Chapter 1355: 【Y-012】

Chapter 1356: Y012

The man heard Chen Ling's question. After a moment of hesitation, he slowly began to speak. "Never mind, you'll know sooner or later anyway. There's no harm in telling you now... Follow me." After speaking, the man turned and walked deeper into the Ruins of Civilization.

As Chen Ling and Wu Yi were about to follow, the man spoke again. "Have your subordinate wait here. Its body is too large; it will be torn to shreds in the depths of the ruins."

Wu Yi turned to look at Chen Ling, who didn't hesitate and instructed it to wait there. Although this Silent Angel was currently stronger than him, it bore no ill will. Otherwise, it wouldn't have gone to such lengths to rescue them both from the collapse. Moreover, he seemed to know many secrets about the Red Star, and Chen Ling was very interested.

The two walked along a broken street, side by side, traversing the grotesque and twisted urban ruins. Grey-white snowflakes continued to fall abundantly, and the surroundings were deathly silent.

"What do you think the world is?" the man asked, breaking the silence.

Chen Ling had previously discussed this very question in depth with Teacher Ye when he was part of the Integration Faction. He didn't ponder long before offering his answer: "Candlelight?"

The man suddenly stopped. The young man turned in surprise to look at Chen Ling, apparently not expecting him to state the answer immediately. "Did they tell you?"

"...Who are they?"

"If they didn't tell you, how did you know?"

"A long time ago, I met a doctor named Lin who mentioned this concept to me... but I thought he was just speaking casually," Chen Ling answered truthfully.

"A doctor named Lin?" The young man paused for a long moment, his expression shifting.

"What's wrong?"

"...Nothing." After a slight pause, the young man continued, "You're right. Every world can be seen as a ray of light, born from a candle flame and extending infinitely into the void. These rays originate from the same source, but they extend in different directions and never intersect."

The young man pointed to the ground beneath their feet.

"This world, what you call the Gray Realm, and the world where the human domain exists, are essentially two adjacent rays of light from the candle."

Chen Ling followed his gaze and suddenly spoke, "So, did a human civilization truly exist in the Gray Realm?"

"Of course. The more adjacent the rays of light, the higher the similarity between the worlds. This place was once just like your world, possessing not only human civilization but also similar geological environments, nations, and even histories... In some fictional works, you might encounter the concept of traversing parallel worlds, where someone, after an unexpected experience, arrives in an almost identical world—one with equally prosperous cities, similar cultural ideals, and even people who closely resemble those from their original world. Your world and the former Gray Realm shared precisely that kind of relationship."

After witnessing the state of the Ruins of Civilization, Chen Ling had indeed suspected that human civilization might have once existed in the Gray Realm. However, he had never imagined that this place was once a world identical to Earth. The eternally unchanging lead-grey clouds, the desolate, barren black earth, the strange pollution harmful to humans, and the savage, terrifying calamities... Nothing here, by any stretch of the imagination, could be linked to the Earth he knew.

"Then how did it become like this?" Chen Ling couldn't help but ask.

"What?"

"The designation of that meteor," the young man replied after a brief pause. "In the terminology of your human domain, it's the Red Star."

Chen Ling was stunned. "The Red Star... it has a designation?"

"Yes, the deputy leader specifically categorized and assigned designations to them for differentiation."

These two brief sentences delivered an unprecedented shock to Chen Ling. For a moment, he didn't know where to begin asking questions. He could only choose the most pressing one: "They? The Red Star... there's more than one?"

"Everything exists in a state of duality and unity. Where there is 'candle flame' that gives birth to everything, there will naturally be 'darkness' that light cannot penetrate... Beyond the worlds of candlelight, a meteor shower is approaching," the young man began slowly.

"No one knows where this meteor shower comes from. The only thing we know is that its target is the source of all worlds, the 'candle flame' itself, and what you call the Red Star, Y012, is a part of this meteor shower. Each meteor in this shower possesses distinct characteristics. For example, G-series meteors contain pure destructive power, detonating the moment they touch a world of light and directly shattering the entire world-line into fragments; J-series meteors can influence the thoughts of all living beings, typically plunging the corresponding world-line into conflict and ultimately leading to self-destruction... K-series meteors, in the form of unique life forms, gradually consume a world-line until it is entirely devoured—for instance, through mythological invasion. Y-series meteors are exceptionally unique among all others. They don't possess the absolute destructive power of G-series meteors, nor do they have a tangible body like K-series meteors. What they affect is 'civilization' itself. When Y012 reached a world of light, it directly pierced the one belonging to the Gray Realm. Tens of thousands of years of human civilization instantly collapsed, as if a colossal vortex had opened in the river of history, swallowing all traces of human existence. The Ruins of Civilization you see now is the very hole where Y012 pierced that world of light, and it is also the burial ground for this world's final civilizational heritage."

The young man paused, then added,

"After Y012 pierced the Gray Realm, it then grazed the world where the human domain is located. Although it didn't directly collide with the world of light you inhabit, its unique force field still affected your world. Your civilization began to regress, and because the barrier between your world and the Gray Realm was pierced by the Red Star, creatures from the Gray Realm will also invade your world through the continuously expanding hole."

As the young man finished speaking, Chen Ling's mouth was slightly agape, his mind utterly overwhelmed. He had never imagined that the young man before him, with just a few simple words, would completely unravel the mystery that had plagued the human domain to this day. The origin of the Red Star, the emergence of the Gray Realm, and even the regression of civilization itself were all explained by the appearance of the "meteor shower" and "Y012."

It took Chen Ling a while to fully process the young man's words. Then, as if remembering something crucial, he immediately asked, "That meteor that grazed Earth... Y012... will it return?"

"Theoretically, a meteor's trajectory is irreversible," the young man said, looking at Chen Ling with a somewhat complex expression. "But Y012 is an exception... or perhaps, your world is the exception. It's returning soon."

One more chapter will be updated later.