“What's wrong?” The weak Liu Chuan stopped and asked.

Shang Jianyao, while looking at the darkness that was splattering streams of gas, said loudly:

“I have a question.

“How should we join forces to attack later? Should we stack our powers and poke, smash, or stir it up, or do we have other ideas?”

This was a very realistic technical question, and Barnard, Chen Wen, and the others fell into thought, considering what to do later.

Almost simultaneously, that low and ethereal voice echoed in their ears once again:

“Gather your strength and poke deep into the darkness.

“It's very simple, there's no need to think too much.

“Keep moving forward, don't delay any longer.”

“Oh, oh!” Shang Jianyao wore an expression of “I see.”

Liu Chuan, Chen Wen, and these other “New World” powerhouses continued to move forward.

“Wait a minute!”

Shang Jianyao's voice suddenly rang out again.

“What is it now?” Liu Chuan asked with a slightly distorted expression.

At this moment, the inside of the tower, which was sometimes bright and sometimes dark, seemed to be covered in a layer of shadow.

“I have another question.” Shang Jianyao was very frank, “After we poke like that, what will be the reaction of the darkness? Will it directly collapse, and the gas spray all over us? If that happens, what should we do?”

Those streams of gas carrying a faint light could dissolve the human consciousness of “New World” powerhouses!

At this moment, the “New World” powerhouses present were all highly wary of those streams of gas, ready to avoid them at any time, and no one dared to take them lightly.

For Barnard, Chen Wen, and the others, this was indeed something to pay attention to, after all, no one wanted to become an unnecessary sacrifice at the critical moment of returning to the graylands, when dawn was about to arrive.

In the next second, that low and ethereal voice appeared in their minds once again:

“I will provide you with protection.

“Don't consider these trivial matters anymore, victory is at hand.”

For some reason, Barnard vaguely felt that the voice had a hint of gnashing teeth.

“Okay!” Shang Jianyao agreed very readily.

He took the lead and walked towards the huge darkness from the streams of gas being ejected.

Liu Chuan, Chen Wen, and the “New World” powerhouse carrying Barnard followed closely behind.

In their eyes, light flickered, gas streams darted around, and the darkness expanded and contracted, the atmosphere so tense that it seemed like the end of the world was about to arrive.

“Wait a minute!”

Shang Jianyao's voice broke the atmosphere.

Liu Chuan slowed down and shouted almost in collapse:

“What else do you want to ask?”

Shang Jianyao shook his head:

“It has nothing to do with you.”

Liu Chuan almost vomited blood upon hearing this answer.

Fortunately, he was now a spiritual body, a life of consciousness, and had no blood.

Shang Jianyao looked at Barnard, who was behind him on the side, and asked seriously:

“Aren't you worried?”

“Worried about what?” Barnard asked with a frown, trembling.

Shang Jianyao said sincerely:

“Our escape from the 'New World' in this way may bring disaster to the graylands.

“As the first Red River president of the 'Lin Hai Alliance', you chose to push open the door and enter here early in order to protect the people there, you are their hero, aren't you worried that the current actions will bring an insurmountable man-made disaster to the 'Lin Hai Alliance'?”

Barnard was silent for a few seconds and said:

“I have already made up my mind, and I can't take care of so much. If I don't leave here, I will definitely go crazy and live in a way full of suicidal impulses.

“If there are any disasters later, we'll talk about them later. I will definitely contribute my strength without reservation at that time.”

After saying that, he didn't wait for Shang Jianyao to respond and said to the “New World” powerhouse carrying him:

“Get closer to the darkness, we can't wait any longer.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the darkness instantly expanded, and the edge pushed to the front of several people, seemingly reaching its limit.

Accompanying this were more and more violent streams of light gas. If Shang Jianyao and the others hadn't been paying attention to this problem all the time, ready to avoid it, or quickly crouched down, or directly pounced on the ground, some of them would have definitely been unable to escape this calamity.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The streams of gas hit the tower wall, as if someone was hammering it hard with a sledgehammer.

With a crash, the glass broke on one side, and the wall ash fell off piece by piece, revealing the mottled wall.

This was the first time the tower itself had been damaged.

The ground near the door also cracked for the first time, spreading outwards and becoming deeper and deeper.

A stream of gas flew out of the door and collided head-on with a “New World” powerhouse coming from another direction.

That person didn't even have time to scream, his face just became extremely distorted, and he annihilated together with the stream of gas at the same time.

When the earthquake and hurricane brought by this wave of expansion continued to spread outward, the darkness contracted, just like before.

Shang Jianyao, Liu Chuan, and the others stood up one after another, their ears full of low and ethereal voices:

“Go over, go over…”

…………

Inside the vortex-shaped building.

Jiang Baimian finished touching the pockets of the three corpses, and only found chocolate and other items of little value at the moment.

The white bones showed that the corpses did not suffer heavy blows, nor did they show any signs of poisoning. The only wound came from the security guard named Fei Yingwu—his right arm rested on a submachine gun, showing signs of a fracture.

Based on this, Jiang Baimian imagined the scene at that time:

In just a moment, Fei Yingwu died directly like those people in Taicheng. His submachine gun fell to the ground first, and his body followed closely behind. His right arm hit a certain protrusion on the gun body, causing a fracture.

“The people here should have all died like this…” Jiang Baimian retracted her gaze and stood up.

Her biggest doubt at the moment was:

Why were the bag of Little Bear Biscuits and the chocolate preserved intact, without being damp or moldy, while these corpses were only white bones, and the stains stained their clothes?

Jiang Baimian, who couldn't figure it out for the time being, walked towards the skeleton sitting on the sofa.

This white skeleton was also wearing a black uniform, but there was no submachine gun next to it, and a pistol was placed in the holster on its waist.

Jiang Baimian's gaze fell on the position of the skeleton's right chest. On the black nameplate there, it was written in golden Grayland characters:

“Security Director: Brian Stanley”

Below this row of Grayland characters, there was another line of Red River characters in a smaller font.

A surname and name that I haven't heard much… Jiang Baimian muttered to herself, squatted down halfway, and checked Brian Stanley's pockets.

Besides some food, there was nothing else.

“The management back then was quite strict.” Jiang Baimian pondered for a while, didn't dare to delay any longer, and turned to the other corpses in this area.

After quickly checking, she turned her gaze to the passage deep in the “Waiting Area.”

The sliding metal door was in a half-open state.

Jiang Baimian tentatively took a step inside, and her head immediately throbbed with pain.

This familiar feeling made her retreat in a hurry.

Jiang Baimian didn't dare to move forward any further, staring at the far end of the passage, and said to herself silently:

“Is the core thing inside here?”

Unable to enter for the time being, she looked around and found the stairs leading to the second floor.

Without hesitation, Jiang Baimian, wearing a military exoskeleton, leaned over and stepped on it.

Everything was calm and peaceful, and no "Heartless Disease" appeared.

…………

“Go over, go over…”

In the low and ethereal voice, Chen Wen, Liu Chuan, Shang Jianyao, and the others dodged the ejected streams of light gas in a slightly fanatical manner and came to the darkness.

At this time, the expansion and contraction of the darkness was not as intense as before, appearing quite weak and powerless, otherwise it would have directly enveloped Shang Jianyao and the others.

“Let's begin.” Liu Chuan, who was obeying “Truth,” took the lead in stretching out his right palm and pressing it against the surface of the darkness.

“Okay!” Shang Jianyao was always proactive, and he placed his right palm on the back of Liu Chuan's hand.

Liu Chuan glanced at this guy sideways, both astonished, dazed, and at a loss, not knowing what he was up to.

“Didn't we agree to combine our strength?” Shang Jianyao had an expression of “What's wrong with that?”

Under his lead, Barnard, Chen Wen, and the “New World” powerhouse carrying Barnard also stretched out their right palms and stacked them from different angles behind Shang Jianyao and Liu Chuan's hands.

“Start!” Shang Jianyao gave the order quite excitedly.

The five “New World” powerhouses used the “Interfere with Matter” ability at the same time, bringing the effect to the highest level they could achieve.

The air in front of their hands quickly condensed and compressed into an extremely thick spike.

This spike suddenly pierced into the depths of the darkness.

The darkness suddenly froze, not only did it not expand, but even the contraction disappeared.

After a brief solidification, the huge darkness suddenly exploded.

It was like a punctured balloon, making a bang.

Accompanying this change were countless streams of light gathered into团状, jetting out in all directions.

Liu Chuan, Shang Jianyao, and the others, who were facing it directly, didn't have time to dodge at all, and were directly smeared on their faces, hit their bodies, and enveloped their consciousness by团状streams of light gas.

In an instant, they all felt their breaths rapidly dissipating, and their expressions clearly twisted.

And the protection that “Truth” had spoken of did not appear.

Shang Jianyao woke up and quickly transferred his consciousness into his mind room.

His “131” room was already collapsing inch by inch, but this did not involve the existence of the room itself.

Shang Jianyao ran two steps quickly, suddenly jumped, and plunged into the “Liquid Crystal TV” that the “Sea of Origin” had become.

In his “Sea of Origin,” the sea shimmering with light was rapidly evaporating, and part of the sky was turning into chaos.

This trend inevitably spread to Shang Jianyao's body. Shang Jianyao repeated his old tricks, flashed directly to the gap representing Xiao Chong, and hid in the interlayer.

However, the chaotic transformation of the sky did not stop there, spreading all the way to the surface of the gap.

The reckless Shang Jianyao shouted loudly upon seeing this:

“We'll definitely die if we go out, we can only take a gamble!”

This time, not a single Shang Jianyao objected.

Shang Jianyao busily moved his body and truly drilled into the shadow-layered, light-shimmering gap of Xiao Chong.