Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 316 - 295 Gua Tianshi appears

Chapter 316: 295 Gua Tianshi appears

Due to the limited time of the battle, the Ancient Moon God didn’t have time to use many truly fresh skills. Most of what she used were the moves Yinyue had used against me last time. This time, I was able to defeat all those once-effective moves head-on, filling me with a sense of accomplishment akin to avenging a grudge.

Her body disappeared in the blaze, but a piece of item remained — the stone necklace hanging around her neck.

As the stone necklace fell due to gravity, I reached out and caught it in time, then brought it close to inspect it.

I’m not sure what material it is made of, even the Ancient Moon God herself couldn’t withstand my flames, but the stone necklace looked undamaged except for some surface charring. Judging from her attitude and words before her death, this thing was the embodiment of the Sealing that Yinyue imposed on her. I hadn’t expected it to be so robust; no wonder she couldn’t destroy this seal while she was alive.

It’s a rare object, so I plan to collect it first; it might come in handy later.

However, this is an object left by the enemy, and it could have hidden traps. Maybe I should first find a place to hide it, and only later consider further actions after confirming it’s safe.

I then surveyed the surroundings more closely and tried to feel more keenly. There was no sign of the Ancient Moon God’s presence re-emerging; she might truly be dead. Deep down, I wasn’t entirely convinced since she equated to Yinyue in terms of her retribution body. Last time, I thought I had defeated Yinyue, but she actually escaped amidst the chaos. This time, I might also mistakenly believe I killed the Ancient Moon God, while she could be hiding somewhere.

Or perhaps, like Yinyue, did the Ancient Moon God also leave behind some sort of "resurrection" foreshadowing? The ability to turn fantasy into reality, this superpower, seems too good to be true, and reviving with this power seems like an idea that could be easily conjectured.

The more I thought about it, the more I became certain of her death. In the face of overwhelming power, such seemingly omnipotent power ends up capable of doing nothing. She must have truly run out of options and dissipated.

The fog around is thinning.

I descended to Ancient Moon Village on the ground and looked around. Perhaps due to the death of the Ancient Moon God, the white mist nearby is gradually disappearing. Not all the fog everywhere is vanishing, but specifically, the mist around Ancient Moon Village is thinning at a visible rate.

Perhaps while the Ancient Moon God was trapped in the fog, she also controlled some parts of it, which is why it reacted to her death. But the changes didn’t stop there, all the houses in Ancient Moon Village are also disappearing, eroding from the edges into countless dust particles like weathering.

The wandering villagers around also showed increasingly dull expressions; their figures, originally solid, are now becoming increasingly transparent, stepping into nothingness like the fading houses. among the crowd, I saw the young traveler who was helped by Dong Che, fading just like the villagers.

The Ancient Moon God claimed that Yinyue summoned these villagers to monitor her, but it seems she lied about that too. Clearly, she summoned these villagers herself for some purpose, and therefore, they dissipate with her death.

And what about Dong Che?

Like the villagers, a death apparition, what is his state now?

Just as I had this thought, the voice of that young man came from behind: "—Zhuang Cheng?"

I immediately turned around and saw a handsome young man in ancient white robes with white hair standing several steps away behind me.

"Dong Che?" I called out to him.

But he didn’t respond, just staring blankly at me. I vaguely understood the state he was in. It’s as if he’s sleepwalking; just instinctively calling out my name when he saw me.

His current condition is likely affected by the death of the Ancient Moon God as well. It means Dong Che was also killed by Ancient Moon God’s power in the future and transformed into something similar to a "servant ghost" both now and in the past. How shameless of Ancient Moon God to push all the blame onto Yinyue in front of me. Now that Ancient Moon God is dead, Dong Che will naturally disappear as well.

However, there might still be some truth to what Ancient Moon God said, Dong Che being an achieved level demon hunter dissipates much slower than the villagers. I faintly saw a fluffy-like transparent glow emerging around Dong Che’s body, proving that he is indeed slowly vanishing.

I must find Gua Tianshi before he disappears. But did Gua Tianshi really come to Moon Concealing Mountain? The information about this was also blurted out by Ancient Moon God, and all the information she provided was highly suspect. Perhaps the information about Gua Tianshi was also fabricated in haste to persuade me to align with her.

At that moment, another figure appeared not far away.

It was Mazao; she teleported here. Perhaps because some of the fog had dissipated, the distortions in time and space in this area ceased, allowing Mazao to sense the cessation of sounds from inside the fight and arrive promptly by my side.

"Zhuang Cheng, are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

"What could possibly happen to me?"

Perhaps even if Mazao hadn’t left the fog earlier, I could have still swiftly killed the Ancient Moon God—no, better not be too arrogant. If Mazao had stayed, perhaps the Ancient Moon God might have changed her tactics and taken Mazao hostage to fight me. It’s still better to continue the policy of having Mazao retreat when danger arises.

"If I can be of more help..." Mazao seemed still very concerned.

"You have already contributed enough. If you want to help in battle, wait until you have regained all your strength." I comforted.

"...I understand." She nodded with difficulty letting go, "So, what do we do next?"

As she spoke, she glanced at Dong Che.

"Let’s leave the mist first," I said.

Yinyue is at the deepest part of the mist; though I understand this, I can’t find it now. Even with Mazao by my side, it’s probably temporarily impossible.

If reaching Yinyue was a matter of luck that could be solved even with a one in ten thousand chance, with Mazao’s Broom Star Physique, it could nearly be resolved. To compare it to a door, to open the door one needs to enter a four-digit code on the electronic lock, we might enter the right numbers on a random try.

However, based on the current clues, without the right method, we can’t get close to Yinyue. The lock on the door is not electronic but mechanical; there is no room for us to try out passwords. To open the door, we must first honestly find the right key.

Perhaps I could also rely on Mazao’s bad luck to encounter the "right key" somewhere. Probability-speaking, compared to staying right under Yinyue’s watch, it’s probably likelier to happen somewhere else, so I want to go out first.

After sharing my thoughts with Mazao, she seemed to agree and nodded, then took the lead.

I looked back and called out to Dong Che, who looked at me bewilderedly. Then I made a motion to leave, and he followed like an obedient lamb.

We left the gradually vanishing Ancient Moon Village.

Now, the structure of the mist is probably like a doughnut; if we want to leave from the central void, we must re-enter the mist and then navigate to the outside. With Mazao leading the way, there was no difficulty maneuvering through it, and Yinyue lurking deep within the mist seemed to have no intention of stopping us. We were about to reach the area outside the mist.

Walking on the road, Mazao turned back and said to me, "Zhuang Cheng, I just went outside the mist, and something seems off outside..."

"Did something happen?" I asked.

"How should I put this?" she frowned, "The mist seems to be spreading..."

Before long, I saw the scenario she described.

After leaving the mist, we arrived at a cliff on Moon Concealing Mountain. From here, we should have been able to see the town at the foot of the mountain. It was during the day, yet I couldn’t see the town clearly.

The area around Moon Concealing Mountain looked like a city with heavy air pollution, the town below seemed shadowy. Compared to the previous mist area, the visibility wasn’t that bad; the former only allowed seeing scenes tens of meters away, but now we could see at least a thousand meters away. However, before climbing the mountain, I should have been able to clearly see the other side of the horizon.

I observed that the pollutant wasn’t something else but the mist we had gone through before. The mist with the same components as the mist was spreading around Moon Concealing Mountain and even toward more distant areas in extremely low densities. Generally estimating, at least Moon Concealing Mountain and the nearby towns were covered by this haze phenomenon.

Because the concentration of the mist was extremely low, there weren’t signs of time and space confusion like in the mist area. However, this very diluted mist shouldn’t be just nearby. Perhaps some strange phenomena were already happening.

I took out my phone to connect to the internet, wanting to check if I could get relevant information from the network. However, my phone couldn’t receive a network signal. Not just that, but there was also no phone signal.

Then I tried to sense "Fireflies." The "Firefly" positioned at Moon Concealing Mountain Town was still able to connect normally, but the signal of the "Firefly" at Saltwater City became quite vague. It was only possible to confirm its existence, unable to transmit information or relocate.

Was this also Yinyue’s doing? What exactly does she want to do?

"—This is Yinyue’s Fatian Xiangdi."

Without warning, a strange voice came from the distant woods.

I immediately looked in the direction of the voice and saw a bizarre figure leisurely walking out of the woods.

As for Dong Che, like someone sleepwalking, his expression changed, and he looked in that direction, muttering to himself: "Master?"