yasinovel Chapter 4359 Fragments of the Truth
Chapter 4359 Fragments of the Truth
Chapter 4359 Fragments of the Truth
Perhaps it was Kemai's "performance" that convinced the one-eyed man.
Or perhaps, Kemai's status as a member of the caravan, and the fact that the weapons and supplies had not yet been delivered, forced One-Eyed to make a slight "compromise".
After thinking for a moment, he finally relented and gave a response.
“I understand your desire to deliver on your promise to Hook.” One-Eyed Dragon: “I can give you some exclusive information so that your trip won’t be in vain.”
Under Kemai's expectant gaze, the one-eyed dragon said calmly, "The evil spirit's predecessor, or rather, when he was alive, was a priest of the Church of Radiance in Evening Light Harbor."
"As for why he became an evil spirit after his death, I don't know."
"Take this message back with you."
"Next time I come, I hope to see all the supplies we ordered."
The one-eyed man waved his hand in acknowledgment.
At this point, the one-eyed man waved his hand impatiently.
Two burly bandits immediately rushed up and grabbed Ke Mai's wrists without saying a word. Their grip was as strong as iron, so tight that it hurt his bones. Ke Mai struggled a couple of times but couldn't break free. He could only be half-dragged and half-carried out of the cave.
As they were about to leave, Ke Mai quickly raised his voice, his tone filled with urgency and pleading: "Your Excellency! This one piece of information is of no help to the caravan at all! We need to investigate from multiple angles to save the unconscious people. This one piece of information is really not enough!"
"Give me two more!"
Previously, Kemai was merely being "escorted" along, but after this struggle, he was now being roughly "dragged" forward.
Fortunately, his struggles were not in vain. The one-eyed man paused for half a second when he heard his shouts. Without turning his head, he said in a cold and hard voice, "If you want more information, send over the supplies we ordered as soon as possible... If you say another word of nonsense, you can forget about everything."
Although he still hadn't obtained any information, the other party had provided a way. Ke Mai knew that this was probably the One-Eyed Dragon's bottom line, and continuing to entangle himself would only backfire, so he stopped struggling.
The two thieves showed no mercy, dragging him to the entrance of the tree hole and throwing him out with a flick of their wrists. Ke Mai staggered and fell onto the soft, damp leaves, his already wet clothes now covered in mud, making him look extremely disheveled.
At this moment, the scout who had brought him to the stronghold of the Forty Bandits also came over and asked him if he wanted to go back to the previous area, and that he could take Ke Mai back along the way.
Kemai declined.
With both a large map and a small map, he will never get lost.
The scout didn't care, shrugged, and turned to leave.
Kemai deliberately paused for a moment at the entrance of the tree hole, feigning helplessness and regret, before finally flicking his sleeves and slowly turning to leave.
Only after turning into a dense thicket and confirming that he was completely out of the Forty Thieves' surveillance range did Kemai clench his fists and reveal a look of wild joy.
He had been suppressing his excitement until now, and only now did he dare to express it.
The reason he was so excited was because... he had finally touched upon the truth of the endgame!
Just as the one-eyed man revealed the evil spirit's identity, the long-silent text box finally popped up with two new notifications:
"You have obtained the truth about the 'evil spirit': 1/3"
Completion rate: 35%
His dungeon completion rate was originally only 5%, but now it has skyrocketed to 35%!
According to the rules, he only needs to obtain two more key "truths" to completely clear this dungeon!
Assuming a truth is 30% complete, the final completion rate could very likely reach 95%. If additional information is discovered during the process, it might even be possible to achieve a 100% perfect completion.
In that case, he might become the second person after Laplace to achieve a perfect playthrough!
Thinking of this, Ke Mai began to get excited.
What he needs to do now is to hurry back to the camp, take the necessary supplies, and exchange them for the new truth!
……
While Kemai obtained the "truth," Angel also analyzed the relevant information through the fluctuation of power.
Does the Forty Thieves really possess one-third of the truth fragments?
How could fragments of the truth come so easily?
A hint of surprise flashed through Angell's mind, but after a moment's thought, he understood. In the end, it was his previous understanding that had been flawed.
From his perspective, the process by which Kemai obtained the truth was indeed not difficult.
But behind all this lies a crucial premise: One-Eyed Dragon already had something to ask of Piccolo Merchant Guild, urgently needing the ordered weapons and supplies to maintain his base's livelihood. It was precisely for this reason that when Kerma appeared as a "caravan member" bringing supplies, he subconsciously lowered his guard and almost for free revealed the key information.
However, for a normal challenger, reaching this point would be as difficult as climbing to the sky.
Not only would it be difficult for them to infiltrate a caravan, but even if they were lucky enough to do so, they would never gain the caravan's true trust, let alone be sent to deliver supplies alone. Moreover, when attacked by the undead, normal challengers would most likely fall into a coma along with the rest of the caravan, without even having the chance to come into contact with the Forty Thieves.
Only by simultaneously breaking through these three prerequisites can one, like Kemai, act smoothly and obtain intelligence by using the identity of a caravan.
Otherwise, it's all just empty talk.
So, while it may seem that Ke Mai obtained the fragments of the truth effortlessly, in reality, it was all due to the groundwork laid in the early stages.
After clearing his mind, Angell began to think about the location of the second fragment of truth.
Judging from Kemai's current route of action, he probably plans to return to the camp first, take the weapons and supplies that One-Eyed Dragon wants there, and try to obtain other fragments of the truth from the Forty Thieves.
But are there really new fragments of truth about the Forty Thieves?
Angell was actually skeptical.
However, judging from the one-eyed dragon's behavior, he does seem to be hiding something, so it wouldn't hurt to let Kemai try again.
As Angor was thinking this, Kemai had already quickly returned to the camp.
Angell's gaze then turned to the camp.
Upon seeing this, his expression suddenly froze.
He had been focused on Kemai's side and hadn't looked at the camp. But now, looking back at the camp, he discovered that it was covered in blood!
dead!
At the same time, Kemai also entered the camp.
As soon as Kemai stepped into the camp, he sensed something was wrong. In addition to the original dampness and musty smell, there was a faint fishy smell in the air.
Ke Mai felt a sudden tightness in his chest, and his steps slowed down subconsciously. Just as he rounded the extinguished campfire in the center of the camp, the scene before him made him freeze, as if time had stood still.
Blood was seen seeping steadily from the bottom of both tents.
Dark red blood gushed out from the seams of the cloth, winding its way through the muddy ground in a shocking pattern.
"not good!"
Kemai's heart pounded like a drum. He rushed over and went to the first blood-soaked tent. His fingers trembled slightly as he carefully lifted the tent flap.
A strong, pungent smell of blood wafted over.
Inside the tent, several caravan members lay sprawled on the ground. Two of them were bleeding from all seven orifices, their faces were ashen, and their bodies were already cold and stiff, clearly indicating that they had been dead for some time.
The remaining few remained unconscious, mostly soaked in pools of blood, their breaths so faint they seemed about to cease at any moment.
Kemai's throat tightened, and he suppressed his panic as he rushed to another blood-soaked tent and yanked it open.
The scenes were almost identical: some people were bleeding from all seven orifices and had stopped breathing, while others were unconscious and soaking in cold blood, hanging by a thread between life and death.
He suppressed his discomfort and quickly counted everything.
There were ten people in the two tents combined. Four of them were confirmed dead. The remaining six were still alive, but judging from their pale faces, they could follow in the footsteps of the other four at any moment.
After a careful examination, Ke Mai was unable to determine the exact cause of death of the four deceased, but there were no external injuries on their bodies.
The blood was coming out of the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
It looks like there has been internal damage.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the deaths of these four individuals are likely related to the "Whispers of the Living Dead." They did not "escape the dream," but instead became completely immersed in the weaver's illusion.
"Hoo..." Ke Mai exhaled a breath of pent-up frustration.
The four dead men were all members of the caravan. Kemai didn't know them very well; he had only seen them in the caravan before.
Even though he wasn't familiar with them, seeing them die still made him feel inexplicably sad.
He stood there silently for half a minute before slowly coming back to his senses.
Although he didn't know why these four people died first from the same "dream" while the others were still alive, he knew that now was not the time to indulge in it. The longer it dragged on, the more people might die.
He must complete the investigation into the truth as soon as possible; only then will the others have any hope of being saved.
With that in mind, Ke Mai decided to go to the pile of goods first to look for military supplies.
However, as Kemai passed by a clean tent, he suddenly stopped.
This tent... contains his four teammates, including Darkman.
He hadn't gone inside to check because there was no blood seeping from under the tent, but now, as he passed by, he could faintly smell a trace of blood, seemingly coming from inside the tent.
The blood aura was very faint, and Ke Mai couldn't even be sure if the source was coming from this tent, but his heart still jumped into his throat instantly.
He turned around almost stiffly and slowly approached the tent.
Fingertips hovered over the curtain, hesitant to drop.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and lifted the curtain.
Upon seeing the situation inside, Kemai breathed a sigh of relief.
There was no large amount of blood soaking, and no one's face was bleeding; everything seemed peaceful.
There was only an open space with a pool of blood. But it was an open space, and nobody was there... Wait, something's not right.
Ke Mai suddenly realized something and froze.
He extended his trembling fingers and counted the unconscious people from left to right.
one two Three……
There were only three people.
There should have been four teammates unconscious here, but now there are only three left... Where is Bulko?!
The spot where Burko had been unconscious was now empty, with only a pool of dark red blood remaining on the ground, still warm to the touch.
Ke Mai was struck dumb, frozen in place, his mind blank.
Where did Bourko go? Was that pool of blood his?
Just then, a series of rapid, labored breaths broke the silence inside the tent.
Kemai snapped back to his senses and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw that among the three unconscious people, Rebecca's chest was suddenly heaving violently as she gasped for breath, her eyes still closed, but fine beads of blood were instantly seeping from her eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
"Rebecca!"
Ke Mai's heart tightened, and he rushed over to reach out and support her, but it was too late.
In just a few seconds, Rebecca spat out a mouthful of blood, which splattered onto the ground, mingling with the bloodstains left by Bulko.
The next second, her body stiffened abruptly, then began to become transparent and ethereal at a visible speed, as if dissolved by an invisible force. In the blink of an eye, she completely disappeared from the tent, leaving only a small pool of fresh blood to prove that she had just been there.
Kemai's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, a fleeting trace of coolness still lingering on his fingertips.
Having witnessed this scene firsthand, the doubts in his heart were instantly resolved... He finally understood the mystery of Bulko's disappearance.
Like Rebecca, he likely bled from all seven orifices while unconscious, eventually turning into a phantom and disappearing, leaving only a pool of blood as proof of his existence.
Ke Mai was silent for a moment, then opened the text box.
Sure enough, in the main storyline prompt at the very top, he clearly saw the change in the number of participants:
The special dreamscape "The Living Dead of the Misty Swamp" has been unlocked.
Current number of participants: 3 (maximum 5)
He breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the number of participants had decreased by exactly two.
He had panicked when he saw Bulko missing and blood on the ground, fearing that Bulko had been attacked by unknown forces within the dungeon. But now, seeing the message in the text bar, he was fairly certain that Bulko and Rebecca had simply been eliminated from the dungeon.
The outcome of being eliminated isn't actually that bad.
After all, this is only an E-level difficulty dungeon, and the impact of death is limited—at most, it will only cause some damage to consciousness, and will not affect the essence of the matter.
Given that we still cannot decipher the "murmurs of the living dead," elimination is actually a kind of relief.
……
Angell, of course, also witnessed Rebecca's disappearance.
However, his attention was not on Kemai at this moment. Instead, his gaze passed through the layers of dense forest and mist and looked at a dead tree on the side of the misty swamp forest.
This is a crooked, dead tree located in the center of an open space.
Angel didn't know whether the tree had always been there or had appeared later.
But none of that matters.
Importantly, Angell discovered a door in the trunk of this dead tree.
Behind this door lies a wealth of information about power and authority.
Such a prominent door—Angol was certain it didn't exist at least half an hour ago.
In other words, it appeared out of thin air after nearly half an hour.
Given the current situation, the answer is clear: this door is most likely connected to the door in Uriel's courtyard.
As for the reason for its appearance, Angor speculated that it might be because Bulko's death left an empty slot in the instance, thus giving the door a reason to exist and leading to its appearance.