Chapter 212. Irish Town Ⅱ (10) New Teammate Joins: Ji Li

     The Crystal Tower is beautiful.

      The sunlight from the deep sea couldn’t penetrate here at all, but the moment you stepped inside the Crystal Tower, you could see the entire structure shimmering with scattered flecks of light.The inside of the tower had indeed been completely ransacked.

     Traces of water remained inside, along with faint smears of blood, likely from survivors or merman corpses in the corners. A few stray fish or jellyfish swam freely up and down.

     Ye Mo examined the Crystal Tower and, unsurprisingly, found that the tower itself was imbued with spatial energy. Those scattered flecks of light represented the transparent white glow of spatial magic.  

     A spatial array requires two coordinates, spatial energy, and a spatial key to act as a bridge.

     The Crystal Tower was one spatial coordinate, and the spatial energy concentrated within the tower itself was more than sufficient. Arthur and Bella had disappeared inside precisely because they were the ones who had found that spatial key.  

     Hearing this, Wang Xue and Watson asked in unison, “What is the spatial key?”

     “It could be a marked object, a form of energy that reacts with space/spatial energy, or even a living being.” Ye Mo paused in thought before retrieving a high-precision spiritual energy detector from her storage ring.  

     The device was a circular array disk, intricately assembled from over a dozen colored crystal cores arranged according to the principles of elemental synergy and opposition. Moments after activation, the translucent white glow representing spatial energy flared to life.  

     “The energy distribution here is chaotic,” she observed. “Space, dark, light, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth energies dominate, while ice, thunder, and wind are sparse. Likely remnants of stored treasures and past battles.”

     Watson immediately caught the anomaly. “Dark energy makes sense, given all the death. But light? Did the merfolk hoard light-based artifacts?”

     “Almost impossible. Merfolk basically don’t forge or make medicine. Many of their so-called treasures were plundered,” Ye Mo shook her head. “According to the energy distribution laws of this world, light and dark equipment and weapons are the rarest. The spatial key must be related to darkness and light.”

     Watson: “Dragon?”

     Wang Xue: “Sword of Light?”

     “Fate is singular. The Stone of Destiny will ultimately lead this world to ruin. The geis in Celtic mythology is fascinating, like setting up a fatal flag. This geis grants divine power but ultimately brings death…”

     Watson & Wang Xue: “Get to the point.”

     “Avalon.” Ye Mo uttered the name. “Irish mythology is just one branch of Celtic lore. The most famous Celtic legends on Earth come from across the sea. The myths of King Arthur and the Round Table in Great Britain. I initially thought Arthur’s intelligence was related to Meath, but now it seems their reality dungeon mirrors Arthurian legend.”

     “Connected to Avalon?” Wang Xue immediately pieced together the clues. “That irreversible death at fate’s end must refer to Avalon. Arthur was also inquiring about Avalon in the Irish town. The dragon died because its soul entered Avalon, the land of death, yet it didn’t truly perish because the Light Sword preserved its corpse. Where death meets rebirth… it’s no surprise light and darkness could be keys to Avalon.”

     Ye Mo retrieved light-dark spirit stones from her pouch, but they remained inert. After a moment’s thought, she added: “Avalon’s coordinates are unique, a death realm that’s nearly one-directional. But myths always have exceptions. Only gods or objects that have traversed Avalon, bearing both light and dark attributes, can activate the spatial key.”

     “Regarding this point, it can be fully utilized in spatial arrays in the future. For example, only people from the base could use the spatial array to go out, and only those who have entered and exited the base could freely use the spatial array, which would greatly enhance security.”

     “Entered and exited?” The three already had their answer.

     The legendary Avalon in mythology contained more than just death. To be precise, it wasn’t the same as the underworld. The power of the Celtic system often originated from there.

     Wang Xue exited the crystal tower and discussed this matter with Zhang Qihua, offering to help bring people over, but with the risk borne by themselves.

     Zhang Qihua nodded. After discussing for about fifteen minutes, he dispatched a small team, led by himself and comprising one-third of their forces, to prepare to enter Avalon.

     Just as Zhang Qihua entered the crystal tower, quite a few bold tails followed.

     Ye Mo and the others did not stop them. If the Stone of Destiny were that easy to obtain, Arthur and Bella wouldn’t have failed to trigger a system announcement up to this point.

     After all the people had gathered, Ye Mo took out the dark dragon, still impaled by the Light Sword from her storage belt. Light and dark energies clashed violently upon contact

     Seeing Ye Mo and the other two holding onto the black monster’s ‘corpse’ as a unified group, nearly a dozen groups of various sizes also followed suit, connecting themselves together to avoid being scattered.

     The Crystal Tower’s spatial energy finally surged forth, intertwining with the light and dark forces.  

     When the black and white light completely dissipated, all signs of life within the crystal tower had vanished.

     In the blink of an eye, Ye Mo and the others appeared on a cliff face. Not far away, a colossal undead creature suddenly lunged at them. It was the undead/ghost form of the evil dragon.

     Its form was pitch-black, every scale and ridge etched in grotesque clarity. Were it not for its ghostly levitation, it could’ve passed for a perfect replica of the sleeping dragon.  

     Ye Mo reflexively stored the sleeping dragon back into her storage belt space. Wang Xue, without hesitation, raised her sword and slashed at the ghost dragon, while Watson summoned a water barrier, encasing the three of them in protection

     Bang!

     The sword clashed against the dark dragon, its blade crackling with violet sparks as the spectral beast roared furiously.  

     Wang Xue was no weakling, yet even a strike with seventy percent of her power barely scratched the dragon’s ghost. ‘This thing’s leagues above the forest’s magical beasts‘, she thought, her fighting spirit flaring.  

     Just as she prepared to engage the creature in an all-out battle, three thick black chains, each as wide as an arm shot through the air, coiling around the undead dragon and binding it tightly. The beast thrashed and howled, but couldn’t break free.  

     Ye Mo followed the chains’ trajectory and spotted a lone figure standing further along the cliffside. Tall and straight as a pine, the man wore a silver mask one of Maria’s shop designs and carried an unmistakable aura.  

     Ji Li?  

     The rank No. 2 survivor hadn’t appeared in the Irish town, Meath City, or the Monster Forest. Most assumed he’d skipped the group dungeon entirely, given his notorious lone-wolf tendencies. Yet here he was—in Avalon.  

     A realization struck Ye Mo: Ji Li isn’t just a necromancer. He’s likely tied to the undead zombie lineage too. And anything undead-related inevitably danced with death. No wonder the system had dumped him straight into Avalon, where the Stone of Destiny lay.  

     “It’s you?!”  

     Ji Li’s pupils dilated slightly. He wasn’t at all surprised that Maria could reach Avalon. After all, they’d teamed up twice in dungeons before, once even in the Jurassic dungeon, and had countless real-world business dealings through her shop. In fact, these three dark-attribute chains had been custom-ordered from her store.  

     He knew that despite being ranked first and second consecutively, the gap between him and Maria was as vast as the sky and the earth.

     What did shock him was realizing he’d met Maria long ago and even exchanged contact information, though it was one of those courtesy-adds done purely out of respect for mutual connections.

     In the early stages, Ji Li’s understanding of zombies was limited, and his methods of concealing his zombie state were crude. With Maria’s strength, he didn’t believe she hadn’t discovered his survivor identity.

     Ye Mo, meanwhile, wasn’t surprised an elite necromancer would have unique identification methods. Of course Ji Li recognized her. “Indeed. This is Watson and Wang Xue my team. We just came from the merfolk crystal tower. Your situation doesn’t seem too good?”

     Ji Li’s situation was far from good. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, his lips were bloodless, and his tattered clothes hung loosely on his frame, exuding a gloomy aura. But more alarming, his dark spiritual energy was leaking uncontrollably from his entire body.  

     Wang Xue sheathed her sword with a polite nod, while Watson tossed him a crystal vial. The transparent container held an ink-green potion, a blend of dark and wood elemental energies.  

     What might be lethal poison to others was life-saving medicine for a pure dark-ability user.  

     “Thanks.” Ji Li paused, then uncorked the vial and drank. The effect was instantaneous; tension visibly drained from his shoulders.  

     That vial marked the first step of their alliance.

     Ji Li very readily shared his experiences. Just as Ye Mo had guessed, he’d been spawned directly in Avalon which was both lucky and unlucky.

     The lucky part was that Ji Li was very close to the Stone of Destiny, and Avalon contained many strange and rare things. Even if he couldn’t take them out, he himself could greatly benefit from being there, especially as a necromancer.

     The unlucky part was that while the other survivors were playing a treasure hunt game, Ji Li had been thrown into a life-or-death survival mode.

     Avalon the heart of Celtic mythology was crawling not just with dark-aligned species, but also the lingering spirits of  demigods, deities, demons, and even other cursed dragons. Any one of them could’ve ended him.  

     The unluckiest thing was that whether it was an injury from a necromantic seal or to his zombie body itself, it wouldn’t disappear after leaving this dungeon. The negative status effects would be completely carried back, and he didn’t know how many exorbitant prices he would have to pay to repair himself.

     The survivors all envied Ji Li for being a top three powerhouse, but they did not know that he was so poor that his pockets were as empty as a ghost’s grave. He had been preparing to bow down to money and planned to join the national Supernatural Investigation Bureau when he unexpectedly encountered Ye Mo and the others.

    Ye Mo extended an olive branch to Ji Li, not just for this mission, but also pointing out that this world had everything in terms of magic, except for a lack of dark-elemental knowledge.

     Ji Li’s dark-elemental talent went without saying. He was also part dark-elemental race, so his strength would definitely not hold them back. There were no concerns about his character or morals, and they already knew each other in the real world.

     He could help Ye Mo enhance her dark-elemental abilities, forge dark-elemental equipment and weapons, and figure out dark-elemental related dungeons.

     Of course, Ji Li could also obtain the equipment, energy, weapons, potions, and other resources he desired, as well as the strongest teammates.

     This would be a win-win situation.

     Watson and Wang Xue had no objections to this. Wang Xue was very confident in herself. No matter what, she would always be the most dazzling member of the group. Perhaps they could indeed gain a valuable new teammate.

     And the search for the Stone of Destiny was the first step in their true team collaboration.