As Ye Ling ventured deeper into the royal palace, the number of corpses increased along the way. Most of these bodies showed no signs of pain on their faces, appearing to have died in an instant.
The people within the royal palace hadn't even realized death was upon them.
"Everyone in the royal palace is a game player, yet their bodies did not data-ize after death, but were preserved. Could the perpetrator have used some divine skill?"
Ye Ling's thoughts became active as he observed the corpses in the palace.
He had also acted within this virtual world before. The one-eyed giant had vanished upon death, leaving no corpse behind.
This indicated that even intruders from outside this virtual world, upon killing someone within it, would not affect the world's rules.
However, the person who had wreaked havoc in the royal palace had left behind a large number of corpses. This clearly violated the fundamental rules of this virtual world, causing a "bug" throughout the entire palace!
Soon, Ye Ling arrived at the royal palace's main hall and saw the King of the Purple Luo Empire impaled on his throne by a long sword.
The King still had a faint breath, but he was on his last legs, close to death.
"He's still alive!"
Ye Ling's eyes lit up upon seeing the King alive on the throne. He immediately released his Ink Domain to cover the King, intending to read his memories and understand what had happened in the palace over the past ten minutes.
However, before Ye Ling could probe the King's memories, the space in front of the throne cracked open, and a large number of robots flew out.
"Cheating program detected, initiating virus scan immediately!"
The robots emitted cold, mechanical voices. The entire hall began to code-ize, the King vanished rapidly, and Ye Ling's Ink Domain captured nothing but emptiness.
One of the robots turned its gaze towards Ye Ling and the World-Destroying Spirit Fire, its eyes flashing with data.
"Character not found in database, classified as intruder, immediate elimination!"
The robot issued a warning, and beams of light shot from its eyes, directed at Ye Ling!
"Ink Domain!"
Ye Ling used his Ink Domain to modify the virtual world's data, condensing a barrier in front of himself to block the robot's light beams. However, the entire hall, and even the royal palace, began to disappear under the influence of the light, which also showed signs of spreading beyond the palace.
Seeing the robots' actions, Ye Ling recalled what had happened in the novice village earlier. He turned to warn Barton, "If you don't want to die, retreat from the royal city immediately and wait for me outside!"
"Yes, yes..."
Barton had never seen such robots and was completely terrified. It dared not think further and fled the royal palace like a madman, escaping towards the outskirts of the royal city!
The World-Destroying Spirit Fire flew to Ye Ling's side, staring intently at the robots ahead. It asked Ye Ling, "Kid... it seems we've been framed. What do we do now?"
"With this happening, the Primal Wisdom King should know of our existence. There's no need for us to hide anymore."
Ye Ling said quickly, no longer concealing his strength. He directly attacked, destroying all the robots there and stopping the hall from data-izing.
After destroying the robots, Ye Ling turned and walked out of the hall, looking at a rift that had opened in the sky above the royal palace.
From there, a large number of robots managing the virtual world were flying out.
The entire royal city was cast under the shadow of these robots.
Everything was in chaos, but Ye Ling did not feel the situation was dire. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity.
"This might not be trouble. The third-party force invading the virtual world should be the Overseers. We don't need to worry about the Primal Wisdom King escaping."
"Why?" the World-Destroying Spirit Fire asked.
"The Overseers are still sealing the Primal Wisdom King's true form. If they have come to this world, it means they discovered that the Primal Wisdom King has the ability to bypass their seal and appear in the Primal Chaos."
"This is something the Overseers cannot tolerate. They will definitely not allow the Primal Wisdom King to escape this universe, and with the Overseers' capabilities, they have the means to prevent the Primal Wisdom King from escaping."
"In other words... the Primal Wisdom King cannot escape, and we can benefit from the confrontation between the Primal Wisdom King and the Overseers."
The World-Destroying Spirit Fire asked again, "What if the ones invading this virtual world are not the Overseers?"
"Not the Overseers?"
Upon hearing the World-Destroying Spirit Fire's words, Ye Ling was taken aback, clearly having not considered this possibility.
Soon, Ye Ling's expression became slightly solemn. "Although the probability is very small, if the third party is not the Overseers, it means that in this Primal Chaos, besides the Seven Primal Kings and the Overseers, there exist other terrifying forces unknown to us."
"Judging by what those guys did in the royal palace, I can hardly imagine they are well-intentioned towards us..."
"In that case, not only might the Primal Wisdom King escape, but we would also be inviting new trouble."
After hearing Ye Ling's words, the World-Destroying Spirit Fire sighed heavily and said, "I thought we could easily capture the Primal Wisdom King, but things have turned out like this... We didn't even see the Purple Luo Main God, and instead, we exposed our identities. If we had attacked from the beginning, it wouldn't have been this troublesome."
"Right... the Purple Luo Main God!"
Ye Ling seemed to have thought of something. He no longer cared about being exposed and forcibly used his Ink Domain to invade the virtual world's servers, retrieving the data of the Purple Luo Empire to search for the Purple Luo Main God's location.
"The third party suddenly attacking this royal city is very likely targeting the Purple Luo Main God. If we find the Purple Luo Main God, we might be able to uncover the identity of that third party!"
However, when Ye Ling tried to access the data of the Purple Luo Empire's royal city, he found that all the data had been cleared.
Not only the Purple Luo Main God, but all the divine data of the Purple Luo Empire had been erased. Ye Ling only managed to intercept the locations of the nutrient pods where the bodies of the royal palace inhabitants were.
"Was this data cleared by the Primal Wisdom King, or by that third party?"
Ye Ling realized he might have missed some crucial information and immediately said to the World-Destroying Spirit Fire, "World-Destroying Spirit Fire, you stay here and keep an eye on the royal city. I'm going outside."
"What are you going to do?" the World-Destroying Spirit Fire asked.
"Confirm if the Purple Luo Main God is dead!"
With that, Ye Ling left the virtual world and returned to the universe, heading towards the center of the universe.
At this moment, the center of the universe was also completely under martial law, with countless robots patrolling the surroundings, searching for any potential intruders!
"As expected, the Primal Wisdom King already knows of our existence and has made preparations!"
Ye Ling glanced at the robots and then flew towards the area where the nutrient pods of the Purple Luo Empire's people were located!
There, a large number of robots were continuously retrieving corpses from the nutrient pods and destroying them on the spot.
In this area of nutrient pods, Ye Ling even saw Daisy and Barton.
Ye Ling briefly scanned the corpses, "The way these corpses died is the same as in the virtual world. It seems that some actions taken in the virtual world can affect the real world."
Ye Ling's gaze quickly swept over the nutrient pods, finally settling on a broken nutrient pod.
That nutrient pod was empty, but it still retained an aura comparable to that of a supreme expert... It seemed the person inside had just left.
Seeing the broken nutrient pod, Ye Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. "The aura remaining there is the strongest in this area. That should be the nutrient pod of the Purple Luo Main God."
"I didn't see a corpse, and the nutrient pod is broken. It seems the Purple Luo Main God is not only alive but has also awakened..."