Chapter 1029: Section 1030: Return to the Abyss
 

Rhein nodded.

“Yes, it’s Angel,” Rhein said, “He wants to purchase the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel.”

Sanders frowned; he had originally thought that Florenza sought out Angel because he had discovered some clues about the “Lucas’s Skull,” not because of the Song of the Deep Sea.

Rhein continued, “Florenza’s plan is to use Constant Fragments as a trade, with an estimated number of around three drops.”

The value of Constant Fragments went without saying, and Sanders was somewhat surprised and doubtful that the Song of the Deep Sea could be worth so much.

He had heard about the Song of the Deep Sea from Angel before while in the Abyss, but Angel seemed unwilling to discuss it further, merely mentioning it in passing.

After all, the Song of the Deep Sea was Angel’s first high-order work, and Sanders had taken a keen interest in it. He had wanted to see the specific effects of the Song of the Deep Sea for himself but, each time he approached Angel to try it, Angel would find excuses to put it off. Although Sanders suspected there might be something fishy about it, after all, it was Angel’s own Alchemy work, and as a Mentor, he respected Angel’s choice, so he did not pursue the matter further.

Now, hearing from Rhein, was the Song of the Deep Sea really so highly valued?

“Florenza received a total of fifteen drops of Constant Fragments from this Song of the Deep Sea expedition, and he obtained ten for himself. He mentioned using three drops of Constant Fragments for the trade, but I suspect, setting aside their own usage for upgrading the Witchcraft Garden, his bottom line might be willing to step back a bit.”

That is to say, four drops!

Four drops of Constant Fragments could almost be enough to create a low-level Witchcraft Garden!

The value of the Song of the Deep Sea somewhat surpassed Sanders’s imagination.

However, for Sanders, more than the overt value of the Song of the Deep Sea, he was actually more interested to know what Angel had previously concealed deliberately.

After Rhein finished speaking, he looked towards Sanders, who was expressionless.

Sanders looked very calm, and Rhein couldn’t help but feel admiration. Just before, when Florenza mentioned this negotiation, he had shown a look of surprise, yet Sanders was so unflappable. It seemed he had long deduced the value of the Song of the Deep Sea.

Rhein, however, didn’t know that Sanders’s understanding of the Song of the Deep Sea was in fact much less than his own. The reason he could remain so calm was that Angel was good at causing a stir, and the shocks he had brought to Sanders before were all too many. Take the Wilderness of Dreams, for example—its potential was said to be boundless, already challenging to measure by mere value.

So, upon hearing about the Song of the Deep Sea, aside from silently criticising Angel’s capacity for causing trouble, Sanders was rather indifferent.

“What’s your opinion?” asked Rhein.

“That’s Angel’s concoction; it has nothing to do with me. My opinion is not important,” Sanders paused and then added, “Moreover, Angel’s current situation remains unknown. I think it’s better to go to the Abyss first and bring him back before discussing anything else.”

Sanders had come for the matter concerning Angel.

When he returned to the Barbarian Cave a few days ago, he immediately shared with Rhein about the instability of the cross-world passage. Rhein told Sanders not to be anxious, as due to the integration of planes, his friend, the ‘Voidwalker’ Esos, happened to be nearby.

As a rare Space Series True Knowledge Wizard, Esos should have some insight into the situation.

Previously, after Rhein had sought Esos’s counsel, he then called Sanders over.

Rhein: “Since Angel is in Wind Whisper Valley, he should be presumably safe for now.”

But Sanders didn’t see it that way: “With the Twilight Mountains experiencing widespread anomalies, I felt very unsafe there before I entered the cross-world passage. To avoid any accidents, it would be better to return promptly and take Angel away.”

Sanders paused before directly addressing the main issue: “With the cross-world passage experiencing problems so frequently, is there a reason for it?”

Remembering the words from Esos before, Rhein said, “From here to the Abyss, the spatial energy is currently not very stable, but it should not reach the point of creating time-space labyrinths. Your experience is very likely to be a special case.”

Indeed, a situation like a time-space labyrinth was an exceptionally rare exception. Even Rhein himself might not be able to escape smoothly if caught in it, so Sanders’s luck wasn’t bad.

“Problems happening twice in a row with the cross-world passage, are they truly exceptions?” Sanders said with a frown.

“Esos’s exact words are that it was an exception,” Rhein replied, “Although there was an energy tide situation on the road to the Abyss not long ago, the tide has mostly subsided, and it wouldn’t have affected the cross-world passage you created separately. At the moment, there are no other anomalies in between, so your experience should be considered as a special situation.”

Sanders trusted the words of Esos, but he still felt it absurd that two consecutive failures were deemed special cases. He had a vague feeling that there were more secrets hidden beneath the surface, the signs of which had not yet emerged.

“Did he specify the place of departure?”

“If you are going to the Abyss in the next couple of days, the area near Fragrant Lake in the Republic of Yali is the best choice, as the spatial energy there is not as unstable as the Pamiji Plateau.” In fact, Esos’s original words were that it would be fine even to open it on the Pamiji Plateau, although the area was somewhat unstable in spatial energy due to the failed fusion of planes. However, this instability was relative; even if it’s not stable, it would still be more stable than the Wind Whisper Valley of the Abyss.

So whether it’s the Pamiji Plateau or the Fragrant Lake, opening a cross-world passage to the Abyss meant entering a less stable area from a highly stable one. Overall, there was no significant difference.

“I understand,” said Sanders, who had memorized the location and was ready to leave.

He had mayfly fragments with him, so going back and forth should be enough. Only this time, to bring Angel back, the consumption of mayfly fragments was indeed too much. Just the thought made Sanders’s heart ache.

“How about this, I’ll accompany you for the trip,” Rhein also stood up as he followed Sanders.

Sanders looked at him with suspicion.

Rhein shrugged his shoulders, “This old bag of bones has been stiff for too long. It’s time for some activity in the Abyss. Besides, I value Angel highly. I’ve already given him the Illusory Spirits of the Demon Absorbing Path. If something were to happen to him, that would have been in vain.”

Rhein knew that once Sanders picked up Angel from the Abyss, he would probably return immediately, so his departure this time would not be for long. Besides, he hadn’t been out for a while, and with so many troublesome matters in recent days, including the failure of plane fusion that caused members of all the Witcher Organizations to bother him, he found the perfect excuse to hide for a couple of days. If time permitted, he also wanted to visit Sky Island to see… Samantha.

Thinking of Samantha, Rhein’s expression carried a hint of melancholy.

Sanders almost guessed Rhein’s thoughts as soon as he saw his furrowed brows.

“There may not be a chance to go to Sky Island, and I don’t think Samantha wants to see you,” Sanders said.

Rhein pushed away the fleeting sadness and muttered, “With you around, even if she is not fond of me, she will come out to see you.”

Sanders: “…” It was the familiar taste indeed.

Sanders and Rhein quietly left the Barbarian Cave.

Since the Aria Duchy was not far, they planned to fly directly there. Along the way, Rhein looked at Sanders’s tightly closed lips and furrowed brows and teased, “You look even worse than when Mirror Lady tried to use Heaven’s Gaze to sneak a peek at you bathing.”

Sanders ignored the playful tone in Rhein’s words: “I always feel uneasy.”

“Uneasy?”

“Looking back carefully, ever since we left the Watchguard Fortress, I’ve felt as if there’s a hidden thread in the depths, manipulating everything. Logically speaking, the Twilight Mountains shouldn’t have so many Demons. There must be something wrong,” Sanders always felt that he might have missed some clue.

“We’ll know once we get there.”

Soon, they arrived at the tranquil and beautiful Fragrant Lake.

Opening the cross-world portal and connecting with the Abyss, every step was without issues. However, Sanders could not choose the third layer of the Abyss, and could only set the coordinates to the outermost surface.

It seemed that Esos’s words had come to pass; this time Sanders opened the cross-world portal normally, without any accidents.

They smoothly smuggled themselves from the Wizards’ Realm into the Abyss.

As soon as Rhein exited the cross-world portal, he was immediately filled with nostalgia: “I probably haven’t been to the Abyss for nearly a millennium. This scenery is really reminiscent.”

Scenery? From the azure blue sky of the Wizards’ Realm, it turned into a murky sky of Dust. The surroundings were barren mountains and wild ridges, and the air was filled with a stern smell of blood. What scenery was there to speak of?

Sanders had no energy to critique Rhein’s aesthetics.

He surveyed the environment around them and quickly located the direction of the cross-layer gate.

“A cross-layer gate is thousands of miles to the southwest, which leads directly to the third layer,” Sanders chose the location that was a direct route through the Twilight Mountains.

If they took this route, it was impossible to go to Sky Island.

Although Rhein felt some regret in his heart, it was of little consequence. Considering the long-term future of the Barbarian Cave, Angel’s safety was indeed the top priority.

A distance of a thousand miles was not considered far for them. Before long, they arrived at the cross-layer gate.

After reaching the Twilight Mountains of the Abyss’ third layer, Sanders immediately became vigilant.

However, what puzzled Sanders was that he and Rhein traveled tens of thousands of miles from the southern part of the Twilight Mountains to the north, without encountering a single ambush.

This was entirely different from the situation before.

When the personnel from the Watchguard Fortress had withdrawn, they encountered enemy attacks almost every hundred miles. How could it be so smooth now?

“It looks like you were worried for nothing,” Rhein said.

“I hope so,” Sanders’s expression remained somewhat tense. Although the Twilight Mountains were calm now, the strange feeling in his heart had not dissipated.

Why, when he retraced his steps today, was the cross-world portal without issues, and the Twilight Mountains showed no signs of danger?

A flash of insight passed through Sanders’s mind, but before he could grasp it, it vanished.

“We’ve arrived at the Wind Whisper Valley,” Rhein’s voice came over at that moment.

Following Rhein’s gaze, Sanders looked ahead. The mountain range was continuous, and in the central valley surrounded by the mountains on all sides was the Wind Whisper Valley.

“It’s also very quiet here, with no presence of Demons,” Rhein sensed the surroundings.

Sanders, however, looked down from a high vantage point towards a corner of the Wind Whisper Valley, and his expression suddenly changed when he saw the sunken pit: “Something’s not right, there’s a problem!”