Chapter 532 - 321: Slaying the Rakshasa, Lan Qing Is Punished

Chapter 532: Chapter 321: Slaying the Rakshasa, Lan Qing Is Punished

"Let’s go!"

The three continued onward. Without the perceptual threat of the Flower Rakshasa, Yu Fei and Su Yue’s senses were sharper than those of an ordinary Rank-8 Yuanchen Demon. They skirted the edge of the forbidden territory and, after several hours, left the Black Water Realm.

"We’re finally out!"

A look of relief appeared on Yan Sea’s face.

Despite having Yu Fei and Su Yue’s support, he had been under the most pressure in the Black Water Realm. He had felt like a blind man entering a dark forest fraught with peril, surrounded by unknown dangers.

Furthermore, his Body Technique was significantly inferior to the other two, which made the journey even more taxing for him.

Prodigy Martial Artists were overwhelmingly superior to ordinary Martial Artists in every aspect, not just in offense and defense.

Yan Sea was already very powerful; in a burst of frontal offense, he was even stronger than an average prodigy Martial Artist.

In the Void Realm, a dim, yellow light had shone for millennia upon the barren land.

The terrain here was peculiar, with a faint mist suffusing the space, and no trace of life remained.

The world seemed to be perpetually expanding, yet also perpetually dying, maintaining a bizarre equilibrium.

Dense factories built from a mechanical substrate covered this land. These factories varied in shape and size, their only common feature being a wide conveyor belt that led directly to a main road.

Standing on the conveyor belts were lifeless-looking Spider Demons, Wing Demons, Blade Demons, Lesser Demons, and more. The moment they stepped off the belts, it was as if some signal was activated, and they instantly sprang to life.

In the central region of this world, the factories were even larger and more precisely constructed. They simply took the form of countless transparent, honeycomb-like incubation tanks, which shockingly contained various models of naked Yuanchen Demon royalty.

Countless biological-matrix-like tubes connected to the tanks, nurturing the grotesque growth of flesh-and-blood bodies, some of which even had mechanical components embedded in their flesh.

The auras of these Yuanchen Demon royalty ranged from Rank-7 all the way to Rank-9.

Viewed from high above, less than ten percent of the factories in this silent world were activated and in production. Most remained dormant, while countless small mechanical constructs continuously built new factories.

An innumerable number of modulated life-forms marched in silence toward the black fog at the world’s edge, disappearing as if devoured by it.

In opposition to this Void Realm, a blood-red world was visible in the distance. The two seemed close, yet they would never intersect.

At the very center of this world stood a colossal city of machines. There were no signs of life here, only massive mechanical structures of unknown purpose, operating without rest.

Within a huge structure built of Crystal Stone, a consciousness abruptly awoke.

[Lan Qing... Welcome back!]

[Ugh... How long was I gone?]

[Your backup was activated for revival 45 hours, 36 minutes, and 42 seconds after you departed piloting the Star-Seeker. The original body is deceased!]

[Was it that fast? Has the offensive power of the Master’s descendants grown stronger again?]

[That is unknown. The combat power balancing mechanism has not yet been triggered!]

[What is the progress of Owylis’s revival? Have there been any recent changes?]

[Based on the soul energy readings from the captured C-Class Yuanchen Human Warriors, her power is recovering rapidly. Full recovery is projected in 232 years. This timeline may be shortened, as the number of C-Class Yuanchen Human Warriors is on a consistent upward trend.]

[Alas... The Master was awake for too short a time. Our directives were locked, and once Owylis revives, we’ll have no way to resist her A-Class power! What a terrible future!]

[...]

[Lan Qing, you have received a new order. Please accept it as soon as possible...]

[I know, I know! Is it another factory construction mission? Our doom is inevitable, so why work so hard?!]

[Warning: Second-level authority holder Lan Qing, the Master’s final order was: if the [Eternal Silence Shepherdess, Owylis] fully revives, we must initiate the Cleansing Campaign, completely exterminate all Extraordinary Beings of the Yuanchen Human Race, and complete a civilizational reboot.]

[Warning: Second-level authority holder Lan Qing has triggered a slothful consciousness. Requesting re-education!]

[Ah! No! I was just complaining a little, do you have to be like this? For the sake of me working my ass off for thirty thousand years, can’t you cut me some slack?!]

Within the massive Crystal Stone, four consciousnesses suddenly gathered. They quickly grasped the situation.

[Lan Qing, you’re being quite cheeky...]

[Re-education is indeed necessary!]

[Laziness is our greatest enemy. Guarding the Master’s civilized descendants is our undeniable duty. You must be punished!]

Lan Qing instantly felt wronged beyond words. She had only complained a little.

[I think it’s not so bad. Eliminating the polluted C-Class Warriors among the Master’s descendants was originally an easy task. But all these years, we’ve been constrained by the final directive, forced to rigidly execute orders. It’s normal for Lan Qing to have some complaints!]

Lan Qing’s consciousness was instantly filled with a warm feeling, and she immediately spoke up to express her gratitude.

[Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Lanren. I won’t dare to do it again...]

[Vote 3 to 1. Final ruling passed. Lan Qing will proceed to the Imaginary Number Hall for Ideological Imprint Reconditioning. Duration: 100 years. Proposed time dilation: 100:1.]

[Ruling concluded!]

After the formless exchange, the great Crystal Stone fell silent once more, as if nothing had happened. For tens of thousands of years, this world had always been like this, silently awaiting the arrival of the final moment.

Be it salvation, or be it annihilation!

"Once we cross the mountains ahead, it’ll be a smooth road!"

Yu Fei consulted the map, confirming they hadn’t gone the wrong way.

After this long run, he discovered that none of the three were particularly good at navigation. If not for their powerful perception acting as a safety net, they would have gone off course several times. ’Perhaps I should look for a talent related to sense of direction in the future,’ he thought.

"Yu Fei, I’m hungry. Got any wine?"

Looking at Su Yue’s outstretched hand, he was momentarily at a loss for words.

’Why would you drink wine when you’re hungry?’

Yan Sea slapped Su Yue’s hand away. "Stop messing around. Uke Mountain is 30,000 meters high. It’s extremely cold up there, and the air is thin. Yu Fei, do you have any winter clothing?"

"Uh... let me look!"

Yu Fei rummaged for a long time before replying helplessly, "I actually don’t have any!"

"Haha..."

Su Yue couldn’t help but chuckle. "You big dummy, you’re hilarious. You’re a Grandmaster and you’re still afraid of the cold?"

Yan Sea explained earnestly, "The tallest mountain on our home world is only about 10,000 meters. A 30,000-meter mountain probably breaks through the stratosphere!"

But this just made Su Yue laugh at him even more. "Buddy, do you even know where you are right now? The concept of an atmosphere only exists on worlds with a planetary structure, like our home world. Is the Demon Mountain Realm a sphere? We’re in an Intersection Realm! That mundane science you learned in high school is useless here!"

"Huh?"

Yan Sea was a little stunned. He had never really considered this problem.

"Then what kind of structure does the Demon Mountain Realm have? If it’s not a sphere, then why does the sun still rise in the east and set in the west?"

Su Yue stopped laughing and began to explain to Yan Sea, "What you call sunrise and sunset only exists because humans defined those directional concepts. Research from Tianwen suggests that the Intersection Realms are more like a subspace—just a continent with no borders. The so-called sun, moon, and stars are probably just projections.

"As for why, we don’t know. I remember some people even proposed that these Intersection Realms might have been shaped by an Extraordinary power we don’t understand."

Yan Sea was still struggling with it. He recalled the explanations about Intersection Realms he had learned and voiced his doubts: "But I thought they said there were twelve Exotic Origin Realms? Are the Intersection Realms worlds born from a higher-dimensional overlap between our home world and those other worlds?"

Yu Fei listened silently off to the side. He actually had no knowledge of this subject. Compared to a veteran prodigy like Su Yue, he was far behind in his accumulation of knowledge.

Su Yue smoothed down her wind-tousled hair and said seriously, "The theory you’re talking about is just the most widely publicized version. It’s promoted because it’s the easiest explanation for people to swallow."

"So-called ’higher-dimensional interference’—have any of you ever seen what a higher-dimensional world looks like? And the twelve other worlds, that’s just because we have twelve main types of enemies."

Su Yue finished with a light chuckle. "Sometimes, we need an explanation for how the world works just to see a glimmer of hope for victory, even if that explanation is wrong."

"What’s on the other side of the Cross-Border Black Fog? We’ve never known. So how can we be so sure there are twelve other worlds?"

"Think about it, right?"