The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 421 The Source of the Anomaly
When the purifying divine power was gathering, Wu Chang could sense that a mysterious divine power was beginning to gather around the underground shelter.

The Soul-Eating Hounds wanted to enter the underground shelter, but Eileen blocked their way, preventing them from getting any closer.

Wu Chang waited to see if the failure of the Soul-Eating Hound would lure out an even more powerful monster. Unfortunately, after the Soul-Eating Hound, no more powerful divinity condensed outside, as if the hidden mastermind had run out of ideas.

As the light of purification surged into the surface, Wu Chang entered the perspective of the temporary administrator. His ritual began to ascend, his view passing through the underground shelter and all the way to the high altitude of the surface, overlooking the entire planet.

He observed the underground shelter world from this perspective when he first gained temporary administrator privileges.

In his view, the planet where the underground shelter was located was desolate, filled with deathly gray, and among the ruins of the cities, there were many deformed surface people wandering around the abandoned cities.

The scene he saw now was basically the same as before, the only difference being that the deformed surface people seemed to sense something, and they began to run towards the building, looking for a place to hide.

As Wu Chang entered the overhead view, half a minute later, a beam of light, full of divinity and visible only to him, burst through the underground shelter and shot straight into the sky.

The divine, purifying light rippled outwards in layers.

Where the ripples passed, the deathly gray of the ground lessened, and began to transition from deathly gray to grayish-black.

The desolate earth, under the evolution of divinity, began to reverse its deathly stillness, gradually revealing a glimmer of life.

However, unlike the soil on the surface, the surface dwellers, who had not yet had time to hide in their shelters, experienced a corrosive effect when their bodies came into contact with the purifying ripples, emitting a faint, thick smoke.

Like vampires exposed to sunlight, they wailed and collapsed in the purifying light, quickly ceasing to move.

He Yun did not intend to purify the entire surface by activating the surface purification generator.

Although the planet He Yun was on was slightly smaller than Blue Star, purifying it completely would still be a massive undertaking, requiring an astronomical amount of faith power and energy.

Even if she sacrificed the entire Stone Tablet of Desire, it would still be difficult to purify even one-tenth of the earth's surface.

What she needs to do now is to first purify the surface around Underground Shelter No. 88 so that the residents of the shelter can come out underground and establish a simple base on the surface.

Using the above-ground base, messages were sent to all underground shelters that could still receive signals, bringing together the surviving humans.

Relying on the faith of all the survivors, the purified land gradually expands outward.

Purifying the entire world is destined to be a long and arduous process that cannot be accomplished overnight.

Without the destruction of the Soul-Eating Hounds, the Purifying Light advanced very smoothly, and centered on Underground Shelter No. 88, it quickly cleared a small brown area on the deathly gray planet.

The area was so small that Wu Chang had to lower his perspective to see the entire purified area clearly.

He shared the view he had in his field of vision with the Omniscient Crystal. According to the Omniscient Crystal's observations, the area of ​​the purified region was less than one-thousandth of the planet's surface area.

However, the purification area is very large, exceeding the area of ​​many provinces in the Xia Kingdom.

Rebuilding a surface base in such a space, with the infrastructure capabilities of the underground shelter dimension, could easily accommodate hundreds of millions of people.

For the survivors of this planet, this area is more than enough.

As the purified area reached the planned size, the propagation of the purifying light began to gradually weaken.

Just as the light of purification reached the very edge, Wu Changneng could clearly see that something was blocking the power of purification from the outside.

What surprised him even more was that he hadn't noticed this unusual place at all before the purifying light spread over it.

The location of the anomaly was a black city. From above, there was nothing unusual about the city. Wu Chang's only memory of this place was that before the light of purification appeared, it seemed that many surface people had taken refuge in this city.

He deactivated the temporary administrator view, narrowed his gaze back to his body, and looked at He Yun, who was adjusting the equipment.

Without his prompting, the areas where purification failed were already marked on the operation screen of the surface purification generator.

The location where purification failed is 360 kilometers away from Underground Shelter No. 88 in a straight line.

According to the map in the records, the city located there is called Colette, a city covering 3500 square kilometers with a permanent population of 200 million.

The underground shelter contains a strategic map, and according to the map's markings, Colette City has no important resources and there are no underground shelters in the vicinity.

Its unique feature is that it is located at the highest point in the region, with an average elevation 800 meters higher than the second highest city in the surrounding area.

He Yun put away the tablet in her hand and connected her consciousness to the large screen, directly zooming in on the area of ​​Colette City.

“Something is preventing the Purifying Divinity from entering. Judging from the feedback from the Purifying Divinity, the power within the city is of the same origin as the power that makes up the Soul-Eating Hound.”

Wu Chang looked at the big screen, also showing great interest in what was hidden in Colette City.

"Since we're already here, and we've found the source of the problem, let's go and see what's going on."

After hearing this, He Yi opened his communicator and said, "I'll go and notify the surface exploration team right away. Some of them visited Colette City when they were investigating the surface."

Wu Chang interrupted, "No need to call too many people, just bring one member of the exploration team who is familiar with Colette City."

“You know how troublesome the Soul-Eating Hounds are. There might be even more troublesome things there. Sending more people would only be a burden.”

He Yi nodded, activated the mecha, and flew towards the first basement level.

Twenty minutes later, at the exit of the underground shelter, He Yi returned with a man whose hair was half white and who looked to be close to 60 years old.

He Yi introduced, "This is Wu Zhuoqun, the most senior member of the surface exploration team. He started exploring the surface when he was sixteen years old, and the farthest he has been is the No. 67 underground shelter, which is a thousand kilometers away. No one knows the surface better than him."

Wu Zhuoqun is nearly sixty years old, but he is still strong and robust. He is one of the best mecha pilots in the underground shelter. He is also the captain of the surface exploration team. Even when He Yi goes to the surface with the team, he has to listen to his command.

Wu Chang, Eileen, He Yi, and Wu Zhuoqun, who was familiar with the terrain, made up a total of four people heading to Colette City.

To be precise, there were actually five people. In order to ensure the operation of the underground shelter, He Yun's main body did not follow along, but she separated a part of her consciousness into the drone and acted with the others.

After a brief preparation, Hu Heyun opened the exit of the underground shelter, and the group left the shelter and headed towards Colette City.

He Yi and Wu Zhuoqun piloted the mechas, while Wu Chang's Peace Messenger was still being updated at the Sacred Song Company, so he could only stand with Eileen on the white mecha piloted by He Yi.

He Yi's mecha is named "Tyrant". It has a black and gold color scheme, with the main body being black. Due to He Yi's excellent piloting performance, the mecha that He Yun customized for him looks larger and more bulky than ordinary mechas.

While it lacks lightness and agility, it gains faster straight-line speed, greater power, and more intense firepower.

With He Yi's piloting skills, he was already hard to beat in the underground shelter dimension. After acquiring "Tyrant", he was equivalent to a mecha army by himself.

Before he had a tyrant, facing extremist believers who attacked underground shelters everywhere, He Yi had no choice but to close the underground shelters and cut off trade with other underground shelters.

After acquiring the Tyrant, he single-handedly purged the extremist group that had attacked the underground shelter in order to test the performance of the new mech.

Not only that, but he also said that the other party was too weak. If the number were three or four times, he might have a chance to show his true tyrant skills.

Such a difference demonstrates the tyrant's superior performance.

To conserve energy, the two mechs used land mode to move forward. The road conditions on the ground were very poor, and it took them three hours to reach the outer perimeter of Colette City.

When Wu Chang looked down at the planet from the administrator's perspective, he couldn't detect the anomaly in Colette City. But when he came to it in person, even before entering, he could sense that there was something unusual about the space.

Its existence is as if it has traveled through different planes and been separated from them.

After gesturing for He Yi to be careful, the four of them slowly entered the city.

At this moment, the surface purification generator has stopped working, and the surface people hidden in the bunker are emerging from the building again.

People on the surface are, in reality, all abandoned.

With the resources available to human society at that time, only two hundred underground shelters could be built. Each underground shelter had strict access limits, and only when the number of healthy people was within the limit could the underground shelter's resources be maintained and prevented from collapsing.

Originally designed, each underground shelter could accommodate two million people, meaning that all shelters combined could only accommodate a total of four hundred million people.

This number represented only one-fifteenth of the world's population at the time.

Those who failed to enter the underground shelter were abandoned and left to fend for themselves on the surface.

For the first ten years, under severe pollution, a large number of people died every day. But thanks to their amazing adaptability and the genetic adaptation drugs that some scientists left on the surface studied, people gradually adapted to the harsh living environment and began to develop a unique set of social rules on the surface.

As a result of adapting to pollution, surface dwellers have become vastly different from ordinary humans in appearance.

Their bodies became enormous, averaging over three meters tall, and their skin surface developed a purplish-red or blackish-yellow rock-like keratin, with faint fluorescent shimmering visible within the keratin's texture.

To adapt to the harsh environment, the facial features of the surface dwellers have changed significantly. Their foreheads are raised high, their eyeballs develop a transparent keratinous layer like that of insects, and their earlobes have become larger to absorb sound.

In short, if you put the appearance of a surface human into an underground shelter and tell people that it is human, they will definitely not believe it.

Even though the bodies of the surface dwellers have undergone tremendous changes, the number of survivors is still pitifully small, and it continues to decrease over time.

When Eileen saw the surface people, a look of pity appeared in her eyes. She could see from their souls that the surface people were still human, but their changes had been integrated into their genes.

Her light magic can cure diseases, but it cannot reverse genetic changes. Even if she intervenes, she cannot restore these people to their original state.

Wu Chang knew what was about to happen. He opened the Golden Kingdom, threw Eileen inside, and said:
"Why don't you rest for a while?"

Wu Chang turned his gaze back to the surface dweller, where he met the man's hostile eyes.

At this moment, there are more than 500 surface dwellers in Colette City, and the vast majority of them harbor hatred towards the underground dwellers who have taken refuge in the underground shelters.

They saw He Yi and Wu Zhuoqun's mechs enter Colette City and begin to roar loudly at them. Due to changes in their vocal cords and long-term communication isolation, He Yi and the others could hardly understand what the surface people were saying.

Only through the mech's built-in translator could we understand what they were saying: "Get out of our city!"

Humans often judge their preferences for certain species based on their appearance.

The appearance of the people on the surface of the earth is, if not pleasing to the eye, at least unbearable to look at.

Calling them human is the greatest kindness the people of the underworld can show them; treating them as one of their own is something that is impossible.

He Yi frequently interacts with surface dwellers, and when faced with their threats, he responds with remarkable elegance and affability.

He roared through the translator, the message consisting of only three words.

"Die or get out."

The surface dwellers roared angrily, "Evil subterranean beings, if you want to enter our city, you'll have to step over our dead bodies!"

The surface dwellers, of course, couldn't tolerate He Yi's behavior. They charged at He Yi, brandishing various weapons, including guns and longswords used by mechs. These weapons were spoils of their ambush of the surface exploration team.

Some of the weapons used by these exploration teams bear the markings of Underground Shelter No. 88.

Seeing this, He Yi did not hesitate at all. He grabbed the mecha rifle, and various locking weapons popped out from different parts of the mecha, unleashing a barrage of fire on the people on the ground.

Facing five hundred men alone, He Yi managed to suppress them with firepower in a short time, scattering the surface dwellers and leaving behind a trail of severed limbs.

Twenty or thirty daring surface dwellers jumped down from nearby high-rise buildings, attempting to descend from the sky and quickly approach them.

He Yi pointed the gun on his shoulder at the sky while gripping the mecha's longsword, ready for the upcoming hand-to-hand combat.

Before the people on the ground could land, Wu Chang reached out and a curtain of water appeared above them.

A person falling freely from the ground lands into a thin curtain of water, but it's like jumping into the deep sea; they disappear without even splashing a drop of water.

He Yi stared wide-eyed, completely surprised that Wu Chang had such a method.

Where did you take them?

Wu Chang said, "In the water, if you're curious, I can take you in to have a look."

A sense of foreboding rose in He Yi's heart. He vaguely guessed that Wu Chang hadn't said anything nice, and refused:
"I'm not that curious."

Wu Chang pursed his lips. It was a pity. He had been used as a punching bag by He Yi so many times before. If He Yi had spoken up first, he could have used Blind Abyss to turn the tables.

He Yi was only surprised by Blind Abyss's abilities, but when applied to the surface people, it was simply terrifying.

Unlike the members of the underground shelter, they had never seen outsiders with special abilities, nor had they experienced the magic of the Desire Stone. The abilities that Wu Chang displayed were incomprehensible to them.

They wouldn't be afraid of He Yi even if they couldn't defeat him, but they chickened out when faced with Wu Chang, whom they couldn't understand.

The people on the surface stood frozen for a moment, then turned and fled in unison, completely disregarding the earlier statement that to enter Colette City, one had to step over their corpses first.

As He Yi prepared to continue forward after the underground people had fled, Wu Chang suddenly called out to him.

"and many more."

Wu Chang opened the Blind Abyss and spat out the surface people he had swallowed earlier.

The surface dwellers entered the Blind Abyss within a minute, but when they were released, they had all lost their lives.

Given the formidable physiques displayed by the surface dwellers, each one is no less powerful than a level 23 or 24 player. With such vitality, they should not have died so easily.

He took out the Omniscient Crystal and asked for the reason. After a moment, the Omniscient Crystal gave its answer:
"Because these surface dwellers, their physical bodies have long since died."

Wu Chang asked in disbelief, "How is that possible? They were just jumping around like crazy a moment ago."

The Omniscient Crystal said, "Because some kind of power exists within them, it temporarily prevents their death. Once they enter the Abyss, the power that prevented their death dissipates, and their bodies return to death."

Wu Chang frowned, opened his spatial domain, and with a casual grab, teleported back a surface creature that hadn't gone far, slamming it to the ground.

He took out the Soul Cleansing Flag, which he hadn't used in a long time. With a wave of the flag, he entered a divine vision and found that the omniscient crystal was right. These people on the ground were filled with black energy that represented death, and there was not a trace of white that represented life.

It was only because a deeper black enveloped the black aura that represented death that they remained in a half-dead state.

Wu Chang waved the Soul Cleansing Flag and used the method of suppressing evil energy to clear away the deep blackness inside the people on the ground. The people on the ground were like robots that had been de-energized, and immediately lost their vitality.

His move made He Yi, who was standing to the side, frown.

He thought to himself that although Wu Chang was terrible at piloting mechs, if he didn't use mechs and resorted to these unorthodox methods, he probably wouldn't be a match for him.

Wu Chang didn't notice what He Yi was thinking. He let go of the surface man's hand and a look of realization appeared in his eyes.

No wonder when the surface purification generator was activated, these surface people seemed to be facing a disaster, frantically fleeing, and dying on the spot if they were exposed to the purifying light.

It turns out that it wasn't the surface dwellers who were afraid of the purifying light, but rather the black energy within their bodies.

"With that troublesome fellow gone, let's keep going."

Seeing this, Wu Zhuoqun, following his past memories, led everyone toward the city center of Colette.

In the city center, Wu Chang found the source of the spatial anomaly he had sensed.

A dark building suddenly appeared on the city square in the center of the city. Although the building appeared in the square, it was out of place with its surroundings and had a sense of alienation caused by a coating error.

All the doors and windows of the building were sealed off, and it appeared to have been abandoned.

Upon seeing the building before him, Wu Chang immediately narrowed his eyes, because its shape was exactly the same as the Siegfried City Orphanage that Amber had created from her heart in the Misfortune-Covered instance.

The Siegfried City Orphanage was built based on Amber's past memories. Its true identity is actually a secret research institute established in the middle layer by the Light Society to create an idealized divinity.

The existence of the secret research institute was discovered by a painter who stumbled upon it and made public.

Later, under pressure from the four major organizations in the rational world, the Light Society ostensibly abandoned its secret research institute, but in reality, its operations in the shadows never stopped.

The underground shelter, which was tricked by Mercury and became the pillar of the present world, was located in the middle layer. According to He Yun, the anomalies on the surface land only began after the underground shelter was sealed off.

Could it be that the black building in front of us is one of the secret research institutes of the Light Society?

(End of this chapter)