Escape IV

"What have you become now?" the Moon God asked in a deep voice.

Although Zhang Rongfang did not show any malice towards him, judging from the series of battles just now, Zhang Rongfang at this moment has completely deviated from his initial understanding.

Thinking back to how this guy's growth rate was absolutely abnormal from the very beginning.

Suddenly, an idea uncontrollably arose in the Moon God's mind.

Could it be that he really isn't a so-called genius, but rather an evil spirit from the outside world that invaded during the last ray of Heavenly Light? He was pondering this.

Suddenly his gaze sharpened as he saw Zhang Rongfang looking curiously at a twisted humanoid figure with black wings on its back in the distance.

The humanoid figure had a huge single eye on its chest, and its head consisted only of a large mouth as its feeding organ.

It's this very common Evil Spirit Car monster!

"Living Spirit! Living Spirit!! Hahahaha!!" The Evil Spirit Car greedily bent over towards Zhang Rongfang, accelerating and sprinting forward.

Suddenly, it leaped up and pounced.

Pfft! A flash of red light.

The entire Evil Spirit Car was enveloped in a dark red Blood Curtain.

It was as if a huge, blood-red beast had bitten it and swallowed it whole with a gulp.

Behind the Blood Curtain, Zhang Rongfang stood in the center of the blood-soaked water, seemingly closing his eyes to carefully savor the taste of the Evil Spirit Car.

Before long, his face changed rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, his whole body turned black, transforming into the form of the Evil Spirit Car from before, standing in place.

"This monster is too weak; it's far inferior to the three we just saw."

He returned to his original position with slight dissatisfaction, looking up at the sky.

"Master, it seems the outside world isn't all that great after all. Why don't you come back and join us?"

He has come to terms with it now; Yue Dewen is a part of the Moon God.

Judging from the Moon God's performance, he had no way to erase the influence of Yue Dewen's memories.

The two are one; rejecting Yue Dewen is, in fact, rejecting himself.

The Moon God felt uneasy, but for some reason, he did not sense the slightest threat from Zhang Rongfang at this moment.

He could sense the sincerity and earnestness in the other person's tone.

But he is ultimately not just Yue Dewen. Even if he goes back, what then? He can never return to the pure master-disciple relationship between Yue Dewen and Zhang Rongfang.

I don't know what you've been through, but it seems you might be better off living outside this Sky Curtain than I am.

He paused for a moment, glanced at Zhang Rongfang one last time, turned around, and transformed into a blur, shooting away into the distance.

Zhang Rongfang stood still, without trying to persuade him to stay.

In the Secret Art of the Soul Buddha, he has already experienced the two sides of personality and memory.

Personality itself is composed of memories, and without absolute certainty, he could not possibly separate his master Yue Dewen's personality.

Watching the Moon God depart, Zhang Rongfang looked up at the sky once more.

The sky was overcast with dense clouds, but faint rays of Heavenly Light were about to pierce through the clouds.

"If the Sky Curtain made of Black Spirit Thread can block out the Heavenly Light, then I can also create a similar space in this outside world."

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Rongfang caused countless streams of blood to gush out of his body, quickly turning black and transforming into Black Spirit Thread.

His terrifying ability to Life Morphing made every single Spirit Thread he created perfectly aligned with the Sky Curtain.

Large swaths of Black Spirit Thread shot into the sky, converging and weaving near the crack, creating a massive shaded canopy entirely composed of Black Spirit Thread.

"Let's test it first to see if we can build a base here. Then we'll go to the Sea of Forgetfulness and see if that 'Sea of Forgetfulness Core' is real."

From the very beginning, Zhang Rongfang's purpose has never changed.

He would build a vast, absolutely safe base where he could live peacefully. Neither evil spirits nor the Heavenly Light could affect or threaten him.

That was his goal.

That was also his wish.

***In a black ruin burned to charcoal, large swathes of withered, black trees, resembling ghostly claws, are scattered around.

Within the ruins, rows of broken Buddha statues stand, some with arms outstretched reaching for the sky, others with hands clasped together, heads bowed in prayer, and still others with three heads and six arms, seated cross-legged on Lotus Throne.

But all the Buddha statues are either headless, legless, or simply have only half of their upper body.

The grotesque and broken Buddha statues made this ruined place appear desolate and eerie.

White Scale, dressed in a white dress, had long since turned gray from the wind and sand.

She carefully hopped forward through the ruins, closely following another woman in gray who was leading the way.

The woman was wearing a gray bodysuit with many pockets, her hair was completely covered, and her face was covered by a large mask.

Her name is Lin Dong, and she is a survivor whom White Scale accidentally encountered when she got lost not long ago.

"This is it." Lin Dong suddenly stopped and stepped on the ground below.

Buzz.

Instantly, countless Black Spirit Thread burst forth from the ground, forming a sloping passage leading underground in front of the two.

"Let's go, this is where we usually live," Lin Dong said to White Scale with a smile.

"Here." White Scale looked curiously into the passage.

The inside was brightly lit, and there seemed to be some kind of fluorescent powder on the inner walls.

"The Heavenly Light has been getting stronger lately, and the Interaction Zone we can find are getting fewer and fewer. Now we can only rely on our old food reserves most of the time. Life is getting harder and harder," Lin Dong sighed.

White Scale followed her into the passage.

The two continued down the sloping path at a moderate pace.

"The Perpetual Palace has issued another announcement, raising the price of God Marrow for exchanging supplies again. If this continues, we might not even be able to afford to maintain the furnace," Lin Dong complained as he walked.

"What kind of place is Perpetual Palace?" White Scale still hadn't forgotten his mission to gather intelligence from the outside world.

"The Heavenly Light is growing stronger, and everything is on the verge of collapse. In order to fight against the Heavenly Light and find hope of escaping, the Perpetual Palace Master established a large gathering and trading center for everyone to trade and exchange resources."

He also provides some resources for trading. To put it bluntly, it's a large market,"Lin Dong replied.

"Can it withstand the Heavenly Light?" If White Scale hadn't come out before, he certainly wouldn't have had such doubts.

But after she came out, she saw with her own eyes those beams of Heavenly Light descending from the sky and crashing heavily to the ground.

That's why she doubted whether such a confrontation was truly meaningful.

"Legend has it that the Perpetual Palace Master was the one who first built many Interaction Zone, and even participated in the design of Gods and Buddhas. So if even he can't do it, then none of the rest of us can," Lin Dong explained. "Alright, we've arrived!"

The passage ahead finally came to an end.

She pushed open the wooden door at the end of the room with a creak.

The wooden door was open, revealing a vast and deep underground cavern behind it.

Inside the cave, rows of pale blue fluorescent lanterns hang everywhere on the walls.

Below the lanterns stretches a vast expanse of black stone pavilions, courtyards, and pointed towers.

From time to time, something resembling a wind chime hangs from the eaves of the building, and when the wind blows, it immediately produces a series of crisp sounds.

This architectural style made White Scale feel as if he had returned to the Great Ling within the Sky Curtain.

Behind the wooden door, several men in black armor waved to Lin Dong and whispered a few words to each other.

The man in black armor glanced at the White Scale behind him a few times, then raised his right hand in a friendly manner.

"Welcome to Axe Yue."

"Axe Yue?"

"Yes, that's the name of the place," Lin Dong said with a smile. She explained as she led the way.

"According to statistics, there are currently seventeen settlements that can still be stably maintained on the earth. Our Axe Yue is one of them."

The most important requirement for stable retention is to have an internal circulation system that is as self-sufficient as possible.

"Internal circulation system?" White Scale found these terms quite novel.

"Yes."

Lin Dong led White Scale down into the cave complex and walked through the bustling streets.

Before long, they arrived at a somewhat secluded square courtyard.

She took out her keys, opened the gate, and went inside first.

"Come in, come in quickly."

White Scale curiously stepped inside and saw that it was filled with all sorts of incomprehensible odds and ends.

Two young people, a man and a woman, were sitting in the corner, fiddling with these odds and ends, seemingly assembling something with them.

"Don't be shy, make yourself at home." Lin Dong waved his hand with a smile. "To be honest, no one could see any hope at first, but about ten years ago, Perpetual Palace used its extraterrestrial technology to conduct a large-scale test."

"What test?" White Scale asked subconsciously.

"I don't know either, but after that test, Perpetual Palace issued a notice looking for as many new people as possible to register at the Perpetual Palace."

"Every new person I find brings considerable benefits to the Perpetual Palace. So, finding you is quite a gain for me," Lin Dong said with a smile.

"Looking for new talent." White Scale had a vague feeling that there might be some inside story here.

"Do you know any new people who haven't been to the Perpetual Palace yet? Introduce them to us, and we can share the rewards together," Lin Dong asked with a smile in a low voice.

"No," White Scale blinked and answered directly.

"That would be such a pity," Lin Dong said regretfully.

"May I ask what you usually eat here underground?" White Scale asked curiously.

"We don't need to eat much. There are a lot of livestock on the lower level. When needed, we just need to suck out some of their brains," Lin Dong explained with a smile.

"!?!" White Scale was suddenly stunned. "You're not human??"

"Of course not, ordinary people cannot survive in the Heavenly Light," Lin Dong replied.

"Many, many years ago, it was already difficult to find real people on this earth. Everyone accepted the transformation and changed to another way of life."

"!?!" White Scale had no idea that the other party was also a parasitic entity of Gods and Buddhas Spirit Thread, just like her.

***Tens of thousands of miles away from the rift where Zhang Rongfang was located.

In the middle of a gray desert stands a tall, weathered stone tower leaning precariously into the ground.

The stone tower has twelve floors, and at the windows on the exterior of each floor, tiny blue arcs of electricity occasionally flash.

At the very top of the stone tower, in a closed room on the top floor.

A purplish-black ball of electricity floated in mid-air above the room, its size fluctuating, and it flickered with blinding electric light.

There were no connecting objects around the electric ball, only a tuning fork-shaped metal device below it, pointing at the electric ball from a distance.

"Fifteen years."

Inside the room, a bald Black-Clad Woman dressed in black, completely encased in a semi-transparent protective suit, stared at a flickering purplish-black ball of electricity with bright Blue Light eyes, as if observing and calculating something.

Fifteen years ago, an accidental experiment of hers triggered the opening of a strange channel.

The passage opened for only a moment before exploding in the blink of an eye. This triggered a highly sensational spatial collapse event at the Perpetual Palace at the time.

Everyone thought it was an accident.

But only she, as the Palace Master, knew that in that experiment, she had successfully opened a special passage to an unknown space and world.

Despite the very short opening time, the passage still managed to transmit something in this direction.

She didn't know what it was, but she saw hope in leaving this decaying land.

There's no way to take off from here, no way to escape the immense gravity of the White Pupil. There's no choice but to stay put and wait to die.

However, the brief appearance of the experimental passage gave the Perpetual Palace Master hope of escaping once again.