Chapter 883: Chapter 883

The Ruins of Reality: Beneath the High Tower

He Ao’s true self grasped the ’Echo of the Bygone Days’ in his hand, fully activating the strength within it.

Once again, he attempted to open the passage to the ’Relic of the Bygone Days.’

In this instant, the entire world ’changed’ before his eyes.

Unlike the previous times, the scenery around him didn’t directly transform into that of the Relic of the Bygone Days. Rather, it ’shattered,’ ’twisted’ at a speed his naked eye could capture.

The scene of the Central Control Room in the High Tower that met his gaze seemed to fill with countless tiny cracks like a shattering piece of glass at this moment.

Countless black and purple glows overflowed from these broken cracks, illuminating He Ao’s entire field of view.

Accompanied by the whistle of an old-fashioned train, a rather classical locomotive burst forth from the void, appearing before He Ao.

As the ’passage’ opened, the surrounding space, which was as solid as a fortress, experienced an extremely brief ’distortion.’

Strictly speaking, this was no longer the area beneath the Central Control Room of the High Tower, but a space ’overlapping’ with the Central Control Room. This space was far less secure than the Central Control Room and highly unstable, allowing the Velora a chance to ’squeeze’ in.

As the Velora entered this space, the ’world’ around it also ’shattered’ in that instant. The background of the entire space turned into a scene interwoven with black and purple glows, like the Abyss, and the original ’world’ became fragments broken within this scene.

He Ao leapt onto the locomotive’s nose, holding onto the door, gazing at the surrounding fantastic and bizarre sights.

He felt as if he was in the vast and distant cosmos, or as if he was in a twisted ’dream,’ where the fragments of the shattered world were stars within this twisted black and purple universe.

This was the ’passage space’ He Ao had opened this time.

In his view, the black and purple glows that filled this Abyss-like ’space’ weren’t entirely intermingling with each other, but rather had their own ’regions.’

For example, the area where He Ao currently stood had more purple glow, and the farther he moved ’forward,’ the more the black glow increased.

At the ’end’ of these black glows, there was a region of pure black, a silent and tranquil ’area.’ There, within the quiet black glow, one could faintly discern the same ’scene fragments’ surrounding He Ao.

Between these black and purple glows, void cracks that appeared to devour everything momentarily arose, then were instantly submerged again.

These void cracks were densely packed, appearing at any moment in various areas. Any ’scene fragments’ scattered in He Ao’s view, upon touching these cracks, would be instantly devoured, leaving nothing behind.

Against the backdrop of these flickering void cracks, the ’passage space’ before He Ao ’trembled’ in a silent manner, as if it could burst at any moment.

He Ao took a deep breath, driving the Velora forward, while invisible eyes traced out from the space behind him.

The glows around him trembled violently in that instant, and the number of voids cracks surged three to four times, but the entire ’passage space’ did not shatter.

Indeed, with the connection of a powerful Angel acting as a ’foundation,’ twisting the entire space, the passage space formed this time seemed fragile, as if it could ’shatter’ at any moment, yet its limit was raised, capable of withstanding He Ao carrying the Eye of Truth through it.

In normal space, the opened passage would be a ’narrow gate,’ and He Ao, carrying an Angel-grade Item like a ’fat man,’ couldn’t get through.

But the space at this moment already had a ’big fat man’ within. When the ’door’ was being constructed, that ’big fat man’ simply pushed and broke the whole door along with the wall, resulting in an enormous gap.

Normally, if the ’door’ were ’burst,’ the entire passage should collapse, but due to the mystical connection with the big fat man on the other side, the passage was held together, as if the big fat man’s half-extended hand was supporting the collapsing passage.

Although this support was extremely frail, the presence of the ’big fat man’ meant the entire passage’s original Order had been completely broken, and the size of the passage had been fully expanded.

The situation allowed He Ao, the "little fatty," to take advantage of the stretched-open passage and enter the Relic of the Bygone Days.

Just as He Ao rode the Velora through this fragile channel in space, a tearing sound seemed to come from the sky, the all-encompassing purple glow slowly twisting and changing into invisible "lines."

Immediately after, these "lines" twirled around each other, forming a tightly closed giant metal door.

The door didn’t have any sort of circular panel, apparently revealing the scene behind the metal door.

Subsequently, the invisible lines continued to weave, and the entire "sky" seemed to form a huge reflection,

with the pointed end of a slender, jade-like purple rod appearing behind the metal gate.

And in the instant the scene changed, He Ao felt himself "watched" by some powerful force, his body instantly tensed up, and the Eye of Truth suddenly emerged behind him.

He dashed straight into the locomotive, a strong force surged into the Velora immediately, accelerating the train to maximum speed, charging towards the black brilliance at the end of his field of view.

Simultaneously, the "tip" of the purple rod in the sky began to "swing" slowly, colliding with the illusory metal door.

In that moment, He Ao felt an invisible force pour into his body, the purple glow covering his soul.

The Angel behind that door also took the opportunity to extend its power along the mystical connection into this "passage."

These mighty Angels were no easy marks.

But this situation didn’t exceed He Ao’s expectations too much, as the power of the Eye of Truth instantly filled his body.

Accompanied by the bleeding that spilled from his body, the twisting and invisible purple glow that had covered He Ao’s body shattered in that instant.

And because of the clash between two Angelic Tier powers, the entire passage space shook even more violently, numerous void cracks spread throughout the space, instantly filling the channel, causing this bizarre passage to rapidly collapse.

The huge old-fashioned train also plunged into the depths of the black brilliance at the moment the passage began to crumble, the "scenery" fragments around the black light instantly converged.

The vast channel space gradually faded away, and as the sky’s reflection shattered along with the space, the purple jade tip finally struck the tightly closed metal door.

The crisp sound of knocking echoed in the silent Central Control Room deep within the High Tower.

Relic of the Bygone Days · On the bus

The moment the middle-aged man took his seat, both Goya and Li Cheng sitting in front felt somewhat nervous. They turned their heads and looked at He Ao’s Hao Yi clone.

He Ao, on the other hand, had just regained his senses. He shook his head gently at them, indicating not to act rashly, then he glanced down diagonally, taking a quick look at the travel guide in the hands of the man seated next to him.

The man apparently didn’t notice He Ao and the others at all and had just happenstance chosen this spot, sitting on the sofa and flipping through the travel guide.

The section he was currently reading was about the Volcano Park, the very place He Ao and his companions were heading to.

As the man slowly turned the pages, He Ao followed his movements, slowly reading the book along with him.

The book broadly introduced all the tourist landscapes of the Volcano Park.

The park includes a variety of snack streets, cultural and creative shops, and landscapes of strange rocks and mountains.

The most famous attraction of the entire park is the volcano’s crater.

The volcano within the Volcano Park is an active one—visitors can take a sightseeing car or drive themselves to a very high man-made platform, and from there, look down at the churning lava lake within the crater.

This travel guide recommends visitors ascend the mountain in the evening, as during non-eruptive periods, the lava lake isn’t entirely composed of flames. Its surface is covered in a layer of black crystalline rocks, making the overall brightness not very high.

Moreover, the crater is filled with dense smoke, so there’s a good chance that the smoke will obscure one’s view during the day and make it impossible to see anything.

In the evening, however, the faint glow that’s normally invisible comes to life with a sinister and fantastical crimson hue amidst the thick smoke.

Some travel bloggers have even dubbed such a crater "the Devil’s furnace."

While introducing the crater’s scenery, this travel magazine also reminds tourists to bring protective gear because sulfur dioxide and other toxic acidic gases are present in the smoke at the crater and on the way there.

The magazine has also recommended some shops at the base of the volcano where protective gear can be bought.

There wasn’t a lot of information about the crater, but the man spent the longest time reading this section, meticulously going through all the content.

After finishing up with Volcano Park, the man slowly flipped further down to look at other attractions.

And He Ao lifted his head, glancing at the man’s profile.

Under the gaze of the Eye of Truth, the man’s state was no different from others, and through the lens of Super Memory, there were no obvious missing soul fragments on him.

It seemed he really was just a phantom who had traveled here and happened to sit next to He Ao.

After a brief pause, He Ao slowly spoke up in a voice so low that only the two of them could hear, using the language of the First District, "Do you have something you want to tell me?"

After he spoke, the man showed no signs of stopping—he continued flipping through the pages in his hand as if he truly did not see He Ao, nor did he hear his words.

Then, after a momentary pause, the man seemed to remember something, raising his head to look towards the back door of the bus.

He closed the book in his hands and slowly walked to the back door, stretching out his hand and pressing the sixteenth touch button to light it up.

This was the stop before Volcano Park.

Then he returned to his seat and continued reading.

After a while, the bus gradually descended, and the doors opened.

The man appeared to be so engrossed in his book that he didn’t realize it at first. After a moment, he snapped out of it, hastily stood up, closed his book, and rushed through the doors.

A white bookmark fluttered down from the book, landing where he had just been sitting.

He Ao reached out to pick up the bookmark, turning his head to watch as the man’s figure disappeared outside the gradually closing bus doors.

At that moment, Li Cheng and Goya also turned their heads to look at He Ao.

Li Cheng, with a contemplative look, asks He Ao, "Is there a problem?"

He Ao gently shook his head, picking up the bookmark to inspect its contents.

The bookmark was intricately made; the front had a beautiful photo of the volcano photographed against the night sky, while the back held an urban legend printed out like a short story.

The legend’s content was simple: the south side of Volcano Park was open for visitors, but the north side was a pure nature reserve, sprawling and strictly off-limits to tourists.

Thus, many believed that the Federal Government had established some kind of dangerous secret facility on the far side of the volcano.

Shifting his gaze away from the bookmark, He Ao looked out the window beside him, "I was just reminded of someone from the past."

The sky outside the window had grown dim, and the stars were faintly revealing themselves in the firmament.

The bus started to take off again, and the middle-aged man’s figure had vanished completely.

The massive, cylindrical structure, resembling a rolled-up scroll, stood tall under the radiance of the stars.

The street lights had come on at some unknown point, their brilliant light illuminating the traffic and pedestrians up and down the roads.

The girl carrying a coffin and dressed in a maid outfit descended from the sky, gazing at the massive circular building before her, as well as at the engraved "Central Library of the First District" sign on a stone plaque at the building’s front.

There were steps leading up to the library’s entrance, which wasn’t very busy at the moment.

The maid girl, bearing the coffin, gently flew up and ’floated’ steadily through the library’s main entrance.

Her feet then touched down, and she paused a moment to look at the map at the entrance. She bypassed the security checkpoint in front of the library and continued along an adjacent corridor.

After taking a few turns and walking several hundred meters, a pair of locked glass double doors appeared before her.

Two figures, looking like security personnel, were sitting behind the doors, and they lifted their heads to look at the maid girl the moment she appeared.

The locked double glass doors gradually opened.

Two phantoms charged out like streaks of light—one wielding a slender curved knife, the other merging directly into the shadows under the lights.

The maid girl gently hoisted the coffin on her shoulder and threw it forward.

She then lifted her skirt, kicking out at the shadow to her right.

With a splatter of blood, a twisted, fleshy figure emerged from the shadows, its body struck in half by the maiden’s long, delicate legs, and a haze of blood fog obscured the entire corridor.

The slightly slower phantom, swinging the curved knife, had his view blocked and hesitated in his movement.

In the next second, the beautifully dressed maid girl, akin to a holy spirit, appeared directly in front of him, punching through his chest and tearing open his body, which had mutated into that of a monster.

Like an angel, the girl moved through the scattered blood mist and splashing blood, stepping out to appear in front of the half-entered but not yet grounded coffin. She caught the coffin with one hand and shouldered it.

A large wooden plaque fixed above the glass door bore the forcefully written inscription,

[Archives of the First District]

The maid girl lowered her gaze, shouldered the coffin, and walked deeper into the archives.