Volume 8: The Bug House Chapter 3 The Gods

"To the left, this way... Wait, it's changed, something's wrong, why are we going back..."

Jiang You stopped and looked at the needle on the compass with a frown. The needle first stopped and then began to shake around.

"No way, it's broken?" Jiang You said as he shook the hand holding the compass a few times. When he looked again, the needle had turned most of a circle and then bounced back.

"It's quite fast..." Jiang You muttered.

The light from the compass reflected on Tang Butian's face. She raised her head slightly, and Jiang You's face was also illuminated. She could still hear many voices, very far and very close, floating in the air, and suddenly rushing past her ears sharply and roughly.

She looked ahead.

The layers of black mountains rose and fell, like a dormant ferocious beast breathing. Air currents gathered from all directions, passing through the beast's body, biting and rolling, and then returning to calm.

"This compass is too stupid, and it doesn't have a spirit," Jiang You muttered, talking nonsense, "It should be a little girl with two braids, running around with short legs..."

Tang Butian listened and felt at ease.

She said, "Don't you want to ask me why I continue to track you?"

Jiang You glanced at her and said, "You are the leader, and I am responsible for execution."

Tang Butian looked straight ahead and said, "I want to completely destroy the contents of the box."

Jiang You commented: "It's a bit violent."

Tang Butian said: "Seal or research can't prevent bad consequences."

Jiang You said: "Then just chop it off!"

"good."

After walking for a while following the compass, Jiang You stopped.

"Are we there yet?" Tang Butian asked.

"It's still far away, but," Jiang You released his hand that was holding Tang Butian's wrist, and turned to face her, "We are about to enter the real chaos."

"Here, we are still under the influence of the will of the mountain and the human world, so there is a path to walk on and we can still breathe," Jiang You put the compass into his bag, "Are you ready?"

Tang Butian gripped the knife handle tightly.

A dark light floats, and the ancient symbols on the blade are faintly visible.

Then, she felt a cool force passing through her body and then enveloping her. She seemed to fall into the water. There were many creatures floating in the water, all of which she had never seen before, some of which were brightly colored and sparkling.

There are also many bubbles.

She stretched out her hand, and a bubble landed on her fingertips. She saw her face in the dazzling bubble - her hair had spread out at some point, and the light was flowing on her face and hair.

The film of bubbles began to cover her body little by little starting from her fingertips. When it touched the wooden sword, the film retreated a little, then expanded to all sides, instantly enveloping the wooden sword.

The blade lit up for a moment and then dimmed.

She was completely enveloped in a bubble.

She looked outside, and everything was lit up, she had never seen anything so clearly before. She looked to her side, and there was light, circles of light of various colors mixed together.

Is this what he looks like?

Her sight was fixed on a black circle of light. It was trying to expand, but the other circles of light seemed unable to accommodate it and kept squeezing it...

"I'm leaving."

Jiang You's voice came from behind her.

A pair of hands penetrated into the bubbles and embraced her body.

The bubbles floated up.

The vigorous vitality penetrated the bubbles and hit her face.

Is this the chaos?

She saw a dim light ahead.

A little energy.

It's not even life. Just a little bug.

It grew into a huge ferocious beast in a breath. It seemed to have discovered their existence and rushed towards them with the momentum of destroying the world. Before it arrived, its body broke apart, and a gloomy deathly aura emanated from it, decomposing it into tiny particles, and everything returned to calm again.

As if it was just an illusion.

The colorful bubbles took her through all kinds of fleeting illusions. She seemed to see the origin and final demise of everything, the struggles of the insects floating in it, the reluctance left by many beings that she could not reach, and the fragments of brilliant worlds and civilizations that had existed.

She didn't know how long she had been floating before she heard Jiang You say, "We're here."

She felt her feet touching the ground.

Under the gray sky, there is a black river. Two people are sitting by the river, and between them, there is a metal box.

"Ren Qingning? Lin Shunan?" Tang Butian recognized them. "Did they take the box?"

Jiang You said: "Let's take a look first."

——

Lin Shunan slowly opened his eyes. The afterimage of the light spot seemed to have not faded from his retina yet. After a long time, he could see the person in front of him clearly.

Ren Qingning.

He subconsciously used his hands and feet to take a few steps back.

"Don't be afraid, Dr. Lin, I don't want to hurt you." Ren Qingning looked at him and said.

Lin Shunan looked around him. The scenery was both familiar and unfamiliar.

"Dr. Lin, don't you want to open the box and see what's inside?" Ren Qingning spoke again.

Lin Shunan's eyes moved to Ren Qingning's face and he said, "Brother Ren, why did you do this?"

Ren Qingning said: "The way of heaven will change."

"I've heard this before." Lin Shunan said cautiously.

"When you were studying the small world, did you find that the small world was changing?" Ren Qingning looked into Lin Shunan's eyes. "Think about it, how it looked when you first saw it, and how it looks now."

Lin Shunan replied, "I know that. It will continue to be assimilated by the main world."

"You are right," Ren Qingning nodded. "The laws of the two worlds are competing with each other. In places that we cannot notice and ignore, our world is also being changed and alienated until it reaches a balance. At that time, it can be observed and studied."

"Will it affect us?" asked Lin Shunan.

Ren Qingning said: "Alien spiritual power."

Hearing this word, Tang Butian, who was hiding on the side, pursed his lips.

Lin Shunan frowned and said, "The research institute has set up a special project to study alien spiritual power, but... nothing valuable has been found."

"This value is not for humans, but... Just now in the car, I only told half of my story," Ren Qingning stood up and said, "In the past hundred years, spiritual power has been thin and the path to immortality is dim, faith has dried up and demons have fallen asleep. Everyone on the mountain is looking for their own way, but no one can clearly tell where the way is. On the contrary, the world of ordinary people has been changing and evolving, and even theology has been disenchanted."

"What exactly do you want to say?" Lin Shunan interrupted Ren Qingning's long speech.

"The catastrophe has come, which means that some of the laws of this world have been changed, and demons will roam the world again..."

"You're talking nonsense!" Lin Shunan said angrily.

"If I am talking nonsense, then why did all the top experts on the mountain go into seclusion after the disaster? Why did the research institute at the foot of the mountain become independent and why did Zhuang Zekun set up a special department in Tangjiang?"

…

"You said there is no difference between alien spiritual power and ordinary spiritual power." Tang Butian said softly.

She heard Jiang You's voice coming from behind her .

He said, “Did I say that?”

"Yes."

"I don't remember."

"You are also the reason why the alien spiritual power appeared."

“Am I that awesome?”

Tang Butian did not ask any more questions. She heard Ren Qingning say to Lin Shunan, "Open this box and you will know everything."

"Master Ren, what exactly do you want to do?" Lin Shunan asked again.

…

"What does he want to do?" Tang Butian asked.