Frightening Joke: Above the Mist

"Bai..."

Before the words were spoken, Song Que saw the man standing next to Bai Yanliang, and his face changed slightly.

This person was none other than Bai Yanren, whom he had once seen at the Underwater Moon Gate!

Recalling the things the other had said before, he knew that perhaps today was not going to end well.

"You said, this isn't the trolley problem, what is your answer?"

Song Que did not look at Bai Yanren again but turned his gaze to Bai Yanliang.

Bai Yanliang watched him with eyes that seemed to hide something. Song Que was half-understanding, but he heard Bai Yanliang say, "Your lifeboat can't hold so many people. From the start, only two could be saved."

"We are the same."

This made Song Que start. He told the old butler to go down for a moment to arrange the rescue matters and asked, "What do you mean, we are the same?"

Bai Yanliang turned his head to the side: "He is my brother. What we will face is an apocalyptic crisis."

"In this crisis, we do not have the ability to save the entire world, let alone protect everyone. But... we also have a boat that can carry a few people to evade this disaster."

"Song Que, you are the one I have chosen."

Bai Yanliang looked at him.

Song Que turned his head to glance at his own arm. By rights, during the last Fog Gathering incident, his arm was completely destroyed, but with that woman's help, his body completely defied common sense, it restored itself.

It was not healing, nor repairing, but... restoration.

As if the time of that arm had rewound, restored to its original state.

This made Song Que more keenly feel that indeed a new batch of "New Humans" mastering powers not belonging to humans had appeared in this world.

The more laughable thing was, according to her, he himself was one of them, and even among those who had these powers earlier than her.

She called the power she possessed as—Heart Eye.

Not in the sense of being crafty, but the ability to see the essence of things with something akin to "telepathy", seeing in darkness was just basic, he could even see the human "soul" directly.

But at this moment, Song Que smiled, "Actually, for a long time, I thought you were a ghost."

He looked at Bai Yanliang.

"Because from your body, I cannot see any outline of a human soul, in other words... you seem like an empty shell, with no soul."

Song Que's voice still carried confusion.

"But later, I saw with my own eyes something resembling a [soul] emerging from your body... right after Qi Nian died."

Song Que stared at him, "You have thoughts, a soul, but my eyes cannot see your soul until recently when I figured out the reason."

"Bai Yanliang..."

Song Que's gaze wandered between the two brothers.

"The you from before was not without a soul, it was just that my eyes could not see it... What I could see was human souls, that body appearing like an empty shell to me, actually had a soul, it was merely... completely transparent, after Qi Nian's death, a clump of red birthed within, this red is very familiar to me, it's the color of a human soul..."

"And today, at this moment, the you standing before me..."

Song Que's voice, against the backdrop of the putrid wind and blood rain outside the window, seemed on the verge of shattering reality.

"Quite the opposite..."

The perplexity in his voice was almost tangible.

"Inside your body, within the transparent chaotic soul body, is nurturing an astonishing clump of red, like a pulsating flame..."

"And your brother, this Mr. Bai Yanren, within his body the red soul body had already hollowed out from the center."

"You two... one is becoming human, the other, what are you becoming?"

Song Que's questioning voice echoed in the ears of the two brothers.

————

Below the Earth Cave.

The sudden arrival of casualties left everyone frozen in silence.

However, this could not stop the exploration from continuing.

The team continued downwards, yet the further they went, the more inexplicable plants appeared around the walls.

Their colors entirely differed from those spots found in nature.

It was a... greyish decayed color.

Ren Wudao was mixed among the crowd. This was also his first visit to this place.

However, he had more information than anyone present.

That was…this Earth Cave had long existed.

Or rather, it was Dr. Zhou Tian who unearthed this Earth Cave.

That was a story told by Zhou Tian...

It was something that happened twenty years ago.

————

"Doctor, should we continue digging?"

The other members of this archaeological team all looked up at Zhou Tian in unison.

Zhou Tian did not hesitate at all and nodded.

The excavation continued.

The biggest news in Ye City during this period was that the construction company excavating the subway tunnel had dug up something strange.

Simply put... beneath the center of Ye City, there were traces of human creation, which were spiral-shaped staircases.

Such a situation surely meant that construction couldn't continue. The city immediately formed an expert group to come and check. However, the questionable part was that these stairs, though not carved in modern times, were also impossible to be of ancient origin.

Because the distance, size, and amplitude of each step were exactly the same!

Even with modern tools, this would be a massive project.

No one in the antiquity, relying solely on human power, would believe that such uniformly identical steps could be carved.

This was against reason.

As a result, the project was halted, and the stairs, along with whatever lay further down, piqued intense interest, including which era they belonged to.

Zhou Tian had joined thoroughly only after some inexplicable plants, never before discovered on Earth, were uncovered.

He instantly recognized these weren't things that should exist in the world since these "plants" had no energy source at all!

Zhou Tian could not figure out how they grew. They didn't photosynthesize, didn't absorb nutrients from soil, and didn't exchange materials with the world entirely.

Such things... could only be "plants" from another world.

Although it was an unbelievable speculation, it was the only conclusion left.

After confirming that those plants did not exchange any materials with the world, Zhou Tian was certain.

The staircases leading down absolutely housed "another world".

Thus, the scene at present formed.

The reason why other members of the archaeological team came to ask whether Zhou Tian wanted to continue digging was because all of them, including Zhou Tian, started having hallucinations.

In the digging, growing deeper and deeper, almost everyone had seen a... towering giant tree.