Netherworld Retrograde

Chapter 302: Chapter 142: Chosen by Fate

With the sense of weightlessness and the white light ahead dissipating, Li Yelai successfully arrived inside the ark.

The hall in front of him was still resplendent and brightly lit.

Through the hall’s windows, one could see the eerie and mysterious scenery of the Void Realm, including a dazzling and beautiful vast galaxy, and giant beasts as large as stars emerging.

And within the hall, luxurious tables and chairs, mysterious paintings, adorned the hall.

Wait, paintings?

Li Yelai looked suspiciously at the huge painting on the hall wall; he didn’t recall these things being here when he previously entered the ark.

”Copper Face? You’re still alive, I see.” At that moment, a voice sounded, and a figure approached Li Yelai—it was Wolf Map!

Casting a glance at Wolf Map a few steps away, malice rose in Li Yelai’s heart.

This Wolf Map was one of the culprits behind the disaster that befell the Fantasy Band.

Last time he had heard that he was still in Border City No.2, with his current whereabouts unknown.

”Damn it, one day, I’ll send you to meet Mr. Shadow!”

”Wolf Map, it’s been a long time,” Li Yelai responded.

Even though he inwardly cursed, he couldn’t show any emotion but instead had to follow the persona of Copper Face.

”Indeed,” Wolf Map replied in a voice that was ambiguously masculine and feminine, smiling, ”When I learned that Disaster Fog No.71 appeared in Border City No.3, I was worried you might still be in the city. Since you were absent at the last meeting, I knew you were really hit. Fortunately, you survived... and it seems like you’re about to experience the Four Awakenings?”

Wolf Map seemed to notice the state of Li Yelai’s spiritual energy and couldn’t help but smile, ”I remember you had just had your Third Awakening not long ago; it seems you went through a lot in the Disaster Fog.”

”Just, luckily survived,” Li Yelai responded, ”During the assault of the Insect Swarm, I held on until the Old Mad King took action.”

”The Old Mad King is naturally a rare talent, but his demise was inevitable. When he falls, he will nourish everything like a whale falling, and what we need to do is to gain as much benefit as possible to survive the immense calamity that is coming,” Wolf Map spoke indifferently.

”Immense calamity?” Li Yelai wondered, his mind as Golden Armor seemingly had no knowledge of such matters.

Had he missed some information? Or had something happened at the meeting he missed?

And then, Wolf Map looked at the huge painting on the wall and said, ”This was hung during the meeting you missed last time, as a premonition before the immense calamity arrives.”

Now, there were thirteen frames on the wall.

Ten of these frames were blank.

And the remaining three displayed shocking scenes.

The first scene showed a broken city where a beautiful and eerie Insect Master, leading billions of insects, seemed about to break through the painting and enter the real universe. Opposite the swarm, countless humans fought valiantly, and a figure seated on a golden throne threw a Three-pointed Two-edged Blade.

The painting was incredibly realistic, capturing the beauty and strangeness of the Insect Master, the danger and bloodlust of the swarm, and the bravery and despair of the human warriors, making observers feel as if they were on the battlefield of the Disaster Fog.

As someone who had experienced it firsthand, Li Yelai couldn’t help but hold his breath, his muscles tensed.

The second scene was even more bizarre and dangerous.

It depicted a Giant City full of Western-style buildings, but the scene within the city was chilling.

Blood vessels and muscles appeared on the walls, trees were twisted and indescribable.

Countless bodies were stripped of clothing and hung on lampposts. These weren’t capitalists hung on street lamps, but men, women, and children who had been tortured.

Their expressions were horrified and pained, bodies twisted or maimed. Their organs had been extracted and hung down onto the road, being gnawed and swallowed by those loitering underneath the lampposts.

Those devouring the organs had strange deformities too; some grew a third arm, some had a second face growing out of the back of their neck. All the streets were frenzied scenes of madness. People seemed to lose all reason, involving in violation, torture, cannibalism, self-harm, and suicide. The scene was filled with disturbing madness.

In some corners of the painting, some blond-haired, blue-eyed or dark-skinned humans were fighting these madmen.

But their numbers were too few, and under the endless onslaught of madmen, they appeared particularly desperate.

And in the center of the painting, a figure wearing ritualistic garb but with purple skin and flesh wings, held a golden scepter, kneeling and praying for something.

Was this the Giant City corrupted by Chaos?

Li Yelai was shocked by the madness in the painting; an entire Giant City, even if its population was less than that of Border City No.3, it was still a city of a million-level population. Yet, it was completely twisted and corrupted, with only a few Spiritual Ability Users barely surviving. The power of Chaos was too terrifying!

Compared to the tangible threat of the Insect Swarm from Disaster Fog No.71, the force that corrupted all minds was even more threatening.

Loved ones, friends, all had become some kind of madman, completely becoming monsters of desire!

”Is the harm of Chaos really so terrifying?” Li Yelai said gravely, recalling the giant he had seen in the Void Realm, and ’Blood God,’ a being of Chaos mentioned by the giant. If he had accepted the conditions from the Blood God at that time, a similar scene might have occurred in Border City No.3.

”Of course, Chaos is terrifying, the great enemy of all life,” Wolf Map replied with a low chuckle, ”That’s why we must strive even harder to become stronger. This is also the philosophy of the ark.”

”Flame?” Li Yelai thought, from Wolf Map’s words, it seemed there was a terrible calamity about to descend, and the Ark Chosen Ones would utilize the ark to obtain various materials and intelligence, enabling them to become stronger and survive the great calamity, becoming one of the few survivors.