Joel breathed out a breath of air conditioning, and he felt that the moisture he exhaled in his mask was frozen, and his burned skin felt a stinging pain from the cold.

"Joel?!Joel?!" Aleya's shouting seemed to come from afar, but Joel opened his eyes in a daze and could see her in front of her. "Are you okay?!" She asked anxiously, her tinnitus made Joel unable to hear her words clearly, and it took some time to understand.

It was so cold, Joel wanted to say that, but his right arm holding the sword felt a burning sensation. His right arm was completely exposed, his wallet and the warm thick cloth shirt were torn, and the burned skin was scarlet, as terrifying as if it had been peeled off. The most terrifying thing was that his arm was smoking at this moment, and black scorched marks spread throughout Joel's arm like blood vessels. His hand was holding the hilt of the black sword tightly because he couldn't let it go. As long as he moved his fingers a little, the pain that seemed to tear would make him dizzy. At this moment, there were many raised sharp ice crystals attached to the blade, which continued to peel or shatter into smaller ice crystals as Joel's movements.

Joel climbed up with the help of Aleya. The pain made him scream, but he couldn't even hear his own voice clearly. Aleya next to him seemed to be saying something anxiously, but Joel couldn't hear it clearly at all. The pain occupied his brain. At this moment, he could hardly do anything. When he realized it, he had been supported by Aleya and limped towards the deep and dark corridor ahead. Baishuang gradually disappeared, revealing the stone bricks and wooden doors below.

The moment Joel regained his hearing, the first sound he heard was the sound of some heavy metal object hitting the ground. It was the staff. Joel's consciousness awakened from the pain immediately replied, it was the sound of the bottom of the staff hitting the floor. Joel also heard the sound at the beginning. He immediately pulled out his sword and turned his head to look at the source of the sound, but it was too late at that time. A pale light suddenly lit up at the end of the dark corridor, just like rolling air conditioning. Joel suddenly pushed Aleya away, and his figure was slower. The hand holding the sword was shining by the white light. In an instant, it seemed as if the whole hand was frozen by Han Ice. Almost in a moment, Joel pulled out the hand holding the black sword from the white light, and the light also lingered around his hand like air conditioning.

Then Joel felt the blood coagulation feeling begin to spread upward along his palm. The blood vessels seemed to be about to explode. The blood inside began to coagulate and expand. In addition to the pain, Joel's mind was only the terrible corpses that had been torn from the inside by the blood-red ice crystals that he had found before. However, he had not had time to fear. He found that the tip of the ice crystal had pierced his skin, and his hands seemed to have expanded, leather wrist guards and thick cloth.

The shirt was broken, and at the same moment, the ice crystal pierced the skin, and then sparks immediately emerged like magma gushing out. Joel suddenly felt the freezing feeling on his arm turned into a burning sensation. The ice that had broken the blood vessels disappeared, but the blood seemed to be boiling. The blood that was no longer in the state of ice crystal immediately spread along his arm to his whole body. The boiling blood almost collapsed, but at the same time it also eliminated the cold in his body.

Was he saved his life by this curse again? Joel gasped, and while moving his eyes with all his might, he looked at his arm that was already terrible at the moment, while Aleya carried his left arm and helped him continue walking forward.

Ice crystal filled the entire corridor and separated the corridors from left to right. Aleya and Joel were on one side, while Feiyu and Kaili were on the other side.

"...They should have been hiding... They are not that stupid... so take care of ourselves first..." Joel heard Aleya's voice intermittently. He turned his head slightly. The face and blue eyes that had been calm were now stained with an anxious look, which surprised Joel.

However, the sound of the staff hitting the floor made Joel immediately concentrate all the energy he could mobilize. The voice was approaching. An inconspicuous translucent box appeared in front of Joel's eyes, and it disappeared quickly after Joel saw the words on it. This was the "extra intelligence" provided by Xunsheng, which also refreshed Joel's understanding of the "special skills" that Eleya told him before. However, he had no time to sigh because behind him was a god of death with a metal staff approaching.

The huge squirming sound made him clearly realize their situation at this moment. "When did this guy... appear?" Joel said his doubts with difficulty. He turned to look at Aleya who was holding him. Her blue eyes were staring at the darkness ahead.

"I don't know, it seems like it suddenly appeared." Aleya gritted her teeth and replied in a deep voice, "It was not too late to confirm which direction Feiyu was talking about, and she had already attacked us."

"Is that true?" Joel turned his head, and it was pitch black behind him. Nothing could be seen, and only the constant sounds told them that the danger was approaching.

"Is anyone singing?" Joel suddenly asked.

"Sing?" Aleya was suddenly confused by Joel's question. She immediately held her breath and listened to the sounds around her, but she did not hear any singing. There was no sound in the solemn air except for their breathing, footsteps, the loud sounds of monsters, and the sound of the staff hitting the ground. "No, I didn't hear them." Aleya told Joel.

Joel immediately showed a confused look. He felt his mind was like a ball of slurry, and the boiling blood made him think slowly, but he was sure that he had heard a sound similar to singing - or crying. The sound was like a cold temperature like air, following his ears until his mind, making his consciousness gradually become clear, but at the same time he couldn't help but think, is it really the case?

They slowly passed by a broken wooden door, staring at the cracked crack in the decayed door, which was like being chopped by a sharp axe, with a oblique gap on it, and it was pitch black inside, and Joel was staring at the darkness. Just as the door was about to disappear from his vision, he suddenly saw his eyes, which had been wide open, appearing from the gap, looking at Joel in despair.

Is it an hallucination? Joel turned his head and felt his neck sore, but he shook his head. No, it was not the time to think about these things, and the voice came closer. He turned his head again to see if the monster was close enough to see. As a result, what he saw was a cold mist emitted from the room, and a pale hand reached out, the hand was dry and transparent, it was not a human hand. Joel realized, and then the hand grabbed the edge of the door.

When he turned around and looked directly in front of him, there appeared in front of him. His hands were stretched out from the door of the room, pale and illusory, like mist, as if he could blow it away in one breath. With these arms and the fog surrounding it, Joel could even see the outline of the road ahead. But the most important thing was the sound, sob, whimper, cry, moan, low prayer, singing...

The mist was shrouded around, and Joel turned his head and looked at Aleya beside him. Her eyes were staring tightly ahead, with anxiety in her eyes. Obviously she didn't see or hear.

So is this my hallucination? Joel couldn't help but think of this.

Save me. Joel turned his head and saw an illusory child following him. From the hair that was swept with smoke, it could be seen that this was a little girl. She was barefoot behind Joel. She reached out to grab Joel's hand. Save me. Joel looked at her face, her skin was also transparent, and she could see the same transparent muscles and bones below...

It was an hallucination, Joel thought.

Save me. More and more voices gathered around him, men, women, boys, girls, gradually, the pale mist scattered with glimmer of light surrounded him. They stretched out their dry arms to grab Joel. Some were crying and some were begging. Joel couldn't see their faces clearly. As long as he stared at him, he saw a grim skeleton face.

Save me.

Save me.

Save me.

Save me.

Save me.

Save me.

Save me.

...

"It's so noisy." Joel cursed weakly and irritably.

"What?" Aleya, who was holding Joel, turned her head in surprise and looked at Joel.

When Joel opened his eyes again, the ghosts had disappeared, and it was pitch black in front of him.

"What's wrong, Joel?" Aleya saw that Joel didn't answer, and she immediately guessed something, "Is it 'induction'? What did you see?"

"It's a dead person." Joel felt that he was having trouble talking at this moment. He felt thirsty and wanted to drink water, but one hand was injured, and severe pain kept coming from him, and the other hand was carried on his shoulder by Eleya. "I'm fine, let me go by myself."

"Is it really okay?" Aleya asked, but Joel did not answer. He just looked at her. Seeing Joel insisting, Aleya also put down his hand. Joel immediately turned around and leaned against the wall. His empty hand took out a bottle of wine from his "backpack", bit the plug with his mouth and spit it on the ground, then raised his head and sucked two big mouthfuls.

"It's better to hurry up, that thing may have already-"

"It's already here, you find a place to hide first." Joel threw away the bottle of wine in his hand. It was a dwarf distilled wine taken from the old ghost's wine rack. It was in a glass bottle. After Joel let it fall, it immediately split into pieces. The crisp sound of shattering sounded in the dark corridor. In an instant, the storm of light and mist appeared again. The pale ghosts surrounding him stood, shouting, crawling, crying, and hissing.

Ah, singing. Joel turned around to face the darkness behind him.

"What do you want to do?" Aleya looked at Joel with some confusion, "This thing is not something we can--"

Her voice was completely inaudible. Joel thought to himself, was it all because of the noise around him? Joel waved the black sword in his hand, and the ghosts blocked him - including the little girl who appeared at the beginning, turned into light fog under the blade, and the empty front of him, and the ghosts hid behind him.

"Hide quickly." Joel said with great difficulty, staring at the darkness given to him by the ghosts emitting pale light. The same pale aura spread out at his feet, and the mist swayed outside the aura. The ghosts pushed out the aura one after another, and their fingers did not dare to cross the range of the aura.

...

Anthony led a group of people to the dungeon further down the stairs, where they found a string of footprints.

These footprints came out from the depths of Black City. Anthony shouted in high spirits at that time: "This is Joel's footprint!"

Although the corridors deep in Black City are covered with dust, if it weren't for the players with high proficiency "tracking" skills in the team, they would have probably taken it over, because there was a layer of dust covering the footprints, which was obviously caused by the previous earthquake. After discovering clues, they followed their footprints deep into the interior of Black City, turning east and west, making them almost think that they were always standing in place, but the footprints had never been interrupted.

But soon they found another clue that made them uneasy: another set of footprints, and the number of people was quite large, conservatively estimated to be more than four. This set of footprints intertwined with Joel's footprints at a fork in the road, and then extended into different intersections. "It seems that these guys probably didn't find another set of footprints." Anthony said in a deep voice.

"Of course, who would have thought that there would be footprints of a person walking alone in this kind of place?" Vader next to him said leaning against the wall. He was always carrying a big sword on his back and he would definitely rest against the wall as long as he could grasp the gap. "Not everyone has such good luck when they were peeing, they just found a set of footprints under their feet." Vader looked at the player with high proficiency "tracking" skills, and the player also noticed that his gaze was deliberately distorted.

"What should I do next?" Harvey asked in a deep voice with his hands crossed his chest.

"What are these people doing here?" Anthony frowned and looked at the direction where the messy footprints were heading. It was also pitch black. After leaving the area with white frost, the temperature increased significantly, but it was still cold. Anthony shrank his neck, then lifted the lantern placed beside him and stood up again, turned to look at the people behind him, wanting to see the expression of thinking on their faces.

"They are the 'what group of people'? As long as they figure this out, they should know where they are going, right?" Vader, who leaned against the wall, raised his head and said impatiently.

"Well said," Anthony nodded, then reached out to hold his chin, "At present, our team has split into at least four groups: one of us, one of the Knights of the Iron Chain, one of the Alps, and the last one of those who are separated from us."

"We are searching for the cell where the 'King of Trolls' is being held. The group of people from the Iron Chain Knights went to find the guide, so the latter two are the greatest possibility, either the Alps and their teams, or the people who are separated, and they may just be lost."

"So we are going to find them too? After all, one more person is more involved." Someone in the team suggested.

"That's right, after all, we don't know whether the 'Troll King' in the cell is dangerous. There are only sixteen people in our team. If we find four more people, there will be twenty people. If we face the boss, we will have some chance of winning." Harvey analyzed calmly.

Anthony thought for a moment, then looked at the player with high proficiency "tracking" and asked, "Can you see the time left by these footprints?"

"How can I look at this? There is no reference at all. There is only dust on the ground and there is basically no wind under the ground. But I guess it hasn't been walking for a long time. If I want to chase it, I might still be able to catch up." The player looked a little careless, but the answer still satisfies Anthony.

He nodded, and then looked at the footprints. "These footprints are only chaotic at the forks of roads. They should be looking for a way." Anthony said lightly.

"Find a way?" Harvey raised his eyebrows. He obviously understood what Anthony meant, "It may be just looking at which road is safer, right? And isn't your friend Joel the only one in our team this time knowing the way?"

"So, is it possible that it is him?" Vader asked immediately.

"It's very likely." Turning his head and walking to the direction where those footprints came, "If it was really Joel, maybe he was looking for something with a few other people at the moment, and if he followed, it might be just right."

"So that's the decision? Change the direction and find these four guys first." Vadrey recklessly and without asking any questions from others, he walked away from the wall and walked towards the direction where the footprints left. The others didn't say much and followed him directly.

And at the end were Anthony and Harvey.

After everyone else was walking in front, Harvey walked to Anthony's side, and he frowned and asked in a low voice: "Did you have anything not told us?"

"Did you find it?" Anthony said deliberately and looked at Harvey's face. Harvey was a tall and strong man, but he was unusually not wearing heavy armor, but chose lighter leather armor and chain mail. The weapons he used were scimitars and short swords. He was a guy with agility skills that were inconsistent with his body, and his thinking was also extremely agile.

And Harvey did not hide the confusion on his face at all: "What do you mean? Didn't you tell us what did you mean?"

"It's no big deal." Anthony looked ahead.

"No, you're talking about it more."

"Take a lot?" Anthony looked at him with a smile, and the tall man immediately put on a serious look.

"Then I'll tell you, but you have to keep it a secret for them. This is a confidential matter." Anthony whispered, "Put your ears over."

"Hey! You two! What are you doing behind you?! Dating?!" Vader in front shouted at the top of his throat, and a burst of laughter broke out in the team.

But as the laughter ended, they all heard Harvey exclaiming behind him.

"traitor?!"

Although the sound is not loud, everyone can hear it clearly in the quiet tunnel.
Chapter completed!