Chapter 684: Mona's Surprise, Ready to Depart

"The Fallen Abyss... the Blood Clan..."

Deep within the Blood Abyss.

The Blood Duke's eyes snapped open, his gaze filled with hysterical madness.

Gurlad... the Fallen Abyss...

Everything was an illusion, everything was a trap.

Lilith's bloodline being stolen was a lie, what the Fallen Abyss told him was a lie.

Everything was fake, their target was the Bloodline River in his hands.

Or even himself.

The Blood Duke suddenly understood.

"No wonder the Fallen Abyss kept pushing the Frost Demon King away in their words last time. So Lava was the one pulling all the strings all along."

But soon, the Blood Duke calmed down.

"Wait, wait a little longer, I need to confirm again..."

-

Looking at the Silver-tier Fate Card appearing on the virtual light screen.

"Success! The bug worked!"

Yu Yuan curled his lips into a smile.

Knight, Hogg, and Mona also quickly recovered after receiving their injections.

When [Black Hole's Counterattack] appeared, it absorbed all the pollution in the space, which was a good thing for them.

Combined with the effect of Mie Mie's [Hoofprint Spring], the group was free of any lingering problems.

It was just that Hogg's recovery time might need to be extended a bit longer.

Seeing the three showing no obvious abnormalities, Yu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

But Mona handed a red crystal to Yu Yuan.

"Leader, you might find this useful."

[Ding, high-value item detected - Bloodline River: Branch]

--- [Bloodline River: Branch]

Quality: Gold-tier

Description: A tributary cut from the Bloodline River. Can establish a connection with racial creatures, becoming a bridge between that race and the Spiritual Dimension, greatly enhancing that race's potential.

"The Bloodline River!"

When Yu Yuan had previously infiltrated the Blood Clan's Bloodline River, he had obtained 2.3% authority over the Blood Clan's Bloodline River through Faith Infiltration, granting him the abilities to divert, intercept, and separate.

He just had never used that ability.

Unexpectedly, before he could even touch the Blood Clan's Bloodline River, Mona had already managed to snatch a piece of the Blood Duke's Bloodline River.

"That Bloodline River in the Blood Clan's hands seems to have been taken from Lilith. That means these two Bloodline Rivers should originally have been one."

Yu Yuan couldn't wait to see what the fusion of the two Bloodline River branches would look like.

His gaze turned to Mona.

Mona's aura had now completely stabilized at the Silver-tier level, and her presence was actually even stronger than Hogg's and Knight's by a noticeable margin.

Standing there, one could feel the surging spiritual energy radiating from her.

Her deep purple hair had turned wine-red, with strands of black interwoven within the crimson.

Her features had become even more mysterious.

Yu Yuan looked at the virtual light screen.

Talent [Dark High Priestess] has been greatly enhanced.

Building on her previous foundation, she also gained Pollution Immunity and Blood Energy Immunity effects.

Additionally, she obtained a rather rare ability.

--- [Dark Substitution]

Can create a substitute puppet. When suffering fatal damage, the two swap positions, and the puppet absorbs the damage. Additionally, the substitute puppet can possess different effects depending on the materials used to create it.

"This ability is excellent!"

With this ability, Mona's survival odds would increase dramatically. If she encountered a similar situation again, she would have more options.

Finally, a new [Trait] appeared on Mona.

This was the first time Yu Yuan had seen a [Trait] on a human.

--- [Dark Sage]

Type: Trait

Description: As the most pioneering explorer of the dark realm, the Dark High Priestess is herself a living library of the entire dark realm.

Function: Possesses extraordinary understanding and cognition of rituals, religions, faiths, and bloodlines. Mastery of all rituals, runes, and mystical languages. When conducting related research and exploration, often yields unexpected discoveries.

--------------------------------

"Mona, what does this Dark Sage trait mean?"

Yu Yuan didn't quite understand.

"In simple terms, I can freely combine and design new inventions based on the actual situation. These inventions might be very powerful, but they could also be very dangerous. I'll need to feel my way through it."

Mona explained her understanding.

After all, she had just obtained this trait herself.

Yu Yuan nodded lightly. Overall, his plan this time had been fairly successful.

The only pity was that the paper bearing the Blood Duke's spiritual imprint, which served as the key to opening the Bloodline River, had already turned to ashes.

The blood enhancement plan had been cut short on its very first day.

Seeming to sense Yu Yuan's thoughts, Mona spoke softly:

"Leader, if you're regretting the blood enhancement matter, I don't think you need to..."

"Hm?"

Yu Yuan caught the implication in Mona's words.

He looked at her.

"We now possess a tributary of the Blood Clan's Bloodline River. I can use it to set up an enhancement ritual array, using the Bloodline River as the enhancement source and consuming energy to perform blood enhancement on our soldiers.

Not only can this greatly increase the enhancement speed, but I can also eliminate those polluting factors.

Hmm~" Mona wore a thoughtful expression.

"Enhancing a dozen or so people a day shouldn't be a problem. Once I get more familiar with it, the number can be increased to several dozen."

Yu Yuan looked at Mona with pleasant surprise.

He hadn't expected this matter to take such a dramatic turn.

"Mona, I'll leave this matter to you!"

Soon, Carmen and Alpha, who had received Yu Yuan's message, returned to the location.

"Leader, are you all alright!"

Both wore expressions of lingering shock.

Clearly, they had felt the Blood Duke's attack very distinctly earlier.

Yu Yuan pointed at Mona and said, "We're fine. You could say we turned misfortune into a blessing. Carmen, give Mona your full support in building the enhancement ritual array. As for energy ore, aside from what's needed for daily operations, prioritize Mona's use..."

Yu Yuan introduced the effects of the enhancement ritual array to the two.

When they heard that a dozen to several dozen people could be enhanced per day, Carmen and Alpha were both stunned.

Then they erupted in wild joy.

This enhancement speed was vastly superior to the genetic modification serum.

"Understood, Leader. All resources will be prioritized for Mona."

Wasteland Calendar Day 112.

Hunter Training Camp.

Alpha led the Pioneering Group waiting in the Civilization War Fortress Square, and not far from them stood the Molten Believers led by Knight.

Goting and Merlin watched the steel-like warriors of the Pioneering Group.

The look in their eyes could no longer be described as mere surprise.

"So these are the elite soldiers under the Oracle?"

Although most of the soldiers weren't Bronze-tier lifeforms, the aura they displayed was in no way inferior.

The few soldiers at the very front of the formation radiated a presence that wasn't the slightest bit weaker than either of them.

They possessed strength comparable to Silver-tier.

"Truly remarkable."

It wasn't just the two of them. The Bronze-tier Ascetics behind them also looked on with amazement.

Any trace of superiority they once harbored had vanished completely.

They knew that if they were to clash head-on with this force, the outcome would be far from certain.

[Moon Shadow's Breath: Master, Tak's treants are massing in large numbers. They're probably about to launch their full-scale assault.]

Yu Yuan shifted his gaze away from the virtual light screen, looking at Alpha and the others.

He said calmly, "Move out!"