Chapter 1358: Shen Qingzhu

Chapter 1359: Shen Qingzhu

Chen Ling's gaze fell on him again.

From the youth's words, Chen Ling keenly caught a piece of information: "You two worlds."

"You're not from these two worlds?" Chen Ling asked.

"No, I'm from another Candlelight World."

Chen Ling was extremely surprised. "Can one travel freely between Candlelight Worlds?"

"In most cases, no." The youth paused. "However, after this world was directly pierced by Y012, the barrier developed a gap, allowing me to enter... But my power repels this world, causing the space-time around me to be extremely unstable. I can only suppress it by drawing on the deep chaos and disorder within the Civilization Embers."

No wonder sightings of the Angelic Silence in the Human Domain appeared without warning and vanished inexplicably... Chen Ling had originally thought this was a special movement method of the Angelic Silence itself. Now, it seemed it was purely because he was repelled by this world.

After much hesitation, Chen Ling tentatively asked:

"Then your world... does it also have meteor showers?"

"It did." The youth's lips curved slightly. "But it has already been resolved."

"Resolved? How was it resolved???"

Having personally witnessed the fates of the Gray Realm and the Human Domain, Chen Ling deeply understood the terror of the Red Star. He couldn't imagine what kind of world could resolve a meteor's attack, or how its inhabitants could leave their own Candlelight World and enter others.

"The process is quite complex... Different meteors require different methods of handling them. And as far as I know, besides us, one other world also survived a meteor attack... They faced a J-series meteor. Currently, the savior of that world is fighting alongside the savior of our world."

The youth paused. "In short, our experience cannot help you at all. Only you yourselves can save this world."

Chen Ling was silent for a long time, then gave a helpless smile:

"I don't know who the savior of this world is... In any case, it won't be me."

The youth watched him for a long time.

"Perhaps..."

Before the youth could finish speaking, a collapse began to brew around the submarine. He directly grabbed Chen Ling's wrist and pulled him out of the submarine.

"Your aura seems to accelerate the collapse here." The youth glanced at several forming black holes of collapse in his sight and spoke in a deep voice, "You should leave... If you stay too long, I'm afraid this place will simply collapse."

"Can I still come back then?"

"Occasionally... as long as you're confident you won't be swallowed by these collapses, yes."

"Alright then." Chen Ling nodded slightly. "I'll come back to find you after I gather more information."

Chen Ling oriented himself, then walked straight towards the outskirts of the Civilization Embers where Wu Yi was.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned back to look at the youth:

"I still don't know your name... Since you're not a calamity, you should have one, right?"

"Mm."

The youth paused for a moment. "My name is Shen Qingzhu."

Chen Ling silently committed the name to memory and turned to continue walking away, his large red opera robe moving along the ruined streets. Just then, the youth seemed to remember something:

"Wait a moment."

Chen Ling turned back again.

"If it's convenient, next time you come, bring me a few packs of cigarettes," Shen Qingzhu said.

Chen Ling's eyebrows rose slightly.

"Okay."

Chen Ling's figure disappeared at the end of the street.

When Chen Ling found Wu Yi, it was curled up asleep on the roof of a landmark building.

"Wake up, we should go back," Chen Ling tapped its head.

Wu Yi opened its eyes blankly, saw Chen Ling, and let out several joyful chirps.

"What did you say?" Chen Ling was stunned.

"I've been in there for two days??"

Wu Yi nodded wildly.

Chen Ling abruptly turned back to look into the depths of the Civilization Embers. In his perception, he had only been inside for a few hours, yet two days had passed outside?

Had the space-time in the Civilization Embers, pierced by the Red Star, become so chaotic?

Fortunately, Shen Qingzhu had urged him to leave in time. Otherwise, by the time he came out on his own, a month might have passed outside...

"Let's go, we need to return to the Ghost Mocking Abyss quickly," Chen Ling immediately said.

Before leaving, he had told Jian Changsheng and the others that he was just going to find something and would be back soon. He hadn't expected to be gone for so long... Adding the return journey, they probably thought he had been missing for three days.

However, three days was not too short, nor too long; it was still within an acceptable range.

Under Wu Yi's full-speed dash, Chen Ling saw the outline of the Ghost Mocking Abyss in less than half a day.

"Block..."

"Hungry!"

Jian Changsheng stared at Sun Bumian with glowing green eyes.

Sun Bumian: ...

Sun Bumian took a deep breath, held it, then conjured a candied haws skewer and shoved it directly into Jian Changsheng's hand. "Go find a corner and eat that yourself. Don't let me see it; it makes me sick."

Jian Changsheng took the candied haws skewer and was about to take a bite, but as the intensely familiar smell of candied haws entered his nostrils, an instinctive wave of nausea welled up.

He looked at the candied haws skewer he was tired of eating in his hand, then at the pile of "poisonous insect sashimi" on the table, and his mouth twitched violently.

"Ugh—!!"

He didn't know what finally broke his psychological defense, but he turned his head and dry-heaved under the table!

Ever since Chen Ling left the Ghost Mocking Abyss, although his centipede subordinates still delivered "meals" to them regularly every day, without Chen Ling, the great chef, they couldn't even get warm insects to eat...

What lay on the table were freshly detached centipede legs still glistening with mucus, or twitching lizard tails. Compared to these, the Five Poisons Feast Chen Ling had prepared for them on the first day seemed quite palatable.

On the first and second days after Chen Ling left, Jian Changsheng and the other two didn't eat a single dish, relying purely on Sun Bumian's candied haws to sate their hunger. However, after eating candied haws for three consecutive days, they couldn't bear it anymore; the smell alone made them nauseous.

With fresh, living poisonous insect sashimi on one hand, and sickening candied haws on the other, when the world offered only these two things to eat, Jian Changsheng and the others felt their lives had lost all hope...

"Block, can't you just cook something for us?!" Jian Changsheng, having just finished retching, couldn't help but complain.

"???" Sun Bumian wore a "What are you thinking?" expression. "The prerequisite for cooking is having ingredients, right? Do you want me to stir-fry some poisonous insects for you? I'm not Red Heart... Aren't you afraid I'll poison you to death?"

"...Damn it, Red Heart has been gone for three days already. When will he be back? He didn't just abandon us and run off, did he?"

No sooner had Jian Changsheng finished speaking than a series of hissing sounds from poisonous insects echoed from outside the underground palace.