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Chapter 182 Return to Hometown
This kind of stealth and infiltration wasn't new to them; even if they couldn't see each other with their naked eyes, they could sense each other's locations through mental techniques. Liu Shuyue led the way, while Chen Xuan kept watch from behind, and they quickly arrived at the location of the cries for help.

In a lawn surrounded by bushes, a girl with short, light chestnut hair was locked in a fierce battle with a reptile. The insect looked like a centipede, but it was more than a hundred times larger, almost as long as a person!

Moreover, it had a pair of pincer-like mouthparts on its head, which, compared to the girl's slender neck, were practically indistinguishable from a guillotine. The latter clearly knew this as well, and desperately used both hands to hold down the reptile's jaws, preventing it from biting her.

Chen Xuan used the Heavenly Glow Technique to detect the surrounding area and found no other points of light.

Seeing that the girl's resistance was weakening, Liu Shuyue made her move. She summoned a Thousand Thoughts Sword and sliced ​​the reptile's body in half in the blink of an eye.

Its belly gushed out a gush of green liquid, which immediately sprayed all over the ground.

The girl broke free from the insect's grip and scrambled back several meters, her face still showing signs of shock.

Liu Shuyue deactivated her invisibility and stepped forward, asking, "Who are you?"

Unexpectedly, the moment she saw Liu Shuyue, her tense nerves collapsed instantly. She hugged the former tightly and burst into tears, leaving Liu Shuyue completely at a loss.

It took a few minutes for the other person to recover.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to, I'm just... really... afraid of bugs." The girl apologized repeatedly.

Chen Xuan could understand this reason.

Most insects, when magnified a hundred times under a camera lens, look like indescribable alien species. Not to mention, if there were actually such a large reptile crawling on a person, it would definitely be a mind-blowing experience.

He scrutinized her carefully. The girl was clearly not from Jiangcheng; her chestnut hair wasn't dyed, and her blue eyes didn't look like she was wearing colored contact lenses. She was most likely from overseas. Her clothing and appearance were all quite modern, completely out of place in this gloomy and silent world.

Considering that she was in the same area as him, Chen Xuan began to suspect that she might be an agent of the organization.

"My name is Elori. Thank you both for saving me." The girl wiped her eyes and thanked you sincerely.

The moment the name was uttered, he was certain that this person was a new member who had joined the organization and belonged to the same group as Jiang Siqi.

What should we do next with her?
Kill her to silence her? Chen Xuan scratched his head, troubled. Liu Shuyue would most likely not agree.

She doesn't know much about the Security Agency and probably doesn't understand how trouble it would be if the agency's officers saw her true appearance.

In the fierce battle with the demon, he lost both his hat and mask, and it's a little too late to replace them now.

Even so, Chen Xuan still decided to be direct and asked, "Are you from the Limitation Agency?"

Elori paused, then suddenly seemed to understand something. "So it was you who destroyed the demon!?" She looked at Liu Shuyue in surprise. "You are the other Wanderer mentioned by the organization... the White-Clad Immortal?"

Liu Shuyue tilted her head, indicating that she did not know this person.

Chen Xuan readily admitted, "Not bad."

There's no way to hide this perfectly, because the other party is involved, and they can easily guess their identities with a little thought.

Elori's first reaction wasn't fear, but rather she grabbed Liu Shuyue's hand and said gratefully, "You saved me, and you saved so many others! This demon is far more powerful than I anticipated. If we let him escape, the number of innocent people who will die at his hands in the future will be immeasurable!"

"You're welcome..." Liu Shuyue replied passively.

Then the girl slapped her forehead and waved her hand at Chen Xuan repeatedly, saying, "I am not your enemy, nor do I want to get involved in your grudges with the Limitless Organization. I joined the organization to hunt demons, and now that the demons are dead, my mission is complete."

"Oh?" Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow. "You're not planning to stay in the organization anymore?"

"Hmm... I accidentally stumbled into this world while tracking a demon. If I can find a way back, I will definitely choose to go back."

"So you're a wanderer too?"

“No… my tracking ability is specifically designed for demons; it allows me to travel to the ends of the earth by following their scent.” She quickly explained, “As for going to another unfamiliar world, this is my first time.”

This is really... interesting, Chen Xuan thought to himself.

As expected, the term "Wanderer" is merely a designation used by the Dimensional Authority, not a consensus across all worlds. In other worlds, they may have other titles, such as "Demon."

In some ways, the demon is even freer than the wanderer. At least the wanderer crosses the space through an intrusion point, while this guy named Gustav simply tore open a spatial rift to try to escape, essentially creating an intrusion point artificially.

"But unfortunately, we were sucked into the rift and thrown into an unknown world."

Chen Xuan stood up and looked around—aside from the abandoned buildings, he found nothing related to the "Black Light Rift," meaning that their plan to return to Jiangcheng via the original route was temporarily impossible.

Perhaps they happened to be within the uncontrolled range of the rift, so the intrusion point that should have been passed through normally became a random teleportation with no regularity.

"We plan to look for a way out in that area with buildings up ahead..."

Can I come with you?

Before Chen Xuan could finish speaking, Elori pleaded, "I don't want to be hugged by those bugs anymore."

……

The three of them left the vine-covered park and walked along the street toward what appeared to be the city.

Due to long-term neglect, the asphalt road for vehicles is riddled with cracks, and grass grows from the gaps, covering half of the road surface. The surrounding houses are also dilapidated, almost reduced to empty shells.

Chen Xuan also searched an empty house and found that it had a television and lights, but they were all old.

Could this place be another world on the verge of destruction?

Compared to the rusty steel city, at least there's no radioactive dust in the air here. If the weather isn't constantly gloomy, walking through these green-shaded reinforced concrete ruins actually has a romantic, post-apocalyptic feel to it.

"Hiss! A spider!"

Elori suddenly exclaimed.

Following her gaze, Chen Xuan also saw the spider… It was perched on the side of a two-story building, its dark green body blending into the shade of the trees, and it was almost the size of a small car. Even Elori, let alone Chen Xuan, got goosebumps the moment he spotted the spider.

"This is fucking huge..."

If it weren't for the buildings everywhere, he would have been afraid he had gone back to the Jurassic era.

So, is the only defining characteristic of this world its sheer size?
If insects and spiders are this big, what do other animals look like?
Or perhaps... they never existed at all?

Upon realizing this, Chen Xuan was startled by his own thoughts.

So far, he hasn't seen a single stray cat or bird. Logically, once people move away, these animals should quickly become the dominant species in the city.

Gradually, more and more buildings appeared around them.

Chen Xuan saw several collapsed billboards, which clearly did not display familiar Chinese characters.

If the world's written language and spoken language are unknown, then even if you find the locals, it won't be of much help.

Worse still, the inability to communicate may lead to more misunderstandings and suspicions, which is the most troublesome situation.

“Magasin de beauté Odyssey…” Elori murmured abruptly.

"Wait, can you read the words on it?" Chen Xuan asked.

“Yes, they’re in French,” the girl replied, somewhat absentmindedly.

Okay... so the demon's subconscious choice of escape destination was actually the place he knew best? That makes sense. The thought of being in Europe, able to return to Jiangcheng as soon as he boarded a plane, immediately put him at ease.

Wait a minute! Chen Xuan's heart suddenly skipped a beat. Where did these giant spiders and centipedes come from in Europe?
"Can you figure out where we are?" he asked without much expectation. Leaving aside the fact that French is spoken everywhere in Europe, even in France there are over thirty cities; trying to pinpoint a specific location based on just a few buildings is unrealistic.

However, Elori's answer left him stunned.

“I’m not sure, but it looks familiar…like it’s on the Champs-Élysées.”

(End of this chapter)