Chapter 1 The State of Purgatory

Before seeing the actual data, Hao Ren had made several guesses about what Purgatory actually was. His initial thought was simple: it should be a fragment that had fallen from the Dream Plane and become part of this universe after crossing the Wall of Reality. Due to the special nature of the space fragment, it had no place of its own in this universe, so it was constantly drifting on the edge of the real world, occasionally making contact with Earth. This was the "opening of Purgatory" event that had occurred many times in Earth's history. But after the probe sent back more data, he found that the situation in that space was more complicated than he had previously imagined: this space fragment had indeed collapsed from the Dream Plane, but it had not completely entered the surface world, but was stuck between the surface world and the Dream Plane!

The data displayed above the data terminal was still fluctuating, marking the relative position of the Purgatory space to this universe every minute and every second. Ordinary people could not see anything from these data, and Hao Ren was no exception without auxiliary tools—the reason why he could analyze so much was entirely due to the data link. His consciousness was connected to the data terminal for a long time and connected to the data network of the Xi Ling Empire. This data network allowed the inspector to obtain some "perspectives" beyond humans. It could not enhance any human qualities, nor could it give you an IQ of two or three hundred. Its greatest role was to allow Hao Ren to transcend his own human way of thinking and understand some overly abstract knowledge.

Therefore, he finally understood what the Purgatory space was all about: it was a gangrene on the Wall of Reality.

The oscillation of this space fragment on the Wall of Reality was probably an important reason for the deterioration of the situation, at least one of the reasons.

However, Hesperiana and the others didn't know what the Wall of Reality was. They just wanted to quickly catch the wizard who had run into Purgatory. Hesperiana pointed to the teleporter: "Can this thing be used now? Will that so-called drift and instability affect it?"

Hao Ren confidently turned on the device: "Don't worry, the technical content of this thing is much higher than the teleportation gate made by Baptiste."

He now understood why the group of magic masters on Earth had failed to create a stable Purgatory gate after a lifetime of research—they had failed to break free from the constraints of this universe's worldview throughout their lives. Those fixed teleporters could not cope with a space drifting outside the universe, because the coordinate systems were not compatible.

But his teleporter didn't have to worry about that.

With a slight buzzing sound, the teleporter began to operate smoothly. A translucent, distorted sphere appeared in the sky above the silver-white base. Hao Ren pulled the others back slightly, and when the sphere expanded to allow people to pass through, he took the lead and walked forward: "Come on, let's catch the wizard!"

Stepping across a layer of turbulent and distorted light film, the harsh environment of the Purgatory space rushed towards them.

Hot and smelly turbid gas filled all directions, making it unbearable as if being in a hot spring swamp; the earth was covered with rotten substances, and the dark mud was caked into lumps, completely without any sign of life; the sky could not see the sun, moon, and stars, and heavy clouds like lead blocks blocked the scenery outside this world. Only a faint, strange halo that did not resemble sunlight penetrated slightly from the clouds, so that this world was not completely dark. This was Purgatory—different from the place of the same name in religious stories, but still worthy of the name.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Lily had a sensitive nose, and couldn't help coughing hard as soon as she came in. "This place is really not for people to stay... Let me put on the collar."

After putting on the life-support collar, Lily finally breathed a sigh of relief. She frowned and looked around: "This ghostly place... Can there really be life here?"

"At least you can find things like Purgatory Rippers," Vivian nodded. "I've only been to this space once or twice, and that was thousands of years ago. I've almost forgotten it now, so everyone be careful."

Nangong Wuyue let out a hissing sound in her throat. She realized that there was a lot of water vapor in this world. This was not a difficult place for sirens to survive, but these water vapors were mixed with many unpleasant atmospheres, full of hostility and corrosiveness, which made her inexplicably irritable. After Hao Ren noticed Wuyue's movements, he asked curiously: "What's wrong? Not feeling well? Then put on the collar."

"It has nothing to do with conventional senses," Nangong Wuyue suddenly summoned a cloud of water mist and turned into a siren form. She was surrounded by small balls of water elements, which purified the surrounding air to some extent. "I sensed that there is a force in the water here, a force that is harmful to living beings. Sirens are essentially a special kind of water elemental creatures, and we are very sensitive to water bodies... Tsk, really uncomfortable."

Hao Ren looked up into the distance. On the desolate and dark earth, he could see many bubbling mud hot springs. Those hot springs were panicking with disgusting colors, and a stream of dark green turbid gas would spew out after the huge bubbles burst on the surface of the hot springs.

Originally, mud hot springs were the initial cradle for the breeding of life on most planets, but this "Purgatory" did not show this at all.

That was the richest form of moisture in this world—it was so disgusting, no wonder Wuyue would feel uncomfortable all over.

"Sorry, I have to transform into the second stage, otherwise I really can't suppress it."

Wuyue suddenly dropped a sentence, and then her whole body collapsed suddenly, turning into a large piece of flying water.

The water did not fall to the ground, but quickly condensed in the air, gradually turning into a soft state like some kind of gel. Soon these water molecules reshaped and turned into a huge... slime.

Okay, this shouldn't be called a slime, it's just some form of Wuyue's transformation, but no matter how you look at it, a large, jelly-like, light blue translucent gel really makes people unable to think of anything else.

The "Slime" shook, and a gurgling sound came from inside: "Okay, I'm done transforming."

"Are you sure this is the second stage transformation?" Lily looked at this scene blankly, "Other people's second stage transformations are awesome, why did you lose your human appearance after the second stage transformation?"

The "Slime" shook after hearing Lily's words, and the upper half of it formed a translucent female body, but the lower half was still the same. Wuyue turned her body slightly and checked her condition: "This time it's okay, I still have a human appearance, right?"

Lily: "..."

"This form can generate the greatest elemental affinity. I have to compete with the primitive water environment of this world for control, otherwise I will evaporate," Wuyue's body glowed with a burst of water, she explained her new form like this, "And this way I can also spare some energy to help you maintain a clean air circle. There are many things in this space that make me feel uneasy, no matter what it is, let's shield it first."

"This place is too vast... Where are we going to find Baptiste?" Nangong Sanba looked out at the boundless desolate land. "I suspect this is a planet—how difficult would it be to find a person in this kind of place?"

"We can only try our luck, I hope we haven't deviated too far," Vivian said as she raised her hands. A large group of bats immediately emerged behind her. The overwhelming bat swarm spread out in a magnificent way, making Vivian in the center seem to be wearing a black veil. "I will create bats that specialize in capturing prey. I have remembered Baptiste's aura, and these little bats can sense him dozens of kilometers away."

Such a huge number of bats took off and flew away, almost covering the sky like dark clouds. Hao Ren was taken aback by this battle. He finally saw Vivian's appearance when she was seriously "hunting." And Hesperiana couldn't help but be a little dazed when she saw so many bats. She looked up at the "black clouds" that kept making sharp noises, and couldn't help but mutter: "I was thrown out like this back then..."

If she hadn't said it, everyone would have almost forgotten that this guy was Vivian's little bat who had become a spirit. Then she must be feeling a lot of emotion when she looked at the bat swarm now: this must be four digits worth of brothers and sisters, right?

After the bat swarm was released, Hao Ren didn't just wait. He released all the probes in his personal space. These agile probes are known for their speed. Although they are not specifically used to hunt creatures like Vivian's bats, they can scan vast areas at extremely high speeds. With these things to assist, the chance of finding Baptiste will be greatly increased.

Yuan Tong