Chapter 570 - 383: Probing Summoner Haina 3

A few of his people tried to force the contamination, but they immediately suffered a horrific backlash, their brains exploding on the spot.

Left with no choice, Haina and the other Summoners began to organize their people to fight back.

But the number of Insects was too great. Kill one, and a hundred would swarm in. Kill a hundred, and an endless tide of them would follow.

Their Spiritual Energy attacks could kill the Insects, but the cost was too high. What terrified them more, however, were the High Tier Insect Race.

Haina had personally witnessed a Level Four Insect Race brutally tear three Summoners to shreds.

The Summoners’ bodies of Spiritual Energy were as fragile as paper before the Insect Race’s blades. Their chin tentacles were ripped off, their vertical pupils pierced, and their clouds of spiritual mist violently torn asunder...

Then, the swarm dragged their corpses away to be used as nesting material.

"Damn Insects..."

As Haina recalled this, fear rose in his heart once more. A tentacle slammed down on the wooden table, making the candle flame flicker violently.

In the candlelight, several distinct wounds were visible on the surface of his gray body. They weren’t bleeding; instead, a faint purple Spiritual Energy was slowly leaking from them.

They were left a week ago when he was hit by the acid spray of a Shadow Wing Insect, and they still hadn’t fully healed.

’No, I have to send another ’distress call’ into the Void.’ A vicious glint flashed in Haina’s scarlet, vertical pupils.

He rose and walked to a corner of the wooden hut. There, a crude altar had been built from several Stones covered in engraved Runes.

In the center of the altar rested three dried skulls. Their eye sockets were empty, but a faint Spiritual Fluctuation still lingered on their surfaces.

These were the skulls of three believers from an Otherworld.

A year ago, Haina had used a Rift to bewitch the chieftain of a small world’s tribe. The chieftain sacrificed the Souls of his entire three-hundred-person tribe to construct a Descent Anchor Point for him.

But just as he was preparing to tear open the Rift for his True Body Descent, the Insect Race arrived.

That small world, in turn, became prey for the Insect Race, and Haina was forced to sever the Link and flee back to Esok.

’I have to find another world...’

The tentacles on his chin slowly extended and wrapped around one of the skulls. His scarlet, vertical pupils lit up as he began to infuse it with Spiritual Energy, rapidly consuming the Soul within the cranium.

He was going to send a "distress signal" into the Void again. This time, he would make it sound even more tragic and desperate.

He wanted to entice any powerhouse who received the signal, making them unable to resist coming for a piece of the pie.

’As for whether they live or die after they arrive...’ Haina’s tentacle tightened, and fine cracks spiderwebbed across the skull’s surface.

’That will depend on your luck.’

「Ten kilometers from the valley entrance.」

Ian stood in the shadow of some ruins, his Gravity Perception silently blanketing the entire valley.

He saw the Essoke People. They were indeed humanoid, but something was very wrong with them.

The halos of Spiritual Energy on their bodies, the tentacles on their chins, the twisted limbs at the ends of their arms, and that faint, almost imperceptible fluctuation of spiritual pollution.

It was like a low-frequency noise, constantly broadcasting thoughts of Chaos, fear, and fanaticism.

Ian’s eyes narrowed. ’So these are Summoners? They’re more like contaminators.’

His Gravity Perception extended further, locking onto the wooden hut deep within the valley, and he saw Haina.

He saw the gray, twisted body, the scarlet vertical pupils, and the writhing tentacles on his chin.

He also "saw" the altar in the corner of the hut and the three dried skulls.

When Haina began infusing the skull with Spiritual Energy, Ian sharply detected an anomaly.

The frequency of the Spiritual Energy was subtly changing, as if adjusting its "wavelength" in an attempt to match a distant "reception point."

’Inter-world communication...’ Ian’s interest was piqued, and a profound light flashed in his eyes.

This wasn’t a simple Talent. This was the ultimate understanding and application of world barriers, Void Rifts, and Soul Essence!

The distances between worlds are immense, and each world’s Rules differ in subtle ways.

The Void Rifts at a world’s edge are zones devoid of that world’s Rules, where interference and expenditure are at their lowest.

The principle behind a Super Long-distance Teleportation Array is to find the shortest path through these Void Rifts at the edges of worlds, bypassing world after world to reach a destination.

It’s like traveling from one soap bubble to another by passing through the gaps between them.

The Essoke People, or rather, the Summoners, are like experts specializing in "inter-world travel."

They know how to locate other worlds within the Void and how to transmit spiritual signals through a Rift.

They know how to use a "Soul Sacrifice" to construct a stable Descent Anchor Point.

To Ian, this knowledge was of incalculable value!

He took a deep breath to suppress his excitement. His Gravity Perception remained locked on Haina, observing his every move.

The infusion of Spiritual Energy continued for three minutes.

More and more cracks appeared on the skull’s surface until, with a final CRACK, it shattered completely, turning to dust.

Haina’s scarlet, vertical pupils dimmed for an instant, and the tentacles on his chin drooped limply.

’Failed again...’

Over the past three months, he had tried dozens of times, sending distress signals into the Void in every possible direction that might receive them.

But aside from that one "Giant Tree Will," there had been no other response.

Either the surrounding worlds had all been conquered by the Insect Race, or... those worlds simply didn’t dare to respond.

After all, the reputation of the Essoke People as "Spiritual Devourers" wasn’t exactly stellar among the Void Rifts.

"Dammit..." Haina slumped back onto the wooden stool, a tentacle irritably slapping the ground.

Just then, an extremely faint, yet unmistakably clear "Otherworld fluctuation" suddenly entered his Perception.

Haina’s head snapped up, his scarlet, vertical pupils flaring with light!

The fluctuation was unfamiliar and faint, but it was undeniably from the "outside"!

Some"one" was answering his distress call!

’Finally...’

The tentacles on Haina’s chin writhed with excitement, their suckers opening and closing with a rapid HISS HISS HISS.

He immediately focused, adjusting his Spiritual Energy frequency to try and establish a Link with the fluctuation.

But what he didn’t know was that outside the valley, in the shadows of the ruins, Ian slowly retracted the sliver of "Order fluctuation" he had deliberately released, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

’Such intense malice!’

’Heh, interesting.’