Chapter 1556: Pictionary

"Mm."

In the reflection of the window, the figure draped in theatrical robes nodded slightly.

A pair of vermilion earrings swayed silently:

"You can set off now."

Upon receiving this answer, Tian Xiaochen stood up without hesitation. He turned and walked to his bedroom door, placing a hand on the doorknob...

He seemed to think of something and spoke with some worry:

"But my mom is still outside... If I go out like this, she’ll chase me back."

The red-bottomed, black-patterned theatrical robes moved without wind, but Chen Ling did not respond. By the time Tian Xiaochen turned to look behind him, his figure had already vanished.

Tian Xiaochen was startled. Before he could react, the next second, the bedroom doorknob was turned from the outside.

Click—

The bedroom door slowly opened in front of Tian Xiaochen.

The woman who had just been telling Tian Xiaochen not to run around was standing at the door, a faint red glow in her somewhat dazed eyes.

"...Mom?" A look of astonishment flashed across Tian Xiaochen’s face.

"I said I would clear the path for you."

The woman spoke as if in a dream. "You don't need to worry. She’s just sleepwalking. When she wakes up, she won't remember any of this."

Besides Tian Xiaochen, this woman had also had close contact with Chen Ling, and Chen Ling could put her into a dream directly through her thoughts.

Tian Xiaochen was shocked; Chen Ling’s methods were simply too mysterious in his eyes. But he didn't waste time, directly opening the locked door and rushing onto the street.

At this moment, snow was already falling heavily within the Eternal Domain.

……

Embers of Civilization, deep within.

"Chen Ling didn't buy cigarettes?"

Rustle—

"Chen Ling is in danger?"

Rustle—!

"Then coming to find me is useless... I cannot easily leave the Embers of Civilization, and even if I did, I might not be able to help him."

Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle—

Wu Yi was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, nodding and shaking its head frantically, but it couldn't express its meaning fully.

It simply curled its body into a circle, mimicking the shape of Lord Wuji’s Eternal Domain, then spun around while approaching Shen Qingzhu, letting out hisses.

Shen Qingzhu rested his chin on one hand and watched earnestly for a long time...

"Chen Ling is in danger, you are his most loyal subordinate, and you are running around in circles for him?"

Wu Yi: ...

Wu Yi changed its approach, biting a nearby stone and gnawing on it for a long time until it chewed out a vague human silhouette. It pointed at the stone with its head, then pointed at the red color on its own body.

Shen Qingzhu raised an eyebrow:

"This is Chen Ling."

Wu Yi nodded frantically.

Then, it swallowed the stone in one gulp, acted as if it were aggressive, and charged straight at Shen Qingzhu!

Shen Qingzhu was startled:

"You accidentally ate Chen Ling, and now you’ve come to me, wanting me to help you open your stomach to let Chen Ling out?"

Wu Yi: ...

Wu Yi hissed in a frenzy of anger. If it weren't for the fact that it couldn't speak human language, it would have been spewing profanities by now.

"I don't understand this one, skip." Shen Qingzhu waved his hand.

Wu Yi: ............

Wu Yi racked its brains, trying to think of how to express itself next. Just then, Shen Qingzhu seemed to sense something, and his brows furrowed slightly.

He stood up from the broken stone and looked in a certain direction of the Embers of Civilization, his expression becoming increasingly serious.

"Something... is going deep into the Embers of Civilization."

Wu Yi was even more anxious. It was terrified that if this person clashed with the Eternal Domain, he might not know his own strength and end up harming its Great King!

Shen Qingzhu didn't care about Wu Yi’s "Pictionary" at all right now. Six gray wings that blotted out the sky slowly spread from behind him... A terrifying pressure that didn't belong to this world drifted out from his body, causing Wu Yi to lose its composure and its vision to go black.

With a light flap of his wings, Shen Qingzhu’s figure vanished without a trace in the next second.

……

"An aura that doesn't belong to this world..."

Lord Wuji rubbed the ash in his hand, crushing it into countless fine particles between his fingertips. He carefully analyzed the components, only to find that it was impossible to synthesize using any known material.

This thing didn't seem like a product of nature; instead, it seemed to be condensed from some kind of power. But strangely, this power didn't belong to the Divine Path, nor did it belong to the Calamities, and it certainly didn't belong to the Nine Lords.

The Divine Path was a power that belonged to the Earth world, and Calamities were powers that belonged to the Gray World. Yet, an aura independent of both had appeared... In other words, the owner of this power came from a third world outside of these two?

Is it related to the Red Star?

Why would it appear here?

And what kind of relationship does it have with the Abyss of Mockery?

Just as Lord Wuji was deep in thought, a knight nearby suddenly exclaimed:

"Lord Wuji! Look there!"

Lord Wuji looked in the direction the knight was pointing. About a hundred meters off their flank, a patch of void suddenly collapsed like a black hole, and within a mere second or two, the range of the collapse expanded by several times!

A suction force erupted from the collapsed area, like someone pulling a rope from the side, tugging at the edge of the Eternal Domain, actually slightly changing the direction the Eternal Domain was moving...

Lord Wuji’s brows furrowed slightly.

The gravity of that collapse was indeed strong, but in front of the massive Eternal Domain, it was like a mayfly trying to shake a tree. With a slight exertion of force from Lord Wuji, he led the Eternal Domain to break free from the collapse’s range of influence and continued to move straight toward the depths of the Embers of Civilization.

"What was that?" the knight asked, puzzled.

"This is a scar left behind after the Red Star pierced the Gray World. Both time and space are unstable here," Lord Wuji replied calmly. "However, this level of spatial collapse cannot cause any impact on an object of such massive scale as the Eternal Domain."

But Lord Wuji paused for a moment before adding:

"Issue a notice within the Eternal Domain. Tell the residents to stay in their homes and it would be best to grab onto something nearby... The Eternal Domain might experience some shaking from here on out."

"Yes!"

As the knight left, Lord Wuji’s gaze fell once again on the city ruins ahead.

The further they went, the more chaotic the city ruins became. Bicycles, dog leashes, ships, and even buildings were embedded in space, frozen in mid-air. The "ruins" were no longer limited to the ground but were scattered in every corner of space.

The dense steel claws kept plundering these floating materials like gold miners. These artifacts of civilization, which originally belonged to another world, were now being thrown into the Eternal Palace in a heap, continuously turning into "nutrients" to supply the Eternal Domain.

The more matter and materials there were, the stronger Lord Wuji’s combat ability became.

He looked at the void ahead where small collapses were constantly appearing, his gaze as calm as water:

"I’d like to see... what secrets are hidden in this place."