The Nuwa Who Walked the Desolate Dust

The wind blew constantly, carrying vast amounts of sand and dust into the city. Some parts of the old district had already been buried beneath the yellow sands, and such disastrous weather was unfolding all over the world.

People's living space was gradually shrinking, and the Desolate Dust was encroaching more and more.

Rather than sit around and wait to die, some people had begun venturing into the Desolate Dust of their own accord, hoping to find a way to survive for themselves and their families as soon as possible.

Wu Hen was no less busy after returning to the human settlement. He kept testing Xiao Yi's abilities, such as whether it could conjure weapons he imagined. He showed it pictures, hoping it might produce something like a nuclear bomb.

After a friendly discussion between them, Wu Hen learned that Xiao Yi really could do almost anything—but without jars, there was nothing to discuss!

It needed energy. A lot of energy.

If there were a nuclear power plant for it to eat, it might consider Wu Hen's suggestion.

But there was precious little in the human settlement that Xiao Yi would actually want. It was a truly barren backwater.

So Xiao Yi was urging Wu Hen to hurry into the Desolate Dust and stop wasting time here. This was just a Truman Show; the beautiful, comfortable set would collapse sooner or later.

"Fine. Anyway, I should be close to the Nuwa Divine Terminal. I can come back whenever I want." Wu Hen nodded.

He lay down on his bed and told his family he was heading to the battlefield. Then he lightly tapped his temple.

The Virtual Pupil Membrane immediately shimmered with brilliant colors. Wu Hen seemed to see a door before him, its surface swirling with trails of stars.

"Otherworld Desolate Dust, activate!"

Even if he was going to his death, he still had to be chuunibyou!

In an instant, Wu Hen felt as though he had been injected with an anesthetic. One moment, he was fired up for battle; the next, his consciousness fell asleep and plunged into the abyss.

Wu Hen had always been puzzled about one thing.

After his consciousness returned to the human settlement, what did his vessel do?

Did it stand by like an AI robot, waiting for him to log back in? Or did it fall unconscious, like the people in the settlement?

But as soon as he opened his eyes and saw what was in front of him, Wu Hen couldn't help cursing. "Oh, you little shit! Where the hell have you sent me?!"

Before him stretched an endless desert!

Beneath his feet lay scorching white sand!

And most absurd of all, the clouds in the sky weren't clouds—they were clumps of sand and dust. Some enormous sand clouds were even pouring down "torrential rain" onto the ground!

The sky was a sea of sand, and the earth was a wasteland. Had he been dropped into some primeval world?!

Idiot. A complete idiot. Aunt had been absolutely right!

The one saving grace was that, while the Heavenly Sand Earth Desert lay ahead, a patch of green was visible behind him.

In other words, if he'd come online just a little later, this guy would have walked straight into the world of the Heavenly Sand Earth Desert!

He hurriedly turned around!

One look told Wu Hen the Heavenly Sand Earth Desert ahead was a death zone!

Ah, the misery of being a Lost One.

After narrowly turning back from the brink, Wu Hen realized this wasn't a problem with his vessel.

His vessel was a Lost One. Once his consciousness left, he became like the natives of Jueyin Town—like one of the walking dead.

"Strange. I've been walking for a while. Why does the Green Wild Land seem farther away?" After taking back control, Wu Hen had kept walking toward the green.

But no matter how far he walked, he couldn't get out of the desert, even though the green land was clearly within sight.

"Could this desert be growing and expanding too?" Wu Hen suddenly thought of the Evil Soil.

The Evil Soil grew and expanded. If you tried to get out just by walking, you'd never make it, because it expanded faster than you could move!

Realizing that the Heavenly Sand Earth Desert might work the same way, Wu Hen decided to use his superpower.

"Xiao Yi, turn my qi into a horse!"

Xiao Yi couldn't even be bothered to respond to the idiot.

"Then at least give me a speed boost."

Only when Wu Hen's command became sensible did Xiao Yi release the Gold-Radiance Crystal Silk. It swiftly wrapped around Wu Hen's iron feet, as if putting him in a pair of golden fairy boots!

After taking Yuan You Oral Liquid, Wu Hen's strength and speed were already three times that of an ordinary person.

With Xiao Yi's Holy Qi Boot Transformation, he burst into motion at six times the speed of an ordinary person.

He raced through the desert like the wind. Wu Hen felt as if he were riding his old BMW HP4 across the open wilderness, galloping with abandon. And it was completely different from riding a motorcycle. It was like how the sensation of flying in a plane could never compare to flying in a wingsuit!

At last, he raced out of the desert.

Xiao Yi was a real penny-pincher. Not long after Wu Hen had left the desert, it withdrew its ability.

Wu Hen knew to conserve energy, too. Running out of mana when danger struck would be fatal!

"Ding~~~~"

Like the pleasant sound of wind chimes, a gentle breeze offered a soft reminder to the one returning home.

Wu Hen could hear a special call guiding him, much like when he had used Yuan You.

Aunt had told him that Yuan You was the thing most worthy of trust.

This spiritual guidance, like wind chimes, must be the Nuwa Divine Terminal calling to him.

He couldn't go wrong by following it.

Wu Hen strode forward with determination. He was eager to discover what the world where humanity truly lived was like!

He walked and walked,

and walked and walked,

until a hazy silhouette appeared at the edge of the horizon.

It was incomprehensibly vast, and seemed not to belong to this land at all, but to be walking through outer space!

Wu Hen quickened his pace, but the silhouette seemed to be moving, too. Its motion was like that of the stars, sun, and moon—difficult to see with the naked eye, but unmistakable. It seemed he would never catch up...

"Ding~~~~"

That same gentle call sounded again.

Wu Hen suddenly quickened his pace. He had a feeling that the magnificent silhouette had noticed him behind her. She was deliberately slowing down, deliberately waiting for him to catch up...

Like a mother who wouldn't hold her child's hand, but slowed her steps, letting the child who had just learned to walk follow the mother's scent and strive to reach her.

Wu Hen began to run after her.

The silhouette grew clearer and clearer.

She was undeniably vast, but standing before her didn't make a person feel helpless or insignificant. Instead, she stirred a longing and warmth that seemed carved into one's bones.

The Nuwa Divine Mother.

At that moment, Wu Hen suddenly understood why the legend of Nuwa creating humanity had been passed down through the human world.

He continued forward. The distance was no longer a matter of space or time. It was simply a person who had just learned to walk in the Desolate Dust, opening his unsteady arms and reaching out to his mother.

Yet the closer he came, the less Wu Hen could believe his eyes...

The Nuwa Divine Terminal was magnificent, just as the myths described her supporting the collapsing sky for humanity in ancient times. But Wu Hen could also see the age, exhaustion, and countless wounds in her form!

She was facing that terrifying Heavenly Sand Earth Desert.

The reason he had seen a patch of green was that her towering body had blocked the onslaught of the sand. Only behind her had life managed to survive.

At that moment, Wu Hen thought of the endless howling winds in the human settlement, and the yellow sand that had buried the city...

So the Nuwa Divine Terminal was walking through such a savage sea of sand. She was already utterly exhausted, yet still searching for an oasis in the Desolate Dust.

"Ding~~~"

Like an elegant lullaby, the gentle call urged Wu Hen onward. He ran toward the figure from the myths...

The Otherworld was vast. There had to be somewhere to live.

Wu Hen arrived beneath the Nuwa Divine Terminal.

He had thought the Nuwa Divine Terminal would be a living goddess, just like in the ancient myths.

But that wasn't the case.

Her figure really was as colossal as a giant.

But she was also a Glazed Ancient God Tree that blotted out the sky.

After Wu Hen passed through a Thin Boundary, he looked up and saw branches and leaves crisscrossing the sky.

Ahead of him stood a trunk like a sacred mountain, rising into the heavens.

Her roots didn't burrow underground like those of an ordinary tree. Instead, they hung near the ground like tassels, much like the flowing skirt of a woman from ancient times...

In truth, even one of her countless roots was no less massive than a thousand-year-old tree trunk.

Wu Hen couldn't describe the Nuwa Divine Terminal.

She was both human and tree.

She represented both life and nature.

She possessed incomparable divinity, yet there was no need to bow down and worship her. She was like the mountains and rivers, the earth and forests beneath one's feet, or the stars, moon, and sun above one's head...

Wu Hen kept walking.

Like a newborn baby, he was learning to sense the reality around him.

As someone whose hearing had awakened, he heard sounds of a much richer variety. The Nuwa Divine Terminal was utterly tranquil, yet Wu Hen could always hear her softly soothing him.

It felt like a mother gently holding a wailing baby, glad to have brought her child into the world, yet ashamed and remorseful that she couldn't give the child a better, more comfortable home...

Wu Hen heard this "mother," the Nuwa Divine Terminal, speaking to him.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

"Do you know what I went through to get here?!"

"So you're just a damn tree. Apart from being huge, you're completely useless!"

Suddenly, a voice filled with resentment sounded beside Wu Hen. It seemed to belong to someone who had gone through many hardships to reach the Nuwa Divine Terminal.

His emotions had collapsed. He had thought the Nuwa Divine Terminal would be the ancient divine mother from mythology, capable of holding up the sky. But when he discovered she was merely a sentient tree wandering the Desolate Dust, he could no longer hold back his anger!

It was like someone who had been separated from his mother for decades finally finding his birth mother, only to discover she was a scavenger with not a trace of affection in her eyes—just disdain and resentment. He resented the fact that a scavenger like her had given birth to him at all!

"Ptooey!" The man spat viciously, spitting onto the five-colored soil.

Wu Hen frowned. He had no liking for people like that.

"Thud!"

Suddenly, a woman who had come through the Thin Boundary rushed forward and drove a hard punch into the spitting man's abdomen!

The man doubled over like a maggot and fell to the ground. His face turned a deep red with pain!

"Get this straight: our ancestors sought the Nuwa Divine Mother's protection. Only after that did the myth of Nuwa creating humanity come about."

"We were nothing but mayflies. We only managed to survive this long because the Nuwa Divine Mother allowed it. She owes humanity nothing!"

The woman wore a teal cloak. Her figure was strikingly curvaceous, and her proud, cold gaze regarded the man like a piece of trash. Wu Hen couldn't help taking a few more looks at her.

Unfortunately, she mistook him for the man's companion, and gave him the same look she'd given the trash.