Eternal Night

Chapter 876 Tombstones and News

Wu Pifu never expected that the first world he chose would be the so-called dead world, the world's ruins.

Unlike world fragments, these are living areas that still retain some of the world's rules and can support the cycle of life to a certain extent. Although they may break at any time, they still retain the attributes of a world.

The Dead World, however, is the so-called remnant of the world, merely the corpse of the Dream World after its complete destruction, bearing the relics and remains of past civilizations.

Amadeus immediately took out an oxygen tank and a mask from her personal space. They had made ample preparations for this expedition, including food, fresh water, simple spacesuits for a vacuum environment, personal protective equipment for extreme environments, oxygen, and so on.

Everyone except Wu Pifu had an oxygen mask, and even the small animals were stuffed into an inflated balloon. Then everyone looked at Wu Pifu.

“…Since we’re already here,” Wu Pifu blurted out a famous line without thinking. Looking at the huge pyramid-like structure in front of him, he said, “Why don’t we go in and explore it?”

No one had any reason to refuse, and Beelzebub even said, "That's right, exploring is fine. There are actually quite a few good things in the Shattered Realm, including secrets from the Primordial Era and even the Pre-Ancient Era. It's just that some of the things in there are extremely terrifying, but that's for others. It won't be a problem for you."

Wu Pifu tried hard not to dwell on Beelzebub's implication that he was not human. He walked at the front of the group toward the pyramid-like structure.

Beelzebub, however, remained oblivious, clinging to Wu Pifu's waist and continuing to speak: "...Actually, the Shattered Realm truly holds too many secrets. In my memory, I seem to have explored it many times before. Not only me, but many Roots also sent their subordinates or their own consciousnesses to explore it. In the deepest part of the Shattered Realm, there are even the most ancient secrets from before the Buddhist Era. Unfortunately, I can't remember them, but I seem to have discovered some very important information there..."

As Beelzebub continued his rambling, the group reached the outermost edge of the pyramid structure.

Visually, the pyramid is severely damaged, with huge gaps everywhere. But what's strange is that none of the gaps have any reinforced concrete or other structural elements, nor do they show any signs of stacked stones. The entire massive pyramid appears to have been carved from a single piece of rock.

The group walked around the pyramid, which occupied almost 95% of the area of ​​this world's ruins. Beyond that, there was only nothingness. The little remaining ground looked like concrete, but it was also constructed from a single piece of rock. Wu Pifu even dug the ground fifty meters deep, and it was all solid rock.

At the same time, there is no obvious gate or entrance to the entire pyramid. Although there are many gaps that can be entered due to the damage, people still hope to find a gate to enter.

Since there was no such requirement, Wu Pifu did not insist. He turned to the others and said, "Then I will lead the way, Amadeus you will bring up the rear, and Xu Shilan and Rong'er you will walk in the middle."

Everyone nodded, and Xu Shilan rolled her eyes and said, "You used to call me 'Little Sweetie,' but now you've become Xu Shilan."

Huang Rong's ears immediately perked up, and her eyes also seemed to perk up like a cat's alertness. Wu Pifu ignored her and walked straight ahead.

Xu Shilan chuckled and pulled Huang Rong close behind, followed by Amadeus who brought up the rear.

As they walked, Wu Pifu said, “I now have three kinds of extraordinary energy that can layer protection for you: internal energy, domineering aura, and psychic energy. All three are currently enveloping your bodies, so you are not afraid of physical attacks, energy attacks, or extraordinary attacks. Unless the opponent can unleash an attack that is about 70% of my current strength in an instant, these three extraordinary energy defenses will be continuously replenished. However, they cannot resist or protect against forces of rules, time, cause and effect, or some completely illogical forces. At that time, I will use the Pokémon System. But I don’t know if this Pokémon System can treat the three of you as trainers or Pokémon. If not, in such situations, Chuchu, Beelzebub, Daphne, uh… and Golden Tree, you should stand in front of them and protect them.”

Chirp, Beelzebub grunted, Daphne barked, and the Golden Tree flicked Wu Pifu's face a few times with its branch...

In short, everything was arranged to some extent. Wu Pifu walked into the broken passage, and as soon as he entered, a white light appeared in the pyramid structure. There was no specific light source, but the entire passage inside the pyramid was brightly lit.

Wu Pifu stood still and waited for a few seconds without being attacked or harmed. He felt no danger and then continued walking forward.

The others naturally followed behind him. As they walked, Xu Shilan said, "Judging from the structure of this building and the light it emits, the creator of this ruin should belong to a technological civilization."

Wu Pifu asked curiously, "Didn't they all start with technological civilization?"

“That’s not true.” Xu Shilan said, quite puzzled. “Don’t you look at the dream world data collected by the government? The past civilizations we’ve investigated so far show that technological civilization only accounts for the vast majority of each civilization. Besides technological civilization, there is also biological civilization, although it can be considered a variant of technological civilization, it is still different. There is also extremely rare mental civilization, some of which are close to the extraordinary. Moreover, these are all civilizations in the absolute reality layer.”

At this point, Beelzebub interjected, "That's not all. In fact, the dominance of technological civilization only began in the last hundred epochs. It's a kind of convergence after we implemented the salvation plan. This is similar to how humanity gradually became the main body of all civilizations. Before that, there were many kinds of civilizations, including deep-seated variations of spiritual civilization, thought civilization, and so on. By the way, Buddhism is the most famous thought civilization, then there's the physical civilization, with the Heavenly Court being the most famous physical civilization, as well as faith civilization, spacetime civilization, and many other civilizations."

Upon hearing the word "space-time civilization," Wu Pifu's heart skipped a beat. He immediately thought of the main civilization of the absolute space-time concept, and the spirit of space-time was probably the space-time civilization.

Meanwhile, Beelzebub was still relentlessly extracting information from her... he was like an information extractor.

"The further you go, the more numerous the categories of real civilizations become, including some completely inconceivable ones, such as the unified civilization, which is now extinct. Its type is very similar to... right, very similar to the Zerg in those sci-fi games you play, Wu Pifu. The entire civilization has only one main consciousness, and everything else is just its carrier. This type of civilization is quite powerful, even terrifying. It is said that before the Buddhist realm fell asleep, it was committed to eliminating any unified civilizations. After the Buddhist realm fell asleep, the Heavenly Court took over and continued to firmly implement this red line. So even I have only heard about it and have never seen a single example of a unified civilization."

At this moment, the group had walked from the passage to a place that resembled a hall. There were no utensils in the hall, and apart from the dust covering the floor, it looked quite clean. The walls were covered with various foreign scripts, especially the front wall, which was inscribed with larger characters.

"Mastermind, make a judgment."

Wu Pifu was straightforward, showing no desire to decipher the text himself. He took out his Dream Compass and pointed it at the words.

The voice of the mastermind emerged from the Dream Compass.

"Judging in progress...judging complete."

"The script of the unknown civilization is translated as follows."

“Angkuru was 822 years old, Bhikkhu Yang was 117 years old, and poor Bebi was 2 years old…”

The walls were covered with inscriptions of these names and ages, nothing else. After listening for a while, Wu Pifu pointed his Dream Compass at the largest wall.

"...Energy is the eighth element, the eyeball is the twenty-third element. We have lost. Our last hope is silenced in the darkness. The light will eventually be extinguished. We have already foreseen that moment."

"...After deliberation by the entire people, the last remaining people decided to be executed in the sacred energy well. Before we decide to end this suffering, we need to leave behind a tombstone that belongs to us and to our civilization."

"...Later generations, when you see this text, please remember that we have not given up. The reason for our collective suicide was simply out of pity for the last mortals in our tribe. They were suffering too much, and they did not deserve to suffer such pain."

"...Later generations, all we have left is this tombstone. All our resources have been used for the final assault, so please forgive our poverty and do not damage our tombstone. Perhaps this is the last thought of our existence."

"...Of course, we have prepared some things for those who come after us. This tombstone will fall with the remains of the world to the land of the broken world, which was once the focus of our exploration. Some of us who were destined to find it discovered a Buddhist secret there. However, that Buddhist secret is very strange and cannot be opened. It seems... that the Buddhist secret is shrouded in an even greater mystery. If those who come after us are destined, then explore deeper into the land of the broken world. You will surely be able to see that strange Buddhist secret."

At this point, the text on the wall had been translated by the main computer, while Wu Pifu remained silent.

Even though he heard the words "Buddhist Secrets" and learned the source of his previous premonition, at this moment, he felt only a faint sadness.

A once-great civilization, with countless intelligent lives, countless loves and hates, is now reduced to nothing but this desolate and lonely tombstone, telling the story of its past.

"Let's go."

Wu Pifu turned and walked out, with everyone following closely behind. Compared to the silence of Xu Shilan, Huang Rong, and Amadeus, Beelzebub seemed oblivious to everything. She simply kept asking, "Aren't we going to continue searching? This pyramid is still very large."

"No need."

After a few seconds of silence, Wu Pifu said, "Let's leave them some dignity. If the Gaia civilization fails and perishes one day, we may not even have a tombstone. But I still hope that in the distant future, someone will remember us, even if it's just that the Gaia civilization once existed."

Beelzebub said nothing more.

Unbeknownst to them, countless eyes seemed to be silently watching them as they walked out of the pyramid...

then……

Wu Pifu was stunned for a moment, then he suddenly saw something on the ground.

A sandalwood bead inexplicably appeared on the ground.

It sits quietly at the entrance of this pyramid-shaped building, radiating an inexplicable light.

(End of this chapter)