Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 262: Chapter 66: The Finale of the Trip to Zao Lake Village

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"We haven’t reached the end of this journey yet," I said.

It was as if the summer night at that bar was repeating itself, as Wujiu patted the white mist on his shoulder.

"We should go back now that the rescue mission is considered complete," I said to him, waiting for him to return to the tower to have a long talk.

"How the hell did this happen? Are you... already dead?"

His eyes, which were once full of those atmospheric globules, now seemed to be playing a joke, almost like a crescent moon in shape; Yin Hong covered his mouth and snickered, looking toward Bai Wu.

"...team... captain..."

"Bai Wu, you’ve done nothing wrong."

Wujiu, coming from such a stern background, smiled even more openly at this, while Bai Wu looked at him in stunned disbelief.

Having seen Bai Wu again for the first time in a while, Wujiu revealed his appreciative smile, knowing full well the outcome of a battle once he returned to the real world.

Bai Wu would be given to him again after he returns to the tower later; Wujiu had been picked up alongside a piece named "sacrifice," which appeared by Zao Lake.

"What the hell is going on with this... this?"

Bai Wu was momentarily dumbfounded.

...A group including Bai Wu walked along a northbound path from Zao Lake, at a time when they had come upon the village.

These questions didn’t bother Bai Wu for too long because he had already been picked up... The reason was due to fragments of the end of the day.

He contemplated strategies in his mind, wondering if he should not only try to grab the fragments for himself but also whether he should kill the enigmatic entity.

Bai Wu simply replied for now, waiting for another opportunity to search for the end-of-day fragments.

If he felt there was something odd about the banquet, Xie Hangzhi wanted Bai Wu to follow him; they wanted to bring Bai Wu along with them.

At this point, the entity certainly hoped to recover its lost end-of-day fragments, as there must not be a few hidden in its ontological body.

But even though the entity knew about the end-of-day fragments, it didn’t want to expose the secret because of them.

At the same time, Yin Hong pondered whether he should use his grievance energy to prevent Xie Hangzhi’s banquet from still being blocked by the entity.

To avoid going back to the rank and file, Bai Wu, nodding his head, referred to the end-of-day fragments as gifts from Yin Hong.

"Look, there are gifts over there; let’s go to the lakeside, big brother," I said.

Yin Hong, while sincerely believing what he said, didn’t directly admit to the weird one-degree eerie atmosphere that had arisen.

The whole group was somewhat dazed, and Bai Wu saw no "corpse" when he looked at the team.

Xie Hangzhi caught Ying Hong’s glance, and neither could make head nor tail of the situation, much less provide an explanation.

"What is this? Are we looking at some weird thing that came out of our brains?"

Xie Hangzhi, although not understanding why or what had happened, checked the surroundings very carefully, almost as if the environment excluding that strange atmospheric globe-pulling girl had changed entirely.

At this moment, he no longer recognized either Wujiu or himself as on the same side, distancing himself even further.

Xie Hangzhi awoke at the banquet; although he didn’t say much, survival was a must in this world within a world, where everything happened.

Xie Hangzhi was the fourth. The third to wake up at the banquet was Liu Tiger, Bai Wu thought.

Liu Tiger was still in a daze. It wasn’t clear whether he had made the exchange with the enigmatic entity at that moment.

These disciples were nothing but minor players compared to the powers of the enigmatic entity itself.

The enigmatic entity possessed part of the abilities in their essences; this was an undeniable fact even for Erlei Dedan, a person among a crowd of schoolers, including Ziluo Lan, and so forth.

"If you don’t look at your reality now, compared to the person you’re thinking of killing, our entanglement won’t be too short."

"You only need to know that he owns the sequence of deceit and the three soul-transferring vessels, the rest is insignificant and not worth fearing. Although you still need to deceive each other, you must find your way back to his original form."

"If that’s the case, his attributes are still intact in the system of governance above, but you’ve already seen his actual strength, which is so overwhelming that you can’t even compare yourself to your own shadow."

"The signal from outside the tower only became visible through the white mist when you looked at the right time. The white mist had only been the first to awaken at that banquet within itself."

"She could easily pull everything into this world, already stronger than Divine Lake, all the more so given her vibrant red energy as it is today."

"There is only a world ahead, and you have to see all kinds of things. Everything living has been devoured by Divine Lake, and in actuality, there’s nothing alive in this desolate village."

"Those eyes that had changed even more eerily are only due to the resentment-filled air that had been absorbed by Divine Lake, and not because the air globe had accidentally been sucked into the village entrance, where Red stood after awaking from the white mist."

"A single giant black deer lay dead on the ground, wilted flower petals on the antlers, at the north side of Zao Lake Village."

"Neat and tidy."

"Five people lay at the village entrance, Xuan Jiang, Liu Hu, Xie Xingzhi, Yan Zibing, herself; all this when White Mist opened her eyes again, and the smell of sunbaked earth wafted into her nostrils."

...

...

"White Mist’s consciousness suddenly became blurred; her eyes disappeared with a flick."

"You might as well just say you’ll take it, this area has a special end-of-day shard at the bottom of the lake, which should rightfully belong to you as a small wretched guardian. Once identified as the guardian of that area, you’ll just have to grab a piece, and although you think I’m being cryptic again and you’ll know very soon if it’s not too late, I haven’t told you a thing. I already saw through everything long ago. And since I’m just a person who brings goodwill, only a genuinely good person would say such a lie; in this world, there’s a kind of lie called a well-meaning lie."

Erleipu’s eyes flicked open, prepared for imminent departure.

"It’s just a farce, a total sham."

"Those feelings of rage that had seemingly changed into total strangeness emerged once again after the dangerous crisis was averted, Divine Lake’s death... especially hers,"

"Why would I suddenly possess these emotions... I certainly value my own anger, the queue of it. Those indescribably wonderful names, even the fire of rage that welled up within him."

"This dangerous area led to the ultimate conclusion of Zao Lake Village due to its proximity to a vast patch of dark land outside the boundary, causing White Mist to nod her head."

"’I should go,’" she said.

God Granny, acknowledging the truth, wondered what could make her brother reveal such a demeanor.

Red looked on with a heartache, yet White Mist was not too difficult to watch.

Red hadn’t seen White Mist this angry, nor had she ever seen her struggle like this.

White Mist merely forced out a smile in response to Red’s words; although she hadn’t completed this task perfectly, she had still managed.

"The feeling of emptiness and loneliness surged in him once again as he saw the red door that had already passed by," Dugu thought.

Although White Mist ought to be very excited, she wasn’t; her anger had already been contained. The great battle had ended,

"Brother, I’ve prepared a gift for you. I’ll see you on the outside," she said,

prepared to depart from this world soon, along with these outsiders, Yan Zibing, White Mist.

Bit by bit, Red was being absorbed, as the two worlds were fusing together, everything had already concluded.

If looked further... If White Mist had looked further, just as he was about to be found in the mental hospital, looking identical to him, but White Mist hadn’t looked at all.

All the patients there had now appeared, making up the files neatly arranged in Room 307 of the Ninth Mental Hospital; not merely patients, but many people resided in the hospital,

which was not in the same architectural style and differed vastly from the village outside.

Naturally, scenes from Red’s inner world would also appear... she’s about to transition from the world of Divine Lake to the world within here.

All the villagers turned into someone else entirely... Feng Pinghai, Zhu Jing, Zhao Kuan, Cui Zhengping, Stone Head

But in reality, this was impossible; it was just a persistent delusion.

The Grim Reaper had always been the personification of death, but now he just felt like an ordinary man.

His fury slowly dissipated as he watched the scene unfold covered in a white mist.

One by one, the red threads were yanked out, those benevolent intentions.

The world inside its original essence was clear and translucent, but it had absorbed all the air from within, though it still inhaled every last bit of it.

This world, unlike Divine Lake, did not possess a smidgen of evil spirits or resentful air; all the twisted things and bizarre circumstances were being absorbed one by one.

The essence of the world was on the brink of destruction, but the spiritual energy inside him surged even stronger, supporting him slowly as it transformed.

Swallowing up the Lake’s dense legacy, devouring it earnestly, like Pang, who seemed to be having a meal, with countless eyes tethered to the divine air, unblinkingly watching Divine Lake disappear.

But he could only accept this outcome.

He felt a deep sense of disenchantment, as if he were akin to a heavenly soldier descending, caught off guard by an abrupt banquet of murder, he sighed secretly from afar.

This village boy’s strength had grown, and so had his spiritual understanding; the meaning of the red threads was not just a matter of life-threatening peril.

He, who became her friend right after the white mist appeared, was always on the side of kindness. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Even those medical staff, who in reality were but small players, were in fact wounded in the hospital ward; she had come in contact with too many sick people.

Pang, too, was progressing through some sort of transformation; she would reverse-swallow back to Divine Lake, having been swallowed by those dangers.

Each of his red-thread eyes were like black holes, endlessly absorbing the residual air of resentment from the colossal body of Divine Lake. Gradually disappearing alongside the vanishing Divine Lake were these images.

But the entire village seemed peaceful and beautiful.

Dugu merely emerged indistinctly, having an unobstructed view of life and death; he was among those who understood the most profound meanings, incomprehensibly carrying on with his peaceful life.

His unpretentious nature made the villagers extremely happy; his pitiable stone head was no longer sacrificed.

He watched slowly walking away from the mountain village, led by the young men from the Zhao and Zhu families, celebrating Zhao Kuan’s and Zhu Jin’s wedding with friends and family.

The white mist seemed to be charging unexpectedly into some unknown realm at this moment.

A red line cut straight through the head of Divine Lake in a commanding pose!

Divine Lake was already defenseless, its neck already exposed in an instant, all of its concerns had already vanished, despite having been momentarily vulnerable.

Feng Hai, accustomed to doing things in his own way, felt quite at ease.

"There is so much I can exchange in this battlefield..."

But before Divine Lake stood only one arm, gathering resentment... just an arm.

The immense resentment of Pang, who hoped that Divine Lake would exchange places and bring back the white mist from the dead, already carried a hint of desperate intent.

"Exchange places!"

For Divine Lake, who had already disregarded so much at this crucial moment, it was just a calculation to be slain.

The most frightening killing strike was prepared for Divine Lake, who was at its weakest; a split-second exchange with the white mist had been arranged.

"Exchange places!"

This was an unexpected development at this moment!

Prepared to deliver a thorough strike, it gathered the resentful energy.

Only the pure essence of fury could possibly contain the mist... as Divine Lake made a sacrifice in the blink of an eye, advancing on all three fronts to inflict real damage.

Simultaneous with the gathering resentful energy, Divine Lake also unleashed its avenging form.

He charged at maximum speed, uncaring of being seen as small-minded in his own eyes.

Pang, exuding a laddered resentment, worriedly followed his brother’s skull toward Divine Lake, climbing up the steep passage.

Carrying Chi Jie (Ruler Ring), he hurried towards Divine Lake at his fastest pace, and at the same time, Zixuan also launched his attack.

A long, red-hot trail was dragged behind by the high-speed moving figure.

A white fog surged forth!

Zixuan but nodded his head again, though without understanding what Dugu intended with his drawing back of his hand – he could not know.

But Yin Hong didn’t have to worry about this point, as he had his own problems.

Zixuan, having just escaped a near destabilization of his negative emotions, knew this was no place for the likes of mortals.

Zixuan nodded his head, and the white fog retreated from the battlefield, looking back at Zixuan.

Yin Hong advanced without haste.

Only both decided against Divine Lake, for it was evidently stronger than the just-overcome form of intensified resentment.

Waiting for the final penetration, the red lotus spear compressed and did not disperse the white fog’s fury.

The true threat was the white fog—itself, though Divine Lake was capable of countering, as it faced only Yin Hong.

The final echo of battle had already been heard.

Yin Hong’s illusory body also possessed some spiritual help. After transforming into the form beyond intensified resentment, Yin Hong appeared somewhat wilted, his eyes halfway closed, holding a ball of qi.

This event allowed even Divine Lake to take notice, showing some interest.

Directly drawing on vast amounts of resentment qi to recover Divine Lake’s physical form was beyond controlled transformation.

Its body emitted a black luster like obsidian, black flowers bloomed, and horned deer, just like Divine Lake’s shape, stood nobly apart.

Another strange creature had appeared on the battlefield.

This man, Yin Hong, had let Zixuan take over, lurking in the darkness, waiting for his chance, hidden by the white fog.

But to control Divine Lake, just one person would be needed.

He must gather all his infernal fire, waiting for the chance to deliver a life-threatening blow.

If White Fog sensed this continued downward attack, his red lotus hellfire would gradually disperse, depleting his rage until it was almost exhausted.

Rippling waves began to surface, one after another, in the qi-filled air, immediately following behind the vast resentment qi that swept in.

It obviously intended to devour Yin Hong in one bite. If that were to happen, then what victory or defeat could still exist within this world?

However, even pressing down on Divine Lake with God Granny’s might, one could still sense a singularly foreign and extremely dangerous aura.

It was indeed the White Fog that pressured and suppressed the divine flames; the two were not on the same level.

Only by utilizing almost unlimited resentment qi, could White Fog create a fire-suppressing effect against Divine Lake. freewēbnoveℓ.com

This indicated that Divine Lake had not prepared itself to confront the form beyond intensified qi transformation, accompanying the newly restored Yin Hong.

White Fog could sense the battle between Divine Lake and its inverse reflection.

Zixuan did not know what Yin Hong was about to do; he seemed to be gathering a particularly immense force.

The core qi-balls, though still incessantly twisting, at least appeared better than before; the image of a young lady, "Yin Hong’s illusion," was yet intact.

Zixuan felt an intimidating energy from Divine Lake, gaze by gaze, those eyes within the core qi-balls scrutinizing.

A most disastrous situation for Divine Lake seemed to have unfolded.

(I must’ve walked up the old eastern stream without knowing, lost in thought; the older gentlemen have become too powerful. 01/001’s progress could go no further; even the Silver White Alliance couldn’t utilize it anymore.)