"I’m back!" Having tucked away the Apocalypse Stone Ring that he’d picked up, Zheng Yichen stepped onto the threshold of the Dusk Cathedral... no, the palace entrance, as the spatial distortion he had released spread here and then vanished without a trace.
...
Tia watched Zheng Yichen expressionlessly, making him feel extrely awkward, especially given his disheveled appearance. He was well aware of the damage he had inflicted on the Great World and felt nothing wrong or bad about it.
The Ice Heart Mantra...well, it had shattered a long ti ago. Under the influence of demonic thoughts, although he hadn’t lost himself, his past actions felt exhilarating, and yet still not enough!
But what was Dusk all about? The slaughter of beings didn’t concern Dusk, but the fundantal base of the world itself had to be preserved. The havoc he’d caused to the Great World was akin to smashing the very foundation.
He wanted to say sothing else when suddenly, nurous scars appeared on his body—storm and lightning marks, flesh dissolving into wax—these injuries, long overdue to erupt, had been repressed by Zheng Yichen and had not surfaced until now.
Once he arrived at the Dusk, his mind slightly relaxed, and he could no longer suppress the severe injuries that burst forth.
"Ah—!" He spat out a mouthful of blood and, unable to stand, cried out without thinking, "Help!!"
Watching Zheng Yichen collapse, Tia reached out and grabbed him up.
"My god...he really made it back alive!?" Inside the Dusk Palace, which felt much more relaxed than the oppressive atmosphere outside due to being sealed off, filled with the tranquil hues of Dusk, this place had more Dusk rcenaries than Zheng Yichen had imagined.
The area that housed Dusk reflected the environntal conditions of the synchronous world. The Dusk rcenaries here never thought of leaving the Dusk Palace, yet they experienced the intensity of the Great World, eventually realizing that it had gone under martial law.
Then, the experienced Dusk rcenaries analyzed what might have happened in the Great World. Although martial law had been the state here even before, setting out essentially ant death, though there had been those who tried to breach it forcefully.
The result was that when they ca back, the sky do had blasted them.
And back then, the falling sky do was rely a beam of light, not the large-scale deploynt it was now.
After witnessing the Proxy Agents from the outside world arriving here under duress, they all thought these newcors were dood. Yet, surprisingly, so Proxy Agents did forcefully break their way in, looking extrely ragged and nearly dead, but they still made it back to the Dusk.
The ruthless ones who survived the killing journey from the Great World.
Zheng Yichen, dragged away by the Dusk nun, looked disheveled, but none of the Dusk rcenaries present underestimated him.
Other Dusk rcenaries and Proxy Agents who left the Dusk after the Great World had either died or survived—incredibly, they now had seen the ones who survived.
"Have heard the Great World is vast, each great domain as vast as a planet. Just returning can be tough," comnted a Dusk rcenary, their understanding of the Great World truly minimal.
Mainly because there were no native Dusk rcenaries from within the Great World, and any person who arrived here could not leave Dusk; at most, they could observe remotely using telescopes or other detection devices.
The remote observation thod also wasn’t very effective. The Boundary Breaking Organization had constructed a special barrier, resembling a dark realm. Normally, one could see to the edge of their vision.
Once special thods are used to exceed that limit and observe distant landscapes, it becos entirely different.
As for how Zheng Yichen’s physical condition fared after being dragged away, they were unconcerned—now back at the Dusk, they belonged to the category of those nearly impossible to kill. Moreover, they had directly slaughtered their way back from the Great World, killing nurous Boundary Breakers along the way.
Even if those killings did not fall under the category of Twilight Missions, if the deceased were Boundary Breakers, they still accumulated rit points. A few points didn’t matter much; what counted was having them.
Consequently, the Proxy Agents returning here would not die from a lack of rit points, or lack of treatnt.
In the infirmary.
After Tia dragged Zheng Yichen in, she threw him directly onto a bed and closed the curtain, plunging the dical room into silence.
Zheng Yichen woke from his dazed state, his eyes blank as he opened them. He touched his arm; his bone-turned arm had returned to normal, and the thunder and storm scars left by the Heavenly Punishnt had vanished.
His body felt a long-lost sense of relaxation.
"It feels like I went through a rather uncomfortable freezing." Zheng Yichen said reflectively. He had lost consciousness during his faint, then "awoke", unable to feel his body, with all senses—vision, touch, sll—gone.
Surrounded by darkness, yet able to perceive his own being as if his consciousness had been extracted and stored in an empty black box. He couldn’t feel ti passing but could clearly comprehend his existence and count the seconds...
And then he woke up.
To see Tia sitting in a chair, waiting. She was writing sothing on a piece of paper. As Zheng Yichen sat up, she handed him the paper—it was a bill.
"33 rit points! Am I really that expensive??" Zheng Yichen’s eyes widened in shock, feeling the pinch. He had never experienced rit point-based treatnt, only spending money. He had stored plenty of hard currency in the Dusk, eligible for conversion to money, which could be directly deducted.
But this ti, it used up so many rit points?
"You really are expensive," Tia said, unfazed by Zheng Yichen’s surprise as she pulled out the notebook tracking Zheng Yichen’s rit points.
Zheng Yichen took it and looked it over, his face registering shock, "Only 80??"
This ti, after returning to Dusk, the settlent was 80 rit points, minus the healing part, leaving him with 117 rit points. However, he still lacked 11 points to reach the normal total of 400 rit points.
"You didn’t get any missions related to the Great World, so the rit point gain was extrely low."
"But I killed so many Boundary Breakers..." Zheng Yichen was even more perplexed. He had slaughtered countless Boundary Breakers in the Great World. Even if each were worth 0.1 rit points, that should total in the thousands, right?
0.01 would be fine too.
So, those Boundary Breakers weren’t even worth a single point?
"Those Boundary Breakers are not invaders in the Great World."
"What kind of reason is that... How is Old Brother Du Gang doing?" Zheng Yichen sighed, shelving his complaints; regardless, at least he hadn’t lost out this ti—no negative rit points, killed many Boundary Breakers, and not only had he survived, his body had returned to full health.
As long as he was alive, everything was fine.
"He’s doing well, he’s waiting outside for you," Tia said calmly.
"That’s good..." Zheng Yichen looked at his body, which seed as if it had been cleansed, but it lacked even one-twentieth of its original Essence of Life; otherwise, everything was fine.
At the ti of crying for help in Dusk, his body had deteriorated to a point where he couldn’t even trigger the serpent’s exuvia. Even then, an anomaly that had assimilated into his body prevented the normal triggering of the serpent’s exuvia.
It was all thanks to Dusk’s efficacy; after sleeping it off, everything had healed, and his body felt as light as if he had shed tens of thousands of pounds.
Only the experience of falling into darkness while unconscious, aware yet helpless, was terrible...
"Am I still bald?" Zheng Yichen reached up to touch his head, feeling its smooth baldness, although his eyebrows were still there. He used a bit of Life Force, and his hair visibly grew back out.
He then nodded in satisfaction. The power of the Life type was so handy; there was no fear of losing hair, as whatever was missing would easily and quickly grow back.
But as he pulled a strand of hair, Zheng Yichen noticed it was white, not the healthy shade of a youthful elder, but a pallid color as if reflecting a deficiency in vitality.
"...Why am I white-haired again?"
"Dusk healed the injuries on your body, but the parts that are inherently yours are not within the scope of healing. This isn’t an injury but a problem of your own."
"Isn’t Dusk supposed to be omnipotent?"
"I never said Dusk was omnipotent," Tia glanced at Zheng Yichen.
"Okay, how much money to return it to normal?"
"100 yuan."
"? That cheap? Couldn’t you have just healed it when docking my rit points?" Zheng Yichen widened his eyes, feeling like his relationship with Tia had fractured. So she wouldn’t take care of such a trivial matter?
After collecting 100 yuan from Zheng Yichen, Tia pulled out a small bottle from the clinic’s drawer; it had no label. Zheng Yichen held it, still a bit confused, "I just drink this stuff?"
"It’s black hair dye," Tia explained. "It won’t fade after application, only becoming ineffective as the hair naturally grows."
"..." Zheng Yichen wanted to throw the thing back, but considering he had spent 100 yuan on it, he tossed it into his spatial storage. At the sa ti, he released Tanshia Firlo. As soon as the small white dragon erged, she lunged into Zheng Yichen’s arms, sobbing loudly.
"I thought you were going to die!!"
Zheng Yichen had been in the clinic... less than half a day. When the curtain was drawn, the spatial storage lost all connection with the outside world; she could only worry as she couldn’t see Zheng Yichen.
Likewise, Lilith’s projection couldn’t reach inside the clinic, so in less than half a day, Tanshia Firlo was frantic, her eyes burning with concern.
Now that Zheng Yichen had released her, the young white dragon completely relaxed. Seeing Zheng Yichen healthy, she cried tears of joy, although Zheng Yichen’s life aura was so weak, like a gigantic tree nearly dead from drought.
But at the very least, the tree’s pests and diseases had been thoroughly removed, and if it hadn’t died, it could recover.
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