Corona Realm

Beneath the Five-Colored Soil, all of humanity was retreating. Only a few Patroller squads were stepping into that infinitely terrifying Otherworld Locust realm.

After realizing the laws of the Desolate Dust, Wu Hen was actually very clear that the space here was mostly in a state of "wild growth."

Once you stepped inside, retreating was no easy task.

In this Otherworld Locust kingdom, which resembled a hopeless desert, most people lacked even the courage to look directly at it. In the end, Wu Hen followed Ming Yi's Patroller squad and stepped onto those locust hills...

Beneath a Sacred Fire Stone Tower, a woman dressed in cyan velvet stood still, watching Wu Hen as he walked away with a look of surprise.

"Could this guy also be an Awakened?" Gao Yuyan muttered to herself.

"Yuyan, is that guy really your first love from when you were fifteen?" a woman in blue clothes asked from beside her.

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Gao Yuyan said, somewhat annoyed.

"Hehe, you two used to hang out together every summer vacation. I always thought he was just some nouveau riche who was far beneath your family's status. I never expected him to be a Patroller now. Patrollers are the super-elites among the Awakened," the woman in blue said with a smile.

"Qing Hu!"

At this moment, a call came from not far away. It was the white-capped leader from before; he was clearly gathering the other Order Guardians.

"Here!" Gao Yuyan responded.

"You are to lead a hundred guards to hold the border. Your mission is to support the Patrollers in clearing the hidden threats deep inside and to slay any evil spirits that step into the Pure Land!" the white-capped leader commanded.

The leader was currently standing in mid-air, his arms crossed over his chest. His eagle-like cloak gave him an air of extraordinary majesty.

From his body, he released a radiance that only the Awakened could perceive. This radiance was known as the Corona, which was also the mark by which the Awakened defined the strength of an individual.

On the patch of soil where the white-capped leader stood, no Sacred Fire Stone Towers had been erected. This area should have long been swallowed by the locust sand dunes, but precisely because of the brilliant Corona he released, his figure was illuminated, making him stand like a magnificent statue amidst the tide of evil...

The evil aura stopped spreading here, and even the imposing locust sand dunes began to recede.

The power of one man surpassed that of the Sacred Fire Stone Towers built by hundreds or thousands of people.

In fact, other Awakened also released such Coronas, but compared to this white-capped leader, theirs were like Firefly Glow; they needed to gather in large numbers to barely form a protective light.

"Well, it looks like we've become your first love's logistics unit," the girl in blue teased.

"Can you not tell such boring jokes at a time like this? Don't you see that many people have already lost their lives?" Gao Yuyan said, somewhat dissatisfied.

"Fine, fine..." The girl in blue shut her mouth, though she rolled her eyes.

As if her being serious and compassionate would make those people survive?

Nowadays, all of humanity was like billions of fish fry cast into the sea, being filtered layer by layer. In the end, how many would truly be able to integrate into this cruel ocean?

Just like the catastrophes recorded in past history, in the end, it would all just be a pile of sigh-inducing numbers.

Stepping onto the "dust."

Crossing over one towering locust sand dune after another.

Wu Hen finally understood why Ming Yi and her team liked to wear those tight-fitting combat suits.

With ordinary clothes that had pant legs, collars, and sleeves, once a locust crawled inside, you'd have to walk with your butt cheeks clenched—and heaven knows if there were any perverted locusts in there.

"Strange, why aren't they attacking us?" Wu Hen asked, feeling a bit puzzled.

It looked terrifying, but as Wu Hen and the others walked over them, the creatures didn't swarm them with frantic gnawing...

The problem was, Wu Hen hadn't failed to notice earlier that those who ran too slowly had been reduced to nothing but white bones.

"This kid hasn't been an Awakened for long, has no one told him?" the pale, lanky man asked.

"He doesn't count as a Pioneer; he only entered the Desolate Dust a few days before the announcement date," Captain Qin said.

"I'll teach him; he counts as my little apprentice," Ming Yi said.

"First time I've seen a greenhorn in a suicide squad. Don't blame me if he drags us down," the one-eyed woman snorted coldly.

So arrogant!

Wu Hen nodded inwardly. He loved having people in the team who looked down on him; otherwise, the atmosphere would be lacking when he eventually showed off his skills!

"It's like this. Although we Awakened don't have clearly defined levels or realms like in fantasy novels, as Desolate Dust Lifeforms, we emit a kind of Corona that originates from the soul. This Corona exerts a certain deterrent and repellent effect on some Desolate Dust evil spirits..."

"Take right now, for example. If an ordinary person stepped in here, they would be gnawed clean in less than a second. If you hadn't become a Desolate Dust Lifeform, I wouldn't have allowed you to step inside."

"Based on our current understanding, this soul Corona can be used to roughly distinguish the strength of an Awakened..."

"Firefly Glow, Night Gloom, Thunder Radiance, Azure Haze, Heavenly Radiance."

"That is the general classification."

As the first little apprentice she had ever taken on, Ming Yi was exceptionally enthusiastic, explaining everything in detail to Wu Hen.

When the words "Heavenly Radiance" were mentioned, Wu Hen immediately thought of Zai Wu!

That guy was a Heavenly Radiance!

In other words, once one reached the Heavenly Radiance realm, the soul radiance emitted from one's own body would be like a sun in the firmament. On one hand, it could allow one's territory to expand, and on the other, it would form a powerful spiritual faith, forcing the species inhabiting this land to become one's subjects, or perhaps be controlled by oneself???

For a moment, Wu Hen thought of those strands of Evil Silk...

Whether the so-called Evil Silk existed in a literal sense was hard to say, but it had indeed achieved a form of control!

"However, I once communicated with other citizens of the God Realm. It seems they only use Heavenly Radiance as a reference point. They don't have a grading system for anything below Heavenly Radiance; that classification is a metric we Pioneers created ourselves," Ming Yi said.

"Everything below Heavenly Radiance is just the mortal dust," Wu Hen said, not knowing why those words had slipped out.

"Hmm... saying it like that really hurts our human self-esteem. You should know that among us Awakened, no one has truly reached the Heavenly Radiance level yet," Ming Yi said.

"Ah? Not even one?" Wu Hen asked, somewhat surprised.

"As you know, we haven't been in contact with the Otherworld Desolate Dust for very long. What we can be sure of is that there are peerless geniuses among us humans who will reach it in the near future, but as of now, there are none," Ming Yi said.

"Heh, kid, you don't think a realm like Heavenly Radiance is something you can reach just by surviving a few Evil Soils through luck and your own hard work, do you? Even though we humans have just stepped into the Era of Tribulation, I fear that even after thousands of years, those who can become Heavenly Radiance will be few and far between. You'd better focus on how to stay alive, you little shrimp!" a young man in the team, who was about the same age as Wu Hen, said.

This youth wore a minimalist forehead crown decorated with a single white feather. His clothes were stark white, with tassels hanging from his waist, making him look like a peacock about to fan its tail.

When they entered the Locust Evil Degree, he had been intentionally or unintentionally walking beside Ming Yi, but Ming Yi was exceptionally close to Wu Hen, even announcing to the team that Wu Hen was her little apprentice, which clearly caused him dissatisfaction.

"Then, brother 'fake white chicken feather,' what is your realm? Would you mind telling me?" Wu Hen asked with humble politeness.

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately infuriated the refined white-haired man. His eyes locked onto Wu Hen, and a powerful Corona suddenly manifested around his body. His silhouette became incomparably tall within this backlighting, like an ancient demon suddenly revealing its demonic essence!

"He is a Patroller with the codename White Peacock. Awakened with codenames are all the cream of the crop among humans; they are at least at the Night Gloom level," Ming Yi said, stepping to the side to block the space between Wu Hen and the white-haired youth.

"Captain, next time you recruit, please teach them the rules before bringing them into the team!" the White Peacock man said coldly.

"That's enough. This is a temporary expedition; keep your focus on the unknown. Don't let such trivial matters affect the team's atmosphere!" Qin Sheng said, his tone turning a bit stern.

White Peacock said no more, but his eyes still flicked over Wu Hen. The slanted angle of his gaze allowed Wu Hen to see a hint of warning and a trace of disdain.

Immediately, the White Peacock man realized one thing: the survival rate of newcomers who had just joined the Patrollers did not exceed fifty percent. Especially since this time they were stepping into such a terrifying Locust Evil Degree, he would just wait for this guy's corpse to go cold and then go over to spit on it!

"Beauty Ming Yi, what about you then?" Wu Hen wasn't going to let the other guy off the hook either.

Knowing that the guy was a suitor of Ming Yi, Wu Hen allowed a sense of ambiguity to seep into his words.

"Me? Naturally, I'm much stronger than these pieces of trash. I'm the team's combat powerhouse," Ming Yi said, proudly hands on her hips. She emphasized the word "trash" to ensure everyone in front of and behind the team could hear it.

Strange to say, everyone in this Patroller squad looked arrogant and cool, but when Ming Yi called them trash, not a single one dared to utter a word. They all just lowered their heads and marched forward.

Well, Ming Ting was confirmed.

"And the visual powerhouse, too," Wu Hen added with a compliment.

"Your little mouth is still as sweet as ever." Ming Yi's eyes curved into silver crescents. She suddenly realized that recruiting Wu Hen into the team was a wise move; after all, this squad was mostly full of mutes—it was too boring!

Walking through the Otherworld, one's spirit was already stretched to the breaking point, and life and death were unpredictable.

But Ming Yi still felt that even if it were a suicide mission, there was no need to wear a long face the entire time!

"That's a given, since you know me inside and out," Wu Hen raised his eyebrows, his words becoming increasingly bold.

"Ugh, stop it!" Ming Yi immediately recalled the scene from a short while ago, her heart thumping wildly.

Captain Qin walked in the middle, feeling utterly helpless as he listened to the two of them flirting in the Forbidden Zone of Death.

Previously, Ming Yi had been using her Yuan You to chat happily with this kid, and now that they had met in person, they were even more lawless.

However, since the "trash" Ming Yi had mentioned also included him, the captain, Qin Sheng didn't dare to say anything.

As for the White Peacock man walking in front, his expression was even gloomier.

For some reason, he felt like a beast of burden, pulling a young master and miss on a carriage for a spring outing!

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