Chapter 152: The Darkness You Desire

Cold sweat broke out on Yang Zicang’s forehead. The information in the manual was actually inaccurate—people from the Fantasy Realm Company really did take action against ordinary people in the Lost Frequency Land.
Two assassination attempts had failed.
On the chest of the gray-suited young man, now tinged with slight anger, a dark gold ring emerged. A thread shooting in from the void linked with the dark gold ring.
{Executive Xiao, I hear you’ve discovered the Ring of Bloodline?}
Seeing the figure of the twin-tailed young girl in the induction screen, the young man nodded gravely.
[This Mr. Yang Zicang holds a muddy three-circle Ring of Bloodline.]
{Three circles? Good heavens—even a one-circle bloodline is a priceless treasure barely seen in the Lost Frequency Land. A three-circle one must not be lost; even if it’s muddy, I request the Editor-in-Chief to extract some pure bloodline energy from it.}
[Rest assured.]
Mr. Xiao calmed down.
He paced forward a couple of steps on the wheat field.
Everyone looked at Yang Zicang. Under the weight of these gazes, he felt torn inside. He could certainly give the statue, but if he lost it, would the boy before him truly let them all go?
If the other party went back on his word, everyone here would be wiped out, leaving no further bargaining chips.
“You might as well put your money away,” the boy said, fixing his eyes on Yang Zicang. “Don’t think you can threaten to leave. Because, after all, I’ve long reached the point where I’m capable of leaving. So, I’ll make a bet with myself.”
The mud-covered individuals looked at this person of terrifying strength.
“Make a bet with yourself?”
Xiao Gan-shi sneered. “Let’s bet if today marks the turning point where I will leave.”
Yang Zicang felt a sudden chill. This guy—was he willing to leave with him over a mere statue?
“If you leave, I’ll follow you onto a new path of fate. How about it? Want to bet whether they and you will both die?”
With that, Xiao-shi actually turned around, and walked off into the distance, laughing.
“As the editor-in-chief’s Index Finger, I have the right to write my legend upon this land. To show some goodwill, I’ll grant you an entire day to think it over.”
Turning his back to the crowd, the boy raised his arm and extended his index finger as he walked.
“By exactly noon tomorrow, if you don’t hand it over, every living soul here is eliminated. No matter where you run, it will make no difference at all.”
Standing beside him, the lady with the gentle demeanor remained where she was.
Her voice warm and gentle, she smiled to the startled few and reminded them, “All life means, from ants to bacteria, not a single one left.”
The others also turned and followed Mr. Xiao.
Yang Zicang thought, that is precisely the way the Single-Frequency Inn was destroyed.
The other party truly had the capability to do it.
Isn’t it just… that bloodline revered by the strong of the old world!
Behind, Yang Zicang clenched his teeth and raised the statue.
“Since you want it, I’ll give it to you!”
I’m sorry, Qin Meng. He silently apologized to the half-kneeling flower statue in his heart, unable to protect you in life, nor after death. But this humiliation will be avenged in the future. He must grow stronger, and quickly!
Hearing the voice of concession from behind, the boy, whose heart held a ball of rage, smirked with disdain and gloating satisfaction. He abruptly withdrew his hand behind his back and sneered without looking back:
“I’ve changed my mind. Tomorrow, I want to personally witness it being brought into my hands.”
Before them, a vision appeared, an ancient palace city, splendid with gold but vaguely dark and gloomy.
Everyone stared at the flickering dark gold quadrilateral pattern. Teacher Cheng exclaimed in shock:
“A true descent, such a massive amount of directed energy.”
Yang Zicang’s heart was seething with rage, but he eventually suppressed it.
When one lacks strength, anger is useless.
“Yes… Chief Editor!”
There was no information about the editor-in-chief in the handbook—it was likely that this figure had granted these people new authority, and their power was beginning to disturb the Lost Frequency Zone.
“Zicang-bro…”
The others, grim and dusty, approached Yang Zicang.
The backs of a few people were about to vanish into the distant illusion.
Suddenly, the scene of their advance could no longer continue; a sharp, cold flash erupted from beneath the tree and torn through space in an instant.
Before everyone could react to what had happened, the bodies of Big Star Xiao and the others in front exploded and vanished.
Boom! The vividly manifested realm of thought collapsed, crumbling into dust.
“Heavens!”
“What just happened?”
Having sensed nothing at all, the others watched the ancient palace-like city before them suddenly shatter and collapse, spreading into ruin.
Big Star Xiao’s true form, always hidden within, emerged.
“Who is it!”
The astonished boy immediately fixed his gaze on an azure finger bone.
It was quietly suspended before the scattered chaotic energy.
A hazy cloud of dust formed a skeletal human shape, but only this jade-like knuckle appeared at the front, radiating an eerie, dazzling blue treasure light.
“Did this thing do it?”
Luo Bin and the others were greatly shocked, but even more so by the realization that the person they had just spoken to and fought with was merely a world formed from Xiao Gan-shi’s consciousness. Yang Zicang felt the gap between them keenly—this chasm was far greater than he had ever imagined.
The finger bone suddenly emitted a faint radiance resembling scattered starlight.
The moment Yang Zicang looked up, this radiance cut through the air with a sharp, sweeping force.
A look of shock flickered in Supervisory Officer Xiao’s eyes: “Chief Editor!”
Rumble!
The space above the grassland instantly exploded and collapsed, swirling like a galaxy gathering and dispersing.
Under this terrifying might, the lush grass and countless tender leaves merely swayed in the fierce wind, unharmed, while Mr. Xiao had completely vanished from the world.
The hazy dust figure turned around, as if gazing at Zuo Feixian and Yang Zicang, and said:
{They have already determined that you are under my protection. There’s no escape. Go quickly and collect the other parts of my body.}
Zuo Feixian’s throat trembled as he swallowed hard. Was this the being that had been able to communicate with him for the past two years? What terrifying strength.
Yang Zicang stared blankly at the sudden change, then heard a few exclamations ring out at his ears.
Xu Xiuchuan, Wang Chong, and Little Liu only then realized that the formidable enemy was now reduced to ashes.
Yang Zicang looked at this hazy phantom and asked,
“Excuse me, the crisis you mentioned that I couldn’t handle—does that refer to the Chief Editor?”
Yang Zicang had roughly confirmed it in his heart, but he still found it hard to believe: a single stone possessed such formidable power, and it seemed that was just a finger bone.
{That’s right. She is not someone you can defeat. Only I can—this is why I still exist. Hurry up; she has already sensed the death of her index finger, and she will likely arrive soon.}
Yang Zicang looked up at the sky. There were still ten hours until midnight, yet he hadn’t even collected a single bone from the remains. How could he possibly make it in time? Helplessly, he said:
“My train won’t be able to move until midnight. I’m afraid I’ll have to wait for almost half a day.”
{No matter.}
The phantom skeleton raised its hand, pointing its index finger to its own ethereal head, pausing at the position of the temple.
As it moved, the sky darkened like a black curtain extending from the horizon upward. The temperature plummeted sharply.
On the Land of Frequency Loss, hundreds of thousands of people looked up to see the sky turning into a dark canopy slowly drawing shut.
“What’s happening?”
In every shed area, countless people and creatures looked up in horror.
“Why is night coming so early?”
Countless fissures of lightning flickered across the region. Everyone scrambled for confirmation—was this anomaly visible only in their area or everywhere?
The Shed Master Wuyou, who was tallying goods, noticed the text on the paper in his hands fading. He walked to the window and saw the sky split into halves—one black, one white. The black half was steadily and unrelentingly spreading, devouring daylight.
At the A-Class Crisscross Highland mountains, a group burying the Memory-Extinction Engine—their image reflected on the scorched earth—tilted their heads to look toward the sky.
“Holy cow.”
Lu Xiang, who was following Yuan Kun and his subordinates near the edge of the Lost Frequency Screen in search of isolated beasts, opened his mouth in shock.
Farther away, Shed Master Song and his crew, who were dismantling their sheds to relocate their entire camp closer to the mountains, paused their swinging hammers and saws and looked toward the sky.
“No… it can’t be…”
“What the hell is this world doing?”
Hub Town.
Boppoli, in a bad mood, had bought lunch and walked to his door, inserting his key into the lock. Suddenly, he noticed his shadow was gone.
He looked up at the sky. The sun was gradually being shrouded by a dark murky twilight.
On the streets, people were pointing at the sky and speculating whether it was a solar eclipse.
Zhu Yin walked onto the balcony. “This… is…?”
As the last glimmer of daylight faded, the already invisible phantom lowered its “hand.”
{This is the night you wanted. Go ahead.}
Yang Zicang’s group was left speechless.
Exhaling a breath, Yang Zicang closed his eyes. A faint, whistling wind seemed to echo from some ethereal corner.
[Xingmiao intends to make an active investment for me.]
[Xingmiao has invested 100,000N Void-Sequence Time in me.]
Yang Zicang opened his eyes and looked at the ring that had emerged on his chest. Within it, vaguely magnificent colors shimmered.
{Use it to accelerate. These time sequences carry my aura, allowing your little Ma Chao to move faster across the Lost Frequency Land.}
“Even you call it Little Ma Chao.” Yang Zicang forced a smile, a name the train itself didn’t approve of itself.
Suddenly…
[Woo—]
The train’s shuttle sound approached rapidly. Usually, it took twenty to thirty minutes for the train to travel from the city across such a vast distance, but now the sound seemed to be echoing from nearby.
[Woo—Woo—]
“Woo—”
Everyone turned their heads toward the direction of the wind noise.
“So fast!”
Bang! The air exploded, churning and spreading out waves of air. Everyone raised their arms to shield their faces as their clothes fluttered wildly.
{Huh, why am I so fast now?}
{Because I’m here,} Xing Miao said.
Yang Zicang glanced at the perplexed train, then at the faintly glimmering figure of a person, and said, “How about we go together?”
{Your train can’t carry me, or it’ll become a hearse forever. Let my main consciousness wait here. Go ahead quickly.}
After saying that, the phantom sat down cross-legged on the ground, its body growing slightly brighter.
The train swooshed in a loop, materializing a door next to Yang Zicang.