Night of Despair

Pa-da.

Pa-da.

Pa-da.

In the vast spaceship's lower-level hall.

Yu Hong walked alone quietly, along the empty, silent metal hall, passing by fluctuating blue magic array walls.

No one was around, and there was no sound.

The spaceship flew quietly, and he walked on, head lowered silently.

"What's wrong? Why are you alone here?" Ku Chan's figure suddenly appeared from the teleportation array within the front wall.

Seeing Yu Hong alone there, his expression momentarily froze, and he softly asked.

"Just feeling a bit down, taking a walk here..." Yu Hong looked up at him, managing a forced smile.

"A walk huh, I'll accompany you." Ku Chan smiled. "How's the check-up? Is there any solution for the amnesia?"

He reined in his smile, approached, and softly asked.

Yu Hong slightly shook his head, continued moving forward silently, out of the array, toward the metal ladder going up a level.

Ku Chan followed closely, seemingly understanding the outcome, many things didn't need asking, one could see through a friend's demeanor.

"Actually, you don't need to feel pressured. For us to stay here this long, living peacefully, is already quite nice. You should know, this is a place even Heavenly Venerates haven't reached. It's the deepest part of the Source Disaster."

"Yeah, I know." Yu Hong nodded, "I just, sometimes might be deceiving myself. Thinking I can hold onto the imagined things, but reality tells me, it's all false."

Ku Chan opened his mouth, wanting to comfort, but found anything he said would be powerless.

In the end, he could only pat Yu Hong on the shoulder.

"Perhaps, just forgetting everything might be a blissful release."

"I'll research some more.... maybe I can find a better way." Yu Hong grabbed his wrist and gently released it, then turned around, a flash of purple light on him, disappearing suddenly.

Returning to the Black Black Spirit, Yu Hong instinctively reached for a small metal statue, but found it absent.

He vaguely remembered putting the statue into the drawer before leaving.

Whoosh.

Yu Hong pulled open the drawer sharply, but it was empty.

He paused, stood up, turned on the computer, opened the newly created document, but... the document was blank.

"I remember recording something...." Yu Hong gripped the mouse, but couldn't recall what was recorded.

He shut the computer, blankly sitting for a while, then sat cross-legged to seriously cultivate the cultivation method.

The only thing he could do now was quickly enhance his cultivation and then closely observe the forgetting process.

As long as he could detect the pattern of forgetfulness, everyone's pressure could be greatly reduced.

Time trickled away.

Soon, another year passed.

Inside the Aus Spaceship, in the banquet hall.

Everyone gathered again to celebrate the harvest of the new year's supplies, it was not just a ceremony but also an attempt to improve the monotonous life here.

Everyone joyfully toasted, drinking wine, eating snacks, steaks, and vegetables.

Yu Hong, Feng Xuezi, Fu Bai, and Ku Chan sat at the main table, no one spoke, but all ate in silence.

Yu Hong glanced at the extra empty seat beside Yiyi, it seemed like someone's place, but no one remembered. His memory was somewhat fuzzy as well.

"The number of people with amnesia has risen to over sixty, we've tried various methods, including surgical sampling research, but cannot find the forgotten parts within the memory range." Fu Bai softly said.

"More troubling, some mages are starting to forget their instincts..." Feng Xuezi said, his expression grim. "Forgetting how to eat, how to drink, how to rest, even how to open and close their eyes, and breathe."

"How do we deal with this?" Ku Chan asked solemnly.

"We plan to prepare some recording crystal stones to store things we find important, then set up arrays for protection...." Fu Bai proposed.

Yu Hong listened to these familiar words, lowered his head, and said nothing.

The discussion quickly concluded, everyone tried various means to preserve their memory.

But....

Two years later.

Another annual harvest festival celebration day.

Inside the Aus Spaceship, more than twenty mages wandered with drinks in hand, faces beaming with steady smiles.

Yu Hong, Feng Xuezi, Fu Bai, and Ku Chan sat at their spots.

"How long have we been traveling here now?" Yu Hong asked.

"I don't know, it feels like a very, very long time." Ku Chan replied.

"What about White Dragon? Went to rest?" Yu Hong glanced at the empty spot beside him, feeling a hint of unease.

"White Dragon? What's that?" Ku Chan asked, puzzled.

It wasn't just him; Feng Xuezi and Fu Bai also frowned at Yu Hong. Clearly, they too lacked any memory of White Dragon.

Yu Hong looked at their expressions, then at the sparse group of over forty mages nearby, and said nothing more.

"The number of those with amnesia has risen again, we've tried various methods, including surgical sampling research, but cannot find the forgotten parts within the memory range." Feng Xuezi said.

"So.... we decided to seek some tangible things to help ourselves remember the forgotten things." He said sternly.

"Agreed." Fu Bai nodded.

"I agree too." Ku Chan raised his hand.

When it came to Yu Hong, he was in a daze.

"Zheng Rou? Zheng Rou?" Fu Bai called twice, pulling Yu Hong back from his distraction.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Feng Xuezi asked in a serious tone.

"No....." Yu Hong softly replied, "I have no suggestions."

He watched Feng Xuezi continue repeating the content he had heard before, everything in front of him seemed like a recurring movie, the suffocation in his heart growing ever more intense.

"You all continue chatting, I'm a bit tired, I'll go rest first."

At last, he couldn't hold back, pushed the chair away, stood up, and left.

Leaving Feng Xuezi and the other two looking bewilderedly at his back.

"Alright then, it seems Zheng Rou must be really tired, let's continue and let him have a good rest." Fu Bai's voice came from behind.

Yu Hong didn't stop, instead, he quickened his pace...

Returning to the Black Black Spirit, he lay back on the ground, looking at the ceiling glowing with the array's golden light, a discomfort suddenly surged in his heart like never before.

He had tried everything. Including using his own Holy Power to protect a few mages for a whole year.

But it was of no use.

Among the mages he protected, there were still five who forgot their casting abilities, forgot how to walk, forgot how to think, turning into living dead who could only lie on beds.

'Little White Dragon is gone, who's next? Ku Chan? Martial Uncle? Or Senior Fu Bai?'

He closed his eyes, trying hard not to think about the impending forgetfulness.

'Perhaps, it wasn't that they disappeared, but that we have forgotten about them, so there's no trace of them to be seen... They're not dead, still here, still alive...'

Yu Hong thought so in his heart, and immediately felt a bit more motivated.

He sat up again, mustering the rest of his strength, and continued to cultivate.

If even he doesn't continue to strive and move forward, who else can bring hope to everyone?

With this thought in mind, Yu Hong suppressed the emotions in his heart and concentrated on his cultivation.

Months later....

Inside the Aus Spaceship.

In the Main Control Room, around the round meeting table, Fu Bai, Feng Xuezi, Yu Hong, Ku Chan, and Yiyi gathered once again.

"The number of people with the forgetting syndrome has risen to more than a dozen. We've tried various methods, including surgical sampling research, but we still can't find the forgotten parts in the memory section..." Feng Xuezi's voice echoed once again.

Yu Hong quietly sat in his place, trying hard to remember each person present in his mind.

"As for the inspection aspects, it needs the dean's approval before proceeding, Ku Chan, you take care of that, is that okay?" Feng Xuezi looked at Ku Chan and asked.

"No problem, the dean was my former lecturer, we're quite close." Ku Chan nodded.

"The dean? Wasn't it Mage Liu Chixuan?" Yu Hong suddenly said.

"Liu Chixuan? That name sounds familiar..." Ku Chan paused. "Of course not, it's Mage Phil."

"Is that so?" Yu Hong didn't say more, seeing Feng Xuezi and Fu Bai both nodding in agreement, and even began to look at him with a kind of concealed worried gaze.

Once again, he couldn't hold back, got up instantly.

"I'm a bit tired, going to rest...."

Without waiting for others to respond, he turned and left quickly.

Returning to the Black Black Spirit, he sat by the window, gazing at the dark and boundless unknown outside.

Just sitting immobile like that, for a long time.

The wall clock slowly ticking, moving from five to ten twenty.

Hiss.

A blue light screen abruptly appeared floating behind Yu Hong in mid-air.

"Zheng Rou, the phenomena of forgetting is getting more severe, let's have a small meeting." Feng Xuezi's solemn face appeared in it.

Yu Hong turned his head, looking at the light screen.

"Martial Uncle, did you forget? We had a small meeting just a few hours ago."

"No, did we?" Feng Xuezi frowned, "I just noticed the situation and wanted to discuss countermeasures with someone."

"It's true...." Yu Hong calmly said, "I, you, Senior Fu Bai, Ku Chan, Yiyi, were all there."

"Wait, hold on." Feng Xuezi slightly squinted, "Who's Ku Chan?"

Yu Hong was stunned, looking at his Martial Uncle's genuinely puzzled expression, his pupils slowly contracted....

Swipe.

He instantly stood up from the ground, transformed into a silver serpent shadow, and suddenly dashed out of the Black Black Spirit, crossing a short distance, entering the interior of the Aus Spaceship.

The spaceship was empty, with only Feng Xuezi and the others sitting cross-legged on the ground in the hall.

Feng Xuezi, Fu Bai, Yiyi were all there, seemingly waiting for him.

"You're here? Sit first, I'll organize the situation. Inside the spaceship, the mages from Aus Academy exhibited collective amnesia, we received a notice and also checked it out...." Feng Xuezi said in a solemn voice.

"Wait! Ku Chan, Ku Chan is also an academy mage, where is he!?" Yu Hong landed and shouted.

No one responded.

Everyone just watched him with eyes filled with worry.

"I... don't remember anyone named Ku Chan in the academy..." Fu Bai said in a low voice, "Zheng Rou, did you remember wrong?"

.....

Yu Hong looked at Feng Xuezi's hesitant expression, looked at Yiyi's face full of concern, and looked at Fu Bai quietly making the hand sign of the Will Identification Technique.

An inexplicable powerlessness welled up inside him.

"I... we... really have no way?" His lips trembled.

Silence.

After several minutes, Feng Xuezi finally spoke softly with concern.

"Zheng Rou, you must be too tired with too much stress on you. Why don't you go and rest well?"

Yu Hong looked at the eyes of the three, knowing that whatever he said would be useless, he turned around, slowly transformed into a snake shadow, and flew towards the spaceship wall.

"Yu Hong!" Suddenly a loud shout came from behind.

Yu Hong turned back in mid-air and saw it was Yiyi.

She stood up, shouting in this direction.

"I believe you."