Chapter 108: 108 Alteration – 42K Seeking Subscriptions

The night in this world is like an overexposed photograph, blinding white light pouring from the sky, turning everything on the ground stark white, as if coated with a layer of overly thick powder.

But beyond this white, the world also contains vast swaths of black; there are always places the celestial light cannot reach, and those massive clumps of darkness are just that.

Massive black, and excessive white. Clearly this world is not normal even in daylight.

In fact, it was already very abnormal during the day.

These light sources seem immobile, or rather the planet beneath does not move, and the suns in the sky do not move.

Everything is still, motionless. Wang Wu sat on a barren plain, using a found branch and a Heavenly Demon Heat Wave Palm to raise a fire, occasionally playing on his phone, and occasionally turning his head toward the village over there.

Ding—

The strange bell sound rang again, still with no source found. After scanning the surroundings for a few minutes, Wang Wu gave up searching for the source.

"Hey! Hey!! Over there!!!"

But when Wang Wu turned around, he saw something different.

In the distance, within the shadow behind a large rock, a human face appeared.

He looked at Wang Wu anxiously and asked, "You, you understand what I'm saying, right? You understand??"

Wang Wu nodded at him.

"Then, you come over, just come over!" The man became instantly agitated, shouting at Wang Wu, his voice trembling.

Wang Wu just stared at him, saying nothing.

"Come over, come over!?"

Seeing Wang Wu unmoved, the man grew frantic, shouting several times, "Quick, come over!!"

Wang Wu still didn't move, just staring blankly at the other.

"Quick!! Quick!!!!"

His eyes bulged out of their sockets, mouth wide open, repeatedly calling to Wang Wu:

"Why aren't you coming!! Come quickly!! Come quickly!!!!"

After shouting four or five times in a row, seeing Wang Wu still unmoving, just watching, his speech grew increasingly rapid, yet he kept shouting again and again:

"Come quickly! Come quickly! Come quickly! Come quickly! Come quickly!"

The speed increased, becoming more and more blurred. At the same time, his face grew increasingly twisted and grotesque.

Finally, he turned into a monster with an elongated skull, a face full of wrinkles, bulging eyeballs, and vertically elongated pupils.

Hee hee, hee hee, hee hee hee, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha……

He opened his blood‑red gaping mouth full of sharp fangs, the corners of his mouth split to the temples of his skull, emitting an extremely eerie laugh.

A cold flash struck, disappearing into the darkness behind.

The man's face vanished instantly; Wang Wu withdrew his gaze from the darkness and looked ahead.

Within the village shielded by a blue circle, a graceful figure stood quietly at the edge.

Then, another cold flash flashed by her side, and a long sword appeared in her empty hand.

After doing all that, Yao Qing glanced at Wang Wu in the distance, then turned and entered the inn.

Seeing her leave, Wang Wu held his phone in his right hand, broke a branch with his left, and tossed it into the fire.

The other remembers himself and retains those memories related to him, but clearly they seem overwritten into another version.

Possessing the ability to alter hearts, even to bring them from Tongtian City into this world, whatever that thing is, it is evidently extremely powerful.

"Demon God?"

Wang Wu looked up, gazing at the ten suns in the sky.

Recalling again the encounter when he entered Tongtian City, Wang Wu paused, suddenly stunned.

If, the first time he entered Tongtian City, the Tongtian City he saw under the nine floating suns was not an illusion...

Immediately, he rose from the ground and looked toward the overexposed night scenery in the distance.

"Then perhaps, there is also a Tongtian City here?"

"And the person they met before, did they return from the Tongtian City on this side??"

Thinking this, Wang Wu felt his spirit lift.

He seemed to have thought of a way to escape.

As long as he finds that Tongtian City, as long as he finds that place, there should be an answer.

One night passed quickly.

Wang Wu didn't sleep, sitting until the next morning.

During that previous night, aside from the initial thing, more bizarre objects kept appearing.

Some were unknown entities like the first monster, and a few were old acquaintances of Wang Wu, the demon spirits, but Wang Wu dealt with them, and some were dealt with by Yao Qing.

The next day, the suns rose early, first one, then after a moment the second, the third, up to the ninth.

Wang Wu calculated the time: the first sun appeared at 5:30. By 6:00, all the suns were hanging in the sky.

At that moment, the detachment Yao Qing was with left the inn and headed into the distance.

Wang Wu also stood up then, trailing far behind them.

"That guy didn't die, nor fully become a demon?"

The people in the group naturally noticed Wang Wu following them; the male cultivator glanced at Wang Wu behind him and said to those around.

"Senior sister was helping him outside last night, so of course he didn't die," said the man surnamed Duan without turning his head, clearly not in a good mood.

"Yao, fellow cultivator, went out!??" Hearing Duan's words, the man instantly became nervous.

"No," Yao Qing said, "I'm inside the circle."

"Regardless of whether his sanity remains, he will eventually become that kind of thing, fellow cultivator." At this moment, another woman in the group advised Yao Qing:

"We should speed up and get rid of him as soon as possible."

Yao Qing said nothing, but was the first to quicken her pace, clearly agreeing with the woman's suggestion.

The group began moving swiftly across the wilderness, yet however fast they went, the distant city seemed perpetually far away.

Their speed was at least about six hundred kilometers per hour, but from morning to noon they were still on the road; the village behind them had vanished beyond the horizon, and no town could be seen in the distance.

That was odd, because at six hundred km/h you could cross provinces in two hours, let alone at Wang Wu's hometown.

But here, after a whole morning's march, the group was still nowhere near a village or a shop.

It could be that the planet beneath their feet is too large, but that seems unlikely.

In Wang Wu's view, these people appeared to move fast, yet most of the time they were merely marching in place.

But they themselves could not realize it.

Advance, march in place, advance then retreat, advance, march in place. It made Wang Wu inevitably think of the times when a game's network was so laggy that one step would freeze, two steps forward would pull two steps back.

As the sun in the sky waned, the anxiety on everyone's faces grew deeper.

Thus, until night approached, after climbing over a hill, they finally discovered a ruined temple in the wilderness.

The ruined temple was also encircled by a blue ring; upon seeing it, relief flashed across everyone's faces. They hurried inside and shut the main door tightly.

Wang Wu stood two kilometers away from the ruined temple, watching the blue circle surrounding it. Those people seemed not to notice that the circle was damaged.

Soon the night grew deep.

"You're not my senior sister, why am I here!?? Where is my senior sister!? Where is my senior sister!??"

While Wang Wu closed his eyes to rest, a startled shout rang out from within the ruined temple, followed immediately by true Qi soaring skyward and a flash of cold light.

He opened his eyes and looked that way, then heard a series of utterances he completely did not understand.

"Senior sister!! Senior sister!!!"

A moment later, a figure burst out of the ruined temple, looked around, gazed at the wilderness, and shouted loudly:

"Senior sister!! Senior sister!!!"

While shouting, the man also saw Wang Wu. He evidently remembered Wang Wu, and upon seeing him immediately charged toward him, spitting a torrent of notes as if his mouth were a machine gun:

"... &%%* (You, you are the one from daytime, right? You've always been awake, right?)"

"&* ((&&)!! (Help me, help me, I am, I am a Direct Transmission Disciple of the Illusion Moon Gate sect leader!!))"

"&*... @%！￥@?? (You don't understand?? Hey!! Hey!!!)"

Wang Wu understood none of it, and after seeing Wang Wu's shrug, he stepped back two paces, his face showing despair.

Then he fled toward Wang Wu's rear without looking back.

After a while, another figure appeared outside the ruined temple, rushing straight toward Wang Wu.

"Fellow cultivator!"

"You're remembering?" Wang Wu asked, looking at Yao Qing who had come before him.

The latter nodded.

"Sit down." Wang Wu gestured to the ground, "Sit and speak slowly."

The lit campfire crackled, and Yao Qing listened silently as Wang Wu recounted the conclusion he had reached after a day's contemplation; after hearing everything, she looked at Wang Wu and asked:

"What is your current plan, fellow cultivator?"

"Find, find people." Wang Wu said, "Now it's you, still missing your master, and Si Tu Jin. I'm fairly familiar with you two; as for the others..."

He shook his head, "There are people whose faces I don't even recall; even Si Tu Jin and your master, I can't guarantee to find."

"Alright." Yao Qing nodded, then cast her gaze toward the distant ruined temple: "But if it reaches tomorrow..."

She froze mid-sentence, her body instantly stiffened; Wang Wu thought she had seen something, until a strange aura emanated from her, and he instantly sensed trouble.

But the state lasted only three seconds. She quickly returned to normal and resumed the unfinished words:

"But after tomorrow, will I become like I was during today's daytime again?"

Saying that, Yao Qing gripped her long sword tightly, one hand supporting her forehead, "That's not my memory at all, that person isn't my junior brother either, I even... I don't even understand what he's saying..."

"Your earlier state was very off." Wang Wu said, causing Yao Qing, who heard it, to pause, "Just now?"

"Just now when I turned my head to look at that ruined temple." Wang Wu pointed at the distant temple:

"He just said a couple of sentences, then your body suddenly stiffened for a while, and your aura was off. Yet you seemed unaware of it."

"I feel like you're about to demonicize."

"Don't panic." Seeing Yao Qing about to speak but unable, Wang Wu said, "Extend your hand."

Then Wang Wu bit his fingertip again, carving the character "Extinguish" onto her palm, just like before.

"I don't know if it works." After writing, Wang Wu withdrew his hand, "It may work, or it may not; this is all I can do."

"Thank you, fellow cultivator." Yao Qing withdrew her hand and gave Wang Wu a gentle nod.

Then she lifted her long sword, "If it doesn't work, please, fellow cultivator, as you said in the daytime, kill me."

"Alright." Wang Wu nodded.

"Stay here tonight; as for tomorrow, we can only wait."

Having said that, Wang Wu fell silent, and Yao Qing also fell into silence.

He continued to close his eyes and rest; the night passed quickly.

"Senior sister!!!!"

As soon as day broke, before Wang Wu could open his eyes, the voice of the man surnamed Duan rang in his ear.

He opened his eyes and immediately saw the man surnamed Duan raising his hand and charging at him, eyes blazing.

Yao Qing beside Wang Wu also opened her eyes at that moment, but the first person she saw was Wang Wu.

In an instant, her complexion changed dramatically.

She sprang up and moved away from Wang Wu, then the junior brother's voice sounded. Her long sword at her waist instantly flew out, turning into a cold light that shot away, but its target was not Wang Wu—it was her junior brother.

The cold light struck the man surnamed Duan's chest, instantly propelling him outward.

Junior brother.

Yao Qing walked up to the Duan man who had fallen on the ground, reached out her hand to him, and said, "We don't need to worry about him; let's go."

After speaking, she lifted the junior brother from the ground, and the two hurried toward the distance.

The junior brother was pulled up by Yao Qing; although his eyes grew even more resentful, he did not charge forward again.

He looked at Yao Qing with deep sorrow, then still followed her away.

"What about the other two people beside you?"

From behind the two, Wang Wu asked.

Neither turned back, but after walking for a while, the Duan man asked Yao Qing:

"Has this Wang Wu already become mentally incoherent?"

"I don't know," Yao Qing shook her head.

After walking for a while, the little junior brother turned his head, glanced at Wang Wu, and asked:

"Senior sister, last night… were you staying by Wang Wu's side the whole time?"

"I…" Yao Qing tried to recall what happened last night, but couldn't remember at all.

"I can't remember," she shook her head, then looked at the junior brother beside her, concern in her eyes: "And you? When you fled the ruined temple last night, did you encounter any danger?"

"No…" the Duan little junior brother shook his head and said:

"Last night the formation was damaged, demons ran rampant; after we got separated, I ran wildly all the way and finally reached a village to take temporary shelter. But senior sister you never came; I wanted to go out to find you, yet outside there were those strange objects everywhere, I truly couldn't break through, so I could only…"

"I'm fine; as long as you're safe…" Yao Qing said gently.

From a distance, watching the two walking side by side, Wang Wu stroked his chin and listened closely to their conversation.

Although he still couldn't understand, by observing their body language and expressions he could roughly guess something.

They clearly had no memory of what happened at night; as soon as they left that blue circle, their memories would return to normal.

However, the night seemed to have some effect on them.

Wang Wu didn't know whether it was demonization, but it was very similar to the thousand‑billion ten demonization he had discussed with Zi Yuan.

He didn't know if his Vajra Demon-Subduing Array still worked, but now he could only treat a dead horse as a living one.

"It seems that whether day or night, the memory will be altered, right?"

Watching the two ahead, Wang Wu fell into contemplation.

(End of chapter)