This is Swallowed Star, not Resident Evil.

Chapter 214 Reappearing Ancient Memories

"Your Highness Ye Yang, welcome to the Divine Origin Secret Realm of the Giant Axe Arena. You may call me Fiske."

The realm lord who came to receive Ye Yang came from the Giant Axe Arena, and his skin had many circular spots.

As one of the five major powers of the human race, Virtual Universe Corporation has an agreement with Giant Axe Arena, allowing its core members to share the trial grounds.

"Hello, Fiske." Ye Yang smiled and nodded.

"I hope Your Highness can successfully complete the trial within the dangerous 'Cloud Palace.' As the guide specifically assigned to connect with the core members of the Virtual Universe Company, I will remain waiting on Satellite 8 orbiting the Cloud Palace," Fiske said.

Ye Yang took out his spaceship and quickly approached the city that was floating in interstellar dust and shrouded in countless white clouds.

"We could only see some buildings on the perimeter, and a very tall tower inside—"

Ye Yang's gaze immediately fell upon the "tower".

This is the only building in the Yungong city center that can be vaguely seen from the outside, making it very conspicuous.

"It is said that there are three dangers within this Cloud Palace. First, these white clouds conceal various dangers that can silently devour lives."

"For example, a terrifying lightning bolt suddenly appears between two white clouds. This lightning is different from the lightning on ordinary planets. Its energy is extremely high, generally with the power of a cosmic attack, and a few can reach the level of a domain lord or world lord."

"Secondly, there are roads, because the white clouds will obscure the view and hide the roads. Furthermore, they will gradually move and block the existing roads, so if a crisis occurs, it is easy to panic and wander into dangerous places."

"Thirdly, there is a unique monster in the Cloud Palace. Its entire body is made of transparent crystals. It has no soul and no intelligence, but it will attack any life form that enters the Cloud Palace. Its strength ranges from the cosmic level to the realm lord level."

"For an ordinary cosmic-level genius, this is indeed a desperate situation."

The D-class spaceship hovered above one of the eight entrances to Cloud Palace.

If one is strong enough, one can actually ignore the obstructing clouds and enter this cloud palace directly from any point.

But clearly, Ye Yang didn't have that confidence.

Hopefully, I'll gain something from this.

His figure flashed, transforming into a streak of light as he rushed into the entrance.

Within the Cloud Palace, there are countless buildings, with wide roads hundreds of meters long connecting them. And paved with...

It is a special material.

"It feels hard when you step on it, but its toughness is more prominent than its hardness. Its strength should be at least D or even E grade."

Ye Yang asked Babata to scan and identify the material, but Babata said he could not find any data about it.

"Cut off a piece as a sample—"

Ye Yang took out a long sword and pried off a piece of this material from the edge of the road.

"What's in the buildings?" He walked to the roadside and found that the buildings were all very large, each at least two or three hundred meters high, and the places that looked like windows were also extremely large.

It looks like a house inhabited by giants.

There's just no door.

"There's something on the roof that looks like a piece of bacon." After glancing at the bacon-like thing on the roof, Ye Yang flew up and found that it was blocked by a round alloy door.

"Why would someone with bacon put up a metal door to block it up?" He couldn't help but frown; this Cloud Palace was rather strange.

I tried attacking it, and the alloy door was very tough; it was at least an E-grade material.

Back on the main road, Ye Yang continued to venture deeper into the area.

"This is indeed a city, and it should be the place where some kind of huge creature lived, but now it is deserted, and only these eerie white clouds remain."

As Ye Yang walked, a white cloud blocked his path.

"What are these white clouds? Smoke? Fog? Or some kind of special energy?"

He couldn't help but feel curious, so he pointed and sent two blades from his telekinetic weapon flying out, piercing through the surface of the cloud.

Lips~

As they passed through the surface of the cloud, the two blades clearly felt slight resistance. After passing through, the blades quickly returned, forming an angle between them.

Due to the blade's unique shape, a container is formed within the angle, which should allow for the collection of a sample of the cloud.

"Hmm?" Ye Yang looked over and found many tiny white cubic crystals, like salt, between the two blades.

The countless white clouds floating within the Cloud Palace were actually composed of these tiny white cubic crystals.

He secretly wondered, "White clouds composed of tiny crystals, monsters composed of enormous crystals—could this be the burial ground of some ancient being?"

With his path blocked, Ye Yang had no choice but to seek another way out.

The three tasks are: first, to survive in the Cloud Palace for one month; second, to survive for one year; and third, to obtain an item called the "Cloud Core".

Ye Yang estimated that the 'cloud core' was very likely located within those white cloud clusters.

He sensed a hidden threat and became extremely vigilant, on high alert: "Let's adapt to this environment first, and then begin exploring the interior of the cloud to find the 'cloud core' after some time."

Before he knew it, Ye Yang had been wandering in this huge city for almost a month.

Click click click~

It sounded as if something was breaking.

However, this was not a cracking sound, but the sound of joints made up of countless crystals moving.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ground trembled slightly, while Ye Yang's figure moved nimbly between the buildings.

Seven or eight clusters of white clouds surrounded the street, and in this relatively sealed area, a giant crystal humanoid 180 meters tall was relentlessly chasing another tiny creature.

"Starfall!"

While dodging, Ye Yang suddenly seized the opportunity, slashed down with his sword, and cut off one of the eight arms of the giant crystal man by following the fluctuations in space.

"Star Awakening!"

He then swung his sword twice more, both sword techniques from "Crystal Star" that explain the essence of space.

After Ye Yang switched from defense to offense, a fierce battle ensued, and the enormous crystal giant finally collapsed, shattering into pieces.

"A white crystal monster at the realm master level is really troublesome."

Ye Yang quickly arrived at the pile of broken crystals, searching for something.

After a month of exploration, he roughly understood what the so-called "cloud core" was.

It is a completely transparent cubic crystal that refracts incredibly brilliant colors under light.

These "Crystal Monsters" usually contain fragments of cloud cores.

The fragments inside a cosmic-level white crystal monster are extremely small, while the fragments inside a domain lord or world lord are much larger.

By collecting these fragments and putting them together, they can gradually merge into a larger fragment.

How can I determine if a cloud core is complete?

First, feel the spiritual essence within it; second, observe its sharp edges.

If the soul's aura is incomplete, or if its edges are missing, it means that it is not yet complete.

"It's really strange that a single crystal can possess a soul, and that cloud core fragments from different white crystal monsters can fuse together, and the souls within them can also fuse together."

Ye Yang found the cloud core fragment of the white crystal monster he had just killed and fused it with the ones he had collected before.

It's finally complete.

"With two tasks completed, the last task left is to survive for another year, which should also be no problem."

"Next, we can consider exploring what secrets are hidden here."

After a month of exploration, Ye Yang also made some guesses about the history of this cloud palace.

This was not the burial place of some ancient being that he had initially guessed.

It is very likely a cemetery for a certain ethnic group!

Yes, ethnic groups.

"It's actually a bit creepy to think about it. Those white clouds drifting around are actually the corpses of ancient, unknown life forms."

Ye Yang held the complete cloud core and approached one of the white clouds.

Feeling the extremely pure, almost neonatal soul aura trembling slightly in front of the white cloud inside the cloud core, he felt that as soon as he let go, the cloud core would immediately fly into it.

"After millions of epochs of time, even the body of a world lord will decay, but that applies to plants and flesh-and-blood life forms."

"For certain special life forms in the universe, even after death, their bodies simply turn into rocks or metals and can be preserved indefinitely."

"Just like these clouds."

Ye Yang's body hair gradually stood on end. He immediately moved away from the white cloud. Soon, the white cloud began to darken rapidly, trembling and releasing lightning into the surrounding clouds, splitting the surrounding cloud clusters apart.

The reason why countless clouds drift around the Cloud Palace lies in this.

"These clouds seem to be immortal, with life activities that never cease, just like the simplest bacteria and algae. However, it is clear that their souls have limits; they cannot be immortal, and their souls will eventually perish."

"New life is contained within death."

Ye Yang looked at the cloud core in his hand. He had a feeling that as long as he put it into one of the clouds, he could bring that cloud to life and form a new intelligent life.

He wanted to give it a try, since each of these clouds was at the level of a World Lord in terms of internal energy, and entering one of them was equivalent to entering the inner world of a World Lord.

The path leading to the very center of the Cloud Palace was shrouded and blocked by countless white clouds, and his human avatar had perished several times without being able to break through.

"Continue collecting and fusing to create a new 'cloud core,' then try again."

Soon, the second month in the Cloud Palace was over.

Ye Yang finally collected a large number of fragments and fused them to create the second cloud core.

To prevent any accidents, Ye Yang found a very open area on the outskirts, where there was only one white cloud, far away from other cloud formations.

Before the experiment, he used a telekinetic weapon to draw out the lightning power inside the cloud and unleash its electricity.

"Go."

Ye Yang cast the second cloud core into the cloud and watched it quietly.

His unique mental power, which sets him apart from others, and his ability to perceive "resonant spacetime" allow him to closely monitor everything happening inside.

This cloud is over a thousand meters in diameter and is composed of countless small cubic crystals. The outer part is relatively thin, but it becomes denser as you go deeper into the cloud.

As the cloud core is thrown into it, countless tiny cubic crystals are adsorbed onto it.

Rumble~

The cloud suddenly began to contract inward, producing thunder and lightning. Although Ye Yang had already channeled his lightning power beforehand, it was clear that this lightning power could be generated rapidly.

Ultimately, in Ye Yang's perception, the soul energy of the cloud core he had invested in became increasingly chaotic. Soon, it was like moldy fruit, first covered with various spots, and then quickly dried up.

Seeing the cloud core shatter in the end, Ye Yang couldn't help but shake his head: "It failed."

His operation was like trying to put the brain of a newborn into the skull of a thousand-year-old zombie; failure was to be expected.

However, he also observed some interesting phenomena during this process.

"As the cloud core devoured the tiny cubic crystals that make up the cloud, it seemed as if many memories that shouldn't exist were surging forth?"

He stroked his chin: "I didn't expect that the cloud (corpse) would still retain ancient memories?"

The cloud core can reproduce the memories of these ancient life forms, which gives Ye Yang a way to further explore the cloud palace.