Chapter 127 That Bastard Got Away

No one reacted when the wizard resolutely rushed towards the gate to the Inferno—because the gate was clearly not fully open yet. Chaotic magical energy swirled violently at the entrance like a storm, and no sane person would rush into something like that. Lily was the first to react, darting out like lightning to intercept Baptiste, who was about to fall into the gate. A flash of white passed, followed by the muffled sound of metal severing flesh and bone: in the instant he was about to be caught, Baptiste reached out to block Lily, resulting in his entire left arm being chopped off at the root, but his body still fell unstoppably into the distorted vortex of black and red.

Everyone watched as the wizard disappeared into a maelstrom of chaotic magical energy. His body seemed to be torn apart and reassembled countless times in an instant, and endless black smoke and ash spewed out from the gate. Baptiste's piercing laughter came from the vortex: "I succeeded! I succeeded! No one can..."

His last words were lost in a gust of wind. With the magic-draining formation destroyed, all the magical facilities on site had ceased functioning. Deprived of energy, the gate to the Inferno quickly shook and dimmed, and the whirlwind kicked up by the collapsing gate made it almost impossible to approach. In the instant before the space-time portal completely disappeared, Hao Ren retrieved a small silver-white device from his dimensional pocket and hurled it with all his might towards the center of the vortex. The small device flickered in a storm of black and red, and then vanished.

The gate to the Inferno finally disappeared completely.

The previous whirlwind vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed. Where the gate to the Inferno had been, there was only a huge pit, with wisps of foul-smelling black smoke rising from the pit and merging with the surrounding mist. The liquid-like mist also slowly began to dissipate, clearly indicating that its previous state was also the result of magical control.

Everything had happened so fast that it wasn't until Baptiste and the gate to the Inferno had both disappeared that Hesper finally couldn't help but curse: "Shit! He got away! That bastard got away!"

Lily bent down to pick up Baptiste's arm that had fallen to the ground. Her prey had escaped, and this was the only remaining "trophy" on the scene. She carried the horrifying thing back to Hao Ren and, blankly, handed it over: "Here..."

Hao Ren couldn't imagine what Lily was thinking: "What am I supposed to do with this?!"

"Slice it..." Lily said casually, but before she could finish speaking, the arm in her hand turned into black sand and scattered in the air.

Lily shook her head regretfully: "Well, can't slice it now."

Nangong Wuyue looked helplessly at Hao Ren: "What do we do now?"

"Of course, we can't just let him get away!" Hao Ren gritted his teeth and pulled out the data terminal from his pocket, opening the tracking screen. "I threw a probe in just now, it should have made it through the gate... Looks like it couldn't track Baptiste himself because of the spatial turbulence, but it's successfully arrived in another dimension. Vivian, take a look and see if this is the Inferno."

As he spoke, Hao Ren zoomed in on the image transmitted by the probe for Vivian to see. The screen showed a vast, desolate world, with black earth covered in sickening, rotten matter. Hot springs of all sizes were scattered across the surface, and the hot springs bubbled with filthy, muddy liquid. Polluted gases spewing from these hot springs dyed the entire world a chaotic mess. The probe was moving around the other dimension, so the images it transmitted were constantly shifting, but no matter where it went, all they could see was the same unpleasant, awful scenery.

Although Vivian had never explored the depths of the Inferno, she had once glimpsed the first level out of curiosity, and she immediately recognized the scene: "That's right, this is the place. Can you send us in?"

"It's easy to teleport in, but the Inferno is an unstable space, so to ensure a safe return, it's best to open a gate," Hao Ren nodded. "Now that we have the coordinates on both sides of the gate, and I have the corresponding equipment in my dimensional pocket... Give me some time, I'll take care of opening the gate."

Hesper finally looked at Hao Ren properly for the first time: "Can't tell... you're pretty reliable at critical moments, huh?"

"He's always been pretty reliable," Vivian glanced at her. "Your prejudice is just too strong."

Hao Ren was already busy taking out the universal equipment needed to open the portal and several autonomous machines from his dimensional pocket. The universal equipment was a silver-white platform with a radius of two meters and some supporting components, roughly similar to the teleporter in the basement of his house, only larger. This kind of thing was also a common device used by inspectors: inspectors often had to venture deep into the barren lands of the universe and deal with abnormal spatial phenomena, so they often had to prepare universal devices for this purpose. This device could not only be used to explore unknown areas, but also served as a transport channel in emergencies: small-scale personnel evacuation and material transfer could be accomplished with it.

Hao Ren never expected that he would use this thing to hunt down an "escapee."

Duncan and Cassandra stared dumbfounded at the strange equipment that Hao Ren conjured up as if by magic. They knew that Hao Ren and his group were abnormal, but this man was always able to give people more surprises. However, with the two ancestors, Vivian and Hesper, watching from the side, the two curious vampires didn't ask any more questions.

With two years of work experience, Hao Ren was now much more mature. He didn't shy away from showing his high-tech equipment in this kind of situation—just some alien technology, it wouldn't reveal anything.

The fleeting gate to the Inferno had already formed an energy focus here. Although this energy focus was collapsing, it could still be used as the activation basis for a new space-time portal, which would save a lot of time. Hao Ren directed the autonomous machines to install the equipment in the large pit created by Baptiste. The mechanical squid worked quickly, and it looked like the gate could be opened in no time.

"Speaking of which, I've lived for so long, and this is the first time I've seen this kind of hole-digging tactic on the battlefield," Vivian looked at Lily, who was standing not far away, spacing out while tiptoeing. "What was she thinking at the time..."

"Whatever she was thinking, it worked pretty well," Hao Ren chuckled. "I reckon there's no more unexpected tactic in the world than this—but only Lily can pull it off, no one else can dig holes as fast as she can."

Lily's ears twitched, and she turned her head nimbly: "Are you guys talking about me behind my back?"

Hao Ren and Vivian said in unison: "No, we're praising you."

Nangong Sanba stood on a large rock on the edge of the high ground, looking towards the town. The dense fog blocked his vision, but he could still vaguely sense the path that the group had taken before. But soon he noticed a change: "Look, the fog seems to be dissipating!"

As he said, the dense fog that shrouded the entire ghost town was dissipating little by little. Although the sunlight had not yet appeared, they could already see the situation in the distance. As time went on, the speed of the fog's dissipation also continued to increase. In just a few minutes, the outline of the town in the distance had faintly emerged from the fog.

"This fog should also have been created by Baptiste... either his departure caused the fog to dissipate, or the staff that Lily broke also controlled the entire barrier here," Vivian said as she looked towards the town. "It looks like the range of the entire secret realm is larger than we initially expected. Look at the 'black edge' in the distance, that should be the true boundary of the secret realm. The town is only a third of it, and the large area of wilderness outside has also been pulled in."

Hesper looked surprised: "What kind of person is this Baptiste, to actually create such a large-scale other dimension on his own and maintain it for hundreds of years."

"It seems that if he wanted to, he could erase any city in this world out of thin air. It's hard to imagine that this power came from normal learning and accumulation," Vivian shook her head. "But this guy's only goal is to go to the Inferno... What a waste of such great ability. What's so good about the Inferno?"

Hao Ren didn't care what Baptiste's aspirations were. He just had the data terminal confirm the surrounding spatial data to make sure that this place wouldn't collapse in a short time, and then he began to curiously look at the distant view of the entire Domir Town: an authentic medieval town, a bit gloomy, but at least a scene of exotic spectacle.

Then he saw a fire rising in the center of the town.

"Look over there!" Lily also immediately shouted, "The town's on fire!"