Night of Despair

Gray-white sky, dim sun.

Skyscrapers towering, bustling traffic.

In the flow of people by the roadside, a tall, thin man in a cheap gray suit stood dazed among the crowd, gently swaying from the collisions with passersby.

He was stunned for a while before raising his right hand to look at the back of it.

The black mark on the back of his hand was clearly visible, still there.

"I... have returned?" Yu Hong looked at his familiar physique; everything that had been enhanced before had now returned to its original state. But he could still feel the immense super holy power flowing within him.

Indeed, the previous holy power, under the enhancement of his original body, had been elevated to an unprecedented level, which he referred to as super holy power.

"Even though I have returned, can I now meekly reside in a small basin and lead a quiet life?"

He questioned himself inwardly.

With a longing desire to return, but now that he was truly back, his heart was filled with confusion and emptiness.

"I should go see my parents first..."

He glanced around and simply hailed a taxi without using any abilities.

He got in the taxi and headed home.

"Buddy, you don't look too well, a bit too pale. Shouldn't you see a doctor?" The driver was a kind-hearted person.

"It's nothing, just a bit tired." Yu Hong knew that his original self was like this, working indoors for years, rarely getting sunlight, which resulted in the abnormal skin tone.

Besides this, he deliberately maintained his original appearance so that people who knew him before wouldn't fail to recognize him.

"That's good then. The situation recently isn't great, with various viral flus going around; it's hard to avoid." The driver sighed.

"Yes... viruses and such are indeed troublesome." Yu Hong nodded in agreement.

Gazing at the scenery sliding by the car window, his eyes had a slightly vague look.

The familiar characters, the familiar style, everything from before seemed like just a dream.

But the immense super holy power within him and the black mark on his hand clearly told him it was not a dream....

Before long, the car slowed down and stopped outside an old residential area.

Yu Hong took out his phone and somewhat clumsily paid the fare, blending into the people entering the complex.

Building 41, Unit 503, Ten Villages of West River.

He followed the address deeply embedded in his memory to the entrance of the staircase.

Reaching out.

Suddenly, he raised his head, his gaze piercing through layers of walls to see his two parents busy with household chores in the home.

"Mom, Dad..." A gentle smile appeared naturally on Yu Hong's face. He took a step forward, just about to go upstairs, when he suddenly sensed something.

Turning back, he blinked.

Shua!

Everything before him instantly turned gray-white.

"The five dimensions here... seem a bit off..."

Yu Hong furrowed his brows slightly.

Just now, he vaguely felt something as if it was attracting him.

To be precise, it was attracting the black mark on his hand.

He'd always been curious about the origin of the mark. Although on his journey, the Black Mark helped him a lot, one could say without it he wouldn't be who he was now.

But regardless, he always maintained a bit of caution towards the Black Mark.

Feeling the pull, Yu Hong blinked and entered the five dimensions here.

Inside the five-dimensional complex, a grayish-white cloud lingered around, all the buildings swayed silently like clay or water plants.

They were tall, they were lengthy, and all the buildings pointed upwards like swords.

Yu Hong looked up to the sky again.

But he only saw a solid gray-white layer of ice.

The ice had uneven patches, some bright, some dark, and on the other side, there seemed to be a bright light shining through.

Yu Hong pondered a moment, then blinked again.

Shua!

Everything around him ascended in dimension again.

All the buildings disappeared, turning into heaps of huge colorful blocks.

There was no sign of humans, no vehicles, planes, or any man-made objects, only the ever-unchanging white ice layer above.

Yu Hong blinked again, continually ascending in dimensions.

Soon, the colorful block heap also disappeared, and gradually everything turned into a colorful chaos surrounding him.

As he continued to ascend, the colors around him gradually turned into chaotic white dots.

Countless white dots flowed, flying chaotically without pattern.

And the vast white ice layer above still remained.

Yu Hong tapped the tip of his foot on the ground, flying swiftly into the air, approaching the ice layer.

Shortly, he reached the front of the ice layer, stretching out his hand to knock hard.

Thud, thud, thud.

But the ice layer was too hard; simple knocks barely affected it.

Yu Hong looked down from high altitude.

Everything below had turned into a sea of platinum turbulence.

He raised his head again, utilizing a bit of super holy power, and fiercely struck.

Boom.

Instantly, the thick ice layer finally shattered from the impact, breaking into large chunks of ice falling down, revealing a massive two-meter-wide hole filled with white light.

Yu Hong sensed the danger, confirmed everything was fine, and then dove into that hole headfirst.

Swish.

A sound as if something surged from the water made Yu Hong shudder all over.

He felt himself bathed in blinding platinum light.

It took a while for his eyes to slowly adjust.

"This is....!!?"

The moment he adjusted, Yu Hong looked up at the sky.

But the sight above left him standing there, stunned.

In the sky, countless human bodies floated densely.

They remained motionless, standing with upright bodies, floating in mid-air.

Men, women, young, old, with various skin colors and hair colors, all were there.

But these were not the key point; the key point was that they all had their eyes closed, with a black mark on the back of their right hand....

"Glad to see another outsider enter here." Suddenly, a deep voice sounded in Yu Hong's ear.

"Who are you?" Yu Hong tried to pinpoint the source through the direction of the voice.

But it was futile, as the voice echoed from all around.

"Who I am is not important...." the voice continued, "What's important is what I'm about to tell you."

Yu Hong remained silent; his reserved perception detected no danger, so he said nothing further, just waiting for the voice to continue.

"One billion, nine hundred seventy-eight million, four hundred sixty thousand times. I've lost count of the remainder, and don't want to remember it." The voice continued, "This is the sum of our failures."

"My name is Yun. Just an ordinary researcher who died in the Great Annihilation."

"Many beings respectfully call me the Spiritual Luck Heavenly Venerate, but that's just a title. I'm not just a Heavenly Venerate but also among the oldest Star Gods. I hold a place among the Ancestors...."

"Are you wondering where the Black Mark on you comes from? Why it chose you?"

The voice paused, sighing lightly.

"We tried many paths, including the Wuji Heavenly Venerate's delve into the deepest reaches, searching for the source of everything, for the land of vitality, that was one attempt.

And the Red Sky Fruit was also our endeavor. But all these are not the main point. The true focus, the core united effort of all our Heavenly Venerates, is the Black Mark."

Yu Hong remained silent, instinctively touching the mark on his hand.

"What is the Black Mark?" he asked.

"It's a seed," Yun replied, "It's quite a marvelous seed. It requires constant nurturing, continuous growth alongside the main body."

He chuckled, continuing, "Do you see those people in the sky? They, like you, possess the Black Mark, hold ever-strengthening abilities, yet they all failed.... You are the only one to reach the end in the Great Annihilation. The Black Mark is the highest achievement we've painstakingly worked on for hundreds of thousands of years. And you are the sole individual most compatible with it, the one who has made it last till the end...."

Yun sighed.

"In truth, this is an experiment. An experiment failed far too many times. Unexpectedly, everything concluded with you. And you were not even an original inhabitant from our place."

"Perhaps precisely because you stood outside, you managed to succeed thoroughly in the end."

"Because, however, the causal destruction, the trace destruction from the Great Annihilation, could not wholly obliterate you.... independent of power, independent of realm...."

"So, now that you've appeared, what do you intend?" Yu Hong said calmly, no longer the naive, kind-hearted office worker he once was; the other party's sudden appearance must have a purpose.

"I'm just here to remind you.... Before I died, in your world, I also saw a trace of annihilation...."

"Your universe, along with everything outside, will wither like a flower, gradually turning yellow, slowly decaying.... Annihilation cannot be stopped; it will constantly appear and regenerate, or everything will completely disintegrate, never to regenerate again."

"And this is only the beginning...."

The voice slowly faded away, dissolved, vanished....

Leaving Yu Hong alone, floating on the ice layer, gazing at the countless bodies marked with the Black Mark.

'The outsider's key, is it?' He understood Yuns's meaning.

The Black Mark was merely an auxiliary tool, powerful as it was, yet faced with the Great Annihilation, it still meant certain death.

The truly crucial point was that he could grow and evolve all the way, could survive till the end, playing his role as the key outsider.

But now, even in his reality, annihilation has begun to appear....

Yu Hong's expression remained calm as he closed his eyes.

Swoosh!

Upon reopening them, everything before him was instantly cleared away, disappeared.

Everything returned to the original gray-white cloud layers.

At his thought, all those bodies vaporized, merging into the grand cycle.

And the Black Marks on their hands, at the moment of disappearing, automatically gathered on the back of Yu Hong's right hand.

After completing this, Yu Hong lifted his head again, gazing through the atmosphere, through the magnetic fields, reaching an infinitely far position.

There, a star was slowly changing color, fading, with tiny human faces emerging on its surface.

Some of those faces showed pain, others joy, extremely peculiar....

Yu Hong's expression did not change.

If he were at his ordinary level, he might have been at a loss, but now....

Hiss.

In an instant, countless tiny purple-black eyes appeared on his retina, resembling water blisters.

All the eyes simultaneously flashed black.

The Ultimate Sun Light Disaster that had just shown a trace was instantly swept by the blackness, extinguishing all human faces, restoring to normal.

After completing this.

Yu Hong maintained a calm expression as he swiftly descended, returning to the hallway in front of his home.

He looked up at the gray-white sky, which seemed to have lost its previous eeriness and oppression.

Only then did he walk slowly into the building, towards the elevator door.