Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1658: Chapter 8: Better Alive Than Dead, Old Dog Lives the Longest

How did it end up like this?

Tai Yinzi couldn’t help but ask his soul: Clearly everything was going as smoothly as if it was arranged—why would it turn out like this?

Take a look at Tai Yinzi’s predicament right now.

At a scorching volcanic crater, he was hanging by a rope suspended in the air, dangling over bubbling magma… The distance between his toes and the magma was less than 1CM.

If he tries to scratch his right foot with his left foot, the forefoot of his right would definitely touch the magma… He really tried to scratch it—thanks to the toughness of the Black soul envoy’s body, and then… and then there was nothing left.

Damn, that hurt a lot!

This rope binding him, he had no idea what material it was made of, but it rendered his vaporization ability ineffective.

He screamed internally—the magma contained in this lousy volcano could even damage the body of a Black soul envoy, which was really excessive!

This body of the Black soul envoy, wasn’t it reconstructed by the master, using a material obviously higher in grade than his original body!

Inferior—impurities.

“Enjoy, this is the ‘Anything Melts’ volcano! Even if a Void Primordial Demon falls in, there won’t be a trace!”

The robust man who brought Tai Yinzi here sneered and said.

“What kind of stupid name is this?” Tai Yinzi couldn’t help but open his mouth, as if he had been insulted.

The robust man said indifferently: “Anyway, it originally had no name, I can call it whatever I want, not convinced? Climb up here and fight me!”

“This… sir, have I offended you?” Tai Yinzi switched his tone, attempting reconciliation, “I and Musashi merely have a nodding acquaintance, came at his request as part of a deal. There’s a saying—resolve disputes by tracing them to the source. Want revenge? Go find him, I’ll definitely cheer you on!”

“Pah! If I could beat that Musashi, would I need to bind you here to vent?”

Tai Yinzi was flabbergasted… This robust man was quite a landslide.

“Honestly speaking, I have a sworn enmity with that Musashi!” Tai Yinzi said resentfully, “That thief sullied my 800-year-old mother, harassed my 300-year-old sister, and even didn’t spare my 249-year-old yellow dog…”

The robust man picked his nose and waved his hand: “Alright, alright, the last one to say that has already sunk into the volcano, save your breath… Enjoy, I’m feeling great now, off to find a place to celebrate! Oh, by the way, one last thing, this volcano gets high tide… bye-bye.”

“How dare you treat me like this, do you know who I am?!” Tai Yinzi sneered, “My master’s stomp could cause a great upheaval in this dimensional rift!”

“Oh?” The robust man suddenly became interested, nodding, “Hmm, interesting, you have more flair than the others before, tell me about your master?”

“Listen up!” Tai Yinzi snorted, “My master is…”

He suddenly couldn’t speak.

Before departure.

—Remember, this time you’re on a covert mission, don’t reveal your identity… I’ll place a sealing command on you.

“Your master is?” The robust man furrowed his brows.

Such powerful beings who traverse dimensional rifts are extraordinary individuals, straightforward in their actions and unpretentious, readily admitting their inability to take on Musashi, therefore taking it out on Musashi’s subordinates, quite forthright indeed.

Observing the assured demeanor of this wretched-looking old guy, the robust man felt some concern that this old guy’s master might have a notable background.

After all, in dimensional rifts, normally you walk alone and rarely encounter anyone… But if you do, it’s also frequent that you meet ancient existences of the rift.

This place can’t be thought of as ordinary.

“He, he… he…” Tai Yinzi opened his mouth several times, trying hard, but an invisible force kept suppressing his speech, he really tried hard, but could only take a deep breath, “Hmph! How could a nameless fellow like you know my master’s name, you’re not worthy!”

—I want to say it!

“Ha, tough talk now.” The robust man shook his head, internally scolding himself for overthinking, “Enjoy, old dog.”

With that, the robust man left the crater with his big axe.

“Wait, brother stay!! Ol…”

The high tide of the ‘Anything Melts’ volcano caused the magma to rise a bit more, Tai Yinzi quickly bent his waist, trembling in fear.

“Help… Help—!!!!”

…

…

A group of white-robed, masked figures had been walking in the hot mountainous terrain for some time.

“Father God, this ‘Place of the Voidfall’ is truly peculiar.” One of the women exclaimed, “Besides the uneven gravitational fields, just in that short stroll we encountered three areas that can restrain divine power, which is enough to shock someone… If a powerful beast emerges in those areas, it’d be horrifying…”

“This place is indeed mysterious.” Solar Deity Ra nodded, “But what you mentioned is merely common in the ‘Place of the Voidfall’, the truly dreadful areas might alter your entire life form if you step wrong.”

“What?!” Goddess Maat exclaimed in shock.

Solar Deity Ra spoke solemnly, “When I obtained the Scales of Good and Evil, I saw a being as strong as me step wrong and transform into a white mouse—an actual mouse, powerless and easily manipulated.”

Goddess Maat felt a chill… Despite her advanced life form being fixed and surpassing humans, she could still be transformed…

“What kind of power can toy with gods like this…” Goddess muttered.

“Legend has it, this ‘Place of the Voidfall’ was a battleground during the collapse of the old era.” Solar Deity Ra shook his head, “How many ancient powerful beings existed in the rift’s old era is still a mystery… If such ancient beings could also perish here, imagine the danger, enough said… sounds are coming from that way, let’s go have a look.”

After saying that, Solar Deity Ra’s gaze fell on a volcano ahead spewing thick smoke.

…

Soon, the Pillar Gods of Ancient Egypt climbed to the edge of the crater and looked down.

They saw an emaciated old man with an afro, trembling, suspended over magma.

“Hero! Help—!”

Sun God Ra did not respond immediately.

He merely turned his head, looked at the Pillar Gods, and said, “Judging by the situation, this old man wasn’t hung here because he fell into a trap; he must have encountered an enemy… I recognize this volcano. It can melt anything, which is very dangerous. It seems his enemy really intends to kill him.”

“Our main objective this time is to explore the divine artifacts in the Place of the Voidfall; it’s best not to stir up trouble.” One of the Pillar Gods thought for a moment and said.

There are too many old monsters in the dimensional rift. Although the Pillar Gods of Ancient Egypt are quite powerful, strictly speaking, they’re probably only average. Moreover, the trip to Sub-world 002 was quite damaging, severely exhausting their vitality. Naturally, they must be cautious now.

Sun God Ra pondered silently but suddenly looked at his daughter, Goddess Maat, and directly asked: “What do you think of this matter?”

Goddess Maat thought for a moment and said, “We can bring this person up and take him along.”

“Why?”

Goddess Maat slowly explained, “This person is hanging here, bearing a disregard for life and death. No one is guarding here, suggesting that his enemy left him here without any further concern and completely abandoned him. That person may have gone far away or even doesn’t care about his life and death anymore. That’s one point.”

“Go on.”

Goddess Maat continued: “We can rescue this person but not unlock his bindings, just take him along. If his enemies come, we won’t say anything and return him immediately. We simply rescued him by chance, without knowing their grudges; the enemy probably won’t dare to act rashly. With him on our journey, if we encounter anything dangerous, we can let him explore first. Father has already said the traps in the Place of the Voidfall are elusive. Even though we now have a map, we can’t guarantee avoiding all traps. Thus, having one more pathfinder offers another layer of protection. As for if this person dies exploring a trap… he dies. If we don’t act, he would have died here in the volcano anyway.”

Sun God Ra did not immediately affirm but scanned the rest of the Pillar Gods, asking, “What do you all think?”

“Feasible.”

After a moment’s silence, the Pillar Gods provided an answer.

“Then let’s bring him up.” Sun God Ra nodded.

One of the Pillar Gods promptly jumped down, scooped up the afro-headed old man who was about to be submerged by the rising lava, and casually tossed him on the ground.

“This rope is quite mysterious; I couldn’t snap it even after pulling hard.” The Pillar God who rescued the man frowned and said.

“No problem, we’re not planning to untie him anyway.” Sun God Ra shook his head, then looked at the stunned old man on the ground and calmly said, “We’ve rescued you now. You need to do something for me as repayment. If you refuse, I’ll put you back where you were. Understand?”

The afro-headed old man quickly nodded, nodding like a chicken pecking rice.

Sun God Ra did not ask for the old man’s name, instructed a Pillar God to guard him, and quickly left the volcano with his group.

…

Not long after, a burly man carrying a large axe leisurely walked back, only to find the rope at the volcano’s mouth had disappeared.

“Who touched my bait!!!”

The hefty man stomped furiously, his power instantly shattering the mouth of the volcano and extending a crack into the lava.

At that moment, a fiery pillar suddenly shot out from the lava, shocking the burly man and revealing his terrified expression. A massive figure emerged from the pillar, resembling a gigantic whale covered in fiery spikes, with four eyes and six wings—a colossal creature!

The giant creature’s four eyes opened simultaneously, and under its gaze, the burly man’s body stiffened, unable to move.

In the next moment, the giant creature opened its mouth wide and swallowed the rocks along with the burly man whole, then submerged back into the lava.

The volcano returned to tranquility.

…

…

Sub-world 003, current world.

Border of Britannia, a small town, somewhere by the sea.

Boss Luo held the information left by Lamias, comparing it to the sea level as he observed. The materials rudely introduced the matter of the Undersea City.

This Undersea City was discovered during a recent underwater exploration by the Black Religious Congregation. As for the already sunken Nautilus, it was an acquisition during that exploration.

The deep sea contains quite a few rare minerals that can be used by the Black Religious Congregation to produce precise components for building armor. In reality, most of the rare minerals are controlled by the Undersea City.

Because of this, the Black Religious Congregation has already made initial contact with the Undersea City discreetly.

In fact, over the past few decades, the Black Religious Congregation has leveraged social forces in a powerful foreign country across the ocean to arrange for members of the sea tribe to infiltrate the Union States’ society, thus obtaining a batch of rare materials of rather high purity, thereby creating many high-performance armors and a large batch of ultimate warriors exclusively for former Commander Charles.

Simply put, they betrayed their own kind.

Of course, such actions, if done in Divine Land, would have been dealt with by the Xuanyuan Palace warriors long ago.

Initially, Lamias thought Boss Luo had a penchant for new and strange things, hoping to use the Undersea City’s information as a reward for helping her temporarily, but this information now serves as a small gift.

The materials provided the approximate location of the Undersea City… Boss Luo was currently working on finding this location.

Having the location naturally made things much easier and even saved the cost of purchasing the Undersea City’s location.

“Alright, the position is set.”

As Boss Luo’s voice fell, a Border Gate appeared in front of him… leading directly to the depths of the sea, into the territory of the Undersea City.

“Speaking of which, did Master assign Tai Yinzi any missions?” The maid suddenly remembered the Black soul envoy who didn’t matter much to her.

“Yes, he’s assigned a little task.” Boss Luo casually smiled and said, “It’s quite fitting for him, I suppose.”

The maid had no objections… In fact, she felt more at ease with Da Zhe temporarily managing the Main God Mountain instead of Tai Yinzi.

But ultimately, if those players manage to reach the Main God Mountain, Tai Yinzi should be the boss guarding the gate.

“Let’s go.”

Boss Luo walked directly into the Border Gate.