Chapter 1 Since Leaving the Summit

Since leaving the summit, Vanna and Morris had been fighting the "counterfeits" that kept popping up in this fog – they couldn't remember how many element-formed monsters they had eliminated along the way, but one thing was clear: no matter how many they destroyed, these monsters were always quickly replenished from the fog.

Simply destroying these copies was useless.

Morris gazed at the thick fog, a faint silver light occasionally flowing in his eyes as he tracked the flashes of thought that occasionally appeared within, trying to pinpoint the location of the controller behind the monsters.

After a while, he suddenly looked up in a certain direction. "This way."

Vanna immediately reached out and grabbed the air, condensing a new greatsword from the ubiquitous mist and stepping ahead of Morris.

They traveled through the fog, passing through empty, deserted streets, relying on the dim yellow streetlights to barely discern the position of nearby buildings. From time to time, distant sounds reached their ears – sometimes the sounds of the City-State Guard fighting monsters, sometimes eerie howls and roars, and sometimes even cries for help that seemed to be right next to them.

But those locations from which the cries for help came always held only surging black mud.

The fog flowed, and the outlines of the buildings in the fog seemed to flow with it. Those hazy, blurred outlines seemed to come alive; the towers in the fog turned into giants of flesh and blood, huge tentacles and eyestalks spreading across the roofs, and even the streetlights on both sides gradually began to sway, the dark lamp posts bending like soft plants, the light turning into murky yellow eyes.

Just then, a low, soft prayer suddenly came from ahead, interrupting Morris's thoughts and quickly restoring the scene before him to its original state.

Vanna was praying softly, layers upon layers of radiance, like ripples of water, spreading outward from her, disturbing the fog.

"Be careful, something in the fog can interfere with one's sanity," Vanna said without turning her head after finishing a prayer. "We've been in this fog for too long."

"It doesn't really affect me much," Morris said casually. "Occasionally encountering some hallucinations is normal for me, I'm used to it."

"…I should talk to Heidi about your attitude towards health when I write to her next time."

Morris's mouth twitched, and he was about to say something when a stream of fog suddenly drifted from the side. He only felt a momentary blur in his vision, and then Vanna disappeared from sight.

The old scholar immediately stopped, calling out as he vigilantly surveyed his surroundings, "Vanna?"

The fog flowed quietly. No one responded to his call.

Morris's nerves tightened as he quickly scanned his surroundings.

Without him knowing, he was surrounded by nothing but a boundless expanse of white fog. The buildings that were barely visible in the mist had disappeared, and even the dim yellow streetlights had vanished from sight. In the depths of this pale chaos, he suddenly saw something.

They were huge shadows, like incredibly tall towers, but upon closer inspection, he could see that they were swaying and wriggling slightly. It seemed to be the tentacles of some gigantic sea monster, reaching from the sky to the earth, licking at the things on the ground – Morris was unconsciously drawn to the vague outline of the giant tentacles. He stared at it, feeling as if he could draw truth and secrets from its vast and terrifying shadow.

The next second, Morris frowned and shook his head.

There was no truth in this thing; it was just some kind of bewitching illusion.

"Hmm?"

A voice suddenly came from the fog, sounding surprised. Morris instantly looked in the direction of the sound, and he saw the huge phantom in the distance disappear as a tall, thin figure emerged from the mist.

"You're not affected – that's surprising." The tall, thin figure became solid, revealing a middle-aged man in a dark blue coat, holding a large black book in his hand. Behind this middle-aged man, a jet-black chain extended from the back of his neck into the air, at the end of which hovered a jellyfish-like creature that expanded and contracted like smoke.

Morris said nothing, only watching the Annihilation Cultist who was symbiotic with the "smoke jellyfish," vigilantly watching his every move.

"Don't be so nervous, old man. I don't mind chatting with you, anyway, the final day of descent has arrived, and I have plenty of time now," the middle-aged man said with a smile, his tone surprisingly peaceful. "I'm really curious, why weren't you affected after witnessing the Lord's form? You can see the illusions, which means your spiritual vision is indeed sufficient, but… you haven't gone mad?"

"I'm sorry, my mind is always healthy, not to the point of falling into chaos because of some bewitching illusions," Morris said calmly, silently reciting the name of the God of Wisdom, Rakham, in his heart. "Where did you take my companion?"

"Let's not worry about others just yet, old man, you're now…"

The cultist was only halfway through his sentence when Morris's eyes suddenly sharpened, and he raised his hand, pointing at the opposite side. "Romonsoff Inequality Set!"

Vast knowledge was compressed into words, and a massive amount of information suddenly poured into the target's thought process. The cultist's figure swayed for a moment, and he lowered his head as if in pain.

But just as Morris was preparing to unleash a second mental bombardment, a strong sense of vigilance suddenly arose in his heart. He abruptly shut his mouth and tried his best to suppress his thoughts – and almost at the same time, he saw the cultist suddenly raise his head, a hint of mockery in his eyes.

The mental bombardment backfired, and Morris instantly felt a burst of dizziness – fortunately, he reacted in time, and the dizziness was not severe.

"Too bad," the cultist spread his hands, mockingly looking at the swaying old scholar. "It seems I'm not too afraid of this…"

"Boom!"

Before the cultist could finish speaking, the smoke jellyfish floating behind him began to contract violently. The next second, with the jellyfish's sudden expansion, a huge black fireball appeared in front of the cultist – the fireball howled and crackled in the air, and the next second it slammed into the spot where Morris was standing!

Black smoke filled the air, and even the surrounding fog trembled violently. The Annihilation Cultist looked at the smoke that had not yet dissipated, shaking his head regretfully. "So many 'shells' were destroyed by the mental impact. Did you think I would show up without any preparation? Too bad, knowledge is not equal to wisdom."

"Clang – crack!"

The sound of something falling to the ground suddenly interrupted the cultist's soliloquy. His eyes widened instantly, and he summoned the power of the wind with a spell, blowing away the black smoke – a shattered triangular prism appeared before him.

The broken surface of the triangular prism vaguely retained an afterimage of Morris.

"A triangular prism? Optical Deception?!"

The cultist suddenly realized what was happening, and the next second he looked in a certain direction nearby. Almost at the same time, Morris's figure appeared on the empty ground.

The figure raised his right hand towards him, speaking slowly and clearly, word by word, "The Macaffery Conjecture and Proof."

However, this time, the cultist symbiotic with the smoke jellyfish didn't even sway. He made no further attempt to hide, directly reaching out to grab the chain floating behind his neck, drawing power from the abyssal demon as he stared at the old scholar not far away. "I'm sorry to say, I actually graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Moco City-State Central University…"

"Click."

The crisp sound of a gun's hammer being cocked suddenly entered his ears. Another figure of Morris appeared directly behind the cultist, a revolver pressed directly against the back of the latter's head.

"Bang!"

After a gunshot, the corpse with a hole in its head fell to the ground, and the abyssal demon symbiotic with it howled and quickly dissipated.

"You didn't say you graduated from college sooner."

The old scholar blew on the muzzle of his gun, shaking his head as he put away his pistol. Across from him, the other "Morris" figure dissipated like dew, and where the illusion disappeared, a small crystal triangular prism fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

Morris looked at the shattered triangular prism with some heartache, and then poked the cultist's corpse with his cane in disdain.

"You wasted two of my prisms – and your college degree."

As he spoke, the surrounding fog suddenly began to flow again, and the scenery in the fog changed rapidly. The outlines of buildings and lights that had disappeared reappeared in Morris's field of vision, and then he saw Vanna running over quickly from the side.

"Are you alright?!" Vanna asked anxiously before she got close. "You suddenly disappeared…"

"I thought you had disappeared," Morris waved his hand. "It seems to be some kind of temporary illusion… Wait a minute."

He suddenly remembered something, and as he spoke, Vanna suddenly stopped a few meters away.

"First, confirm if it's real," they said in unison.

Then they looked at each other and said in unison, "Missing Home!" (Shi Xiang Hao)

"Looks like it's real," Morris nodded after confirming that neither of them showed any abnormalities. "It doesn't hurt to be cautious."

Vanna immediately noticed the cultist's corpse lying on the ground, and her expression changed slightly. "Did you take care of this?"

"Met one with a high level of education," Morris nodded. "Had some academic exchanges. Fortunately, I had a better problem-solving approach."

Vanna: "…?"