It was 9.20 p.m. Lin Huang arrived at the Xia Temple in the Xia Palace ruins earlier than he expected.
Looking at the monitoring system which did not have a blind spot on either side and the huge crowd, he could not attack. He looked around, waited patiently for a chance.
When it was almost 9.50 p.m., a sound was heard from the speakers at each of the exhibition halls at the same time.
"Attention visitors... The Xia Palace ruins operates from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. We"ll be closing in just a moment. You may now leave the exhibition hall in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. Please don"t stay after the exhibition hall closes. We"ll have our cleaning staff to clean up the hall later… We hope you visit us again soon! Thank you for your cooperation, and we hope you have a good evening," the announcer said.
Visitors were not allowed to enter the Xia Palace ruins after 9.30 p.m. Despite saying that the operating hours were only until 10 p.m., it was usually closed after 10.30 p.m. They would usually inform the visitors to leave 40 minutes in advance.
Listening to the announcement, Lin Huang immediately hid in the toilet.
Slightly after 10 p.m., there was almost no one at the Xia Temple ruins and the security staff began to sweep the venue for any hiding stragglers.
Although, it was strange that the security staff did not check any of the other places. Instead, they headed directly towards the toilet where Lin Huang was hiding.
Their footsteps became more audible in the empty exhibition hall.
Lin Huang could hear it when they were still quite a distance from where he was. He immediately used the Specific Transformation Card, transforming into a ghostly form and pa.s.sed through the wall next to him.
"You don"t have to hide anymore. Your transformation might fool our eyes but our master can still sense you!" A bearded man said; he was the leader of the crowd. The crowd had now stationed itself in front of the cubicle nearest to the toilet.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang! They kicked down the door of the cubicle. They were all stunned as n.o.body was inside the cubicle.
The security staff exchanged glances with each other and asked, "Why is no one here?"
"Check the other cubicles now!" the bearded man bellowed the order loudly.
They kicked down the rest of the doors and still, there were no traces of Lin Huang anywhere.
"Could it be possible that our Master...made a mistake?" They looked for Lin Huang again in the small toilet and left helplessly.
"I can"t believe that Form Changer didn"t work. Luckily I have the Specific Transformation Cards with me," Lin Huang said with a nervous smile. He slowly emerged from the wall and patted his chest in relief.
He stole a glance and realized that the people had left. Then, he came down to the ground with his ghostly form and headed towards the direction of the parasites.
After about five minutes, Lin Huang finally arrived at the entrance of an underground cave.
The underground cave did not look much like a karst [1] cave. It looked like a fault s.p.a.ce that was formed due to movements in the fault-blocks instead.
The area was in pitch black darkness. Thanks to Lin Huang"s Boundless Vision , he was able to see without difficulty even under such circ.u.mstances.
Since he was now at the base of the toilet, he could not determine which direction to proceed. He then asked Xiao Hei for help.
"Xiao Hei, which direction is the unusual energy coming from?"
"It"s coming from the two o"clock direction," Xiao Hei responded.
"Wait, I guess it will not be able to sense my existence in this form. But it should be able to sense yours, right?" Lin Huang asked.
"It"s only residual energy so the strength of its Will and abilities are limited. I"ve s.h.i.+elded my energy waves so it would not notice me beyond a distance of 100 meters," Xiao Hei said.
"Clever!" Lin Huang said and gave it a thumbs-up.
"Thank you for your compliment but I think you"re not qualified to use that term yourself, yet." Xiao Hei replied coldly.
"d.a.m.n! I rarely compliment you and you"re saying that I have low intellect? Do you believe that I"ll be stupid enough to turn back to Xiagong City now?" Lin Huang questioned Goldfinger.
"Do you believe that I"ll now activate all the remaining mission cards that you have?" Xiao Hei threatened in response.
"… Just great." Lin Huang said in defeat. He had no choice but to agree with it. He could still remember those days when he had to accomplish tasks from mission cards. He had said earlier that he wanted to activate the last mission card that he had. However, he had been busy practicing his Life Skills and had forgotten about it.
"When I return to Wulin Town, I"ll use the mission card immediately!" Lin Huang said confidently. He was determined this time. However, he would always get difficult tasks when he activated mission cards at the last minute. He was afraid of mission cards now, and Xiao Hei knew his weakness.
Following Xiao Hei"s direction, Lin Huang discovered the unusual energy that Xiao Hei mentioned after a few turns. There was a giant net of vines surrounding the unusual energy.
The energy source was a big, spherical, energy-based object with a diameter of about 10 meters and released a dazzling white light like a mini sun.
The light shone on Lin Huang"s body and made him feel like his Life Power rotations became smoother. Apparently, such an energy had positive effects on human as well as the monsters. Otherwise, the vine-like monster would not entangle itself with the glowing sphere.
Lin Huang had never seen the vine-like monster in his monster guide before.
It had a blood-colored surface and each vine was roughly the circ.u.mference of an adults" arm. However, Lin Huang could not estimate how long its length was.
It looked like a b.l.o.o.d.y giant python had tangled itself around the glowing object as if it was guarding it and the treasure belonged to itself.
Lin Huang noticed that there was a purple bloom on vines every 10 centimeters.
They looked like dandelions which were a little fuzzy. However, they were even smaller and purple in color.
The flowers were beautiful but Lin Huang frowned as he saw them.
He recognized the flowers. It was actually a cl.u.s.ter of parasites. Each flower contained at least a hundred leech pods and he could now see that there were more than a hundred purple flowers here.
"Only a bronze-level and it could take over tens of thousands of people, turning them into hosts for parasites. If it were upgraded to a transcendent, a B-grade foothold like Xiagong City would be destroyed…" Lin Huang thought, and shuddered.
Looking at the leech pods that were floating around in the air, he noticed them gradually float up towards a crack high up in the cavern. Lin Huang finally knew how the monster transported the parasites to the surface, infecting the people of Xiaoxia City with parasites.
Despite Xiaoxia City being only a D-grade foothold, there was still a detection system at the entrance of the foothold. The parasites could hardly enter the foothold.
Furthermore, this species was living underneath the Xiagong Ruins. Since it was at the center of Xiaoxia City, the dispersal of the leech pods was way too easy. These seeds could be transported to the ground at the Xiagong Ruins through the cracks. Despite the opening being tiny, the leech pods were completely made of Life Power and under the control of their master, changing their form and path would not be a problem. The leech pods could be spread no matter how small the crack was.
The Xiagong Ruins was so crowded during the daytime. It was a piece of cake for the parasites to live inside a host of its choice.
Moreover, this species of parasites had never appeared before and it was a new species of parasites. It could not be detected with the devices they had now. Even if the leech pods were to leave the ruins of Xiagong together with the host, it would not stop at the exits. Also, it could be dispersed out of the Xiagong Ruins along with the winds…
Lin Huang was terrified as he thought of all the possibilities and consequences. If these parasites were given sufficient time, perhaps all the citizens in Xiagong City would be infected.
"We definitely can"t have these parasites control the city!" Lin Huang said to Xiao Hei.
Upon closer observation of the surroundings, Lin Huang did not waste any more time and summoned Charcoal. Charcoal immediately pounced on the giant python-like vine.