Mythological origin

This city is very quiet.

From the outside, Hyacinth City and most areas of Chrysanthemum City look like ghost towns, with only a large number of driverless trucks driving on the roads and hardly any living people in sight.

The trucks came in various shapes and sizes; some resembled flat beetles, gliding silently along the ground; others had multiple tires and robotic arms, enabling them to load and unload goods flexibly.

They moved in an orderly fashion along pre-set routes, merging into silent streams of traffic...

There was no one on the road because every household in the city had been equipped with a small spatial teleportation array, allowing ordinary people to teleport directly to any place within the city that was permitted to enter without leaving their homes.

These teleportation arrays are usually located in a specific room in one's own home. They may simply be a metal square about two meters in diameter engraved with complex runes. Using them requires consuming a certain amount of energy and inputting precise coordinates.

Perhaps due to the designer's quirky sense of humor, it actually looks quite similar to the Anywhere Door.

……

According to Terra scientists, the energy required for spatial teleportation is directly proportional to the teleportation mass and distance. The greater the mass, the more exponentially the energy needed to warp space; the greater the distance, the greater the energy required to maintain the stability of the spatial channel.

With Terra's current technology, the cost of teleportation within 100 kilometers for a single person can be reduced to around ten dollars. However, as the quality and distance increase, the cost will rise sharply.

Therefore, in Hyacinth City, people travel almost entirely by teleportation, but large-scale cargo transportation still relies on driverless vehicles.

After all, the cost of transporting 100 tons of goods to a neighboring city would be enough to bankrupt a small chamber of commerce.

"You're here?" Bai Mo's senses, like an invisible spiderweb, instantly covered the area. He spotted an old acquaintance, Heavenly Punishment True Monarch, Hou Zi.

The opponent's fluctuations were extremely well hidden, almost indistinguishable from those of an ordinary resident, but the sharpness and accumulated malevolent aura contained within could not escape Bai Mo's perception.

Hou Zi lived a secluded life in this Hyacinth City, living a peaceful life like an ordinary person.

I live at the end of a quiet street in a seemingly unremarkable three-story building.

The exterior of the small building is made of gray-white alloy, a common sight in Hyacinth City. The windows are clean, and several potted green plants are placed on the windowsill.

He hid the tattered robe with the word "Justice" written on it in his room, at the very bottom of the wardrobe, in a sealed box, carefully preserving it along with his past filled with killing and escape.

When Bai Mo arrived, Hou Zizheng was dressed casually and tending to his flowers and plants on the balcony.

He held an old-fashioned watering can and carefully watered each plant, his movements slow and focused.

"It's you?!" He put down the kettle and stared at the two people in front of him in shock. All his composure and calmness just now were swept away.

His pupils contracted slightly, his body stiffened for a moment, and his fingers gripping the kettle handle tightened unconsciously.

"Crack!" The kettle was accidentally crushed into powder by Hou Zi's fingers.

Despite having lived in seclusion for many years, his ingrained vigilance and instinctive reaction to powerful beings instantly put him on high alert.

These two guys are both at the level where everyone in the world knows them.

White ink, the will of Heaven.

Edward Teach, the notorious leader of an evil organization, the ruler of the Dark Forest, a synonym for chaos and destruction. "Hahahaha!!! I didn't expect you to still be alive, kid. I had high hopes for you back then." Before Bai Mo could even respond, Edward Teach burst into laughter.

Even when he was just standing there casually, his massive body exuded a suffocating sense of oppression.

As a representative of chaos and evil, Teach also knows about Hou Zi, who can become stronger by eating people, because he also has a similar superpower of enhancing himself by plundering others.

Teach's abilities are more direct and domineering, while Hou Zi's carry a distorted sense of "judgment."

However, the two were separated by thousands of miles between the eastern and western continents back then, and had never had the opportunity to communicate.

When Bai Mo established the White Land and forcibly ordered those who disobeyed to leave Earth, Teach chose to follow the Human Federation to the Moon, while Hou Zi hid in the Nine Netherworld.

Hou Zi, in particular, used to target and kill the powerful and wealthy in the Huaya Federation. He had enemies all over the world, and countless people wanted him dead. They didn't dare to go to the moon at all.

"You seem to be having a comfortable time here," Bai Mo said.

His tone was flat, making it impossible to tell whether he was stating a statement or asking a question.

"I've been killing in the Nine Netherworld for hundreds of years, I'm tired," Hou Zi said calmly.

His voice carried a hint of weariness, a kind of exhaustion that came from the depths of his soul.

The endless slaughter and devouring in the Nine Netherworld had long since honed his initial burning passion for "acting on behalf of Heaven" into a cold, sharp blade wielded solely for survival.

After saying "Heaven's will has always been difficult to fathom" to Chen Kedi, he disbanded his organization.

That was not just a sentiment, but a reflection on and conclusion of the path that had been taken.

They once firmly believed that they were carrying out some kind of "divine punishment," but eventually discovered that the so-called "divine will" might not exist at all, or might be coldly watching everything, and that they had simply gone astray on the path they had chosen.

The Nine Netherworld has been completely integrated into the Endless Earth. These ancient "Fire Mist Warriors" no longer need to be trapped in this purgatory and should be free to seek their own future.

With prisons gone, an organization that survives solely by banding together within prisons has no reason to continue existing.

Former comrades went their separate ways; some returned to ordinary life, some sought new strength, and some, like him, chose to go into hiding.

Hou Zizai wandered the endless land for several years, but he still dared not enter the core of Terra. After all, he was only a sixth-order cultivator. If any true immortal happened to remember the grudge from hundreds of years ago, he would be doomed.

Beings at the True Immortal level possess extremely long lifespans and memories; several hundred years may not seem like a long time to them.

He didn't dare gamble on that chance.

He simply has a strong sense of justice and likes to act on behalf of Heaven; that doesn't mean he's a fool.

On the contrary, Hou Zi possessed extremely high survival wisdom and the ability to assess situations, which enabled him to survive and escape such an encirclement.

He knew where the safe boundaries were and where the forbidden zones were absolutely off-limits.

Therefore, he decided to live in seclusion in Hyacinth City. Far from the center of imperial power, and with the White Land's influence acting as a buffer, it was the most suitable place for someone of his sensitive status to hide. (End of Chapter)