Alien Hotel.

Chapter 475 Temple in the Depths of Darkness

It was a fleeting glimpse, occurring in an instant almost imperceptible to humans. Yu Sheng's mind passed through the chaotic black mist, witnessing some scene from beyond the distant border in less than a ten-thousandth of a second—but even such a rapid glimpse left a deep imprint on his perception like a burning brand, and the vast amount of information it carried roared through his mind like a storm.

Yu Sheng even suspected that he had died again just now, but for some strange reason, he himself was unaware of this death and resurrection.

Then, he quickly crossed a certain "critical layer" and continued to fall into the depths of that bone-chilling black fog.

"Bang!" A phantom impact echoed in his soul. He stopped abruptly and realized that he seemed to have bumped into something.

The surrounding black mist receded slightly, and a chaotic glimmer of light appeared from the distance, revealing some enormous outlines.

Yu Sheng saw a row of huge pillars appearing in the fog, each pillar standing tall like a tower. He saw that beneath his feet were mottled and old stone slabs, every crack in the stone slabs seemed to be soaked with thousands of years. There was a huge temple standing at the end of the pillars, lying silently in the darkness like a tomb.

Is this the end of the black mist? Is this what the bottom layer of that mirror looks like?

As Yu Sheng fell from "above," the thought subconsciously popped into his mind, but he shook his head almost instantly.

The black fog continued to churn further away, and the connection between the fog and the ground seemed to be a broken spatial structure—not the "end," but rather another dimension connected to the mirror.

He looked up and around, but did not see Yuan Hao.

Then he reached out into the air and tried to outline the shape of a door.

The illusory door appeared smoothly, but when he slightly opened it, he saw only darkness on the other side, instead of the usual scenery that led to his destination.

Yu Sheng froze as he opened the door.

He was no stranger to the situation of failing to open the door. He had encountered the door collapsing when he first tried to enter the Black Forest directly from the real world. But this time the situation was even more strange. The door did not collapse. He could even clearly feel that a passage had been established. This door was leading to a certain place, but... it was not the coordinates he left.

Something seemed to be hiding in that empty darkness, silently enticing him.

Yu Sheng slammed the door shut.

He stood still for a moment, calmed himself down, and then cautiously opened the second door.

Outside the second door was a wall that looked exceptionally thick, stained with dirt, and faint, distant noises could be heard from both sides.

He opened the third door and saw a strange and desolate city standing in the twilight. There was no sun in the sky, only endless rosy clouds. The city seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. Dark-colored towers and huge steam engines collapsed and crumbled, piled up like graves.

None of these are the coordinates he injected when he opened the door!
Yu Sheng quickly closed the door and took a deep breath.

What exactly is causing this darkness?

The door... seemed to still work, but each time it led to a strange and unfamiliar destination, as if the coordinates he had recorded outside had been distorted in this darkness, and all the locations the coordinates pointed to had been replaced.

A sense of tension and unease rose from the bottom of his heart. Yu Sheng calmed himself down and, after a moment of consideration, realized that staying in place was not a good idea, so he stepped towards the "temple" in front of him.

As he walked, he carefully observed his surroundings, comparing the neatly arranged pillars and the distant temple buildings with scenes he remembered.

After a quick assessment, he concluded that these pillars and temples were the ruins he had seen in the mirror illusion, and also the place Yuan Hao had seen deep within the Black Star.

But the pillars before us did not collapse or break as depicted in the illusion, nor was the distant temple a ruin—everything here, though weathered and worn by time, was intact.

...Is this what the ruins looked like before they collapsed?
A kind of "historical memory"?
Yu Sheng couldn't help but have all sorts of guesses, and just then, he suddenly noticed the black mist around him flowing.

The next moment, the flowing black mist condensed around him, turning into an illusory shadow—a distorted human figure, curled up and kneeling on the mottled stone road, facing the direction of the temple, prostrating like a devout and fearful believer.

Before the figure could react, it vanished again, but the surrounding fog became increasingly agitated, transforming into even more kneeling figures as it rapidly moved through the air.

Almost instantly, countless phantoms of devout worship appeared on the stone slabs in front of the temple. Countless illusory human figures appeared and disappeared, as if countless souls were constantly surging in, worshipping and praying to this temple that exuded an ominous and terrifying aura. The black mist gradually turned into a raging wind, rolling and surging silently. Millions of phantoms flowed and emerged in the darkness, like a chaotic record that was simultaneously playing in fast-forward and sometimes in reverse, frantically looping on the surrounding stone slabs!
This bizarre and chaotic scene startled Yu Sheng. He exclaimed "Holy crap!" and realized that something was very wrong with the temple. But just as he was about to turn and leave, countless layers of whispered murmurs came from between the pious visions, buzzing and rumbling as if trying to pierce his brain. The whispers seemed to have no rationality or logic, chaotic like noise, giving him a splitting headache! But suddenly, he heard a few sentences in the pure noise—as if an extremely strong obsession was directly imprinted in the noise, echoing in his mind again and again.

"He is feared..."

"He is revered..."

"Praised;

"Cursed;

"Being embraced;"

"Being resisted;"

"Our destined end, the inevitable end of all things..."

"Take us away and harvest us before the end of the world!"
“That cursed and feared omen, that terrible yet merciful…ominous sign…”

"boom!!!"

A phantom roar exploded in Yu Sheng's mind, as if the noise imprinted with a vast amount of information had gathered into a thunderclap in his consciousness. He was suddenly dizzy amidst the frenzied prayers, and felt his mind fly straight towards that dark temple that exuded endless coldness and ominous aura, "falling" as fast as if rushing into an abyss!

"What the hell?!"

Yu Sheng cried out in alarm. A sudden warning flashed through his mind, making him realize that falling into that "temple" would definitely not end well. He immediately began to struggle, desperately trying to regain his balance and calm his mind. In his haste, he grabbed a nearby pillar. He struggled against the temple with all his might in the terrifying "suction" that acted on his body and mind at the same time, as if he were trying to tear himself out of a shredder that was already running loudly.

This difficult and seemingly hopeless standoff lasted for an unknown amount of time. Yu Sheng felt as if his soul was being torn apart bit by bit. He even felt that a part of his mind had been sucked into the temple, slowly being devoured by a huge thing that was a fusion of nightmarish limbs and pure symbols of malice. The somewhat familiar, cold aura had somehow transformed into a pure and blind intent to destroy and annihilate. And it was at this moment that he saw something else suddenly appear in the dark fog.

That was black spider silk.

Before he could react, dense black spider silk had already crossed the thick fog and wrapped around Yu Sheng's body in the next second. Another familiar, chilling aura seemed to pierce through his bones, enveloping him layer by layer, followed by a powerful pulling force.

The spider silk desperately pulled Yu Sheng away from the temple.

Noise came from all directions, and amidst countless layers of chaotic murmurs, some familiar sounds gradually emerged. Yu Sheng felt his mind slowly detach from that dangerous darkness. He began to "rise" in the black mist, and then finally heard those familiar voices clearly—Eileen was squeaking and yelling: "...Yu Sheng, how come you're brain dead again? I told you not to space out all the time! You'll kill yourself if you just daydream, don't you know that? Hey, where did you fall? Why is it so hard to pull you this time? You're so heavy! What is your mind anyway? I can pull an ordinary person so easily, but pulling you is like pulling a mountain! Hey, you're biting your tongue... How come you're biting your tongue even when you're speaking in the mental connection?!"

Yu Sheng was stunned. He quickly took advantage of regaining his self-control and began to cooperate with Eileen, accelerating away from the black mist. Almost instantly, he felt his five senses from the real world return to his body.

He suddenly opened his eyes and saw the dark ripples rapidly shrinking back into the mirror from the surrounding walls, then disappearing from the mirror again—in the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal.

Everything in the empty room was as usual. The lonely mirror reflected the scene inside the room. He and Yuan Hao stood in front of the mirror, he was still in the posture of reaching out to touch the mirror, while Yuan Hao stood motionless in the same place.

Looking at this scene, it seems like only a moment has passed. He reached out and touched the mirror, fell into darkness, and then Eileen instantly pulled him back to the real world.

But Yu Sheng felt as if he had been wallowing in that darkness for a long time.

Just like Yuan Hao wandered aimlessly for a long time in the depths of that "black star".

The next second, the sound of running footsteps came from the hallway outside the door. The three Eileen sisters who were left at home squeezed together at the door and shouted in unison, "Hey Yu Sheng, are you alright? You're awake? You're alive?"

"Uh, I'm fine..."

Yu Sheng subconsciously replied, while Yuan Hao next to him suddenly blinked and then turned his head with some confusion.

The old man glanced at the three puppets at the door, then at Yu Sheng, who seemed to have been in a daze for a moment. He seemed to have noticed something, raised his hand to do some quick calculations, and then frowned: "Where did you go just now?"

(End of this chapter)