Longzang

Chapter 1111 Until the End of the World
Wei Yuan walked among the fragments of heaven and earth, observing the remnants of time while examining the details of the entire world.

Wei Yuan quickly returned to Ji Liuli's office and examined the dark vortex that existed between illusion and reality once more. This time, Wei Yuan had completely grasped this fragment of heaven and earth, and the illusory world constructed by the little monk naturally disappeared.

That dark vortex actually pushed time forward by several hundred years within that small area. Once Wei Yuan stepped into it, he would fall into the past and be tainted by the karma of that time. When he returned to reality, it would be as if he had been washed away by hundreds of years of time in an instant. His soul and physical body would be branded, and his lifespan would be greatly reduced.

This arrangement was extremely insidious. Under normal circumstances, pushing forward would be much easier. After Wei Yuan fell in, he would essentially age, and even if he returned to reality, the imprint on his body and soul would remain unchanged. In other words, if Wei Yuan hadn't jumped but instead drifted forward through time for five hundred years before returning to his current starting point, it would have been equivalent to gaining five hundred years in age.

But this applies to mortals. For Wei Yuan, there is resistance to the erosion. With the strength of Wei Yuan's Dharma body, the power of time in this small area cannot erode him at all. In the back and forth, Wei Yuan's age may only increase by a few days.

But now we're pushing forward, so when Wei Yuan returns, he'll be facing the erosion of time across the entire world, and he might even be decades older.

Upon realizing this, Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine and cursed the bald monk inwardly for being so treacherous, never daring to act openly and instead resorting to such underhanded tactics.

Wei Yuan, who considered himself an honest man, could never have imagined such a treacherous trap. He then diligently studied and figured out how to move a small area forward and backward in time, thus gaining another strange skill.

However, this can only be done in fragments of a world where the Heavenly Dao has completely disappeared. In a slightly larger, normal world, turning back time would require at least the power of an immortal. It would be absolutely impossible in this world; it would probably require the level of an Ancestral Witch and only be possible by chance, with extremely limited possibilities and very little time to advance.

Even within fragments of the world, rewinding time requires immense magical power, something no ordinary cultivator could accomplish. However, the two traps in Ji Liuli's office consumed remarkably little energy. Wei Yuan guessed that the young monk was either exceptionally skilled in time-related Buddhist supernatural powers or possessed a time-related Buddhist treasure. This was something that couldn't be ignored.

Having grasped the true nature of the trap, Wei Yuan saw the Pure Land Temple in his eyes. Suddenly, a large expanse of Buddhist light appeared in front of him, then dissipated and vanished, pushing him back to the small space of the past and back to the present.

Many years had passed, and the safe on the wall had corroded. Wei Yuan reached out and tore the lid off.

There was only one old photograph in the safe.

Time has made even steel fragile, but the old photos inside remain intact, which is quite magical.

Wei Yuan's eyes flashed like lightning as he discerned a faint force field attached to the photograph, which was what allowed it to withstand the erosion of time. It seemed that back then, Ji Liuli had gone to great lengths, hiring a top-tier superhuman to use their abilities, which was how this photograph was preserved over the long course of time.

Wei Yuan picked up the photo, and suddenly a figure appeared in it—a handsome yet melancholic young man. He looked up at Wei Yuan, a sunny smile on his face, and said, "Liu Li, we meet again. I don't know how many years it will be before I see you again, or what you will look like now. But I am still the same as I was back then, unchanged, and I will never change."

The protection I've attached to this photo is everything, including my life. I'm sorry I didn't tell you this, only that I might get seriously ill at most. But I know this photo is extremely important to you, so I used abilities I haven't fully mastered yet.

That is the realm of the gods. For me, a mortal, to recklessly touch that realm would mean utter annihilation. So this is now the only mark I leave on this world, and it will soon vanish. Finally, there's something I wanted to say to you, but I've never been able to…

It was a pleasure to meet you.

He left with a bright smile, a smile like that of a young boy basking in the sunlight—simple, pure, and with only a longing for simple happiness in his eyes.

For some reason, Wei Yuan felt a momentary daze, realizing that simple affection could be so moving, so deeply touching. The photograph in his hand, though carefully preserved with someone's life, had yellowed and faded. In the photo, the girl had her hands on the boy's shoulders, her smile radiant, like the spring sunshine.

The boy still had a touch of childishness, but his eyes held layers of unfathomable depth. The boy's face was Wei Yuan's own, and the moment Wei Yuan saw him, he knew that it was him, only existing in some unknown world in a way he couldn't yet comprehend.

For some reason, seeing his ten-year-old self gave Wei Yuan a sense of falling, as if without external intervention, this boy would continue to fall and eventually disappear into the endless darkness.

That sunny girl was the only rope that held him back from falling; though slender, it was incredibly firm.

Wei Yuan flipped the photo over and saw a heart drawn on the back, with a line of small text written below: "Until the end of the world."

The moment Wei Yuan saw those words, a tearing pain shot through his head, as if something was trying to be unearthed from the depths of his memory. But all that remained was a scar; nothing else.

At this point, Wei Yuan understood that the fragments of this world were indeed closely related to him, which was why his true spirit could be retrieved from afar.

The little monk and the powerful Buddhist figures behind him never expected that they would be defeated in the battle of Buddhist intent, only able to unleash one or two tenths of their full power, and ultimately be overturned by Wei Yuan, with even the fragments of heaven and earth being taken away.

Besides this photo, there was also a note under the desk. But the handwriting was blurry, and it was impossible to make out what it said; it wasn't about saving me or killing me.

Wei Yuan put the note down for the time being. According to the surveillance footage, Ji Liuli's behavior was a bit strange at the time, and he didn't understand the meaning of leaving the note.

But this photograph is far more important. Wei Yuan had a vague feeling that she wanted him to see it. But what connection did the girl who escaped from the snow mountain have with the three later leaders of the Umbrella Corporation? Could that be Ji Liuli in her youth?
But Wei Yuan still felt it didn't make sense, since the girl from that point in time had already been killed by the little monk from afar. Then who was Ji Liuli, one of the three giants later on?
Wei Yuan had many questions, but many remained unanswered. It seemed that only by finding more relevant fragments of the past and excavating the history buried beneath the ruins could the truth be revealed.

The historical exploration ends here, but this place still holds a crucial resource: research data from the Umbrella Corporation.

When Wei Yuan checked the real world, he found that several terminals were still running, which meant that the central server was likely still operational. Even if the server was down, the research data and supervirus database inside were invaluable; recovering even a small portion would be incredibly useful.

What Wei Yuan valued more was not the readily available research data, but the various tools and research systems that Umbrella Corporation used to study viruses and even biological genes.

Umbrella Corporation's achievements are built upon a foundation of numerous mortal researchers led by a few super geniuses. In this realm, and even in the prosperous realms of all, there are at least several hundred people whose research capabilities are equivalent to those of super geniuses. Any Dao Foundation cultivator, in terms of quick thinking and lightning-fast intellect, is more than qualified to be an ordinary researcher at Umbrella Corporation.

Once the entire research system can be transferred to Qingming, numerous highly skilled geniuses will naturally refine and modify it to adapt to this world. At that time, the gaps in Qingming's biochemical genetics will be filled, and its overall technological level will be greatly enhanced once again.

Moreover, Wei Yuan believes that the demonic flesh and blood genes, which the Umbrella Corporation has never been able to conquer, might be broken through by the methods of the immortals in this world, thus revealing what is locked beneath the flesh and blood genes.

(End of this chapter)