Shang Jianyao was overjoyed. He lifted his hands, raised his body slightly, and looked at the ceiling. "Everything is but a dream. Why so serious?"
Upon seeing this, Chen Wen rubbed his temples with his right hand and said, "Everything is illusory!"
"You aren't from the Clam Dragon Church?" Shang Jianyao asked as though he was no stranger.
Chen Wen felt the room shake slightly and casually replied, "I'm from the Lost Dream Church."
At this moment, Liu Chuan carried Flora. Another New World powerhouse with an intact 'body' carried Barnard. The others were also prepared.
Shang Jianyao seized the opportunity to ask Chen Wen, "What's your Holy Communion?"
"We don't have Holy Communion; it's all illusory." Chen Wen calmly emphasized, "Everything is illusory."
Shang Jianyao immediately lost interest in the Lost Dream Church and asked, "Did you see that photo in the compound?"
"What photo?" Chen Wen asked.
"Lin Sui's photo." Shang Jianyao was very surprised. He then came to a realization. "Don't you know that it's Lin Sui?"
"I didn't see any photos at all," Chen Wen replied truthfully.
He didn't care too much about this. After all, everything was illusory.
Shang Jianyao was just about to describe the details of the photo when Liu Chuan looked around and said, "Everyone, the signs have appeared. Let's rush to the tower now. We can't miss this opportunity."
He led the way, carrying Flora on his back. He ran to the basement entrance and opened the dark iron door.
The others didn't hesitate and filed out, following behind Liu Chuan.
Shang Jianyao ran to keep up and overtook the rest. He then slowed down and fell to the end of the team, clearly struggling internally.
"We haven't completely figured out the New World's problem and aren't sure which side we should stand on…" Shang Jianyao—who believed in justice—muttered to himself anxiously.
"That's right, that's right." Another Shang Jianyao echoed him. "We haven't even figured out if it's a good or bad thing to help these people escape the New World, yet the chaos has already begun!"
The ruthless Shang Jianyao scoffed. "From the information we have so far, it's really possible that the New World was created by the Kalendarium to protect the Ashlands. Otherwise, it would be a disaster for so many New World powerhouses to mess around in reality without any restrictions."
"Not necessarily," retorted the calm and rational Shang Jianyao. "After the initial chaos, those New World powerhouses will compromise with each other and form a new balance."
As they spoke, they kept running at the back of the team and followed them out of the special building.
At this moment, the shaking of the ground became more and more obvious. The houses by the street creaked.
Whoosh!
A squall swept over.
The rash Shang Jianyao ignored his peers' struggles and said without any psychological burden, "Not everything will begin after you are prepared and have thought it through—same for the chaos here! In the face of such a situation, we can only act before talking!"
Chen Wen—who was running beside Shang Jianyao—heard him mutter to himself the entire way. He didn't interject and only glanced at Shang Jianyao.
To him, everything was illusory. It was fine to chat and kill time when he had the time. As for now, it was none of his business.
After running a few more steps, the calm and rational Shang Jianyao said, "It's time to inform Big White of the signs of chaos."
No Shang Jianyao objected to this matter.
As they ran along the increasingly shaky road, they diverted some attention and released their strength to search for human consciousnesses around their body.
…
Jiang Baimian, who was taking a nap, suddenly dreamed of a monster. It opened its mouth—which was filled with sharp teeth dripping with blood—and bit her head.
With a throbbing pain, Jiang Baimian woke up. She quickly understood what was going on and swiftly extended her mind to touch Shang Jianyao's consciousness.
After the same old darkness appeared and condensed into a faint glow, Jiang Baimian saw the running Shang Jianyao.
Her consciousness was forced to 'run' as well.
The next second, Shang Jianyao shouted, "The signs have appeared! The chaos has begun!"
Jiang Baimian had been waiting for this opportunity. She slowly took a deep breath and said, "Then, I have to enter the real New World and approach the vortex-like building."
"But we aren't sure which side to help!" Shang Jianyao was very vexed. "I don't know if I should help Flora, Barnard, and the others escape the New World or maintain order here and wait for the chaos to end…"
Jiang Baimian calmly said, "This is because we don't know the New World's essence or the root cause of the problem."
Therefore, it was unknown how breaking the New World's order would affect reality.
"That's right, that's right." Shang Jianyao agreed deeply.
Jiang Baimian had long considered this problem as she chose her words. "This is actually an opportunity. Under normal circumstances, the New World has its own order. The imprisoned people have no way of knowing how to advance, nor do they know what the Kalendarium are thinking or doing. This makes your investigations always go in circles.
"Once the chaos begins, order will definitely collapse. Many things hidden under such order will be exposed, and you can take the opportunity to restore the truth. It won't be too late to make a choice when the time comes."
Smack!
Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. "Why didn't I think of that!?"
Jiang Baimian immediately ended the conversation. "Alright, don't waste your energy. Warn me if there are any changes."
"Alright." Shang Jianyao waved his hand.
…
After disconnecting, Shang Jianyao's attention was focused on the chaos.
Clang! Clang!
The houses by the street constantly shook as if they couldn't bear the burden. The glass windows rattled as if they would shatter at any moment.
Thin and obvious cracks appeared on the ground, clearly visible under the street lamps lit up by Liu Chuan, Flora, and the others.
In the surrounding darkness, the street lamps representing other New World powerhouses either went in the opposite direction—distancing themselves from the tower—or stayed in the building they were originally in. They didn't dare to move and could only wait. Others slowly move toward the tower as if they wanted to take advantage of the situation.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Shang Jianyao ran faster and faster, surpassing Chen Wen and the others and arriving in the middle of the team.
This position made it easier for him to observe the situation ahead and see if he could find the answers to certain questions from the collapse of order.
The gap between them and the tower wasn't that big to begin with. With the increasing intensity of the earthquake, they came to an area that few people usually entered.
Just as they passed a certain 'borderline,' Liu Chuan and the others' gazes froze at the same time.
Here, not only was the tower itself brightly lit, but the buildings around it also seemed to be a galaxy that had fallen into the human world.
The entire team instinctively stopped, and the weak Liu Chuan blurted out, "How can there be so many New World Awakened…"
The lights here were more than the New World powerhouses outside the core area combined!
Usually, this scene couldn't be seen from the outside. It seemed to be hidden by the tower.
Boom!
A building beside them collapsed from the earthquake, and a deep and hideous rift appeared in front of Liu Chuan and the others.
Whoosh!
A storm riled up, making everyone sway a little.
At this moment, a man slid out of an apartment-like building on the other side of the rift with his wheelchair. He was of Red River ethnicity.
He wore a white shirt inside and a blue sweater over it. A brown blanket covered his lower body. He looked to be in his forties, and his hair was clearly grizzled. He had a very elegant bearing.
The man came to a spot nearly 20 meters away from everyone and swept his light-blue eyes across them before asking loudly, "What are you guys doing here?"
Barnard replied shakily, "Vice President, we want to enter the tower. You only have two choices: Move aside or die!"
"He's the Eighth Research Institute's Vice President?" Shang Jianyao muttered to himself.
Vice President placed his hands on the wheelchair and said mockingly, "You know nothing. You will only bring disaster to the Ashlands!"
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