Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 401 - 94: The Earl’s Return (Happy 61, ask for monthly pass!)_3

Chapter 401: Chapter 94: The Earl’s Return (Happy 61, ask for monthly pass!)_3

After he had passed through the pitch-dark passage on the ground (19,19), it felt as though he had ridden a teleportation portal, and after a spinning and swirling sensation, he appeared in a place replete with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, resembling a warehouse.

Bodies piled up like mountains; many were familiar faces, including the corpses from the camp that had been breached which Xu Shu had seen before, as well as some Transcendents from the Hunter Association, along with many unknown strangers, possibly Scavengers, Wasteland Wanderers, and others, too numerous to count.

"At the bottom of the ancient temple..."

Xu Shu’s gaze grew sharp, thoughtfully looking back, towards the innermost layer of the basement of this ancient temple that served as a warehouse, the place from where he had emerged.

This was a branching passage, one leading upwards, the other downwards, pitch-black and bottomless.

"Indeed, this hole below is the one connecting the surface with the underground! And the one above, that’s the looping point inside the underground illusion!"

"When Nie Qiba immolated himself, it directly sent me into that ruins space and caused my expulsion, instead of letting me enter the underground illusion; whereas normally, reciting the venerable name of Tailed Ksitigarbha during normal teleportation would allow entrance into this underground illusion space."

"Ha, there’s something interesting here, and the rationale seems quite easy to understand... Hmm, most likely her self-immolation as the gatekeeper would trigger an alarm, thus drawing Tailed Ksitigarbha’s direct attention; whereas normally praying and chanting the venerable name might result in something like a normal program feedback, not attracting Tailed Ksitigarbha’s notice."

"It’s like if a program runs smoothly, the owner merely focuses on their own tasks and hardly spares an extra glance; only when the program errors and problems arise does the owner immediately rush to the scene..."

"My prior journey simulations, each time it began, Tailed Ksitigarbha never took action, it was only when that gatekeeper Nie Qiba was killed by me that problems appeared, and the key must be here!"

Xu Shu’s eyes lit up, and in an instant, he figured out the key to the situation.

At that moment, fully armed, he held all his combat equipment in his hands and observed for a few minutes.

Seeing no movement around him, Xu Shu finally felt relieved.

Apparently, according to the current "reincarnation plot" inside the illusion, Gu Pan and the others hadn’t yet retreated all the way to this place.

Without his participation, without him and Wuxin drawing attention, Tailed Ksitigarbha must still be busy with his "jailbreak" plans, not having the time to focus on him.

After all, for Tailed Ksitigarbha, entering His underground illusion is tantamount to becoming His prisoner, which invariably poses no threat to Him.

Who the hell has time to care if the prisoners planning a rebellion had enough to eat today or are collectively cursing in their cells?

And this dark period under the light, this was his chance!

"Can’t dawdle, once it’s past nine, Tailed Ksitigarbha will sense something’s wrong, ha."

Right then, Xu Shu hesitated no further and set out directly.

He did not choose to dig through an exit in the wall; instead, he went straight into the passageway at the fork.

This time, he chose the hole that was situated above.

Whoosh!

As his body freely fell through the darkness, moments later, Xu Shu landed on his feet and walked out from within.

The light appeared before him, and he immediately saw an ancient temple that appeared abruptly not far away, with a head but no tail.

"Good, everything is fine. The only issue is, I don’t know where Gu Pan and the others are positioned, and I really don’t have time to wait for them to slowly arrive at the destination; it seemed like it was already past four in the afternoon last time."

Xu Shu clenched his fist and, while walking towards the front, aimlessly nudged his hip, attempting to activate the upgrade network.

As expected, the electric current that should have coursed through his body did not appear, and the upgrade network was not activated.

"It seems I guessed right, this illusion is connected with the ruins, being here is somewhat like being dropped into the ruins; the difference is that here one won’t be repelled by the world’s forces, but a common feature is that the upgrade network can’t be opened inside either."

Xu Shu didn’t mind; this was something he had anticipated.

Otherwise, those trapped here would have surely sent out distress signals to their family elders through various means long ago.

Seeing that indeed there was no way to contact anyone in advance, Xu Shu didn’t fuss and quickly stepped into the "人" shaped temple roof.

Meanwhile, he noticed a number of tire-like tracks on the ground, identical to those on the surface.

"So, there are these tracks in the underground illusion, too? I remember they weren’t here the last time I came in; it looks like, afterwards, someone erased the traces."

Xu Shu felt slightly puzzled and entered the ancient temple, only to see a monk sitting on the ground, it was Wuxin.

She sat cross-legged as usual, one hand horizontally in front of her knee, the other hand propping her cheek, her body slightly tilted, looking like a dreaming Arhat.

In front of her forehead, a mysterious, round halo emerged, displaying a scene: in a hallway, a blurry figure was pressing down on another creature resembling a Snake-man, moving in and out, teaching a lesson with a big stick.

The imagery was very vivid, perfectly illustrating the notion of a "rude awakening."

Xu Shu’s expression froze, and it took him a while to grasp the message of the scene, and then he covered his face and exclaimed,

"Damn, that’s me!"