Chapter 1171: 158. Returning Home

“Festering sore.”

“Shattered Sea.”

Perfectly ordinary words, yet they still made one’s heart tremble.

Muen remained stunned for a long time. At that moment, his consciousness seemed to fly higher and higher into the sky, even beyond the world’s barrier.

Once, under special circumstances, he had looked down upon the appearance of this planet. However, obstructed by the world’s barrier, all he had seen was a mass of blurry patches of color. From the outside, it was fundamentally difficult to see what lay within—perhaps that was also meant to block the Evil Gods’ gaze.

And now, in his mind, those patches of color gradually became clear, beginning to reveal the world’s true appearance.

The deep-blue ocean, the land intermingled with grayish yellow and emerald green, and... as the planet rotated, what appeared before him, occupying an enormous expanse of it... deathly silence and pallor.

And beneath that deathly silence and pallor were lands shattered into piece after piece, floating within a turbid, filthy ocean.

A festering sore.

The Shattered Sea.

The two truly were extremely fitting descriptions, whether in terms of “form” or in terms of “meaning.”

At the same time, Muen also realized why the Covenant of Silence was so necessary—according to certain prophecies whose truth was unknown, doomsday would eventually arrive once more, and the Evil Gods would once again truly invade this world. But anyone who learned that, before the battle had even truly begun, half of their own territory had already fallen would surely feel despair.

“Are you afraid?”

Hamreign turned her head, the corner of her lips seeming to curl up slightly.

“If this is enough to frighten you... there are actually even more terrifying things I haven’t told you.”

“Forget trying to scare me.”

Muen’s consciousness returned, and he gave a helpless, bitter smile.

“I am, after all, someone who has once stood face-to-face with an Evil God. Something on this level is not enough to make me emotionally collapse.”

“Heh.” Hamreign neither agreed nor disagreed.

“Then places like Annabawei are...”

“The disaster back then did not erupt from a single point and spread outward. It erupted from several points at the same time,” Hamreign said. “The disasters also collided with one another. In the end, there would inevitably be some comparatively fortunate places that survived within the gaps between the disasters.”

“I see...”

Muen let out a long breath.

“I’m becoming increasingly curious about the disaster from a thousand years ago. Just what kind of calamity could have caused such a terrifying result?”

“I advise you not to come into contact with matters concerning that for the time being...”

Hamreign gave Muen a deep look.

“That truly is not something you are currently capable of coming into contact with. Or rather, there are not even many people on the entire continent right now who are qualified to come into contact with it.”

“I know...”

The Demon God...

Muen once again recalled the painful memory of nearly being killed by a single glance from the Demon God in the old loli’s illusion of the past.

It had clearly only been an illusion, and it had clearly been separated from him by an entire thousand years, yet it had still been so terrifying.

There was no problem joking around while investigating other strange things, but when it came to an existence this terrifying, he did not dare to investigate casually again.

He still possessed the most basic awareness required to keep himself alive.

“So the place we are heading to now is...” Muen brought the conversation back to the main subject.

“The next hiding place of those rats,” Hamreign said.

“You’ve already confirmed the location?” Muen raised his eyebrows in surprise.

In such an enormous region, trying to find a particular target was practically the same as searching for a needle in the ocean, not to mention the bizarre methods those people used.

Muen now understood why they had been able to evade the pursuit of the mightiest Calamity for a full eight hundred years.

“I have already locked onto the approximate location.”

“You don’t need me to use the power of Eternal Clock to search for it again?”

“No.”

Hamreign shook her head.

“At least, not right now.”

“Then doesn’t that mean I’m useless?”

“You have always been useless.”

“...”

Please do not tell the truth. It really hurts, Miss Dragon.

“Your power over time will still have some use later. They are still hiding within a gap in time, but locking onto their location no longer requires that method.”

“Then how did you find them?”

Muen was very confused. She had failed to find them for eight hundred years, and now she had suddenly locked onto their location?

Was she cheating?

Hamreign did not explain in detail. She merely glanced faintly at Muen and said lightly:

“Priscilla is not dead.”

“...”

Muen’s eyes widened, and realization dawned on him...

Holy shit, she really was cheating!

And it was even a fucking target-locking cheat!

That is way too dirty, Miss Dragon. And here I thought you were the classic type who relied solely on violence in everything, all breasts and no brains...

“Hmm?”

“Ahem. Miss Dragon, your wisdom truly is unparalleled.”

Muen shamelessly put on a fawning expression, miguxs.com jingpinxswz.com maoyanxs.com chuncaoxsw.com yunyanxsw.com as though he wished he could once again hug Hamreign’s thigh and experience that firmness and strength.

“I am almost completely won over by you.”

“Why else do you think I was willing to give you a little more time?”

Hamreign’s features were indistinct, but her contempt was extremely obvious.

“I understand, I understand...”

Muen rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“Next, we only need to wait for this great contributor, who has spent several hundred years running around outside only to accomplish absolutely nothing, to return to her headquarters and carefully plan everything out.”

Ideally, she would call the others over as well. Everyone could hold a meeting and discuss it. Perhaps they would be able to find a way to deal with Miss Dragon.

Even three worthless cobblers together could surpass Zhuge Liang, right? If several rats who had spent centuries fleeing gathered together, perhaps they truly could launch a desperate counterattack.

There was strength in numbers!

......

......

“Achoo!”

Within the seawater where large quantities of filthy, broken remains had accumulated, a rapidly moving shadow suddenly stopped and sneezed on the spot.

The shadow was capable of producing sound, but it had no need to breathe air. Therefore, this sudden abnormality still left her confused for several seconds.

Strange. Although the temperature in the deep sea was very low, her current self had no perception of “heat or cold.” Strictly speaking, she did not even have a nose, so how could she sneeze?

“Could those people be talking about me?”

The shadow snorted coldly.

“Hmph. A few cowards who only know how to hide here and there have no right to criticize what I’ve done.”

How ridiculous.

Even if she had failed this time, she had at least possessed the courage to try.

There was a fundamental difference between her and those people who only knew how to keep hiding.

“Four hundred years. I would like to see how much courage you still have left.”

The shadow spoke no more and swam even more rapidly in a certain direction. Very soon, the filthy, broken remains accumulated within the seawater became increasingly numerous, and from time to time, enormous, ferocious shadows flashed through the deeper parts of the sea.

“Who are you?”

A gigantic, strange fish swam over and blocked the shadow’s path.

“It’s me, Priscilla,” the shadow said coldly.

“Priscilla?”

The strange fish was clearly somewhat surprised by the name. Its fish head suddenly split open toward both sides, and amid dripping blood, a pale face was revealed.

It was the face of a man. His appearance was actually quite normal, except that his two eyeballs rolled around uncontrollably in every direction.

At last, one of the eyeballs moved to the front and reflected the shadow’s current appearance, continuously examining her within the dark seawater.

“You’re actually still alive?”

“Is it strange that I’m alive?”

“We all thought you were dead.”

“Hmph. I did not go there to seek death. Was that really necessary?”

“But wasn’t what you did essentially seeking death?”

The pale face realized something and said with sudden understanding:

“You didn’t die? Then it seems you failed—and failed miserably.”