Chapter 243: Escape

If we want to leave this place, we probably can't return the same way, right? Bai Lang stood on the mountaintop, scanning the beaches on both sides for any road leading elsewhere. Now the sea and sky have swapped, so although the beaches on either side look unchanged, stepping out leads straight into the sky, and you can't see any "ground" at all.

The sea above still churned with a massive vortex, and in the water the pipi shrimp kept battling a giant octopus, their roars booming from the heavens. The number of crabs on the beach was impossible to count; a rough estimate put them at several million—most of the sand silkworm's body was sliced off and many were eaten, and countless crabs kept pouring in.

The crabs had even breached the tough membrane between the sand silkworm's shell and its carapace—eating through the holes. Bai Lang glanced at the opposite side, where a mudflat still teemed with bouncing fish; a nine‑headed bird was still boldly gnawing a whale, while its eighteen eyes furtively watched Bai Lang, making the young master Bai grin.

"Cunning bird, seems ready to bolt at any moment," Bai Lang said, still deciding to take the beach. This was because the crabs had all swarmed to the sand silkworm, leaving patches of beach empty. Bai Lang leapt down from the mountain and began walking along the beach.

"Will the sand silkworm's lower half be hanging in the sky?" Bai Lang wondered, though he didn't bother to run to the edge to check. Who knows how "thick" this beach is? He used Lightness Skill to sprint forward along the sand, and in the blink of an eye the mountains behind vanished, while the crabs on the ground had already disappeared.

At that moment, Bai Lang heard an explosion behind him; turning his head, he saw massive plumes of smoke rising in the distance, and above the sea surface huge stones crackling as they shot into the water, sending huge downward splashes. A rapidly expanding darkness was also spreading fast.

"The beach is collapsing? Falling into the sky?!" Bai Lang immediately unleashed his Lightness Skill at full force and sprinted, unable to look back, relying solely on his own Lightness Skill. Who knows what would happen if he fell into the sky? Better to run for his life. The beach's collapse was extremely rapid, but as long as Bai Lang didn't fear any anomalies, his martial skill level should still outpace the collapse speed.

Just before the entire beach gave way, Bai Lang slammed into a soft, fluffy "edge"; a white tiger manifested on his body, tearing through the edge and charging forward.

Before him unfolded an entirely new world. "A room?" Bai Lang looked around to confirm. He found himself in a square room, filled with a technological atmosphere that steam‑era settings should never have— all six walls were metal, the joints between interior panels were smoothed with angled transitions, and glowing strips along two edges illuminated the whole room.

Bai Lang saw that each of the six walls had a door, all identical watertight doors. "What's this? A hyperdimensional killing formation?" he muttered, then walked straight to the door ahead and began turning the valve.

Behind the door was a short corridor, which Bai Lang crossed in a single step; as he entered the next room, the door behind him shut automatically. On the way, he also inspected the visible door panels and found them indeed quite thick for watertight doors.

Each door bore a number, and each was different. Suddenly, crossbows mounted on the walls fired simultaneously from all six sides. The arrows hovered in midair, their tips sticking to Bai Lang's clothing before shattering. "Ha…" Bai Lang chuckled, "If you were an ordinary person, that would be… a death."

At that moment, the Yu Yu hanging around his neck warmed slightly; Bai Lang lifted his head and, in a blink, stepped back until he pressed against the door. A metallic clang sounded from outside, and the room in front quickly twisted, deformed, and was completely shattered. What Bai Lang saw was an enormously thick arm covered in black hair, far larger than the room itself.

When the arm retracted, the room beneath Bai Lang shook violently, and he finally saw the arm's full shape—a limb covered in coarse black hair, ending in a massive five‑clawed hand; the claws resembled a human hand but each finger bore sharp talons.

Bai Lang was daring enough that even an Innate Expert would risk leaping to the spot where the claw retracted to look outside. Outside should have been pitch black, but now the sky bore massive fissures, even a huge hole through which strange light poured in. The gigantic claw still gripped the edge of the hole, and with a thrust it shattered a large chunk.

Just as Bai Lang had clarified, a strange suction pulled him upward; he flailed, trying to cling to the shattered room, but the force was so immense and odd that the metal plate he grasped turned to powder and vanished, and Bai Lang was instantly sucked away.

Since he was being drawn in, Bai Lang fully mobilized his Internal Force, ready for a life‑or‑death showdown, and also prepared his Fierce Tiger Landing Form. In the instant he passed through the breach, he blacked out— the Innate Expert's Internal Force martial arts were utterly useless.

Having blacked out, Bai Lang could only let out a long sigh before losing consciousness, "Now fate truly decides life and death, wealth and honor." He then tilted his head and passed out.

When he awoke, the upper half above his head was roof, the lower half cloud—no sun, but it was fairly bright. "Should I call this a strange ceiling?" Bai Lang muttered, "I think that's inappropriate; it should be 'once you count the grime on the ceiling, you're done'… hehehe." Another voice sounded.

Bai Lang wasn't particularly worried—if the voice's owner intended harm, they could have acted already; since they could still speak like that, they were probably not the type to kill him, leaving a chance to use the Fierce Tiger Landing Form. He strained his neck to see the speaker, and saw a living Hao Gui—just as vivid as seeing a living Xu somewhere when looking in a mirror.

The broad‑snouted fellow squatted nearby, a thick cigar clenched in his mouth. One eyebrow arched as he stared at Bai Lang, his eyes and expression radiating extreme arrogance and unruliness. Though Bai Lang had never seen a man like this Hao Gui before, the gaze struck him like a bolt of lightning, instantly recalling the owner of those eyes.

He had seen the owner of those eyes before, but the last time they met, the appearance was nothing like this…