Chapter 1724: Red Dust Prison

More than three hundred years...

Chen Ling had missed more than three hundred years of time.

The plans Chen Ling had originally made—to return to Earth, lead the Nine Lords to perfect the nine major domains, discuss how to deal with the Red Star together, and all other such expectations—had all turned into illusions at this moment.

Chen Ling didn't know how long the Nine Lords had waited for him. He only knew that during the most difficult and confusing period for them...

He was absent.

When he stood on the land of the human domain again, everything had become so strange.

Chen Ling's chest heaved continuously. He looked at the deepest part of this so-called Red Dust Prison with red eyes, his figure flashed, and he turned into a residual shadow and rushed there at high speed!

The outer city flickered and receded beneath him.

A steel dome surrounded by layers of city walls and watchtowers came into his view.

The entire Red Dust Prison was like a giant steel ring. Outside the ring was the Gray World, the ring itself was countless watchtowers and residential areas, and its core area was a dome under strict guard.

Thirty-six watchtowers stood in every corner inside and outside the dome, and beneath them, a small white flower floated silently.

That was the target truly monitored by this prison.

In mid-air, hundreds of iron chains extended from the thirty-six watchtowers, all converging into the small white flower, like shackles used in a prison to bind and suppress prisoners.

On the ground, five railway tracks extending from different directions also converged into the roots of the small white flower, as if they extended to another world.

And the moment Chen Ling, turned into a residual shadow, rushed into the dome, a pair of eyes suddenly opened from one of the watchtowers!

"Who dares to trespass into the Red Dust Prison?!"

An eighth-order aura of the Green God Path soared into the sky. Judging from the intensity alone, it was already close to a ninth-order demigod!

It was a long-haired young man in ancient clothing who looked frail. He had one hand behind his back and held a wolf-hair bamboo brush in the other. He was coughing while frowning at the direction Chen Ling had broken in from.

The move of this eighth-order powerhouse was like a signal. All the other watchtowers were activated, and figures looked up at the same time...

A mysterious residual shadow that the naked eye couldn't even capture streaked across the dome, rushing straight toward the white flower!

"Enemy attack!!"

"Report immediately! Someone is trespassing into the Red Dust Prison!!"

It seemed that it had been a long time since they had encountered an attack here. The garrison was a bit at a loss for a moment, but those who possessed the God Path soared into the sky without hesitation, swarming to surround the black shadow...

But no matter how dense their attacks were, shattering the ground or the steel dome beneath the black shadow, it seemed they couldn't truly hurt the black shadow. The two seemed to be in different worlds, unable to intersect.

The eighth-order Green God Path powerhouse frowned tighter and tighter. With a flick of his wolf-hair brush, countless tiny patterns drilled into the ground, as if they were also in a virtual canvas, intercepting in the direction of the black shadow...

"Get lost—!"

With a low roar, a terrifying shockwave swept across the surroundings!

The eighth-order Green God Path powerhouse's expression changed drastically. He retreated several steps in a row under the shock of this oppressive feeling, and those tiny patterns that had surrounded him were shattered into countless fragments...

Clang— Clang—

The hundred or so steel chains connected to the small white flower vibrated violently. In the midst of the chaos, those who possessed relatively lower-ranked God Paths fell headlong from the watchtowers.

In the gap where everyone was in chaos, Chen Ling rushed into the white flower of the Red Dust Domain and disappeared without a trace.

The shaking chains gradually returned to calm;

A burst of chaotic noise still came from the watchtowers.

The eighth-order Green God Path powerhouse in ancient costume looked at the direction of the small white flower in astonishment, as if he hadn't recovered from the shock of Chen Ling's aura just now...

"No... I definitely can't stop him alone!"

"Someone! Go and ask His Majesty for reinforcements!!"

……

When Chen Ling opened his eyes again, he was already under a blue sky.

It wasn't the first time Chen Ling had passed through the Red Dust Domain. The "boundary" of Su Zhiwei's string theory was somewhat similar to a world barrier, but the scale of the two was too different... This time, Chen Ling felt no discomfort at all when entering the Red Dust.

His gaze swept across his surroundings. The muddy ground stretched into the distance, white clouds were like snow under the blue sky, old-fashioned rural earth houses stood in the distance, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the rustling of the wind through the leaves remained...

Seeing this scene, Chen Ling's heart relaxed slightly.

This was the Red Dust Domain Chen Ling was familiar with.

But as Chen Ling looked closely, he discovered some clues... The muddy ground was like a canvas that had faded over time. Through the soil, one could vaguely see the wreckage of nuclear ruins beneath. The white clouds under the blue sky were like wax paintings, motionless. The lush grass and trees by the roadside occasionally flickered as if they had lost contact, revealing the dead and dilapidated tree trunks beneath.

Everything here looked beautiful, but that seemed to be just a rough appearance, as if someone was trying to block a scarred wall with a poster full of holes... As long as you looked closely, you could find something wrong.

"What exactly happened... in the three hundred years I was gone??"

Chen Ling frowned and walked forward slowly.

According to the development of the Fifth World, the Red Dust Domain was originally a nuclear ruin. It was formed after the base suffered several unexplained nuclear strikes five minutes after Su Zhiwei fell into a slumber... The lush Red Dust Domain was just an appearance constantly maintained and whitewashed by members of the Floating Life Painting.

Chen Ling had thought that the nuclear strike was done by Lou Yu, so after the Wuji Lord killed himself in the Sixth World, he thought the tragedy wouldn't happen again. But now it seemed that even if Lou Yu was dead, the Red Dust base still suffered the same nuclear strike...

Who exactly was the person who launched the nuclear strike on the Red Dust base?

How did the so-called Red Dust Prison appear?

And judging from the current state of the Red Dust Domain, there should have been members of the Floating Life Painting whitewashing and maintaining it in the early days, but why was it so much simpler compared to the Fifth World... Where did the members of the Floating Life Painting go?

And...

Is there no one living in the Red Dust Domain now?

Chen Ling's gaze swept over the dilapidated houses. So far, he hadn't seen any Red Dust residents; everything was quiet.

Chen Ling had too many questions in his heart. After a brief thought, he looked toward a certain direction in the village.

If everything followed the development of the Fifth World, then Su Zhiwei probably woke up from the hibernation pod by force again, protected the people from the nuclear strike, and lost the opportunity to enter the hibernation pod again...

If that was the case...

Su Zhiwei and Yao Qing should still be hiding in one of the houses here.