Chapter 164: Rescue 163 – 6K

Why can light be black?

Wang Wu doesn't know, but the beam shooting from his fingertips is indeed black, and the power of this thing…

How should I put it? Wang Wu doesn't feel any power.

Yet it gives Wang Wu a very strange feeling.

"What… what is this? Master?"

Staring at the now empty street, where even the mist has vanished, Wang Wu, having already relinquished control of his body, sees this dazzling attack effect and, excitedly, asks Yin Shenli.

White light, golden light and the like are common, but black light—he truly has never seen such a thing.

Wang Wu's eyes can perceive many "lights" that his past self couldn't see; after all, the eyes of Earthlings are quite limited, so as long as they're useful, that's enough.

But after cultivating a technique from another Earth, Wang Wu's eyes naturally underwent a revolutionary change.

Describing his eyes as "fire eyes and golden pupils" is not an overstatement.

However, the black beam seen by Wang Wu's eyes is not an invisible light to ordinary people; even a normal person can clearly see the black ray.

And wherever this black ray passes, everything is "erased".

Completely gone, leaving nothing behind.

Well, the street and ground that serve as the backdrop remain, but the mist and forms that filled the street have all been erased.

"Absolute Sky Finger."

Yin Shenli lowered their hand and explained to their disciple, "This is a first‑rank martial art, though a third‑rank can also use it, the effect is far weaker."

"But it will do for now."

"Then… can I, as a fourth‑rank, learn it?" Wang Wu can feel its power; if struck by it, it's total erasure.

It pierces all defenses, attacks the essence directly; true damage is the most genuine harm in this world.

"No," Yin Shenli replied, "You're only a fourth‑rank, not even close to the Complete Realm, and you still want to learn this?"

"After this is over, hurry up and cultivate, will you? How long do you plan to stall? Even with average talent, reaching third‑rank takes years, but at least you should forge a Diamond Body first, right?"

"Even if your star system lacks a gas giant, the Sun is always there; when you refine your body inside the Sun, Master Yin and Master Qin will watch over you."

"Huh? Watch over?" Hearing that, Wang Wu asked curiously, "Do you and Master Qin possess me, taking over control when things go wrong so I can return?"

"Idiot," Yin Shenli rolled their eyes, "We'll come directly to watch you; otherwise, with your intellect, you'd go into the Sun alone to refine, and I'm afraid the Diamond Body would turn to ash before you finish."

"Huh?" Wang Wu was startled, "Master, you two are coming?"

But then a wave of joy followed.

However, immediately he thought of a daunting question: how would they get here?

He could understand possession, but how would a physical body arrive? This is another universe, after all.

Clearly Wang Wu had forgotten how items he ordered online travel from another universe to this one, but honestly, just because a courier can arrive doesn't mean a person can.

In their world, there is actually no inter‑universal transport technology, not even many long‑range means between universes.

Some cities that still have spaceports dock ancient vessels billions of years old, and people rely on these ships to connect star systems.

Although connections are scarce, because of the wars, the old star maps are long obsolete.

A star system that should exist becomes empty, while the empty space is filled with fragments of planets.

The entire universe has become wasteland, and the Solar System is no exception.

In this star system, the only relatively intact things are the "cities" remaining on the major planets.

Some of them remain perfectly preserved, while others are merely small pockets that survived the war, most of their areas having been destroyed.

Beyond the cities, on the wasteland, you see no trace of life.

Forests turned to deserts, seas evaporated, and the atmosphere was completely dispersed.

The planets in this star system have reverted to their original state: nothing, no longer possessing even the slightest conditions for life.

Now, only a few ships in the Solar System can still perform long‑range interstellar travel, and they are all ancient vessels over a hundred million years old.

But these ships still run, and compared to their state billions of years ago, there's no difference.

Just like the city where Master's hometown, Cloud Light City, is, it is even older than those ships by several hundred million years.

The city's highways were inaugurated billions of years ago and still operate perfectly today.

The whole city's structure is ancient; Cloud Light City is one of the few well‑preserved cities in the Solar System wasteland, with few damaged areas.

This is mainly because it is a fortress city—a very sturdy stronghold—so sturdy that it survived the universe‑shattering war.

Today, the "Nine Great Main Cities" on the Solar System wasteland are of this type; because they are well‑preserved with complete industrial systems and production lines, they are called the "Nine Great Main Cities".

Earth, as the core region during the Human Empire era, is essentially reserved for the empire's elite.

That is, the earliest batch of citizens, and they must be nationals of the main countries that founded the empire.

As for others, they can only reside outside the Solar System.

In the past that perhaps wasn't an issue; after all, the Solar System had been ravaged by humanity for so many years, already riddled with scars and desolation.

And those unpolluted "habitable planets" with exquisite natural scenery were obviously better choices.

But as the Human Empire continuously developed, humanity advanced and became ever more sophisticated; the Solar System, as the birthplace of human civilization, would not be forgotten once they prospered.

Thus its status began to rise, and as humanity grew stronger, it received increasingly careful protection.

Even during the final apocalyptic war, when humans even spat brain matter at each other, they still treated the Solar System, the cradle of civilization, with utmost caution, fearing the war would reach it.

Regardless of the side, no one would deliberately attack this place.

Although it was eventually affected, at least the Solar System wasn't completely erased by human fleets from the universe like the neighboring systems.

Completely erased, leaving not even a speck of cosmic dust.

After hundreds of millions of years of development, the Solar System's resources have long been exhausted, but this has little impact since the area is not an industrial sector.

It became a spiritual sanctuary of civilization during the Human Empire era and no longer bears the responsibility of nurturing humanity.

Therefore, these places have far fewer production lines, but as the birthplace of human civilization, all of humanity's technologies are fully stored here.

It's just to be prepared for any eventuality.

Even though it's still useless now, it's because of the resources.

There are hardly any star systems near the Solar System any more; most neighboring neighbors have been annihilated in wars, leaving only a few lone stars barely surviving in deep space beyond the Solar System.

These lone stars often still contain some resources, and sometimes even one or two human cities can be found.

After all, lacking a sun and not orbiting any planet doesn't prevent humans from settling there. With the technology of the Human Empire era, these were already no longer an issue.

But even though Human Empire technology was god‑like, reaching the level of the "Creators" and "Divine‑level civilizations" spoken of in many legends, they still never transcended the universe.

Without transcending the universe, there could of course be no inter‑universal travel technology.

As for why a courier company can deliver items from over there to here—well, that's exactly what courier companies do, right? It's perfectly reasonable, no problem at all.

"Master, how did you get here? I'm far away,"

With curiosity, Wang Wu asked again.

"What the hell, is your brain not working? How could you get here? Just take a ride," Yin Shenli rolled her eyes again and cursed.

"Take a ride?" Wang Wu was stunned.

"Ride‑hailing apps, ride‑hailing apps—haven't you heard of them? Even if your hometown is backward, it can't be that there are no ride‑hailing services. There's computers and the internet, but no ride‑hailing? Do you think you live in the millennium?"

"Even if there's no ride‑hailing, haven't you heard of taxis??"

"Um, Master, I know about ride‑hailing," Wang Wu replied to Yin Shenli's rapid barrage, "Master, you don't have to be so agitated, do you?"

"You mother‑f***ing bastard, who the hell are you calling agitated!!? I'll kill you!!!"

In an instant, Yin Shenli flushed red from the heat.

In some respects, Yin Shenli is strikingly similar to a certain fake world‑number‑one assassin—almost as if their personalities were molded from the same mold.

For example, in how easily they get flushed.

By contrast, Master Qin Xiang's temper is much better.

Although Master Qin Xiang is a big boss of the Demon Sect, his impression on Wang Wu is that of an especially gentle good‑natured old man.

Um, maybe not a perfect saint, but certainly very gentle.

"Um, don't be angry, Master, I didn't mean that. Calm down; if you ever come here, your disciple will certainly serve you well."

"Hmph, I damn well don't need you to serve me," Yin Shenli said coldly. "Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? I'm not some promiscuous freak; I only do this with my boyfriend."

"Then, Master, I'll chase you right now."

"Get lost! I get annoyed just seeing you!"

Just as Wang Wu was exchanging flirtatious insults with his master—no, while Wang Wu kept trying to soothe his flushed master—somewhere else in this city, on a street...

Qing Xuanzi ran along a fog‑filled street, not knowing why she was running, nor realizing that she seemed to have forgotten many of her skills.

She was just running, running wildly.

There was no destination, no reason, just running.

In the fog behind her, vague silhouettes flickered—seemed like people, but on closer look they were nothing like that.

Only, Qing Xuanzi didn't seem to notice this; she just kept running, nonstop, wildly.

Where to? She didn't know.

Why run? She didn't know either.

She wasn't even aware that she was wildly moving her legs; in her mind at that moment, thoughts unrelated to what she was doing surged and churned.

"Why?"

"Why?"

In Qing Xuanzi's mind, such thoughts kept flashing:

"Why why why?"

"Why?"

What why? She didn't know, she just kept asking herself why.

But different from the 'why' echoing in her heart now, the images that rose with each 'why' were another kind:

A young man, an extremely handsome youth. When she found herself in this strange place, he also appeared before her.

Looking at Qing Xuanzi, his eyes wept blood, the corners of his eyes tore, his mouth gaped, and he shouted:

"Senior sister."

"Senior sister?"

"You promised me, you promised me, right?"

"Senior sister…"

"Be my wife, be my wife, senior sister…"

He reached out to Qing Xuanzi, trying to seize her. At that moment, Qing Xuanzi's mind was completely frozen.

She just stared blankly at the youth, watching him extend his hand toward her.

When he tightly grasped her arm, a piercing pain shot from her arm; her brain remained rigid, but her body instinctively reacted.

"Slash!!"

In a completely unconscious state, she shouted, and a cold flash appeared before Qing Xuanzi, slashing at the youth.

In an instant, her arm was cut off by herself. Immediately she fled, running wildly.

"Senior sister, senior sister?"

In her ears, the boy's voice kept echoing.

She kept running, kept running, not knowing how far, until the boy's voice completely vanished, yet she was still running.

In her mind, the boy's image kept appearing, his voice still reverberating inside her head.

Her spirit is now on the brink—no, it can be said she's already broken. Yet her body hasn't; her instinct is saving her, trying to get her out of this place.

As the most promising disciple of the Qingping Sect to break into the Entering Law Realm within the next hundred years, Qing Xuanzi has been in seclusion for three months.

And those three months have already let her faintly touch the threshold of that Entering Law Realm.

Though truly reaching that realm would still require another two or three years, it doesn't matter, because two or three years is already fast enough.

Qing Xuanzi belongs to the cultivators who received the cultivation technique benefits from the Extreme Heaven Divine Palace, and many cultivators in the seclusion area have not yet received this news.

It was originally planned to notify them all gradually, according to each one's seclusion schedule.

Secluding oneself isn't something you can interrupt whenever you wish; a rash interruption would pose great danger to the cultivators in seclusion.

Seclusion isn't just staying closed off, not even eating, barely moving, but immersing daily in the True Realm.

Inhaling and exhaling true Qi to strengthen oneself, while constantly capturing knowledge in the True Realm that one can comprehend, gaining inspiration from it.

Yes, the True Realm contains not only oddities but also countless pieces of knowledge.

True Dao cultivators seek truth by discarding falsehood, using the truth obtained from the True Realm to see through delusions in reality, in order to attain the genuine "Truth".

Hence it is said that the "Heaven and Earth Truth" pursued by the Summer People and that pursued by the Zhou People's True Dao cultivators are not the same thing, even though they appear very similar.

Wang Wu does not understand the myriad doors and paths within the True Dao power system, and he does not pay attention to those things.

After all, he does not cultivate.

Qing Xuanzi keeps running forward; if viewed from a bird's‑eye perspective, one can see that she has actually been circling not far from that youth, never truly escaping.

Her body tries to save her, but her spirit has already sunk.

If no external force intervenes, her downfall and transformation are already a foregone conclusion.

Yet she is still quite lucky.

After coaxing his master, Wang Wu regained control of his body and set out to explore the city.

But there is no need to explore; after being strengthened by his master, his perception has become extremely sharp, and he need not wander aimlessly through the city.

A brief, rough scan is enough to instantly locate the survivors in this city.

Even though the city is vast, so vast that even Wang Wu in his current state cannot sense its end.

This limitation is relative to the city's area; in Wang Wu's present condition, his divine consciousness can already cover a planet.

Covering the entire Tianyuan Star is impossible, but covering his home Earth poses no problem.

Yet because he has not reached a complete realm, he cannot perform a detailed scan, only a rough one.

As for a fine‑grained scan that could cover an entire planet, that must wait until he completes brain restructuring and possesses a true "Super Brain".

Even within this "limited" perception range, he only sensed five normal human auras.

Approaching the perception range of a Tianyuan Star, yet only five normal human auras.

However, the number of cultivators in the seclusion zone is also small—fewer than a hundred; only five have survived so far, which is already a good result.

Without any hesitation, following the direction of the nearest person, Wang Wu hurried toward that side.

And as soon as he arrived there, Wang Wu saw two acquaintances.

Although he wasn't sure whether one of them could still be called an "acquaintance", Wang Wu does recognize him.

The junior brother of Yao Qing.

As for the other acquaintance, Wang Wu does not actually know the other party, but since the other is also human, he can be counted as an "acquaintance".

"Senior sister, senior sister…".

Watching the woman who kept stepping in place, hearing her muttering, and seeing her vacant eyes, Wang Wu's complexion turned oddly.

The "senior sister" she kept chanting is someone Wang Wu knows, because it is his wife Yao Qing.

As for why that voice comes from her mouth, just look at the Li Tianxuan staring dead‑ahead at her.

"Senior sister, senior sister…".

At the same time, in Qing Xuanzi's ears she heard the youth's voice again.

And that voice at this moment became exceedingly sharp and high‑pitched:

"Senior sister!!!!!!!"

Qing Xuanzi's eyes tore, leaving blood‑tears; the roar she emitted splattered with countless blood droplets.

Wang Wu stepped forward, grabbed her shoulder and gave it a shake.

"Stop shouting, wake up."

"Stop shouting, wake up!"

In Qing Xuanzi's spiritual world, a strange unfamiliar voice suddenly rose. Along with that voice came a faint chill that seeped into her limbs and bones.

That chill tore open the repeatedly looping scenes in her spiritual world, and let her consciousness start flowing again.

Of course, most importantly: her brain began to operate again.

So when Wang Wu's voice reached her spiritual world, she jolted violently.

In her mind finally began to play what her eyes had seen, and then she saw an exceedingly handsome face.

"Awake?"

Looking at the other's now clear eyes, Wang Wu asked.

Yet the next moment, before Wang Wu could speak, the other's eyes burst into dazzling white light.

Immediately followed by dozens to hundreds of cold rays.

"Break!!!!"

Qing Xuanzi let out a fierce shout, the syllables she spat turned into countless sharp blades, hurling toward Wang Wu.

Then, being hurled out, Wang Wu smacked her with a palm, turning her into a spinning top.

"Damn it, I'm human! You should at least aim at the right target when you're triggered!"

A palm strike made the other's gaze instantly crystal clear.

"Now you know I'm human?" Wang Wu glared at the woman, cursing.

"I, I…"

Having been slapped by Wang Wu, Qing Xuanzi's mind was finally a bit clearer at this moment.

She looked at Wang Wu's face, feeling the burning pain on her cheek, and immediately tried to recall… uh, well, she couldn't remember.

Because the blur was activated, she naturally couldn't recognize Wang Wu.

"You are… you are who?"

She instinctively tried to step back, but before she could move, Wang Wu grabbed her.

Then Wang Wu patted her shoulder again, stepped forward, and came to the now bizarre Li Tianxuan.

"Do you still remember me?"

Wang Wu asked, looking at the Li Tianxuan before him.

"Senior sister, senior sister!!!!"

At this moment, when Wang Wu stood before him, Li Tianxuan reverted to the tone from the very beginning:

Melancholy, sorrow, and incomprehension.

However, compared to the start, he now had a few more lines:

"Senior sister, senior sister, my, my senior sister…"

"Give her back to me, give her back…" Li Tianxuan stretched out his hand toward Wang Wu:

"Return her, return her to me…"

Wang Wu said nothing, merely clasping his hands together and rubbing his chin.

He was contemplating whether to ignore the other party, or to give them a release.

(End of chapter)