Night of Despair

The endless golden color filled all of Yu Hong's vision.

He stood inside the Black Black Spirit, using his own holy power to support the entire safe house, preventing it from being swallowed and submerged by this mysterious golden seawater.

He did not know what use this golden seawater has, but there was no discomfort when his holy power and body came into contact with it.

This inexplicably made a trace of anticipation and hope rise in his heart.

'Could it be.... that this place, is the possible existence of....'

Suddenly, his thought in his heart came to an abrupt halt.

He looked forward, through the window, gazing at the boundless golden ocean outside.

He was stunned for a moment, standing motionless in the main control room, staring intently out of the window ahead.

Directly in front of him, amidst the large expanse of gold, floated irregular black stone slabs.

These stone slabs were densely packed, with an unknown quantity, at least over ten thousand. They drifted slowly like some kind of black impurity in the golden liquid.

Looking from a distance, Yu Hong saw that each of these stone slabs was inscribed with characters.

He controlled the Black Black Spirit to sail slowly forward, without decelerating. Soon, he gently bumped into the first black stone slab.

Thud.

A soft sound.

The outer wall of Black Black Spirit collided with the stone slab, and instantly, a surge of black and white holy power gushed from within the walls, precisely encasing the stone slab and pulling it in.

Standing in the main control room, Yu Hong reached out his hand, gently retracting the holy power, and grabbed the black stone slab encased within.

The stone slab was not large, only just over half a meter wide, shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners.

Yu Hong squeezed it and found the material of the stone slab to be very hard; even at his current state, he could not easily leave marks on it.

'Source material?' he speculated, believing only source material could exist intact in such a deep Source Disaster area.

Only source material could remain unscathed in his hands.

Picking up the stone slab, he looked closely at the inscriptions on it.

The writing on the stone slab was unlike any language he was familiar with.

Yu Hong pondered for a moment, then cast a language mastery spell that could capture pheromone information on the stone slab, but there was no response.

It seemed that no pheromones existed in the surroundings anymore.

He thought for a while longer, then reached back, and a translation earphone flew out from the basket of miscellaneous items into his hand.

Turning it on and aiming it at the scan, the earphones quickly found a similar corresponding script system from its stored language library.

'Detected similar language—Heavenly Venerate Universe Zamba language, initiating translation....'

The translation device indeed showed its effectiveness, beginning a forceful translation purely based on its data.

Upon confirming the translation began, Yu Hong felt somewhat relieved.

At least this meant that although the Great Annihilation had occurred outside, some matter had not been completely annihilated and melted.

Otherwise, the stored information within the translator, which was also the replication of all existence, would exhibit signs of disappearance.

Through past observations and analysis, he speculated that parts of vitality life might be disassembled first in annihilation, followed eventually by non-living entities.

After waiting for about half a minute, the translation earphone completed the content conversion.

A soft female electronic voice read from the earphones.

"Source Disaster.... is not an endless destruction... As long as the land of vitality exists, I found a place where there's no fear of Source Disaster's corrosion and ruin, no fear of the Great Annihilation's arrival, everything there is eternally present. I named it the land of vitality. Because there, it's always so vibrant."

"There are flowers, grass, many animals, many plants, and many ancient clans that hid there before the Great Annihilation. They've been breeding and thriving there for an unknown amount of time."

"I communicated with them and found they have never heard of the Great Annihilation or Source Disaster. There, everything is safe, but the only problem is that it's hard to leave after entering, and we outsiders have difficulty entering."

"I placed the method for entering the land of vitality deeper, on the border of the entrance and exit. To future explorers, if you are fortunate to read this message, you may attempt to go deeper into the Source Disaster to search. There.... perhaps you can find the last hope for life. Don't give up, don't be afraid, as long as we are alive, there is hope. —Wuji Heavenly Venerate Chen Shiji."

'Heavenly Venerate.... there are actually traces left by a Heavenly Venerate here....' Yu Hong was surprised.

'It seems the Star God King is somewhat weaker after all, as the Heavenly Venerate could reach here while the Star God Ji fell at a further point ahead.'

The message from the Heavenly Venerate only slightly surprised Yu Hong, but what really caught his attention was the information recorded about the land of vitality on the stone slab.

Some detailed information on it made his spirits lift.

Yu Hong reached out again, using holy power to retrieve a new stone slab.

After translation, he found the content on the stone slab identical to the previous one.

He then replaced over ten slabs consecutively, and the content on each was the same.

'Why.... why did Wuji Heavenly Venerate manufacture so many source material stone slabs to record this information?'

Having found the land of vitality, why did he not lead the sect of the Heavenly Venerate Universe to hide inside?

No...!

Suddenly, Yu Hong frowned.

'Did the sudden disappearance of all Heavenly Venerates happen because Wuji Heavenly Venerate led them into this place, the land of vitality?'

The more he thought, the more plausible it seemed.

Ever since everyone had annihilated and vanished, he felt intensely uncomfortable initially and had to replicate Yiyi using holy power to not forget and feel somewhat better.

He could guess he must have forgotten many things, but he couldn't preserve too much, only repeatedly replicating one, which was the trace of Yiyi.

'The land of vitality...' Yu Hong let go of the stone slab, allowing Black Black Spirit to navigate through countless stone slabs.

The golden sea did not obstruct him; instead, the slabs, due to their crowding, continuously blocked the safe house.

Yu Hong saw through the window that the inscriptions on these slabs all recorded the same content.

He continued to maneuver the Black Black Spirit forward.

Soon, a large number of slabs disappeared, leaving only a pure golden expanse.

Time continued to pass.

Day by day, week by week, Black Black Spirit moved continuously within the golden ocean.

Bang.

Suddenly, the entire vessel shuddered slightly and came to a stop.

Yu Hong quickly came out of his meditation, arriving at the window.

Outside the window, a massive, bloated white humanoid corpse was frozen by a half-transparent black crystal, floating in this golden ocean.

The recent collision of Black Black Spirit was with the external crystal of this corpse.

With a thought stirring in Yu Hong's heart, his holy power enveloped his entire body, and he suddenly flashed outside the Black Black Spirit, arriving in front of the corpse.

He reached out gently toward the corpse crystal.

Sss.

In an instant, cracks silently appeared on the entire corpse and crystal.

The cracks grew larger and more numerous, until they covered every inch of the corpse.

Whoosh!

Finally, the corpse and the crystal shattered completely.

Yu Hong initially thought that a large number of fragments would burst out, damaging the spaceship, and was ready to cover it with Holy Power to protect the hull.

But as soon as the fragments exploded, they didn't fly far before naturally disintegrating and vanishing.

At the same time, streams of long-preserved information quietly flowed into Yu Hong's mind.

A multitude of images, fragmented memories, sounds, and scents—like a chaotic jumble—rushed into Yu Hong's brain.

"Wuji Heavenly Venerate? Is there still hope? In the future...."

"Wuji Heavenly Venerate, everything is destined for annihilation. So am I, so are you..."

"Wuji, living in misery, dying without fear, don't be afraid...."

"Father, give up, this is our fate, the end of destiny...."

"Wuji..."

"Heavenly Venerate..."

"Your Eminence...."

"My lord....."

A multitude of different voices, faces, and scenes of ultimate annihilation.

Yu Hong saw many, many brief fragments from this hodgepodge of information.

The owner of the information was the corpse itself.

He had already forgotten who left these fragments, repeating them over and over but had long forgotten who their owner was.

In the golden ocean.

The snow-white skin of Wuji Heavenly Venerate walked quietly forward, advancing.

Till he reached the center of this golden ocean.

"There must be hope...."

He kept murmuring to himself.

"Everyone will be saved, I will definitely find a way... to save everyone....!!"

He hovered in the central area, still surrounded by gold, continuously searching and observing.

But found nothing.

This seemed to be the end of everything, the origin of the Source Disaster.

But....

He didn't know how long he searched until the gold began to gradually erode Wuji Heavenly Venerate's entire body, making him feel weak, powerless.

His whole body began to solidify into a kind of black translucent crystal.

He still found nothing, tried countless methods, but nothing worked.

He couldn't find the path forward nor the way back.

Finally, finally he fell to his knees, sinking into despair....

"Why...."

"Why did it come to this...."

"I am the strongest Heavenly Venerate, the hope of everything....! It shouldn't.... it shouldn't be like this...."

Gradually, the thoughts in his heart solidified, and he knelt there in the golden, completely still.

Yu Hong was like a third party, floating nearby, quietly watching him, observing him, and hearing his inner voice.

Just as he thought the Wuji Heavenly Venerate had completely ended, given up.

Crack.

The black crystal outside Wuji Heavenly Venerate's body slowly cracked and fell away.

"They.... everyone... is still waiting for... me..."

"I can't.... give up....!"

He struggled to support himself, slowly staggering to his feet.

He continued to fly in circles in the golden center, searching.

But there was nothing there...

Day after day, month after month, year after year....

His speed slowed, and his heart grew more desperate.

Yu Hong could hear him persuading himself countless times, that he would surely find hope, surely find a way, surely find the origin of the Source Disaster, find a place to avoid all disaster.

But alas....

He found nothing.

In the golden ocean, Wuji Heavenly Venerate finally stopped once more.

He sat down powerlessly, seemingly wanting to rest a little.

Suddenly, Yu Hong saw him stand up as if struck by lightning.

His eyes were wide open, staring at the empty space in front of him, as if seeing some new change.

"I found it... Haha... I found it...!!"

"It's there... a place without annihilation.... I saw it.... there, very safe...."

"So beautiful...."

"There's no need to worry about food or drink, no need to fear being forgotten, no need to fear Heart Disaster...."

"Those who enter there will not disappear, will not die... as long as they wish, everyone can keep living, forever...."

"There... holds infinite vitality, chaos will never arise...."

"That is a paradise of order.... it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen...."