Night of Despair

The vast and boundless Great Annihilation black fog slowly erodes, entering the Invisible Belt.

Not only that, the wall of black and white threads of Wind Disaster also enters the Invisible Belt from another place at the same time.

The Great Annihilation of other Source Disasters similarly enters at this moment.

The volume of the Invisible Belt is shrinking rapidly, being submerged.

The invisible calamities within surge and are assimilated by the entering Great Annihilation, transforming into invisible disasters with different Source Disaster attributes.

In the white light at the central area.

Black Black Spirit is pulling the spaceship, accelerating towards the unknown central region.

Silently.

Suddenly, an invisible, sharp blade-like thing brushes past the side of Black Black Spirit.

The terrifying invisible blade instantly cuts a deep mark on the surface of Black Black Spirit.

In the next second.

Silently, silently, silently, silently!!

In an instant, countless dense invisible blades appear around Black Black Spirit.

Deep knife marks continuously appear on the surface of Black Black Spirit, then are swiftly patched up by Yu Hong with mana.

Yu Hong's expression is solemn as he enters an observational state, but the original particles show no ripple of change, clearly indicating that the blade damage is not caused by original particles.

'Is this yet another new natural disaster?'

He deeply understands now that the invisible natural disaster is not just one kind, but rather many disasters mixed together, and even Heavenly Venerate is reluctant to venture into this region lightly. Hence, corpses remain in the outer layer of the Heartless Belt.

And All Saints Venerable, he might not even be of Human Clan, perhaps he has some special talents, otherwise, he could not have survived here for so long. Although, the initial cause was indeed his own revival of its eyeball, leading to its resurrection.

Yu Hong senses the Black Black Spirit, which has already been reinforced by the All Saints Venerable, constantly being cut into with countless knife marks by the invisible natural disaster. His face is grave, and his divine sense is tightly focused ahead.

At this moment, he is allowing Black Black Spirit to move freely, with mana and the engine only aiding in acceleration.

Inside the Aus Spaceship at the back, everyone has gathered in the central area. The outer ship body is also being cut and shattered, disappearing with countless knife marks.

Ultimately, only a small area sealed by Heavenly Venerate, where Feng Xuezi is, remains.

All mages gather within this area to avoid the inexplicably appearing invisible knife marks outside.

Feng Xuezi, Floating White, Ku Chan, Yiyi, everyone's eyes are fixed intently on Black Black Spirit leading the way ahead.

Time ticks by, perhaps an hour, or maybe a day.

Poof.

Suddenly.

The entire Black Black Spirit shudders and disappears within the Invisible Belt.

Immediately after, a huge pulling force also drags the Aus Spaceship, causing it to disappear instantly.

*

*

*

Woo...

Woo....

The faint alarm noise echoes drowsily beside Yu Hong's ear.

Before him is darkness, he tries hard to open his eyes, wanting to expand his divine sense, to perceive the surroundings, but he can do nothing.

The wooing alarm sound continues to sound in his ears, he feels as if he's lying on the floor of Black Black Spirit, the cold, hard ground faintly allowing him to sense the flow of energy within the arrays.

He doesn't know how much time has passed.

Yu Hong feels his strength gradually returning, he finally manages to open his eyes barely.

In the empty Black Black Spirit, he slowly climbs up, shakes his head, and looks around.

In the white hall, many miscellaneous items are toppled over on the ground, some arrays have failed while others are still running, divided into segments.

The Black Black Spirit seems to have completely stopped.

"Cough cough cough..." Yu Hong coughs several times with effort, feeling his throat more comfortable, and slowly steps to the window, looking outside.

Outside, it has become pitch black, only the light from within Black Black Spirit reflects his appearance on the window.

'Seems like we've left the Invisible Belt.... Where is this?' A question flashes through his mind.

Agrius' map doesn't mark what this place is.

Essentially, Agrius is just an ordinary Star God, though it has lived a long time; knowing the Invisible Belt alone is already quite remarkable. Beyond that, it's a land of the unknown.

Yu Hong looks at the pitch black outside. For some reason, there's a sense of oppressive unease in his heart.

He sits cross-legged, tries to release his divine sense, but it simply cannot extend outside his body, even though the vast mana within is present, it just can't flow outward.

Helplessly, he stands up again and looks back through the window.

Thankfully, the Aus Spaceship can still be seen at the back.

The spaceship has been shaved down to just a small black sphere.

The outer layer has been rewrapped with a simple black metal layer.

Vaguely visible, shadows moving within the open windows on the metal surface, seemingly busy with something.

Seemingly seeing him, Ku Chan's face suddenly appears at the window, shouting excitedly and waving this way, but no sound reaches him.

Yu Hong waves back, gesturing that he is fine, safe, no need to worry.

Ku Chan also signs back, indicating everyone on his side is fine, no problems.

'Light energy transmission indicates it's not too bad here.' Yu Hong thinks.

Being able to see indicates light energy is being transmitted back and forth, but he doesn't understand why light energy transmits but mana can't flow outside his body.

Sitting cross-legged, Yu Hong begins cultivating the Qingyuan Heavenly River Holy Technique.

After several breaths, everything within him calms, and he's in good condition. He stands up again, observing the outside through the window.

It's pitch black outside, nothing there, nothing to see.

Occasionally, he could feel the Black Black Spirit seemingly collide with something, forcibly squeezing through before continuing forward.

Yu Hong activated his Dimension Jump talent, and a red oval Light Gate suddenly appeared before him, but the dimensional selection light screen from before was gone.

He walked up to the Light Gate and stepped in.

Hiss....

Before his eyes, there was a sudden flash, and Yu Hong was slightly blinded by the unexpected intense light.

He stopped at the Light Gate's entrance, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the overwhelming white light before slowly opening them wide to survey the environment post-dimension jump.

Unlike the Black Black Spirit before the jump, behind the Light Gate was a hall illuminated by white light.

Everything appeared somewhat blurred and semi-transparent.

The floor, walls, tables, chairs, beds, piles of various items, instruments, tools, and even the arrays, magic treasures, and artifacts he had set up seemed faintly transparent.

Yu Hong walked to the window and looked out.

The Aus Spaceship behind them had disappeared, replaced by a massive whale, entirely dark red and covered in rotten tumors.

The whale tiredly swung its tail, following the Black Black Spirit's advance.

Yu Hong frowned slightly.

From the whale's patterns, he vaguely noticed a similarity with the texture on the surface of the Red Sky Fruit.

He pondered for a moment, then looked away and moved to the ship's front, peering ahead through the circular window.

Outside the window, layer upon layer of bright white mist continually dispersed as the Black Black Spirit pushed through.

There was nothing to be seen ahead; it seemed as if the Black Black Spirit was navigating an endless sea of white mist with no end in sight.

Yu Hong stood before the window, silently waiting to confirm that there was no imminent danger before returning through the Dimension Jump Light Gate to his pre-jump state.

He began attempting to reweave the Communication Spell using his mana.

After a period of testing, he discovered that it wasn't that spells or mana couldn't be used here, but rather, the mana was severely suppressed.

A normal Communication Spell which would typically require 1 unit of mana now needed at least ten thousand to achieve a similar effect.

After tinkering for a while, fortunately, even at ten thousand mana, Yu Hong's realm cultivation was sufficient to support normal communication.

Soon, the new Communication Spell reconnected to the Aus Spaceship behind.

As a mass of deep blue light condensed in mid-air, Feng Xuezi's aged face appeared within the light screen.

"Finally connected!" Feng Xuezi exclaimed with delight when seeing Yu Hong from the other side.

"Master Uncle! Do you know where this is?" Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief and, relaxing a bit, asked.

"I once saw records left by the Heavenly Venerate saying that beyond the Invisible Belt, no one who entered ever came out again, so there are no records left," Feng Xuezi shook his head.

"Not even the Heavenly Venerate?"

"Indeed, the Heavenly Venerate was preoccupied with resisting the Source Disaster encroachment and had no time to explore further," Feng Xuezi replied.

"However, compared to the Invisible Belt, it's much quieter here; perhaps we can hide here for a while..." Yu Hong said solemnly.

What he needed most now was time, waiting for the Black Mark enhancements to complete so he could continuously improve.

"Let's hope so," Feng Xuezi sighed.

"By the way, Master Uncle, the things of Quan He on your side, are they still there?" Yu Hong suddenly remembered and asked.

"Quan He? What Quan He?" Feng Xuezi asked, puzzled.

"...." Yu Hong opened his mouth, wanting to say something more but eventually fell silent.

"You don't look well, your face is pale, better take the chance to rest," Feng Xuezi smiled.

"Yes, Master Uncle, you should rest too," Yu Hong nodded, closing the communication.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he reached out to touch the Crane-shaped Jade Pendant always worn at his waist, only to find it missing.

Pausing, Yu Hong retracted his hand, placing it on his knee.

In silence, he closed his eyes again, beginning mass-energy conversion into vitality, then absorbing it, cultivating.

Cultivation knows no age, as the wall clock's hands spun, round after round.

The Black Black Spirit and the spaceship flew through the darkness for over a week in the blink of an eye.

No danger, no monsters, no natural disasters, only vast emptiness, tranquility.

Outside the window, it was always pitch-black, nothing could be seen.

Yu Hong once ventured out to explore but found nothing.

He could only hop through dimensions daily, entering another pure white space, trying to find clues.

Bit by bit, Holy Power began to transform inside him, the previously immense mana, Mahayana cultivation, fully converted in a week into a unique Holy Power, pure white mixed with many black sand grains.

The total Holy Power was very little, barely enough to fill one of Yu Hong's right eyes.

To always be ready for potential dangers, he kept all the Holy Power concentrated in his right eye, ensuring he could unleash powerful destructive force against threats at any moment.

This Holy Power, this time, gave him a completely different feeling from the previous mana, its texture vaguely giving Yu Hong a feeling akin to facing the Heavenly Venerate's relics.

Time flowed on again.

Despite being ever-prepared, no enemies appeared.

The Black Black Spirit and the Aus Spaceship continued sailing in endless darkness, without danger, nor encountering any objects, only emptiness.

Everything seemed to return to the tranquil life of the Floating City in years past.

The mages forgot their disappeared companions, once again indulging in a life of dissipation.

Time continued to flow.

Yu Hong persisted in arduous cultivation, converting the ship's materials into vitality.

Occasionally, he would return to visit Ku Chan and Yiyi, with Yiyi accompanied by her mother, who, despite a beast-like confused consciousness, had become much brighter than before. Ku Chan, seeing hope for his family's resurrection, was more motivated in cultivation.

But no one remembered Quan He anymore, nor the many vanished mages from before.

Only Feng Xuezi and the Floating White Golden Immortal maintained basic vigilance.

Yu Hong silently returned to the Black Black Spirit, gradually feeling less inclined to go back to the Aus Spaceship.