Chapter 1: Escape

  World B

  This is a desolate forest.

  Yang Yunqiu followed behind her 'senior brother' with quick steps, lowering her head and not saying a word.

  Ever since three years ago, on every full moon night, he would travel through time and space from Earth to Yan Guo, transform into a servant of Xian Shi Fangzhou, be locked in a dark secret room for endless labor. Since then, he learned what silence is.

  This short month is getting harder and harder to get through.

  It's been three years and he counts down every day, looking forward to the full moon because on that day, he can go home and return to his grandmother's side.

  But also dreaded next month's full moon.

  Afraid of the day when I will return to this dark forest again.

  The path is narrow and everyone can only form a long queue. Even so, it's still inevitable to rub shoulders with each other. Fortunately, everyone has already gotten used to it, so there aren't many complaints.

  A faint murmur of a few words floated from the front, as if they were planning to sneak and listen to Nong's village folk song after finishing this errand.

  Yang Yunqiu closed her eyes and listened carefully to the footsteps.

  Today there were eighteen fewer people, it seems like more and more people are disappearing each time.

  It seems that other fellow disciples didn't notice these at all.

  The day before, they were still sleeping soundly, calling each other brothers and friends. The next day, they vanished without a trace, yet no one cared.

  Yang Yunqiu also did not dare to care.

  It was the dead of night, and ahead, a figure in a long robe, carrying a lantern, made the surroundings even more eerie and terrifying. They soon arrived at their destination, and Yang Yunqiu followed the main group out of the tunnel, not daring to look up at the majestic massive building, and entered through the 16th gate into a narrow room.

  He sat down steadily, took out the snow-white paper from the bamboo tube, spread it on the metal platform, and began to depict the complex and mysterious patterns floating in mid-air.

  The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

  Smooth lines flowed from the sharp pen tip, unlike the stumbling of those human paintings in the next room. Yang Yunqiu painted very seriously, with her whole spirit concentrated on the pen tip.

  He has developed a habit since childhood that no matter what he does, he is very serious and gives his all, because this is the code of conduct told by his grandmother.

  Finally, a painting was completed, Yang Yunqiu slightly relaxed and wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

  "What happened to Guo Jing and Huang Rong? Did they ever meet again?"

  Just as he put down his pen, a clear and bright voice like that of a child suddenly sounded in his ear. If it were someone else who heard this in such an environment, they would probably be startled to jump up. However, he curled up the corner of his lips and smiled: "Don't worry, wait until next time I read it, then I'll tell you about it."

  The little kid grumbled discontentedly and muttered in a low voice: "Next time you have to take me with you."

  But now there's no more entanglement: "That old bully who used to pick on you, that little fatty, was taken away by 'Skull' today. 'Skull' is so evil, I don't want Yang Yinqu to be taken away too."

  The room fell silent for a moment.

  Who would have thought that a rare and precious cultivator from the Eastern Profound Continent would be treated as nothing more than a consumable item here.

  Yang Yunqiu had been selected to enter the inner hall at the age of fifteen, and it has already been three years now. Since coming here, she only learned one thing, which is to pick up the spiritual brush to draw array diagrams. As for the true meaning of those array diagrams, it's not something that these people can know.

  The formation can only be seen and painted by a cultivator who is the darling of the heavens, and Yang Yunqiu has to paint two formation charts every day. For three years now, he has been painting every day, but the formation charts that appear in mid-air every day are still dense and endless.

  In this strange building, there were more than three hundred novice monks like Yang Yunqiu working numbly.

  Yang Yunqiu's performance was roughly average to above, not eye-catching, and wouldn't be treated as useless trash to be eliminated. Last month, the top ten performers among the cultivators were gone, including Po Lazi and Po Xia, who had had enough of this endless life and refused to work.

  He felt he was about to collapse too.

  In fact, apart from Yang Yunqiu, it's really hard for others to stick around this place for three years. After all, they're not like him, who can return to his familiar world on the 15th of every month and stay there for a month before returning on the next full moon day.

  As long as he can return to his loved ones, the hardships in front of him are just work and tribulations, and will not lead to despair.

  Besides, he also has 'doll'.

  In the eyes of that skull sage, Ark, this massive structure in the vast wilderness is a relic of an ancient great being, but in reality, it's a stellar frontier base for cultivators millions of years later.

  This base crossed through time and space for unknown reasons and arrived at a time ten million years ago. The people inside had long since died, leaving behind only a supercomputer intelligent life form.

  Yang Yunqiu had been here for one year and three months when this strange life came knocking on her door.

  He gave it a name, called WaWa.

  According to WaWa, it seems that among the many people coming and going in this base, only Yang Yunqiu meets the requirements and can be contacted by WaWa.

  As for what the requirements are, WaWa said a lot, and even if you simplify the calculated values, it would take at least half an hour to explain. Anyway, in his opinion, they were all about something like "heart nature" and "opportunities", which seemed quite vague and illusory.

  Yang Yunqiu didn't understand, so she simply didn't bother to care. Anyway, with this adorable little thing around, she could teach him some knowledge that Fangzhou absolutely couldn't teach, or even understand, which was already a huge stroke of luck.

  In the distant future, after millions of years, the path of cultivation has expanded to the extreme of the world. Cultivators began to explore other possibilities and invented many products similar to high technology, allowing ordinary people to enjoy things that only cultivators could enjoy in the past.

  Yang Yunqiu thought that the future of this world would be a shadow of his own original world. According to what WaWa said, knowledge at that time could be understood with just one listen. If it were someone else, perhaps even this new life that was still confused would say something that no one could understand, and no one would believe it. They might even take it as a pure spiritual being - although even if Yang Yunqiu said so, there was some reason to think that way.

  It's so vivid, but it's not a spiritual life form.

  "By the way, Yang Yunqiu, I'll tell you something... 'Skull' is about to die."

  Yang Yunqiu was startled and almost dropped the spiritual brush in her hand.

  He hadn't even had a chance to ask when the doll suddenly spoke out in a flurry of words: "Does he think he's really invincible? He's been walking the wrong path and still hasn't repented, making mistake after mistake, with so much guilt that even you, a novice monk who has just entered the door, can see it at a glance. If he doesn't die, who will?"

  "I predict that by the end of next month, or maybe even sooner, his flame of life will be extinguished. When that happens, the contract will disappear and the base will return to its dormant state. Let's get out of here!"

  Yang Yunqiu's tense spirit suddenly relaxed.

  He only now realized that he too would one day wish for someone's death. Since childhood, his grandmother had taught him to be kind and to take the right path. His grandmother was a compassionate person who would sweep the floor carefully to avoid killing ants, and would cover lamps with gauze to prevent moths from getting burned. She spent her life doing good deeds and accumulating virtues, and even through hardships, her heart remained unchanged.

  He may not be as good as his grandmother, but he is also kind-hearted. This is the first time I've heard someone say that death brings a sense of relief.

  "The Ark is a path to self-destruction." After muttering it twice, Yang Yunqiu gritted her teeth, "Doll, we need to get your core chip before that..."

  Actually, Yang Yunqiu had thought of escaping after knowing about the doll's existence. However, he wasn't alone in this world; he had his mother and younger sister with him. Moreover, according to the doll, when Fangzhou found the base, he accidentally triggered a contract and was half-recognized as its master. If he didn't die, then as an intelligent computer, the doll wouldn't be able to escape even if it wanted to.

  Fortunately, Fangzhou himself did not meet the conditions and could not truly recognize the master. Otherwise, once he died, the base would also automatically seal itself, and the doll would be trapped inside forever.

  "Be careful, it's coming." The doll's soft voice suddenly rang out.

  Yang Yunqiu was taken aback, her whole body trembling as she shrank down to the metal operating table and stretched out a hand to press a black button about the size of a fly.

  The console immediately separated a piece of metal plate, standing on the ground, with intricate and elegant inscriptions on it, emitting a faint dark light.

  At this time, a thick black smoke suddenly seeped in from outside the door, and as soon as it touched the metal plate, it dispersed on its own, leaving only a foul smell. The smell made Yang Yunqiu's whole body stiffen, with cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

  Yang Yunqiu pricked up her ears until the footsteps faded away, then let out a sigh of relief.

  Others seemed to be unaware of the black fog, just like in his first year. The thought of being washed away by the foul-smelling black fog every day in his first year made Yang Yunqiu's hair stand on end.

  Three whole years, day after day of worry and fear.

  Yang Yunqiu sighed, her body slightly trembling, her expression twisted, with a hint of endurance, wondering how many more cultivators would turn to dust today.

  Noah's Ark didn't know what kind of evil and strange method was used to repair it, the sin on its body was so thick that even from a distance, one could smell the stench.

  Those sins are not something that can be atoned for by simply drawing a few arrays, and even if it's just killing some people, it probably won't work.

  Yang Yunqiu was very afraid of death, he didn't know if Yang Yunqiu in another world could survive alone after he died in this world. What if she also died? What would happen to his grandmother then? The worst thing wasn't death, but becoming a vegetable, that way his grandmother would have no way out either.

  So, no matter what, I couldn't continue staying in this human purgatory.

  My mind is a mess, with many fragmented pieces swirling around in my head.

  He knew very well that he was just a country boy on earth, with a grandmother who loved him as much as jade, but the memories of this body were becoming clearer and more distinguishable.

  Yang Yunqiu, a small border town in Dayan Country, Changsu Town, an ironmonger's adopted son, his adoptive father died three years ago, leaving only his widowed mother and younger sister.

  To make a living, he carried his mother and sister on his back, secretly selling himself to the great master Fangzhu as a servant, and was taken away in a daze.

  As a result, he entered the barbaric forest and unexpectedly awakened as a cultivator. He was lucky to be transformed from those nearly useless residual products that were consumed every three days into a relatively durable consumable product cultivator.

  On this vast Eastern Origin Continent, not everyone can become a cultivator through practice. People with innate talent are extremely rare, and those who are born awakened are one in a million among cultivators. If they cannot awaken before the age of twenty, they will never have the opportunity to cultivate in their lifetime. The original Yang Yunqiu may not have had this talent either.

  But... everything has been completely different since he arrived.

  To put it simply, once awakened, one's fate changes instantly, at least starting point is much higher than that of ordinary people, although he doesn't like this kind of 'strange encounter', but he has gained power, at least after returning to Earth, he can protect his grandmother, make her hair turn white a little slower, and make her body healthier.

  But on one condition: you have to be alive.

  On Earth, he was also an orphan. His grandmother had raised him with great difficulty and she is now nearly sixty years old, soon to be weak and frail in her old age, alone by herself. If he couldn't return alive, it would be like taking his grandmother's life away. For fifteen years, his grandmother had endured hardships to raise him, but he still hadn't repaid the kindness of her upbringing. If a white-haired person were to send off a black-haired one, it would be an even greater tragedy than a child wanting to support their parent but the parent not waiting for them.

  How can she bear it?

  He can't guarantee that after he dies in this world, he'll be able to return to Earth smoothly, so he must keep living, desperately struggling to survive, and escape!

  More than half a month's time, it is very long if you say so, but it is just a flash in the pan.

  Yang Yunqiu swiftly darted through the forest, unaware of how long she had run, until she collapsed onto the ground panting heavily. She wiped away the sweat on her forehead and suddenly lifted her head to find that the majestic building in the distance seemed to have vanished.

  Ark suddenly burst out, wanting to kill everyone. He didn't even have time to think, and followed the doll's command to run wildly. Wherever the doll told him to go, he went; whatever button the doll told him to press, he pressed; into whatever formation the doll told him to enter, he charged in. The doll even told him to cut his own arm, and he did it!

  In the end, he only remembered that he had crawled through tunnels, jumped over windows, swum and climbed walls and trees, didn't know how long he ran, his whole body was stiff as wood, finally saw daylight.

  Human potential is indeed great; under the threat of death, people can do many things that they wouldn't even dare to think about in normal times.

  A single star in the sky, the entire forest is dark and silent.

  This is a desolate forest, this is where Xian Shi's Ark resides in seclusion. Even if there were earth-shaking events, they would not affect the outside world.

  The surroundings were eerily quiet, with no bird chirps at all.

  For some reason, Yang Yunqiu felt a sense of suffocation in his heart. He looked around and found that there was not a single person: "Could they all be trapped in the base?"

  The doll fell silent for a moment: "I didn't expect that scoundrel to kill everyone before he died, doesn't he ever think, can he really achieve immortality by depriving others of their lives? Wouldn't the heavens be unable to tolerate him if that were possible? Even I know that's impossible."

  Yang Yunqiu suddenly felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. He took a deep breath and forced himself to suppress this desire, remembering that three years ago when he first saw Guan Shi behead a monk with one slash of his sword, splattering brains everywhere, he had vomited until the sky was dark and the earth was dim for three whole days without eating a single grain of rice. But later on, he gradually became numb and got used to it.

  He never thought he would have this sickening feeling again before even seeing a corpse.

  But anyway, he is now free, and those who have never experienced the loss of freedom will never know how precious it is.