GRMFBS CH266

When Zhan Yan saw the scene before him clearly, everything had changed.

He tried using his Gossip System, but his ominous premonition was confirmed: he could no longer connect to the outside world. His phone, the Chaofan Forum, the “Did You Have Gossip Today?” group chat, and the communication interface of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau were all inaccessible.

In other words, he was completely on his own here.

Zhan Yan didn’t feel particularly endangered; surely his cheat code wouldn’t betray him, right? This must be the place where the horn of the Di Ting was hidden.

He remembered that when he finished assembling the puzzle, it didn’t trigger a teleportation immediately. It was only after the little candle given to him by the Candle Dragon lit up that he was sent here.

So… could this place be a hidden “remnant image” of the Candle Dragon? And was the puzzle he solved the key to entering this remnant?

Before entering, he had successfully fed the puzzle into his cipher translator and sent the results to Xiao Gu. However, he hadn’t had a chance to see what the translated content actually looked like, or whether Xiao Gu would be able to understand it…

If Xiao Gu couldn’t get in, he would have to figure out how to find the Di Ting’s horn all by himself. Plus, Xiao Gu would miss out on a very important opportunity to gain favor points with his “big brother.”

How troublesome.

As he pondered, Zhan Yan scanned his surroundings and looked up at the sky.

It should be daytime—there were clouds in the sky, and he could see the sun. But not far from the sun was a mass of vivid red light, like burning blood. Part of the clouds were a filthy black, while another part was stained red.

From afar, sounds came incessantly—thunder, the roars of beasts, and various unidentifiable cracking noises that never ceased.

The scene was so oppressive it made it hard to breathe, and Zhan Yan felt his heart pounding like a drum.

Around the red light, he saw a coiled dragon body—a knot tied by the Candle Dragon. The dragon’s body was hidden by the clouds, appearing and disappearing, and at the horizon where the sky met the ground, a giant dragon claw was firmly latched.

To the west stood a towering mountain shaped like a grandfather clock. The Candle Dragon rested its chin on the peak, its single vertical eye in the center of its forehead tightly closed, its mouth gripping its own tail.

As Zhan Yan watched the single-eyed dragon head, he heard an ethereal female voice muttering in his ears: “So hard, so hard, so hard… Must hold on, must hold on, must hold on…”

The contrast was almost cute, but Zhan Yan couldn’t bring himself to laugh; he only felt as scorched as a burning coal inside.

Zhan Yan looked down at himself. Pure white fur, four feet with scales, a lion-like tail… this was the Di Ting. He was possessing the vision of the Di Ting, just as he had once possessed his sister’s.

In the Di Ting’s world, there was rustling chatter everywhere.

“…Over there…”

“…It’s over there too, over there too…”

“…They are almost here…”

“…This way, not this way…”

“…Quick! Quick! Come this way…”

The Di Ting’s horn radiated a ghostly glow as it exerted its supernatural power to the limit. It wasn’t just hearing the heartbeats of living beings; everything in the world was whispering to it.

Danger was approaching. Every single hair on its body stood on end, trembling.

Something was hunting it, and all of creation was desperately pointing the way for it to survive.

The Di Ting fled toward the path of life. Zhan Yan was so nervous he almost forgot this was a scene from the past within the Candle Dragon’s remnant image.

Run, run! Don’t get caught!

He followed the Di Ting’s perspective as it escaped the encirclement, finally allowing himself a moment of relief.

Zhan Yan regained his composure and began to think about the situation. The information Bao Qingshan had once shared about the Candle Dragon’s remnant images flashed through his mind.

The Candle Dragon’s remnant images were like game dungeons; you could see images of the past, but those images also possessed lethal force. Bao Qingshan had also said that if one encountered a Candle Dragon remnant, one should find a safe place to hide. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had instruments that could sense the abnormal fluctuations of these remnants, and they would send people to rescue those trapped inside.

But he couldn’t hide. He didn’t have his own body; he was just attached to the Di Ting’s vision. Furthermore, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau agents might not even be able to enter this specific remnant.

Zhan Yan wasn’t sure of his current state. If he were just like an observer watching a memory, it would be fine, but if he were physically present here, he could be injured. He didn’t know if the protection charms given to him by his parents, brother, sister, and Xiao Gu would work in these conditions.

The Di Ting began its flight again. Zhan Yan snapped back to attention, nervously following the vision and attempting to see if he could change anything. But it was like watching a past memory—he was completely unable to control the situation.

The Di Ting escaped again and again, and again and again, it was cornered.

Fortunately, with the voices of all things pointing the way, it always managed to escape.

After a few times, Zhan Yan began to feel that something was wrong. The Di Ting should have been able to get away. Even though its pursuers—the anomalies and players—possessed tracking skills, the Di Ting shouldn’t have been pushed so hard. Several times, it could have escaped—or at least managed to shake off the pursuers for a few days.

The Di Ting is baiting them. Why?

The Wan Yan Cat Team was sleeping under the Wen Yu tree. Its roots were coiled into a nest, and the Underworld River circled around it.

It was dreaming, and the repaired soul was awakening lost memories—twenty-seven years ago.

The Di Ting was on the run.

So tired, so tired. The longer it ran, the more things followed behind it. They were getting to know it better, finding it faster each time, and the encirclement was becoming tighter.

But it couldn’t give up, and it couldn’t hide too far away. It had to keep these idiots on a leash.

“Infinity” wanted to find an information-type entity, but it didn’t know who it was looking for.

The Di Ting felt a secret sense of pride. These fools thought they were looking for it, completely unaware of the existence of the Bai Ze.

The Bai Ze was attempting to overlay its supernatural power onto Infinity. It was difficult, but not entirely impossible. Infinity had already bordered this world, and the rules of the two worlds had areas of intersection—this was how the Ghost King Liming and Ning Xi had influenced Infinity.

If they could uncover Infinity’s weakness, they could gain an advantage in the war.

It had to buy time for the Bai Ze.

The pursuers closed in once more.

A fine, misty rain began to fall from the sky, like a thin veil obscuring the Di Ting’s figure.

The Di Ting stood up again, its four feet stepping silently onto the damp soil, leaving no traces behind.

The ghost-glowing horn flickered, and all things whispered desperately in its ears.

“…Run, run…”

“…Here, here…”

The Di Ting’s agile figure broke through the fine rain, and the mist closed in behind it.

Run! Run! Keep moving forward!

Regardless of everything, it would never let Infinity catch the Bai Ze!

The beast with the single horn on its head raced through the mountain forest like the wind.

Beneath the Wen Yu tree, the dragon-headed beast shed a tear.

“I saw it…” the Bai Ze whimpered softly.

Ever since Infinity had bordered their world, the fate of the world had been thrown into chaos. The Bai Ze could no longer see the future.

Infinity wanted its power because its “Omniscience” was a seed. Although it was currently restricted to this world, it had the potential to grow into true omniscience, containing information from all other worlds.

The Bai Ze was being protected in the safest place in the world: the intersection of Yin and Yang.

It exerted all its power, finally touching the edge of breaking through the laws of the world.

It saw a short future during the time Infinity bordered their world—it saw the Di Ting, dying with a broken horn.

…

Gu Jiancheng hung up the phone, feeling increasingly restless for reasons he couldn’t explain.

He felt annoyed, itching to call back.

He had just hung up. Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help but reflect on himself. Yan-yan was out eating barbecue; he couldn’t be too clingy.

Gu Jiancheng grabbed his hair, feeling irritable, and decided to find something to do to distract himself.

He opened the Chaofan Forum. A little red notification dot from “Approaching Science” was blinking.

Gu Jiancheng clicked on the private message. A pile of strange lines appeared before him.

Is this some kind of new garbled code? Why did ‘Approaching Science’ send this to me?

Gu Jiancheng flipped through the input box, thinking it couldn’t have been a typo. Although the forum was “extraordinary,” it was still hosted on the web, and the symbols that could be input were limited.

However, the content sent by “Approaching Science” wasn’t any standard internet symbol; it looked more like a pattern drawn on paper that had been sent directly, but not as a photo.

Was this sent via a network-based supernatural ability?

Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help but frown, his fingertips tracing the lines on the screen.

“What in the world is this…”

If it was sent via a network-based ability, it must have special significance. But “Approaching Science” wasn’t replying to his messages—could something have happened to them?

Gu Jiancheng looked at the lines with a headache. What gave ‘Approaching Science’ the illusion that ‘Deep Shadow’ was a player good at cryptography?

But he couldn’t ask anyone else to help decrypt this message. “Approaching Science” must have had a reason for sending it in this format; who knew what secrets were hidden inside?

Gu Jiancheng stared at the image for a long time, starting to search for various decryption methods, constantly recalling details of his previous interactions with “Approaching Science,” trying to find clues to crack the code.

How do they do it in suspense dramas? Fold it in a certain way so all the lines combine into a picture? An important book they both read? The thing he and “Approaching Science” interacted with the most… was it points?

Gu Jiancheng brainstormed for a long time, trying every method, but simply couldn’t crack it.

But since “Approaching Science” sent this, they must have been sure he could solve it, right?

Gu Jiancheng worried as he slid his fingertips along the lines.

What is ‘Approaching Science’ thinking? We have absolutely no synergy…

After Gu Jiancheng had traced all the lines once, the Candle Dragon power within him suddenly flared up.

A starry sky suddenly appeared before his eyes, and a gentle force tugged at him, bringing him to a different place.

Gu Jiancheng: …So, this troublesome code was just a “connect-the-dots” game?