Chapter 109: Human-Faced Lanterns

Inside the secret chamber.

Gunie, reborn through reincarnation, probed deep into his own soul and flesh.

“Late stage of the Fourth Realm of Sainthood.”

“Perfect flesh, perfect soul, perfect mana pool, perfect blood sea.”

“All the drawbacks from the previous realm advancement due to the fruit have completely vanished.”

“Moreover, my current strength is even greater than before. And my clarity in comprehending the three types of profundities has also improved significantly.”

A hint of a smile curled at the corner of Gunie’s mouth, then faded away.

The place Gunie was about to go this time was the most dangerous region of Saint Haigar.

Even a deity entering it could not claim with certainty to survive.

Gunie did have reincarnation, and had already used it over sixty times.

But if he were killed, it would inevitably waste a lot of time.

“Without the flesh of the Dominator, the progress of my flesh and soul toward the Dominator’s path has nearly halted.”

“Fortunately, the powerful trait of the Cthulhu embryo ensures that even after a long, long pause, once I obtain the Dominator’s flesh, it can still grow and improve steadily. There’s no need to worry about abnormal development.”

“To become strong, I must obtain enough Dominator flesh, even the flesh of the Outer Gods, and even the supreme flesh of the Ancient Gods.”

After a brief meditation, Gunie directly took out the Shadow Gate of Antiquity.

He input the calculated coordinates into it, then began to feed it spatial energy crystals.

During his secluded cultivation, Gunie had also visited Saint Haigar and collected some information about the Ancient Mountain of Ermoko.

The information was not extensive, but from the scant material, Gunie could understand that the Ancient Mountain of Ermoko was a gathering place of grotesqueness, ruggedness, weirdness, and aberration.

Even deities, on the Ancient Mountain of Ermoko, would be affected by aberration and loss of control.

The corpses of those Qiyuan demons piled up could give birth to an abyss, a terrifying place that spawns demonic calamities, thus sweeping through many supernatural worlds and leaving behind legends of disaster.

And what good place could this be, where beings even more powerful than the Qiyuan demons—Cthulhu creatures—are stacked?

After a few minutes.

Gunie finally finished delivering the energy crystals.

At the same time, the transmission energy channel began to stabilize.

Now the continent of Oya had entered a stable state of development.

Meanwhile, many supernatural worlds around Gulongtan were suffering under the invasion of Eros creatures, and only those worlds protected by gods could escape disaster.

Moreover, many experts at the third and fourth realms had obtained Eros pearls.

Overall, the environment of Oya Continent was unprecedentedly good.

Simply by quietly letting time pass, Oya Continent would grow stronger and stronger.

Gunie had also informed Murand that if nothing important came up, he should not be disturbed.

Gunie had ample time to spend at the ancient Mount Emoko.

After constructing the transmission channel, Gunie placed a Star City soul into the Shadow Gate, then pressed his palm against it to begin constructing the projection.

…

Far away, in Saint Haijar.

The "Dark Shepherd Lamp Island" was shrouded in gloomy darkness and damp fog.

The seawater splashed against the shore and rocks again and again.

There was no other sound besides this.

Even the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects were absent, as if this was a dead, calamitous world.

Faintly visible in the depths of the damp fog, the gleam of a lantern barely emerged.

"Hum!"

A rich radiance shot up into the sky, rarely piercing the oppressive darkness.

Deep within the darkness, some drifting lanterns seemed to notice the light here; they floated and drifted over.

As the light of the teleportation array faded,

Gunie's projection appeared within the array.

Looking around, Gunie noticed some faint, lantern-like glows gently drifting in the depths of the darkness.

This discovery put Gunie on alert.

"Is someone here? Carrying lanterns? Some special custom?"

Immediately, Gunie sat cross-legged beside the teleportation array and began rapidly transmitting physical energy.

At this moment, Gunie was merely a projection, extremely weak in strength.

Whether encountering other people or some strange scenes or events, none of it boded well for Gunie.

It would be one thing if the Soul Star died, but if he were trapped here, he would have to waste a reincarnation to come back—a loss outweighing the gain.

The right course was to convert energy as quickly as possible to restore his strength.

Thus, Gunie began to focus on energy conversion.

After becoming a Cthulhu creature, Gunie's conversion efficiency had greatly improved.

As the conversion progressed, Gunie's physical body began to rapidly construct itself.

His strength also increased swiftly.

While Gunie was converting and transmitting to restore his strength,

Gunie also noticed the strange behavior of those eerie lanterns in the surrounding darkness.

These lanterns, like Kongming lanterns, drifted in the air, now high, now low, now fast, now slow.

But the seven or eight red lanterns around all shared the same goal: they were slowly drifting toward Gunie's location.

In just over ten minutes, the nearest lantern was already less than a thousand meters away.

At this moment, Gune's strength was only about half recovered.

That is, at the peak of the third tier.

When the lantern advanced further, Gune saw its true form through the layers of oppressive dark mist.

It was not a lantern.

More precisely, it was a bizarre creature resembling a lantern, with a diameter of up to two meters.

It fully possessed the shape of a lantern, with a thin frame on the outside and firelight within.

And the outer lantern paper was covered with faces—some sleeping, some laughing, some hesitant, some mad—numbering at least forty or fifty.

A human-faced lantern!

Gune's heart tightened.

At that moment, the human-faced lantern floating in the air saw Gune.

Those faces of various forms, expressions, and moods—those on Gune's side that could see him—all turned to look at him in unison.

"Another human face is coming."

"Eat it! Eat it! I'm starving."

"I like his handsome face the most. I want to put him by my side and have him keep me company."

"We should sneak up on him and scare him to death."

"Stop arguing. He's already spotted us. We need to act fast, or someone else will snatch him away, and we won't get to eat."

"Exactly! Exactly!"

A cacophony of bickering voices rose and fell.

Gune, however, looked darkly at this bizarre lantern.

It wasn't that Gune didn't want to flee, but he found himself somewhat out of control.

Having only entered the outer area of Mount Emoko, the Ancient God Mountain, and still in a relatively distant region, Gune had already encountered a bizarre incident.