Eternal Night

Chapter 875 A Broken Journey and a Premonition

Wu Pifu looked at the shattered world before him and was speechless for a moment.

According to Beelzebub, there was no single, complete world target for him to search for, but rather countless fragments of such worlds, or even world remnants.

"...None of the world fragments and world remnants here have crystal walls, so even mortals can easily travel to other world fragments. The simplest way is to rush to the end of the continent and jump directly out into the void. As long as you are not shattered by the void turbulence of the dream world, and you also have a certain amount of luck to survive in the void time, then it is possible to go to other world fragments."

Beelzebub flew in front of Wu Pifu and said, "The extraordinary ones are much better off. They can use their extraordinary senses to perceive fragments of living worlds, remnants of lifeless worlds, fragments of civilized worlds with powerful beings, or fragments of ruins or world remnants that they sense danger in the vicinity of nothingness. The stronger one is, the clearer one's senses are, and the less danger one can penetrate."

"At the same time, superhuman perception can also detect dangerous void turbulence behind the void, or other random things. Finding the right path is also very important, otherwise you will waste too much time in the void. You only have one year. Don't fall into some low-time zone. Otherwise, you won't be able to find the superhuman path of the Zanpakuto. In a moment, a year may have passed, and then you will be finished."

Beelzebub kept explaining the rules of this shattered realm to Wu Pifu.

She really did squeeze out a little bit at a time, like squeezing toothpaste, but Wu Pifu listened attentively and carefully considered the exploration plan in this broken domain.

At this point, Xu Shilan joined the conversation: "There are two main issues now. The first is to confirm what the original civilization of the Zanpakuto's extraordinary path is, what its specific name is, what its characteristics are, and what the characteristics of the Zanpakuto's extraordinary path are. It would be best to confirm whether the civilization still exists. Only with this information can we search for the Zanpakuto's extraordinary path in this chaotic shattered domain."

Wu Pifu nodded and immediately looked at Beelzebub, who immediately shouted, "Don't look at me! I have no idea what this little supernatural civilization that has already penetrated deep into the Shattered Realm is. Hey, hey, hey, why are you looking at me with this sunlight? I'm not some kind of all-powerful wish-granting machine or an all-knowing and all-powerful information extractor. Enough already!"

Wu Pifu withdrew his gaze, but he did understand Beelzebub. After all, no one can be omniscient. It would be asking too much of Beelzebub to know even the specific extraordinary methods of a particular civilization.

Xu Shilan clearly thought so too. She nodded and said, "Then the second main question is, what is the state of order in this broken domain? It can't possibly be a peaceful, global village where everyone exchanges, trades, and cooperates with each other, can it?"

Beelzebub paused for a moment before saying, “No, how could that be? The Broken Realm is only home to those who have fled here, or descendants of civilizations that were already barely surviving, or those bizarre creatures that don’t even qualify as civilizations… This place is a true dark forest. Once discovered, they either have to find a way to move the world fragments away, or if they can’t, they will be attacked by all of them. All intelligent life forms hide themselves there, and once they discover another intelligent life form, they will try to kill it immediately, without exception.”

Xu Shilan spread her hands and said, "So, these two questions combined mean that we don't know what civilization the Zanpakuto's extraordinary path is a product of, nor do we know what its characteristics are, and we also have no way to ask for directions in this Shattered Domain, right?"

Everyone fell silent, but Wu Pifu scratched his head and said, "Then let's go."

Beelzebub's voice cracked as he said, "No, with so many difficulties, you're just going to leave?"

"if not?"

Wu Pifu asked directly, "Are we just going to wait here instead of leaving? In any case, let's move forward, explore this place, and look for a slightly more friendly civilization or force."

Beelzebub, somewhat exasperated, said, "Didn't you hear the analysis? The order here is..."

At this moment, Huang Rong suddenly smiled and said, "Although Brother Ant is not good with words, we are. Moreover, if the other party is also not good with words, Brother Ant also knows a little about martial arts."

Beelzebub paused, seemingly having discovered the key point...

In any case, after exploring this fragment of the world briefly and confirming that there were no anomalies or omissions, the team arrived at the edge of the continent in the void.

Wu Pifu used his internal energy to envelop everyone and the small animals before reaching out into the void.

From his expanded internal energy perception, the outside world was indeed empty, but there was a chaotic perception similar to extraordinary energy. This extraordinary energy formed vortexes, turbulent currents, corridors, passages, etc., leading to fragments or remnants of other worlds. He could not clearly perceive things that were too far away, but with his full perception, hundreds of special points around him were clearly visible.

Indeed, as Beelzebub said, this place is far too vast and enormous. Or rather, the Shattered Realm is an infinitely smaller microcosm of the entire Dream World, except that the Dream World has become much smaller fragments or remnants, which is why there are so many special locations that can be perceived.

Some carried the aura of life, some the aura of death, some various eerie auras, and some were as unresponsive as stone, only giving the faint indication that something was there. After sensing for a moment, Wu Pifu stopped and told everyone what he had found.

"Should we choose to explore places with signs of life, search for intelligent life, and gather intelligence about the surrounding area, or should we specifically look for dangerous spots and explore various ruins?" Wu Pifu asked.

With so many external brains, how could he not make use of them?

As expected, Beelzebub, Xu Shilan, and Huang Rong began to discuss it.

“…Let’s find intelligent life first.” Xu Shilan pondered, “After all, we are unfamiliar with this place. Although Beelzebub knows some information about the Broken Realm, it is information from many eras ago. We know nothing about this place. But those intelligent life forms hiding or living here can at least know a general idea, right? Besides, we need a logistics base for a year.”

Beelzebub agreed, but Huang Rong objected, saying, "I think exploring ruins is more suitable. You all said this is the Dark Forest. I know what that means. Even if we have the power to subdue them, they might not tell the truth. Ant Brother's super brain can sense emotions, but it can't sense specific objects. Since we're going to explore, let's just explore along the way. First, explore the places that Ant Brother feels are abnormal or that he wants to explore. If there's nothing around, then we can explore places with signs of life. As for the logistics base... to be honest, I don't think it's necessary. There are only a few of us. This isn't a positional war, it's exploration. The logistics base will only slow down our exploration progress."

Xu Shilan pondered Huang Rong's suggestion, and after a moment she nodded and said, "Yes, you're right. I was misled by habitual thinking. We're not here to do business or establish a base, but to explore... So let's explore along the way. The most crucial thing is your intuition, Wu Pifu. Whether it's your sixth sense, martial arts intuition, or some other feeling, if you feel that you want to explore a certain place, then there's probably something beneficial to you there. Who knows, it might even be the extraordinary path to your Zanpakuto."

Given this, Wu Pifu naturally had no objections.

In fact, since arriving in this shattered domain, he had indeed had a feeling, a very vague and subtle premonition. He couldn't quite put his finger on what this premonition was, but he felt in his heart that it didn't seem like a premonition of the extraordinary path of a Zanpakuto.

Unlike his original Nen ability, after obtaining information about Nen from the Holy Grail, he instinctively felt that this Nen ability was extremely important to him, even crucial, a core ability capable of changing his and those around him's fate. Whether he obtained it or not would lead to two completely different paths for his future.

However, when he learned about the extraordinary path of the Zanpakuto, he did not have this premonition. After rational analysis, he felt that the extraordinary path of the Zanpakuto was indeed useful to him, but it was not the core foundation. If he did not have it, he could completely bypass the problem of the weapon and him becoming one through other means.

Simply put, it's best to have it, but if you don't, you can find other ways.

However, since he arrived in this shattered domain, another strange premonition has arisen in his mind.

It's not a Zanpakuto, but something else...

"...Buddhist secrets? Or the Dragon Elephant Prison Suppression Sutra? Or perhaps the Ultimate Freedom Technique?"

For some reason, Wu Pifu thought of these three things.

At this moment, he stopped thinking and led everyone directly into the void. Just as Huang Rong had said, he did not go to the surrounding fragments of the world that had life, but instead went to a place with the strongest sense of death.

After all, the presence of life doesn't necessarily mean the presence of intelligent life. It could be some kind of giant beast, monster, or mutated creature.
With one step, a strange, colorful spectacle appeared before everyone's eyes, with various chaotic auras surging forth. At the same time, within this vision, one could also see a large number of twinkling starlight in this void and chaos, some large and some small, some bright and some dim, and many more that presented a colorless void.

Shattered Domain...

This chaos is actually a mixture of countless extraordinary energies, but these extraordinary energies are extremely rare. Anyone with even a slight extraordinary ability can resist it for a short time. Of course, ordinary people cannot. If an ordinary person enters it, they will simply be pulled along by the current, and if they are unlucky, they will be torn into pieces.

However, Wu Pifu had no need to worry. His internal strength was extremely powerful, easily resisting the invasion of these extraordinary energies. Moreover, he did not need to search for the turbulent torrents of these extraordinary energies. Instead, he relied on his own internal strength to break through this void and took a few steps to rush into an extremely dim point of light.

Suddenly, everyone's vision changed. When they looked again, they saw a huge pyramid-like structure that towered into the clouds. At the same time, they inhaled the incredibly foul and stuffy air. Except for Wu Pifu, everyone else, including the small animals, started coughing.

"...a world of death and silence."

(End of this chapter)