Chapter 1 Searching in Hell

To find a wizard single-mindedly fleeing within such a vast Purgatory was a near-impossible task. Even with Vivian's proud bat army and Hao Ren's advanced probes, it would be difficult to achieve the goal. Therefore, after releasing those overwhelming "sentinels," they immediately began discussing the next search plan. Lily still remembered the purpose of Baptiste's initial visit to Purgatory: "He was going to that Purgatory's second layer, right? Where exactly is this second layer?"

Hao Ren looked up at the distance after hearing Lily's words. No matter which direction he looked, all he could see was a desolate, decaying land. The space seemed to have no "layers" at all. When he first heard that Purgatory had a second layer, he thought it would be structured like a tower, but now it seemed he had overthought things.

"Underground," Vivian gently tapped the ground with her toe. "There's another layer tens of kilometers deep beneath our feet. The space there is very vast, almost another world."

Lily made a sound of surprise, opening her mouth and finally uttering after a long while, "How come it's a cave again? Why do we have to drill into the ground every other day?"

Hesper immediately looked at Hao Ren suspiciously: "What do you mean always drilling into the ground? What do you usually do with Lady Vivian?"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't sell her to Shanxi to dig coal," Hao Ren waved his hand casually. "Besides, not even a coal boss, let alone the Saudi Crown Prince, could withstand her jinx aura. Speaking of which, is that Purgatory's second layer a cave?"

"No," Vivian shook her head, then a troubled look appeared on her face, as if feeling that her vocabulary was limited, making it difficult to explain to everyone what kind of structure was beneath this land. "I've only heard some rumors that beneath this land is a space almost as grand as the surface world, so huge that it's unbelievable, definitely not something as simple as a 'cave.' However, no one has ever truly been to the depths of Purgatory. The descriptions of the second layer are basically what the exploration teams detected through magical induction at the time. I don't know the specific situation."

"That Baptiste probably knows, otherwise he wouldn't be so obsessed with the second layer of Purgatory," Nangong Wuyue said while making gurgling water sounds. "Do you know where the entrance to the second layer is?"

"I'm having the bat swarm search separately. It's said that the entrances to the second layer are some very large hollows, surrounded by structures like circular mountains, which should be very conspicuous. It would be even better if we could catch Baptiste while finding these entrances."

At this time, Nangong Sanba was looking around vigilantly, and after searching for a while, he couldn't help but ask, "Speaking of which, shouldn't there be a lot of monsters in this place? It's rumored to be a land of rampant demons, so why can't we even see a ghost?"

"Isn't it good that we haven't encountered any monsters?" Vivian's lips curled slightly. "Purgatory does have a lot of monsters, but they're not everywhere. Occasionally, we do encounter such 'quiet' places. We should be considered lucky to have chosen this location to enter. I hope Baptiste has the same luck, and that the guy doesn't die before we catch him."

Saying that, she looked at Hao Ren again: "Can you make the probes scan a larger area? It's rare to come to Purgatory, and I want to learn more about this place. I've been curious about this place for a long time, but unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity back then, and I didn't study it properly."

Hao Ren nodded and began to issue more instructions to the scattered probes through the data terminal.

After knowing the characteristics of the entrance to the second layer of Purgatory, he set new goals for the probes: in addition to continuing to search for Baptiste's踪迹 (zōngjì - whereabouts), they also had to look for large hollows and circular mountain terrain on the surface. Now the search range of the probes was rapidly expanding, and the holographic map displayed on the data terminal continued to extend, outlining the terrain within an increasingly large area. These probes and Vivian's bat swarm chose different search directions to maximize efficiency.

At the same time, he also ordered some probes to fly upwards—he wanted to see from a high altitude how large this world really was.

The data terminal floated in the middle of the group, projecting a series of holographic images. The central image was from a probe responsible for detecting the outer atmosphere. In the picture, it could be seen that the probe had entered the thick, dense clouds at high altitude. Huge, lead-like, turbid clouds continuously pressed down. In the clouds, there were also continuous small-scale discharges. These discharges were not ordinary natural lightning, but seemed to be a chemical reaction. It vibrated and transmitted at an extremely fast speed on the surface and inside the "cloud block," turning the entire cloud block into a strange luminous body, and producing a resonance-like connection with the surrounding clouds.

The incoming scene was like walking inside a huge monster composed of clouds, and the monster's internal organs and flesh were glowing.

Hao Ren deliberately slowed down the probe's progress in order to observe the state of the clouds in the process, which might reveal the secrets of Purgatory's ecosystem. Others were also attracted by these magical pictures and gathered around. Lily craned her neck to look at the large chunks of luminous clouds, revealing a thoughtful expression: "Could it be that the entire Purgatory is illuminated by these lights?"

"That should be right. We can't see the sunlight on the surface, and the thickness of the clouds would completely block the sun's light—so it's the light emitted by these cloud blocks themselves that illuminates this world," Hao Ren nodded slightly. "And this is a space fragment, so it's hard to say if there are any stars outside."

Wuyue asked curiously, "Where does the electric light in the clouds come from?"

Hao Ren poked the data terminal, which then lazily opened its mouth: "Don't poke, it's already been analyzed. It's microorganisms."

Hao Ren was a little surprised: "Microorganisms?"

"A bizarre ecosystem," the data terminal said, opening a set of small images next to it. These images showed a simulated graphic of the planet Purgatory: because there were no real scan results of the entire planet, the details were basically guessed, but it looked quite like the real thing. Part of the planet's simulation diagram was cut open, showing a cross-sectional view from the upper atmosphere to the surface: "Dense clouds cover the entire planet, without any gaps, like a quilt. These clouds are full of microorganisms, numbering at least a hundred species, which feed on organic dust rising from the lower atmosphere and emit light and heat. This can't really be called 'clouds' anymore, but a huge, living pan-biological organization. Although these microorganisms appear to be independent single-celled individuals, due to the special structure of the clouds, this unit tends to regard them as a loose, special multicellular organism: the void is vast, the worlds are numerous, and this form of life also exists."

Except for the Hesper trio, who looked like they were listening to heavenly scriptures, everyone else was dumbfounded. Lily couldn't help but look up at the endless thick clouds in the sky: "Is it like the entire planet is wrapped in a super-huge mollusk?"

Hao Ren couldn't help but glance at Nangong Wuyue after hearing Lily's words. The latter immediately shook her body, making a gurgling sound: "Why are you looking at me? I'm a mollusk but I'm not a creature... No, I'm a creature but I'm not a mollusk... That's not right either, I'm a mollusk creature now, but I'm not that big, okay?"

Hao Ren scratched his hair: "Whenever I hear about mollusks, I can't help but think of slimes. Speaking of which, can't you go back and properly study your talent points and change to an ultimate form other than a slime?"

Wuyue hugged her arms: "Yes, mantis shrimp is one, right? Three meters long!"

Hao Ren: "..."

In any case, Lily's description was indeed very accurate. The entire Purgatory planet was indeed wrapped in a giant organism. The entire cloud block covering the planet was a spherical membrane-shaped organism, providing light and heat for this world. However, compared to this incredible phenomenon, Hao Ren was more concerned about another matter: "What's outside the clouds?"

The data terminal accelerated the probe's speed of rushing out of the atmosphere. The clouds in the picture flashed past quickly. Soon, the probe reached the end of the clouds. Everyone saw it pass through an extremely smooth, veil-like milky white plane, and then rushed into the boundless darkness.

The probe slowed down, filming the surrounding situation. An endless, pure white plane extended out in its lens, smooth and continuous. If he didn't know in advance that this was a cloud, Hao Ren would probably mistake it for a snowfield.

Lily couldn't help but be a little stunned: "...So beautiful!"

Vivian glanced at her: "You really want to put something around your neck and run around up there, right?"

Lily didn't think much about it at all: "Yes, yes!"

Obviously, this was the victory of ancestral power.

The probe turned the camera to film the direction it came from. There was an obvious leak point on the smooth white "curtain." A large amount of mist and fiber-like white tissue silently gushed out from it. However, within a few seconds, the leak point was blocked.

"Incredible... it's really behavior that only biological tissue has," Hao Ren said in amazement. "How did it evolve into this?"

"In order to prevent the planet's material from leaking out," the terminal hummed in response. "The probe just penetrated a very tough colloidal tissue, probably slowly condensed by microorganisms in the clouds over thousands of years. The outermost layer of the entire planet is such a pure white world. If you walk on top of the atmosphere, it should feel like walking on cotton candy."

Wuyue sighed quietly: "I didn't expect that this hellish and harsh place would look so beautiful from space."