"Ka-chunk~ ka-chunk~ ka-chunk-chunk~~"
The train gradually pulled away from the city. The orange-red glow of the setting sun spilled across the land, draping the deserted coastal city in a vivid veil.
The high-rises stood in uneven clusters, and the streets crisscrossed. The city spread across the earth like a giant painting, slowly sinking beneath the horizon.
Wu Hen stood at the rear of the train, gazing at the city as it gradually faded into the distance...
Dusk deepened, and night was about to fall.
Amid the twilight, Wu Hen's expression turned dazed. The city on the horizon came alive again.
What he saw was utterly unbelievable.
The streets and buildings on the city's outskirts were growing and spreading across the land like the roots of plants.
Even the barren suburbs the tracks had passed through earlier had sprouted low buildings and bizarre streets...
"A city that grows!!"
"This damn city is alive!"
Wu Hen was certain he wasn't seeing things. His thoughts were in disarray!
What kind of rules governed this Otherworld, anyway?!
No wonder Su Li had said that if they didn't leave the city soon, they wouldn't get another chance.
Could anyone imagine a city that was alive and growing more "lush" by the day?
And then there was the strange solar eclipse from earlier.
That eclipse was absolutely nothing like the celestial phenomenon he knew.
Wu Hen leaned out and looked in the direction the tracks stretched. Even far from this living city, the way ahead remained shrouded in a fog he couldn't see through.
Mountains that weren't mountains.
Forests that weren't forests.
Even the sky and the earth shifted from time to time, while mirages appeared and vanished between them, ethereal and mysterious...
"Xiao Hen, it's getting dark." Su Li walked over and draped a warm coat around Wu Hen's shoulders.
Wu Hen nodded and followed Su Li into the carriage.
The carriage door shut tightly behind them. It was truly dark inside, with only a few fireflies providing a faint glow.
Everyone was huddled in their own spots. Food and water were scarce, so they tried to avoid unnecessary conversation.
It was clear that each of them was doing their best to survive, yet they were still frightened and uneasy about the unknown that awaited them tomorrow.
"Su Li, we're running low on pure food," said Auntie Huang, the woman who'd been running earlier.
"Can we make do for a while? Food and water on this Evil Soil will only make us lose ourselves faster," Su Li said.
"I'm afraid not," Auntie Huang replied.
"All right, then. Tomorrow morning, Xiao Hen and I will look for pure food," Su Li said.
"Xiao Hen?" Auntie Huang repeated, startled as she looked at Wu Hen.
"Don't ask. Go take care of your business," Su Li said, dismissing Auntie Huang.
Auntie Huang was surprised, but seemed accustomed to things like this...
Wu Hen, however, had been keeping an eye on these people the whole time.
It seemed that, aside from him and Yang Qin, none of them came from Earth.
"Curious about who we are?" Su Li asked with a smile, having naturally noticed his confusion.
After they'd shared life and death moments, Su Li had come to trust Wu Hen completely. Her smile grew ever warmer and more affectionate.
"There's still too much about this Otherworld Desolate Dust that I can't understand," Wu Hen said.
"We're all human, but we come from different God Realms. You awakened inside the body of a Lost One, which means you're a child of the Nuwa Divine Mother," Su Li explained.
"Is your world virtual too?" Wu Hen asked.
"Virtual? Your understanding of the world is still too shallow. Shouldn't a place where souls can rest in peace be called heaven?" Su Li shook her head bitterly.
Heaven?
Did people from other human realms in the Otherworld really think that someone like him and Yang Qin was already living in heaven?
On second thought, Wu Hen felt there was some truth to it.
Compared to this terrifying Otherworld, wasn't the place he lived in heaven?
In recent years, natural disasters had struck one after another. Perhaps it was because the Nuwa Divine Mother was already on the brink of death in the Otherworld, no longer able to maintain such a paradise for humanity!
Dawn arrived.
The train slowly stopped beside a green field, where a stream wound through a grove of flowers.
Wu Hen had to admit, this was the first time since entering the Otherworld that he'd seen such bright sunshine and lush flowers and grass. It lifted the gloom in his heart all at once.
Now this was somewhere people belonged.
Birdsong and flowers, babbling water.
"Be careful, and listen closely," Su Li said as she stepped off the train, reminding Wu Hen.
"This place isn't safe either?" Wu Hen asked.
"Don't trust your eyes completely," Su Li replied.
Wu Hen scratched his head.
Fine. You're the boss. Whatever you say goes.
He stayed alert and focused on his hearing, "scanning" for any unusual sounds within a few kilometers. Once he was sure there were no strange things like Meiqing Muxiu, Fengyun Youcun, or Midnight Longlegs nearby, he gave Su Li a reassuring look.
After Wu Hen confirmed it was safe, Su Li turned to the group behind them and said, "You can get off now."
"I'll fetch water."
"I'll catch fireflies."
"Let's wash the dirty things too. The water here should be pure."
Everyone began dividing up the work.
"Come with us. You'll need to carry some things," Su Li said, pointing at Yang Qin.
"Okay, okay." Yang Qin hurried over.
After some training, Yang Qin had begun to fit in with the group. If she was assigned dirty or tiring work, she had to do it. There was no room for fussing.
Wu Hen was rather surprised at how conscientious his female classmate was.
So you could call a tea-sipping girl pretentious, but you couldn't call her useless!
With backpacks of all sizes, bottles, and jars, Yang Qin trailed behind them like a little pack mule.
Wu Hen and Su Li wouldn't lend her a hand. They were the team's main fighters, and if danger arose, they'd have to devote themselves entirely to the fight.
After learning that Su Li and Wu Hen were the real core of the team, Yang Qin became especially diligent. If she was told not to speak, she stayed silent; even when her backpack grew heavy, she didn't dare complain...
At long last, little maid Yang Qin found a chance to join in. She asked in a tiny voice, "If we get Yuan You, can we go back to our own world?"
Wu Hen had also been asking Su Li questions along the way, especially about Yuan You.
Su Li had told him that in the Otherworld Desolate Dust, everything would deceive you except Yuan You. And all things needed its pure source.
"You're children of the Nuwa Divine Mother, and your souls are under her protection. In the past, when she was at the height of her power, if your bodies died, the Nuwa Divine Mother could call your souls back. But you also need to establish a spiritual connection with her. Yuan You can cleanse your souls, and it can also help you establish that connection," Su Li explained.
Naturally, she wasn't saying this for Yang Qin's sake. She wanted Wu Hen to better understand this world and his own predicament.
"That sounds kind of complicated," Yang Qin muttered.
In truth, she still didn't understand any of it. She just wanted to go home.
"To put it simply, Yuan You is like mobile Wi-Fi. Once we're connected, we can upload our spiritual bodies to the Nuwa Cloud. We're alive as long as we're alive in the cloud... But if our spiritual bodies aren't uploaded in time, they'll be permanently deleted!" Wu Hen said.
Wu Hen explained it to Yang Qin in modern terms, and she seemed to understand a little better.
"So we wake up inside people who've lost their connection?" Yang Qin asked.
"That's more or less it," Su Li said with a bitter smile.
There was nothing wrong with understanding it in terms they could grasp.
They were simply too limited. With their current level of perception, the strange and vast Otherworld Desolate Dust was still like shadows glimpsed from inside a cave. They couldn't see the whole picture.
"Yuan You is life."
"Yuan You is money."
"Yuan You is power!"
Those were the three eternal principles Wu Hen now believed in.
To be honest, he was also worried about his family. He'd been stuck in the Otherworld for so long. What kind of chaos had the outside world fallen into by now...?
There were probably many people like Yang Qin who'd been dragged into the real Otherworld with no warning. How were they supposed to face all this fear and strangeness?
"Don't worry. We're not far from the Nuwa Divine Mother," Su Li said.
"That's good, that's good. I really want to go back. My family must be so worried about me," Yang Qin said.
Wu Hen felt the same.
Along the way, Su Li patiently explained which foods were untainted and which water sources were safe to drink.
Yuan You could also purify contaminated things.
"Your souls can be tainted too. The longer you travel through the Otherworld, the more likely it is to happen. One day, you might suddenly find yourself doing things out of character. You might see death and want to embrace it, face your friends and family and want to hurt them, or witness something terrifying and yearn to worship it. That probably means you've been tainted... When you're tainted, you can't return to the Nuwa Divine Mother's divine womb. In that state, you need Yuan You even more to cleanse you, and you need to return to the Mother Goddess and find peace," Su Li said.
Wu Hen nodded, thinking to himself, No wonder the longer I stayed with Aunt, the stronger my wicked thoughts about her became. So this Otherworld was affecting me. I knew I wasn't that kind of person...
Beside them, Yang Qin grew more and more uneasy as she listened. She was carrying a somewhat heavy load of food, and seemed to recall something. Still, she mustered her courage and said, "Sister Su, when you say someone's been tainted, do you mean just having a thought, or can they actually act on it?"
"They can act on it. Their bodies and minds might even act without their control. Afterward, they'll come to their senses again," Su Li replied.
"Isn't that just like the people in our world who have intermittent bouts of madness?" Wu Hen asked.
Su Li nodded.
"Well... there's something I want to mention. Last night, when we checked whether Midnight Mass was still on the train, Uncle said he'd check underneath it. But he seemed to stay by the front of the train and didn't check beneath each carriage," Yang Qin finally said.
Yang Qin felt conflicted.
After all, Scar-faced Uncle had saved her.
She'd noticed it last night but hadn't said anything because she was grateful to him.
But after hearing what Su Li had said, Yang Qin thought Scar-faced Uncle might have had an episode of contamination. She felt she ought to alert Su Li and Wu Hen, the core of the team.
Wu Hen looked at Su Li and saw her expression turn serious. He couldn't help calling out, "Aunt?"
Su Li didn't answer. Instead, she suddenly quickened her pace back toward the train.
"Is something wrong?" Wu Hen realized something was up and hurried after Su Li.
Before you continue