Chapter 248: This Place Isn’t Safe to Stay For Long

The commotion here was too great.This place was not suitable for staying long.

Su Zhan lifted his foot, preparing to quickly leave this trouble-filled area.

A vast consciousness, without any warning, swept across this region.

Supreme and unparalleled.

Su Zhan's legs went weak, uncontrollably collapsing directly to the ground.

His entire body trembled.

It was the instinctive reaction of an inferior lifeform facing an incomprehensible higher existence!

Powerful!

Unimaginably powerful!

He had once felt Dean Ye Hongyu's Ocean Realm pressure that was as deep as an abyss and vast as the ocean, thinking that was the peak of what human power could achieve.

But the consciousness he felt at this moment...

Absolutely far surpassed the Ocean Realm.

It was a qualitative difference, like the distinction between a firefly and the bright moon.

Making him experience an illusion of facing a deity!

That gaze lingered over the area where he was for an extremely brief moment.

To Su Zhan, that moment felt longer than an entire century.

He pressed himself tightly against the ground, breath held, retracting all his aura.

Praying frantically in his heart that the other party hadn't noticed this insignificant little insect that was himself.

He didn't dare move, didn't dare think.

Afraid of attracting even the slightest attention from that supreme existence.

Fortunately, that consciousness seemed to be just casually scanning.

The pressure receded, disappearing without a trace.

After a long time.

Su Zhan finally dared to slightly raise his head, his face pale as paper, his entire body soaked in cold sweat, his heart still pounding wildly.

That was absolutely an existence above the Ocean Realm!

Perhaps even... higher!

"This time... was just good luck..."

Su Zhan warned himself internally.

Picking off two high-risk creatures was indeed an opportunity, but if that consciousness had paid just a bit more attention to him earlier, he would have been instantly annihilated into dust, not even knowing how he died.

That gaze completely shattered any fantasy he might have had about developing in the Mist World.

This was absolutely not a place for him to stay long!

He had to leave.

Find a way to leave this despair-filled mist and return to the human world as soon as possible!

Although the human world was also full of dangers, at least... there weren't supreme existences there that could completely crush him with just a single glance!

Su Zhan struggled to get up, identifying a direction.

The farther from the area where that consciousness appeared earlier, the better.

...

Su Zhan began traveling through the endless mist.

Time lost all meaning.

There was no sunrise or moonrise, no stars to guide him.

Perhaps several days had passed, perhaps several weeks, maybe even longer...

He just kept walking, continuously walking.

His only "supplies" came from this despair-filled environment itself.

As an Aberrant, the surrounding mist could be slowly absorbed by him, converted into the basic necessities to sustain life.

Therefore, he didn't feel obvious hunger.

As if he had become a machine powered by mist, eternally moving for the sole purpose of leaving this place.

But this hunger-free state deepened the sense of nothingness and loneliness.

Walking and walking, walking and walking...

Passing through area after area.

The surrounding scenery constantly changed, yet seemed eternally unchanging, because the core was always that thick mist that devoured everything.

Loneliness enveloped him.

No human voices, no communication.

Only his own footsteps, breathing.

And the occasional vague sounds.

This absolute solitude was enough to drive a person mad.

Accompanying the loneliness was endless uncertainty.

This complete ignorance of the path ahead continuously consumed his spirit.

During this time, he also encountered some Mist Creatures, mostly low-level existences.

They often only briefly appeared from the thick mist, sensing the Medium-risk tenth stage fluctuations from Su Zhan's body before fleeing without a trace, not daring to approach at all.

This saved him much trouble, but also intensified that feeling of isolation from the world.

He didn't even have an object to interact with, even if it were an enemy.

Su Zhan continued walking like this.

Mechanically, numbly, yet having to maintain a trace of vigilance while walking.

Like a lonely ghost exiled to the end of time and space.

The only thing he could do was eternally walk toward a direction that he himself didn't know was correct or if it even had an endpoint.

Su Zhan's footsteps became mechanical and numb.

His boots had long been worn beyond recognition by the rugged ground, his pant legs torn open by thorny plants.

Stained with various colored dirt.

Su Zhan's hair was long and messy.

Greasily sticking to his forehead and the back of his neck, mixed with dust.

Before coming to this damned place, his hair length was around his eyebrows.

Now it reached his shoulders.

On his chin was a messy and sloppy short beard.

These beard hairs were slightly darker than his hair, stiffly sticking out, equally filthy.

His face was covered with a thin layer of grime.

If someone were beside Su Zhan, they would probably be overwhelmed by the foul odor emanating from him.

But Su Zhan had already grown accustomed to it, immune to this smell.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about cutting his hair and beard.

But besides these things proving the passage of time, what else could accomplish this?

Keep them.

At least he could guess how much time had passed.

Su Zhan occasionally lifted his eyes, vigilantly scanning his surroundings.

Still vaguely revealing their former sharpness.

But more often it was a kind of emptiness and exhaustion.

His lips were somewhat dry and peeling from long-term lack of real moisture and speech.

Su Zhan spent most of his time with his head lowered, avoiding unnecessary eye contact, conserving energy.

Every time he walked an uncertain distance, he would suddenly stop, listening carefully, confirming there were no hidden dangers before continuing.

This action had been repeated thousands of times, becoming an instinct deeply ingrained in his bones.

Sometimes.

Su Zhan would unconsciously reach out his hand, touching the thick mist sliding by, feeling the sensation of weak energy.

This seemed to have become his only communication with this dead silent world.

Su Zhan had never spoken here, and for the sake of stealth, he wouldn't make any sounds.

He only knew he had to leave, to return, but where was the way back?

Where was the boundary of this world?

Or did this world even have boundaries?

The answers to all these questions were hidden behind the endless mist, with no one to ask, no traces to follow.

This prolonged erosion from outside to inside consumed a person's will.

Su Zhan relied on survival instinct.

Relied on hatred.

"Transcendence Society, Xie Xi, Qin Bai..."

Relied on emotional attachments.

"Teacher, Liu Ziming, Xu Hao, Feng Jue..."

Driving this increasingly unfamiliar body, continuing to move forward.

...

Su Zhan walked numbly.

His empty pupils suddenly twitched slightly.

Ahead... deep within that mist, there seemed to be energy fluctuations that didn't match the surrounding dead silent environment?

The fluctuations were peculiar.

Not like the aura emitted by Mist Creatures, instead carrying a... vaguely somewhat familiar feeling?

In Su Zhan's hollow, numb eyes, a faint glimmer of hope gradually reignited.

Was it an exit?

A spatial rift?

Or... traces of human activity?