Chapter 900: Chapter 900

The sky had grown even darker, the entire firmament filled with a blood-red brilliance that dyed the world an intense shade of crimson.

And beneath this dim sky, the previously concealed starlight now revealed faint forms.

Yan Yue walked among the crowd, watching members of the Research Institute and the gendarmerie try their best to calm the boisterous and panicked masses.

A shout came from the crowd, "What is that?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Yue’s first instinct was to remind everyone not to look up, but at that moment, she faintly sensed something amiss. The already dim sky seemed to have darkened further.

She lifted her head and looked towards the sky.

The blazingly giant blood sun still occupied the central position in the sky, with scattered constellations revealing their forms around it. At that moment, between those constellations, an invisible, colossal hand reached out from among the stars.

The hand was so vast it covered most of the sky, making the enormous blood sun seem no more than a bright red marble in its grasp.

It seemed to come from the deepest reaches of the universe, crossing countless spans of time, appearing as though it were composed of starlight itself. It stood there as if it had always existed since time immemorial.

Yan Yue stared at that invisible, colossal hand, watching it rise and loom over the blood sun, observing the twisted red Array taking shape beneath it.

For an instant, she felt as if she had lost all perception of the size of living beings.

Could there really be an arm so immense in this world? Wouldn’t the owner of such an arm be larger than a planet?

Amidst her contemplation, Yan Yue suddenly realized she had been looking up at the sky for far too long. A voice, like that of invisible, threadlike worms, had already burrowed into her brain.

She also abruptly noticed that the surroundings had grown quiet at some unknown point, with nearly everyone looking up at the sky.

There was a risk of contamination.

She immediately opened her mouth, attempting to rouse the people around her.

It was then that she felt bathed in some invisible, "warm" radiance, the subtle madness of ravings silently pulled away.

She lifted her gaze again, looking toward the sky, where the resplendent red brilliance had, unbeknownst to her, converged beneath the Array under the colossal hand. Amidst that seemingly twisted, frenzied, blood-red light, there emitted a vast and hallowed brilliance.

Like a devout nun playing an ancient hymn in the glow of dawn, her mind was clear, her soul purer than it had ever been.

She simply gazed at the hand in the sky, watching as the dazzling brilliance burst from the Array beneath it, like a sharp thunderbolt, penetrating the blood-red sun and tearing open the entire bloodied sky.

A dead silence, as stark as the depths of winter, enveloped the streets and the city beyond; everyone was seemingly frozen in awe of the overwhelming power akin to that of a Divine Being.

No, perhaps it was a Divine Being itself.

It was only after an unknown period that Yan Yue felt as though she could hear the frantic pounding of her own heart, like a drumming within her chest.

She lowered her head, and a name that she had glimpsed only briefly in the archives flashed through her mind.

Standing atop the undulating rocks by the sea, Rudel held a satellite phone, trembling as he looked at the streak of light left behind in the sky and asked hoarsely, "Did you see it?"

Liu Zhengyun lowered his head, holding his breath, one eye peering through the eyepiece of the astronomical telescope before him.

The blood-colored planet, a thousand kilometers in diameter, took up most of his field of view.

The light from the blood-colored planet itself was very faint, completely obscured by daylight in areas outside the Western Lands not illuminated by the blood sun. It could only be seen through an astronomical telescope.

At this moment, from Liu Zhengyun’s point of view, aside from the vast blood-colored planet, he could faintly sense some terrifying, heart-palpitating power gathering at the planet’s edge.

He couldn’t see the "form" of that power through the telescope, but merely sensing its existence felt as if an invisible voice had burst into his mind, tearing at his soul, causing a splitting headache.

A fearful reverence pressed down on his body, compelling him to crawl and bow before the source of this great power.

He was well aware of the kind of existence to which such power belonged, the kind of source from which it should come.

He could also understand the despair in Rudel’s words ’cannot escape.’

It was a force they had only heard of, but never seen.

It belonged to the Divine Beings themselves.

And on the other side of the telescope’s field of view was a vague, immense, invisible palm.

An enormous blood-red Array, almost larger than the entire blood-colored planet itself, was forming beneath this palm, gathering brilliance.

It seemed unintentional, yet intentional, as the owner of this hand did not conceal its presence.

As Liu Zhengyun gazed at the brilliance under the hand, he could distinctly feel a sacred power seeping into his soul, helping him to rid himself of some of the mad ravings.

But the sensation did not last long, for the next second, he saw the resplendent light burst forth from the Array beneath the hand, piercing through the entire giant blood-colored planet.

A raspy question came through the satellite phone.

Liu Zhengyun took a deep breath, shifting his gaze away from the telescope.

At the same time, Wu Ganglie, who was beside him and also bore a look of shock and disbelief on his face, straightened up.

A name whispered through Newland City-State like a phantom surfaced in Liu Zhengyun’s mind.

He slowly began to speak, his answer equally hoarse,

Relic of the Bygone Days

At this moment, the stars dimmed, and the earth beneath people’s feet was ripping apart.

All mountains and rivers, all wonders and cities, were gradually melting into silent nothingness within the pitch-black cosmos.

The huge azure planet in the sky was rapidly dissipating, leaving only the dim stars around.

The Relic of the Bygone Days Angel had only forcefully projected a part of its power into the Main World, attempting to squeeze through. After He Ao had slain that Angel, the projection was already shattering, and they were returning to the real space of the Relic of the Bygone Days, a void universe.

In the midst of this void universe, on the enormous blood-colored planet, all that remained was a huge gaping breach several hundred kilometers in diameter, billowing with flames and charred debris, and giant cracks spreading from the breach to the planet’s surface.

The tentacles that danced in the sky had ceased their movement, the massive, incomplete limbs, along with the trembling and tearing earth, flung about continuously.

The earth had lost its gravitational pull on all surface objects, with the three figures that once stood upon it now naturally floating, propelled into the boundless void by the massive vibrations of the planet’s disintegration.

The rich, heavy atmosphere also quickly dissipated like a fleeting wind.

At that moment, a crisp steam whistle resounded through the thinning air.

An old-fashioned train burst from the void, passing through the chaotic molten lava and rubble dancing in the sky.

Immediately after, the carriage doors opened.

Lin Chichi, squatting inside the carriage, was momentarily stunned by the scene outside, but on seeing the three people flying in the air, she stretched out her hand without hesitation—one hand holding onto the door and the other reaching towards the nearest Goya.

As Goya caught sight of Lin Chichi, she too paused in surprise, but she did not hesitate to grasp Lin Chichi’s hand and let herself be pulled into the train.

Then, she turned around immediately, and two emerald vines surged from the tip of her Magic Wand, wrapping around ’Hao Yi’ and Li Cheng floating nearby, and with a fierce tug, both were quickly pulled into the carriage.

As Lin Chichi received the blood-soaked ’Hao Yi,’ she immediately reached out with a mix of concern and panic.

Goya also extended her Magic Wand.

He Ao landed smoothly and caught Li Cheng, who was a little further back. Hearing Lin Chichi’s voice, he paused for a moment and turned around to look beside him.

His eyes were filled with blood, almost blinding him, barely able to make out a blurry figure.

He looked at Lin Chichi’s blurred figure and revealed a faint smile, "Well done."

Lin Chichi hesitated for a moment, as if she had a thousand words to say, but in the end, she just tilted her little head slightly, twitched her nose, and with eyes brimming with shimmering light, she nodded firmly, "Mm!"

"Did that guy disappear?"

At this moment, Li Cheng, with his eyes closed, holding Andaville’s Spear in his arms, turned his head slightly and asked softly.

He Ao raised his head, looking through the train door at the scattered points of light converging together in the dark universe, and said calmly, "Not yet."

The dining car’s door closed abruptly, and on the other side, the door of the Velora’s locomotive opened again.

He Ao’s real body looked up at the cluster of light points hovering amidst the stars, taking on indescribable shapes.

His real body’s condition was worse than his clone’s; his eyes were almost completely covered in blood, and he had nearly lost all sight. He could only rely on Super Memory’s blurry visual capture to detect the light points in the sky.

Since just moments ago, the terrifying and rampant contamination had been constantly resonating in his mind, with the overflowing power of contamination destroying his bodily structure at every moment.

The force descending from the hidden Divine Being far exceeded what a normal Descending Ceremony should bring. It must have laid other contingency plans within the Angel of the Relic of the Bygone Days, enabling it to summon Its Advent at the fastest speed.

Although He Ao had interrupted the Descending Ceremony, a vast amount of force had still been projected over.

These forces descended upon He Ao in the form of pure contamination. Such a vast power of contamination could drive even a normal Angel insane.

It was a simple and efficient method; as long as what hindered It was not a true Divine Being, even an Angel would hesitate and retreat, making way for Its Advent.

The least amount of power used in the most effective way.

The opponent’s plan was probably to have the Angel of the Relic of the Bygone Days summon Its Advent as soon as it found the Main World.

The light points in the sky surged as if the gaze from beyond endless time was trying to penetrate through, to see clearly everything that had occurred here, to see the giant hand in the sky, to see the Maiden Puppet carrying the coffins, to see the young man enduring Its contamination.

But in the end, as the crimson planet completely shattered and vanished, the light points in the sky finally began to dissipate.

The scattered light points roiled and churned as if suppressing some silent rage.

And He Ao raised his hand, waving goodbye to those light points.

Accompanied by a violent flicker, which could be due to extreme rage or some other emotion, the last light point of the scattered glory in the sky finally disappeared completely.

The hand He Ao was waving paused slightly, and then he fell straight backward onto the ground with a thud.

The Maiden Puppet fell from the sky and flew into the train door.

The opened door closed abruptly, and the entire Velora disappeared into the void.

It took a while before He Ao turned over, propped up his body with difficulty, and sat up, leaning against the wall.

If he hadn’t ’bestowed’ the remaining power, which the Jade Pendant couldn’t contain, to his real body through the Maiden Puppet during the sacrifice of the Cyclops Giant, he might not have been able to withstand the impact of the outburst of violent contamination on his body.

The Maiden Puppet sat beside him, transferring some of the power from the ’sacrifice’ of the remnants of the Angel of the Relic of the Bygone Days into his body.

Only when his body had slightly recovered did He Ao struggle to stand up and walk back to the train door.

The blood in his eyes had faded a bit, and he could see some blurry objects in his field of view.

The Velora drove out of the dark tunnel, arriving in an area engulfed in fiercely burning lava.

He Ao opened the train door and looked above.

At this moment, within his view, the massive shattered carcass within the intensely hot lava—in the process of cooling and mingled with charred black corpses—was melting rapidly into nothingness, with dense Arrays carved into the surrounding rocks and carcasses.

It seemed as if the carcass was using its last strength to perform a ’sacrifice.’

He Ao looked toward the center of that ’Sacrificial Array,’ where the sacrifices were placed.

There lay a massive piece of ordinary-looking flesh which was rapidly vanishing, seemingly nearing the completion of its sacrifice.

An orange-gray ring lit up in his bloodshot pupils, and then, embedded within the larger triangle, a huge eye traced out from behind his head.

The massive chunk of flesh in his field of view rapidly transformed into distorted lines, amidst which a certain black brilliance undulated faintly.

That sphere of black brilliance, having the most lines, appeared to also be the slowest part to be sacrificed. A dense tangle of lines wrapped around it, seemingly a sort of natural seal.

Without any hesitation, He Ao surged forward, flying towards the huge mass of flesh and summoning the power of the Eye of Truth.

And behind him, the Velora rapidly disappeared into the void.

In an instant, a vast piece of flesh was torn apart by some invisible force, and a few streaks of grey brilliance flashed across it. Right after that, as the brilliance shattered, He Ao reached out and fiercely grasped the most core item from the remains that were about to vanish.

The immense contamination power surged into his mind through the Array, but he did not pause for a moment, his whole body grasping the core item, rolled and jumped out.

The Velora reappeared from the other side, its front hatch doors open, perfectly catching He Ao’s body.

Then the hatch closed, the Velora disappeared into the void again.

The massive carcass also slowly vanished amid the flickering light of the Array.

Then, after a brief pause, a terrifying grey light chain descended upon the space which had not completely dissipated, and a violent storm tore apart everything around in an instant.

Feeling the violent vibrations of the outer space, He Ao looked at the large clump of black ’ash’ he had snatched, from which a wildly distorted and mad aura seeped out.

Clearly, this was an Angel-grade item, a remnant of the Angel from that bygone relic.

He had actually sensed this unusual ’sacrifice’ location a long time ago, thanks to the power of the Eye of Truth. This sacrifice was different from the previous Descending Ceremony; it appeared after he killed the Angel of the bygone relic, obviously some kind of ’emergency contingency measure.’

But he had always stayed his hand and kept silent.

After all, with his extensive experience in communicating with Divine Beings, he knew very well that Sacrificial Arrays generally came with a location trace. If he charged straight in, he would most likely give that behind-the-scenes Divine Being a chance for a harsh strike.

As long as he kept hovering around the edge, he could react in time to the first instance of Divine Punishment from that Divine Being, and immediately use the Velora to flee through spatial maneuvering.

Moreover, he could roughly guess that the Divine Being, in the process of ’recovering’ something important, dared not easily drop Divine Punishment for fear of destroying what was within the Sacrificial Array.

So He Ao waited until the phantom of that Divine Being disappeared, then pretended to leave the space, waiting for the other side to let down their guard, before making a Backturn Spear maneuver to see what that Divine Being really wanted to do.

To be honest, this friend wasn’t very straightforward; having sent the Angel and all, he still thought of recovering the left-behind Angel-grade item, trying to rob He Ao of his spoils of war.

Although as a law-abiding good citizen, He Ao felt somewhat embarrassed, if the other party didn’t play by the rules, he had no choice but to intervene and keep this thing.

The Velora was still shaking violently; the outside space was probably still enduring the power of furious outburst. It seemed that fellow really had quite the temper, almost matching that of a good friend.

He lifted his hand and placed the also ash-like ’Echo of the Bygone Days’ he had collected earlier next to this clump of ash.

Then he saw the clump of ash flicker for a moment, engulfing the ’Echo of the Bygone Days,’ and then the clump of ash slowly consolidated, like time reversing, into a half-transparent black page.

’Book of Bygone Days Page’

A piece of information transmitted into He Ao’s mind.

He bowed his head, his blurred gaze fixed on this page. It seemed to be a fragmentary page of an item known as the ’Book of Bygone Days.’

Storing away this page, feeling the surging Martial Arts power within him.

He Ao walked over to the control console of the Velora, fumbling in his bosom and taking out a Mithril Test Tube emitting a grey light.

[Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar]

[Promotion Ritual: Create a grand miracle that would be passed down through history.]

His field of view was still blurry; with fumbling hands, he brought the test tube to his mouth, bit off the cork, and drank the liquid inside the tube in one go.

The distorted contamination rushed out of the test tube in an instant, flooding his mind, then quickly drowning in the still-not-fully-dissipated aftershocks of the powerful Divine Being’s pollution.

The Velora proceeded along a dark tunnel.

Outside the tunnel, shattered planets turned into scattered debris, flowing under the dim starlight.