ghost Ship. Then, pull up the Golden Apple Tree. You can leave the rest to me after that.”

“Are there any other dangers here besides you?”

Gray shook its head. “There’s only me and the Golden Apple Tree here.”

“Right, where did you put the Ant-man corpses you brought in earlier?”

“They’re fertilizer for the Golden Apple Tree.”

Qin Ziwen’s gaze fell on the deep pit to one side. The water’s surface was as still as a mirror.

‘If there was any place around here that could hide so many bodies, it would have to be underwater.’

His gaze returned to Gray, and Qin Ziwen said, “I’m going to have people come move the Golden Apple Tree in a little while. Keep that curse of yours under control. We can’t have you making the workers disappear.”

“Don’t worry.”

The moment Gray finished speaking, the surrounding illusion shattered, layer by layer. His brother’s voice echoed in his ears. “Big Bro, wake up! Come on, wake up!”

Qin Ziwen’s vision blurred. When he came to his senses, he found himself surrounded by people, all staring at him with concern.

“Stop shaking me. I’m fine,” Qin Ziwen said in a low voice. “What just happened?”

Qin Ziwu was still shaken. “You were just standing there, completely still. No matter how many times I called your name, you didn’t respond. You scared me to death!”

“I’m fine now.” Qin Ziwen scanned his surroundings, but there was no sign of Gray.

But his conversation with Gray was still vivid in his mind.

‘It probably wasn’t an illusion.’

He silently thought of Home, and a screen of light only he could see materialized before him.

On the screen, he saw the new name in his recruitment list.

A wave of relief washed over him.

Recalling the details of his chat with Gray, he walked a few steps forward to the edge of the deep pit.

He held out his hand. With a flicker of intent, he thought, ‘Open Node.’

The surface of the water rippled and churned as a Node unfolded at the bottom of the pit.

A moment later, a faintly glowing blue head poked out from the Node.

“Over here!” Qin Ziwen called out, waving at the Ghost Boatman that had peeked through.

The Ghost Boatman looked up, saw Qin Ziwen, and hastily pulled its head back.

A moment later, Tao Fu’s head poked out of the Node. He craned his neck and shouted, “My Lord!”

Qin Ziwen waved a greeting. “Tao Fu, get some people and bring the Lost Home over.”

“Aye, My Lord.” Tao Fu cupped his fists in acknowledgment and retracted his head.

Before long, the surface of the Node rippled and shone with a brilliant light. Then, the tip of a ship’s bow emerged.

The bow slammed into the water, sending up a huge splash and turning the pit’s water turbid.

The Lost Home forced its way through from the other side of the Node.

Qin Ziwen said, “Alright everyone, let’s get to it. We’re moving this tree, but be careful. Try not to damage the roots.”

Mogu hurried over from outside the ruins to join the team transplanting the Golden Apple Tree.

The work was slow, but the transplanting of the Golden Apple Tree proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Most of its roots were submerged underwater. A Fishman dove down, but surfaced in a panic just a moment later. “Chief, there are so many bodies down there!”

Yan San, who had just come through the Node, laughed when he heard this. “A few corpses are enough to scare you lot? Watch me.”

With that, Yan San dove to the bottom of the pit.

The light in the pit was dim, and visibility was low.

The water was so murky that he couldn’t see more than three or four meters ahead.

The part of the Golden Apple Tree visible above the water didn’t look very tall, but what lay beneath was another story entirely.

Its well-developed roots spread out in every direction underwater. Yan San swam down along one of them. The strange thing was, even after descending ten or twenty meters, almost to the bottom, he still hadn’t seen a single corpse.

His feet touched the mud at the bottom of the pit, and he immediately felt something was very wrong.

The “mud” under his feet was soft, and they sank into it instantly.

He’d been all over and swum in plenty of pits, but this was the first time he’d ever encountered mud this soft.

He instinctively looked down. Even for a hardened veteran like Yan San, who was used to mountains of corpses and seas of blood, his pupils contracted violently.

It wasn’t mud beneath his feet at all. It was a sea of flesh, a mountain of highly decomposed, bloated corpses all fused together.

His feet had plunged directly into the chest cavity of a headless corpse. The squishy, rotten flesh enveloped his calves, and the distinct sensation made his skin crawl.

It wasn’t that he’d never seen a dead body before, but he’d never witnessed a scene like this.

Looking around, he saw that the roots of the Golden Apple Tree, like innumerable blood vessels, were sunk deep into the mountain of corpses beneath him.

A deep sense of unease washed over Yan San.

He quickly grabbed onto a root and swam frantically toward the surface.

He kept his lips sealed tight the entire way up.

After breaking the surface, he took a huge gulp of air, accidentally swallowing a few drops of water. His face instantly turned green.

He wanted to throw up but was afraid he’d get more of the water in his mouth.

After scrambling out of the pit, Yan San rushed to inform his lord of what he had seen underwater.

“So this water… it might be corpse fluid?” Qin Ziwen’s face paled slightly.

“It’s not ‘might be,’ it *is*—BLECH!” Qin Ziwu turned away and retched.

Ever since they arrived, Qin Ziwu had noticed a faint, peculiar sweet smell in the air. He’d assumed it was the fragrance of the Golden Apple Tree.

Now he knew the truth. He’d rather he didn’t.

“You all can handle it.” Qin Ziwen rubbed his temples. He had been about to jump in and help, but on second thought, he figured it was better to give the others a chance to contribute.

They toiled for several hours. In that time, every person who went down for the first time suffered a severe mental shock upon seeing the scene at the bottom of the pit.

In the process, they discovered something else: the Golden Apple Tree wasn’t actually feeding on the corpses.

Otherwise, the bodies wouldn’t have remained so “relatively well-preserved” after all these years.

It took a tremendous effort from everyone, but at last, the final root was pulled free.

A dense gray fog suddenly erupted from the bottom of the pit!

The vast fog billowed outward, instantly blanketing the entire ruins.

Within the gray fog, Qin Ziwen could see transparent chains.

SNAP!

SNAP!

SNAP!

The chains shattered, link by link.

From the surface of the water in the pit, thick plumes of gray fog surged forth, finally coalescing above into a translucent, spectral form.

Qin Ziwen recognized “Gray” instantly.

However, compared to the Gray from the illusion, its real form looked far more bloated.

From the moment it appeared, thick smoke billowed from Gray’s entire body.

It looked like something straight out of a horror novel.

Of course, in a way, it truly was a Ghost.

And the thick smoke surrounding it, if Qin Ziwen’s senses weren’t mistaken, was its own energy!

Right now, Gray was like a balloon with a huge hole, its energy frantically leaking from its body.

After revealing its true form, Gray circled once in mid-air, then plunged straight into the nearby Lost Home.

The Lost Home gave a slight shudder. Its sails swelled for a moment, then it quickly fell still again.