A group of people raced across the tops of the mountains in this well-lit world.

The Captain was in the lead, followed by Xu Qing. Then came Wu Jianwu, Nethersprite, Li Youfei, and finally Ning Yan. They were separated by a few meters each, and because of the black smoke that surrounded them, they couldn’t see the world around them, or even sense much of it.

Xu Qing kept a firm grip on the blue candle as the black smoke spilled out of it and surrounded him. As he proceeded, he remained fully on guard. If the Captain hadn’t offered that warning about the candles, Xu Qing wouldn’t have had much to worry about. But with that warning in place, he couldn’t help but think back to past experiences.

He had his cultivation base fully activated, and had already forgotten about his agreement to not use his violet moon authority. In fact, not only had he tapped into that authority, but also, he had taboo poison spread out all around him. In addition, daybreak light flowed freely in the area. He was completely ready in case anything unexpected happened.

At a certain point, Ling’er cautiously stuck her head out of his sleeve and looked around.

“Big Bro Xu Qing,” she said quietly, “this place is sort of like the Ancient Spirit world. There are a lot of deceased souls here. I guess the difference is that in the Ancient Spirit world, the souls are intact. But here, there’s some special magical law that causes countless deceased souls to mix together. I can just barely hear them whispering, although I can’t make out what they’re saying. But I do know they’re watching us.”

Xu Qing nodded. No matter how fast he moved in these mountains, the smoke from the candle made it impossible to see his surroundings. He couldn’t even see the Captain up ahead, or sense anything significant. Even his shadow was restricted, and couldn’t stretch out very far.

But thanks to Ling’er’s innate abilities as an Ancient Spirit, she could see a bit of the surrounding world.

“Ling’er,” Xu Qing said quietly, “I can’t sense anything around me. I can barely even see the ground beneath my feet. Are you able to see our surroundings?”

“Yeah, I can, although it’s a bit blurry. Big Bro Xu Qing, everything is going fine. Everybody else is surrounded by smoke but moving in the right direction. About thirty meters ahead of you is Elder Brother Erniu. And behind you is Big Jianjian.”

Xu Qing nodded and kept moving. And thus, the party of six sped along as quickly as they could manage. Everyone was on high alert. Even the person with the highest cultivation base, Nethersprite, didn’t dare to be lax.

It was a very strange world. There were the skin lanterns hanging in the air, and the howling from the abyss. In addition, there were gusts of wind. The shocking wind contained a towering killing intent that made their skin go numb. It caused the smoke surrounding them to ripple and distort, and it filled them with icy cold. The wind was like a host of blades, each filled with a baleful aura that seemed to disregard cultivation base and slash directly at the soul.

“The wind kicked up,” the Captain said, his voice reaching all of them in their clouds of smoke. “Keep hold of your candles. Unify your body and mind.

“The wind will make the howling from the abyss even clearer. And at a certain point, it will turn into a voice that we all find familiar. This place is located within memories, so the moment we entered and laid eyes on the surroundings, it became a portion of our own memories. At the same time, our existence is placed into the memories of this world fragment.

“Because our memories are part of the place now, the voices we hear will be different for each one of us. And they’ll be a voice we miss. Remember. It’s not real! Don’t believe what the voices say. Don’t think about them. And definitely do not look back!”

The Captain’s voice grew fainter as he talked, and the wind grew stronger. Eventually, his voice faded away, leaving behind nothing but the cry of the wind.

Xu Qing looked at the smoke around him, and suddenly thought of something.

The Captain said not to trust the voices in the wind. In that case… could he trust what the Captain was saying? If what the Captain just said was true, why didn’t he explain it earlier? But if it was the Captain, could it be possible there was a deeper meaning in his words?

Xu Qing opened his mouth to speak, but then squashed the impulse. Whether the Captain’s voice was real or not, responding to it would be a form of karma. And in the end, it didn’t really matter if the words were real or not. The most important thing was to keep moving forward. With such thoughts on his mind, Xu Qing proceeded calmly through the mountains.

After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, the Captain’s warning became a reality. Everyone began to hear different voices.

Xu Qing heard Sergeant Thunder, Grandmaster Bai, Master Seventh, and Plumdark. He even heard his parents talking to him, as well as the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. His expression remained the same. He couldn’t imagine anyone in the party getting distracted by this. So he didn’t pay much attention to the voices. He just continued forward, all while keeping a hand protectively on Ling’er, who was now coiled around his neck. He didn’t want her getting worried.

It was impossible to say what Nethersprite was hearing, but her face was expressionless as she continued moving without pause.

Li Youfei was old enough to have experienced a lot in life. Considering how he had cleverly plotted against Xu Qing when they first met, it was a given that he had tenacious willpower. It wasn’t hard at all for him to keep his mind under control and ignore the voices.

As for Wu Jianwu, he heard Mistress Rosyclouds’ voice talking from behind him, calling to him. The suddenness of it caused his eyes to go wide. However, when he thought about how she’d turned and walked away from him, he smiled grimly and continued onward. Next, he heard a voice full of profound majesty, something from ancient times, speaking in exactly the way he knew Ancient Emperor Dark Serenity would speak.

“Nine clouds in heaven remember the past; ten chasms of fog obscure ancient and modern!”

Wu Jianwu shivered from head to toe and very nearly looked over his shoulder. But then he realized something didn’t make sense. The wording is wrong. It’s a complete load of crap! The tonal patterns are off. It’s supposed to be both domineering and heart-rending, but in reality, it’s just sentimental nonsense.

Snorting coldly in his heart, he kept moving.

The last to hear a voice was Ning Yan.

“Your Majesty….”

He stopped in place briefly, but then considered what the Captain had said. After taking a few breaths, he continued.

The clouds of smoke kept moving across the mountains. Nothing unusual happened to any of them.

Thanks to Ling’er, Xu Qing was aware that everything was going well. However, he kept his guard up. He had the feeling there was going to be more gruish phenomena in these mountains. Eyes cold, he proceeded, trying to calculate how far they’d gone based on his rate of movement and the time that had passed.

The candle had been burning faster and faster, to the point where he only had a bit of wax left.

We should arrive soon, he thought. However, that was when Ling’er’s voice rang out in his mind. She sounded alarmed.

“Big Bro Xu Qing… I just realized there aren’t six people traveling in clouds of smoke…. There are seven. The seventh person came out of nowhere. What’s more, everyone else seems to be out of order now…. I can’t tell who is who.”

Xu Qing looked down at Ling’er. Her state of alarm seemed to confirm that the voice he had heard really was hers. Her observation didn’t surprise him at all.

The gruish nature of this world was being fully manifest, whether by means of the voices earlier, or this additional person that Ling’er had spotted.

“Don’t look. Just keep going.”

At that point, the Captain’s voice once again reached everyone’s ears. “We’re almost to the end. We’ve successfully passed this challenge, but that doesn’t mean we can relax. The fact that the candles are burning faster shows that we’ve been noticed. Let’s speed up. We need to reach the spot where the mountains connect to the dome of heaven, and we need to do it before the candles burn out. Run, everybody!”

In response to his voice, the figures in the seven clouds of smoke all thought different things.

Ning Yan looked surprised, as did Wu Jianwu. Obviously, both of them had noticed that their candles were burning faster. They had also noticed that, back when passing out the candles, the Captain actually had quite a supply. If one candle wasn’t enough, why hadn’t he given them two? Li Youfei hesitated as he tried to determine if the voice he’d heard was real or not, and if he should trust it. Nethersprite just snorted coldly and continued moving at the same pace as before. Unexpectedly, the Captain also continued moving at the same speed!

It was only Wu Jianwu who suddenly sped up. The end of the mountains lay only about 300 meters ahead. As Wu Jianwu accelerated, he swept past the clouds of smoke occupied by Xu Qing and the Captain. The wind started blowing even harder than before, and the candle in his hands burned faster.

Finally, when Wu Jianwu was only about 30 meters from the end of the mountains, his candle suddenly winked out. The moment it did, the smoke around him vanished, revealing his shocked and terrified face. When Wu Jianwu saw that he was 30 meters away from the end, and then looked back to see six clouds of smoke slowly moving in his direction, he noticed that he was the only one who had sped up. A bewildered look appeared on his face. Apparently realizing that he had been fooled, but knowing there was nothing he could do about it, he gritted his teeth and rushed past the final 30 meters.

But then, bright colors flashed in heaven and earth. Bolts of blue lightning crashed in the sky, and countless skin lanterns turned to face Wu Jianwu, then raced toward him at top speed. The abyss on either side of the mountains erupted with deafening panting sounds, and a massive figure slammed into the side of the mountains and started climbing up. Terrifying fluctuations rolled out, shaking the mountains, distorting the sky, and blurring everything. It was almost as if there was a god in the abyss.

At the same time, one of the clouds of smoke suddenly accelerated rapidly, pulsing with a sense of greed as it closed in on Wu Jianwu.

It moved so fast that the smoke around it cleared, revealing… a lantern of human skin! Unexpectedly, the face on that lantern actually looked very much like the Captain’s face. Moving with astonishing speed, and its expression one of madness, it soon reached a point only about three meters from Wu Jianwu.

Opening its mouth wide, it lunged. But then, all of a sudden, Wu Jianwu stopped moving and lifted his right hand. Then, blue light flared as he reached out and grabbed the lantern. The lantern reacted with astonishment, but it was too late for it to evade. Wu Jianwu’s hand gripped it tight as he shot backward to the end of the mountains, and the altar that was there.

All of the other countless skin lanterns seemed to suddenly lose their senses. Returning to their peaceful state, they started floating around randomly. The howling from the abyss stopped and the mountains stopped shaking.

Clearly, once someone reached the altar, they would stop paying attention.

Meanwhile, Wu Jianwu stood on the altar gripping the lantern, his eyebrows dancing up and down as he jumped back and forth excitedly.

“I finally hooked this thingy!” he said, laughing. At that point, Wu Jianwu’s facial features changed, melting into a liquid that ran down his face and revealing… the Captain!

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