Chapter 10 Almost Discovered...

In the tenth level of the Lost World, Hohenheim, cloaked in an invisibility cloak, hid beneath a protruding, twisted piece of metal wreckage, allowing the demons above to fly past.

His invisibility cloak was extremely effective. Any light that fell upon it only revealed the scenery behind it, and it was also soundproof and dustproof.

In addition, he concealed his aura very well.

None of the passing demons noticed that a human from Earth was hiding nearby.

Finally, they're gone.

The flying figures of more than a dozen demons receded into the distance. Hohenheim took a liquid crystal panel from his backpack inventory. He only glanced at it before returning it to his inventory to prevent electronic signals from lingering and attracting the demons' attention.

Quite a few people from the Clock Tower had also been kidnapped, and some of them were still emitting positioning information.

Considering the scenes he had witnessed earlier of demons killing or kidnapping players, these positioning signals automatically emanating from levels 10 and 11 were likely a trap.

The purpose was to lure other players into attempting to rescue their companions.

“…”

Hohenheim leaned out from behind the metal wreckage. The punk-style metal telescope perched on his eye socket automatically extended and focused, allowing him to see the scene in the far distance clearly.

It was a rather vast open space. At the six o'clock position on the edge of the space, a male lion with a crimson mane and golden rings on its paws was lying prone on the ground.

The lion's head alone was as tall as a person.

The male lion's red mane moved without any wind, exuding a wild and powerful aura.

Some of its subordinates, weaker than it, gathered around, speaking in a foreign language.

The basic [Understand Language] skill couldn't allow Hohenheim to directly read lips and understand what they were saying.

However, demons continuously descended through the hole in the dome above the open space, carrying players who were tightly bound with special ropes.

After exchanging a few words with the Lion King, they placed the Earth players Hohenheim recognized near the center of the open space.

“…”

Hohenheim subconsciously narrowed his eyes. A golden rope, exactly the same as the ones they were using, appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The rope, seized from the enemy, was called [Heavenly Binding Rope].

Like the [Privately Engraved Divine Assistance Contract], it was a consumable item of perfect quality. Its special effect was to absorb the energy of extraordinary creatures to strengthen the rope itself.

At the same time, it constantly weakened the body and will of the extraordinary creature. As time passed, this effect gradually intensified.

In the end, the extraordinary creature bound by the Heavenly Binding Rope would be completely transformed into a living dead, unable to move, think, or speak.

(After the Heavenly Binding Rope is removed, the bound creature will slowly return to normal.)

In its description, both the [Heavenly Binding Rope] and the [Privately Engraved Divine Assistance Contract] were creations of the so-called "Liwei Mountain."

But the difference was that the former's description had an extra line:

Each Heavenly Binding Rope is mixed with the tendons of ten to twenty ordinary children with innate spiritual roots…

Hohenheim didn't know the details of the alien players. Using human tendons to make ropes sounded like a demonic practice, but unexpectedly, it came from Liwei Mountain, which seemed like a reputable sect.

He continued to observe ahead.

There were as many as forty-three Earth players bound by the Heavenly Binding Rope and thrown on the ground. They all hung their heads, closed their eyes, and their expressions were numb and empty, obviously having lost their self-awareness and unable to make the decision to surrender and withdraw from the competition.

Surrounding them were demons, and on the inner side were six bronze clock shadows that occupied a large area.

Each bronze clock projection exerted an effect similar to a "stasis field." The warm light they emitted sealed an Earth player respectively.

They were Michael, Zhong Limeiming from the Special Affairs Bureau, Celsus from the Clock Tower, Uriel from the Tribunal, Dir? from the Witch Alliance, and Death Sonata, the vice president of the Demon Scientist Alliance Guild.

They occupied the first, seventh, ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, and twenty-second positions on the individual strength rankings, respectively.

Obviously, the extraordinary beings sealed by the aliens with stasis fields were all top-tier players from Earth's first echelon.

It was likely that the aliens felt that they couldn't safely restrain these people with just the Heavenly Binding Rope.

They had to use the stasis field to prevent them from escaping—and also to protect themselves.

The top ten in the individual rankings were one game, while the eleventh to the fiftieth were another game.

However, this didn't mean that the rankings determined everything.

The gap in strength between the first echelon wasn't that big.

Moreover, many players in the eleventh to thirtieth range were hiding considerable real strength—such as Taihao, who was fifteenth, and Death Sonata, who was twenty-second.

Thinking of the Demon Scientist Alliance, Hohenheim turned his head to look to the side. There was nothing there, but according to his agreement with the Truth Seekers, they should have also infiltrated the nearby area.

Preparing to investigate these aliens.

On the inner side of the bronze clock shadows was a group of cultivators wearing ancient Eastern clothing—

The power fluctuations on four of them were no less than Hohenheim's own.

“…”

Hohenheim only glanced at them with the corner of his eye, not staring at any particular cultivator, afraid that his gaze would make them feel uneasy.

The four strongest cultivators seemed to be discussing something with a group of hunched figures wearing gray cloaks.

They took out a stack of comics and handed them to the hunched figures.

The latter raised their arms and took the comics.

With Hohenheim's eyesight, he could clearly see a hand covered in tiny cyan scales and coated in transparent mucus peeking out from under the gray robe's cuff.

And those comics were titled *When the Stars Align*, Parts One through Twelve.