Chapter 877: Chapter 877

Li Cheng reached out his hand, aiming for the delicious-looking hands of the osteology customer who was eating the air.

His hand easily passed through the customer’s body, grasping only a piece of nothingness.

Goya looked around, "seem like ’computer programs.’"

They moved in fixed patterns, and all the laughter and communication were predetermined, without any discernment of their own, just like a computer program set from the start.

Li Cheng withdrew his hand, gazing at the skewer in Goya’s hand, "it’s somewhat like those interactive ’holographic movies’ from science fiction."

The actions of all characters in the movie were set, and those outside the movie couldn’t change or affect any character’s actions.

He Ao, who had been silent beside them, suddenly spoke up.

Upon hearing this, the two standing next to him were startled, then quickly realized what he meant.

The civilization of the relics had already perished, just as a person dies.

And these illusions that recorded the ’pre-death’ actions of that civilization were like ’relic images’ of the deceased.

Only, instead of a photo, the ’relic image’ they were facing now was an entire planet.

This seemed to more precisely depict the current state of this area.

But whether it’s taking a relic image or bearing one, both required a ’medium.’

For ordinary people, taking it needed a camera, and bearing it needed a photograph; in transcendent concepts, these two things could possibly be the same.

Li Cheng continued along ’Hao Yi’s line of thought, his gaze swiftly sweeping across the street, then returning to ’Hao Yi’, "this immense ’relic image’ must have a bearing core, which is in the hands of that behind-the-scenes presence?"

He Ao paused, then continued, "all of this is the ability of the behind-the-scenes presence, that core might be the behind-the-scenes presence itself."

Clearly, they were now facing an angel, and it seemed not so strange what powers an angel might have.

He had long been exposed to Angelic Tier weapons and had some understanding of angelic powers.

"It seems like the order here does not particularly repel us?"

At this time, Goya looked up thoughtfully at ’Hao Yi’, "If all this is created by that behind-the-scenes presence, why doesn’t he directly use the rules to ’repel’ us?"

As she asked this, Li Cheng also turned his head to look at ’Hao Yi’.

"In a sense, we are also part of the surrounding order now."

He Ao looked around at the figures, lifted his hand, glanced at the black ash in it, and slowly said, "He can only use the rules against us; he can’t directly banish us from the whole area."

"Is it because of the ’ceremony’ we used to enter?"

Li Cheng looked up at He Ao.

He Ao nodded lightly.

In fact, the behind-the-scenes presence had always been using rules against them.

Outside the transparent planet, the behind-the-scenes presence had tried to directly tear their spacecraft apart, exposing them to space.

The Bubble Space they entered through the ceremony, enticing the power of the behind-the-scenes presence, was also special.

The Bubble Space where Lin Chichi was had a ’stabilization’ phase, allowing souls pulled into the Bubble Space to better adapt to it, thus extracting the greatest value.

The Bubble Space they were facing was basically the most dangerous scenario right from the start, not even waiting for the Bubble Space to fully stabilize before initiating the final ’killer move’.

This indicated that the behind-the-scenes presence actually didn’t want to extract their ’despair’ emotion in the best way, but rather, tried to kill them at the earliest stage possible.

Without He Ao and the Maiden Puppets, Li Cheng and the others would likely have perished at this point.

But looking back at the behind-the-scenes presence’s actions, it was clear that the ’murderous intent’ he laid out was in accordance with the rules of the entire ’ceremony.’

After He Ao and others went through the "Communicating with Self" ceremony to enter the Bubble Space area, they each obtained their own "Bubble Space" instead of being directly transported into that void.

The manipulations done behind the scenes simply accelerated the progress of "extracting despair" within the Bubble Space and did not change any content of the "ceremony."

This process of extracting despair seemed to be part of his ceremony to descend into the Main World.

As the creator of the entire ceremony and all the spaces, the lurking presence likely had the direct capability to "throw" them out of the space.

However, this involves a concept in mysticism—the stronger and more intricate the ceremony aimed to achieve an effect, the smaller the margin for error.

It’s like a large, running, precise machine, where a minor error could cause the entire machine to stop functioning.

Clearly, this time’s "Blood Sun Incident," the ceremony by the lurking presence attempting to descend into the Main World, was a complex ceremony with numerous components.

At that moment as the core of the entire ceremony, any action by the lurking presence exceeding the rules could trigger a significant alteration in the entire ritual.

This was also one of the reasons why He Ao previously insisted on finding that "Communicating with Self" ceremony, and entering the entire main ceremony through this "initiation ceremony."

By entering through the correct ceremony, they were like people who brightly entered the ritual process with keys issued by the lurking presence.

They now counted as parts of the entire operative ritual, legal identities, hence the lurking presence couldn’t expel them using some pre-designed rules for ousting outsiders.

And if the lurking presence overstepped the rules to act directly, it would likely lead to a rapid disintegration of the entire ceremony.

Therefore, the lurking presence was extremely cautious in its actions, trying to deal with them using elements of the ceremony itself.

The central focus of their conflict was not solely on mutual destruction, but also on whether the Descending Ceremony could be completed normally.

After all, for He Ao and others, their aim was to preserve the Main World - as long as the Descending Ceremony failed, their strategic goal would essentially be achieved, and the lurking presence would essentially lose.

Now, they were like players in an attack and defense chess game, where He Ao and others were the attackers, and the lurking presence was the defender.

The victory condition for the lurking presence was to complete the Advent.

The Descending Ceremony was ongoing - as long as he could maintain the ceremony until completion without it being disrupted, he would win, able then to extract coordinates of the Main World while dealing with He Ao and others, thus completely exposing the Main World.

Whereas the victory condition for He Ao and others was to "destroy the Advent," specifically, to disrupt the Descending Ceremony before its completion.

Thus, the lurking presence taking action to expulse them, resulting in the ceremony’s disruption, was somewhat ironically beneficial for them.

And so, the lurking presence could only grit its teeth and watch as they reached the innermost depths of the ceremony.

In this matchup, the lurking presence was on home ground, the entire ceremony was its design, capable of using the home advantage against He Ao, but couldn’t make abrupt moves itself, any movement might cause the whole ceremony to shatter.

He Ao was on away ground but had cleverly used the rules of the ceremony to blend themselves into the ritual framework.

Restricting the actions of the lurking presence as well as the targeting of the ceremony’s rules, forcing the lurking presence into a passive defense, letting He Ao and others move within the ceremony, only able to counter He Ao and others through internal rule methods.

Of course, when He Ao and others reached the final core of the ceremony, they were very likely still to face the lurking presence.

With the strength to maintain such a vast ceremony, the power of the lurking presence might not necessarily be weak, and the Angelic Tier weapon in Li Cheng’s hands might not be entirely sufficient against the lurking presence.

But this situation was much less difficult than being expelled from the ceremony by the rules and trying to penetrate layers of defenses from outside to disrupt the ceremony.

During the chat between He Ao and Li Cheng, Goya seemed to come to a realization too.

Although she didn’t understand the deep principles, she realized that the phone calling ceremony they used to enter must have played a very important role, and all this was arranged before ’Hao Yi’ came in.

She rarely teamed up for excursions and lacked experience in finding teammates, but now she seemed to deeply realize how important a smart and reliable teammate was.

By the time she came to her senses, everything had been handled.

It was somewhat absurd.

And as Goya pondered, a solitary backpacker passed by her.

Her peripheral vision briefly noticed this figure, then naturally retracted her gaze, continuing her musings.

However, she suddenly realized something, paused, and looked toward the backpacker moving ahead.

At that moment, ’Hao Yi’ standing in front of her had already stretched out his hand, reaching for the backpacker.

He Ao’s hand effortlessly passed through the backpacker’s hand, his gaze paused, he took a step forward, and reached out his hand towards the backpacker again.

At the same time, in this very brief moment, he briefly activated Super Memory, using an extremely slight surge of soul power to impact the backpacker.

The backpacker, who had been walking forward continuously, suddenly stopped, expression frozen as if time had paused.

At that moment, Goya quickly caught up, stepping in front of the figure.

"What’s wrong, what’s happening?"

A baffled Li Cheng also came over.

Just now it was Goya who was confused, now it was his turn.

He Ao looked up at Goya.

At this moment, Goya was staring at the illusion with a slightly shocked expression.

"I feel like I’ve seen him before. When I visited the Yika Republic, he seemed to have greeted me. He is a Level F Transcendent of the World Tree. How could he appear in these ruins’ illusions?"

Goya paused for a moment, looking up at He Ao with a hint of confusion, "Or am I remembering it wrong?"

"You probably aren’t mistaken,"

He Ao glanced at the backpack illusion, observing the shadows clinging to the illusion’s body, "This man is different from the other ’illusions’; he has a soul."

Goya also withdrew her gaze, reaching out, her hand still passing through the body of the backpack figure. "This ’shadow’ is a real person?"

She peered closely at this figure, "It seems like he also possesses life force, just obscured by some power."

At this moment, the backpack figure trembled slightly and began to move slowly.

Just now, to avoid hurting him, He Ao had used very little soul power, so the restraint didn’t last long, and any more power would have affected the integrity of the backpack figure’s soul.

Hearing this, Li Cheng finally seemed to react. He looked at the figure slowly regaining mobility, "So this person is one of the missing from the real world? How is he here?"

"He’s probably been drained of emotions,"

He Ao watched the backpack figure’s expressionless cheeks, thoughtfully sweeping his gaze over the surrounding figures,

"This must also be part of the ceremony’s structure. Those drained in the Bubble Space outside are placed here in ’Relic of the Bygone Days’, slowly being assimilated,"

He Ao glanced at the backpack figure. What the backpack figure was experiencing was what a normal person in the ceremony process should undergo. It was a ’special treatment’ that He Ao and his team were pursued as soon as they arrived.

"Their souls haven’t been drained; the entity behind this probably wants to use their connection with the real world through mysticism to accelerate the Advent,"

He Ao paused briefly, stepping aside to let the backpack figure pass, "But this is only because they are still useful during the Advent process. Once the Advent is complete, their ’usefulness’ ceases."

Hearing this, the other two had a slightly stern expression.

In this ceremony, the ’missing’ weren’t just one person, and once the ceremony was complete, these missing would most likely all directly become some sort of ’nourishment.’

"If what we’re currently in is indeed the deepest layer of this ceremony,"

Li Cheng looked up, observing the surrounding streets, "then should we now try to find the core clue of this ’Illusionary Ruins,’ perhaps we could find a way to disrupt this Descending Ceremony?"

Then his brow furrowed slightly and he looked ahead, "But where do we go to find this ’core’s’ clues?"

The place they were in now was a perfect replica of the Relic Planet, a dwarf planet with a surface area of three million square kilometers. Searching region by region, they probably wouldn’t get far before the Descending Ceremony was complete.

He Ao, standing nearby, withdrew his gaze from the backpack figure, spoke quickly, "Regardless of the captor’s purpose in taking Jie An, he must have had ’contact’ with the entity behind this. If we find him, perhaps we can get some clues."

There were two clues related to Jie An’s ’disappearance’; one was the ’star’ he left, and the other was his research facility near the lava in the Bubble Space.

These two clues were obviously related.

The entity behind this had probably taken Jie An away also through a connection between this ’Relic of the Bygone Days’ and that research facility.

And if this ’Relic of the Bygone Days’ truly replicated the real ruins, there should also be a ’research facility’ near the lava here, which might be the ’contact point’ between this ’Relic of the Bygone Days’ and that Bubble Space.

"We need to find the research facility near the lava in this ’Relic of the Bygone Days’. Jie An is very likely to have gone there, he might even be there."

Seeing the contemplative expressions of the two, He Ao quickly spoke again, "Even if that research facility might be confidential, the areas with lava in the ruins should not be numerous, either volcanoes or some special areas. We can look for a map or some documents that could indicate such areas."

"Can we use the network here?"

Goya pondered, turning her head and saw a floating computer at a tabletop at the entrance of a café-like store nearby,

A young man seemed to be using this computer.

Though they could not interact with people, inanimate objects were accessible.

She quickly moved through several illusory figures to the computer, peering at the screen.

At that moment, He Ao and Li Cheng also walked over.

Then they saw Goya who had been staring at the screen stand up and shake her head towards them as they approached.

With a hint of puzzlement, He Ao and Li Cheng walked over to Goya and looked at the computer screen.

The young man using the computer seemed to be happily browsing something, but to everyone else, the screen only showed clusters of distorted lines, completely unrecognizable.

Pondering, Li Cheng reached out and took the computer from in front of the young man.

He rapidly tapped on the virtual keyboard on the computer, but the distorted lines on the screen did not change at all.

He turned his head towards He Ao and gently shook his head.

Then he looked down at the young man beside him, who, facing the void air, was still making motions as if browsing the web, as though he actually saw a computer in his field of view.

Li Cheng put the computer back in its place.

The ’café’ seemed to be doing quite well, with every seat by the door filled with customers.

He Ao’s gaze shifted to a man dozing off next to them, a silver-white bar lying on the table in front of him.

Among the walking illusions around him, many people wore such silver-white bars on their ears.

Once worn by an illusion, He Ao could no longer touch the bar, but he could pick it up from the table.

He Ao glanced at the bar on the table, reached out to grab it, and wore it on his ear.

Accompanied by a flash of light, the end of the bar near his eyes lit up with a faint glow, projecting some ’images’ into his field of view.

Those images were still distorted lines.

Goya looked curiously at the silver-white bar on He Ao’s ear.

"It seems to be the mobile intelligent device of the people in the ruins."

He Ao handed the bar to Goya.

The Copy World also had similar devices, but they were not as popular as smart bracelets.

Goya also wore the bar on her ear, and after seeing those distorted lines, her expectant look gradually fell, then she passed the bar to Li Cheng.

Li Cheng also tried it on, and ultimately sighed softly, handing the bar back to He Ao, "It seems that there is no real network here."

He Ao nodded lightly and placed the silver-white bar back in front of the man.

Then he scanned the surroundings.

Many customers sitting at the door were gesturing in the void as if ordering, but some were holding a paper menu in their hands.

He Ao walked up to a customer holding a paper menu and looked at it.

Some simple arranged text appeared in his view.

Goya walked behind him and also looked at the menu.

He Ao withdrew his gaze, glanced at the signs of the surrounding shops, and spoke slowly, "Books can be read."

Goya startled briefly, then quickly comprehended, "The use of paper in the ruins is not scarce, we might be able to find a bookstore to look for a map or something."

He Ao nodded lightly.

That was also his thought.

"But how do we figure out where the bookstore is?"

Goya looked around at the dense array of snack shops, falling silent.

"From the direction that person came from,"

He Ao looked towards a young man holding a new book and spoke slowly, "If the habits of the Ruins People are similar to ours, there is a high probability that there will be bookstores near large commercial streets or schools."

The three exchanged glances and quickly followed the direction the book-holding person had come from.

Not long after they left, in a corner by the ’café’s’ door, a gaunt middle-aged man who looked scholarly and professor-like slowly set down the menu he was holding.

He looked up in the direction where the crowd had departed.