“Mr. Barrett…”
Ruiji stared blankly at the spot where Ron had disappeared.
No joke, this guy always plays for real; if he says he’s going down for a look, he’s going down for a look.
The ground suddenly trembled violently.
The gray mist erupting from the swamp visibly thickened.
Like boiling water, the swamp gurgled with numerous bubbles, while the surrounding ground continuously sank like quicksand.
The five people’s field of vision rapidly narrowed.
Without time to pray for Ron, the five quickly ran away from the swamp.
Even after running out of the Dusk Swamp, they dared not stop, because they found that the sky-filling gray mist was continuously spreading outwards.
The gray mist almost chased them all the way back to the Mercenary Association.
In less than two hours, the gray mist enveloped the entire Gray Mist Territory.
Most of the residents of the Gray Mist Territory merely looked up with slight surprise, then lowered their heads and continued with their affairs.
Because the gray mist from the Dusk Swamp spreads out once every year, this was not the first time they had seen this anomaly.
The gray mist is harmless to humans and plants, and unlike the mist within the Dusk Swamp, the spreading gray mist is much thinner, not affecting their normal lives, so no one paid it much mind.
But they clearly underestimated the gray mist that erupted this time.
This time, the gray mist not only covered the entire Gray Mist Territory, but also affected surrounding territories, and its density was far greater than in previous years.
Soon, they would notice that this gray mist was unusual.
But this did not cause too much panic.
If it's thick, then it's thick; it will recede in a few days anyway, so this situation will merely last a few more days and won't cause much impact.
They thought this in their hearts.
Little did they know that the Gray Mist Territory was about to change hands.
And the instigator of all this was leisurely touring the ancient battlefield buried more than a hundred meters underground.
...
Time returned to when Ron jumped into the swamp.
The bottom of the Dusk Swamp was not solid bedrock, but a hollow barrier—something that, currently, no one knows except Ron, who is inside the barrier, and the Poison Armor Frog, which is already dead.
The Poison Armor Frog indeed could not survive in the swamp, but the barrier space at the bottom of the swamp was very suitable for habitation.
And the half-iron disk in its belly was the key to entering the barrier.
It could not only block the interference of the gray mist but also the pressure of the special sludge in the swamp.
This was Ron's confidence in daring to jump into the swamp.
In the swamp, the iron disk emitted light, isolating the squeezing of the sludge.
Ron safely arrived within the barrier at the bottom of the swamp.
It was pitch black here, and Ron could barely see the situation inside by attaching his remaining magic power to his eyes.
The barrier space contained only an ancient stone door, and in the middle of the tightly sealed stone door's seam, there was an octagonal groove.
Clearly, the key to opening the stone door was an object corresponding to the groove.
Under normal circumstances, anyone who came here would try to collect the complete key first.
But Ron knew that this stone door was just an unimportant door, and it could be opened with only half of the key.
As he pressed the half-array disk in his hand into the stone door's groove, the ground began to tremble.
The stone door, with the half-array disk embedded, slowly opened.
Walking in, one could see a forty-five-degree inclined spiral staircase behind the door.
Taking out the half-array disk embedded in the stone door, Ron followed the staircase about sixty meters underground, reaching the bottom, and after walking through a section of the passage, he entered a spacious area.
“Is this the Dusk Paradise ruins?”
It has to be said, the difference in visual experience between the image version and the real version is quite significant.
Everywhere Ron passed, there were ancient ruins weathered by time, severely eroded, almost turning into a mound of yellow earth.
Many ancient treasures were buried here, but the current Ron had no desire to explore.
He walked straight through this area of ancient buildings, buried for many years, following the predetermined route, heading deeper.
His goal was clear, directly targeting the greatest treasure of this ruin.
If one were to ask what the greatest treasure of this ruin was, it was undoubtedly the authority wielded by the ruin's owner.
It is important to know that in every War of the Gods, the main contention is that authority within the Divine Kingdom.
Possessing authority means having the conditions for ascending to godhood.
Becoming a god, from all perspectives, is the ultimate goal pursued by all kings.
Although what was here was only an authority trial card, it was enough for Ron to do many things.
An hour later, a narrow passage appeared before Ron's eyes.
After passing through the ten-meter-long passage, what appeared before him was a primitive cavern without any artificial embellishments, so tall that he couldn't see the top when he looked up.
In the empty cavern, there was only a small pool of water.
A pool of water from which thick gray mist billowed.
This... was the source of the gray mist.
It could no longer only disperse magic power, but also life force.
Ron walked to the edge of the pool, crouched down, and extended the hand holding the array disk into the water; immediately, a cylindrical vacuum area with a diameter of one meter appeared in the water.
Confirming there were no issues, Ron took off his backpack and carefully climbed down along the edge of the pool.
The pool was only ten meters deep, and Ron quickly reached the bottom.
Guided by the obscure and mysterious patterns at the bottom of the pool, Ron arrived at the center of the pool's bottom, the convergence point of all patterns, where there was an octagonal groove just like the stone door outside.
Without hesitation, Ron pressed the half-array disk in his hand into the groove.
The next second, the half of the pattern he pressed in emitted bursts of gray light, and soon the light intensified.
Ron couldn't help but close his eyes, and in an instant, a segment of the underground ruin's past was transmitted into his mind.
In that fleeting imagery, he witnessed the rise and fall of a magnificent empire.
The last scene showed the winged ruler of the empire, at an extremely painful cost, defeating the evil god who had plagued the empire and sealing him in this pool.
To ensure that the seal suppressing the evil god would last forever, she sacrificed her life to refine the Source Gathering Array Disk.
Later generations only needed to place the Source Gathering Array Disk into the array at regular intervals to maintain the sealing array indefinitely.
As her figure dissipated in the air, she seemed to sense something, turned her head, and looked across time and space at Ron.
Ron calmly met her gaze, his heart without any ripples.
This was not the first time he had seen this scene.
He had already memorized the background of the Dusk Paradise ruins when conquering the Gray Mist Territory dungeon.
Hearing the same story twice, the emotional impact was naturally not as great.
Of course, he didn't dive to the bottom of the pool to hear a story.
Waiting for her gaze to disappear and the scene to end, a strange energy was born from the depths of his spirit, elusive and incomparably profound, like a split second personality.
The information it conveyed was simply the two words: 【Annihilation】.
“Is this all there is…?”
Ron muttered to himself, opening his eyes with some dissatisfaction.
What a useless body.
He knew this body had poor cultivation talent, but he didn't expect its compatibility with authority to be so poor as well.
It could only be said that it truly was a cannon fodder character; fortunately, he didn't need to cultivate based on talent.
He couldn't help but miss the player's panel, like that of a chosen child.
“Twenty percent… better than nothing.”
With no other choice, Ron's hand slowly left the half-iron disk, which was embedded in the sealing array and could not be removed, and the thick gray mist from the pool immediately enveloped him.
Yet, it had no effect on him.
Controlling the authority of Annihilation, he could already avoid being affected by the gray mist, and even control it.
Ron climbed out of the pool; the first step of his plan to take over the Gray Mist Territory had been achieved, and next, he had to retrieve the other half of the array disk from the Lord's Mansion.