Chapter 624: Second Hall

After writing these four words, Chen Ling hesitated for a moment, then added a small line of text to the back before discarding the letter. The letter, after a slight flutter in mid-air, drifted out of the painting's frame and transformed back into a blood-stained white pigeon, which flapped its wings and flew towards the horizon without looking back!

Chen Ling, still within the painting's frame, moved swiftly with Yang Muquan towards the outskirts of Hongchen Main City. Within half a minute, they traversed a significant portion of the city, directly crossing from the ruin-filled Gray Zone intersection back into the normal main urban area. Throughout this process, no pedestrians noticed his presence.

Just then, a loud buzzing roar suddenly emanated from the intersection!

Boom—!!

Yang Muquan's eyebrows rose, and he lightly landed on a rooftop, turning to look.

Under the distant lead-gray clouds, semi-illusory shapes materialized out of thin air. Some were regular geometric forms, others were amorphous blobs of color. At first glance, they induced a dizzying sensation. However, once people's gaze met these seemingly meaningless patterns in the sky, they could not tear their eyes away. Their consciousness and perception were reconfigured by the strange aerial forms, and for a time, pedestrians across half of Hongchen Main City froze like statues, staring blankly up at the sky.

Chen Ling was no exception.

In his vision, a collection of shapes resembling triangles, rectangles, hexagrams, and ovals hung inverted above the lead-gray sky, gradually transforming into a magnificent and bustling metropolis... It wasn't a city like Hongchen Main City, but a truly "prosperous" one. He saw the Oriental Pearl TV Tower gleaming within it, the World Trade Center standing majestically tall, vast stretches of neon high-rises forming mountain-like clusters, and red taillights flowing like rivers, illuminating the entire sky as if it were day.

In contrast to that inverted "city," Hongchen Main City appeared dim and insignificant, like a ruin long lost in the river of civilization.

"How is this possible..." Chen Ling stared intently at the city, his eyes filled with disbelief.

His gaze was glued to the city; even his thoughts seemed to halt, and he felt a throbbing sensation in his temples... He knew a city from that era couldn't possibly appear here, yet it had manifested in this very form.

Boom—!

The next moment, Chen Ling watched as the city gradually disintegrated into fragments, filling the surrounding Gray Zone intersections like a folded silhouette, completely sealing them off. Only then did Chen Ling suddenly snap out of his trance, his gaze shifting away from the silhouettes that had sealed the intersections. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He blinked hard, then looked at the silhouettes again, realizing that the bustling neon city was gone, replaced by a cluster of meaningless geometric shapes floating and moving within them...

After Chen Ling, the surrounding residents also came to their senses, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"Oh my... did you guys see that clearly just now?!"

"I did! Countless silver coins appeared in the sky! Piled up like a tower, it was magnificent!"

"What silver coins? That was clearly alcohol! A grand, luxurious champagne tower, hanging upside down in the sky... I even opened my mouth and waited for ages, but not a single drop fell into it!"

"What's going on? Did we see different things? Why did I see purple sweet potato rolls? How did it know I wanted purple sweet potato rolls?"

"Hmm... sounds like everyone saw something different... Brother, why is your face so red? What did you see just now?"

"I saw... uh... never mind, I didn't see anything."

The anomaly in the sky attracted the attention of a large crowd. Their chatter reached Chen Ling's ears, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.

"What... was that?" he murmured to himself.

"What's wrong? Surprised?" Yang Muquan asked idly. "The ability of the Second Hall is beyond your imagination... In his painting, people see what they desire most in their hearts. Those who crave wealth see mountains of gold and silver; those who yearn for love see countless beauties... I'm curious, what kind of painting did you see? Was it mountains of piled-up corpses, or a sea of surging flesh?"

In the eyes of the world, Red Heart 6 was a symbol of disaster and bloodshed. What good could such a heinous person possibly see, other than a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood?

Chen Ling fell silent.

The familiar neon city flashed in his mind, evoking a faint sense of longing and bitterness... In this world, perhaps he was the only one who could see that city. What he saw was his unattainable "home."

Sensing Yang Muquan's gaze, Chen Ling remained silent for a moment before a smile curved his lips, saying:

"You're wrong. What I saw was 'peaches'... a pile of plump, juicy, pulsating 'peaches'!"

Yang Muquan had personally witnessed Chen Ling "eating peaches" before, so he naturally understood what the man was implying. His face instantly turned extremely grim. He snorted, stopped talking to Chen Ling, and continued running into the distance.

After the "painting" covering the sky appeared, all Gray Zone intersections in the ruins were sealed by the scroll, severing the passage between the "Wailing Wilds" and Hongchen Main City. For a short period, no new calamities should be able to intrude... But even so, the sheer number of calamities that had already breached the main city would keep the Drifting Life Scroll busy for quite some time.

"Still, for the Second Hall to be able to seal so many intersections by itself, what exactly is its origin?" Chen Ling couldn't help but wonder to himself.

Yang Muquan leaped through Hongchen Main City and soon reached its edge, directly scaling the high wall and moving swiftly in a certain direction within the Hongchen Domain. Several strokes of paint spun around him, seemingly concealing his form completely. Aside from Chen Ling, the surrounding pedestrians appeared unable to see him.

Seeing this, Chen Ling's brows furrowed even more deeply.

The reason he had surrendered and even offered to provide intelligence to the Drifting Life Scroll was, naturally, to find the location of the Hongchen base faster while ensuring his own survival... They had conducted extensive investigations before this, and he had even gone back to ask Su Zhiwei, but none yielded breakthrough progress.

The whereabouts of the Hongchen base had always been a mystery to him and the other members of the Twilight Society... And now, seeing Yang Muquan cross the high wall of Hongchen Main City, Chen Ling's surprise intensified.

Could the Hongchen base not be within Hongchen Main City?

This thought arose in Chen Ling's mind, making him feel even more strongly that his surrender had been the correct choice... If he had truly stuck to his original plan of digging three feet deep within Hongchen Main City, he probably wouldn't have found the Hongchen base in his lifetime.

But when Yang Muquan changed direction, advanced rapidly, and finally landed in a familiar area, Chen Ling's shock was palpable.

"This is..."

"Willow Town???"