Chapter 135: Forbidden Spell

Katherine’s words left Ling Mo lost in thought for a long time.

He didn't even need to look at the dense sea of scrolling comments in the livestream or the gift animations that nearly obscured his vision. Just by checking the system’s backend analytics, he saw the number of people "earnestly yearning for martial arts" jump suddenly from 600,000 to nearly a million. That alone was enough to show how significant the recent revelation was to his audience.

Once upon a time, before he arrived in this world, he had been just one of the masses. He had spent his student days working diligently and his adulthood grinding through the mundane, all for a meager monthly salary. In college, he was just a pathetic civil engineering student, and after graduation, he became a lowly cost estimator. As for how far one could go as a cost estimator—could one become the President of the country?—did that really matter? As long as he could put food on the table and drink and eat skewers with his buddies in his spare time, it was a good job.

Having played the role of a powerhouse for too long, he had completely forgotten what ordinary people truly needed. From the very beginning, his approach to promoting martial arts had been wrong. "Learn martial arts to become a peerless master? To thrash Archmages and Magic Saints?" After hearing that, what could an ordinary person feel besides a casual "Oh," or perhaps a perfunctory "Awesome"? That kind of news probably didn't resonate half as much as hearing, "Did you know that learning martial arts can increase your brick-laying efficiency by thirty percent and raise your wages by half?"

With this realization, Ling Mo looked back at the quest "Offer Martial Arts to a Beautiful World" and finally grasped the system’s underlying logic. He began to understand what the system was actually looking for, though that was still a long way off. He gently patted Katherine on the shoulder and smiled.

"Excellent. That makes perfect sense. The only flaw is that you certainly don't count as an ordinary person."

"?" Katherine tilted her head in confusion.

Ling Mo certainly wasn't about to tell Katherine at this moment that she had been selected as the next candidate for Anton, with growth potential even greater than Vayne, Weiss, or even himself, her master. He changed the subject and said, "We’re almost there. Follow me."

With that, he stopped beside a towering tree, reached out to grab a vine common in the rainforest, and with a light swing and a few agile bounces, reached the top of the giant tree. Katherine and Vayne naturally followed suit, joining him at the canopy.

It was easy to lose one's way in the rainforest, and one frequently needed to reach a high vantage point to observe the surrounding terrain. Looking out into the distance, Katherine realized that after their short trek, she had followed Ling Mo to a narrow, elongated canyon. Two patches of lush forest were severed by a deep, bottomless gorge. Although the straight-line distance from her side to the opposite forest was less than five hundred meters, for some reason, Katherine felt a subtle difference about the woods on the other side.

Pointing at the massive canyon, Ling Mo explained, "The Beast Rainforest contains countless secrets that even I haven't fully unraveled. This seemingly ordinary canyon is one of those unsolved mysteries."

Seeing the skepticism on the faces of Katherine and Vayne, Ling Mo chuckled. "You know? This canyon is actually the third gateway between the Elemental Plane and the Prime Material Plane—the legendary 'Gate of Heaven'!"

Katherine didn't react much, but Vayne was startled. "This inconspicuous little canyon is the 'Gate of Heaven'? How is that possible?! I’ve seen the other two entrances to the Elemental Plane; they are surging with energy tides so powerful they are unimaginable. This canyon is completely calm—there isn't even a hint of elemental leakage!"

"Believe it or not, it’s the truth," Ling Mo shrugged. "When I was bored in the past, I followed the canyon wall down. After descending about three thousand meters, I felt a noticeable suction. By four thousand meters down, the suction was so strong that I had to maintain a combat stance just to resist it. And at a depth of about ten thousand meters, guess what I saw? The Dark Element Monarch—'Enigma'!"

Vayne’s young face had gone numb with terror. She said in a trembling voice, "What does that mean?! Master, are you saying that inside this forbidden zone of the Beast Rainforest, besides the Flame Eater Anton, there exists another Level 8 beast, 'Enigma'?! But isn't the Beast Rainforest considered the least dangerous of the Eight Forbidden Zones? How can two Level 8 beasts exist here at the same time?!"

"Who told you the Beast Rainforest is the least dangerous? If that were true, would I have fled here to save my life back then? As far as I know, there are at least three Level 8 beasts in this vast rainforest. It deserves to be ranked second among the Eight Forbidden Zones!" Ling Mo sneered, dismissing Vayne’s claim before continuing.

"However, the Dark Element Monarch 'Enigma' hasn't truly descended into the Prime Material Plane yet. It’s just that there is a spatial rift here, and it is trying its best to widen the crack so it can squeeze through. When I first saw it thirteen years ago, the spatial rift was about ten meters wide. When I revisited the site two years ago, it was about eleven meters wide. At this rate, it will take another hundred thousand years for 'Enigma' to squeeze in..."

Vayne’s eyes glazed over. She almost cursed out loud: Human history only spans three or four thousand years at most; who knows if humanity will even exist in a hundred thousand years? Master, are you so bored that you have to scare us with things that far in the future?!

Noticing the unfriendly glares from Vayne and Katherine, Ling Mo gave a sheepish laugh. "Getting off track, getting off track. What I meant to say is that because of Enigma's presence, all the magical beasts on the other side of the canyon are 'Dark-elemental beasts.' They are exposed to much denser elemental scouring than elsewhere, so the beasts on the other side are generally more 'intelligent' than those of the same level."

"Alright, understood. So we're heading to the other side now, right?" Vayne said bluntly. "Let's hurry over. I can't wait to see my senior sister suffer!"

With that, she quickly chanted a few spells, casting 'Levitation' on herself and Katherine. The two began to float unsteadily from the tree, inching toward the other side of the canyon. During the process, Vayne complained with some regret, "At the Advanced Mage stage, flying on one's own is barely manageable, but carrying someone else is killing me. Big Sis was right; my magical talent really is terrible..."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, will you?" Katherine's tone was even more regretful. "This is the first time I've realized that 'Levitation' can be cast on others. If you have no magical talent, then I’m practically a magical idiot. Don't take your sister—Lady Weiss—too much to heart. She’s a Magic Saint; her standards are naturally higher."

As they chatted, they slowly floated right over the center of the canyon. From this angle, the pitch-black abyss looked like a gaping mouth waiting to devour them, which was, admittedly, quite terrifying. Vayne felt a sudden pang of anxiety. To ease her mood, she forced a laugh and said, "Master, this canyon looks quite ordinary. It's not as scary as you described..."

Before she could finish, a sudden change occurred! From the bottom of the pitch-black canyon, a burst of blinding purple light erupted. Amidst the deep purple glow, a massive claw made of violet-black energy shot into the sky, lunging straight for Vayne! And in the center of the claw was a blood-red eye with a sinister vertical pupil!

Although Ling Mo wasn't highly proficient in magic, he recognized it at a glance. This massive energy claw was a Level 8 forbidden spell of the Dark element:

The Eye of Soul-Capture!!

A beam of violet-black light shot from the blood-red vertical pupil, completely engulfing Vayne. Amidst her agonizing screams, the soul of Weiss—who sat with her knees held to her chest, her face still etched with sorrow and confusion—was forcibly ripped from her body!