Night of Despair

Glug... glug...

The noise, akin to the sound of water, echoed around Yu Hong.

He stood quietly within the Black Black Spirit, looking out through the circular window.

Outside was a vast gray-white expanse.

In the instant they entered the vortex's core, the previous golden hue vanished, replaced by a pure gray-white resembling mist.

Within that gray-white, faint glimmers of light illuminated everything.

He could feel that the ship was still sailing forward, yet he couldn't sense any change in speed or movement.

"This should be the true core... Wuji Heavenly Venerate wasn't lying; he indeed saw it."

Yu Hong's expression was calm, maintaining intense vigilance in his heart.

While the golden ocean was relatively safe, he hadn't forgotten the terrifying dangers encountered in the Forgotten Belt.

Compared to the bizarre calamities before the Source Disaster, the troubles in the core area were even more unpredictable.

Time passed little by little, outside there was nothing, unchanging white, as if permanently frozen outside the window.

Yu Hong simply sat cross-legged, quietly experiencing his new positional capabilities, while only allocating a slight attention to the outside.

Day by day, month by month, year by year.

Time flowed ceaselessly, the outside remained engulfed in gray-white, seemingly without any change.

Yet Yu Hong subtly sensed something amiss.

This apparent calm, hidden beneath, seemed to make his heart inexplicably uneasy.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he gazed out the window, still finding nothing.

Thus, he closed his eyes.

Once more opened them.

In an instant, he had entered the state of observing other dimensions.

Inside Black Black Spirit, within the Main Control Room, an elliptical red Light Gate hovered to Yu Hong's right, within which countless streams of red light intertwined and rotated.

Yu Hong stood up, walked to the front of the Light Gate, not entering, but merely stretched out his hand to gently touch, feeling the changes within.

Contraction.

This was the only information he perceived.

Everything behind the Light Gate was contracting.

After a little contemplation, he retracted his hand and took a firm step forward, entering.

Whoosh.

Inside the Light Gate, everything remained just like the inside of Black Black Spirit, with no change whatsoever, as if he had never entered the Light Gate, never crossed dimensions.

But...

Yu Hong discovered the source of the problem.

'The countdown... has stopped...'

He gently covered his right eye, gazing around, through the countdown change visible on the Outer Eye, he had already noticed something amiss.

The moment they entered here, the countdown had halted all motion. Time was stuck at the moment before entering here.

Yu Hong slowly walked around the room, carefully observing, and he discovered another new issue.

Not only had the countdown stopped, but even the flow of the Array ceased.

Everything appeared as a solidified still picture.

Yu Hong picked up a water cup.

A pure white lacquered metal cup, with a semi-circular ear handle on one side. On the side was a cute pink little pig.

But this cute cup, in his eyes, seemed to carry many overlapping shadows.

As if countless cups were stack on each other, light and shadow overlapped, creating a dizzying illusion.

Putting down the cup, Yu Hong once again observed the other objects carefully, finding them the same way, all with numerous overlapping phantom images.

For a moment, he couldn't discern any differences, so he exited the Light Gate once more, returning to normal reality to rest.

Thus, for five consecutive days, he continuously entered and exited this environment with overlapping phantom images.

Vaguely, he seemed to pinpoint the issue.

"The time here, has completely stopped... no... it's not merely stopped, it's more like, disappeared..."

Yu Hong's expression was grave.

Initially, he didn't notice the problem, but the changes in the countdown each time he entered and exited gradually led him to the clue.

What would objects become without time?

Yu Hong had imagined it before, but at this moment, he stood within the Black Black Spirit, right within this space after entering the Light Gate.

He reached out and picked up the white metal cup he had examined earlier.

Gently pulled.

Both hands pinched the cup's sides, pulling it apart.

Swish.

In an instant, the cup split open, suddenly drawn into a structure resembling an accordion.

The white cup instantly turned into a white towel-like long strip comprised of countless overlapping cups glued together.

Yu Hong released his hands, placing it on the ground, then casually extracted a cup from this towel composed of cups.

The cup in hand faintly appeared old, much more worn than the original one.

Upon releasing it, the cup in his hand immediately flew back to its original place, merging into the white towel.

Yu Hong reached out again, extracting the last cup from the end of the white towel.

The cup in hand was entirely yellowed, most of the white paint had come off, exposing mottled yellow-brown rust patches inside.

The whole cup was already at the brink of collapse, with no possibility of repair.

'The past and future of the cup?' Yu Hong vaguely began to understand.

He looked at the cup at the far end of the white towel, which was pristine and brand new, showing no signs of use.

That undoubtedly represented the cup's original, nascent state.

Setting the cup down, he went to look at other things.

Books, a radio, a pillow, a pen, a computer—everything, like the cup, could be pulled apart at both ends, turning into long towels.

The towel was composed of the object's beginning and end, forming the head and tail.

One side represents life, the other death.

The entirety of an object's existence was laid out here like palm lines, crystal clear.

Upon discovering this change, Yu Hong was initially intrigued, observing the transformations of various objects, but as real time passed, he started to sense something amiss.

As a being above a Heavenly Venerate, with an Origin Body, he should have infinite energy, not needing rest, able to create out of nothing and replenish his spirit at will.

But... in this white mist, he gradually started feeling tired.

Initially, he was only a bit tired.

Then, as over a year passed, this slight fatigue gradually deepened, accompanied by faint drowsiness.

When drowsiness appeared, it grew heavier and deeper.

"Something's wrong!"

Within the Black Black Spirit, Yu Hong sat cross-legged, calmly gathering divine sense to replenish his spirit.

He only needed to imagine, and he could freely conjure anything.

This was the power of a Heavenly Venerate, creating from the void. Though in reality, Heavenly Venerates needed Original Particles to create objects, his current Origin Body required no Original Particles, directly manifesting whatever he desired.

There were no unusual phenomena; everything just naturally appeared from nothing, as if rightfully so.

Yet, despite this, the drowsiness continued to deepen rapidly, requiring more and more effort from Yu Hong to combat it.

Gradually, his consciousness finally began to blur.

Sitting cross-legged indoors, to avoid any mishaps, he concentrated all his remaining consciousness on the countdown of the Black Mark.

At this time, only the countdown of the Black Mark in reality continued to change and lapse.

Finally....

Yu Hong gradually fell asleep in the room.

He sat cross-legged on the floor, facing the circular window, eyes slightly narrowed as if gazing at the scenery beyond.

But his consciousness had completely succumbed to slumber.

Years passed by, and the countdown of the Black Mark resolutely and steadily ticked down.

Yu Hong's body also began to show faint, blurry shadow layers.

Not just him, but other objects in reality similarly began to exhibit overlapping afterimages.

In the blink of an eye, several decades passed.

The Black Black Spirit continued its inertial forward motion, but it had long lost its drive, as even the energy particles within the Energy Furnace had entered a state of dormancy.

Just as the Black Black Spirit's speed dwindled, as if impeded by something, it began to decelerate, gradually nearing a halt.

Finally....

Hiss.

The Black Mark on the back of Yu Hong's hand suddenly flashed a streak of black light, along with which his entire being was illuminated briefly by a black glow.

The next moment.

The red countdown on the surface of the Outer Eye automatically shifted and disappeared.

The Outer Eye flashed, blurred, vanished for an instant, and then, in the next second, transmitted a clear message.

'Outer Eye: Also known as the Eyes of Origin and End, evolved from the Eye of Origin. It can see the origin and end of all things.'

'By obtaining the Eyes of Origin and End, you automatically gain the Original Object Body.'

'Original Object Body (You are the origin of all projected reflections, perpetually singular, eternally immortal. Immune to damage below the Origin Level, 72% reduction of Origin Level damage, only Original Object Level damage can affect your body, reduced by 50% damage.)'

'By obtaining the Eyes of Origin and End, you automatically gain the Original Object Position.'

'Original Object Position (All things are projections and reflections of the Original Object, allowing you to easily discern the essence of any dimension below the Original Object. You can slightly influence and manipulate them. You can freely condense existing objects below the Original Object Level in any dimension.)'

'By obtaining the Eyes of Origin and End, your Space-Time Manipulation evolves into Space-Time Instinct.'

'Space-Time Instinct (The energy consumption for manipulating space-time reduces to one-third of the original.)'

"..." The strengthening of the Black Mark concluded, compelling the slumbering Yu Hong to slowly open his eyes.

His body quivered, and just having awakened, he felt intense pain erupting from within, spreading throughout his entire body.

Hiss.

A dark golden pupil with a black sclera abruptly cracked open on his forehead.

The emergence of this pupil seemed to signal something.

Immediately.

Hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss!!!

In an instant, densely packed, Yu Hong's entire body, along with his hands, arms, and fingers, all split open with black base, dark golden pupils of varying sizes.

In just half a minute, thousands of black base, dark golden pupils appeared all over his body.

It wasn't until over half an hour later that this pain gradually dissipated.

And by now, Yu Hong had completely transformed into a bizarre human figure covered with numerous eyes.

From a distance, he resembled a monster crafted from countless black base, dark golden pupils.

"Phew...." Yu Hong exhaled deeply and stood up.

He opened his mouth, reaching in to feel the inside of his mouth, even the inner lining was dotted with tiny eye-like vesicles.

"This appearance is too ugly...."

A thought crossed his mind, and a new layer of skin naturally formed on the surface of his body, covering the current appearance, restoring everything to its former look.

Except now, his eyes, his pupils had transformed into a black base, dark golden hue. Everything else seemed unchanged.

"I'll put off fortifying the Outer Eye for now; first, I need to determine where exactly this place is... whether I can establish a land of vitality to avoid the Great Annihilation...."