A Night of Desperation

Soon after, Yu Hong also walked up to the person step by step.

He casually picked up a long stone from the ground and poked the person with it.

Puff puff.

The stone jabbed into the person’s body, hard and stiff, without any softness of flesh and blood.

"A corpse?”

A trace of surprise showed on Yu Hong’s face under his helmet.

"To think a corpse would appear here… It seems there really isn’t a Black Disaster here.

Black Disaster devours corpses, leaving only objects behind. That’s a fact recognized by everyone.

The presence of a corpse here means that this place might be the complete opposite of the Black Disaster.

He sighed, glanced at the detector on his collar.

The LCD displayed: -172.313.

"As I thought…”

He took a deep breath and continued upwards.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

On the hard stone steps, only his footsteps echoed.

Around the mountains, densely packed stone forests emitted a cold breath, yet there wasn’t the slightest hint of gloomy dreariness.

Bright cerulean halos lit up the entire mountain peak with a righteous aura.

Yu Hong kept climbing and soon reached the second small platform.

This time, there were three people dressed in garments similar to Daoist robes, also kneeling on the ground, their faces twisted in pain, eyes tightly shut, their bodies long frozen stiff, devoid of signs of life.

Yu Hong continued upwards.

On the third platform, there were still two kneeling corpses.

These two were slightly different from the previous ones; their garb was a bit more lavish, with delicate accessories added.

Yu Hong attempted to search their bodies, but found that their clothes were frozen together with the corpses, inseparable.

Considering he had just arrived, to avoid triggering any unforeseen events, he did not attempt to forcefully search the bodies.

He continued upwards.

On platform after platform, there were more or fewer kneeling frozen corpses.

As he climbed the steps, Yu Hong suddenly noticed some Night Text inscriptions on the stone columns to the right of the staircase in the stone forest.

He had the translator record them one by one, and the progress was pushed to 9%.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

Finally, a great rocky platform appeared at the end of the staircase.

Crack.

Yu Hong stepped onto it.

Looking around,

This was a gigantic circular white platform, about the size of a soccer field.

The ground was smooth, covered in a thick layer of ice.

Through the ice, one could see an extremely intricate set of blue giant Array Patterns beneath.

Whoo.

A cold wind blew, lifting the thick cloak behind Yu Hong.

The detector’s temperature display began to emit a beeping alarm.

Yu Hong glanced at it.

“-27 degrees.”

He silenced the alarm and looked around.

Directly in front of the platform was a glowing crack resembling a vertical cerulean pupil.

To the left and right, were sheer icy cliffs without any railings.

With a thought,

Yu Hong commanded a dragon lizard toward that crack.

Swoosh.

As the dragon lizard darted across the platform and turned into a black streak, it quickly disappeared into the crack.

Then…

The view was cut off, everything returned to calm.

“….??” Yu Hong frowned, staring at the crack.

"Send another one.”

He commanded.

The second dragon lizard also rushed toward the crack.

But this time, under Yu Hong’s control, it stopped at the entrance of the crack and then slowly, bit by bit, crawled inside.

With no change occurring, Yu Hong watched with his own eyes as the second dragon lizard entered the crack; the lizard was fine and continued forward, but his connection with it was severed.

"A place with strong isolation?”

Assured of no danger, Yu Hong too stepped onto the large platform and quickly approached the crack.

But as he drew nearer, a faint noise began to sound in his ears.

It was as if countless people were talking at once, dense and buzzing like a swarm of bees, causing him irritation.

He reached the crack.

Yu Hong hesitated for a moment but still lifted his foot and stepped forward.

No change.

He confirmed there was nothing abnormal with his body before continuing forward.

Slowly walking into the crack.

Inside the crack was extremely bright; it was a massive elliptical cavern.

At the center of the cavern stood a tall blue crystal column, and atop the column, a blue-robed old man sat quietly with his back to Yu Hong, seemingly holding something in front of him that emitted an intensely dazzling blue halo.

The old man’s garments were also similar to a Daoist robe, embroidered with large complex patterns. Some of these patterns occasionally lit up silver, flashing briefly.

The old man’s long hair had already turned snow-white, neatly draped behind him.

He wore a silver coronet resembling a flame on his head.

On the back of his robe was a peculiar pattern.

It was a sun-shaped golden circle, with a pointer in the center dividing it vertically from bottom to top. At the very bottom, it was decorated with auspicious clouds and twisted patterns.

All the light in the cavern emanated from the central seated old man.

Yu Hong estimated the distance, he was at least a hundred meters away from the old man.

But the blue light from that person was like a miniature sun, making even his eyes sting.

This was even after the protection of goggles.

He scanned ahead and quickly spotted his two dragon lizards lying motionless on the ground not far in front of him, not knowing what was wrong.

Crack.

Suddenly, a sound like that of ice splitting open emanated from the old man.

He slowly rose to his feet, blue powder starting to fall from his body.

Rings of transparent ripples spread out from him, transforming into wind, brushing around the cave, then rebounding and merging into a chaotic gust.

Yu Hong felt something was amiss and began to step back.

"Sample collection in progress… Scene recorded, current progress 11%,” the translator’s prompt suddenly popped up.

But Yu Hong had no idea where it had heard the sample from; he had an ominous feeling, a very bad one.

Watching as the old man had completely risen to his feet.

He immediately didn’t care about anything else and turned around to execute the Thunderbolt Leg Technique at full speed.

Hiss!

With a single stride, he shot out of the crevice like an arrow released from a bow, crossing the large platform, and rushing down the steps.

"Wumengxinghe!” An incomprehensible ancient voice cried out from the mountaintop as Yu Hong retreated wildly.

"Xing!”

"Xing!”

"Xing!”

As the aged voice resonated, it was also accompanied by the sounds of countless people speaking or chanting something.

The voice repeated, sounding like a cry, its tone resembling the Chinese word for “star.”

Without pausing for a moment, Yu Hong sped down the mountain and rushed towards the wooden bridge on the rocky beach.

In a burst of speed, he glanced back behind him.

At that moment, the peak of the large mountain was emitting a blindingly brilliant blue light, like the sun.

Wherever the blue light touched, the surrounding mountains and the ground began to rapidly form large patches of frost.

At the same time, the thick Black Fog in the distant surroundings violently rolled, seemingly stimulated, and began sweeping toward this location.

The moment the Black Fog neared, the blue light fiercely blocked it from the outside, continuously piercing and scattering it.

Crack, crack…

The wooden bridge was also frozen, extending up to the Black Ship.

Yu Hong had already jumped onto the Black Ship, standing at the rail and gazing at the mountain peak.

"Wehcqk….” That ancient voice still echoed slowly by his ear.

However, he couldn’t understand the language, only perceiving a strange mechanical feel from the voice.

The voice continuously repeated, repeating a segment of incomprehensible Night Text, not trying to converse with him.

This was also why he had turned and fled.

Because the old man might have already lost consciousness, simply reacting reflexively.

‘Too bad…. Didn’t manage to gain anything,’ Yu Hong sighed. Feeling the Black Ship begin to slowly move away from the dock, he felt somewhat regretful.

"Sample collected successfully, current scene recorded. Current progress 24%,” the translator’s prompt sounded again.

‘Why has it recorded again??’ Yu Hong furrowed his brow, he was already on the ship, wasn’t he? What was happening??

Surrounded by Black Fog, there was nothing to be seen, how could the translator have recorded it??

Suddenly, Yu Hong sensed something was wrong and quickly looked around.

Wait!

The furnishings on the Black Ship were not right!!

The masts on the ship were not like this!

He abruptly realized something was amiss.

The moment he sensed the discrepancy, the Black Ship around him distorted like water ripples, as if a burning scroll, edges burning away, turning to ashes and dissipating from his view.

Everything in front of him turned white.

His vision blurred, and by the time his eyes cleared,

Everything around him plunged him into an icy abyss.

He was still in that massive blue light crevice!

He had never left from the very beginning!

Directly in front of him, the seated old man was slowly straightening up, turning around once more.

The old man’s face was serene, like a statue, his eyes tightly closed, holding a brilliantly blue horsetail whisk in his hand.

The piercing light shrouded everything, obscuring the details of the horsetail whisk.

"Sample collected, current progress 35%,” the translator’s prompt came again.

Yu Hong saw the old man’s lips slightly move, and a series of unintelligible sounds reached his ears.

Finally, he understood where the translator’s progress came from.

‘Trouble…’ He had no idea how to deal with this type of illusion-based opponent.

Among his current methods, not one was designed to handle illusion-based attacks.

Especially since the old man’s methods were not Black Disaster, but all his techniques were developed to counter Black Disaster.

The old man mechanically repeated the unknown words, then gently stepped forward.

Swoosh!

In an instant, he moved a hundred meters, appearing in front of Yu Hong.

He pointed a finger.

Before his finger was Yu Hong’s raised spiked iron ball.

Clang!!

The iron ball loudly distorted, caving in the center, then explosively shattered, scattering like a burst balloon.

"Xing!”

The deafening old voice still echoed around.

The old man’s finger continued forward, aiming for Yu Hong’s chest.

Boom!!

Inner Qi erupted, and Yu Hong’s body ignited with white light, his right leg kicking forward at the opponent’s lower leg.

Simultaneously, he leaned his upper body backward, deftly dodging the finger.

Hiss!

The old man’s finger grazed above him, nicking the tip of his nose, drawing a streak of blood.

While Yu Hong’s right leg also hit the old man’s left leg bone.

With a muffled thud, the two rapidly separated.

Yu Hong only felt his right leg as if he had kicked a chunk of steel, painfully throbbing.

‘Such strong defense!’

He thought to himself that even an armored vehicle could have been instantly kicked apart, his explosive strength reaching at least a thousand tons.

Even real steel should have bent. But the opponent seemed to have…

No!

Suddenly, Yu Hong noticed, the blue light on the old man’s horsetail whisk had dimmed slightly.