Chapter 868 - 867: Hidden Moonlight

Chapter 868: Chapter 867: Hidden Moonlight

To be honest, when she discovered that the connection with Yu Sheng was interrupted, Erin herself felt a bit panicked. After all, ever since she woke up from that picture frame and got the Blood Transfer from Yu Sheng, such a complete interruption of connection was a first——but after a brief panic, she quickly calmed down.

This wasn’t because Yu Sheng was inexplicably tough; Yu Sheng’s fate was famously fragile but adaptable. Nor was it because she believed Yu Sheng could turn misfortune into fortune; Yu Sheng was an expert at turning into misfortune upon encountering it, dying on the spot where he fell. Erin wasn’t panicking because, although she couldn’t connect with Yu Sheng’s Mind, she could faintly sense Yu Sheng’s presence in a certain direction.

The Little Puppet climbed onto Hu Li’s shoulder, looking at the ground below deep in thought, its small face wrinkled.

...Underground? Why?

"First, we need to figure out what this place is," Lucrecia’s voice suddenly came from beside, interrupting the Little Puppet’s thoughts. The Star Sea Witch held her iconic Crystal Ball in hand, with a few white paper cranes flying around her in mid-air, "Just now, my divination failed—it seems to have been greatly interfered with."

"Huh?" Zheng Zhi was startled, "Your... Your power can be interfered with?"

"There’s nothing surprising about that," Lucrecia nodded calmly, "I suspect we’ve delved deep into the structure of the ’Dark Moon Royal Court.’ Given that this ’Boundary Land’ is formed by the accumulation of time layers, and considering the Exile Ark from outside the Universe was dropped here, coupled with the overlapping influence of the Tree Angel... In some sense, we’ve already half-stepped out of ’our world.’ Here, many things familiar to us will fail."

"In any case, this place surely doesn’t look like a destination where those Teleportation Arrays are meant to send people normally," Erin frowned, looking around, "Those people were headed to a Sanctuary, and this desolate wasteland hardly looks like a Sanctuary... Moreover, where are those people? Where did those who were teleported here go?"

Hu Li sniffed the air, muttering softly, "It does remind me of the ’nightmare’ we once experienced with the town’s ruins and church—it’s just as desolate, under the same dim evenings, and the air smells quite similar."

"I don’t know what you mean by ’smell,’" Erin scratched her head, "but this place sure doesn’t have those red moons; the sky is pitch-black, without any stars."

Hu Li said nothing more, simply conjured a few clusters of ghostly blue Fox Fire from the tip of her tail to illuminate the surroundings.

Just then, Luna, who had been silent, suddenly seemed to notice something.

"Look at these stones..."

Saying this, she approached a "Giant Stone Pillar" on the wasteland, and a stroke of her Fingertip Blade produced sparks of metal friction.

A layer was sliced off the surface of the pillar, revealing the complex and ancient magic pattern within.

"What is this..."

Erin opened her eyes wide in surprise, and right after, Lucrecia discovered something new on the other side.

Buried in the rubble and sandy soil on the wasteland were broken ancient crystals.

Lucrecia frowned slightly at the sight before her, suddenly thought of something, turned, and waved her hand.

The invisible wind swept across, clearing the vast rubble and dust covering the ground. Under the burning Fox Fire, fragments of ancient rune arrays appeared in the field of vision, revealing themselves among the broken remains.

Erin was dumbfounded.

"Isn’t this... isn’t this the Teleportation Array we saw on the square previously?"

"It’s the receiving end of the Teleportation Array," Lucrecia said solemnly, "Our teleportation had no issues—this is where the refugees’ teleportation from the square ended."

"How did it break into such a state..." Zheng Zhi was utterly incredulous, "And where did all those people go..."

He paused, uneasily looking around at the desolate, dark wasteland enveloping them.

Lucrecia’s calm voice resonated in the night, "It seems a long time has passed... perhaps far longer than ’they’ initially expected."

Luna stood beside a pile of rubble not far away, her mechanical eyes gleaming softly as she scanned the surroundings before her gaze drifted to another spot suddenly.

"There’s another discovery here!"

Hu Li quickly ran forward carrying Erin, while Luna raised her hand, pointing to a "stone pillar" that had already fallen to the ground—what she discovered were the writings etched on the stone.

Nor the intricate ancient magic patterns, nor the neat plaques from the era of civilization’s glory; the letters carved into the stone were crude and slanted, with deep engravings, coarse lines, and carried a hint of hysterical madness—

"We have been abandoned, left in this eternal night of bloodthirsty plague."

The meaning within the words seemed to imprint itself directly on the consciousness of every reader’s mind, carrying with them the remaining sorrow and madness of the scribe when he carved those words.

Zheng Zhi felt each character shaking before him, as if those strokes came to life, sprouting numerous tiny tendrils in the darkness, accompanied by a small knife moving across the stone, while some fluid resembling blood seeped deeply into the stone along the knife marks—a hand holding the knife emerged, its master in the darkness raised his head, staring into his eyes, revealing a ghastly smile.

"There are people alive here!"

A sudden hoarse noise erupted in the air, and something emerged from the darkness, pale, towering, and misshapen — this creature appeared directly within Zheng Zhi’s line of sight, then roared and lunged forward.

Zheng Zhi broke out in a cold sweat instantly, and with a cry of "Oh crap!" he scrambled backwards, instinctively raising his hand to unleash a Grand Ancestor Long Fist at the monster.

Thus, he swung a Grand Ancestor Long Fist at the monster.

Following that were his Grandma’s Long Fist, Auntie Long Fist, Second Grandmaster Long Fist, and Grandpa Long Fist.

A big yellow dog charged from the darkness and fearlessly bit into the pale monster’s leg amidst the layers of fist shadows, immediately starting to tear madly.

But the next second, a sharp blade pierced the neck of the big yellow dog, which let out a cry before dissipating into blue smoke in the air.

Just after that, as the big yellow dog perished, an aunt with braided hair appeared as a collaborative skill, hopping madly on the ground beside the pale monster and shrieking—

"Ah my— big yellow!"

After the shout, the aunt lunged at the towering, pale monster: "Sun Thief! Don’t go!!"

The aunt’s plump arms and stout body transformed into a moral shackle, chains formed by spiritual energy nailed to the ground with a loud noise.

From Grand Ancestor Long Fist by the big nephew to the moral shackles of the second aunt, it took merely ten seconds, with a seamless combo accompanied by illusions released from spiritual energy and the whizzing sounds of old men and women throwing punches in mid-air, full of grandeur.

The only problem was that the moral-less monster wasn’t fazed by moral shackles.

The pale, towering, misshapen creature simply charged through the crowd of old folks, with asymmetric odd limbs like twisted dry branches, grabbing towards Zheng Zhi.

"You have blood!"

Zheng Zhi turned pale and instinctively shouted: "Brother Yu, help me—"

However, Yu Sheng wasn’t there, and the one who saved him from the dark was a frying pan that came through the air, and a certain low-minded little figure yelled: "Big nephew, is your fancy attack power really just 5?!"

Soon there was a loud "clang" sound, as the pale, towering monster’s shin bone was fractured, and a small figure like a runaway low-legged rabbit charged forward, rolling in an assault with a frenzied smash of the frying pan.

The consecutive renovation-like noises echoed in the dark as Erin wielded the frying pan and knocked the monster to the ground, soon followed by Luna slicing it into mince with a few swift moves.

In the night, the indignant little puppet shrieked: "C-type buckle, you stole my kill!"

"I saw you not hitting its head for a while, thought you didn’t want it."

"... C-type buckle, I’ll fight you!!"

Then came the evil red-eyed dwarf fighting the vexing cleaning maid, sparks flew among the ancient teleportation array ruins; Zheng Zhi, who barely escaped, could only frantically move away, until Hu Li couldn’t bear it anymore, rushed up and grabbed Erin and Luna one by one, relying on sheer force to stop the internal conflict.

Zheng Zhi started to miss Yu Sheng a bit — although Yu Sheng occasionally had some worldview-shattering ideas, at least when Yu Sheng was around, he could keep order, generally ensuring a semblance of peace among the travel agency’s personified members.

Watching the entire event unfold, Lucrecia inexplicably showed a smile on her face, with a hint of nostalgia in her expression.

Then Hu Li, dragging Erin back, with the little puppet still visibly fuming, at least retracted the frying pan, catching sight of Zheng Zhi carefully hiding afar, she swung her fist vigorously: "Big nephew, mind your manners! Do you know how close you were to becoming a mechanical girl just now?"

Zheng Zhi was preparing to step forward, wearing an awkward yet polite smile to thank for the assistance earlier, took one step and suddenly froze: "... Become what?"

Hu Li immediately looked at the puppet in her hand: "What kind of mind?"

Luna glanced at Zheng Zhi and shook her head: "Too inexperienced, not taking."

Confused, Zheng Zhi had no idea what happened, but soon, some faint rustling from the dark interrupted everyone’s thoughts.

Hu Li’s ears twitched, and she promptly looked in the direction of the sound.

The pale monster, diced into mince by Luna, still lay on the ground, its shattered remains transforming eerily into a soil-like texture, and as the muscle and bones "dissolved", some strange viscous, faintly glowing dark red "blood" seeped from the remains, drawn by an invisible force, slowly drifting towards the sky...

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the scene, instinctively raising their heads towards the direction of the ascending blood line.

In the "night sky," a faint light began to glow, as everyone gradually widened their eyes, finally noticing an immense entity that had been floating in the darkness all along, hidden by the night...