The ethereal voice jolted Logan awake. He sat up—only to realize he was lying beneath a blue sky.
A blue sky—something Zaun's kids would never see in their entire lives. Children who grew up deep in Zaun's fissures only ever saw massive metal pipelines overhead and all kinds of clanging, roaring mechanical tanks. As for sneaking into the Topside and seeing the sky up there—that wasn't Zaun's sky.
Logan looked around, completely stunned.
The ground here was pure white, the sky a vivid blue. In front of where he'd sat up stood a gigantic curtain of light. Along its edges were strange ink-wash patterns of bizarre beasts. Logan couldn't tell what animal they were. He looked elsewhere on the light screen, and what he saw was endless white mist—like it was concealing something on the other side.
"This…"
Logan rubbed his eyes, pinched the back of his hand, and felt real pain. He stood up, and a thought rose naturally.
"A cheat?"
Logan's adaptability kicked in at full power, and joy flashed across his face.
Getting transmigrated to a hellhole like Runeterra without some kind of cheat would be ridiculous!
But Spirit Blossom?
Wasn't Spirit Blossom just a skin universe?
No—wait. If you really got into the details, Spirit Blossom wasn't exactly just a skin universe. More accurately, it was like a sub-world of Runeterra. If Runeterra was the Physical Realm, then Spirit Blossom was the Spirit Realm.
Wasn't Yone's story the perfect example?
Calming down, Logan walked up to the light screen and reached out to touch it.
"Pop—"
His hand passed through it, like poking through a bubble. The light screen dissolved, revealing a huge canvas in front of him. White mist covered most of it, but he could still see large black question marks scattered across it.
At the same time, something appeared in Logan's mind.
[Name: Logan]
[Race: Selectable — (Human Soul / Spirit Monster / Undead Demon)]
[Soul Strength: 2 (Scattered Soul)]
[World Exploration: 0]
[Current Items: None]
Logan raised his hand and tapped Human Soul.
Even now, he still didn't understand what this cheat actually was. Dropping into the Spirit Blossom world… dropping into the Spirit Blossom world—what was the point?
Could it make him stronger?
But the problem was—could his physical self get stronger?
If he only got stronger in the Spirit Realm, then how was that any different from playing a game?
Sure, having a game to play sounded great. In a place like the twin cities, gaming was a good way to kill time. But the question was—was now really the time to play a game?
[Race confirmed: Human Soul.]
[Since map exploration is 0, the first descent will be a random scene.]
[Descend?]
[Yes / No]
[Descent Attempts (3/3)]
Logan tapped nervously.
In the next instant, the hand he'd placed on the canvas felt a powerful suction force. With a roaring spiral of air, the white ground, the blue sky—the entire small world, along with Logan—was dragged into the canvas.
———
Light and shadow scattered. His feet hit solid ground.
Logan looked at the world in front of him, and his pupils contracted.
He couldn't see the sky—towering purple trees blotted it out overhead. He couldn't see far ahead either—wild grass grew to waist height, making it hard to make out the road.
But the purple that filled his vision told Logan one thing:
He'd randomly landed somewhere very dangerous.
In Spirit Blossom's worldview, spirits were divided into two factions: the tranquil Kanmei and the chaotic Akana. And right now, he'd obviously arrived on Akana territory.
Because purple was Akana's dominant color. Heroes of the Akana faction—Thresh foremost among them—were all cast in dark violet.
Inside his head, the ethereal voice sounded again:
[Summoner, based on your Soul Strength, this descent time is 30 minutes.]
[Map discovered — Purple Prison Mountain]
[Map Exploration: 0.01%]
[Exploration rewards accumulating]
[Good luck, Summoner Logan.]
"Exploration?" "Rewards?"
Those two keywords instantly eased the tight knot in Logan's chest.
With Runeterra's mysterious supernatural forces involved, Logan had no reason to believe these rewards couldn't be brought back into the Physical Realm. And if that was true, then whether he ended up as a pile of corpse scraps in the Sump would depend entirely on whether this cheat actually delivered!
With that thought, Logan started exploring.
But in a place with no sense of direction—waist-high weeds and trees like an endless sea—moving was brutally difficult. Like a headless fly, Logan pushed forward stubbornly, forcing his way ahead.
Watching the descent timer count down, Logan realized he'd been walking for thirteen minutes, but the scenery around him stayed exactly the same. The exploration percentage hadn't increased either. Irritation started to creep in.
And then—right as he was thinking that—a gust of wind carrying a sharp, nauseating stench blew through.
Logan turned around instinctively.
He blinked.
And there, facing away from him, stood a body wearing the same kind of tattered Zaun clothes he had on.
The difference was—
That body had no head.
Huh… wait. That looks like me, doesn't it?
Logan blinked again, the thought flashing through his mind.
And the next second, his vision went dark.
Logan lost consciousness.
[Detected a living entity in Purple Prison Mountain. Relevant Codex has been unlocked.]
[Purple Prison Mountain exploration value +3]
[Purple Prison Mountain registered as Descent Point No. 1]
[Accumulated rewards being issued: Obtained reward — Soul Points +0.3!]
"Fuck!"
With a furious curse, Logan snapped awake—back in the Spirit Blossom space again. Blue sky, white ground. The huge canvas stood in front of him, now showing the data from his descent.
Logan stood up, walked to the canvas, and studied it for a moment before tapping [Purple Prison Mountain Codex].
In the next instant, the canvas shifted. A nine-grid appeared. In the first row, third column, a purple beast—something like a hedgehog—appeared on the canvas, lifelike and vivid, looking top-heavy and awkward.
[Akana Beast]
[Race: Spirit-fey]
[Soul Strength: 15 (Scattered Soul)]
[Danger Level: Low]
[Description: Lost souls that cannot find their way home wander the Purple Prison Woods for ages. Without a guide, they gradually forget themselves, becoming mindless drifting spirits of Purple Prison Mountain, and eventually turning into mountain sprites.]
"That thing killed me?"
Logan stared at the purple hedgehog-like creature, his scalp tingling.
Akana Beast… so he really had landed on Akana territory.
Then Logan noticed the text beneath the Codex entry—green letters: [Activate].
He pressed it.
[Lit Purple Prison Mountain Codex III. Gained Strength +3]
Logan blinked.
Strength…
On his status panel, it only displayed Soul Strength—so what exactly was this "Strength"?
Closing the Codex, Logan looked at his personal stats again, only to find that his Soul Strength had become 2.5.
The exploration reward only added 0.3 Soul Points. So did the extra 0.2 come from activating the Codex?
Did Soul Strength equal combat power?!
Logan clenched his fist, but he didn't feel any obvious change in his body.
After thinking for a bit, Logan reached out and tapped the canvas again.
The white mist on the canvas stirred. One black question mark dissolved, and what appeared in its place was a mountain. Logan looked at it, and his mouth twitched.
[Purple Prison Mountain]
On the canvas, purple trees blotted out the sky, and dim violet clouds curled around the mountain.
The reason Logan's mouth twitched was because the vague outline of this mountain instantly made him think of someone.
Behind Purple Prison Mountain, there was a black silhouette.
That shadow had a pair of curved, long horns. The figure was tall, its face and clothing impossible to make out—but Logan could vaguely see something in its hand, like a lantern.
Ah.
Who else could that be?