Zhou Bai controlled the Distorted Shadow and charged straight into the gate.
A flash of light blinded him momentarily, and when Zhou Bai regained his senses, the world he saw through the Distorted Shadow depicted a bustling modern city teeming with cars and crowds.
The roaring of cars, the noisy chatter of men and women, and the cacophony created by various machines and devices.
As Zhou Bai gazed at this all-too-familiar scene, a look of bewilderment crossed his face.
But in the next moment, the bewilderment was swept away, and a hint of determination resurfaced in his eyes, "An illusion? Or a dream? Must be some kind of distortion caused by the ’Primitive Dao Treasure 06.’"
"But... it’s too real."
"Yet I’m still able to control my Distorted Shadow, which means the actual distance in the Material World hasn’t exceeded 1000 kilometers..."
As Zhou Bai walked down the street, the scenery in front of him seemed to shift with his movements, and unknowingly, he had arrived at a familiar street, a place where he had grown up.
Following this familiar sensation, he walked through the corridor and opened the door.
Inside the familiar room, everything was spotlessly clean, with tables full of alcohol wipes and disinfectant, indicating an obsession with cleanliness.
The chop-chop chopping sound drifted from the kitchen, and Zhou Bai slowly walked toward it.
"Zhou Bai? You’re back?"
"Wash your hands first, remember to disinfect, lunch will be ready soon."
Approaching the kitchen doorway, Zhou Bai looked at the familiar figure and felt a sense of helplessness.
"Zhou Bai? What are you doing here? I don’t need your help..."
What he saw was a face twisted and pallid, smeared with blood.
"Ahhh!!" Zhou Bai shouted in horror, as the vision before his eyes brutally altered, with faces twisted, deformed, and filled with death looming before him.
Pairs of broken, trembling hands covered in blood seized his body, as if intending to drag him into the Abyss.
Zhou Bai forcefully soared into the sky, only to see an endless sea of corpses littering the earth below that piled haphazardly into towering peaks that pierced the clouds.
In the sea, countless corpses floated on the water, seemingly about to fill the entire ocean.
As he flew, speeding up, there was nothing but a sea of corpses and blood, no other sight met his eyes.
The entire world held nothing but corpses; no other living person could be found.
"Where are the people?"
"Where have they all gone?"
"Is anyone else alive?"
In an underground cave, Christina looked at the trembling, fierce-faced Zhou Bai and shouted in her mind, "Zhou Bai! Zhou Bai, what’s wrong with you?"
Beside Zhou Bai, Xuan Nu also saw his abnormal state, and with both hands holding Zhou Bai’s head said, "Zhou Bai, wake up! Whatever you have seen, those are just your avatar’s visions, mere distortions, not the truth!"
Amidst the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, Zhou Bai lay on a pile of bodies, with a human skull under his left hand and casually reaching out his right hand, he touched a human leg, while endless blood seemed on the verge of devouring him.
At the same time, various voices echoed in his ears.
"You hate filth the most; you don’t even like to use public toilets outside."
"Don’t you despise making efforts the most?"
"Isn’t the thing you hate the most work?"
"Isn’t your dream to idle away your days at home, leading a plain and simple life?"
With a casual grab, Zhou Bai had a head in front of him, "This is so real."
"I really do hate making effort the most."
"But now, I’m here to seek the Primitive Dao Treasury 06, how can I get out of this illusion?"
As this thought crossed Zhou Bai’s mind, a colorful array flashed before his eyes, and he was suddenly standing in an endless prairie.
The prairie looked ordinary but gave off a dark and eerie feeling.
"Is this... changing according to my thoughts?"
As Zhou Bai pondered, the lush prairie began to wither away; the sky filled with ominous clouds, and the ground beneath his feet transformed into a desolate desert.
A phantom voice wafted through the air.
Zhou Bai frowned, and through the twisted shadows, he could almost smell the void’s scent in the air.
"This place is getting closer to the void, isn’t it? Is it because of the distortions caused by Primitive Dao Treasury 06?"
Meanwhile, the ethereal voice echoed again.
"Come over... the thing you want is here..."
Zhou Bai ignored the voice and first scanned his surroundings, "What about the people who entered before?"
As he thought this, dozens of figures suddenly appeared beside him, all standing motionless with expressions of terror or joy.
"Are they all trapped in an illusion?"
Zhou Bai checked his surroundings again but found no other clues or a way back.
Thus, he had no choice but to follow the suspicious-sounding voice, running ahead as the skies kept changing—from a desert to a vast snowy wasteland, and then a tropical rainforest grew around him.
As the voice grew closer and clearer, Zhou Bai found himself before an endless pond.
Stepping on the water felt like walking on crystal.
Ripples spread where his feet passed.
Below the water’s surface, his reflection appeared, and beneath that—the depth unknown—a dark murkiness seemed to stir.
Walking across this body of water, all he could see was the boundless water surface.
With whispers continually surrounding him, Zhou Bai directly asked, "I’m here!"
The next moment, a male voice spoke from behind Zhou Bai, "You’ve arrived."
Zhou Bai sharply turned around and saw Dr. Zhuang, who had appeared behind him unexpectedly.
Zhou Bai thought to himself without any change in expression, ’Is Dr. Zhuang, the sealer of Primitive Dao Treasury 06, still alive? But how did he appear so suddenly here?’
"You know me?" Dr. Zhuang in front seemed surprised, "It seems you know another version of me. Then you must know this is where I sealed the Primitive Dao Treasury 06."
Zhou Bai responded, "Yes, I followed the Primitive Dao Treasuries 01 to 05 that you left behind. I initially found Primitive Dao Treasuries 01 and 02 in the abandoned hospital of Donghua city."
To the Dr. Zhuang before him, Zhou Bai felt no need to hide his quest for the Primitive Dao Treasuries; instead, it might help him earn the other’s trust because he desperately wanted to know much more.
A flicker of understanding crossed Dr. Zhuang’s face, "No wonder, ordinary people can’t maintain their sanity here; they’d have gone mad from the distortions and void’s forces, falling into endless illusions."