A howling wind rustled the leaves in the dark, gloomy forest. An annoying cacophony of incessant insect chirpings mixed with the occasional beastly roars from afar.
Yang Qiu, who had once more crossed back to this savage jungle from the civilized world, was at a loss…
"What. The. F*ck?!" Yang Qiu looked around in horror.
Not far from where he had transmigrated, several freshly cut tree trunks were sprawled on the ground. The surrounding vegetation and soil were trampled over and tainted with blackened bloodstains, broken arrows, remnants of clothing corroded by black magic, as well as the remains of an armor twisted by some kind of vine spell.
This place was where Yang Qiu had fought that massive battle against those crazed zealots of the Inquisition. Apparently, the battlefield had been cleared and the corpses removed.
Those crazies probably hadn't been able to find him and had left.
—But that wasn't the main point!
The main point was, why had he returned to this wretched world again?!
Yang Qiu looked down at the stone sphere in his hand. Struggling as a practitioner of dark magic in this damned world for three hundred years meant that Yang Qiu had a fine control of magic.
Furthermore, there was a big difference between his style and those of indigenous spellcasters who relied solely on their faith. As a person of socialism, even though he transmigrated before taking the college entrance examination, Yang Qiu hadn't abandoned his scientific outlook which he spent more than 10 years studying for.If he wasn't mistaken, when he input magic power into the white sphere as a spellcaster, he had felt a slight tugging sensation throughout his body originating from it.
"Could it be… this thing is a transmigration tool? With magic, it is able to jump back and forth between two planes?" Yang Qiu pondered with uncertainty. "But when did this get into my spatial ring? Did I pick it up by accident and forget all about it?"
Yang Qiu couldn't figure it out for the time being, so he looked around and found a big tree that was sufficiently thick but with sparse foliage. Then he climbed up the tree.
This was basically instinct honed during decades of forced wilderness survival while on the run. It was best to spend the night on a tree when in the forest; otherwise, one might get bitten by small creatures that would suddenly come out of the grass. Also, trees with lush crowns could also hide things like venomous snakes…
Yang Qiu sat on a branch he picked out, then withdrew some insect repellent powder from his spatial ring and sprinkled it on his body before calming himself down and entering meditation.
Meditation was a common magical technique used by spellcasters to quickly restore their magic power, similar to what practitioners on Earth called "Zazen," or "Sitting Meditation."
Of course, a meditative state didn't require sitting. As long as one could fully concentrate and expand their perception to rapidly absorb the magic factors floating in the world, it was possible to enter a meditative state.
In this dark, magical otherworld, magic was also a very dangerous thing.
During the process of absorbing magic, indigenous spellcasters could find their sanity degrading, experience mental corruption, lose their ability to think, and become instinctual killing monsters, or even turn into a pile of rotten flesh.
Back when he was still a hapless mage apprentice, Yang Qiu used to help the old man clean the wizard tower and come up with ideas for cooking every day. The old man warned him countless times about the three Spellcaster Laws: never be beguiled by power, never be unable to extricate oneself from magic, and never be trapped in endless pursuit of knowledge.
Yang Qiu had heard these three laws repeated so many times that his ears became calloused from it.
After becoming an apprentice black mage, Yang Qiu found that although there was a certain degree of danger involved when it came to absorbing magic, losing control wasn't that easy… At least, for him, magic was something that was rather easy to control.
And that was why the old man got irked and kicked Yan Qiu out, forcing the latter to begin his wandering travels… Jealousy had destroyed the many years of their teacher-student relationship.
Yang Qiu, who had considerable talent in magic, recovered his power particularly quickly this time. After about 10 minutes, he opened his eyes and ended his meditation.
"It's probably because of the peaceful sleep and good meal I had back on Earth. It's been at least 60 years since I felt this relaxed," Yang Qiu lamented about the painful decades spent on the run as he put on a pair of gloves to pick out the stone sphere once more.
He certainly didn't wish to stay in this f*cked up world. He wanted to return back to Earth.
Since this sphere possessed the power to transmigrate after being infused with magic, Yang Qiu had to try it out and manipulate the sphere to find a way home.
A faint blue glow appeared in his palm, symbolizing abundant mana, as Yang Qiu carefully tried injecting his magic power into it.
Yang Qiu's expression changed drastically when his power came into contact with the sphere—this thing was like a conscious black hole. Not only was it rapidly absorbing his power, it was also competing with Yang Qiu for control over his power!
"What the hell!" Yang Qiu instinctively realized something was wrong and immediately tried to sever the magic connection.
But… it seemed that the situation was already beyond control. Even with his high-level mastery as a black mage, Yang Qiu couldn't triumph over the sphere.
In just a matter of seconds, his magic, which had only just been replenished, was completely drained by this sphere. Immediately afterward, the originally unremarkable sphere exploded into a faint white mist that merged with Yang Qiu's body as he watched on in horror.
"Ugh...!!!"
Yang Qiu shuddered all over, then his head tilted back, and he began to tremble violently.
It was as if he had jumped from a great height into water, or was wrapped in wet cement. Every pore on his body seemed to be squeezed by some external force… Something was invading his body in an unwelcome manner!
This pervasive intrusion wasn't just limited to his body but to his soul as well—his mind seemed to be forcefully penetrated by some unknown external force that was like a massive influx of complex information alternating between high-pitched opera and low whispers, furiously washing over his rationality and eroding his mental state!
"It's… an elder god!"
Amid the dual sources of pain in his body and soul, Yang Qiu, whose eyes had already rolled back, actually became calm.
The first of the three Spellcaster Laws: never be beguiled by power.
And this law, which was a lesson passed down to future successors by countless seekers that paid a painful price… also existed in the ancient teachings of various "professionals."
The reason being that the pursuit of power was a means for the elder gods to resurrect—and the resurrection of the elder gods were like a massive shadow that loomed over all the intelligent races of this dark world.
"This stone of dimensional transmigration… is without a doubt an elder god's tentacle according to this world's rules.
"So that's how it is—a mortal's body is unable to withstand the pulling force of transmigrating between dimensions. The reason I was able to successfully transmigrate back then was because an elder god was anchoring the anchor point!
"But the me that crossed over back then knew nothing about the rules of this world's system. The lack of understanding limited my perception, so I wasn't affected by the elder god's influence and could safely leave this forest.
"Three hundred years later, I returned to this forest and reawakened this elder god's tentacle from the past… and it actively approached me!
"Yes… No wonder, not much time seems to have passed here after I transmigrated to Earth and back this time round. The destruction from my previous battle is still recent and the bloodstains still remain… The reason is that the human me of Earth has been locked on by this elder god's tentacle!
"It wants to assimilate me and turn me into an anchor point!"
Yang Qiu's mind raced to understand the causation while his body still twitched, and eventually, his eyes that were rolled into the back of his head finally returned back to their original position.
"Stop kidding me, *sshole!!!"
Anger was an emotion that could instantly amplify a person's mental strength in a short period of time.
At this moment, Yang Qiu wasn't just angry—he was livid. While he had been waiting to enter his third year of middle school, he was dragged into this damned world and made to suffer for 300 years!
He had finally been able to return back to Earth, managed to see his sister, whom he missed so much, but he had yet gotten a chance to see his mother. He had merely gotten a tiny taste of home after 300 years of only, only to be told that the steamed buns and mala soup was his last meal…
How could he possibly be willing to accept such a fate!
In his fury, Yang Qiu didn't try to shut off his senses and grit his teeth like indigenous spellcasters did when their spirit was invaded by elder gods. Instead, he fully expanded his perception and forcibly entered a meditative state, absorbing all the magic in the surroundings rapidly.
His depleted magic power began to recover within a few seconds. Such a haphazard and rapid means of recovery was harmful to spellcasters, but Yang Qiu didn't care about that. When his magic power was restored to the point where his soul was capable of fighting, he concentrated all his mental willpower and frantically counterattacked the invading elder god using whispered incantations.
Isn't this just mental corruption!
Isn't it all just mindless blabbering?!
Do you think you are the only one that can do so?!
Veins on Yang Qiu's forehead, temples, and neck bulged as he concentrated his mind and recited massive quantities of information in the same manner as the elder god's whisperings.
While it sounded impressive, in truth, Yang Qiu, a high-level mage with mental strength hundred times stronger than an average person, was simply concentrating his mental capacity and silently singing popular catchy tunes such as "Seaweed Dance," "Calories," "Why Do I look So Good," "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind," "The Fifth Ring," "Mouse Loves Rice," "My Skateboard Shoes," "Little Apple"…
It didn't matter if he couldn't remember all the full lyrics and would just repeat the memorable choruses over and over.
The tunes he could remember wasn't enough, and he also recited information that he had idly memorized, such as the Core Socialist Values, An City's No.2 Middle School's motto, chemical formulas, as well as classic literary works such as "Hua Mulan," "Red Cliff," and "Hard Roads in Shu"…
Even if he couldn't remember everything, he would just repeat the parts that he could recall!
It was just a way to cope with the overwhelming amount of information flooding in, and as a practitioner of socialism, how could he lose?!
Yang Qiu's eyes were bloodshot, and his face was twisted in pain as he forcefully tapped into his mental potential, causing the blood in his body to surge. Capillaries under the skin of his face and neck burst open, unable to bear the load, and blood trickled slowly from his nostrils, eyes, and the corners of his mouth.
But this pain… was nothing to him! He continued to output his all at full power!
In his mental domain, the white mist that was entangled with his soul was gradually tainted with the color of Yang Qiu…
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