Night of Despair

The countdown is still running, which slightly reassures Yu Hong.

He sits cross-legged again, trying to calm his mind as much as possible. He enters a state of heightened awareness of his surroundings and himself, ready to detect any imminent crisis.

Time ticks away, second after second...

Suddenly, Yu Hong opens his eyes, sensing something amiss.

He scans his surroundings with his divine sense, but everything is as it was. No anomalies found.

Having found nothing, he closes his eyes again, silently concentrating on his surroundings.

After a while, the unsettling feeling in Yu Hong's heart surfaces once more.

This time, he can't ignore it. His current trait is the Ancient Wanderer, representing a high positional level. Such a level wouldn't produce this uneasy feeling for no reason.

Thud.

It is then that Yu Hong suddenly notices a problem!

In his safe house, a container in the corner holding high-energy processed meat cans is missing one can, just in that instant!

The disappearance is extremely covert, silent, without any fluctuations, not disturbing the array inside or outside the safe house.

It's like a film frame that cuts out suddenly, abrupt yet logical.

The people in the film wouldn't notice it no matter what.

Yu Hong gazes at the metal basket where the canned meat was stored, but the memory of the missing can starts fading quickly, disappearing, forgotten.

This weird memory loss sends a chill down his spine.

'Despite my high temporal resistance, I am still affected by such a terrifying and inexplicable impact...!??'

Before he regains his thoughts.

Thud!

A metal reclining chair in the corner of the safe house abruptly disappears.

It's as if it never existed, removing not just the chair but also the traces it left behind, instantly vanishing in a chain reaction.

Following that, items in the room start disappearing one by one, suddenly and unpredictably.

Whenever something vanishes, Yu Hong's eyes clear for a moment, but quickly all memory of the missing item fades within two seconds.

He struggles between clarity and forgetfulness. As time passes, the number of items in the room dwindles.

Thud.

Suddenly, Yu Hong's left leg disappears.

No blood flows out, as though his entire left leg never grew, smooth skin from the root of the thigh.

His eyes tremble for a moment, but in the next second, he forgets about it and calmly continues monitoring his surroundings.

As time moves on, the room's contents continue to decrease.

After a while.

Thud!

Yu Hong's left arm suddenly vanishes.

His hands, previously forming a spell, sense the anomaly and he falls into reverie.

But oddly, the memory quickly dissipates by itself, restoring his previous calm expression.

Single-handedly, he starts forming new seals.

Time continues to flow.

Thud.

The communicator on the desk instantly disappears.

At that moment, Yu Hong's eyes sharply clear.

He abruptly tries to stand up, horrified to discover he's left with only one leg and one hand.

"I...."

Thud.

Next moment, his memory of the communicator, Water Instrument Ball, swiftly fades away. This time, the memories attached to the object seem too plentiful, making the disappearance last longer and startling Yu Hong awake.

"I can't let this continue!!" He realizes that without taking action, he will certainly perish!

The problem now is whether to advance or to retreat immediately...!

Thoughts rapidly flash in his mind, and Yu Hong makes his decision.

Take a gamble!

He has no choice.

Retreat will plunge him into the Great Annihilation, where he will surely die given his current state.

Rather than that, he might as well bet on that, take a gamble!

However, just as he makes his decision, his determined gaze fades quickly amidst the vanishing memories.

"Wait, what was I just thinking of doing??" Yu Hong sits cross-legged, eyes full of confusion.

Thud.

His other leg also vanishes instantly.

His legs are completely smooth, without any severance, turning into fleshy stumps.

A fleeting struggle in Yu Hong's eyes disappears the next second, as his memory fades and he returns to calm, eyes confused.

The contents inside the Black Black Spirit grew fewer and fewer. Yu Hong couldn't even perceive the inanimate objects within; he just sat there quietly, unmoving.

Until...

Poof!

Yu Hong's right arm vanished into thin air in an instant.

Crack!

At that very moment.

The entire safe house froze.

Like a movie paused, Yu Hong, the safe house, the mysterious white light outside the window, everything came to a complete standstill at that instant.

Hiss...

In merely a few breaths, Yu Hong began to move again.

His right arm, which should have disappeared, forcibly started to reappear.

The surface of the arm was covered with black lines, numerous traces constantly emerging from the Black Mark on his hand.

After several breaths, Yu Hong's entire right arm was fully restored, reconnected to the severed part, as if nothing had happened.

At the same time, his racial talent activated instantaneously.

Yu Hong's eyes cleared up, lifting his right hand and looking at the black lines emerging from the Black Mark, with a complex expression in his eyes.

'So, this is the Invisible Belt of the Source Disaster....'

Only then did he take the time to check the feedback from his Black Mark.

'Warning: You have entered the Invisible Belt.'

'Warning: The small region of space-time you are in is about to collapse. Your racial talent has been activated, escape initiated. You have thirty seconds to choose whether to temporarily leave the current dimension—yes or no?'

He could feel an inexplicable force field within his body, spreading around, forcibly halting the powerful yet invisible terrifying force outside.

Immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

'Yes!'

Facing certain death, if he didn't flee now, there probably wouldn't be another chance...

As soon as the thought moved, Yu Hong suddenly felt his entire body start to twist and elongate like clay, quickly stretching outward.

His head seemed to turn into some invisible object, penetrating through the Black Black Spirit, flying out of the safe house wall, into the large expanse of white light outside.

It was then that he saw, amidst the seemingly empty expanse of white light, countless thin streams of dark purple water flowing down from the sky.

The sources of these streams were black circular holes of various sizes, floating in mid-air.

Strangely, these streams of dark purple water would vanish into thin air after falling a short distance.

"There's actually someone who dares to come here...."

Suddenly, a calming, low voice sounded near Yu Hong's ear.

Yu Hong looked down; the voice seemed to be coming from beneath him.

The pure white light below sparkled brightly.

A massive, milky white creature reminiscent of a giant maggot, with numerous green eyes blinking and watching, was down there.

The creature, over a hundred meters long, was much larger than Yu Hong, covered in folds, with a rotund, robust body, and dozens of pairs of milky white legs on its abdomen.

It looked like a cross between a maggot and a centipede, but with an extra set of eyes.

"You are...?" Yu Hong conveyed through divine sense; he was beginning to get used to this way of direct consciousness communication.

"I am Tu Sang, once known to many as All Saints Venerable," the massive worm gently replied.

"All Saints Venerable!? Could it be that none of you died, and none of you disappeared, but were trapped here all along?" Yu Hong's heart trembled, and he asked emotionally.

"No...." All Saints Venerable shook his head, his numerous eyes narrowing slightly. "I have long died, this is merely a sliver of my consciousness revived."

He sighed.

"When we entered the Invisible Belt, we attempted to completely seal the Source Disasters, but unfortunately... we underestimated the essence of Source Disasters. Unlike any other danger zones before, the Invisible Belt is extremely perilous. It doesn't matter what level your race is, how many there are, or the energy level; if you haven't transcended to a higher dimension, you won't even see the source of the danger."

"Senior... Even you say so, is there truly no chance to find a glimmer of hope against the Source Disaster?" Yu Hong asked, his heart sinking.

"Perhaps there is, but we couldn't do it," All Saints Venerable shook his head. "We named this place the 'Layer of Transforming Something into Nothing,' which is the complete opposite of our 'Creating Something out of Nothing' as Venerates. However, our 'Creating Something out of Nothing' has limitations, while this place has none."

"What do you mean? Venerates can't act freely?" Yu Hong frowned.

"Yes, the power of a Heavenly Venerate is everlasting. If we act excessively, the entire existence will be destroyed, consumed by the Venerates' power. Hence, in the laws of everything, once we ascend to become Venerates, our actions are limited. The power we leave outside can't exceed nine places," All Saints Venerable explained.

"So, the higher the realm, the greater the restrictions!?" Yu Hong said solemnly.

"Yes, that's why we couldn't focus on anything else and left all our power for the Source Disasters. But still... we failed... As Venerates, we are immortal, our time and space constant. We thought no force could theoretically kill us. But unfortunately...." All Saints Venerable paused.

"The power in the Invisible Belt erased our existence directly from a higher dimension. Wiped out every trace of our existence from time, hindering any chances of resurrection from past timelines...."

At this point, All Saints Venerable looked at the astonished Yu Hong, revealing a slight smile.

"I had long perished, but unexpectedly, one of my eyes appeared on you. Thus, my traces were reconstructed, my time revived.... So, even I don't know why, but I naturally resurrected here...."

"In a sense, you revived me," All Saints Venerable said softly.

Revival....

Yu Hong then realized the massive chain reaction brought by the Black Mark.

Just reviving an eye led to the resurrection of its owner, All Saints Venerable.

If a Venerate can be revived, what about the Ancient Wanderers?

And the other powerful beings involved before?