Otherworldly Desert Dust

"Chief, we've retrieved it, it's the Zodiac Beast Rat's core ball," a soldier shouted loudly at this moment.

Wu Hen looked over and saw many floating ships on the Red Plane, where over a hundred human elites donned in diving fighting clothes were searching for something under the deep waters.

One of the men in a gray water-fighting outfit swam to the shore and quickly walked towards Chief Li and Wu Hen.

"Lord Wu Hen, Chief Li," the diver saluted like an officer, then handed over the core ball that resembled a rat's heart.

Wu Hen was quite puzzled.

The Zodiac Beast Rat died??

That white and fluffy little rat was actually quite impressive, and Wu Hen had a deep impression of it.

"Because of your involvement, I met with officials from the Hao Clan's Ark several times and was invited to visit their ark. I left the Zodiac Beast Rat in their ark…" Chief Li explained.

Sneaking the Zodiac Beast Rat into the Hao Clan's Ark??

"Their technology is isolated from ours, so you definitely didn't leave the Zodiac Beast Rat in the Hao Clan's Ark to steal their technology," Wu Hen speculated about Chief Li's action, and eventually frowned, "Did you sense something was going to happen?"

Knowing that the Hao Clan's Ark was planning to escape from Red Port, and since Chang Huan had specifically come to bid farewell to him, Chief Li must have been aware of this as well.

Thus, leaving the Zodiac Beast Rat in the Hao Clan's Ark meant that Chief Li intended to ascertain if the Hao Clan's Ark truly managed to escape.

"The Hao Clan's Ark is one of our rare friends in Otherworldly Walk, and though it's somewhat unethical, I have to admit, their sacrifices have provided us with invaluable information," Chief Li said, his expression cold.

Wu Hen opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Chief Li was experimenting with the Hao Clan's Ark. He had indeed sensed something unusual about Red Port but lacked crucial evidence.

After learning that the Hao Clan's Ark planned to utilize Crystal Energy Technology to escape, Chief Li found an excuse to enter their ark and left the Zodiac Beast Rat inside...

If they really succeeded, the Zodiac Beast Rat would say goodbye to humanity forever, needing to survive hidden in the Hao Clan's Ark to avoid tarnishing the Hao Clan's impression of the Nuwa lineage and must live in the ark's sewers, trying not to get discovered.

But if they failed, the likelihood was that the Zodiac Beast Rat would also die, its core ball would be pushed back to this harbor by the Red Tide, and the Mechanical Beast group could go to recover it.

"The core ball would record the images before the Zodiac Beast Rat's death, right?" Wu Hen also understood Chief Li's intention and asked, "This way, we'll be able to know exactly what lies beyond the Red Tide."

"Our current filming technology still cannot capture some extraordinary scenes, but the Zodiac Beast Rat, through our special design, will record the data before its destruction. Through this data, we can roughly reconstruct the situation at the time," Chief Li explained.

Taking the tiny nail-sized core ball, Chief Li placed it on his smart glasses, and soon saw the glasses frequently flickering with some red data, which projected onto Chief Li's eyeballs...

Suddenly, a strong strange light flickered in Chief Li's pupils, and immediately after, Chief Li stood as if petrified by some mysterious force, like a statue made of ice!

"Chief!"

People around noticed something wrong and gathered around.

Fortunately, after a moment, Chief Li's eyes began to move again, and he gradually regained his vitality.

That moment was indeed terrifying, almost as if he had been flash frozen.

The problem is, Chief Li was merely retrieving data brought back by the core ball, yet it seemed as if he had been contaminated by some force.

"Chief Li?" Wu Hen, being closer, could feel Chief Li's emotions fluctuating violently with the influx of data.

Chief Li still stood motionless, his eyes moving but seeming bewildered as if waking from a dream. It took a few minutes for him to gradually return to his previously lucid consciousness.

However, this lucid Chief Li was emitting a sense of pain and helplessness.
Continue reading on My Virtual Library Empire

"I'm fine, everyone need not worry. This data still needs more detailed analysis, and you don't have to be too anxious," Chief Li finally spoke.

"Oh, it's windy here, let's head back," Wu Hen suggested.

"Yes, let's go back, first to the homestead."

…

The homestead, Li City.

It was only then that Wu Hen realized that Li Feng was also from Li City.

The two revisited their old place, passed through the campus, and headed to the Tropical Pavilion on the back mountain.

Li Feng had also visited this Tropical Pavilion, where he had seen various tropical plants and reptiles on display. They were all varieties meticulously selected by Wu Yingting during his leisure time for his own entertainment and for the enjoyment of others who shared the same interest.

"This Tropical Pavilion is still well preserved," Chief Li remarked.

"Yes, during those months we sank into otherworldliness, my family and I took refuge here," Wu Hen responded.

"I remember when we approached Yinzhou, this city was invaded by neighboring Qiu City, filled with the undead. It took a long time to rehabilitate, but the population had diminished greatly," Chief Li said.

Stepping into the Tropical Pavilion, there were special glass showcases containing artificial rockeries, artificial green plants, and artificial irrigation, and even specially landscaped to make each exhibit look like a piece of art.

People who like to keep pets, fish, birds, and even those who like to keep geckos and beetles, it's all a kind of refinement. When an environment is too comfortable and lacks dynamics, these small pets can bring some joy.

"Only when standing on the soil of our homeland can I feel my soul is grounded," Chief Li also expressed why he wanted to return to his homeland, to Li City.

"Did you see something too vast and terrifying?" Wu Hen asked.

At the Sea Cliff, many people, including Shen Wenhai, were eager for Chief Li to answer the precious data brought back by Zodiac Beast Rat.

But Chief Li merely mentioned it in passing and reassured everyone, suggesting that the destruction of the Hao Clan's Ark might have been an accident.

Wu Hen didn't say much at the time but it was apparent that Chief Li was harboring an indescribable shock in his heart, he needed to return to a familiar place to slowly digest this information!

Chief Li looked at Wu Hen, observing his youthful appearance yet burdened with such a terrifying truth, his eyes filled with helplessness.

"Yes, this truth is too absurd and too terrifying, comparable to our initial contact with Otherworldly Dust," Chief Li's gaze was fixed ahead.

In front stood a delicate small tropical vertical tank, containing several tree geckos only the size of a human finger, their skin completely resembled tree branches, and if you didn't look closely, you wouldn't notice their presence at all.

"We might be kept like these tropical small geckos," Chief Li said pointing to the small pets inside in an extremely low voice.

"Kept?" Wu Hen didn't understand at first.

But then he recalled the issue he had recently discussed with his classmates.

What was the purpose of the existence of Red Port?

And why did its rulers take in various human clans?

"Do you mean to say that this Red Port is like one of these exquisite glass tanks, and our Human Clan Force is like these different subspecies of geckos inside, being fed periodically for the enjoyment of the keepers outside the tank?" Wu Hen said.

Then what was keeping them in Red Port?

"Yes, that would explain why the Hao Clan's Ark was destroyed—it tried to escape, angering the keepers, leading to its immediate destruction," Chief Li sighed deeply.

Wu Hen was stunned.

He was staring at the glass tank in front of him, and he just happened to see a rare gecko moving toward a crack in the glass, incessantly scratching at the glass fracture with its claws, attempting to break the glass tank and escape outside…

Honestly, if he wasn't in a conversation with Chief Li, Wu Hen would have instinctively flicked the gecko down as a lesson to the deluded little gecko trying to escape!

However, what Wu Hen wouldn't have imagined was that the entire human situation was just like that of this little gecko.

The entire Red Port was the tank, they were the pets being reared; if they remained quietly within the bounds of the tank, they could survive indefinitely, but any thought of escape would surely lead to a place with no burial!

"Then... what is keeping us?" Wu Hen asked.

"It's likely our natural predators," Chief Li said.

"Alien Insects??" Wu Hen found it even harder to believe.

Not long ago, their Red Port Human Clan Force had fought and won against Alien Insects in Red Palace.

Although Red Zhe was powerful, there were humans who could contend with them!

How could they suddenly ascend to a higher dimension and start rearing the entire population of Red Port as pets?

"The Alien Insects we met might just be the toys of the Alien Insect God," Chief Li himself was reluctant to believe this.

But once a strong piece of evidence had been obtained, then every subsequent link could be deduced, no matter how incredible the conclusions, that was the only truth!

"This also explains why near the barren Red Port mysterious crystal ore, Yuan You, and star stones often appear, forcing our human clans to compete and fight, and every so often, Red Tide brings a massive number of Alien Insects, leading to a defense battle of Red Port," Chief Li continued.

"Red Port defense battle?" Wu Hen hadn't heard of this term.

"You awoke quite late, during the first few months we were stranded at Red Port, the great Red Tide would bring massive numbers of Red Zhe, attacking all humans in Red Port like barbarian alien armies… incessantly, yet they never completely eradicate humanity!" Chief Li continued.

Wu Hen fell silent.

Completely silent!

Being treated as pets kept in captivity, for the purpose of adding some amusement, they regularly deploy insect soldiers, bringing a sense of peril to Red Port humans.

That means, the battle for Death Omen Yuan You in Red Palace was merely a high-stake game of the high-dimensional insects!!