Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 544 "Gathering" [8.3k words]

clang--! !

The clanging sound of swords clashing rang out from the simple theater.

"Haha, hahahaha~! Wonderful, it's really wonderful! My dear old friend, do you see this? This supreme beauty?"

In the audience, a black shadow was seen staring at the scene on the stage with fascination, as if he was an artist who had finally seen the work he had pursued all his life. He praised it incessantly, and the crazy laughter continued to echo in the theater.

This time, the playwright did not ridicule or dissuade the black shadow from his exaggerated behavior. Instead, he concentrated and watched the scene on the stage quietly, taking in every moment of the scene.

But suddenly, the playwright seemed to have noticed something. His eyes moved slightly and looked in another direction. He narrowed his eyes and reminded the shadow:

"I'll warn you in advance that the group of people I mentioned earlier have already arrived, and the most troublesome one among them happens to be proficient in space. If that guy is determined to investigate, this place won't be hidden from him for long."

"Don't worry, my dear old friend! You have seen this scene before your eyes. You should understand it better than me..."

Facing the playwright's reminder, the shadow who was immersed in the scene on the stage just grinned and said indifferently:
"Whether it's the Chosen One or the troublesome guy you mentioned, it doesn't matter who it is."

"Because, besides the actors on the stage, the only people standing here right now are a group of audience members who can't help themselves. What do you think?"

The shadow's words echoed in the theater. The playwright's eyes moved slightly when he heard it, but he did not refute anything. Instead, he continued to look at the scene on the stage. The image of swords and sparks was reflected in his pupils again.

Indeed, it was just as the shadow said.

Be it him or the guys who just arrived, no matter who they are, as long as they see the scene in front of them, they are just members of the audience.

Or...

No one can help but stop and watch what is happening here at this moment.

……

At the same time, in the native world layer, the abyss erodes the shallow area.

"So, this is the Dead Sea ruins? Why can't I see anything?"

"You idiot, didn't the captain and the others tell you? The location of the Dead Sea ruins is in the derived world layer. It's impossible for you to see it in the native world layer."

In a space engulfed by darkness, there was a platform emitting a soft white glow. On the platform, a female fighter girl in pajamas was looking around and muttering a few words. She was then rudely scolded by her companion beside her.

"Tsk, it's in the derivative world layer, it's in the derivative world layer, knowing that I was sleeping at that time... Hey, did anyone of you accidentally trigger the distress signal? Why is the alarm going off on my side?"

"What kind of help letter is this... Uh, wait, how come there really is one?"

"Hmm? I received it too. Let me see what's going on. Why is it a second-order signal?"

"Herald... Black Sword? Death Bearer? Dao Ji? Ya Mu? Wait, what's going on? Four little guys from the Holy Land are dropping into this kind of place?"

"Hmm... what is this? Shit, why is that freak Yan Yi here too? Wait, could it be that your Sanctuary Paradise deliberately sent these little guys here to open the map?"

"Fuck you, can you please take a closer look at the message? The other distress signals all say that the little guy named Black Sword was knocked into the Abyss Erosion Zone by the space storm!"

"Oh, I'm too impatient... Wait, what do you mean by being hit by a space storm into the abyss erosion zone and sending out a distress signal? Are you speaking Paradise language?"

When the silver-white platform continued to advance for a distance in the dark space, the powerful people on the platform were shocked when they saw the prompt that suddenly popped up on their branding interface.

"Hey, wait, Captain, what are you doing..."

"Stop talking nonsense and build a projection for me!"

The one who reacted most violently was 04296, who was chatting with the young man in Taoist robes just a second ago. After seeing the name displayed on the distress signal, his expression suddenly changed. He grabbed the vampire girl who was arguing with the fighter girl without hesitation and shouted, which scared the vampire girl.

"Baldy, calm down. Have you forgotten that with your current attributes, it is almost as difficult to create a projection as with the strongest? I know you care about the life and death of that newcomer, but it is better to let Sally and the others go down first."

Baihua's voice sounded, and she suddenly grabbed 04296's arm and shook her head. 04296 was silent for a while, then let go of her hand and sighed:
"You're right, I was too anxious."

"I understand. After all, we just happened to encounter this kind of thing in the ruins of the Dead Sea. I would be surprised if you didn't react."

Baihua shook her head slightly, then looked at the female fighter girl and the heavy sword man beside her, and said:

"Sally, Lao Wei, the projections of the two of you can be made the fastest. Xiao Luo and I will take you two down first, and Baldy and I will follow soon. Is that ok?"

"I understand." "Yes."

The female fighter girl shrank her head, and the heavy sword man nodded slightly. Seeing this, Baihua didn't say anything more, but looked at the vampire girl beside her and said:

"Let's get started, Xiao Luo. The situation is urgent. It's better to hurry up." "Okay...Okay."

The vampire girl nodded and did not dare to delay any longer. She took out a crystal ball and began to recite some extremely ancient language silently. Baihua on the side sat down cross-legged. A coin-sized crystal of space-time power appeared in her hand. As her mental power surged, she constructed two outlines in front of her at a speed visible to the naked eye, which perfectly matched the female fighter girl and the heavy sword man in front of her.

"Congeal."

A few seconds later, as the vampire girl uttered a byte, the two outlines in the sight of several people quickly became solid, and finally turned into the appearance of a fighter girl and a man with a heavy sword.

"The power is limited to level five. Be careful not to explode by accident."

"Tsk, I'm not stupid, don't worry, I promise to fish the guy the captain likes out of there intact before the captain comes down!"

The female fighter girl patted her chest and assured, then she skillfully separated a part of her mental power and soul energy into the projection in front of her, which looked exactly like herself, but whose strength was pitifully weak compared to her original body. Then, with a thought, she disappeared on the spot with the projection.

For those of them who have been on the front line all year round, it is no longer a strange thing to control temporarily made projections to go to projections that are far lower in rank than their own bodies and enter the middle and low-level worlds.

There are many abyss creatures in the abyss that have the habit of hiding their true bodies in a world with extremely strong barriers but abnormally low ranks. To deal with such abyss creatures, sending low-level contractors in would be suicide. After all, the opponent's true body actively suppresses the rank. Once released, it is not certain whether the world will explode or not, but the contractor who enters will definitely die. At this time, the brand projection function becomes extremely useful, which has a relatively high cost, must be extremely strong to unlock and use, has a limited maintenance time, but will not cause any impact on the user.

After all, no matter how high the cost of a projection is, it is only relative to the level of the projection itself. For example, the price of a fifth-level projection in the fifth-level might be enough to bankrupt the richest fifth-level contractor. But if this could replace the nest of a supreme abyss creature, then that would be another matter.

"Hey, 04296, we're going to go down and watch the fun first. If you're too slow and don't get the park's subsidies, don't blame us for not giving you face, haha!"

A hearty laugh was heard, and it was seen that another extremely powerful team not far away had already condensed their own projections. After greeting 04296, they disappeared from the spot with their own projections.

"Tsk tsk, I didn't expect there would be such a lively scene. I'll join in the fun too!"

"Count me in. The subsidies and such are not important. We just want to see what unlucky kid can survive after falling into that hellhole at the second level."

One after another, brisk-sounding conversations rang out from the platform. It was obvious that for these people who had experienced countless storms, the situation before them, although a little abrupt, was not at all tense.

"See, I've already told you, Baldy, there's no need to be so anxious. There are so many people here. Even if that guy really died in the abyss, as long as he hasn't been dead for too long, he can probably be rescued."

Baihua looked at the reactions of the people on the platform, spread her hands, and said to 04296.

Although he understood 04296's emotions, to be honest, given their current size, let alone the other party being able to send out a distress signal alive, even if he really turned into ashes, as long as the brand could be recovered, everyone present would be able to save him with their means.

Besides, there was one thing he hadn't said yet.

That is, including himself, he believed that many of the strongest and most powerful people present were curious about what was happening in the derivative world layer, so they were all so eager to condense the projection and reduce the dimension to the derivative world layer.

After all, even if we don't mention that there was a name mixed in with that batch of distress signals that left a 'childhood trauma' for most people, the combination of the words "Level 2" + "Abyss Erosion Zone" + "alive and sent out a distress signal" alone is already a novel combination that is enough to make people wonder if there is something wrong with their ears.

After all, among all the people present, the only ones who really cared about the life or death of the owner of that name were probably 04296 and him.

This is not a mockery of others for not taking each other's lives seriously. In fact, as long as a distress signal is received and a projection is sent out, even the most frivolous strongest person will do their best to search and rescue. If there is only one absolute or strongest person here, the other party will definitely be extremely concerned about the life and death of the rescue target, especially when the person seeking help is still a 'young' pioneer.

But when so many people gathered here, to be honest, unless a nun of Holy Light was lost here, it would be more difficult to take things serious than to blow up the Transcendence·Original World.

"So, relax a little. This time is different from the time we went there. There are so many people watching here. Are you still afraid of any accidents?"

Baihua glanced at her own projection that had already taken shape a long time ago and the projection of 04296 that was almost formed, then looked at 04296 in front of her and said helplessly.

04296 Hearing this, he looked at the group of experts on the platform who had already been mostly silent. After a moment of silence, he sighed softly:
"Yes, I am a little too sensitive."

"only……"

"I didn't expect that kid would encounter something like this. This is really..."

04296 Gazing at the darkness in the distance that seemed to swallow up everything, a few golden arcs of lightning danced in his pupils.

Dead Sea Ruins, Level 2, Abyssal Erosion Zone, and it just happened to be someone he was familiar with, and the other party even happened to be holding that sword...

When these key words are combined together, the memories they bring back are too unfriendly for him. It can even be said that the sense of déjà vu is exactly the same as it was back then.

But as Baihua said, the situation this time is different from that time.

At that time, they did not receive any rescue until the very end. They only survived by luck as they fell into that place in the turbulence of space.

And this time, just as Baihua said, there are so many powerful people here, facing a rescue signal that was just sent out less than ten minutes ago, and there are all kinds of nuns present, from the time and space department to the healing department to the holy light department, and even a super top-notch powerful person who is only half a step away from the peak of the power. In this case, if they can't save a second-level newcomer, they will really be ashamed to face people.

"Okay, the projection on your side is done too, so hurry up."

"Thanks."

Ten seconds later, Baihua pointed at the projection in front of her that looked exactly like 04296 and said casually. Upon hearing this, 04296 simply said thank you and then his mind moved. In an instant, he disappeared from the spot with the projection.

[Tip: It is detected that the pioneer is being reduced to the derivative world layer. Because the pioneer's current rank has seriously exceeded the capacity limit of this world layer, if the pioneer uses power beyond the rank of this world, it will be immediately expelled from this world layer.]

A light blue text prompt sounded from the edge of 04296's sight, and he saw a large number of bizarre scenes flowing through his sight. When everything stabilized, a strange area that looked like an ocean with thousands of floating worlds suddenly appeared in his eyes.

[Tip: It has been detected that the pioneer has entered the special area · Dead Sea Ruins. According to Article 34-25-07 of the Derivative World Management Regulations, because the current area is in an uncertified state, the pioneer can only explore the designated coordinates.]

Dead Sea Ruins...

He didn't expect that he would actually have the opportunity to return to this place.

04296 looked at the scene in front of him, at the dark ocean that was perpendicular to him, after a brief silence, he stopped thinking about it and quickly searched according to the coordinates displayed on the branding interface. Finally, his eyes stopped on the tiny 'spire' in the center of the ocean.

Did he fall into that kind of place?

04296 Looking at the world that was almost completely swallowed by the dark ocean, his pupils shrank slightly. Without any hesitation, a thought moved his mind, and a circle of teleportation arrays instantly appeared around him. Then he took a step forward, and the scene in front of him suddenly turned into an empty space battlefield composed of a blood-red sky and a dark earth under the light of the teleportation array.

Around the battlefield, a large number of remains of abyss creatures were scattered randomly, and various supernatural energies were raging in the air, destroying this fragile space.

Obviously, these are the traces left by the projections of the strongest and most powerful ones who arrived here before him. After all, even if the purpose is to save people, for a group of strong men who have been fighting with abyss creatures for more than ten or even dozens of years, annihilating abyss creatures has almost become a habit and reaction engraved in their instincts.

[Prompt: The Pioneer has been detected to have arrived at the signal source. No units in need of rescue have been found in the current area. Do you want to launch a wide-area exploration...]

"Turn on."

After taking a quick look around the space battlefield, 04296 activated his wide-area exploration authority without any hesitation. The next second, a three-dimensional structure map of the entire space battlefield and even the dungeon space with him as the center instantly appeared in his mind.

Is it there...

After quickly confirming the overall situation of this space, 04296 looked towards the exit of the space battlefield diagonally below. His figure instantly turned into a golden thunderbolt, and disappeared on the spot with a deafening roar. In a flash, he passed through dozens of layers of the maze, and then...

——Suddenly stopped... or more precisely, was blocked at the entrance to the 42nd floor maze shown on the map.

He saw that all the powerful men he was familiar with were blocking the entrance for some reason, staring intently at the front, with expressions of surprise, confusion, amazement, relief and praise on their faces, as if there was something extremely extraordinary ahead.

"Hey, what's going on? Why are you guys all standing here..."

04296 Looking at the group of extremely strong and powerful people gathered in front of him like a crowd watching a show, he walked forward and was about to ask the female fighter standing in the front what happened when a clear clanging sound suddenly entered his mind:
clang--! !

Is this... the sound of fighting?!
04296, who was almost next to the female blocking girl, was startled when he heard the sound coming from the front. He subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound, and then... like the other strong men around him, he just stood there in a daze.

——What kind of scene is that?
——What kind of scene is that?

It is like a ball of blazing flame, or like a meteor flying across the sky.

The young man wielding an oppressive pitch-black giant sword, and the murderous shadow that cuts through the sky with the blade.

The two sides continued to collide, neither giving an inch, crossing each other on the ground and engaging in a thrilling fight on the dome.

Zheng——! !

The fierce sound of swords clashing rang out, and the bloody cutting light and the dark sword light turned into music on the battlefield, sometimes colliding, sometimes turning back, sometimes soaring into the sky, and sometimes splitting the earth.

It was as sudden as a rainstorm and as deafening as thunder.

It was like a passionate march that suddenly rose up in the most desperate and dark moment, piercing 04296's eardrum with its high-pitched tone, and finally echoing throughout the entire maze.

"I say...are we really here to rescue people?"

"I think...right..."

"By the way...Brother Ritian, is that guy...really the brother you mentioned before?"

"Um……"

"But... I remember you said, Brother Ritian, that guy has only been in the park for a little over half a year, and you also said that his talent is not that good..."

"So what do you think, is he talented..."

"..."

No one answered.

The strong men present were looking at the scenes in front of them, looking at the black-haired young man who had completely entered into a state of ecstasy in the battle. No one answered 04296's question.

Are you talented?

How can it be good?

They are not blind. With their authority and rank, as long as they investigate, information with low concealment level such as qualifications and talents are not secrets at all in their eyes.

Not to mention, as the strongest or most powerful ones, they have seen at least eight thousand geniuses in their lifetime, so they can naturally tell at a glance what the qualifications of this second-level "fledgling" are.

They could basically see that the black-haired young man's qualifications might not be the worst, but they were definitely not good. He was the kind that could be found in large numbers in the park, and most of them were probably a little better than the other party.

But precisely because of this, they were so silent and so focused on watching the battle in front of them, which was actually full of flaws to them.

"04296... Can you tell me what this guy experienced in Paradise?"

Someone in the crowd asked a question.

04296 Hearing the other party's question, he stared at the figure on the battlefield who was fighting the enemy with all his might. The sparks produced by the collision between the sword in the other party's hand and the long sword were reflected in his pupils. After being silent for a long time, he gently shook his head and said with a complicated look:

"I do not know."

Yes, he doesn't know.

At least, in his memory, the other party should still be a fledgling, a 'newborn' that needed to slowly learn to fly and could not leave the protection of an adult bird.

Maybe he had achieved some achievements, maybe he had gone through some hardships, but the experiences in his memory were definitely not able to create the scene before him, nor could they train such a look in his eyes.

What kind of setbacks does one have to go through to develop such eyes?
What kind of hardships must one go through to forge such a will?
"This question... only he can answer it..."

04296 He murmured, staring at the scene in front of him intently, and before he knew it, he was mesmerized.

At the back of the crowd, the young man in Taoist robes who had just arrived looked at the scene on the battlefield, then looked at the young swordsman in white who was standing at the edge of the battlefield and watching intently like them, a gratified smile appeared on his face.

It seems that Dao Ji has made some good friends...

The young man in Taoist robe nodded with satisfaction. He did not disturb his disciple. Instead, like the other disciple, he was about to continue to focus on the battle in front of him. At that moment, his expression suddenly moved and he looked towards a corner where no one was paying attention, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

In that corner where no one was paying attention, a figure wearing a gray iron mask and shrouded in a slightly tattered cloak was sitting on a rock, painting something on a drawing board that exuded an ancient atmosphere with four young-looking arms.

Actually... even the painter was attracted here?

The young man in Taoist robes stared at the human-shaped figure with four arms, his eyes slightly lowered, and a deep color flowed in his eyes like a deep pool.

……

it has started.

Under the starry sky, the white-robed scholar stared at the scene 'in front of him', looking at the cause and effect that had completely converged above his head. The figure of the four-armed painter who was painting something on the drawing board was reflected in his pupils. After a moment of silence, he looked away.

He knew very well that from the moment the "painter" appeared as a witness and recorder of history, there was no longer any way to "redeem" it.

"That's really... a strong enough response, huh?"

This is a warning.

The white-robed scholar knew very well that the scene before his eyes was not only a necessary process to achieve the other party's goal, but also a sign of dissatisfaction and warning from the other party towards his action this time.

Perhaps the other party could have used more gentle means to achieve this goal, but because of his intervention, the other party chose such a simple and crude way to force the two people to obtain their own destiny.

Yes, it is your own destiny.

This is not a metaphorical description, but a literal one.

——In fact, the fate of those two people now is actually "fake".

Their fate was broken at the moment of Demon Slayer, but someone forced them to move forward. This is a "miracle" that violates cause and effect and fate.

But all "miracles" have a price, especially for those two people who should not have their current fate, should not be standing here, should not appear on this stage. The greater the impact of their actions, the greater the pressure that false fate will bear.

The only way to solve this problem is to find a way to "make the fake become real", so that the star realm will have to admit that the fate of the two people at this moment is real, and make the weight of the fate of the two people so great that it cannot be easily erased or cut off.

The difficulty of this road naturally needs no further explanation.

Speaking of cases, even in the entire star world, few people really dare to do so, and few people have the courage to do so.

As for the actual successful cases? There is no need to say more about them. They are so rare that each one can be included in the divination system textbook.

Most of those who try to do so will die directly in the initial start-up stage. Even if there are a few who survive, they will be eliminated in the subsequent stages.

Therefore, he wanted to use the cause and effect of those other people to provide temporary shelter for the two people, give them some buffer time, use a more reasonable way to survive the initial backlash period, and use a more gentle way to let the fate and history of the star world accept the existence of this "abnormality".

But what he didn't expect was that the other party would go to such lengths to allow those two people to "truly" control their own destiny.

Not hesitating to use the entire Sin Blood Star as bait...

They were willing to let the ruins of the Dead Sea, which were supposed to appear in a month, appear ahead of time...

Even at the cost of allowing the underground city space that should have collapsed immediately to survive in a nearly miraculous way...

He was willing to bring down the cause and effect of that existence, and let an abyssal creature that had set foot on the path of a master of extreme skills serve as the foundation...

He was willing to pay such a huge price just to allow those two people to change their "fate" in the most extreme, direct and unimaginable way, at the right time, in the right place and at the right opportunity.

At this moment, this stage has become a gathering place for massive causes and effects.

Netherworld, Extreme Dao, Chosen, Acting, Stars, Original Sin, Scythe, Gods, Nun, Watch, Sanctuary, Holy Light, Reincarnation...

Watching the strongest people here, watching the inheritors here, and even using these people as anchors to pay attention to the paradises here... All of this has now turned into a cause and effect intersection that is too large to be ignored, looming above the stage.

Such a huge cause and effect is enough to attract the attention of the entire star world and the witness of the painter. Once the two people under such attention and witness recognize this cause and effect, and once they achieve their own "great achievements" under such circumstances, then no matter whether the star world recognizes it or not, no matter whether the previous fate of the two people was false or not, reasonable or not, the star world at that time must acknowledge the weight of each other's "fate".

in other words--

As long as they succeed, it means that the two of them have completely obtained their own "destiny", and from now on, they no longer need to rely on the protection of others' cause and effect to live.

But in contrast——

Once they fail, the two people who have witnessed their "failure" under such a huge cause and effect will inevitably be judged as not having that qualification, and thus completely lose the chance to obtain their own "destiny". From then on, they can only live in the cause and effect of others and go through their lives with a false fate.

If they succeed, then the future, whether mediocre or brilliant, will all belong to themselves. They will truly control their own destiny. From then on, the sea will be wide enough for fish to leap and the sky will be high enough for birds to fly.

If you fail, you will have to live in the shadow of other people's fate for the rest of your life, like a vine on a wall. The height of others determines your own height. You will have to live in other people's stories all your life and will never be able to stand out.

There is no doubt that this is a big gamble.

A gamble he had hoped to avoid.

Because he was very sure that once those two people fell here, that existence would definitely withdraw its gaze without hesitation and completely lose interest in those two people, just like it did twenty years ago.

Therefore, he wanted to delay more time and delay the arrival of this day as much as possible even if the two people would eventually fail.

But it's a pity...

"Did it fail after all?"

The white-robed scholar sighed, staring at the completely formed cause and effect in front of him, thinking about every step the other party had taken, and finally shook his head slightly.

Sure enough, it was too difficult to make up for this gap in "experience" by relying solely on divination.

No matter how powerful the divination skills are, they can only "see clearly" things related to the object of divination.

In other words, even with the highest level of divination, it is impossible to predict things that are completely unrelated to the object of divination.

——And this is the insurmountable gap between 'divination' and 'experience'.

only……

"Oh, I suddenly feel like... this isn't bad?"

A chuckle suddenly came from the mouth of the white-robed scholar, and he was seen staring at the scene in front of him, with pictures flashing through his gray-white pupils and a smile at the corners of his mouth.

In terms of victory or defeat, he did lose, and lost miserably.

but……

In terms of the results, the reason why he was willing to intervene even at the risk of angering the other party was because he was worried that the two people would not be able to survive the guy's trial, and that the guy would fall into a completely unpredictable state again.

And now...

He also began to look forward to how this grand show would end.

……

(End of this chapter)