Sitting Still for Seven Days

"[Basic Cultivation Assistance] costs 25 Abyss Points. It seems Abyss Points are something like currency."

"The information on the crystal mentions the Human Race. Though it doesn't say so outright, it seems these details indicate that humans are not the only race in this world."

Feng Buzhi murmured to himself and continued examining the other options on the light screen.

When he opened the [Food] option with his thoughts, the light screen changed, displaying three choices.

[Simple Meal], [Filling Meal], [Extravagant Meal].

Among them, [Simple Meal] cost 1 Abyss Point, [Filling Meal] cost 5 Abyss Points, while [Extravagant Meal] cost 25 Abyss Points.

The food exchanged for points was not fixed. At that moment, some people in the square were exchanging points for food.

According to Feng Buzhi's observations, [Simple Meal] generally consisted of bread, flatbread, steamed buns, porridge, pickled vegetables, and similar foods. The packaging was crude, usually just plastic bags.

[Filling Meal] came with dishes, rice, soup or drinks, along with disposable utensils. The portions were generous.

[Extravagant Meal] featured comparatively luxurious food, such as steak, lobster, crab, and the like. It also came with some utensils, such as metal knives and forks, iron skewers for grilled meat, and bottles of alcohol.

The dishes came in a dazzling variety, apparently distributed at random.

There was Chinese food, Western food, and even curry paste and the like. What appeared seemed entirely dependent on luck.

Feng Buzhi chose a Simple Meal.

Under the effect of the Black Crystal, Feng Buzhi felt as though he had lost something.

The Abyss Points in the [Information] section also changed at that moment, dropping from 324 points to 323. It seemed that what he had just lost was an Abyss Point.

Soon, faint ripples appeared in the empty air before Feng Buzhi. Then half a baguette fell out, along with a small bag of water on top of it, roughly 250 milliliters, contained in a plastic pouch.

Feng Buzhi drained the water in one gulp. It was room temperature, with the taste of cooled boiled water. As for the half baguette, it still gave off a faint warmth, as if it had only recently come out of the oven. It tasted fairly good.

Since he only had 323 Abyss Points and had no idea how to obtain more, Feng Buzhi did not immediately try either the [Basic Cultivation Assistance] or [Repair] function.

As for the final [Promotion], when he touched it with his thoughts, it informed him that his body had not fused with the Weird, so it could not be activated for the time being. He could not view its specific information either.

He gnawed on the baguette as he walked outward. By the time Feng Buzhi had finished it, he had already left the Central Square of the Initial Town.

Although staying near the square might have allowed him to gather more intelligence about [Basic Cultivation Assistance] and [Repair], hearing was false while seeing was true. He would have to try those two options himself eventually, so there was no point in remaining here.

Before trying the functions of [Basic Cultivation Assistance] and [Repair], Feng Buzhi decided to awaken his Reincarnated Memories first.

As for how to awaken those Reincarnated Memories, he already had some clues: The Weird Mist at the outskirts of the town.

Within the Mist outside the town were gloomy, eerie murmurs. Through his earlier investigation, he had vaguely understood some of the meaning behind those Eerie Whispers—did you want to possess power?

While listening to those murmurs, his Reincarnated Memories had vaguely begun to loosen.

Several dozen minutes later, Feng Buzhi arrived at a boundary of the Mist on the town's southern side and sat down cross-legged.

This was the location Feng Buzhi had chosen earlier while exploring the town.

There were gates on the east and west sides of the town, while its north and south sides were enclosed by walls. This place was remote, so almost no one would pass by and disturb him.

"There's no charging equipment. I wonder how many days this music player can last."

Feng Buzhi turned off the music player and put the earphones back into his pocket.

He still liked the song Borrow Five Hundred Years from Heaven. It expressed the yearning of mortals for immortality.

Without thinking further, he closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and listened to the murmurs within the Mist.

The stray thoughts in his heart slowly scattered. Whether it was the sounds carried by the breeze or the faint Eerie Whispers arising from the Mist, everything became clearer.

Several minutes later, Feng Buzhi opened his eyes.

Just as he had sensed before, the murmurs in the Mist were asking whether he wanted to possess power, while vaguely guiding him toward an indistinct direction.

It seemed that as long as he went there, he could obtain power.

And as he immersed himself in those murmurs, his Reincarnated Memories once again showed signs of loosening.

Soon, Feng Buzhi closed his eyes again, cleared away his distractions once more, and quietly listened to the Eerie Whispers within the Mist...

Time flowed on. After seven days and seven nights, Feng Buzhi was still sitting cross-legged in the same place.

Over those seven days, aside from drinking some dew and eating small amounts of tree bark and plant roots to replenish his energy, he had remained seated here.

Other than becoming somewhat thinner, he seemed not to have changed at all. He still looked like a sunny young man.

Accompanied by a faint breeze, a blurry shadow drifted past Feng Buzhi's side, releasing at the same time an almost inaudible eerie sigh.

Feng Buzhi opened his eyes and looked in the direction the shadow drifted away.

In truth, Feng Buzhi had been unable to see this shadow at first. He could only occasionally detect the almost inaudible eerie sighs it gave off.

Seven days earlier, while exploring the town, he had vaguely heard two sighs. Later, when he heard news at the town's edge of humans being brutally slaughtered by Goblins, he had heard several similar sighs as well.

Over the past few days, as he continuously listened to the murmurs in the Mist, his understanding of the Weird had gradually deepened.

Four days earlier, he had suddenly noticed this blurry figure.

The blurry figure vaguely had the appearance of a human, like a lost wandering soul.

The wandering soul roamed ceaselessly through the ruined town, occasionally letting out one or two sighs. At times, it even muttered to itself, voicing some thoughts from deep within its heart.

The place where Feng Buzhi stayed was very remote. The southern side of the town was enclosed by walls, and few people had passed by over these seven days. This shadow, however, could pass through walls, so it often drifted by.

Have more humans died again?

Feng Buzhi thought to himself.

The shadow's mutterings sounded very strange, somewhat like the faint murmurs from the Mist asking, "Do you want to possess power?" Yet the meanings of those mutterings were entirely different.

Feng Buzhi could understand the shadow's words.

Once he had been able to perceive the shadow's appearance, he had been able to understand its language.

The shadow was always saddened and sighed over human deaths. Sometimes, it even blamed itself and complained that it was powerless.

Without dwelling on it, Feng Buzhi stood up.

Because his body lacked nourishment, rising suddenly made him feel somewhat dizzy.

Still, the sensation was tolerable.

Feng Buzhi walked deeper into the Mist.

He was not going to pursue that blurry shadow, but to awaken his Reincarnated Memories.

After listening to the Eerie Whispers in the Mist for these past days, his Reincarnated Memories had grown increasingly loose, but he had always remained one kick short of the threshold. There was no longer any meaning in staying here to comprehend them. Feng Buzhi decided to head into the depths of the Mist while he was in this state and take that final step across the threshold.

After listening for seven days, he had gained a deeper understanding of the murmurs within the Mist.

The meaning of the murmurs in the Mist was, "Do you want to possess power?"

But even the same words, "Do you want to possess power?" carried differences.

Feng Buzhi had distinguished five tones among these murmurs. Four of them appeared relatively often and were louder, while the remaining murmur seemed somewhat muffled and unclear.

And these five murmurs of "Do you want to possess power?" corresponded to five different directions...