Chapter 75 – Return

Yesterday, The Mirage creature fell asleep, believing it could sleep through an entire era change. It slept soundly.

Unexpectedly, in its dreams, it saw a giant iron eagle flying overhead, from which a person and several spirit beasts emerged. Among them, a little sheep pointed at its head and said, “Right here.”

Another small green snake transformed into a hundred-meter-long dragon and struck the ground with its tail. This powerful blow caused the large clam that was The Mirage to be smacked out of the ground.

The big clam stood upright on the ground, its shell opened upwards. The lamb indicated a spot, and the dragon opened its mouth to unleash a thunderbolt, aiming directly at the shell.

The thunderbolt struck precisely where the lamb had pointed, and the clam shell cracked open, revealing the dark figure inside — The Mirage.

The mirage had just been scorched by the Supreme Deity Zhuzhao the day before, and the charred marks on its body hadn’t yet healed. Today, it suffered another lightning strike, which resulted in yet another layer of scorched skin.

The Azure Dragon held back because its goal was to make The Mirage cooperate rather than consume it. Ninety percent of the lightning strike’s power was dispersed on the shell, while only ten percent hit The Mirage itself.

The mirage was a spirit beast that lost most of its defensive capabilities once its shell was breached. The creature within the shell was particularly vulnerable. It weakly opened its eyes and exhaled a puff of smoke.

Bai Ze stepped forward and said, “Stop pretending to be dead; we need your help.”

“Chirp!” Chi Qiong let out a stern call.

Bai Ze promptly corrected himself, “Don’t pretend to be dead! Quickly come and serve the Supreme Deity; it’s an honor for you!”

Yun Xiguang glanced at Chi Qiong, realizing that his cute “chirp” carried much deeper meaning. No wonder he carried himself with such pride; even as a small yellow chick, he couldn’t hide his extraordinary nature.

The pitiful mirage opened its eyes and asked, “Is it already the next epoch?”

The Azure Dragon coldly replied, “No, I struck you five times yesterday, and the cracks on your shell haven’t healed yet.”

Mirage: “…”

It thought it had slept for at least a few months, never expecting time to have passed so quickly.

“Chirp!” Chi Qiong urged, unwilling to waste any more time on The Mirage.

Bai Ze hurriedly said, “You’ve conspired with Hai Ruobo and the Youying Academy recently, haven’t you? Supreme Deity Zhuzhao wants to retrieve something from the Youying Academy. Quickly construct an ‘Illusory Reality’ space, linking it to the academy, which will allow us to move freely. You must maintain this channel until the Supreme Deity regains his powers.”

Chi Qiong glared at The Mirage, and remembering yesterday’s burning experience and today’s lightning strike from the Azure Dragon, The Mirage dared not argue. Even if it risked its life, it would create the required space.

It coughed lightly and spat out bubble after bubble, each enveloping everyone present. The surroundings underwent a tremendous transformation.

What was once an empty field now featured a massive, shrimp-like creature, similar to a colossal crayfish.

Its length matched that of the Azure Dragon, its body robust, and it was adorned with countless legs, clumsily flying in the air.

Chi Qiong’s expression turned cold. His spiritual energy had been used by Youying to raise aquatic spirit beasts, and he didn’t like these creatures from the water!

“This is…an evolved version of a crayfish?” Yun Xiguang wondered.

Youying had used Chi Qiong’s spiritual energy to create a giant crayfish?

This crayfish seemed quite strong, but it wasn’t as far beyond a divine beast as Bai Ze had described.

Even without considering Chi Qiong, the Azure Dragon could engage this crayfish in a fierce battle.

However, Bai Ze spoke solemnly, “That’s bad news. Golden-Winged Great Peng and Li Zheng might not return.”

“Even their linked consciousnesses can’t come back?” Yun Xiguang questioned.

Bai Ze pointed at a white, flexible tube floating near the giant crayfish’s head. “Look there.”

The white tube, roughly the size of an adult man’s arm, was deeply embedded in the crayfish’s head. Since the crayfish was semi-transparent, Yun Xiguang could clearly see the tube penetrating deep into its brain.

Since The Mirage’s “Illusory Reality” displayed only a portion of the scene, the white tube disappeared into the darkness after extending for some distance. At first, Yun Xiguang assumed it was a new part of the crayfish’s evolution, but now that Bai Ze had pointed it out, he realized something was amiss.

“You mean, within the Youying Academy, the other end of this white tube connects to a terrifying spirit beast?” Yun Xiguang asked.

Bai Ze turned to The Mirage. “You explain it.”

The mirage remained silent but spat out a few more bubbles.

This time, the bubbles transformed into a person beside Yun Xiguang.

On the plane, Li Zheng had shown Yun Xiguang personnel records from the Youying Academy. They needed to distinguish between ordinary people who lacked combat ability — whom they only intended to knock out — and Spiritbond Masters who could pose a challenge.

Yun Xiguang recognized the face of this individual — a student at Youying Spiritbond Academy, only sixteen years old.

A white tube identical to the one on the giant crayfish was connected to his head, although it was less noticeable due to the student’s smaller size. On a human head, it appeared far more terrifying.

The student sat listlessly at a desk, typing away on a computer.

Yun Xiguang leaned closer to look at the screen. The student was messaging a supplier, requesting that during the next delivery, the supplier bring live meat to the academy personally, accompanied by several workers. Their kitchen wasn’t adept at handling live animals.

The supplier was annoyed, stating they didn’t have the time and wouldn’t deliver live animals; they would only bring freshly slaughtered meat.

The supplier complained about the inconvenience of transporting live animals, as others usually received only meat. Why did Youying Academy insist on being special? He assured them that his meat was freshly killed that day, absolutely fresh, honest.

The student insisted that the supplier bring people along and transferred one hundred thousand yuan from the academy’s account, claiming it was an additional delivery fee. There would be separate labor fees for the workers upon arrival.

Upon seeing the labor fee, the supplier’s anger dissipated, and he agreed to bring a few more people for the delivery four days later.

Reading this chat history sent shivers down Yun Xiguang’s spine.

It seemed that the monster created by Youying was no longer satisfied with existing creatures and had begun using puppets to lure others in.

The supplier and the workers were unlikely to survive long enough to earn that money.

Yun Xiguang checked the chat time and found that the date was three days ago. The agreed-upon delivery date was tomorrow, which left them some time. He breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The “Illusory Reality” displayed by The Mirage was a scene from three days ago. Apparently, The Mirage had visited the Youying Spiritbond Academy three days prior and witnessed these events, and it projected them now.

“This is the reality within the Youying Academy,” Yun Xiguang remarked, surveying the surroundings.

There was no vegetation left on the ground. Beyond the hardened areas, everything was sand and soil, with no insects or microorganisms remaining in the soil.

Apart from the puppets controlled by the white tubes, only the ruins of the campus remained.

On the school gate, only the characters “Youying” remained intact, while the rest of the writing had crumbled.

The white tubes atop the student’s and the giant crayfish’s heads extended uniformly towards the sky. The sky was overcast, with not a single ray of sunlight visible, as if a massive entity loomed above the entire Youying Academy.

There were truly no living beings here anymore.

Only walking corpses remained.

If Golden-Winged Great Peng and Li Zheng, unaware of the situation within the Youying Academy, were struck by these white tubes, they might also become puppets of that monster.

Once someone became a puppet, it didn’t matter if they had a linked consciousness; even if they could teleport instantly, escape would be impossible.

“We must save them as soon as possible!” Yun Xiguang declared.

Bai Ze closed his eyes to calculate for a moment, then slowly shook his head. “There’s no immediate need. I sense they still have a chance at survival. That monster appears to be overwhelmingly large; the Youying Academy’s six-thousand-acre area has become its territory entirely.

“For this mission, we brought several high-impact, low-radiation missiles. Even the Azure Dragon would be reduced to a skewer if hit by one of these weapons. Each missile could level an entire city. If we can pinpoint the monster’s exact location and attack with heavy weaponry first, it could save us a lot of trouble.

“The stealth capabilities of the aircraft might prevent detection.”

“But we can’t just wait,” Yun Xiguang said, looking at the “Illusory Reality.” “I’ll go in with Chi Qiong to find them and bring them back.”

The giant crayfish, student, white tubes, and computer… All the things projected by the mirage had a chance of connecting to reality.

Bai Ze calculated again and said, “You don’t actually need to go in. We can try to pull them out. Extend your hand into the spatial channel and see if you can grab them.”

“How could I possibly find them accurately in such a vast space?” Yun Xiguang asked incredulously.

Bai Ze responded, “You’ll have to rely on your good luck then, and your ability to trigger extremely unlikely events. I can’t predict it; it’s all up to you.”

Yun Xiguang didn’t understand why Bai Ze believed so much in his “luck.”

“Let’s give it a try!” Yun Xiguang focused on the computer used to contact the supplier and reached his hand into the space.

The mirage, its face charred black, exerted all its strength to open the spatial channel.

Yun Xiguang felt around inside and touched something cool and slippery. Then, his hand stung.

He hastily withdrew his arm, and a white tube clung to it, following him out of the spatial channel.

Chi Qiong immediately let out a strange cry, and a flash of fire ignited from the tuft of hair on his head, which turned the white tube wrapped around Yun Xiguang into ashes.

Countless white tubes surged out of the channel, and The Mirage hurriedly turned the computer desk into foam, closing that particular channel.

Yun Xiguang looked at his hand and noticed that the right hand he had extended was visibly thinner than his left, displaying symptoms typical of muscle atrophy.

In just that instant, the white tube had absorbed part of his vitality.

Yun Xiguang’s right hand hung limply, unable to be raised for the moment.

But that was fine; once they returned to the plane, the therapist could treat him.

Yun Xiguang looked at his left hand, presented it to Chi Qiong, and said, “Blow on it and lend me some of your luck.”

He merely wanted Chi Qiong to boost his morale.

He had only one usable left hand left, and the “Illusory Reality” space had already been detected by the main body of the white tubes. If he couldn’t grab Li Zheng and Golden-Winged Great Peng this time, there would be no further opportunities.

Chi Qiong had initially wanted to say something along the lines of, “To receive my blessing, you must bathe, change clothes, abstain from meat for three days, and so forth,” implying that Yun Xiguang shouldn’t expect his blessing too easily.

But seeing Yun Xiguang’s serious expression, he lost the mood to put on airs. He lowered his head and gently pecked Yun Xiguang’s palm.

It was akin to kissing the center of his palm.

Yun Xiguang clenched his fist and said to Bai Ze, “Although you all say I have good luck, I actually don’t believe in luck. Every step I’ve taken to get where I am today involved fighting for survival against certain death. What defeated the fate of certain death wasn’t luck; it was human perseverance!”

With that, he reached toward the white tube atop the student’s head and inserted his left hand into the tube, reopening the spatial channel.

Bai Ze never expected that after nearly losing his life to the white tube earlier, Yun Xiguang would now voluntarily insert his hand into the tube. Was he courting death?

Yet Yun Xiguang explained, “Three days ago, it was this student who contacted the supplier. I suspect that when the supplier arrives, he will be the one to greet them. In other words, if there are any outsiders, he’s responsible for leading them to the monster and handing them over to the monster to drain their vitality.

“Li Zheng and Golden-Winged Great Peng may have encountered him as well. I hope my guess is correct!”

Daring to make guesses and take action, and having the courage to bear the consequences of failure, never shirking responsibility — this was Yun Xiguang, capable of harnessing good fortune.

This time, as soon as Yun Xiguang’s hand entered the space, he felt a familiar thick chain.

It was the golden chain he had lent to Golden-Winged Great Peng!

Yun Xiguang tightly gripped the golden chain and pulled hard, dragging out a man with an eagle’s head, human body, eagle wings, and a golden glow. It was indeed Li Zheng, fused with Golden-Winged Great Peng!

Behind Li Zheng, countless white tubes clung to him, continuously absorbing the spiritual energy within his body.

They were within the Youying domain. Yesterday, Chi Qiong had transformed into human form here. Now, with the weakened domain powers, Chi Qiong couldn’t revert to human form, but he could still exert some force.

He spread his wings, and a loud phoenix cry resonated through the heavens. The white tubes entwining Li Zheng were engulfed in raging flames and instantly turned to ashes.

The mirage made a decisive decision, retracted the “Illusory Reality” function, and transformed all projections into foam. It shut its shell, indicating that the task was too dangerous, and it would rather die than continue to assist.

Fortunately, Li Zheng and Golden-Winged Great Peng, on the brink of death, had returned with specific intelligence from the Youying Academy.