Digimon: I really didn't want to be the Digimon Emperor!

Guan Yan followed closely behind, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the cold, rough stone wall.

Gatomon pricked up its ears, warily scanning the impenetrable darkness ahead, its tail tip twitching slightly; Momomon, on the other hand, clung uneasily to Guan Yan's legs, its round eyes trying to catch any movement beyond the light.

“These…were not naturally formed.” Guan Yan’s voice was soft, yet remarkably clear in the silent passage. Her finger paused on a spot on the stone wall. “Look at these carvings, there are traces of tool work, and these symbols…”

The glow of the Digimon hovered over a relatively smooth wall as her finger moved. It was covered with large patches of faded, mottled murals, many peeling off and covered in thick dust. But faintly visible were some strange geometric lines, illegible characters, and… some twisted, struggling Digimon forms.

"Do you recognize it?" Cheng Yuan took a step closer, focusing the beam of light on that area.

Guan Yan frowned slightly, staring intently. "Some structures... resemble early variations of Old Numeral, very ancient, and mixed with symbols from other unknown systems." She pointed to a broken sphere in the center of the mural, surrounded by several spiral lines. "This... might symbolize some ancient expression of the core of the digital world? And these around it," she pointed to some small, dot-like objects falling into the dark abyss below the sphere, "like... falling? Or exile?"

Her voice trembled slightly with uncertainty.

The gaze shifts to the edge of the mural, where more hastily drawn and blurred depictions appear to have been added later. Several distorted figures, barely discernible as humanoid and Digimon, stumble forward amidst a jumble of lines, while behind them, a huge, cold, emotionless, abstract eye symbol indifferently watches over everything.

Below his eyes were several rough, gaping cracks that seemed to signify destruction.

“Digital World… Administrator… Destruction… Program… Erasure…” Guan Yan struggled to decipher a few scattered ancient digital characters, her heart sinking. “Refuge… Dark… Area?” She looked up, her face pale in the dim light. “This mural… subtly suggests that the Digital World was destroyed by some kind of 'Administrator'? Are these… humans and Digimon who fled to the Dark Area?”

A chill crept up my spine.

Cheng Yuan's gaze also became extremely solemn.

He immediately raised the arc laser and began a full-scale scan of this crucial mural area, recording every obscure line and inscription into the instrument. "The content is too fragmented; even with your knowledge, you can't decipher it completely?"

“Hmm,” Guan Yan nodded heavily, her fingertips tracing the cold, etched marks. “Many key symbols are completely unfamiliar, the logic broken. We can only glean fragmented information like ‘destruction,’ ‘administrator,’ ‘refuge,’ and ‘dark area,’ piecing together a chilling outline. More… we can only hope that these scan data might provide clues in the future.” She stared at the scanning progress bar flashing on the Draconis’s screen, her voice filled with helplessness.

“Let’s go,” Cheng Yuan put away the arc light machine, and the area of ​​the halo shrank accordingly. “No matter what the truth is, staying here won’t solve the mystery.” Darkness squeezed in again, swallowing up the apocalyptic scenes on the murals, leaving only the cold stone walls and heavy questions weighing on his heart.

The path forked ahead. They chose the one where the airflow felt more pronounced.

After traveling for about half a day, a faint ray of light appeared ahead. It wasn't the cold light of the Digivice, but more like... an external light source? It was mixed with an unsettling, dense rustling sound and a low hiss.

Cheng Yuan gestured to Guan Yan and the two digital beasts to move quietly, close to the cave wall, and slowly move towards the light source.

The passage suddenly opened up into a vast, domed underground cavern. Several irregular cracks in the cavern ceiling allowed pale light to pierce the darkness like cold, sharp swords. Under this faint light, the entire cavern floor and the broken stone pillars were teeming with writhing shadows—swarms of sandworms! Their grayish-brown shells reflected a greasy sheen in the dim light, their mouthparts opening and closing with a chilling "crackling" sound, rubbing and squeezing against each other, forming a suffocating sea of ​​insects.

"Hiss..." Guan Yan gasped, instinctively covering her mouth. The adorable beast was even more terrified, its fur standing on end, clinging tightly to Guan Yan's ankle, letting out a barely audible "woof." The Gatomon's golden pupils narrowed to slits, its claws silently extended, its entire body tense.

“There are too many,” Cheng Yuan said in a low voice, each word heavy with seriousness. “Trying our way through is suicide. Take a detour!” He decisively gestured for them to retreat. The group held their breath and carefully retreated back to the fork in the road, choosing another, deeper passage where the air seemed even more stagnant.

The nauseating rustling of the sandworms was blocked by the thick rock walls and gradually faded away, leaving only a lingering sense of unease in the darkness.

The new passage seemed even older, the carvings on the stone walls almost worn away by time, and the air grew increasingly stuffy. After groping their way forward for an unknown amount of time, the outline of a relatively small exit appeared again ahead.

This time, there was no daylight, only deeper darkness, but the wind carried a different scent—a strong smell of blood, and... the sounds of intense energy collisions and the roars of Digimon!

Cheng Yuan immediately turned off the Tyrannosaurus Rex's lights again, signaling everyone to crouch low and silently sneak to the edge of the exit. Before them was a huge, bowl-shaped, recessed entrance to the ruins, with collapsed stone pillars and huge rocks scattered around, forming a natural shelter.

Just a few dozen meters inside the entrance, in the shadows of the passageway, three enormous bat-like beasts hung upside down on the jagged stalactites, their dark brown fleshy wings folded to cover their bodies, their long, pointed ears drooping, as if they were fast asleep. Each of their slow breaths created a faint airflow, clearly audible in the silence.

Behind the pile of rubble at the entrance, eight travel-worn, dressed in various styles, were holding their breath. They directed their partners—several equally thin, dull-colored adult and juvenile Digimon (Cyclops, Mantis, Igamon, Cactusmon, several Impmon and Orimon)—moving forward with unusually slow and nimble steps. The leader, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face and wearing a tattered leather vest, carefully unfurled a large net woven from tough black vines, while the others worked in tandem, attempting to silently flank them from different directions.

The air was thick with tension, almost frozen. The vine net slowly unfurled, like a shadow looming over the slumbering bat-beast. Just as the net was about to fall—

"Squeak—!"

A bat-like beast hanging upside down on the edge suddenly had a slit lifted from the thin membrane covering its tightly closed eyelids! Its small, scarlet eyes instantly caught sight of a shadowy figure approaching below! A piercing scream, like a red-hot iron shovel, abruptly shattered the silence!

Warning!

The other two bat-beasts awoke instantly, their fleshy wings flapping wildly with a "whoosh!" A powerful gust of air kicked up dust. The bat-beast that had given the warning first was even more ferocious, its sharp claws flashing out like lightning. Several ear-piercing, tearing sounds rang out as the sturdy vine net was flung away!

"Attack!" The scarred man roared in shock and rage! The horned dragon beside him immediately lowered its head and charged, its sharp horns glowing faintly yellow as it crashed into a bat-mon; the mantis-mon crossed its arms and slashed out two dim green blades; the Iga-mon threw out sharp darts; the cactus-mon also released its thorns, and the other imp-mons and ore-mon also fired energy blasts or threw rocks.

The battle erupted instantly! Energy beams flickered in the dimly lit passageway.

However, the Digimon of these trainers were clearly in very poor condition. Diablomon's charge was easily deflected by Batmon, causing it to stagger backward, with even tiny cracks appearing on its dull carapace.

Mantismon's blade struck the tough fleshy wings of Batmon, leaving only a faint bloodstain. In return, Mantismon was swept back by Batmon's claw, letting out a painful hiss. The ranged attacks from Igamon and Togemon also failed to cause significant damage, only causing some trouble for Batmon. The attacks from Impmon and Orimon were like tickling.

The three bat-like beasts let out a fierce hiss, their scarlet eyes locking onto their target. They opened their mouths, which were filled with fine, sharp teeth, and the visible vibrations of sound waves, like distorted ripples, slammed into the tamers with a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air!

"Damn it!" The scarred man watched as his Digimon staggered under the sonic shock, his eyes filled with despair.

Malnourished, lacking data, and corrupted and mutated by the filthy power of the Dark Zone, their partners were utterly powerless against these ferocious mature beings! One Bat Beast even broke through the Horned Dragon Beast's defenses, its claws carrying a foul stench, and pounced straight at a young, terrified tamer!

At this critical moment—

call out!call out!call out!

Several fist-sized, dazzling white orbs of light shot out without warning from the dark depths of the ruins passage! Trailing pure light tails, they struck the heads of two bat-like beasts that were about to pounce, like precise meteors!

"Screech—!" A horrifying scream rang out! The two bat-beasts that were hit head-on by the holy light blast were as if they had been struck by an invisible hammer. Their crimson eyes dimmed instantly, and they spewed out filthy streams of data light from their mouths. Their huge bodies plummeted from mid-air like kites with broken strings, crashing heavily onto the gravel-strewn ground with two loud "bangs," convulsing and groaning in pain.

The third bat-like creature was startled by this sudden turn of events and hesitated for a moment. It was this split-second delay—

"Roar!" The scarred man seized the opportunity and roared furiously, his eyes bloodshot, "Focus fire! Attack it!"

Despite its injuries, Diablomon charged again, head bowed! Mantismon slashed with its crossed blades, unleashing its strongest green cross-shaped attack! Several Impmon and Orimon also exerted all their strength, transforming all their remaining energy into light bullets and rocks, raining down on the stunned Batmon!

Boom! Thud! Bang bang bang!

The barrage of attacks all hit! The massive bat-beast was forced back repeatedly, its fleshy wings shattered, and streams of filthy data exploded from its body. Finally, it let out a mournful cry of despair and collapsed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Amidst the swirling dust, the entrance was deathly silent.

The eight trainers, along with their wounded and panting Digimon, were all frozen in place, staring dumbfounded into the depths of the passage. Those ferocious bat-like Digimon that had driven them to their doom had been dealt with in the blink of an eye?

Those few holy light orbs, radiating a pure and powerful aura, still hovered in the air, dispelling the surrounding darkness and bloodshed like miniature suns. Their swirling light silently proclaimed the extraordinary nature of the newcomers.

Ta-da, ta-da, ta-da.

Clear footsteps came from the shadows of the passageway.

Two figures slowly emerged, bathed in holy light.

The boy at the front was tall and straight, his face still bearing a hint of childishness, yet his eyes were calm and sharp. Beside him stood a beautiful young woman, her gentle demeanor revealing a resilient strength. A small, exquisite white cat-like Digimon (Gitomon) perched on the boy's shoulder, its golden eyes alert. Another round, fluffy Digimon, its large eyes filled with curiosity, followed closely at the woman's feet.

It was Cheng Yuan and Guan Yan.

Cheng Yuan walked a few steps to the three incapacitated bat-beasts, glanced at them briefly, then looked up, his gaze calmly sweeping over the still-shocked and highly vigilant tamers. A friendly smile appeared on his face: "Sorry, I saw these bat-beasts seemed to be trying to escape, so I acted in a moment of panic. I hope I didn't disrupt your plans." He paused, his tone frank and indifferent, "I have no interest in these prey. I just wanted to ask you all for some information. Is that convenient?"

The eight animal trainers exchanged glances, then burst into a rapid, cacophony of conversation. Their speech was fast-paced and varied in tone, clearly indicating they came from different countries. Cheng Yuan and Guan Yan couldn't understand a word, and both wore expressions of confusion.

Could they be a group of foreign scavengers?

At that moment, the middle-aged man with a scar on his face and wearing a tattered leather vest parted the crowd and stepped out.

He looked at Cheng Yuan and Guan Yan with a complicated expression, as well as the two Digimon beside them that were clearly in excellent condition. He asked in heavily accented but still fairly fluent Dongda Mandarin, "You... really don't want these Batmon?"

He pointed to the still convulsing prey on the ground, his tone filled with disbelief and wariness, "Who exactly are you? Which settlement are you from? The Digimon lurking in this passage are dangerous, why...why did you come out from there?"

“Of course it’s true, we have plenty of food.” Cheng Yuan answered again with certainty, his tone calm. “We came from the rocky outcrop area and were looking for a way to the extinct volcano when we accidentally stumbled into this underground ruin.”

"The Rocky Belt?" The scarred man's wariness lessened considerably, even showing a hint of approval. "So you came from the hideout of the Eastern Great Kingdom's scavengers!" His tense shoulders relaxed, and he waved his hand. "Alright, what do you want to ask? Ask away."

Although his companions behind him were still curiously observing Cheng Yuan and his companion, the atmosphere had clearly eased.

"Which gathering place are you from?" Cheng Yuan asked.

“We’re all from the Oasis Island community!” the scarred man answered readily, then added with a touch of Oasis pride, “We’re not far from here, and we live off this little oasis.”

“Oasis Island? That’s great.” Cheng Yuan nodded, then smoothly got to the point. “We’d like to inquire whether your settlement has recently accepted any new people from outside? For example… those with archaeological knowledge?” As he spoke, his gaze inadvertently swept over Guan Yan. Guan Yan’s heart instantly jumped to her throat, and her fingers unconsciously tightened around the hem of her clothes.

"A newbie? Someone who knows archaeology?" The scarred man frowned, trying to recall. "No! In the last month..." His voice lowered, carrying a hint of heaviness, "we did find several... skeletons on the edge of the Dark Tide activity area. There were men and women, and their clothes, Digivices, and some personal belongings were still there. Unfortunately... they were all chewed up beyond recognition by the Dark Digimon." He hesitated for a moment, but still told the cruel truth.

Boom!

Guan Yan felt a sudden buzzing in her head, as if struck by a heavy hammer, and her vision went black. Although she had a premonition, when this worst news was laid bare before her, a chilling sense of despair instantly gripped her heart, making it almost impossible for her to breathe. Her mentor… really…?

Cheng Yuanmin keenly noticed Guan Yan's sudden stiffness and deathly pale face beside him. He immediately reached out and silently supported her arm, providing a bit of support.

The scarred man noticed Guan Yan's unusual behavior, and seeing Cheng Yuan's searching expression, he understood. His wariness completely vanished, replaced by a sense of shared misfortune and generosity: "Sigh, we buried those remains back then, to give them a proper rest. But we collected all their belongings and put them in the village warehouse. If you two want to confirm their identities, you can go and take a look!"

Cheng Yuan felt Guan Yan's arm trembling slightly. He took a deep breath and made the decision for Guan Yan, who was clearly unable to speak: "Alright, then I'll trouble you to lead the way, brother."

"Hehe, no big deal!" The scarred man grinned, beckoning the men behind him to deal with the three precious bat carcasses. "Hurry up! Get the edible parts done before they dissipate into data!" He turned to Cheng Yuan and smiled, his tone carrying the knowing edge of someone with experience. "Young man, judging by your manner of speaking and acting, you're obviously a newbie who hasn't been in this Yellow Springs region for long, right? Tsk, so young and already has a mature partner, you must be a renowned genius beast tamer outside. What a pity... the monsters are slow!" He nodded, his tone carrying a hint of unease. The Yellow Springs region is not a good place for monsters.

"The Oasis Island settlement...is it a place where tamers from various countries live together?" Cheng Yuan asked as he followed the scarred man (who called himself Old Scar) out.

“Absolutely!” Old Scar nodded, kicking away a pebble at his feet. “The Dark Tide Rift in this godforsaken place doesn’t care which country you’re from! East, Southeast, North… we’ve got them all! But we on Oasis Island only accept unlucky bastards from countries that have a decent relationship with the Eastern Great Power. Let’s stick together!” He patted Cheng Yuan on the shoulder as a gesture of goodwill.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yuan simply smiled and said nothing more. Guan Yan remained silent, head down, letting the adorable beast rub against her leg, quietly following beside Cheng Yuan.

Under the dim light, the group trekked for several kilometers through the monotonous and vast black desert.

When a green outline dotted with sparse drought-resistant plants finally appeared at the edge of her field of vision, Guan Yan's tightly wound heartstrings almost broke.

Chapter 143 The Shadow of the Broken Bridge

The Oasis Island settlement was built on this small piece of land of life. It was indeed much larger than the rocky area. The well-arranged stone houses and tents surrounded a small, murky pool, with figures moving about. I estimated there were more than a hundred people there.

People of different skin tones and attire are busy at work, the air filled with the smells of cooking and a strange mixture of spices, as well as the hardships of survival.

Old Scar led them straight to a slightly larger stone house built of rough, coarse rocks on the edge of the village.

“Look, the warehouse is inside. The stuff is piled up in the corner at the back. Go in and see for yourself. I’m really sorry, I have to hurry and keep an eye on them to deal with the bat beasts. If these things are left out for too long, the data will be lost, and then there will be nothing left!” Old Scar pointed to the dark door of the stone house, his face showing apology, but also a hint of urgency in dealing with the food.

Cheng Yuan nodded understandingly: "Uncle, please go ahead with your work. We'll go in ourselves."

Old Scar left in a hurry.

Cheng Yuan and Guan Yan stood at the entrance of the stone house, which was filled with all sorts of odds and ends: rusty tools, broken weapons, bones of unknown beasts, bundles of dried vines... and in the corner, a pile of things covered with rags.

Guan Yan's steps were unsteady. Almost instinctively, she walked over, her trembling hands lifting the dirty, tattered cloth. There lay a researcher's white coat, once white but now covered in dark brown, dried bloodstains and holes; a hard-shell notebook, its cover badly worn and covered in sand; and a Digimon machine encased in a brown leather case bearing a special academy emblem, the case also stained. Most glaringly, the Digimon's screen was covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

Time seemed to stand still.

"This..." Cheng Yuan looked at the shocking pile of relics, his voice hoarse, "Are these really your mentor's things?"

Guan Yan didn't answer. She just stared intently at the blood-stained white coat, her body trembling violently like a leaf in the wind. Her face was deathly pale. She reached out, her fingertips trembling, and very slowly, as if afraid of disturbing something, ran her hand over a familiar signature half-hidden by stains on the notebook cover, then gently touched the unique, all-too-familiar wear mark on the edge of the Dinosaur case.

“This notebook… has his signature… this leather case… is unique to our department of teachers and students…” Her voice was low and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing together, each word carrying an unbearable weight. Broken sobs choked deep in her throat, eventually turning into suppressed, intermittent murmurs. Tears finally overflowed uncontrollably, falling in large drops onto the dusty ground.

Cheng Yuan sighed silently.

He said nothing, only gently patted Guan Yan's slightly trembling shoulder, then quietly left the stone house, gently closing the simple wooden door to shut out the heavy sorrow inside.

Low, suppressed sobs drifted intermittently from the crack in the door, sounding particularly lonely in the dry air outside the warehouse.

Cheng Yuan leaned against the cold stone wall, looking up at the gray sky of this alien world, while Dilumon quietly squatted at his feet.

Time ticked by. A full quarter of an hour passed before the wooden door creaked open. Guan Yan stepped out, her eyes red and swollen like peaches, her face still wet with tears, but her expression was unusually calm, even carrying a resolute coldness.

“Let’s go.” Her voice was a little hoarse, but unusually clear and calm. “Thank you, Cheng Yuan. Thank you for helping me find… my mentor’s whereabouts.” She took a deep breath and looked at the distant outline of the mountain, obscured by black clouds. “Now, let’s go straight to the Death Volcano.”

Cheng Yuan looked at her and understood the power in her eyes that transformed sorrow into unwavering determination. He said nothing more, but nodded firmly: "Okay."

Cheng Yuan also felt that it was not advisable to stay in an unfamiliar place for too long, especially in this diverse community where people from different countries might come along, and it was inevitable that someone like Deputy Head of the Delegation Zhou might appear.

"Meow." Gatomon nimbly jumped onto Cheng Yuan's shoulder.

"Puli!" The cute beast sensed Guan Yan's low but determined mood and rubbed against her leg.

The two humans and two beasts embarked on their journey once again.

However, the trip to Oasis Island was not without its rewards. While Guan Yan was sorting through her mentor's belongings, she forced back her grief and opened the tattered notebook.

Even during the desperate journey through the underground passage, the mentor did not give up his research! His notebook was filled with his insights into deciphering the symbols of the ruins along the way, many of which were fragments of interpretations of the obscure texts and patterns they saw on the murals!

Now, back in the chilly underground passage, Guan Yan once again took out her Dinobot, pulled up the previously scanned mural images, and carefully compared them with the records in her mentor's notebook. Those symbols that had once seemed like cryptic text suddenly became clear under her mentor's painstaking annotations!

“Here,” Guan Yan pointed to a twisted spiral and several small dots on the Digimon screen, comparing it with the hastily written annotations in her notebook, “the mentor’s translation is clearer… ‘The administrator’s will awakens, the purification process is initiated… the core world will return to nothingness… darkness… is the final… container?’ And these fallen points, he labeled them ‘exiles’… does the core world… refer to the digital world? Purification… return to nothingness…” Her voice trembled, but her thoughts were clearer than ever before.

Fragments of information are gradually being pieced together from the notes left behind by the mentor with his life, pointing to that suffocating truth.

Following the direction of the dead volcano deduced from their mentor's notes, they continued to grope their way forward through the labyrinthine underground passages. After several days of tedious and cautious trekking, a faint light appeared ahead once again, not the light from the exit, but a strange, eerie blue glow that seemed to come from the depths of the earth.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered it was yet another exit. But the sight before them made them gasp in shock.

The exit was located on a steep, almost vertical cliff face! Below lay a bottomless abyss, where endless darkness churned and rose, like the throat of a colossal beast. Looking up, high above, a narrow strip of sky was formed by two massive rock walls, gray and oppressive—that was the true ground. They were trapped "halfway up" this precipice.

"How...how do we get up there?" Guan Yan stared at the seemingly unreachable sliver of sky, her face pale. The cliff face was smooth and steep, offering almost no foothold.

Cheng Yuan stared at the dizzying height, his eyes narrowing: "Hold on tight to me." Before he finished speaking, the Dark Seed in his hand came into contact with the Dark Warrior's Soul, and suddenly lit up with a dark and profound light!

"Dark Beast - Armored Evolution!"

The pain and agonizing screams that accompanied the data processing continued as black fog rose and instantly enveloped Cheng Yuan.

The next moment, Darkmon, a dark and evil Digimon with a ferocious black armor clad in three beast heads and seven blood-red eyes, and whose joints shimmered with blood-red energy patterns, took Cheng Yuan's place.

He lowered his body slightly, his voice coming through the visor with a metallic hum: "Come up."

Tailmon immediately understood and mounted Cheng Yuantou's black beast skull helmet.