The Supernatural apocalypse triggered by "elimination" spread exponentially, pushing the world to the brink of collapse with no way out.
Governments around the world knew this day would come sooner or later, but they didn't expect it to arrive so quickly.
When it finally arrived, the world was eerily quiet.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no sweeping wave, not even a desperate wail; only a silent "erasure."
Cities, mountains, rivers, life... are like being erased bit by bit, quietly and thoroughly from the paper called "existence" by a huge, invisible eraser, leaving only a suffocating nothingness that devours everything.
These erased ruins sometimes continue to "disappear," not only the material is erased, but even the space itself is erased.
When space is erased to a certain extent, strange "holes" appear, and on the other side of the hole is a fantastic scene.
The cold rainwater slid down the back of Bai Mingchuan's neck and into his collar, making him shiver.
He huddled in the corner of the damp brick wall, his stomach empty, only a familiar, sharp cramping pain reminding him how long it had been since he had a proper meal.
"Damn it, the end of the world!" he cursed in a foul mood, his gaze fixed on the depths of the alley.
There is a strange "hole" there.
Bai Mingchuan narrowed his eyes. He knew how these holes appeared. Even from this distance, witnessing the scene on the other side of the holes would still have a soul-stirring effect.
The "hole" is not a physical cavity, but rather an unhealable scar forcibly embedded in the real world. Its boundaries are blurred, like the edge of melted glass, presenting a morbid, fluid texture.
Through the distorted ripples, the scene on the other side of the hole, like a giant, eerie picture frame, was forcibly embedded into the real world.
A vast, desolate, dark red land, as if congealed blood, stretched to the horizon, like a giant animal hide that had been peeled off. There were no mountains, no vegetation, only endless desolation, which appeared in a nauseating rust-red hue under an unnatural light.
In the heart of this wasteland, an indescribable Bronze Giant Tree rises from the ground, its gnarled and twisted branches piercing the equally dark red sky. It is not the form of any known tree in the world, but rather like some ancient, unknown, and indescribable existence, silently standing on the ruins of time.
A colossal, suffocating blood moon hung in the sky, occupying a large portion of the field of vision. Its surface was not smooth, but covered with grooves and shadows, forming a clear and chilling outline of a human face—a woman's face, eyes tightly closed, brows deeply furrowed, lips slightly parted, frozen in an eternal, silent wail of agony.
Crimson light flowed down from the moon's surface, bathing the entire wilderness in an ominous halo. Only the canopy of the Bronze Giant Tree remained untouched by the moonlight, a solitary black amidst the crimson expanse.
Bai Mingchuan's gaze was fixed on the inside of the hole, on that desolate, dark red wasteland.
The appearance of such a strange thing in the apocalypse naturally aroused all sorts of speculations. Some said that the world on the other side of the hole was Hell, while others said that the hole was a time tunnel and the dark red wasteland on the other side was another world.
Bai Mingchuan's entire family perished in the apocalypse, and his relatives and friends likely suffered the same fate. Living in this world is a precarious existence; he doesn't know when he might disappear.
He has lost everything, and there's no point in just dragging out his life. He might as well take a gamble!
What if the dark red wasteland on the other side of the hole really is a magical otherworld?
If he learns magic and immortal arts in another world, he might be able to return and save his own world, and resurrect his family.
Bai Mingchuan took a deep breath of the damp, cold air, mixed with the chilly smell of rain. His body was like a fully drawn bow, every muscle taut to its limit.
He walked resolutely toward the hole, his fingertips touching the twisted edge first.
There was no sense of impact, no sense of tearing. The instant he stepped into the hole, time, sound, and even his own weight felt as if they were suddenly gripped by an invisible giant hand and then brutally crushed.
Buzz--!
An indescribable, deep buzzing sound instantly filled his entire skull, like millions of giant bees flapping their wings simultaneously deep within his brain. The scene before him was like a mirror struck by a heavy hammer, shattering into countless spinning, distorted, colorful fragments. These fragments churned, stretched, and deformed wildly, then reassembled themselves in a completely illogical way.
He felt as if he wasn't walking forward, but rather... falling? floating? or being swept up by some invisible, viscous fluid, drifting through countless fragmented dimensions, his direction completely obliterated.
One second, the colossal, despair-inducing Bronze Tree seemed to be right in front of him, every mysterious and eerie pattern on its bark clearly visible; the next second, the giant tree suddenly receded to a point as far away as the horizon, as small as a dim spot.
He tried to take a step forward, but the dark red gravel beneath his feet strangely pushed him backward, as if the earth itself was resisting his approach.
He looked down in alarm, trying to see if his hand was still there, but saw his arm stretch, bend, and even briefly split into a blurry image in his field of vision.
The phone he held in his hand, like a piece of metal thrown into strong acid, silently softened and instantly turned into a pool of viscous gel that flickered with strange sparks, dripping onto the visually distorted and undulating gravel ground. It seemed that the very rules of space here were a poison that destroyed precise logic.
Absolute silence enveloped Bai Mingchuan; the hole behind him, the rainy alley, the apocalyptic world where he struggled to survive—all had vanished without a trace.
There was no wind, no sound, only the frozen, dark red light cast by the enormous blood moon, like a layer of viscous blood plasma, covering this boundless wasteland. He was like a speck of dust forgotten outside of time, facing this ancient, silent terror alone. Loneliness, like cold steel needles, pierced through his forced courage.
He has to move; staying here is tantamount to waiting to die!
Bai Mingchuan subconsciously wanted to look up. Strangely enough, ever since he saw that Red Moon, he had inexplicably felt an urge to Praise the Moon.
Fortunately, somehow, he suppressed the impulse and forced himself not to look up, staring intently at the Bronze Giant Tree in the distance.
The Bronze Giant Tree was the only stable coordinate in this chaotic wasteland, a beacon too large to ignore. He no longer tried to understand the strange "distance" beneath his feet, but instead, drawn by some peculiar attraction, he stumbled and trudged along that direction.
His sense of time was completely disrupted; it might have been only a few minutes, or it might have taken him hours. He was utterly exhausted, and every breath he took was accompanied by a burning pain in his lungs. Finally, the enormous shadow of the giant tree completely enveloped him.
Standing under the tree, Bai Mingchuan felt as insignificant as an ant gazing up at the mountains. The smooth, bronze-like surface of the tree trunk was covered with incomprehensible patterns that were mesmerizing at first glance.
The tree gave him a false sense of security, but as he tried to get closer, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of something on the other side of the tree—a color that seemed utterly out of place.
That's a person!
Bai Mingchuan's heart suddenly tightened, then started pounding wildly. He held his breath and carefully walked over.
A woman lay on the ground, wearing a tattered and stained jumpsuit with a clear scientific research institution logo.
Her face was as pale as a corpse, her hair was dry and brittle, plastered to her forehead and cheeks, and what was most chilling was her overall condition—
Half of her body, from her shoulder and arm all the way to her waist, was covered with dense, crescent-shaped or smiling red glowing patches.
When Bai Mingchuan's figure entered the woman's field of vision, she abruptly raised her head. Her eyes, sunken deep in pale, withered sockets, were utterly exhausted, yet the moment she saw Bai Mingchuan clearly, they burst forth with a complex light that mixed shock, understanding, and... something Bai Mingchuan couldn't decipher, almost pity.
"You are..." Her voice was extremely hoarse and dry, as if her vocal cords were rubbing against sandpaper, "... a new... volunteer?"
She twitched the corners of her mouth, revealing a smile more unsightly than a cry, filled with endless mockery. Her gaze swept over Bai Mingchuan's coat and his still-shaken face. "No... judging from your appearance... you're not even wearing protective gear. Are you some idiot who daydreamed about time travel?"
Bai Mingchuan's throat tightened, and he swallowed with difficulty. "You... who are you? How did you..."
"Lin Wanyue," the woman uttered with difficulty, her voice barely a whisper, "I'm a volunteer on an exploration mission for the Supernatural Investigation Bureau..."
A violent cough interrupted her. After a while, she shakily raised her hand and pointed to the blood moon overhead, which dominated the sky and emitted an ominous light.
"We... we were all wrong..." Lin Wanyue's voice carried a profound sorrow born from the realization of the truth. "The Investigation Bureau speculated that this was... a desolate, otherworldly place... a junkyard... or... the graveyard of some civilization... they even guessed it was Hell!"
Her breathing quickened, but the light in her eyes became unusually sharp, fixed on Blood Moon's face, which was writhing in pain. "No! There's nothing here, there are only two ghosts!"
Bai Mingchuan followed her finger, gazing blankly at the blood moon. The enormous human face was so clearly visible on the dark red moon, and the frozen expression of pain now seemed to carry a hint of... indescribable resentment?
"Such a powerful Fierce Ghost, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a 'god'." Lin Wanyue's voice grew lower and lower, but every word was like a knife, piercing into Bai Mingchuan's mind.
"Fierce Ghost? A god?" Bai Mingchuan repeated subconsciously, a chill creeping up his spine.
"Forget it, you don't know anything at all, why should I tell you all this?" Lin Wanyue slapped the ground dejectedly, making a dull thud.
"No, sister, just say what you want to say." Bai Mingchuan's face showed a hint of urgency. "Your words might be very helpful for my survival."
"This tree... is safe..." Her eyes were somewhat crazed as she stared intently at Bai Mingchuan. "The moon is dangerous; try to avoid being exposed to its light."
"Moonlight?" Bai Mingchuan's voice changed. "But when I got here, I had already been bathed in moonlight for quite some time."
"It's alright," Lin Wanyue's voice grew weaker and weaker. "This Bronze Tree and the Red Moon in the sky are opposing forces; the area between them is relatively safe."
"When the woman's face on the Red Moon is in pain, it means she is being interfered with and controlled by the Bronze Tree. When the woman's face on the Red Moon turns into a smiling face, be careful, you must restrain the urge to Praise the Moon, and then approach the Bronze Tree, but do not touch the Bronze Tree directly." After saying this long string of words, Lin Wanyue was already on the verge of death.
"How do you know so much?" Bai Mingchuan asked.
"Intelligence obtained at the cost of human lives." Lin Wanyue smiled bitterly.
When the Investigation Bureau discovered that the other end of the hole was a dark red wasteland, which seemed to be an alternate world that could provide human survival, they naturally wanted to explore new living spaces in order to escape the apocalypse.
In reality, few people would be willing to participate in such a perilous exploration mission at this time. Lin Wanyue was truly driven by a patriotic ideal, which is why she disregarded her own safety and volunteered for the mission.
Upon entering this dark red wasteland, she discovered that all the equipment she was carrying had malfunctioned. To make matters worse, the protective suit she was wearing was poorly made!
Protective suits with insufficient gold content are unlikely to provide real protection in such a Supernatural place; even the smallest flaw could be fatal.
It's chilling that they would even embezzle materials meant for protective suits.
This strange, dark red wasteland seems to have lost its concept of time and space; the passage of time cannot be perceived, and space itself is chaotic.
Alone, Lin Wanyue discovered some patterns of survival here.
There are only two prominent things here—the giant tree and the moon.
The eerie Red Moon's danger was quite obvious; the Bronze Tree seemed relatively safer, but only relatively.
"I can't hold on much longer. Good luck." After saying this, Lin Wanyue closed her eyes wearily.
Bai Mingchuan stepped forward, trembling, to examine the body.
The good news is that Lin Wanyue did not die, but was in shock.
The bad news is that Lin Wanyue is about to die.
Without Lin Wanyue's voice, loneliness and deathly silence returned, heavier, thicker, and more suffocating than before.
Bai Mingchuan frowned. This place really seemed to be another world, but it was different from the other world he had imagined. There were no superpowers like magic or immortal arts, and there weren't even any people.
The only advantage is probably that you don't have to worry about being inexplicably erased.
Bai Mingchuan never noticed that there were two "people" standing on the crown of the Bronze Tree, observing him the whole time.
"Elimination can even erase the barriers between worlds, creating many voids that directly connect to the Ghost World," one of the voices said.
Another voice said, "Many living people have entered the Ghost World, whether willingly or unwillingly. The environment here is not suitable for the living to survive. Speaking of which, isn't the power of 'elimination' a bit too terrifying? I feel like we've given birth to something extraordinary..."