“Special broadcast! Special broadcast!”
The heavy voice of the announcer came from the radio. Tens of thousands of people gathered around the radio and TV, listening to it carefully…
“If you can still hear this, please take out the paper and pen immediately and write down the content that will be broadcast soon! Note, please do not use any electronic recording equipment!
This is the Shanghai safe zone, our location is…”
…
Radio and TV signals were broadcast in six languages all around the world. The content covered the location of the Shanghai safe area, escape guide, survival skills after the darkness, and possible dangers.
The announcer’s heavy voice was being played over and over again. However, the signal channels were full of various interference. The governments all around the world were making the final notices, the President of the United States, the President of France, the President of Russia, China… The notice from Shanghai was just one of them, and it was quickly submerged in a chaotic ocean of radio waves.
Suddenly, all of the radio and TV signals went silent.
It was as if the whole world had been paused. It was extremely quiet.
…
Everyone in the communication room slowly took off their headphones, while their mind was weighed down with anxiety.
Some people were looking at Chu Yunsheng as if he was the hope in the future. Everyone was hoping that he could say something at this time.
However, Chu Yunsheng simply stood up, pushed open the heavy door, and walked out of the communication room without saying a single word.
The forever darkness has finally arrived.
…
For the people in the Pseudo-Monolith, an era full of unknown dangers has begun, and for Chu Yunsheng, he seemed to have returned to the past and returned to the time he was familiar with.
Although he entered the Pseudo-Monolith, and he could stand under the Sunlight again, his heart belonged to the dark age. The age of light has gotten farther and farther away from him. It seemed that only the darkness was always staying with him.
The sky outside was as dark and heavy as the sky in his memory. It was without any future and without any hope.
In the hazy street lights outside the hotel, snowflakes fluttered. A girl in a check dress, wearing a cute fluffy hat, stood under a streetlight quietly, stretching out her hand to hold the falling snowflakes.
In Chu Yunsheng’s memory, there was no snow, nor was there this girl, but countless cold bodies and endless blood.
He drew out the sword, and simply let those scattered snowflakes fall on the surface of the blade.
On the street, sporadic silhouettes stopped their hurried footsteps. At the entrance, the guards turned around. In the hotel, people stood close to the windows. No one talked, no one made a noise, all of them turned their eyes to the man and the sword.
Yu Xiaohai was in front of the window, Song Ying was also in front of the window; Old Youling, Lin Shuiyao, Yu Jian, Chu Yue, Mo Wuluo, Lu Guolong, almost all the people in the hotel were watching …
The night at the moment was just as silent as radio.
Suddenly, there was a spark appearing on the tip of the sword blade, then the spark was turned into visible flames, and as the flames started to spread across the blade, it was burning fiercely. The light made by it was bright and dazzling, and as it appeared on every glass window of the hotel, it instantly expelled the darkness around the hotel.
Suddenly, Chu YunSheng jumped up high and waved his sword rapidly. As the bright sword light flashed quickly, many crescent-shaped flaming blades appeared like sea waves and hit an abandoned SUV not far from the hotel.
Under the attack of many flaming blades, the SUV was quickly smashed into pieces and brushed into ashes.
Then Chu Yunsheng put back the sword, turned around, and still, he didn’t say a single word.
However, what those people had seen was much more useful than a thousand words!
*****
“You want to learn?”
Chu Yunsheng originally planned to go to bed. He had stayed up all night yesterday, so he needed some rest. However, as soon as he lay down, Yu Xiaohai came to knock on the door with excitement.
It turned out that he wanted to learn the sword skill Chu Yunsheng had just used.
“Yes, I want to learn that, that skill is so awesome! You don’t know, little sister Song’s eyes were filled with amazement and admiration when you used that skill.” Yu Xiaohai said excitedly.
“Actually, even if I teach you, you will still not be able to learn this ability.”
Chu Yunsheng did not want to disappoint him. However, even if he had fire elemental energy, he still would not be able to learn this ability, let alone he would only have ice elemental energy in the future.
After all, when he used this ability, he had infused some black gas into the sword. Otherwise, he would not be able to achieve that kind of result.
Seeing that Yu Xiaohai was disappointed like a deflated balloon, Chu Yunsheng said, “but I can teach you something else.”
“Really?” Yu Xiaohai’s eyes were instantly lit up again.
Chu Yunsheng didn’t know when it started, but he slowly started to dislike Yu Xiaohai’s playful character. Perhaps it was related to what he had been through in the past. But he still wanted to tell Yu Xiaohai about it, so he said sternly, “Haizi, if you only want to learn it because you want to show off, then no matter what I teach you, you will be just wasting your time. You don’t know how cruel it will be in the future, I can understand that. That is not something that people can easily understand without seeing it in person. I don’t know any skills that you can use to show off, I only know the skills that can be used to kill people. None of those skills have fancy moves. All of those skills are deadly and dangerous. You need to think about it clearly. What exactly do you want.”
Chu Yunsheng has already disclosed enough secret information in his words. Otherwise, he would have told him that it was not something that people could easily understand without seeing it personally. He only hoped that Yu Xiaohai would be able to figure it out on his own.
Yu Xiaohai was his best friend, and he was the only person he could trust at the beginning of the dark age. However, if he carried on acting like this, and if he did not make him understand what kind of situation they were in, it would not be good for both of them.
“Kill people?” Yu Xiaohai also calmed down. Chu Yunsheng had killed people before. He vaguely knew something about this from Song Ying, and he was shocked for a long time when he heard it. He always felt that the Chu Yunsheng he knew now, was different from the Chu Yunsheng he knew in the past. But in terms of in what way, he could not tell exactly.
“Yes, kill people, and kill the monsters I told you before and other creatures. If you don’t kill them, you will be killed by them. If you want to survive, you have to understand these skills.” Chu Yunsheng said with a plain tone as if he had done it so many times in the past.
“B, brother Chu, I…” Yu Xiaohai’s mind was in a muddle. It was as if everything in the world had changed overnight.
Chu Yunsheng stood up, patted his shoulder, tried to calm him down, and said, “I know your little bad habit, and I don’t expect you to change it. I just want you to understand that the outside world has changed, and everyone has to change too. If you don’t change. You will be eliminated by this world. Okay, I think I have said enough. I have already prepared a method for you. You can practice it according to the instructions. Not only you, but there are methods for other people as well.”
“Other people?” Yu Xiaohai asked in confusion.
Chu Yunsheng nodded and said with a smile, “It’s the people on that list. Otherwise, why would I spend so much effort looking for them? Since I have a chance today. I can explain a little bit to you. I have already told the military, Song Zihuai, and Professor Sun. From today onward, some of you will gradually awaken some strange abilities. There are five types of awakening. According to your physical condition, if there is no accident, you will awaken ice elemental energy. Other people will have fire energy and some other types of energy etc. Your task is to tell them what to do when they awaken. There are some basic exercises, which you will need to ask them to practice before I return to Shanghai. If they don’t listen to you, wait until I get back to Shanghai, I will deal with them!”
Yu Xiaohai was dazed for a second and then asked embarrassedly, “Brother Chu, can you speak more slowly, I need some time to process it. Did you mean that you have already awakened? And then we will awaken as well? And we will also have superpowers like you? And…”
“Sit down, let’s talk slowly.” Chu Yunsheng poured a cup of tea, slowed down as much as possible, and explained in detail to Yu Xiaohai one by one.
These things were related to how many awakeners he would have in the future and how strong his force would be. Based on the original timeline, in the future, not only would he have to face the internal power struggle in Shanghai, but he also had to deal with NO.1, that old man, and the five elemental races’ alliance, not to mention the insect’s swarm.
After so many years of experience and lessons, he tried to give Yu Xiaohai a clear and simple goal, just like telling Lu Guolong that his task was to listen to his orders, and forgot about everything else. Yu Xiaohai’s task was to tell the awakeners to practice those methods and also tell them the benefit of following his order. In terms of if those people didn’t want to listen to Yu Xiaohai, then once he got back to Shanghai, he would deal with them in person. Although he trusted Yu Xiaohai, he also understood Yu Xiaohai’s ability, so he only kept it as simple for him as possible.
After finishing talking to Yu Xiaohai, Chu Yunsheng was really tired, Yu Jian also wanted to come to talk to him, but he told him to wait after he woke up.
But after waking up, he received a shocking and urgent message from the military: Another “meatball” creature had been discovered in Shanghai!
….
Chu Yunsheng’s biggest worry was that the memory timeline has changed too much, which would make him lose his advantage in controlling the situation.
The “meatball” and Song Ying’s car accident that occurred a few months ago has made him uneasy and confused. Now it was not even time yet, how could creatures in different spaces break through the space barrier and come to earth again?
Regarding that “meatball”, to be honest, Chu Yunsheng also was not sure which kind of creature it was, after all, the Fiery Bugs and the insects from spore forests were similar to each other in some ways, but it’s terrifying evolving ability truly shocked him.
According to intelligence, the second “meatball” was discovered by an old lady, who was passing an onion pancake shop in the city. It was said that when the residents nearby heard the old lady’s scream, those who were extremely nervous because of all kinds of rumors, armed themselves with all kinds of weapons, rushed out of their houses, and beat the shit out of the monster.
The poor “meatball” did not even have enough time to prove its incredible evolving ability before it was beaten up and heavily injured by ordinary citizens. It was no wonder people always said that no one should underestimate the power of the masses. When the military arrived, the “meatball” that had already been run over by cars several times, was already hung on a tree by the ordinary citizens and burned by them using gasoline. The pungent smell could even be noticed several streets away.
When the military finally “rescued” it from the masses, the “meatball” was already tortured beyond recognition. It almost became “minced meat”!
When the scientists in white coats wrote the report about how they put it in a special box, they specifically used the word “gather” to describe the “tragic situation” at the scene.
But its tragedy did not end there. In the cheers of the masses, it was escorted to the scientific research base, where countless needles, test tubes, and cold instruments were waiting for it.
The information Chu Yunsheng received said that in order to prevent this “spherical” creature from destroying the scientific research base with its scary evolving ability again, it has been completely frozen and injected with a large amount of Growth Destruction Reagents to stop the fast cells division rate in its body.
And the final message was Professor Sun asking Chu Yunsheng what to do next?
Regarding scientific research, Chu Yunsheng actually pretended to be an “expert”. He did not have any in-depth knowledge in the field at all. What he was really worried about now, was whether the invasion of the other dimension occurred much earlier than it was supposed to be.
Thinking of this, he hurriedly reminded the military to isolate the place where the two “meatballs” came out and send heavily armed soldiers to guard them at all times. If there were more creatures “coming out” at those places, no matter what they were, shoot them on sight.
The thing, like bringing such a dangerous thing to the laboratory, could only be done by those crazy scientists. Without any new weapons and awakeners, such an action was very dangerous.
It was indeed just a “meatball” before it evolved, but once it evolved, it would be a killing machine.
Chu Yunsheng once again rejected Professor Sun’s idea that he should return to Shanghai immediately. At this time, he needed to stay here even more. At least, he had to wait for all the people on the list and linguistic experts to be safely transferred to Shanghai before he could leave.
In case of emergency, Chu Yunsheng asked Fang Baixiao for three sets of special warfare equipment, all of which were cutting-edge devices newly equipped in the military area command in recent years. The night vision device alone was much more advanced than the one Chu Yunsheng bought in the past.
He also got three military motorcycles, all of which were standard models in active military service. These things were nothing to Fang BaiXiao, but it would be very difficult for Chu Yunsheng to get himself.
The evacuation work of Nanjing has been officially launched. After fighting for the entire day and night, the military finally forcibly opened up the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway. The first batch of the evacuated citizens and personnel were sent to Shanghai by manually operated trains and a fleet made of many buses. It was a very spectacular scene.
The gathering place of the railway station and the expressway entrance could be described as crowded with a sea of people, holding children, dragging luggage, yelling loudly to search for the scattered family members. Whenever an empty car just opened the door, the crowd would rush toward the car and try their best to squeeze into the car. The previous queueing order was instantly destroyed. Trampling incidents occurred all the time. It was not until the soldiers, who were maintaining the order, finally fired their guns into the air to warn the crowd, was the order finally restored.
Those who could get on the train and move to Shanghai in advance were the people with high social status. Ordinary people could only rely on highways and expressways. Although there wasn’t much difference in time, the train gave people a feeling of safety and speed.
The government had approved the requests of some people, who wanted to drive their private vehicles to Shanghai, but on the condition that the vehicle must be filled with people, and no space should be left to cause the wasted evacuation space. If people wanted to drive to Shanghai alone, the government would neither support them or discourage them, as long as they would not obstruct the military’s evacuation action. After all, Shanghai wasn’t that far from Nanjing.
All the airlines have completely stopped, without the help of the electronic navigation devices, only some modified helicopters could barely take off, and most of the boats were used to transport goods and supplies. After all, not many people would choose to take boats.
However, even if the government and the military had planned to evacuate the city twenty-four hours a day non-stop, trying to use all the available transportations, it would still take at least half a month to evacuate the entire city. Moreover, the city that had the most pressure was not Nanjing, but Shanghai, because, how to deal with the incoming waves of people, was going to be their biggest problem.
Looking at the streets started to show early signs of chaos while driving down the street, Chu Yunsheng could already imagine the huge pressure on Shanghai.
Food, shelter, sanitation, public security, etc., as long as there was one mistake in any one of those areas, there would be unimaginable consequences.
Although Chu Yunsheng did not know what the rest of the world would be like, he believed that they would not be much better than this. All the big cities and military bases around the world must have already been overcrowded with people now.
Avoiding the places where crowds of people gathered, Chu Yunsheng drove Fang Baixiao’s military vehicle and came to the place where the Monolith once appeared. He didn’t want to be disturbed. Because he might not be able to protect himself if he lost his consciousness.
So when he arrived at the place where there was no one around, he got out the vehicle, stored the vehicle into the storage talisman, and then lurked into an eight-story high business building.
He actually didn’t know if he could sense the existence of the Monolith. He just wanted to try it with a speculative mindset.
In a remote corner of a corridor in the building, Chu Yunsheng relaxed his whole body, and let the mind enter a quiet state while trying the method he used to gather Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi to feel the difference in the environment around him.
The noise outside the business building gradually subsided, and there was a faint noise of the military troops moving around, probably the military area command was trying to strengthen the security during the evacuation.
The quieter the environment was, the more sensitive Chu Yunsheng was toward the environment around him. He gradually adjusted his breathing rate to a level that was consistent with the fluctuation frequency of the Heaven and Earth Yuan qi around him and was fully immersed in it to feel the various subtle changes.
As time went on, when Chu Yunsheng, who did not have a good rest, was about to fall asleep, and when his consciousness entered a state of trance, the black gas on his palm suddenly rippled irregularly. A wave of very secret tremors diffused from the depths of the earth seemed to be detected by the black gas.
This black gas was especially taken back from Old Youling by Chu Yunsheng after he woke up earlier in the hotel. At the time he took back the black gas, he also realized that he had made a major mistake. If he could see anything in the first six times of the disappearance of the Sun, did it mean during the last disappearance, could he also see something as well? However, such an opportunity was wasted for him!
If he could see something at the seventh time, he might have more information. Maybe he would be able to figure out something.
However, it was too late to regret it now. He only hoped that it would be useful here. Otherwise, he would have really wasted too much of his precious time.
At the moment when the black gas changed, Chu Yunsheng also noticed it. The black gas was connected with his consciousness, this type of connection made his mind and the black gas much more unified than his body and Yuan Qi.
With a thought in his mind, the cold gleam, which had been formed by the fusion of the seed in the depths of his soul, suddenly pressed forward and then converged inward, in the depth of his eyes. It inadvertently pulled his gaze into a dimensional angle of view. When he was about to trace the wave coming from the ground, countless fragments suddenly rushed out of the depths of his eyes, pulling his vision and consciousness back to the zero-dimensional space.
At the moment of entering the zero-dimensional space, and during the continuous falling of dimension levels from the multi-dimensional space to zero-dimensional space, he seemed to feel that something was chasing him from behind, like a huge mouth that almost bit him, but in the nick of time, he hid into the zero-dimensional space.
It was this feeling that made him have another peculiar idea about the Monolith that was very likely to exist under the ground. Maybe it was not a good thing!?
Chu Yunsheng has not entered the zero-dimensional space for a long time. But when he entered again, he was shocked to find that the black gas vortex was still there. Moreover, there was also a small sword without a handle.
Wuzi Fragment? Chu Yunsheng was confused.
Looking around again, he did not see the ancient book, nor did he see the ancient bow, it made him even more confused.
According to his understanding after entering the Pseudo-Monolith, the black gas may be related to his consciousness. It was the only reason that could explain why it could enter the Pseudo-Monolith with him, but Wuzi Fragment was something that originally did not belong to him, so how did it get in the Pseudo-Monolith?
Then Chu Yunsheng discovered something else. Compared to the last time he was in the zero-dimensional space, he was no longer in a blurry shape. The little handleless sword, Wuzi Fragment, turned into countless small fragments, surrounding his consciousness, forming his body inside the zero-dimensional shape. Although the surrounding space was still vague and unpredictable, he was able to see himself much clearer this time.
Moreover, with the body formed by the Wuzi Fragment, he was able to observe and explore the zero-dimensional space much better.
