CHAPTER 475: CHAPTER 475: THE TEMPLE IN THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS

It was an instantaneous glimpse, occurring in a moment almost imperceptible to ordinary people. Yu Sheng’s mind passed through the chaotic black fog, witnessing some scenes transmitted from distant borders in less than a ten-thousandth of a second—yet even such a swift glimpse burned deeply into his consciousness like a scorching brand, with the vast information it contained roaring like a storm in his mind.

Yu Sheng even suspected that he had died once again in that moment, yet for some bizarre reason, even he himself did not realize this death and resurrection.

And then, he swiftly passed through a certain "critical layer," continuing to plunge into the bone-chilling depths of the black fog.

"Bang," the illusory sound of impact echoed in his soul, and he abruptly halted, realizing he seemed to have collided with something.

The surrounding black fog slightly receded, with chaotic faint light shining from afar, casting some vast outlines.

Yu Sheng saw neatly arranged giant pillars appear in the fog, each pillar towering like a fortress. He saw beneath his feet mottled and ancient stone slabs, each crack seemingly soaked with hundreds of years of time, with a vast temple standing at the end of the pillars, silently lying like a grave in the darkness.

Is this the end of the black fog? Is the bottom layer of that mirrored dimension like this?

Yu Sheng, who had fallen all the way down from "above," had this thought instinctively emerge in his mind, but he shook his head almost instantly.

The black fog continued to surge in a place further away, the junction between the fog and the ground seeming to be a fractured space structure—this was not the "end," but seemed to be another dimension connected to the mirror.

He looked around, not seeing Yuan Hao’s figure.

Then he extended his hand into the air, attempting to outline the silhouette of a door.

The illusionary door smoothly appeared, but when he slightly opened the door, he saw only darkness on the other side, instead of the usual scenery of the destination.

Yu Sheng’s action of opening the door froze instantly.

The situation of door-opening failure was not unfamiliar to him. When he first attempted to enter the Black Forest from the real world, he encountered the situation of the door collapsing. But this time, the situation was even more bizarre—the door did not collapse, he even clearly sensed a passage had been established; this door was indeed leading somewhere, but... that was not the coordinates he had left.

Something seemed to lurk in that empty darkness, silently enticing him.

Yu Sheng abruptly shut the door.

He then stood in place to steady himself, and after calming his mind, cautiously opened a second door.

Outside the second door was a wall that appeared exceptionally thick, with stains mottled across it, and distant and muffled noises vaguely coming from either side.

He opened a third door, seeing a strange and desolate city standing in the dusk, with no sun in the sky, only endless twilight. The city seemed abandoned for a long time, its dark-colored tower and vast steam machines collapsed and dilapidated, stacked like graves.

These are not the coordinates he injected when opening the door!

Yu Sheng quickly closed the door, taking a deep breath.

What on earth is this darkness about?

The door... seems still usable, yet every time it leads to strange and unfamiliar destinations, as if the coordinates he recorded outside had undergone chaotic mapping in this darkness, with all destination points being replaced.

A trace of tension and unease rose from the depths of his heart. Yu Sheng steadied himself and after a moment of deliberation, realized staying in place was not a good strategy and stepped towards the "divine temple" ahead.

As he walked, he kept observing the surroundings, simultaneously comparing the neatly arranged pillars and the temple buildings in the distance with the scenes he had seen in his memory.

After simple judgment, he believed these pillars and temples should be the ruins he had previously seen in the mirror’s illusion, and also the place Yuan Hao saw in the depths of the Black Star.

But these pillars did not appear collapsed and broken as presented in the illusion, and the distant temple was not a ruin—everything here had the look of years, mottled and aged, yet remained intact.

... Is this the appearance before those ruins collapsed?

Some kind of "historical memory"?

Speculations arose involuntarily in Yu Sheng’s heart, and at that moment, he suddenly noticed the black mist around him starting to flow.

The next moment, the flowing black fog condensed beside him, transforming into an illusory shadow—it was a twisted human-shaped outline, curled up and kneeling on the mottled stone slabs, facing the temple direction, crouching like a devout yet fearful believer.

Even before Yu Sheng could react, that figure vanished again, but the surrounding fog became increasingly agitated, rapidly transforming into more kneeling figures in the swift flow.

Almost in the blink of an eye, countless devout worshiping illusions appeared on the stone floor in front of the divine temple. Numerous phantom human silhouettes appeared and disappeared, as if countless souls were constantly surging, worshipping and praying towards this temple that exuded an ominous and horrifying aura. The black mist gradually grew like a gale, surging silently, as millions of illusions floated and emerged in the darkness, frantically cycling on the surrounding stone floor like a chaotic record playing back and forth!

This bizarre and frenzied scene instantly startled Yu Sheng. With a shocked exclamation, he realized that the temple was extremely abnormal. But just as he was about to turn and leave, countless layered whispers passed through the devout illusions, buzzing as if drilling into his brain. The whispers seemed to lack any rationality or logic, chaotic like noise, causing him a splitting headache!

Yet suddenly, he heard a few sentences from that pure noise—as if an extremely strong obsession was directly imprinted onto it, reverberating in his mind over and over.

"He is feared...

"He is revered...

"Praised;

"Cursed;

"Admired;

"Resisted;

"Our destined doomsday, the destined end of all things...

"Take us away, harvest us before the end times!

"The cursed and feared, the terrifying yet merciful... omen..."

"Boom!!!"

A phantom boom exploded in Yu Sheng’s mind, as if the noise imprinted with vast information had converged into a thunderbolt in his consciousness. He suddenly felt dizzy amidst the frenzied prayer sounds, sensing his mind flying straight towards that dark and gloomy temple emitting endless chilling and ominous aura, as if rapidly "falling" into a deep abyss!

"Damn?!"

Yu Sheng shouted in alarm, and the sudden warning in his heart made him instantly realize that nothing good would come from falling into that "temple," so he immediately began to struggle. He desperately regained balance, striving to stabilize his mind, and hurriedly grabbed a nearby pillar. He struggled against the terrifying "pull" that acted simultaneously on his body and mind, as if trying to pull himself out of a machine that was already in a roaring operation.

This arduous and seemingly hopeless confrontation lasted for an unknown duration. Yu Sheng felt as if his soul was being torn apart bit by bit. He even felt that part of his mind had already been sucked into that temple, being slowly devoured by an enormous thing fused with nightmare-like limbs and pure malice. The chilly aura that was once somewhat familiar had somehow turned into a pure and blind intention for destruction—and it was at this moment that he suddenly saw something else appear in the thick darkness.

It was black Spider Silk.

Without waiting for a reaction, the dense black Spider Silk had already traversed the thick mist, wrapping around Yu Sheng the next second, with another familiar chilling aura enveloping him like piercing his marrow. Then a strong force came.

The Spider Silk pulled Yu Sheng away with all its might, away from the temple.

Noises came from all directions, and among the countless layered chaotic whispers, some familiar sounds gradually emerged. Yu Sheng felt his mind gradually detach from that perilous darkness, beginning to "ascend" within the black mist, and finally heard those familiar voices clearly—Erin was chaotically shouting: "...Yu Sheng, what is it now? Brain dead again? I’ve told you not to daydream so often, you know you could space out until you’re dead, don’t you? Hey, where did you get to this time? Why is it so hard to pull you back? You’re so heavy, what’s going on with your mind? I can easily pull an ordinary person, but pulling you is like pulling a mountain—ow, I bit my tongue... how can you bite your tongue even when speaking in a mental connection!!"

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded and quickly began cooperating with Erin to accelerate upwards away from the mist, and almost instantly, he felt the five senses of the real world return to his body.

He suddenly opened his eyes, seeing the dark ripples rapidly retracting from the surrounding walls back into the mirror, and then dissipating from the mirror’s surface—in the blink of an eye, everything had returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

Everything in the spacious room was usual, with the solitary mirror reflecting the room’s scenery, with him and Yuan Hao standing in front of the mirror, himself still in the gesture of reaching out to touch the mirror’s surface, while Yuan Hao stood motionless.

From this scene, it seemed as if only a moment had passed—he reached out to touch the mirror, fell into darkness, and then Erin immediately pulled him back to the real world.

But Yu Sheng felt as if he had sunk in that darkness for a long time.

Just like Yuan Hao once wandered aimlessly in the depths of that "Black Star" for ages.

The next second, the sound of running footsteps came from the hallway outside, and all three Erins who stayed at home crowded at the door, shouting in unison: "Hey Yu Sheng, are you okay? Awake? Alive?"

"Uh, I’m fine..."

Yu Sheng instinctively replied, while Yuan Hao beside him suddenly blinked, then turned his head with some confusion.

The old handsome man looked at the three Puppets at the door, then glanced at Yu Sheng, who seemed to have zoned out for a moment, and seemed to perceive something. He raised his hand to calculate briefly, then frowned: "Where did you just go?"