After several seconds, Zong Hu looked at Long Shu, exhaled, and said, "So, you’re not going to follow the Master’s instructions? The Master’s aning is very clear—if we don’t make it on ti, we should stay out of this matter to avoid unforeseen trouble."
"Oh, my brother." Long Shu spoke, with a disdainful look, "When will you beco a bit bolder? Both you and I are Level 4 Wizards, and there aren’t many on the entire continent who can threaten our existence. So what are you afraid of? Have you been following the Master as a guard for too long, making your character too conservative?
I’m not saying we should disobey the Master’s will. Since the Master said we couldn’t arrive on ti, even if the mission fails, then let it fail. However, the Master did not specify what we must do after a failed mission, right?
Now that the mission has failed, we have no new tasks to execute, our ti is free. Why not satisfy our curiosity, see what’s happening in Pompeii—isn’t that alright? At worst, we can observe from the outskirts first, and if it seems safe, then delve deeper; that way, nothing should go wrong, right?"
Zong Hu listened, looking at Long Shu, filled with doubt, very suspicious if Long Shu was really consistent with his speech and actions.
After pondering for a mont, Zong Hu cautiously spoke, "No, I think it’s still necessary to ask for the Master’s opinion. If the Master doesn’t deny it, we can go and see."
"Such a hassle." Long Shu couldn’t help but shake his head, with a hint of emotion, "If you have to contact the Master, then you’re the one to contact him, I’m not going to—after all, I didn’t bring the Communication Crystal Ball."
"Then I’ll contact him," Zong Hu agreed, "I brought mine."
"You brought it?" Long Shu’s eyes widened slightly, looking at Zong Hu, "Wait, didn’t you tell earlier that your Communication Crystal Ball was broken in a battle? You lied to ?"
"I didn’t lie to you," Zong Hu explained, "The Communication Crystal Ball was indeed broken, but I have a total of two Crystal Balls on —the broken one is the larger one, and there’s a smaller backup Communication Crystal Ball."
Long Shu’s expression beca interesting.
Without further ado, Zong Hu reached into his bosom and took out a small Crystal Ball.
The Crystal Ball was truly small, with a diater of only about two centiters, roughly the size of a cherry.
Long Shu glanced at it, skeptically saying, "Hey, by the way, is this little thing really useful? It seems like sothing thrown in as an extra when buying sothing from a roadside shop, very unreliable."
"Its effectiveness and stability are absolutely beyond your imagination," Zong Hu answered with a straight face, "This was made with great expense by ’Spider Web’ internally, and without the Master’s connections, I wouldn’t have gotten it."
"Is that so——"
Zong Hu didn’t bother to continue bantering with Long Shu. He placed the Crystal Ball in his palm, infused it with Mana, and directly activated the communication function of the Crystal Ball.
Visibly, a red glow erged on the surface of the Crystal Ball, growing brighter and brighter, as if flas were igniting.
But just when the red glow reached its peak, the Crystal Ball trembled slightly, like a bucket of cold water suddenly dousing the newly lit fla. With a "whoosh," the red light vanished into thin air.
Zong Hu’s expression froze.
Long Shu raised an eyebrow, about to speak, when Zong Hu said in a deep voice, "This is normal, it’s a test to see if the Crystal Ball’s communication is working correctly, the real ssage hasn’t been sent yet."
Long Shu opened and closed his lips, swallowing his words, closing his mouth, folding his arms across his chest, standing beside him with the deanor of watching a theater performance.
Zong Hu took a deep breath, his expression growing a bit more serious, drawing Mana from within himself, carefully infusing it into the Crystal Ball according to precise specifications, attempting to send the ssage as agreed.
"Whoosh!"
Incredibly bright red light reerged on the surface of the Crystal Ball, appearing as if it would burst out of the Crystal Ball.
The next mont, the red light indeed burst out.
With a "crack," the Crystal Ball suddenly developed a crack, followed by the red glow disappearing completely.
Zong Hu’s actions halted, his expression quite strange.
Yet, Long Shu lifted the corners of his mouth with an indescribable pride and laughed, "Oh, my brother, it seems your Crystal Ball has cracked."
"..."
"Oh, brother, didn’t you see, it’s really cracked. It looks like that so-called Spider Web is quite unreliable after all. They claid to have spent a lot of resources manufacturing it, but it’s just a scam. When you go back, you definitely need to explain this to the Master, let him straighten things out."
Zong Hu remained silent.
"Alright!"
Long Shu stepped forward, lightly patting Zong Hu’s shoulder, persuading, "My brother, I see your persistence, it’s indeed not your fault. I think this might be a sign of destiny. Destiny has fated you not to ask the Master’s opinion, so just follow what I said and go take a look."
As he spoke, Long Shu pointed in the direction of Pompeii.
"I feel sothing is not right, this Crystal Ball wouldn’t break for no reason, we have to be cautious..." Zong Hu finally spoke, softly voicing his suspicions.
"Don’t worry about it, once we take a look, everything will be clear." Long Shu decided, patting Zong Hu’s shoulder once more, then taking off, hurtling towards Pompeii at great speed.
Zong Hu watched Long Shu’s figure fading into the distance, his face wrestling with indecision, glancing once more at the broken Crystal Ball in his hand, finally exhaling helplessly before following.
...
In a short while, the two arrived at the outskirts of Pompeii.
"Plop, plop!"
The two landed, stepping onto the ground covered in thick volcanic ash, looking ahead with slightly widened eyes.
In their view, the mountain they envisioned—a portrayal of Vesuvius Dake volcano—had vanished, replaced by a giant circular hole. The hole was several hundred ters in diater, with magma, volcanic debris, and ash continually spewing from within.
"Did we co to the wrong place?" Long Shu looked around a few tis, slightly unsure, looking to Zong Hu, "The last ti I ca here was more than ten years ago, and I rember there used to be a large mountain here. Or did I rember it wrong?"
"No, you rembered correctly. There used to be a mountain here." Zong Hu replied, his breath slightly uneven.
"Where’s the mountain?" Long Shu asked.
"Gone." Zong Hu answered.
"How did it disappear?" Long Shu asked again.
"I don’t know." Zong Hu responded again.
Afterwards, the scene fell silent for a full ten seconds.
"Sothing is definitely off here." Ten seconds later, Zong Hu spoke, his expression solemn as he analyzed, "Sothing beyond our understanding must have happened, and it’s best to be cautious. We might be the first to arrive after the event, but we definitely won’t be the only ones realizing sothing’s wrong. Surely others will follow us. It’s best for us to leave quickly and report the situation to the Master, letting him employ the organization’s resources to investigate."
"Okay, I agree with you." Long Shu seed sowhat frightened by the scene before him and agreed with Zong Hu’s idea.
Zong Hu raised an eyebrow, sowhat surprised, but with ti of the essence, he didn’t ask further, turning to leave.
Then he saw Long Shu taking steps, quickly heading towards the distant volcano’s vent.
"Wait, weren’t you agreeing that we should leave quickly?!"
"Yeah, I agreed." Long Shu replied without turning his head, "Let take a look, then I’ll leave."
"I..." Zong Hu couldn’t help but have his expression beco sowhat twisted, and by this ti, Long Shu had already reached the vicinity of the volcanic vent, casting a spell, encasing himself in a yellow-blue energy film. Then he stepped to the closest edge, leaning in to curiously look into the volcano vent.
Zong Hu clenched his fist, unable to contain his anger, but the next mont he heard Long Shu call out, with a tone of surprise, questioning, "Hey, brother, co look, isn’t there sothing strange inside this?"
"Hmm?"
"Boom!"
...
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