Darkness.
Darkness filled every inch of space, like a boundless sea or an endless void.
Only a faint gleam of light could be seen flickering in the darkness.
— — -It was a man with a black umbrella in his hand.
His bare upper body was covered in black runes, while the black umbrella in his hand fluttered in the wind, slowly bringing him towards an unknown location.
At a certain point.
The umbrella wielder lightly stopped and turned back to look at the path he came from.
"Hah — — -"
"Ahahahahaha!"
He abruptly laughed and spoke with a joyful tone: "I've finally escaped! That manor — — – regardless of who its owner is, there's finally nothing that can restrain my soul anymore."
The umbrella wielder laughed for a while, then suddenly stopped, the joy on his face completely disappeared.
"Damn it … it was supposed to be a perfect escape, but I ran into that thing instead. I can only hope that it was fooled by my [Fake Death] technique."
The umbrella wielder regained his composure, formed a hand seal with one hand, and uttered: "Search!"
Black runes appeared one after another from his body, all of them entering the dark void around him.
A few dozen breaths later.
All the black runes flew back and entered his body again.
The umbrella wielder's lips curled upwards.
No pursuit, no surveillance, and no tailing.
Seems like I've managed to escape from that situation.
"Hoh — — - what a pity for my body and power. But in this world, is there anything that can be achieved without paying a price?"
The umbrella bearer said as if he was comforting himself.
At this point, a mass of fog appeared in front of him, drifting towards him with the wind.
The umbrella wielder took out a Card and checked it.
"Yes, this is the place."
He flew into the fog, speeding up in a certain direction.
Finally.
He arrived at that location.
— — -it was a majestic pillar that appeared to have been completely destroyed, the broken parts were soaked in black blood.
The black blood flowed down the giant pillar and into the depths of the fog.
Who knows what happened to this place?
The umbrella wielder flew over, landed on the broken part of the pillar, and crouched down to touch the black blood on the ground.
"A completely destroyed Divine Pillar, it has no value, and no entity would be interested in it"
The person holding the umbrella happily sat on the ground and grinned. "Very good, this will be my new foothold."
He softly hummed a tune and lightly tapped the void of space, unloading all sorts of resources and placing them on the ground.
Suddenly.
He seemed to have heard something.
"Who is it?!"
He shouted and flew up from the giant pillar, looking around.
In the void, the mist quietly spread.
There was no movement.
The umbrella bearer scowled and asked: "Which Occultist is staying here?
Why don't you come out and meet me? "
Dead silence.
The umbrella bearer waited for a few more breaths before slowly descending.
"Strange … Could it be that there are still remnants of the energy fluctuations from the destruction?"
He shook his head and was about to continue unloading the supplies when his body suddenly stiffened.
The supplies that had just been unloaded on the ground were all gone.
"Damn it! Who is it?! "
The umbrella bearer roared and raised the black umbrella in his hand high.
The black umbrella immediately released a beam of light that soared into the sky, dispelling the surrounding fog and illuminating the boundless darkness.
The entity hidden behind the fog had finally appeared.
Compared to the broken pillar, its body was even larger — — -
The light that the umbrella bearer released from the pillar made the pillar look like a matchstick in front of it. And it was the human that held the matchstick.
It looked like a human, but it didn't have any facial features, only a deep hole that gave off scattered waves of light.
On the surface of its body, numerous flesh tendrils had sprouted, each of which had an eye on top.
Within the boundless darkness, it appeared gigantic, eerie, and terrifying.
The umbrella bearer froze in place, his body trembling nonstop.
"A nightmare …"
He spoke with a hoarse voice.
All the eyes on the entity's body stared straight at him with a mocking expression.
" I told you, living beings aren't tasty."
It let out a rumbling sound, spreading far and wide into the darkness in all directions.
Dead silence enveloped this area of the void.
The umbrella bearer wiped the cold sweat from his face and forced a smile:
"My apologies — — I made a mistake, I shouldn't have thought that I was lucky and used you to confuse my enemy."
Behind him, the broken pillar abruptly became filled with flesh tendrils.
These flesh tendrils continued to squirm and spread, quickly taking over a large area and began to spread towards the umbrella bearer.
The umbrella bearer didn't notice anything.
His body was trembling nonstop, as if he was using all his strength to hold the black umbrella in his hand.
"Let me go, I beg you! I can do a lot of things for you, I can take you to that prosperous Divine Pillar, where countless living beings reside."
The umbrella bearer quickly spoke.
The terrifying entity looked down at the pillar and the small figure on top of it — — -
Like a person holding a matchstick and observing a single speck of dust on it.
The umbrella bearer hurriedly knelt on the ground and loudly called out:
"I know a lot of Occultism secrets, as well as the distribution of many worlds on top of that intact Divine Pillar, as long as you let me go!"
The squirming flesh tendrils spread across every inch of the broken pillar and began to crawl towards his body.
He didn't seem to notice anything and simply stared at the gigantic entity in the void of space with a longing gaze.
"Although I've lost a lot of my Occultism powers, I still have a trump card, you'll definitely be able to use me."
He continued to ramble, completely unaware that the squirming flesh tendrils had already covered his entire body and then entered his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.
He had turned into a humanoid monster.
At the very next moment.
All the flesh tendrils disappeared without a trace, as if they were never there in the first place.
The umbrella bearer returned to normal.
He put the black umbrella down and clenched his fists, but accidentally used too much force, causing his fists to scatter into countless flesh tendrils.
"I … need … time … to … adapt"
He looked down at his hands and spoke with a shaky voice.
The gigantic entity hovering in the void of space slowly retreated.
Fog began to gather.
It disappeared into the boundless fog.
Looking down from the broken pillar, one could only faintly see its unparalleled body slowly sinking towards the bottom of the pillar.
Within the darkness, its rumbling voice resounded again:
" I'm about to wake up from my dream, I need energy."
The umbrella bearer standing on top of the pillar replied: "Don't worry, I'll go right now — —"
He appeared to be reminiscing, thought for a few moments, then spoke again:
"Let's go to that complete Divine Pillar."
As soon as he said that.
He lightly leapt back into the void of space, then drifted back the way he came.
…
At another location.
Liu Ping was sitting on top of the bar, clinking glasses with a man and a woman next to him.
Their surroundings were noisy and lively.
But no one even glanced at them, nor did anyone come to disturb them.
"I still haven't asked for your names."
Liu Ping smiled and asked.
"I can't tell you my real name, as it would affect everything, you can call me Time." the man replied.
"Just call me Mystery." The woman gracefully raised her glass.
"Stay here and help me — — - we've already fought side by side so many times, why can't we always be like this?" Liu Ping asked.
The man drank all the liquor in his glass and sighed: "Do you still remember what I told you? The only chance of survival is for us to win both battles. You'll be in charge of this side, and we'll be in charge of the other side."
He raised his hand and showed it to Liu Ping.
His hand became illusory and transparent, and then his entire body became illusory and transparent. It was as if he was not a real person, but just an illusion.
Liu Ping looked at the woman.
The woman called 'Mystery' also became transparent.
The woman explained: "We're only two illusions, so our strength is limited. We can only appear at certain crucial moments, otherwise, we'll have to remain dormant."
"Where are your true bodies?" Liu Ping asked.
"We're fighting at another location, when the time comes, you'll know everything, but I can't tell you right now." the man replied.
"You'll be facing a very complicated situation from now on. Most likely, the living beings of the countless worlds on the Divine Pillar have sensed the departure of the Spirit Eating Specters, so they'll return to check the situation and decide whether to conquer this place or form an alliance with it." the woman explained.
"And very soon — — -"
"That era is about to begin."
"What era?" Liu Ping asked.
"The era of nightmares." The man seemed to have recalled something and shook his shoulders uncomfortably.
The woman waved her hand, summoning a Card from Liu Ping's body into her hand.
It was the [Void World Battle Arena].
"It'll be too risky to use this Card in the upcoming battle, so I'll return it to my true body," the woman said.
"But he can keep the [Parade of Day and Night], it'll be able to help him at certain crucial moments." the man told her.
Liu Ping nodded.
If they wanted to harm me, they could've done so already. The decision they're making now is beneficial to me.
The two of them put their glasses down and stood up.
Liu Ping also hurriedly stood up.
"We're leaving already?" he asked.
The woman replied: "We need to return to our true bodies and tell them what happened here."
The man glanced at the clock on the wall and said: "15 minutes ago, the emissary of another world came to see you, you need to prepare yourself."
Liu Ping replied, "Then take care of yourselves."
The two of them smiled and nodded at him, then left the bar together.
The door of the bar closed.
At that moment, everything in the bar became still.
Liu Ping looked at the clock on the wall.
The clock was quickly moving backwards, returning to 15 minutes ago — — -
Tik Tik Tik, Tok.
The second hand began to move again.
The bar regained its liveliness and excitement.
Liu Ping poured himself another glass of liquor and sighed: "Emissary of another world huh … I wonder what kind of world it is"
As soon as he said that.
The door of the bar was pushed open again.