Night of Despair

Floating City Universe.

In the midst of the Wind Disaster, the entrance and exit links of this universe, which Yu Hong frequently visited, had now completely turned into an oval wellhead constantly spewing black fog.

The Black Black Spirit was floating in the Wind Disaster, and inside it, Yu Hong looked at the entrance and exit that had been completely destroyed, expressionless.

He held a Water Instrument Ball in his hand, injecting mana into it continuously, carefully sensing the traces left behind by Ku Chan and the others as they walked.

But unfortunately, the Wind Disaster seemed to be triggered by the black fog's Great Annihilation, and around the black fog, black and white intertwined threads were slowly brewing.

Yu Hong, far away, looked at those black and white threads from a distance, feeling a sense of heart-pounding fear.

"Is the Great Annihilation of the Wind Disaster going to begin as well? It's not safe here anymore... I thought the Wind Disaster was the safest place, but now it seems..."

Yu Hong took one last look at the black fog wellhead, steered the Black Black Spirit, and quickly left.

He constantly tried to contact Ku Chan and the others along the way, but unfortunately, there was never any response.

Clatter.

Yu Hong swept the debris and fragments on the table to the ground and sat by the edge of the table.

The communicator was still on, but only faint static noise remained.

Outside the window, colorful halos constantly passed by, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

He sat by the table in silence.

One world and universe after another was being destroyed, the people he knew had all disappeared. In the future, more disasters would follow, constantly erupting, all life decomposing, everything returning to silence.

Only now did Yu Hong understand why many people chose death in the face of the Source Disaster.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting when a subtle fluctuation in mana occurred within him, a small breakthrough in the second High Martial Technique during passive cultivation.

This slight fluctuation snapped Yu Hong out of his negative state.

He stood up and came to the window.

"I won't give up just like this..." Yu Hong's gaze focused as he watched the colorful lines flowing swiftly outside.

"Upon reflection, the earlier situation seemed a bit like a Heart Disaster. They probably wouldn't encounter trouble so quickly. No matter what, I just need to work hard to improve my cultivation. Any status will be beneficial."

Immediately, his mind moved, steering the Black Black Spirit rapidly back toward the Heartless Belt.

He didn't plan to enter it again but sought a place around the Heartless Belt to endure the Tribulation first.

*

*

*

Over three hours later.

In a desolate, uninhabited unknown universe.

Black Thunder Spears fell like rain, furiously suppressing and covering Yu Hong completely.

Huge vibrations and roaring accompanied countless sparks of electricity.

Yu Hong remained unmoved, sitting cross-legged in mid-air. His terrifying physical strength allowed him to soak in the Heavenly Tribulation without much feeling.

More than ten minutes passed.

The Heavenly Tribulation vortex slowly disappeared, and a stream of invisible mysterious energy essence quietly descended, seeping into Yu Hong's body.

His expression remained unchanged, while the mana within him began once again to elevate its quality under the nourishment of the essence.

Several seconds passed, and the invisible energy essence dissipated completely.

"It's done." Yu Hong exhaled and stood up.

Looking outside, the place he had found was not a complete universe but rather a larger fragment remnant.

Initially, he hadn't expected the remnant to trigger the Heavenly Tribulation. Though its intensity was slightly lower, it had successfully allowed him to reach the Returning to Void Peak.

"Next is the Mahayana... The so-called Mahayana is to expand one's physical body as much as possible. Other realms don't have the word 'Great' attached, but this one does. This is the true reason for it." He recalled the cultivation method of the Qingyuan Heavenly River Miao Technique during the Mahayana Realm.

Mana at this level rises quantitatively, storing as much as possible to prepare for future Ascension.

However... looking outside, Yu Hong couldn't muster the previous drive to forge ahead and cultivate hard to find the land of vitality.

The Black Black Spirit accelerated its flight, and the surrounding colorful lines flashed as it quickly returned to the Wind Disaster.

This time, Yu Hong no longer wandered but instead stayed in the house, cultivating diligently every day.

Left alone, even consumption of food was simplified; with a sweep and a spit of mana, everything was taken care of.

Time passed slowly.

The communicator had not sounded again.

About a month later, the Black Black Spirit finally moved again.

This time, it didn't continue staying where it was but flew around the Wind Disaster zone near the Heartless Belt.

Cautiously, Yu Hong mapped out the distribution areas of the Time Turbulence Zone and then began attempting to accelerate his cultivation using the time acceleration.

He still had the gift from Agrius with him, a vast amount of vitality that had yet to be transformed into strength. Now, with the Time Turbulence Zone, the transformation could become a reality in a short period.

"You and my heart, like honey added~~ like that cloud in the sky, floating uncertainly..."

The computer speaker played an old song Yu Hong brought from Hope City World.

The graceful female voice sounded somewhat like Yiyi, so he recently enjoyed playing this song on repeat.

At this moment, he stood in the center of the first-floor hall.

All the trash and debris around had been cleaned up, revealing a large, empty space.

He concentrated quietly, waiting for the Black Black Spirit to approach the Time Turbulence Zone and slowly enter...

Hiss...

In the silent, suddenly, wooden blocks placed on the ground in front of Yu Hong gradually whitened, disintegrated, and turned to ashes.

"Here you go!" His face hardened as he observed the distance at which the wooden blocks turned to ash.

Suddenly, he stepped forward.

He crashed headlong into the time acceleration zone.

At the same time, the vitality crystals he had prepared in advance began to shatter frantically, releasing a massive amount of vitality.

The Qingyuan Heavenly River Miao Technique inside his body began to circulate so quickly that its shadows flickered, almost impossible to trace.

Tracks overlapped, forming a golden network that lit up inside Yu Hong's body.

Buzz!!

A massive amount of vitality was digested, absorbed, converted into mana, and filled into his body.

The mana at the late stage of Returning to Void soared crazily, according to the traditional model of Qinghe Mountain, his body should start to expand and grow at this moment.

However, because Yu Hong's body had long been strengthened to an Ancient God Body, its strength far exceeded the original degree of the late stage of Returning to Void.

Therefore, the rapidly increasing mana could not make Yu Hong's Ancient God Body expand.

Yu Hong just stood in the turbulence, his cultivation surged rapidly, while the countdown for the Black Mark's enhancement also decreased quickly.

But... it didn't take long.

The time acceleration stopped abruptly, and before he could react, everything suddenly came to a halt.

Time acceleration directly turned into a time stop!

As time paused for a moment, Yu Hong saw the front wooden block, which had turned to ash, begin to rapidly revert to its original state, returning to wooden in a few moments.

He immediately realized the danger, once entering time reversal, the mana inside his body would start to rapidly degrade and revert to vitality!

The countdown for the Black Mark would also start to reverse increase.

'Time reversal! Withdraw!' Yu Hong's thought flashed in his mind, realizing the danger, and immediately forcefully controlled the Black Black Spirit to disengage.

He himself was still in the time acceleration status, highlighting the peculiarity of this area.

Separated by only a few meters, there were two different time zones.

Buzz!

The Black Black Spirit buzzed, forcefully disengaging from the turbulence zone.

The row of wooden blocks in front of Yu Hong also ceased to change.

At this moment, the front fraction of the wooden blocks astonishingly reverted to a fresh green as if just chopped down.

While the middle section of the wooden blocks remained in a white ash state.

Yu Hong took a breath of relief.

He sensed the mana state in his body, and mana had increased by approximately three-quarters.

He looked again at the Black Mark countdown, the countdown on the surface of the Outer Eye was reduced to only about two years and three months.

Originally over five years, reduced by three years in such a short moment!

'In this brief moment, three years have passed.... If the Black Mark is affected by the time turbulence, does it mean that the enhancements and items the Black Mark grants could also be degraded by the time reversal, regressing?'

Yu Hong suddenly thought of this point.

Now, he understood the value of his time-space resistance.

After resting for a while, he continued to cultivate on the edge of the time turbulence zone.

He had no choice but to take risks, clearly on the edge of danger.

Because he didn't know if the time turbulence zone would change, if it expanded, one slip-up would trap him in the time reversal zone.

Then all his efforts and hard cultivation might suffer a huge loss.

But Yu Hong had no choice.

In his estimation, the Great Annihilation wouldn't take long to catch up, and the Heartless Belt ahead couldn't be passed without Golden Immortal level cultivation.

After all, each Unconscious Body was unimaginably powerful.

If he waited to grow to Golden Immortal level and explore, the Great Annihilation behind would already catch up and erase him and his safe house completely.

Only by using the time turbulence zone to accelerate his cultivation to the maximum, enhancing his strength, could he see a glimmer of hope in the subsequent struggles.

Time passed bit by bit.

About five days in normal time.

Bang!

Yu Hong stepped on the floor, creating a deep pit.

In that moment, within just five seconds, the time turbulence zone drastically changed, and the time acceleration suddenly multiplied countless times.

His mana surged more than half again, and the vitality gifted by Agrius melted completely in seconds, converting into mana and cultivation.

Yu Hong's weight increased more than ten times within those seconds!

His weight technique failed, his feet pressing into the ground, creating huge pressure pits.

Luckily, the materials of the safe house were strong, otherwise he would have broken the Gravity Simulation Array.

"Enough!" Yu Hong quickly operated the safe house, vaguely hearing the Black Mark's transmission feedback, but the time flow accelerated so much that his senses couldn't catch up.

When the Black Black Spirit completely disengaged from the turbulence zone, he regained consciousness.

Crack.

He looked down, finding his skin was covered with dense golden cracks.

'Is the rapid time flow unbearable even for me?'

He used Inner Vision to find the mana inside had completely transformed into golden threads.

They flowed continuously through his blood vessels, like traffic on a highway, releasing pressure attempting to expand outward.