Whoosh!
When Lin Mo followed Ghost King Soul Manipulator·Zade and disappeared into the black vortex that had appeared on the ground, the surviving Divine Nation Guild players nearby saw this and could not help but be startled.
Divine Nation Player A: "Isn't this the barrier that only appeared after we cleared all the monsters in the Ghost King City map?"
Divine Nation Player B: "Yeah! But we all tried going up to it before. This barrier is sealed shut, and players can't enter at all. How did the vice guild leader and that Ghost King get inside?"
Divine Nation Player C: "Could it be because of some special condition? Only people who meet the condition can enter? Like… rank?"
Divine Nation Player D: "No! If it were a rank restriction, there should be a prompt. There's no prompt at all. It shouldn't be rank, but some kind of hidden condition."
Divine Nation Player E: "Rulebound and the Ghost King can both enter, which means they both meet the conditions. But what hidden condition could players and Ghost Kings possibly have in common? Could it be… only people from the Ghost Clan can enter?"
Divine Nation Player F: "Holy shit! The vice guild leader is from the Divine Oracle Supreme Race, the Ghost Clan faction?"
At once, a wave of exclamations rang out across the field.
Only Qin Ming, at the moment he saw Lin Mo enter the black vortex, a strange look appeared in his eyes…
———
[Elsewhere]
Passing through the vortex, Lin Mo suddenly fell into a boundless realm of darkness.
It was like the ruins of an ancient battlefield.
Broken weapons and shattered blades lay all around, with corpses scattered across the ground.
The world between heaven and earth was dim.
Just as Lin Mo got up and looked around at this vast scene, wondering what this place was, suddenly, a clear system notification rang down from the sky.
[Ding~ Player Rulebound, welcome to the Divine Oracle Supreme Race Ghost Clan Gold-level Secret Realm·Land of the Abandoned Ghosts! The secret realm challenge has begun. Good luck with your challenge!]
Buzz!
Lin Mo's heart suddenly shook.
"This is a secret realm?"
In the Divine Oracle world, secret realms are divided into three major races: ordinary races, rare races, and supreme races.
Each race's secret realms are further divided into three levels: Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
That makes a total of nine levels.
And this one was clearly…
"Level Nine!"
"The highest-level secret realm in the Divine Oracle world?"
Just as Lin Mo wondered how he had entered a Ghost Clan Gold-level secret realm so easily, a low laugh came from above.
"Hehehehehe…"
"Stupid human, you finally fell for it!"
"From now on, enjoy your old age in this endless land where there is never any daylight! This king won't be accompanying you!"
Lin Mo looked up and saw Ghost King Soul Manipulator·Zade turn into a cloud of smoke and drift into the black vortex blooming in the air before disappearing.
Although a Supreme Race Gold-level Secret Realm was worth a fortune, and could even possibly produce various extremely rare rewards such as SSS-rank limited-edition divine weapons, SSS-rank hidden classes, and SSS-rank forbidden spells, the secret realm could always be returned to and farmed again later.
But this time, the chance to kill Ghost King Soul Manipulator·Zade and retrieve the divine weapon Soul Devourer, which had already regained its unlimited growth ability, was extremely rare and could not be missed.
Otherwise, if Soul Manipulator·Zade raised Soul Devourer to S-rank and used it to recover from its weakened state, things would become a big problem.
Thus, following the usual procedure, Lin Mo opened the secret realm interface and tried to exit the secret realm.
But he was shocked to discover...
"How…"
"There's no exit option?"
[T/N: Fu*k this story! So predictable garbage!]
———
[Outside the Secret Realm, Ghost King City]
After Lin Mo and the Ghost King simultaneously passed through the vortex on the ground and disappeared into some unknown place, Qin Feng, Ling Xiao, Xia Wanwan, Ling Xue, and all the Divine Nation Guild players gathered around the vortex.
The tension and worry on everyone's faces were visible.
Qin Feng: "I don't know what the situation inside is like. Can Brother Mo kill the Ghost King?"
Ling Xiao: "This Ghost King is still in a weakened state. Although it's more than enough to deal with ordinary players, it shouldn't be able to stand against Boss. It should be fine."
A faint light flickered in Ling Xue's beautiful eyes, "Lin Mo, you absolutely can't let anything happen to you."
Under everyone's watchful eyes...
Boom!
Suddenly, a beam of black light shot into the sky from the vortex.
It transformed into the appearance of the Ghost King, Soul Manipulator·Zade.
Everyone on the field was instantly shocked.
"How can it be him!"
"How is it the Ghost King that came out? Where's Vice Guild Leader Rulebound?"
"Could the vice guild leader have lost?"
Just as everyone looked at one another in confusion, Soul Manipulator·Zade laughed softly, "Don't wait anymore! He can't come out!"
"All Ghost Clan members can enter the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts, but while entering is easy, for anyone who isn't of a high-level bloodline above the King rank, getting out of the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts is not so simple!"
"He'll be trapped in the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts for the rest of his life, where there is never any daylight!"
"Hehehehehe…"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was shocked.
"So… Vice Guild Leader Rulebound really is from the Ghost Clan faction?"
At this moment, only Ning Xi knew that Lin Mo was not truly a member of the Ghost Clan faction.
It was because, "Brother Lin Mo is currently in the middle of the class advancement quest for the Ghost Clan SSS-rank hidden class [Ghost Emperor], and he also has a fragment of the Ghost Clan's ancient demonic weapon Eye of Chaos on him, so he may have become tainted with the aura of the Ghost Clan, thereby meeting the requirements to enter this Land of the Abandoned Ghosts…"
At the same time, after learning that Lin Mo really was trapped in the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts and could not come out, Ning Xi suddenly realized another important problem that made her brows tighten, "The Ghost King deliberately lured Brother Lin Mo into this Land of the Abandoned Ghosts so that he could trap him inside!"
"From the very beginning… this was a long-planned conspiracy!"
"The purpose of the Nether kidnapping Ming Yue Xin wasn't to use Ming Yue Xin to exchange for Soul Devourer. It was simply to lure Brother Lin Mo to Ghost King City and use the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts inside Ghost King City to trap Brother Lin Mo."
Just as Ning Xi thought of this, across from her, Ji Ningshuang looked up at Ghost King Soul Manipulator·Zade floating in the air and could not help praising it, "Hmm, I didn't expect your idea to be pretty good!"
Soul Manipulator·Zade was also a little proud, "Of course. This king is unrivaled in both wisdom and courage."
Seeing Qin Ming and Ji Ningshuang looking completely unconcerned, only Super God Athena was completely confused, as if she were an outsider, "What do you mean?"
"Could it be that kidnapping Ming Yue Xin and using her to exchange for the Soul Devourer in Rulebound's hands wasn't our plan today at all?"
"You already had another plan?"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Ji Ningshuang looked at Super God Athena and said coldly, "The plan succeeded, so why does everything have to be told to you?"
"Tsk, don't you always claim to be smart? Why are you so confused now?"
Ji Ningshuang shook her head and sneered at the puzzled Super God Athena, "This is just a game, not the real world. Would kidnapping Ming Yue Xin really be useful against Rulebound? Would he really hand over Soul Devourer for a game character who can't die and, at worst, can only be crippled?"
Super God Athena, "Could it be that Rulebound didn't hand over Soul Devourer for Ming Yue Xin?"
After Super God Athena said this, Ji Ningshuang suddenly fell silent.
Well, even she really hadn't expected it.
Lin Mo had actually handed over Soul Devourer directly for Ming Yue Xin.
This was indeed beyond their expectations.
Fortunately, though, it did not affect their later plan.
As if showing off her achievement, Ji Ningshuang arrogantly said to Ling Xue in front of her, "Kidnapping you was merely a pretext to lure Rulebound to Ghost King City, because the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts is in Ghost King City."
"Our goal from the very beginning was to lure Rulebound to Ghost King City and then trap him in the Land of the Abandoned Ghosts!"
At this moment, Ling Xue's heart sank.
Because only now did she finally understand.
"So in the end…"
"I was still being used…"