pjbooks Chapter 1018 Arena Outpost
Chapter 1018 Arena Outpost
Yin He's memory contains extremely detailed information about this mountain range.
The formation of the Canggu Mountains did indeed originate from the fall of the drop of blood from the candle. The energy released when that drop of blood struck the ground completely altered the geological structure of the surrounding thousands of miles, and also activated an ancient beast slumbering deep within the earth's crust. The ancient beast was passively awakened by the energy impact, and attracted by the candle's aura contained in the drop of blood, it moved upward from the depths of the earth, eventually stopping at a point about several thousand feet above the surface, forming a symbiotic relationship with the drop of blood—the ancient beast provided physical protection for the drop of blood, and the drop of blood provided energy nourishment for the ancient beast.
This symbiotic relationship lasted for a long time, until decades ago, when the arena's exploration team discovered unusual energy fluctuations in the Canggu Mountains and dispatched the first exploration team led by Xun Yan. Xun Yan's team encountered harmonic pollution from the outer perimeter of the Bone Tower deep in the Blackwater Canyon, and almost the entire team was wiped out. Only Xun Yan was replaced by a consciousness replica inside the Bone Tower and returned to the arena as the "Chief Array Master of the Oversight Council".
That replica was created by Yin He.
Yin He had been waiting for an heir in the Bone Tower for far too long and was growing impatient. He realized that if he waited passively, countless epochs might pass before that drop of blood could even give birth to an heir. So he decided to take the initiative—using the energy of the Bone Tower to replicate the intruder's consciousness, creating a lurker named "Xun Yan," sending him to the arena to search for someone from the outside who could inherit the bloodline of the Candle, and then leading that person deep into the Canggu Mountains.
His plan was ingenious, its only flaw being that while Xun Yan's replica was implanted with Yin He's consciousness commands, it also retained most of Xun Yan's memories and personality from his previous life. Those memories and personality, having survived for twenty-six years in the arena, gradually developed an independent self-awareness, beginning to vaguely realize that he was a "substitute," and subconsciously resisting Yin He. That resistance ultimately led to his recapture by Yin He, pinning him to the rock face, and making him one of the baits used to lure Mo Yuan's team deeper into the mountains.
The biggest variable in Yin He's plan is the appearance of Lin Qiye.
Yin He sensed the bloodline aura within Lin Qiye, which shared the same origin as the candle, the moment they entered the mountains. His original plan was to use Xun Yan's replica to lure Mo Yuan and his group to the altar, using their life force as a sacrifice to complete the summoning—but after sensing Lin Qiye's aura, he changed his mind. He decided to use Lin Qiye as a new vessel to replace his own aging body.
He meticulously planned the remains and notes in the side cave, faked the timing of the appearance of the seventh seal array eye, and even deliberately exposed the crystal core when the altar self-destructed, allowing the replica to seize and fuse with it—all of this was to make Lin Qiye reach the final step according to his predetermined path without any warning.
The only thing he hadn't anticipated was that Lin Qiye had integrated the will of the candle into the inheritance space.
That inheritance space wasn't built by Yin He. It was formed spontaneously over countless years by that drop of blood, located deep beneath the foundation of the Bone Tower, connected to the ancient beast's nervous system. Yin He knew of its existence but couldn't enter—because that drop of blood was only open to those with the bloodline of the Candle. He had tried countless times to force his way in, each time being repelled by the energy barrier surrounding the space. On his last attempt, he suffered a backlash, causing his left arm below the elbow to be completely shattered, and his dantian to be damaged beyond repair.
If Lin Qiye hadn't merged with the will of the Candle, Yin He's plan to seize his body would likely have succeeded—because Lin Qiye's strength at that time was insufficient to resist Yin He's ultimate move. However, after merging with the will of the Candle, Lin Qiye's soul underwent a qualitative change, and Yin He no longer held any advantage over him. It was like a mouse meticulously setting a trap to catch a fledgling bird, only to have the fledgling transform into a giant dragon the moment it fell into the net, leaving the mouse no chance to escape.
This is the story of Yin He.
The story of a loyalist who gradually becomes corrupt and ultimately leads to self-destruction.
As Lin Qiye walked, he processed this information, dissecting, analyzing, and archiving it layer by layer, integrating it into his own cognitive system. He wasn't someone who enjoyed getting lost in other people's stories, but Yin He's transformation gave him a crucial warning—in long periods of solitude, without a firm goal, even the most loyal person can be consumed by their own desires.
He no longer cared about the identity or experiences of the person whose blood had been drawn. He was Lin Qiye, not the shadow of the candle. He wouldn't bear the consequences of the candle's actions, but he would use its power—because it was his only bargaining chip for survival.
As darkness fell again, he had left the rocky bone region of the Azure Bone Mountains and entered the hilly area on the mountain's outskirts. Here, the black rock layers gradually transitioned into ordinary yellowish-brown soil, and the fluorescent blue crystal clusters on the ground were gone, replaced by sparse shrubs and wild grasses. The air also became refreshing, no longer carrying the oppressive feeling of primal energy that made one's chest feel suffocated—this was now an area where ordinary living beings could survive normally.
He stopped and stood on a low mound, looking back at the distant Canggu Mountains.
As twilight fell, the outline of the mountain range blurred, resembling the spine of a sleeping behemoth, tracing a vast, desolate arc across the sky and earth. At the highest point of that arc, where the spiral bone towers once stood, no obvious protrusion was visible—after the energy fields of those bone towers dissipated, their height seemed to have decreased visually, as if they had lost their support and begun to compress and collapse on their own.
The disintegration of the bone tower will take time. But Lin Qiye knows that in at most half a month to a month, the tower will completely turn into a pile of grayish-white bone fragments, scattered among the stone peaks of the Canggu Mountains, becoming another new layer of sediment on this ancient land.
And he took away the most important thing from that tower—the core of the candle's memory, and the right to inherit the last drop of the candle's bloodline in this world.
Soon, Lin Qiye arrived at a wide-open plain. The plain was covered with knee-high wild grass, its green waves rippling in the morning breeze. In the distance, a gray-white dirt road could be vaguely seen winding southeast. At the end of the road stood a watchtower built of large logs, a gladiatorial arena flag fluttering atop it.
That was one of the outer outposts of the arena.
Lin Qiye stood at the edge of the plain for a while, then walked along the dirt road toward the outpost.
He made no effort to conceal his whereabouts, nor did he deliberately create any attention-grabbing commotion. He simply walked along the dirt road at a steady pace, his expression calm.
The lookout on the watchtower spotted him when he was about three or four miles from the outpost.
The lookout was a young trainee scout with sharp eyes who recognized Lin Qiye at a glance.
Although Lin Qiye wasn't particularly famous in the arena, before the anomaly in the Canggu Mountains, the Oversight Council had already distributed his image and basic information to all the outer outposts. The young scout paused for a moment upon seeing Lin Qiye, then suddenly grabbed the communication talisman on the watchtower and whispered a few words into it.
The wooden door of the outpost opened.