Chapter 585: Beginning Land

After ending the communication, Lin An carefully observed the entrance of the Beginning Land.

Regarding Xiong Hanzi's final silence, he did not intend to console him.

Zhang Tie is essentially a good-natured person; he simply follows me, unconditionally trusting Lin An, and thus accepts all of Lin An's plans.

But.

They want to live, which means someone must die.

Just like the humans who died inside the Amoeba Worm Instance, perhaps it is because of his plan that the entire humanity of the Amoeba Worm Instance died prematurely.

If they are not counted as Amoeba Worms in the system's judgment, then there is a lucky chance to survive a bit.

If so, then it is a clean death.

Perhaps there is a better plan, perhaps spending more time, even if he is willing to sacrifice more, these people would not die.

But for Lin An, he only wants the highest efficiency.

Under the Apocalypse.

He cannot save that many people, nor can he manage that many.

Let the people around him survive.

That is enough.

This is already a greedy luxury.

Regarding his own state of mind, Lin An feels nothing wrong with it.

A second Lin An will appear; that him who struggles through countless deaths will lose everything— is it not because, essentially, he and the second Lin An are the same person?

If I let myself undergo another cycle of death from the Long'an Project, I would still become 'him'.

The wind blew, sweeping up the fallen leaves all over the ground.

Looking at the mysterious Beginning Land shrouded in many rumors, Lin An couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised.

It is a very ordinary cave, and even the digging technique is somewhat clumsy.

Like digging a hole beneath the artificial hill in a park.

At the cave mouth sat a man in a gray robe, cross-legged, motionless like a statue.

His chest rose and fell slowly, a layer of grayish-white dust covering his body.

The 002nd Ascetic Practitioner, one of those who take turns guarding the Beginning Land.

If not for sensing an abnormal aura fluctuation with his spiritual perception, Lin An would have thought this was merely an ordinary person.

Before entering the Beginning Land, he had not lacked the idea of forcing his way in.

But after repeated scouting and detection, each time he tried to forcefully charge in, he would feel an inexplicable palpitation.

And the battle outcome simulated by the Mechanical Compass was also not optimistic.

Simply, he gave up the notion of entering early.

"The 99th Ascetic Practitioner, limited to twelve hours."

"Prepare to enter."

"Overtime results in permanent deprivation of Ascetic Practitioner status..."

The man sitting cross-legged at the cave mouth slightly opened his eyes, expressionlessly gazing at Lin An, who had been sizing him up, and spoke lightly.

Having said that, he closed his eyes, and everything appeared indifferent.

Lin An nodded after hearing it; he knew the general rules.

Although, he did not intend to obey them.

He quickly approached the flicker, habitually activating the compass to simulate a battle between himself and the 002nd.

After a brief pause, a brief battle result was transmitted:

"Battle result: simultaneous death..."

Lin An silently watched the simulated battle result, not overly surprised.

Again, this result...

Starting from the 009th, he was no longer severely injured and near death, but completely dead.

Except for the most mysterious 001st, whom he has never seen, and for whom he has no battle simulation results.

But for the remaining Ascetic Practitioners, he has found opportunities to test each one.

Ascetic Practitioners.

They are indeed difficult to deal with, a troublesome existence.

Relying purely on force to suppress them is no longer realistic.

However, conversely, Xiong Hanzi performed much better than him in the Mechanical Compass's battle simulation.

When Zhang Tie faces those Ascetic Practitioners with lower numbers, it is always 'death' once before he can kill them...

If it were not for the time limit on Xiong Hanzi's 【Transcending Death】 talent, he really would have considered whether to have Zhang Tie grind these Ascetic Practitioners to death.

Suppressing all the thoughts in his heart, Lin An calmly stepped into the dark cave.

After a prolonged sense of loss of consciousness, awareness returned.

After seeing everything before him clearly, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Before him lay an endless plain, the withered yellow earth bearing only a bare tree, beneath which sat a middle-aged man in a half-length robe, cross-legged.

He half-exposed his upper body, his eyebrows drooping as if in meditation.

All sounds ceased.

Is it a secret realm within a secret realm, or an illusion!?

Watching the scene before him suddenly change, this place is clearly not the depths of the cave.

Is it a teleportation, or a fabricated illusion?

With vigilant thoughts, Lin An sensed the pervasive ancient aura around him and directly activated the Judgment Eye and the mechanical compass's scanning ability.

Dark blue mist rose, and a silver flash streaked by.

His breath caught.

Lin An, mouth dry, stared at the unvanishing sight before him.

This...

It's real.

Inside the cave, there is a second world...

In an instant, a great deal of murmuring whispers flooded his mind.

A gruesome scene suddenly appeared in his consciousness.

"Run! Hurry and run!"

"Child... my child..."

"The city has fallen..."

Flames shot into the sky, and the panicked crowd fled in all directions through the burning city.

The mother clutching her child desperately begged for someone to find her other child.

The spear-wielding soldier did not look back, brutally swinging his weapon to clear a path.

The wealthy merchant in white robes hurriedly tried to embrace the ceramic jar filled with gold and silver treasures, taking his servants with him to flee.

The feeble old man held a cane, gazing sorrowfully at the direction where the flames rose.

"They're coming... they're coming..."

"Plop"

The frantic crowd fleeing for their lives shoved him to the ground, and pairs of panicked feet trampled his chest flat.

Gazing at the scene before him, reminiscent of a fallen city, Lin An found himself immersed in it.

What time is this?

Is this a scene from the Secret Realm's history?

Observing these people's attire and the city's architecture.

It seems to be a very early era.

Who has come? Enemy soldiers?

Recalling the historical records he had read, the entire Secret Realm world had been in constant warfare before the blood corpse outbreak.

Lin An couldn't help but frown.

Why show me this?

The next second, a pair of blood-red eyes lit up from the smoke.

"Ahhhhh!!"

A scream of extreme pain.

Only to see a horde of zombies suddenly rush out of the smoke, howling as they knocked down the rearmost wealthy merchant.

The clay jar slipped from his hand and shattered, scattering the gold and silver jewels across the ground.

After being knocked down, his facial skin was torn and chewed by the corpse's mouth like dough, and the spurting blood dyed the scattered gold a bloody red.

His heart shuddered.

Blood corpse... no, it's a zombie.

Doubts rose in his heart.

Has the blood corpse plague already appeared this early?

But where is the blood corpse that spreads the zombie virus?

The vision was lengthy; this gruesome scene persisted for a long time.

Some children had their brains bitten apart by zombies; some panicked soldiers tried to fight the zombies to the death; some cowardly nobles, eyes full of terror, shoved their slaves to the ground to secure their own chance to survive.

The woman holding her child desperately looked at the bite wound on her body, and even the child in her arms was scratched by the zombies.

The zombies sprinting behind her were like a death talisman; she could no longer flee.

Seeing the only well that could offer escape ahead, she tightly shut her eyes, gave a grim laugh, and jumped into the well.

Better to die than to die in the monsters' jaws...

"Plop"

The well water submerged the infant's head, choking off its cries.

Watching this familiar yet unfamiliar scene, Lin An's doubts grew heavier.

In the Initial Land, why does such a scene suddenly appear?

He has seen this kind of scene far too often.

He seemed like an outsider to the painting, clearly within the city depicted, yet everyone ignored him.

"The massacre" lasted a long time.

When the entire city burned to ruins, with the ground littered with bones picked clean.

A man who appeared to be of a foreign tribe staggered into view from the distance of the scene.

His figure swayed, adorned with lavish gold and silver jewelry, his silk-like white robe indicating an extraordinary status.

Seeing the scene before him, he involuntarily turned ashen-faced and gave a grim smile.

"Why"

"Why have they appeared here... why!!"

"I have already fled here! Why won't you let me go!!"

Miserable, resentful.

The man's eyes turned red as he knelt on the ground, wailing loudly.

Not far away, the Zombie smelled the scent of the living, then roared and charged at him.

Under Lin An's gaze, the man remained unmoved, as if he had given up, showing no reaction to the terrifying Zombie.

However, in the instant before the Zombie's mouth bit him.

A familiar surge suddenly burst forth.

Hiss—

His fist smashed through the Zombie's skull, spraying bright red fragments all over him.

The man rose to his feet, slowly retracting his fist, muttering with his head down.

Watching the scene before him.

Lin An only felt his whole body shake, a chill rising in his heart.

The power the man exerted was spiritual power.