Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1422 The Shadow
To outsiders, the demon star's crouching body suddenly began to swell, with numerous needle-like protrusions appearing on its surface, only to quickly return to its original state. The successive appearance of these protrusions undoubtedly caused considerable shock to the demon star, but it remained crouched, seemingly determined to devour something.

However, after a brief stalemate, a violent explosion suddenly occurred directly beneath the massive body of the Demon Star. Flesh and bone fragments poured out of the blasted hole in the storm. Yu Chi Long led a group of people out of the hole. They were not in good condition, and their numbers had been greatly reduced. Under the immense pressure created by the Demon Star, Yu Chi Long was unable to shield everyone.

Their hearts were gone, but at the last moment, the impact still shattered the hard bones, punching a hole in the skin. The demon star's body swayed, then finally collapsed, kicking up a large cloud of filthy dust on the ground.

Yu Chilong was panting heavily. He wiped his face, and his arm, which had been wiping his mouth, was soaked with a lot of blood.

His heart was also beginning to ache, though it didn't leap out of his chest like some of his comrades who had perished within the Demon Star. As for the Demon Star... he still didn't believe his attack was enough to kill his opponent; knocking him down once was already the best he could manage with all his might.

"Is this all the people left?" Yu Chilong looked back and saw that the originally huge team behind him had been reduced to only twenty or so riders. They were all the people who had charged closely behind him. Those who were farther away from him had all perished in the darkness.

With such a large number of troops, the formation was no longer effective. However, his final strike was worthy of all the accumulation over such a long period of time. When he finally pierced through it, he clearly felt the demon star tremble.

"Boss, we have to go..." someone said in a low voice, "Everyone's not doing well...we have to leave."

“I know.” Yu Chilong tried to urge his warhorse forward and took a few more steps, but the horse suddenly knelt down and its heart spewed out of its mouth, and Yu Chilong fell off the saddle.

The others were shocked to see this and immediately dismounted to check on Yuchi Long's condition.

"Don't panic, maintain the formation..." Yu Chilong helped his horse up, but felt his legs were going weak. All his strength was rapidly draining away. He hadn't felt this strange when he was so close to the demon star's body.

"Boss, we're out of manpower, we can't hold on any longer..."

Yu Chilong coughed twice, raised his head to look at the sky, and the rolling green mountains seemed to be pressing down on his head. This made Yu Chilong realize that he could only stop one of the evil stars and the evil creatures of the past. Now, the evil creatures did not want to lose another "home". Not only the Infernal Walker, but all the evil creatures that came would attack him, the destroyer.

"A bunch of brainless monsters."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a square seal.

"You should leave now. The army formation is gone, and you are completely unprotected."

"Boss? We can get you out of here! Our horses can still run!"

"Screw running! I know your situation perfectly well! Get out of my way, it's my time now!"

Yuchi Long tossed the seal into the air, and the characters on it began to change on their own. Then he waved vigorously to his companions: "Execute the order!"

The demon star's body is slowly rising again, and the spreading evil power is gradually distorting the surrounding scenery.

[Honor: Leader]
Special reward unlocked: Chaotic Script.

When written language was born, order was established on its medium, and from this, a nation could be born.

Upon receiving a reward item, nine sealed characters are obtained based on the circumstances at the time of acquisition. Each character can be used twice within a single scene. Three random character combinations are generated, and these combinations immediately take effect within the scene. Additionally, nine new sealed characters are obtained based on the circumstances prior to generating the random characters; the old and new sealed characters will not be the same.

Special warning: The rules governing the text will not exclude users from any of their effects.

—The leader, seated on a high throne, bows his head, reciting a code written in chaotic script within his own closed world, displaying absolute authority to all things.

Yuchi Long is not a person who likes to gamble with his life, but as a tourist, he has to be willing to gamble with his life when necessary.

The characters on the seal changed rapidly. Yu Chilong knew the nine characters left behind last time: Crack, Array, Sever, Transformation, Mystery, Star, Fate, Illusion, Gate.

He heard everyone else running away, but he felt his vision blurring and his strength rapidly draining away. Yet, he still managed to make out the words that were slowly slowing down from their rapid changes—

"The best outcome would be a break, a transformation of life, and a phantom gate..."

He collapsed onto the yellow sand, his gaze fixed on the square seal that had finally come to rest, a helpless smile playing on his lips.

"Death Severance, Illusion, Star Gate".

Not bad either—he thought in the end.

The square seal suddenly lost its levitation power, fell onto the sand, and began to gradually crumble and disappear. New characters were still being generated, but due to the user's death, a character "祝" (blessing) appeared in the corner and then disappeared along with the square seal.

However, death was not the end for Yuchi Long. Where he fell, a huge phantom of a tree suddenly rose up. Its truly enormous body, reaching to the heavens and the earth, was incomparable to the demon star's height, which was probably only a few hundred meters. It was the phantom of a towering tree that had once existed in this world in ancient times.

This illusion immediately captured the attention of all the former evil beings, even temporarily restoring their near-madness. They quickly abandoned the demonic star that was rising again and rushed towards their reappeared home.

Finally, there was a halo appearing in the sky.

A pure white halo, radiating a cold glow, was high enough for half of the Great Wei to see, even more obvious than the illusion of Jianmu. Lu Ning, in Lingjiang, was naturally the first to recognize it—Jianmu and the True Immortal. Although she had only described what it looked like to Yuchi Long, Yuchi Long had recreated it almost entirely through his imagination, and she could recognize it at a glance.

As for why it was Yuchi Long, it was because she was absolutely certain that Zhao Yuqiao wouldn't cause such a big commotion, and only two tourists in Gouchen were capable of describing the wonders she had described.

But why at this time? And what is the purpose of displaying this scene? Lu Ning clearly sensed a faint connection between herself and the power within, but the connection was too distant for her to discern. "Is anyone there?" She activated the power on the ice mirror, allowing the chill to spread. Finally, someone noticed her mirror—a personal guard. Lu Ning told him to quickly find one of General Qin Luo's three men.

Grand Tutor Qin didn't say anything, but kept a close eye on the changes on the battlefield.

Lu Ning was surprised to find that it wasn't Qin Luo and the others who arrived, but Zhao Yuqiao.

“Lu Ning, ah, the one next to you…”

"Zhao Yuqiao, is that you?"

“Sigh, things are in chaos…” Zhao Yuqiao scratched his head and said, “The huge tree that suddenly appeared outside the city has attracted the attention of all the evil creatures. They haven’t attacked the city yet, but the three generals have to be on guard. Right now, they probably don’t even have time to answer you. As for me, you know I got familiar with this place when I treated the three generals before, so they asked me to come and tell you about the current situation.”

“Let’s go through them one by one. What about the demonic star? I see its demonic aura is fading.”

"It's leaving. The demon star seems to have lost interest in this place, but it's heading north. You probably don't need to worry about Lingjiang, but..." Zhao Yuqiao hesitated for a moment before glancing at the crystal next to Lu Ning in the mirror image.

"We'll be at Guanyuan, is that right?" Grand Tutor Qin asked.

“Yes, even if Guanyuan isn’t exactly north of Gouchen, it’s not far off. The movement of that demonic star is truly unpredictable. If it senses something and goes to Guanyuan, then… this…”

"But it doesn't matter."

"The front line is likely to collapse at the first touch," Zhao Yuqiao said. "The last time I saw a demon star in this state was in Xingyin."

Zhao Yuqiao's revelation of this matter saved Lu Ning from having to report it again. Upon hearing this, Grand Tutor Qin understood Zhao Yuqiao's meaning. The strength of the Demon Star had its own standards of measurement. Since the Demon Star was defeated at such a cost in the battle of Xingyin, if Guan Yuan were to encounter it head-on now, he would probably have to pay a considerable price as well.

"With the combined strength of Guan Yuan, it is still possible to create a force comparable to that of the Heavenly Court," said Grand Tutor Qin. "However, if that is the case, we will have to draw troops from Gouchen Lingjiang to provide reinforcements."

"Please give the order, Grand Tutor," Lu Ning said.

Zhao Yuqiao didn't want to get involved in this conversation, so he quickly said, "Then the next thing, that thing that appeared outside the city, is very likely the Jianmu tree that you told me about before, Lu Ning. As for the halo on it, it's probably the influence of the True Immortal back then. I don't know who made this thing, but I can guess a thing or two... That kid Yuchi Long is probably gone."

"Did he run into the demon star?"

"That's the most likely explanation. You know that kid doesn't tolerate any nonsense, and he always tries to resolve any crisis he sees... I don't know how he managed to create such a commotion, but if you look closely at the sky, you'll probably realize that thing is all show and no substance. Didn't you see the Demon Star just run away without even bothering with it?"

“If something happens to Yuchi Long, he won’t just throw out something that’s all show and no substance,” Lu Ning said. “You’d better go check it out as soon as possible. The phantom of Jianmu will probably attract the evil spirits from the past, but I don’t know what they will do after they realize it’s fake. I need to investigate that halo.”

"Investigate the aperture? How can you investigate something that's so high?" Zhao Yuqiao asked in surprise.

"Go into your dreams."

The fleeting scene could reflect everything between heaven and earth, and in the dream, Lu Ning could fly. If it was truly the work of a true immortal, Lu Ning felt that even the fleeting scene probably couldn't be reflected, but if it was left by Yuchi Long, it was worth a try.

She bowed to Grand Tutor Qin and the two generals, then found a quiet room, closed her eyes, and instantly entered a dream.

In her dream, Lingjiang was encased in crimson ice, heavily guarded like Gouchen. After checking the defenses, Lu Ning began to ascend into the sky, freely passing through rooftops and approaching the cold halo of light in the heavens.

As if sensing Lu Ning's approach, the halo began to flicker. Lu Ning didn't rush to accelerate, but cautiously continued to observe the changes in the halo. After getting close enough, she finally saw that what made up the halo was not pure light, but some glowing characters. They looked like fragments of something, arranged in a ring in the air, and looked like the rings that were typical of True Immortals.

Lu Ning raised an eyebrow slightly, then tried to extract some meaning from that halo, just like how Ye You constructed a dream city and non-existent people based on the impressions of many people. She was also learning to do the same.

At the center of the ring, a person emerges from particles of light.

"Yuchi Long... it really was you."

“I failed, Lu Ning.” Yu Chilong, composed of light particles, went straight to the point. “I thought there was a possibility that the Demon Star and the evil creatures of the past might be working together, so I took the lead in trying to expel the Demon Star, but I didn’t have a good enough understanding of the extent of the evil creatures’ madness. However, these are not the biggest reasons. The biggest reason is… that I have been away from Gouchen for too long.”

"Ok?"

“Lu Ning, do not ignore the land around us that has already begun to mutate. We cannot linger on the land of the Great Wilderness for long. With my strength, I am fine in my full state, but once I am injured, or expend too much energy killing enemies, or my army suffers great losses, the backlash from the Great Wilderness will appear on me. Before I die, I have figured out what my problem is.”

"Do not fall into weakness outside the scope of the laws of humanity?"

"Yes, but this is also good news, Lu Ning. The Great Wilderness treats everything equally. Whether it's ancient evil creatures or demons, they are affected in the same way as us. Ancient evil creatures cannot adapt to the Great Wilderness, which was not shaped by environmental builders like the Jianmu tree. As for demons, Lu Ning, this is a good way to kill the demon star. Even though the demon star that appeared in Gouchen is so big, it has still been eroded by the Great Wilderness. It is very weak. I felt it when I pierced its body. It is not that strong at all. It's just that ordinary people still can't deal with it!"

Yu Chilong spoke very quickly within the light particles, and Lu Ning listened to him. She knew that these words might not last long; they were just a piece of information recorded in some way.

“My corpse should have transformed into a false Jianmu tree. As long as my corpse is moved, the Jianmu tree will move with it. Tell them to send my corpse to the Great Wilderness and let nature kill those evil things that we cannot kill. Then, the demons are yours, Lu Ning, and the other tourists. I don’t expect you to kill all the demons, but this world… should ultimately be governed by the human race.”

At this point, a broken square seal suddenly appeared above Yuchi Long's head, and his halo and body began to float toward the seal, completing the characters in the seal.

Soldiers, heart, wish, dream, old, seek, mountain, return, nightmare.