Chapter 1265: Sea of Misery

Dr. Jia started with a jolt. The grey river beneath his feet had transformed into a soft marsh, already submerging him to his knees. The others had noticed the change immediately and took off with their Talents. Gao Yang conjured a flat Absolute Barrier like a golden flying carpet, allowing those with no flying Talents to climb up.

They hadn't withheld the warning intentionally. They assumed Dr. Jia had noticed and was merely conducting an impromptu experiment on the marsh's properties—entirely plausible for him, especially with Hong Xiaoxiao's hairpin as insurance.

“You terrible people! Why didn’t you warn me?!” Dr. Jia struggled, but the more he did, the deeper he sank. Now, the grey marsh had reached his waist.

“Farewell!”

“Farewell!”

“Farewell!”

Parry hovered above Dr. Jia’s head.

“You damn bird! Just...wait!” Dr. Jia raged and swung his arms around when only his head remained outside the marsh. “Help! I’m the resident genius. Without me, you would never get any answer...”

No one stepped in.

Their reasoning was simple: since Dr. Jia was now sinking in the marsh due to his own carelessness, he might as well act as a guinea pig. And there was no need to waste a precious reset chance.

Once he was more or less completely submerged, Qing Ling turned to Gao Yang, who gave her a nod.

Her Tang Dao materialized. Dr. Jia immediately grabbed the hilt, and Qing Ling dragged him out of the marsh, bringing him back to the golden carpet.

They realized to their amazement that Dr. Jia was intact; not only was he not injured, but he was completely clean, too.

“How are you feeling, Dr. Jia?” Liao Liao asked.

“Furious!” Dr. Jia hollered. “I can’t believe you! You used me as a test subject!”

White Dew scoffed delicately, enjoying his misery. “You deserve it.”

Zhang Wei smothered a laugh. “No one cares about your feelings, Dr. Jia. Tell us what your body felt.”

“I will not!” Dr. Jia's face reddened with indignation.

“I’m not a patient man. I’ll give you three seconds.” Wang Zikai moved to hurl Dr. Jia back into the marsh.

“Let me think back to it,” Dr. Jia immediately conceded. “It’s just like a regular marsh. It’s sticky and chilling...”

“Look at the walls!” Hong Xiaoxiao interrupted them.

They turned around to find the black and white energy walls melting into viscous liquid and flowing down to the grey river. The resulting black and white waves rushed to the center of the river and collided, creating countless splattering grey ripples.

At the same time, the black and white walls became smooth like a mirror, as if the melting had polished their rough surface. The infinitely tall and long black mirror reflected the infinitely tall and long white mirror, and the reverse was true, too.

The infinite reflections they contained turned into two striped vortexes that attracted, repelled, and assimilated each other. Soon after, the two walls became an absolute black and a pristine white once more. Black light and white light surged, the tremendous energy reminiscent of solar flares.

The flares morphed into lifeforms that resembled the giant fauna of the primeval eras. With absolute synchronicity and symmetry, identical flares rushed at each other and clashed, devouring and assimilating each other before scattering into pouring grey rain, falling into the grey river that had turned into a marsh. The marsh rose in depth continuously.

It was a strange image: the grey marsh seemed to be boiling despite its coldness. Bubbles rose and burst. Then, eyes of different sizes surfaced. Every eye that opened was always accompanied by a pair of pale hands reaching out of the marsh. The eyes gazed at everything with despair and deference, while the pale hands swung around like a drowning man’s call for help. They looked like the myriad of lives struggling to stay afloat in the sea of misery.

Their struggle was in vain.

The eyes popped and exploded into grey water, returning to the river. And the pale hands scattered in splashes, returning to the marsh like foam.

The countless eyes and pale hands repeated the same process, again and again.

Gao Yangh had long created a complete Absolute Barrier to shield everyone. They witnessed everything from the safest but also closest VIP seats. The scene made them break out in goosebumps and took away their breath. It felt like a sharp object was scratching where they were most tender in their souls.

“Here it comes,” Gao Yang suddenly said.

A massive vortex appeared in the grey marsh below, paradoxically going clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time. The reverse currents met in an impossible combination. It was difficult to tell if the vortex was rising or falling.

The countless struggling eyes and hands got sucked into the vortex. It felt futile and ultimately pointless.

Finally, all eyes and hands had disappeared.

Rumble.

A giant grey trunk rushed out of the water

The Absolute Barrier Gao Yang created was as big as half a basketball court. The grey trunk was dozens of times bigger.

Soon, they realized that the “trunk” was merely one of the tree’s thinnest branches. What followed were bigger branches that broke the water surface and rose into the sky like vertical islands in various mismatched shapes. Gao Yang had to bring his Absolute Barrier up as quickly as he could out of the tree’s reach.

That finally allowed all of them to see the entirety of the tree. The trunk rising out of the river was a pale grey that was close to white. Countless strands of grey hair wrapped around the dense branches and ran down like waterfalls divided by rocky reefs.

“Holy shit!” Zhang Wei breathed out in amazement. “It’s like a city in the sky...no, a nation in the sky!”

“To be frank, I wouldn’t want to be its resident,” Gregor said with a wry smile.

“Just how big is it?” Liao Liao marveled while looking up. The back of her head was almost touching her back, but she still couldn’t see the top of the tree.

“It must be infinitely big in concept, and it’s presented as reaching the limit of our vision.” Dr. Jia was eager to observe it. “Don’t just stay here. Let’s get down there and look around.”

Gao Yang nodded. The golden shuttle flew to the branch closest to them. They landed safely in a few minutes. The grey strands beneath their feet immediately parted to the sides like living organisms, making way for them.

At the end of the “path” was a grey “bluff”; it was one of the main branches.

Their expressions tightened as they approached it.

The surface of the main branch was covered in growths of “people”.