Chapter 155: Despair in the Wilderness

When Shendongjie was first born, there was no concept of time.

The three original spirits are free and eternal, unaffected by the changes in the material world. In an age without time, the world is like a pot of colorful porridge. The original spirits count the bubbles rising to the top of the porridge and discuss the "new things" happening in the world.

At that time, matter did not decay, spirits did not age, ancient life never left, and new life was constantly born. As a result, "new things" became more and more numerous, so many that the giant sometimes couldn't count them all. Finally, one day, the top of the porridge was covered with bubbles, and the giant counted them and became confused.

He asked the shadow: Which of these new things are new?

Shadow didn't play a prank this time, and he finally lost his mind. The two of them gathered together and swiftly counted, finally announcing with a clear conscience: These are new, and these are even newer. But then, the newest bubbles appeared again. Shadow, scratching his head, decided to pull Light over to count again.

Light always has a way. He had long ago compiled a long list, clearly stating the order in which every event had occurred since the creation of the Shendong Realm. With this list, things could be clearly distinguished by their "first" and "last," and the new from the old. The giant praised Light profusely, saying that Light had done a meaningful and good deed.

But Shadow, after looking through the list, had a problem. He claimed that some of the things on the list were out of order and that he had misremembered them. The Djinn reviewed it and also found problems. He said that some of the things had never happened because he had never seen them.

Light remembered everything clearly, pointing out that Shadow was playing with the little ones in the porridge at the time and therefore didn't see the whole thing, while the Djinn was sleeping at the time and of course didn't know what happened.

"That's the problem," Shadow said. "You think we're careless and missed something, but who can guarantee you never make a mistake? If everything depends on you, wouldn't you be able to fabricate the past?"

Light insisted on keeping his records perfectly accurate, while Shadow remained skeptical. They argued over the list over and over, while the Giant slept and slept again. Seeing the debate endless, the Giant suggested creating a new list from now on, to be recorded by them and the little creatures of the Shendong Realm. With multiple witnesses to verify it, there would be no mistakes in the past.

This good idea was unanimously agreed upon, and Light made a new list, with Shadow responsible for writing it down line by line. At this point, Shendongjie finally had time, and the list that recorded time was called history.

The era before time itself, though witnessed, is recorded only by light. No one can definitively say whether that list is correct, nor can anyone guarantee the exact duration of that era. Time flows silently, like an intangible, intangible fog, an untraceable "eternity."

——Excerpt from "The Long Song of the Earthly World", the Longjiao version of the century-old experimental textbook for compulsory education, revised by Zhulong.

·

"...Therefore, only history witnessed by all living beings is time, while history without witnesses is mist..."

Boom. Boom. Boom. My heartbeat was especially intense in the silence, and mist drifted through the thick darkness. Qingye leaned against the cold bark of a tree, replaying the contents of a long-ago school lesson in his head.

The fog of history, an unrecorded past, a forgotten history. The present is thus cut off from the past, and no one can truly tell how long the fog has shrouded it. And yet, throughout the history of Candlelight, only one period of time has been shrouded in this fog: the battle that once engulfed the entire Shendong Realm... the battlefield of the Heavenly Prison War...!

(Qingye, calm down! Think about the teachings of the family elders. Never scare yourself!) Qingye muttered to himself, (The fog is very thick, but it might just be bad weather! I can't walk out of the edge of the forest. It's very likely that I've awakened the rare family gift of directionlessness! The strong presence of the outsiders might be that I ran into the outsiders' lair! In short, you can't make conclusions about your situation based on one-sided information. You need to collect more intelligence and make a careful assessment of the situation!)

When she came to, she was lying in a misty forest. The good news was that her limbs and equipment were still intact. The bad news was that everyone who had entered with her was gone. Traversing such a haunted place alone was suicidal in every way. The most urgent task was to determine the location and then reunite with everyone else...

Qingye looked up and stared at the black moon in the sky for three seconds.

(The cradle of oblivion is right above my head. How can this even work? I should just write a suicide note and commit suicide! I don’t want to become the fallen Guang Shi Qing Ye ah ah ah ah!!)

Qingye wailed silently as she moved forward. No matter how depressed she was, she would always try to struggle before dying.

Thunder fell for a long time, and the fog was so thick that it was pitch dark. Without a light source, it was impossible to tell the direction. Having fallen into this state, Qing Ye felt no psychological pressure. With a broken jar mentality, she stretched out her finger, and a faint light appeared on her fingertips.

The light illuminated the pale face.

The face was eyeless, its hollows filled with only black holes. Its skin was bloodless, and its blue lips curled up in a joyful smile. The ghostly face, as large as a wall, floated silently before Qingye. Qingye turned his head stiffly, meeting another pair of empty eyes.

The light was filled with smiles and ghostly faces, the space already filled with illusory, bloodless faces. They clung tightly to the only living creature in the forest, staring at her from before she woke. The ghostly faces' smiles grew wider, and Qingye's expression twisted in a similar manner.

She quietly extinguished the light on her fingertips, nodded with a smile, and then gathered all her strength to escape for her life!

The ghost faces followed closely behind, whistling, their teeth opening and closing like guillotines. "Found the brave! Found the brave!" "Give the brave a test!" "Please stop, brave!"

“Only an idiot would stop!!” Qing Ye screamed without even turning his head.

The ghost faces turned serious. "The new hero is not cooperating with the trial." "Report to Lord Vansalar!" "Report to the Nightmare King."

"Please don't alarm the big shots over such a small matter!!!"

A high-pitched laugh echoed from the depths of the forest. A tall, lanky figure, as massive as a building, leaped through the mist, chasing Qingye. Running blindly in the darkness was pointless, so Qingye simply lit a flame, its faint light revealing the true form of the trees. Each trunk was carved with the faces of the dead, and their hollows were filled with bones. The ghost trees' roots had detached from the earth, and they screamed and waved their branches to join the chase.

She finally understood why there was no light in this damn place. Any "brave man" who dared to light up the light would be hunted down by monsters until he died!

The light raced through the forest, soon transforming into an icy slash that pierced the forest. The slash extended all the way to the edge of the forest, crashing into the majestic cliffs before dispersing into a chilly current that vanished into the darkness.

Following the sword's will, I crossed the mountains and reached the other side of the desolate wasteland. The land, stretching as far as the eye could see, was blanketed in dust. The fine, grayish-white gravel resembled burnt ashes. A gigantic being rose from the sand, its voice surging across the dunes. My plea for mercy mingled with the sandstorm, as insignificant and helpless as its own existence.

"Help! Help!!"

Gulibo rolled and crawled across the dunes on his short legs. Running was slower than rolling, but Gulibo was even more unlucky than Miss Qingye, who lived just across the mountain. He couldn't even create light or flames, and only awoke with a dull thud in the sand.

Then, the monster burst out of the sand! Its body resembled a worm with thorns, and its head, when opened, revealed a petal-shaped structure with fangs arranged in a cylindrical pattern. Judging from its appearance, it looked like a Level 3 "Sand Worm"...

But there's no mention of a worm as big as a mountain in the books! When this thing leaps up, its head goes right into the clouds. It just doesn't look right!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions resembling cannonballs echoed in succession, and more than twenty sky-high worms emerged from the sand, howling to the heavens. Gulibo's nose turned as pale as its fur, and it covered its eyes with its paws, feigning death. Then, a long rope shot out from the darkness, snaking it up and dragging it into a pitch-black cave.

Gulibo took away his claws and was overjoyed: "Sniper brother, help me!"

Shax glanced at it, silently silencing it. He grabbed Gulbo and casually tossed him behind him. Gulbo had just breathed a sigh of relief, saying at least he had a big leg to cuddle with, when he opened his eyes and saw a skull bigger than himself.

"~*&——!" (A scream that he tried desperately to suppress)

Shax pulled out a long-barreled sniper rifle, equipped with the third-level relic "Smoke Puff," specialized for silent assassination. He fired, killing a worm. The thud of the worm landing attracted its own kind, which chased the source of the noise and engaged in a violent brawl. A sudden storm erupted in the desert.

He casually rolled a silent bullet and fired it as a safety measure, clutching an unlit cigarette. Out of caution, Shax hadn't attempted to illuminate the area, and Gulbo had just demonstrated the consequences of making noise. These powerful beasts alone would be enough to overwhelm even the most ordinary Transcender, not to mention the interference from outsiders...

Even if they abided by the rules of silence and lightlessness, a Transcendent below Sephiroth 3 could not survive in this place. This was a veritable death zone.

Gulbo tugged at his trousers. Deep in the cave, bones piled up like a small mountain, and everywhere was rotten weapons and useless equipment. Shax could tell at a glance that they were junk that weren't even Level 1 relics. Only ordinary people who hadn't upgraded would use such things.

But there's no reason for ordinary people to survive... Then, there's probably a shelter outside the danger zone.

This is getting more and more interesting. Shakes laughed silently and picked up Gulbo with one hand.

"Can you cook?"

"Ah, I will."

Shaxx pointed to the sandworm corpse outside.

"Do you want me to stew that?" Gulibo's fur turned green. "Is this true... Bo!!"

Food is always the foundation of survival. As long as one remains above the Second Abyss, one must constantly consume food to replenish energy. However, the Despairing Wilds is a veritable dead zone. Shax and Gulbo are considered relatively lucky to have exotic beasts to eat. In another, even more desolate desert, even the sandworms that flock to the sound are nowhere to be found. Only darkness, silence, and the silhouette of a human moving forward through the windswept sand.

"Akong, do you have anything to eat?" Ji Huaisu whispered, "I'm a little hungry after just fighting a battle."

Chu Hengkong reached into his sleeve and felt around, then whispered, "Only Fan De is left."

"What do you mean I'm the only one left? Am I food?" Vander protested.

"How could that be? You are our important food reserve." Ji Huaisu said.

Fander's eyelids drooped, and he looked listless. "Go to hell. Didn't the cook give you some peace pills? Go take some medicine if you're hungry."

"The Immortal Machine ate up all the pills before, and there are only a few left." Chu Hengkong took out a few pills, feeling a little regretful.

Before setting off, to avoid food problems, he specifically asked Jie An for a few boxes of "Three-Day Harmony Pills" to take with him. This thing is a high-energy food developed by the chef himself. One pill can provide energy for three days and will not make you feel hungry within seven hours.

Unfortunately, when the Immortal Machine went berserk, it first devoured various bottles and cans. After sweeping through its entire existence, only a few fallen pellets remained. The two of them each ate a pill, swallowed it, and fell into a silent silence.

"I feel like I'm full but not full..." said Vander.

Ji Huaisu covered his stomach and said, "I want to eat barbecue..."

"Can you be patient for a moment? The gentleman in front is laughing." Chu Hengkong pressed his chest.

The bandaged man in the cave walked in front, his shoulders moving slightly, as if he was laughing to himself at their idiotic conversation. He stopped and squatted in front of a small sand pile.

"Even by the standards of the Knights of Discipline, you're pretty optimistic," he said. "It looks like you'll live a long time."

"You know the Knight of Discipline?" Ji Huaisu was stunned. "You know my path?!"

The bandaged man pressed a few times in the sand, seemingly triggering some mechanism. The gravel beneath their feet suddenly sank, and a mechanism beneath the white sand activated, sending a massive amount of gravel plummeting into the hole. The bandaged man jumped down on his own. Chu Hengkong and Ji Huaisu exchanged a glance and followed suit.

"Honestly, I don't think it's a good idea to wander around with strangers. Have you ever considered my opinion?" Vander said listlessly.

They fell through the darkness, landing on a hillock of white sand. A few breaths later, a faint, cold blue light appeared, illuminating the steel structure beneath the ground. A group of strangely dressed men followed the light, and upon seeing the bandaged man, they were all delighted and excited: "Captain, is Qingxia back?"

"Wrong, there's a new person here!"

The bandaged man suddenly pointed his right arm forward and snapped his fingers with a force that could have punched through the ceiling. His subordinates quickly lined up on either side of the aisle, and one of them swung out a cape emblazoned with flames! The bandaged man grasped the cape with a fist-like motion, draping it around himself as he turned! His cape was as large as a king's coronation ceremonial vessel!

The bandaged man reached into his pocket… and pulled out a pair of sharp, dart-like red sunglasses! He pointed the tip of the sunglasses at the new trio, then slammed them firmly over his face! He wore them with such force that they seemed to have the power to destroy everything in sight! His cape fluttered violently in the windless air!

"Listen up, newbies!" the man shouted with a completely different tone from before. "This place was once the battlefield of the Heavenly Prison War, a hopeless situation where there was no hope of survival. We, the organization that forged hope in this despairing wilderness, are the brave men gathered here to uncover the truth of history!"

"The place you're standing on is called the Institute for Historical Truth. I am the leader of this organization and the commander-in-chief of the resistance forces in the Despair Wilderness." The man clenched his fist and punched the sky. "My name is Chongming!"

(feichangbaoqian, the scheduled update failed. I was reminded by my group friends and hurriedly reposted it, so I was five minutes late (awkward and emotionless mechanical prompt sound))

(End of this chapter)