Chapter 724 Beneath the Dark Starry Sky

Emerald flames, like shooting stars, plunged straight down from the solidified starry穹顶, streaking a bright trail before crashing onto the barren plain riddled with strange rocks.

Then the flames erupted, blooming in mid-air, and in the swirling firelight, the figures of Duncan and Alice emerged, finally setting foot on this unknown world.

Before the firelight faded, Duncan noticed the bizarre, twisted, and horrifying figures in the distance – a dozen You Sui demons (deep sea demons) clustered at the edge of the landing site, looking somewhat dazed for some reason.

He and the demons stared at each other, the atmosphere inexplicably frozen.

It was only when the slow-to-react Alice finally exclaimed, breaking the frozen atmosphere: "Captain! We're surrounded!"

"...I see that," Duncan said casually, already prepared to "have a chat" with the demons – the dozen or so monsters in the distance were clearly different from the You Sui demons summoned by the Annihilation Cultists in the real dimension. Their limbs were noticeably more twisted, some with bizarre dislocations and cracks visible on their bodies. The floating Skull Demon even had a horrifying hole in its head, making it look like a tough opponent.

In Duncan's understanding, the more twisted a You Sui demon was, the stronger it was – and these demons were so twisted they were practically broken, so they must be experts from the depths of the You Sui Deep Sea, probably unlike those weaklings in the real world who ran away at the sight of him...

But what he didn't expect was that just as he was preparing to "greet" the local natives, he saw the group of monsters suddenly react. They instantly let out a series of chaotic and noisy roars and hoarse screeches, then scattered in all directions, half of them gone in the blink of an eye.

The remaining half didn't not run, but were too crippled to move – the Skull Demon, which looked terrifying, could fly, but it flew like an old diesel engine with a leaky cylinder, wobbling and shaking, puffing out black smoke from the big hole in its head and falling to the ground every few seconds, struggling to get up before floating again, puffing out black smoke twice more before falling back down...

Optimistically, it could fly up to six meters in half a minute, spending most of its time puffing in place.

Duncan & Alice: "...?"

After a moment of stunned silence, Duncan finally noticed the messy traces on the ground at the edge of the landing site – many almost unrecognizable remains were scattered among the pits and gullies, rolling out thick smoke as they merged into the surface. Horrifying deep pits and gouges that looked like they had been "scraped" off by some crushing force were everywhere, a terrifying sight.

At first, Duncan thought these marks were just "natural landscapes" in the You Sui Deep Sea, after all, he had initially heard that this place was a "fragmented wasteland," but now he finally realized... this was a battlefield after a fierce battle.

Something had arrived here one step ahead of them and almost killed all the You Sui demons in the heart of the wasteland, and the dozen or so demons in the distance were just lucky survivors –

So their twisted appearances were actually *caused* by someone else.

At this moment, Alice also reacted. She widened her eyes and looked around, noticing the black bones scattered in a nearby pit, and immediately grabbed Duncan's arm: "Captain! This place is full of demon remains!"

Duncan glanced at the Skull Demon struggling to fly in the distance and the few Harbinger Birds hopping around on one leg, thoughtfully. "...So the battle has already been fought..."

"Who did this?" Alice looked quite uneasy, the nearby scene making her a little nervous. "Is the internal strife among the You Sui demons usually this intense?"

Duncan didn't speak for a moment, but bent down to carefully examine a charred fragment of bone, then opened his palm above the fragment.

A speck of emerald fire, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, floated out of the charred bone and landed in his palm.

The faint spark still carried the "memory" left on this battlefield not long ago.

"It's Shirley and Ah-gou," Duncan said, looking towards the end of the vast wasteland. "They were here, one after the other... theoretically, these traces are their work."

Alice listened, her expression blank for a moment, a little slow to react. "...Are Shirley and Ah-gou that strong?"

"Something seems to have happened to them, a huge... change," Duncan frowned, his expression grave. "Especially Shirley, something feels off about her now."

As he spoke, he turned his gaze in the direction of the "mark aura" on Shirley and Ah-gou, following his senses.

Boundless chaos filled this infinite dimension, the solidified ancient starry sky high above covered the dome of the You Sui Deep Sea, and the dim starlight illuminated the fragmented floating islands in this chaotic space – within the range of his vision, he could see many shadows of all sizes floating in the dim starlight, all of them floating landmasses. Even the "wasteland" that he and Alice were standing on seemed to be just a part of the many broken floating islands.

The entire "You Sui Deep Sea" was composed of countless broken floating islands, floating in a chaotic spacetime covered by the solidified ancient starry sky, the entire space filled with a... desolate and deathly atmosphere.

Duncan withdrew his gaze and looked at the doll beside him. "Do you have any special feelings right now? Can you see or hear any unusual information?"

Alice carefully discerned for a moment and shook her head. "Not yet."

"Mm," Duncan nodded gently, then raised his hand and pointed into the distance. "Shirley and Ah-gou's marks are in that direction, still moving. Let's go after them."

"Okay!" Alice nodded immediately, muttering as she followed Duncan's footsteps, "Shirley must be scared... she's actually very timid... Ah-gou isn't very brave either..."

The two figures exuding a terrifying aura finally left into the distance – they didn't seem to be interested in causing trouble.

The Skull Demon, floating crookedly in mid-air, trembled slightly, the red light in its eye sockets flickering on and off. For the first time, the concept of "fortunate" appeared in its chaotic and unintelligent mind.

A Harbinger Bird, with only one leg and half a wing left, hopped past the rubble not far away. Two Fear Demons, almost flattened, slowly squirmed through the cracks in the ground, and several You Sui Hounds, nearly torn apart, were struggling to crawl into the distance.

What a beautiful day.

A slender, spiny limb pierced down from the sky like a sword, nailing a bizarre demon that was roaring and brewing a breath attack to the ground. Then, the limb continued to move forward, striding towards the end of the wilderness.

Pierced on the twelve symmetrical limbs were countless demons of all sizes, grotesque and terrifying. Some of these twisted and ugly creatures were still struggling and roaring, but most had stopped moving, emitting rolling smoke as they gradually transformed into mud.

The owner of the limbs no longer cared about these – after trekking for an unknown amount of time, she had finally reached the end of this land.

The land floating in the chaotic darkness was an isolated island, and its end was only boundless nothingness. At the edge of this wilderness, rock and soil came to an abrupt halt, and a thin layer of mist escaped from the broken edge of the land, circling the island like low-lying clouds.

Shirley carefully stopped at the end of this land. She used the barbed limbs to wedge herself into the cracks in the rocks, cautiously peered down at the edge of the floating island, then quickly withdrew her gaze.

No road.

What to do next?

She pondered, still as a statue at the end of the wilderness, still as death for a time.

But the demons around her, hesitant and fearful, knew that this powerful and terrifying "outsider" was still alive – in her bone-woven chest cavity, two dark red hearts and a cluster of flames were still beating slowly, unceasing.

After an unknown amount of time, Shirley finally woke up from her thoughts. She controlled her limbs and took two steps back, trying to lower her height – she was tired, she wanted to sit down and rest for a few minutes.

After several attempts, she sat down clumsily and slowly, carefully retracting the bone structure behind her, like skeletal giant wings, behind her back.

She sat on a large rock, raised her head, and stared blankly at the solidified, ancient starry sky.

The starry sky was cold, surrounded by an atmosphere of death and desolation, like a huge, magnificent but lifeless corpse, coldly overlooking all things with billions of eyes.

It was beautiful, but also a little frightening. She felt like she was about to fall into the dense stars, becoming a part of them, and she also felt like she was suffocating under their pressure, crushed on this broken and desolate land.

What words should be used to describe such a scene and such a feeling?

Shirley thought seriously and diligently. She suddenly regretted that she had not listened to the captain's words and read more books, so that she would have many words, instead of being able to choke out only one sentence after thinking for a long time –

"...It's f*cking beautiful..."

Then, footsteps suddenly appeared nearby, interrupting Shirley's sigh and finally causing the demons hiding in the dark, restless but hesitant and fearful, to retreat.

Shirley slowly turned her head and saw a You Sui Hound floating in the black smoke, its bones shattered, taller than all the You Sui Hounds.

It approached cautiously, emerald flames burning in its hollow eye sockets. It seemed to hesitate, looking nervous and hesitant. It lingered a dozen meters away for a long time before slowly taking a few steps forward and placing something in its mouth on the ground.

"...Shirley, I found food..."

That sentence sounded familiar.

(End of chapter)