In the split second that Laura opened her umbrella.
Gu Qing Shan, Boss, Zhang Ying Hao, and Ye Fei Li all grabbed the umbrella with perfect coordination.
The five of them vanished at once.
The king spread his arms wide, grandly declaring to the gigantic grey maw: 「 Come, serve m—–」
Before he could finish, something grabbed him.
He then vanished as well.
A split second later.
Over a dozen tongues lashed down from above in a blur.
Bam!
The stone slab emanated a mass of light to protect itself.
However, the light didn’t manage to achieve anything before the tongues as it shattered instantly.
The entire stone slab swiftly followed, crashing down into the endless darkness below.
The darkness remained as thick and stifling as it always had been, once the crashing sound of the stone slab faded, it once again enveloped everything.
Absolute silence.
Beside the opened corpse pillars, there was nothing here.
All the corpses kept their heads slumped and remained motionless.
They weren’t even screeching like they tried to do so earlier.
Clik clak clik clak.
The faint shuffling of numerous legs continued to resound within this space.
One tongue.
Two tongues.
Countless tongues poured down from above like tentacles, spreading all around searching for the origin of that power radiation earlier.
The tens of thousands of tongues licked through every corpse pillar, not sparing any of them.
Once it finished searching through the corpse pillars, the long tongues continued to reach around within the empty void like feelers, trying to find something.
They found nothing.
After a long while, the tens of thousands of long tongues finally returned into the gaping grey maw.
The ‘clik clak’ sounds were heard again.
The maw slowly retreated into the darkness, gradually fading away together with the faint sound.
The forest of corpse pillars returned to silence.
Time slowly passed.
Several figures appeared on the cliff right before the forest of corpse pillars.
The king was incredibly shaken as he collapsed to the ground, his complexion pale, his expression warped, large beads of sweat constantly forming on his forehead before dripping down his face.
Zhang Ying Hao asked: “Why do you look so pale?”
The king replied in despair: 「 It’s all over, everything is over. The only chance to enter this place, I’ve completely wasted it 」
“It isn’t that bad, we’re still at the beginning” Laura tried to console him.
The king said in return: 「 You don’t understand, that stone slab was the only beacon in this place. Without it, we’re completely blind on how to move forward 」
“Then we can return first and discuss what exactly we should do” Ye Fei Li suggested.
「 Look behind us 」the king said.
Everyone swiftly turned to look back at where they came from.
The secret passage had already vanished, the only thing left in their vision was empty darkness.
The cliff they were standing on was the sole point of reference within the lonely darkness, the rest was just emptiness, and there were no secret passages to be found.
“So, we can’t turn back?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
The king sighed: 「 Yes, there is only one chance once we enter the ruin. Furthermore, there aren’t any ways to return, only by making it to the deepest part of the ruin can we be transported back 」
Everyone went silent.
We can’t return.
And there’s no way to move forward.
What now?
Gu Qing Shan stood at the edge of the cliff, sensing the frigid wind within the void, he suddenly asked: “That monster just now, what does everyone think about it?”
“Overwhelmingly powerful, even more so than those monsters in the Strife Zones” Zhang Ying Hao commented.
Laura replied: “That monster wasn’t depicted in the picture book of vicious monsters published by the 900 million World Layers committee. I assume it has never been seen before”
“That is indeed the case” Boss continued, “I’ve never seen that monster either. It isn’t a monster of the Abyss or of the 900 million World Layers, neither was it from the Inner Plane or the Space-Time Mystery Nest. I think it’s a monster that resided far within the void, where the Deities couldn’t clean up in the past”
Everyone turned to him.
Gu Qing Shan said: “I heard that the Deities battled against the countless monsters within the space vortex in order to clean up a large area for the sake of places like Calming Soul Country”
“Indeed. The Deities left a lot of means behind to protect and conceal areas within the void——- this was the reason why the 900 million World Layers had been able to remain intact and generally peaceful for the past hundred million years” Boss replied.
He walked up to the edge of the cliff, standing next to Gu Qing Shan as he viewed the stifling darkness void in front of them.
“This place is actually a Land of Death Abyss” he said.
“What is a Land of Death Abyss?” Gu Qing Shan asked
“When the Inner Plane was destroyed, the Deities established their safe havens within the space vortex, Calming Soul Country being one of them”
“Afterwards, during their battles against the monsters of the space vortex, they were slowly afflicted by wounds that couldn’t be healed”
“It was then that the Deities discovered the Eternal Abyss’ unique property and wanted to use it to turn themselves into Eternal beings”
“With the joint efforts of the seven Deities, they managed to detach portions from the Abyss and used them to study its power”
“After countless years, the Deities ended up deceased, unable to protect this place any longer——- and since it no longer belonged to the Abyss, the Abyss would also not protect it. Because of this, monsters that resided far within the void slowly managed to find this place and took over”
Everyone carefully listened, feeling as if they were listening to a mythical tale from countless years ago.
Boss raised his voice a bit: “This place is far more dangerous than we assumed. With the strength of us few, we might not be able to reach the very end”
Ye Fei Li looked around the cliff and commented: “But we no longer have any way to return”
“That’s right, now that we’ve made it here, we have no way to return to Calming Soul Country” Zhang Ying Hao also said.
“Wait a minute, let me check” Laura told everyone.
She searched inside her backpack and took out a compass.
After checking the needle and direction on the compass, Laura sighed: “It’s true. We’re currently in an extremely faraway location, any previously established teleportation methods would not be able to send us back through such a distance”
Gu Qing Shan spoke up: “Then let’s continue forward to the end of this ruin. The God of Life should’ve left a way for us to return”
The king sighed: 「 Didn’t you hear me earlier? That stone slab that could direct us on the right path has already been destroyed, we can’t go on 」
“The way forward…”
Gu Qing Shan mused briefly before patting Zhang Ying Hao’s shoulder: “Will depend on you”
Zhang Ying Hao drew a Card and lightly tossed it out.
The Card landed on the ground, manifesting a deep black hole.
Meow?
A gentle meow.
The black cat jumped out, landing on Zhang Ying Hao’s shoulder.
“Good boy, what do you want to eat today?”
Gu Qing Shan rubbed his hands displaying a flattering smile.
The black cat licked his paw and replied:
Meow meow meow meow!
“He said he’s very hungry, so anything is fine, as long as it’s delicious” Zhang Ying Hao relayed the message.
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then asked around: “Are you hungry?”
“I think it’s just about time for dinner” Ye Fei Li replied.
Boss raised his hand: “Ah, now that you mention it, I want to eat the egg fried rice from last time”
“I want noodles” Laura replied.
“Some beefsteak is fine for me, and a bottle of liquor” Zhang Ying Hao replied.
Gu Qing Shan turned to the king.
The king took a step back, looked at these people in shock, then turned to the terrifying corpse pillars outside.
Although these corpses were currently motionless, one could occasionally notice them smirking eerily.
There was also a terrifying monster lying in wait within the darkness just above the corpse pillars.
——-and you want to eat something in this kind of environment!?
The king couldn’t help pointing at the multitudes of corpses and questioned: 「 You really intend to make something to eat right now? Can’t you see what’s going on over there? 」
Gu Qing Shan glanced over and said without care: “Don’t worry, if those corpses can still move that’s even better, they’ll be under my jurisdiction”
「…I’m not really hungry 」the king could only reply this way.
So Gu Qing Shan ignored him.
Gu Qing Shan turned to the others: “Beefsteak is fine, egg fried rice is fine as well, Laura—– noodles are out of the question, choose something else, and Fei Li, what do you want to eat?”
“I can’t choose noodles? Then I want a cake”
“I want noodles—— wait, you’re not making noodles again? Then, I’ll take a bowl of minced meat rice with shiitake mushroom, and some ice cream. A cup of red ginger tea”
“Ah, Ye Fei Li is too sly, I want some ice cream too” Laura called out.
“Ice cream? That sounds nice, I want some too” Boss chimed in.
Gu Qing Shan wore an apron and nodded: “Good, I’ll get to it”
In this Land of Death Abyss that was unimaginably far away from the 900 million World Layers, within the God of Life’s ruin, in front of countless corpse pillars, the group had a heartwarming meal.
Gu Qing Shan made an extra portion of every dish, giving them all to the black cat.
The meal was finished.
Everyone was pleased.
The black cat was very pleased.
Meow meow, meow meow meow!
“He said it was delicious, if you want anything just tell him” Zhang Ying Hao translated as he took a sip of liquor.
“We’re lost here, please take us to the deepest chamber of this place” Gu Qing Shan said.
Meow meow!
“He said no problem”
“That’s great. Laura, open your umbrella; Ying Hao, let the black cat rest on the umbrella; Fei Li, pay close attention to our surroundings; we’re going to move forward like this”
“Got it!” everyone responded.
Gu Qing Shan clapped his hands and spoke to the empty void: “You stay in front to scout, immediately tell me if anything happens”
Xiu~
The sudden response that came from the void of space startled the king.
He didn’t have time to think about what that was, because they were getting on the move.
Standing close around Laura, Gu Qing Shan looked around one last time and declared:
“Let’s go!”
