Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 648 The "First" Burial Ground, the Legendary "Ruins of Return" (1 words!)
"Liangzi's name?" Lin Yi was taken aback. "What is Liangzi's name?"

“Time…” Tian Bufan paused, then continued, ““The Time Council, and then you can just add any number.”

"This thing is incredibly intimidating. Since nobody knows the true nature of the 'Time Council,' it's been heavily influenced by Di, and its power is comparable to summoning super machines during the Industrial Revolution!"

"You mean, this fictitious 'Time Council' created by Liangzi is so powerful that even the strange creatures in the Gray Mist Sea are intimidated by it?"

Lin Yi's mouth dropped open. Is this reasonable?

Is Liangzi really that high-ranking?

Isn't that too far-fetched?
Tian Bufan said, "When you're challenging someone to a duel on the battlefield, wouldn't it be more impressive to announce the unit number?"

"Number?!" Lin Yi's eyes lit up, as if a certain keyword had been triggered.

"..." Tian Bufan said speechlessly, "What do you think a military unit designation is?"

"Um... I actually thought it was a military designation too," Lin Yi argued.

"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking." Tian Bufan sneered, but then curled his lip. "...But to be fair, the method that Heavenly Venerable Fusheng Weiliang came up with is really effective."

"what?"

"It's nothing, don't you think?"

"what?"

"The army's designation."

"Ah, hoohoo! Yes, yes..."

"Since 'yes', then hurry up and state your name!"

"Uh, I see..." Because of the code number, Lin Yi unconsciously shrank his neck, thinking to himself that he almost "revealed his name to make you laugh"...

But his professionalism was still there, so he quickly readjusted his words and began his appeal:

"Headmaster, Headmaster—! This is the Time Council, Squadron 01. Please respond! Please respond!!"

"Headmaster, Headmaster—! This is the Time Council, Squadron 01. Please respond! Please respond!!"

"Headmaster, Headmaster—! Where is this…"

Waves of sound, transmitted through the "radar" form of the anchor point matrix, spread into the depths of the gray fog sea.

Lin Yi kept calling out, but he never received a response from the principal, nor could he sense the principal's location.

As a result, the Gray Mist Sea began to churn continuously. Beneath the black waves, distorted shadows gradually appeared, surging like a school of fish, and gradually approaching the surface of the sea!

"Shh-sh ...

These twisted, dark shadows, like a school of fish, quickly emerged from the sea. A vast, dark mass, like countless deformed, eerie dolphins, crowded together as they emerged from the water, weaving nimbly between lampposts before falling back into the sea.

Strangely, these nocturnal dolphins, originating from the deep sea, have dazzling patterns on their bodies, like ancient and strange writing. As they swim, the patterns on their skin constantly writhe, squeezing out large amounts of white, extraordinary substances, as if squeezing cheese out of bread.

As they moved about, the extraordinary substances stuck to the lampposts.

Tian Bufan snorted coldly. As the person in charge of guarding, he was not only responsible for observation. When these extraordinary substances adhered to the lampposts, he directly activated the secret runes within the anchor matrix, ruthlessly erasing them off and then crushing them into energy within the matrix.

Those dolphin-like nocturnal creatures didn't seem to feel any displeasure at this. They were like a group of wild beasts driven by pure instinct, trying to leave their scent on the lampposts to mark their territory and anchor their leap coordinates.

Fortunately, Lin Yi raised the team's ceiling, allowing Tian Bufan to unleash combat power at the same level as him. Otherwise, the first wave of these strange creatures' charge alone would have destroyed the matrix they had constructed.

Each of these dolphin-like nocturnal creatures poses a far greater physical threat than the raging angels in the campus, and their threat at the layer level is no less than that of the grinning angels.

Once the gray fog invasion is fully activated, these eerie creatures will emerge from the depths of the gray fog sea into the black ocean near the coast, and then infiltrate the real-world layer.

Even a single one can inflict devastating damage on the core strength of the campus; units below the security level don't even have a chance to provoke them.

And this is merely the most primitive and purest bizarre creature in the Gray Mist Sea.

Beneath the dark surface of the sea, more and more shadowy figures began to converge here...

There is one thing Tian Bufan did not lie about: the anchor point matrix does indeed need to operate through the "reverse logic" formula of the campus map, and this mode can avoid many unnecessary troubles. However, there is also a deeper crisis.

This formula only avoids the interference of those useless people in the lower tiers, but it cannot avoid the strange creatures in the higher tiers!
At this moment, the anchor point matrix is ​​like an extra filter; waste can't get in, and what can get in is definitely not waste.

Even the lowest tier is a unit at the level of the dolphin-shaped nocturnal species!
"Young Master Tian... what just happened?" Lin Yi was focused on calling out to the principal and was unaware of the little incident that had just occurred.

Tian Bufan said, "It's nothing, you can continue. I'll handle the trouble here."

"Try to hurry. As the anchor points move, more and more strange creatures will sense us. Although the 'inverse logic' formula can make the anchor point matrix flash in each layer, we are now playing hide-and-seek with the advanced strange creatures in the Gray Fog Sea. According to Murphy's Law, there will always be times when we can't gather them all together..."

"Okay, I understand." Lin Yi straightened his expression and devoted all his willpower to the task of controlling the anchor matrix and spreading the call to summon the principal.

After calling out like this for a while, the radar-like anchor point matrix finally captured some kind of signal. Lin Yi's soul trembled violently as if struck by a ray of electricity. Immediately afterwards, the entire world he perceived began to undergo incredible changes.

The anchor point matrix launched him like a launch pad, and the world he perceived swirled like a kaleidoscope, blooming wildly like countless crystal petals.

Within those crystal petals, each petal seemed to contain countless prism-like fragments, and within those fragments, countless more intricate scenes.

These scenes, though seemingly trivial, were filled with a great deal of complex information. After just a few glances, Lin Yi felt his head throbbing, became drowsy, and felt as if he might lose his balance and fall into one of the fragments at any moment.

No, to be more precise, Lin Yi himself couldn't tell whether he had fallen or not. The world within the crystal petals was unfolding before his eyes in a pattern that was both regular and irregular. He didn't know whether he was going deeper into the petals or whether the petals were constantly enveloping him through their unfolding.

The scene before Lin Yi's eyes became increasingly dazzling, just like what Doctor Strange saw when he first observed the mysteries of the multiverse under the guidance of the Ancient One.

He didn't know how long he had been traveling, but the changing scenery around him gradually slowed down, and the constantly blooming glass petals gradually stabilized. A gray world slowly unfolded before him like a vast scroll painting...

It was a dark sea, with jagged black reefs standing amidst the surging waves, as menacing as fangs of a demon emerging from the abyss.

The entire sea was shrouded in a black mist like quicksand, and crimson lightning flashed in the sky. Whirlpools were arranged in the surging waves like a starry night.

Among these black reefs resembling demonic fangs, the remains of countless ships can be vaguely seen. The hulls of these ships are entwined with eerie green algae and moss that shimmer with fluorescence. Torn flags hang from the toppled masts, and strange, mysterious patterns cover the hulls, with intricate, cult-like scripture covering the entire mountainside.

Behind those black reefs, one after another, twisted mountain outlines appeared and disappeared in the black mist. They floated on the dark water like the skeletons of giants. Their surfaces were cracked into strange patterns, within which flowed a viscous liquid like lava, but the texture and color were quite different from lava.

On the mountain walls surrounding the liquid, there were some white, viscous substances, which were impurities that had seeped out from the cracks in the mountain. Lin Yi recognized these impurities—they were solidified extraordinary substances that had seeped out from the barren land in front of the Corpse Forest!

Fanatics used it to construct the Matrix and even as raw material to create the Angry Angels.

And these raw materials were actually just impurities extracted from the chaotic mountains in this gray fog sea.

These impurities mixed in with the black fog, and as the black fog continued to spread and expand, they gradually thinned out as they entered the gray fog sea, eventually becoming gray fog—the gray fog that invaded... "gray fog".

The parts of these mountains that rise above the sea are covered with strange patterns. Some look like clusters formed by imprinting a vast star map, while others resemble characters in the style of a precept or edict, which have undergone some ancestral processing. Still others, despite having no writing rules, exude an aura far more complex and profound than any star map...

"This...this is the depths of the Gray Mist Sea...?" Lin Yi murmured in disbelief. "Those extraordinary substances seeping out from the mountains are the source of the gray mist invasion?!"

Tian Bufan's voice slowly echoed in his mind: "That's right... To be more precise, this is part of the invading force of the gray fog. Another part comes from the infiltration of the 'Root,' the pollution of the 'Angels,' and those beings that have undergone various mutations due to the pollution of the 'Root.'"

"And here, this mountain range at sea that you see is a lost land, a place of confusion, a place of exile, a place of finality, beyond the layers of the world and reality..."

"Let me put it another way, and you might understand much better..." Tian Bufan paused, "...'Return to the Void'."

"Guixu? Wait...you don't mean...that 'Guixu'?!" Lin Yi exclaimed in surprise, "The 'Guixu' from mythology, the extreme of the Eastern Sea where all things return to nothingness?"

“That’s right,” Tian Bufan said. “The truth that the ‘Principal’ is looking for is right here… and the ‘Principal’ himself is most likely here as well.”

Lin Yi's face lit up with joy: "Great! I'll call him again right away!"

"No," Tian Bufan said, stopping Lin Yi from doing anything further.

Lin Yi was immediately puzzled and was about to ask a question, but he sensed that Tian Bufan's mood seemed to be not good, so he also shut his mouth.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute..." Tian Bufan muttered to himself, his tone not very good, "Let's observe first."

Lin Yi sensed the change in Tian Bufan's emotions, and after waiting a while, he couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Young Master Tian? What's your observation...?"

“I can’t see very clearly, but I have a bad feeling…” Tian Bufan said in a low voice, “Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun’s conjecture may be coming true.”

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat: "Are you talking about that ominous premonition? The one where all the 'original apostles' fell into corruption, or... the one where the principal was corrupted and turned evil?"

Tian Bufan remained silent, staring intently at the distant mountains that floated like giant corpses on the black sea, the thick black mist seeming to engulf his soul.

After a long silence, Tian Bufan finally let out a long sigh: "I'm not afraid of one of them, I'm afraid of both..."

Lin Yi was shocked. He wanted to get closer to observe further, but Tian Bufan stopped him, saying, "Don't get any closer, Old Lin! The 'Mist Nightmare Hunter's' domain roams there. If we're caught, we're doomed!"

"The Nightmare Hunter? Is that the title of one of the 'First Apostles'?" Lin Yi asked in surprise.

“No,” Tian Bufan denied, “The ‘Mist Hunter’ is not the ‘original apostle,’ but rather a collective term for an ‘identity’ from the Black Mist era.”

"Although their strength is inferior to that of the 'First Apostles,' their origins predate them, and their power should not be underestimated."

"The origin is earlier than the 'First Apostle'? No, wait... weren't the 'First Apostle' people who existed before the birth of human civilization?" Lin Yi didn't understand.

Tian Bufan was speechless, and said disdainfully, "Wasn't the 'First Apostle' born from a mother? Did he spring from a stone? Was he born the First Apostle?"

"Uh..." Lin Yi's thought process finally caught on. "So you mean, before the 'First Apostles' appeared, oh no, how should I put it... um, oh right! Before they 'proved their Dao,' the 'Mist Nightmare Hunters' existed, is that what you mean?"

“Yes,” Tian Bufan said, “but you don’t need to worry about their origins. The immediate issue is to figure out the situation here.”

“We cannot intrude into the territory of ‘Return to the Void’. Whether it’s because of the ‘Mist Nightmare Hunter’s’ domain or for other reasons, as long as we get close, we will be detected by the ‘Origin’ here…”

"Are the 'First Apostles' here?" Lin Yi asked.

“Of course,” Tian Bufan said. “This ‘Ruins of Return’ was formed after the ‘First Apostles’ lost their way. As I said, the ‘First Apostles’ will not die easily; they will linger in a state between life and death…”

Lin Yi seemed to understand: "Like those contenders on the path to the throne who sealed themselves with 'source' as described in the Book of Emperor Chen Tian, ​​waiting for the arrival of a certain 'great era'?"

“Yes…” Tian Bufan nodded sincerely.

The "original apostles" were all beings who had reached the pinnacle in their respective fields. After banishing the Black Moon Outpost's layers, the pollution they could come into contact with in the real world was too little. It was like a bizarre version of a spiritual revival world. The true history of global-level occult development may only have started in the last twenty years or so from X999. Even if there were some beings like the "principal," they were extremely rare, and there were probably only a handful of them in the entire world.

With such a huge disparity, the "first apostles" probably wouldn't even bother to lift their eyelids to take a look.

“But the problem is…” Lin Yi asked, “How could they sense us? I mean, could they sense any living being that gets close to the ‘Ruins of Return,’ or… just specifically, could they sense ‘us’?”

Tian Bufan paused for a moment: "They will sense any unit that enters the 'Ruins of Return' area, and as for 'us'... we are an especially important target."

"Damn... do we have that much influence?" Lin Yi was sweating profusely. Seriously, officer? It feels like we're being targeted by the system!
"That can't be right. We've never been here before, so why are they giving us 'special attention'?"

Tian Bufan slowly said, "Because since the 'Black Moon Blood Calamity,' we are one of the few beings who can directly pose a threat to them..."

Lin Yi was secretly alarmed: "Our status is so high? What exactly are we? Could we also be the 'First Apostles'?"

His conjecture was not unfounded.

In the flashbacks, since he had learned forging techniques from the master craftsman, Kuai Kuai had learned a little bit from the astrologer, and Young Master Tian and Mao Zi seemed to be very familiar with the sorcerer, then simply using the "dream boundary" to penetrate time and create an intersection with the "first apostle" seemed a bit insufficient.

The most likely scenario is that they were originally one of the "original apostles," and then, for various reasons, they became what they are now.

Since there are "First Apostles" who got lost at sea, there can also be "First Apostles" who changed their status for various reasons and continued to remain in the Black Moon Outpost or even in the real world.

However, Tian Bufan directly denied this: "We are not the 'original apostles'."

Lin Yi pressed further, "Then what are we?"

“We…” Tian Bufan hesitated for a moment, then continued, “Not just ‘at the beginning,’ but even more so than ‘at the beginning.’”

"Are we the 'Mist Nightmare Hunters'?"

"Don't try to use that strange 'identity' on the spot..." Tian Bufan said helplessly. "Just treat us as members of the 'Time Council.' Don't worry about these issues that aren't directly related to the present. You'll remember all of this when your memories return."

“Alright…” Lin Yi then turned his attention to the “Ruins of Return,” his expression gradually darkening. “Young Master Tian, ​​if all the ‘First Apostles’ buried here have already fallen… is there any point in reality existing?”

"I mean, if even one or two of them were to resurrect and become hostile towards humanity, wouldn't the entire world be doomed?"

Tian Bufan sighed and affirmed, "Yes..."

"So the principal went to sea to see this legendary 'Ruins of Return'—to see if those so-called saviors and true guardians of humanity, whom he has firmly believed in ever since his understanding was correctly established, have truly fallen."

Seeing Tian Bufan sigh, Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat: "Young Master Tian, ​​have you already seen the answer?"

"This question is basically 'open book' for us; all we need is a process of verification."

Lin Yi's expression was somewhat unpleasant. He knew that when Tian Bufan said those words, it meant that Tian Bufan had already obtained the "verification process".

Tian Bufan sighed softly, "Look..."

"Within this 'Ruins of Return,' deep within each Black Mountain, perhaps lies the burial of a 'First Apostle.' As for whether the buried 'First Apostle' possesses a title or not, I cannot easily determine..." "During the Black Mist Era, in the early days of the Black Moon Outpost's construction, the 'First Apostles' organized numerous great voyages. Each time, 'First Apostles' were lost in the depths of the Gray Mist Sea. Unable to return to the Black Moon Outpost, they could only drift endlessly in the Gray Mist Sea."

"All the lost 'First Apostles' can gather together?" Looking at the endless black mountains in the "Ruins of Return," Lin Yi asked in surprise, "Is it because this is the 'Ruins of Return' that all the waves of the Gray Mist Sea converge here?"

In mythology, Guixu is the end of the world, the final destination of the flowing sea, and an eye of the sea that can never be filled.

"That's generally a fair understanding, but 'Guixu' (归墟) isn't naturally occurring; it's something that came into existence later."

"A powerful being created 'Ruins of Return' to bury the 'First Apostles'?!" Lin Yi's eyes widened. "Could it be an 'Angel'?"

“No,” Tian Bufan shook his head, “...it is the ‘First Apostle’ itself.”

"Huh?" Lin Yi looked confused.

Tian Bufan observed the "Ruins of Return" before him and slowly said, "Its 'birth' can be traced back to the beginning of the Great Exploration during the Black Mist Era."

"At the dawn of navigation during the Black Fog era, astrologers used star charts to determine the guiding role of the Big Dipper in spatial orientation and anchored it as the initial coordinates for navigation."

"But as the Age of Exploration progressed, the 'First Apostles' explored the Gray Fog Sea more and more deeply, and the physical star charts became increasingly ineffective. Thus, the 'Astrologers,' the 'Timekeepers,' the 'Oracles,' and other 'First Ones' defined a 'supernatural force' that existed between the layers to maintain their connection, calling it 'Transcendental Gravity.'"

"The more powerful an entity is, the more it can sense the existence of other similar 'people' or 'things' in the unseen realm. This effect is called the 'transcendental gravitational effect.'"

"Simply put, as you continuously recover your original power through 'adaptation,' your perception range is gradually returning to its peak. During that process, the reason you observed the Night Watchmen and the broken sculptures in advance through your visions was because you unconsciously triggered 'Transcendental Gravity' from time to time."

"If you unleash your full power of 'Transcendental Gravity' at an inopportune time, this 'Ruins' deep within the Gray Mist Sea, and the 'Angels' that have been indiscriminately releasing their domains, could potentially detect it and thus pinpoint its coordinates."

"That's why you have to lose your memory."

"During the Black Mist Age, when the 'First Apostles' were exploring the seas, a portion of them remained at the Black Moon Outpost to provide the sensory source for the 'Transcendental Gravitational Effect,' while another portion continued to venture deeper into the Gray Mist Sea."

"As the process deepens, the 'Timekeeper' simultaneously imprints coordinates into the dimensions of time and space, much like mountain climbers laying stakes along the contours of a mountain range."

"But later, the 'Timekeeper' discovered that no matter how he set the coordinates, there was a collapsing gravitational force between the layer dimensions, like a black hole attracting those coordinate points and drawing them in."

"The Timekeeper and the Astrologer thus determined that this place was most likely the center of the Gray Mist Sea, and named it 'Guixu' (Return to Nothingness). This is how the records of 'Guixu' in later mythology originated."

"Therefore, there was no need for deliberate creation or any other action. After the 'original apostles' got lost in the gray fog sea, they would unconsciously gravitate towards this place, and over time, this 'Ruins of Return' was formed."

This is the origin of the term "Guixu" (归墟).

Tian Bufan paused for a moment: "In other words, the 'transcendental gravity' that awakens as you adapt will also make you a coordinate in some way."

"When you are powerful enough, you will be able to sense the presence of the 'First Apostles,' and likewise, the 'First Apostles' will be able to sense your presence. And through your presence, they will attempt to anchor themselves to the layer of reality."

"'Transcendent Gravity'... According to this theory, the 'void target acquisition' mechanism of those fake humanoid sculptures might be a weakened and nerfed version of this mechanism..." Lin Yi pondered, then gradually realized, "So, the reason why the 'First Apostles' here in 'Return to the Void' couldn't perceive reality was firstly because of 'Star Prison,' and secondly because the entire layer of the Black Moon Outpost was sunk by the last remaining 'First Apostles'?"

Tian Bufan said, "That's exactly right. So, when the last 'First Apostle' left Black Moon Outpost, the connection between the Gray Mist Sea and Black Moon Outpost disappeared, and 'Star Prison' was banished along with the silence within the layer where Black Moon Outpost was located."

"The 'first apostles' buried on this side of 'Return to the Ruins' can only continue to get lost overseas."

Therefore, it is evident that there are actually several layers of protection between the real-world layer and the "Ruins of Return." In Lin Yi's current understanding, the approximate relationship between these layers is as follows:
[Reality Layer] — [Black Moon Outpost] — [Black Sea] — [Star Prison] — [Gray Mist Sea] — [Return to Ruins]

Among them, "Star Prison" is a lock that is locked over the entire sea area.

"Hey, that's not right, Young Master Tian!" Lin Yi suddenly said, "Since the 'Star Prison' still exists, even if Boss awakens his memories, recovers to his 'original' combat power, and becomes the anchor point of the 'Supreme Heaven,' he won't be detected, right?"

Tian Bufan said, "Can you control what an amnesiac person does, or what someone with awakened memories will do? What if our boss has a way to open the 'Star Prison' himself?"

"This..." Lin Yi was speechless. This was a perspective he had never considered before.

Tian Bufan continued, "Over these countless years, the 'Night Watchers' have been relentlessly using those three most powerful extraordinary artifacts to try and elevate their own status to the 'Original' level, and in doing so, to spread the coordinates of the Black Moon Outpost across the Gray Mist Sea, hoping to summon back these lost 'Original Apostles.'"

"Don't they know about the existence of 'Star Prison'?" Lin Yi asked.

"Of course they know," Tian Bufan chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Even the 'Principal' is well aware that the existence of the 'Star Prison' greatly limits the invasion of the Gray Mist, but they don't know that one of the instigators of the Gray Mist invasion is the very being they've always believed in—the 'First Apostle' lost in the Ruins of Return."

Lin Yi fell silent.

The essence of the gray fog invasion is that a strange force beyond cognition seeps down from higher layers and dimensions, distorting and polluting reality.

When the threat level is high enough, it doesn't really matter whether the threat comes from "angels" or "the first apostles".

It's like when gods fight and mortals suffer, you don't care who's good and who's evil, because the light of righteousness can evaporate even ants.

"What's the point of summoning them back? They've already been corrupted and fallen, why summon them back to destroy themselves?" Lin Yi was about to say this when he suddenly realized that, due to the information gap, the Night Watchmen and the Principal were unaware that the group of "First Apostles" lost in the Gray Mist Sea had already fallen.

No, even now, Tian Bufan has only confirmed part of the matter, not the whole thing!

"Don't the Night Watchmen and the Headmaster know about the Black Moon Bloodbath?"

"No, the Codex is in the 'Star Prison.' Even if the Night Watchers don't know, how could the 'Headmaster' not know?"

Lin Yi was confused and contradictory.

"Young Master Tian, ​​can you answer my question?"

He had no choice but to turn to Tian Bufan for help.

Tian Bufan slowly said, "Let me answer you from the perspective of the timeline..."

"First of all, the Night's Watch is unaware of the truth behind the Bloodbath of the Night. Their predecessors were the Mourners, loyal guards of the First Apostles, and their underlying logic is that they obey all the First Apostles."

"They will communicate with you and tell you jokes, but when it comes to the underlying logic, their behavior must follow this principle."

"You've heard of 'The Iron Laws of the Night's Watch,' haven't you?"

"The principle of 'using the highest creation to provide the First Apostles with a direction to return' has a very high priority, and at the beginning of its establishment, it was used as a beacon candidate for the 'First Apostles' of Black Moon Outpost."

"The loss of the 'First Apostles' occurred after this."

"Therefore, this logic is not wrong; what is wrong are those lost original apostles."

Lin Yi fell silent again, then said in a low voice, "So, the Night Watchmen are actually machines with feelings?"

“That’s right,” Tian Bufan said. “None of the principles they follow are problematic. However, after the initial apostles lost their way, the most fundamental one became the most dangerous final law that would lead the world to its destruction.”

"But that's not the saddest part."

Tian Bufan shook his head self-deprecatingly: "Old Lin, do you know what the saddest thing is?"

Lin Yi kept his mouth shut and shook his head slightly.

Tian Bufan sighed, "The saddest thing is that Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun raised this issue with both the 'Night Watchmen' and the 'Principal,' but after weighing the pros and cons, they did not accept it."

"This is the saddest part, but at the same time... it's also the most heartwarming, sigh—"

“I understand…” Lin Yi said, “Anyone can be wise after the event, but it is truly commendable to insist on it beforehand.”

“Yes, if even the most loyal servants of the ‘First Apostles’ have abandoned them, then what is there left to hold onto? Can we give up just because we have a guess? So, I understand your understanding… but…”

Lin Yi said in a low voice, "But... when the truth actually comes out, it will be a great tragedy for the headmaster, for the Night Watchmen, and even for the whole world."

What I insist on is the redemption of my former master.

My former master has now become the clutches of a demon that destroys the world.

Therefore, my persistence became something that went against my long-held beliefs.

This subversion of black and white is the greatest tragedy.

"What Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun has always been worried about is that when his speculation is confirmed, the principal will not be able to accept it after witnessing it with his own eyes."

“They are different from Fusheng Weiliang Tianzun; their trust in the ‘original’ is an unbreakable faith.”

"Then... what about Liangzi?" Lin Yi asked subconsciously.

“Questioning,” Tian Bufan said. “When disagreements arose, he started questioning… He himself was part of the vortex of disagreements. Although he wasn’t directly involved in the ‘Black Moon Blood Calamity’ storyline, he certainly didn’t hold back in doing anything underhanded.”

"Black elbow, huh...that really does fit Liangzi's style..." Lin Yi wiped away a bead of cold sweat. He straightened his expression and asked, "So what should we do now? How's your observation going? Should we still call for 'Principal'?"

Tian Bufan said, "To be honest, observing from here, I can only see a tiny bit, but I also have no way to enter the 'Ruins of Return,' so this is all I can see."

"To be on the safe side, let's step back a bit before calling the principal."

“Look, those black reefs on the outskirts of ‘Ruins of Return’ are the manifestations of ordinary Black Moon Apostles… Let’s also move further away, to the border of ‘Ruins of Return’, before we begin our invocation.”

"Okay." Lin Yi responded, his consciousness slowly drifting away. After reaching a suitable location, he asked Tian Bufan for his opinion.

After Tian Bufan gave an affirmative answer, Lin Yi whispered, "Principal, Principal..."

"You're whispering so softly, are you telling me something?" Tian Bufan said speechlessly. "Shout louder, it's okay. People who are obsessed don't rely on their hearing to catch your traces."

"Oh, oh, oh..." Lin Yi took a deep breath and then called out loudly, "Principal, Principal!! This is the 'Time Council' Formation 01. Anchor point established. Please return to base immediately! Please return to base immediately!"

"Headmaster, Headmaster!! This is Time Council Formation 01. Anchor point established. Please return to base immediately! Please return to base immediately!"

"Please return to base immediately!!"

"Please return to base immediately..."

"Principal, Principal..."

"This is the 'Time Council'..."

The calls gradually spread, as the waves of the black sea crashed against the black reefs and the broken shipwrecks, eventually reaching the rolling mountains cracked with various patterns...

no respond.

a long time.

There was no response.

"Keep calling until... you get a response from the principal." Tian Bufan's voice appeared in Lin Yi's mind.

Lin Yi then began to call out again and again.

After an unknown amount of time, finally, the mist within the black mountains began to ripple, and a figure appeared and disappeared from within the mist...

Immediately afterwards, an extremely distant voice drifted from the soot-like black mist:

"Principal... Principal..."

"me……"

"I am the principal..."

"I am the principal..."

"I am the principal..."

In the chaos, the strange power decomposed and recombined, and the figure disappeared and reappeared, like countless bats flying around. Among the bats, he seemed to see the outline of the figure clearly, which did indeed have some similarities to the "principal's" back in his memory.

"Principal?" Lin Yi's eyes widened, and his vision was once again quickly drawn into that patch of black mist.

The figure in the black mist seemed to have caught his gaze and slowly raised its head.

The figure in the black mist seemed to have caught his gaze and slowly raised its head.

That was indeed the principal's face, a resolute face with bright, golden eyes like a lion's. Standing there, he was like a ray of midday sunlight.

However, a black aura resembling coal ash was constantly emanating from his body. This aura merged with the black mist within the "Return to the Void," making it look as if the principal was struggling to emerge part of his body from a thick, wet quilt.

There's an indescribable eeriness about it.

"I'm the principal... I've found the answer... I've found it..."

"I am the principal..."

The principal's voice came intermittently from the depths of "Return to the Ruins." The black mist within "Return to the Ruins" surged and churned in waves in response to his voice, then dissipated like smoke until it vanished...

As Lin Yi's vision expanded, he gradually heard the principal's voice clearly and slowly realized what was wrong with the principal. It was because the principal's response wasn't a request for help, but rather...

"I am the principal... I can no longer return... Please abandon the summons..."

"Repeating... I am unable to return... Please abandon the summoning..."

"Abandon the summoning..."

(End of this chapter)