Wu Piwu was preparing cautiously.
In four hours, it would be the weekend.
And this was a life-and-death trial!
Every weekend was a life-and-death trial, without any exceptions!
Indeed, Wu Piwu was now very formidable; his National Art had reached the Danjing stage.
Although the Hundred Days of Condensing Dan had not been completely finished, his control over the qi within his body had at least doubled, plus with his Human Immortal Martial Dao and the trump card of controllable demonic transformation, his strength was at least four to five times greater than it had been during the last weekend.
However, the weekend could not be measured by any standard of reality; it could be very safe or extremely dangerous, and it was the kind of danger where a single misstep could lead to total annihilation.
“Fortunately, I have established a Level Five Sanctuary.”
Wu Piwu seriously spread out Jiujiu in his palm and said to her, “I’m not sure if my sanctuary can protect you as well, but it’s highly likely that it can, since you should count as my possession.”
Jiujiu was furious and was about to spread her wings to peck at Wu Piwu, but with a slight shake of his hand, she couldn’t take off, which made her even angrier.
She pecked at Wu Piwu’s palm in a flurry.
Wu Piwu let her peck; it felt ticklish and didn’t hurt at all.
He continued seriously, “So, like last time, at critical moments, I will divert those terrifying existences, and you must survive as much as possible. Survive for twenty-four hours, understand?”
“If you die due to uncontrollable factors, then you must hide immediately, evade, and remain still, rather than coming out to look for me. I will be fine; you must not worry!”
After pecking for a while, Jiujiu shot Wu Piwu a sideways glance, as if silently huffing without speaking.
Wu Piwu didn’t take it to heart and said, “Also, anything can happen during the weekend. If you and I are not in the same place at the start or get separated, you must hide well and never come out casually. Even if you hear my voice or see someone who looks like me, absolutely do not come out, because it could be a monster or some phenomenon causing a false appearance, understand!?”
Jiujiu nodded slightly, and Wu Piwu finally breathed a sigh of relief, smiling as he said, “Or we can have a code word; as long as you hear that code word, it will be me.”
Jiujiu curiously chirped.
Wu Piwu thought for a moment and said, “Let’s do this: if I call you ‘Dog Egg,’ then it’s definitely me.”
“Chirp!”
Jiujiu was furious and was about to fly up to peck Wu Piwu again, but with another shake, she couldn’t take off…
In the remaining hours, Wu Piwu continued his preparations, which mainly consisted of rolling meatballs.
His healing ability was now very strong, enough to be considered a skill for combat, but the premise was having enough food, heat, and nutrition.
These meatballs were what he had prepared recently, dried and compressed after being made.
They contained pork, lard, ginseng, and the like, each the size of a ping-pong ball, equivalent to a large bowl of meat soup and meat chunks.
Wu Piwu prepared ten of them, wrapped in leaves, and placed them all in a leather pouch for easy access.
After all, it was only twenty-four hours until he would return; preparing too much would be a waste.
In addition, he was considering whether to bring the Wild Boar Tusk Blade.
This Wild Boar Tusk Blade had not yet been polished, but its extraordinary nature was already evident.
When Wu Piwu used this blade, it was almost indestructible; with a single strike, even alloy plating would develop minute cracks, while the Wild Boar Tusk Blade remained unscathed.
Although the plating would quickly be repaired by metal nano-units, it was enough to show the blade's remarkable quality.
In National Art, fists could connect with spears, palms with hammers, fingers with swords, and claws with knives.
These skills complemented each other; generally, National Art experts would have a set of weapons and techniques that complemented their martial arts, and Wu Piwu’s Tiger Demon Skill claw strikes could naturally be replaced with a knife, greatly increasing their power!
“... Forget it, I won’t take it after all.”
After thinking for a long time, Wu Piwu decided not to bring the Wild Boar Tusk Blade.
The task for the weekend was to survive, to endure for twenty-four hours, not to seek out strong enemies to fight.
Carrying this huge Wild Boar Tusk Blade would be too conspicuous, and he feared it would hinder his movements or get lost.
“Well then, the basic preparations are complete.”
Wu Piwu placed all his items, including the Magical Conch, on Gaia, only taking a leather pouch tied around his waist containing the condensed meatballs.
He wore two sets of clothing and put the Yellow Lotus Fragment around his neck; that was all his possessions.
As for Jiujiu… naturally, she couldn’t carry anything, after all, she was still just a bird.
The two sat silently, waiting for the weekend to arrive.
As time passed second by second, everything around them disappeared, and the cosmic space enveloped all.
A gigantic eyeball, unimaginable in size, appeared in their field of vision…
When Wu Piwu awoke, he found the surroundings noisy, with people coming and going, forcing him to immediately turn over and scan the area.
Soon, he spotted Jiujiu lying about twenty meters away.
Jiujiu had transformed into human form but was still completely naked.
Wu Piwu quickly stepped forward, shooing away several men and women who were staring at Jiujiu, then stripped off a piece of clothing from himself and draped it over her.
At that moment, Jiujiu blinked awake, nervously looking around.
The first thing she saw was Wu Piwu, and her face immediately showed a look of relief.
However, upon seeing the bustling crowd around her, her face turned red with embarrassment.
She reached out to pull at her clothing, wanting to put it on but fearing to do so, and in her shame and anger, tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Jiujiu came from the Song Dynasty; although she was not very old, she was quite wise, and it seemed she had heard stories, with a moral outlook similar to that of the Song people, placing great importance on chastity.
Wu Piwu was neither angry nor impatient; instead, he tore a piece of his own clothing, spreading it out to cover the area where Jiujiu lay, shielding her from all sides.
Jiujiu was momentarily stunned, then immediately blushed and put on the clothing.
Although it looked a bit loose and her feet were still exposed, she stopped crying, her face showing a hint of relief.
When Wu Piwu casually draped the torn clothing over himself, Jiujiu gently took his hand while looking around.
Wu Piwu shook his head and was about to take off his shoes, but Jiujiu shook her head, so in the end, he kept his shoes on.
At that moment, both looked around and saw the sky was dark, with countless lights shining brightly.
There were shops and vehicles nearby, and they stood by the roadside, not far from them was a subway station.
Jiujiu was amazed; these things did not exist in the Song Dynasty, nor in the late Qing Dynasty.
Although she had seen many machines during the last weekend, she had never witnessed modern society.
Wu Piwu held Jiujiu’s hand with one hand while continuously looking around.
“Wu Piwu, where is this place?” Jiujiu asked.
Wu Piwu shook his head and replied, “I can’t tell, but it should be after the late twentieth century. I don’t know the exact location.”
Although Jiujiu didn’t understand what the late twentieth century meant, she obediently refrained from asking further.
Since Wu Piwu knew what time period this was, it proved he had some understanding.
Previously, Jiujiu had learned from Wu Piwu’s conversations with his teammates that it seemed only Wu Piwu knew the history before the Third World War, which was a significant advantage.
At this moment, Wu Piwu carefully observed the surroundings.
As he looked, he touched the Yellow Lotus Fragment on his chest, increasing the surface area of contact between his body and the fragment, then continued to scan the area.
He saw ruins!
This brightly lit modern city, bustling with people, transformed into a scene of ruins in the next layer of reality, and all the seemingly normal crowds had turned into phantoms.
The entire city was silent, with only distant explosions and flames visible.
“Ghosts of the dead?”
Wu Piwu muttered, then continued to probe the surroundings, looking for deeper truths.
The third layer of truth was still this city in ruins, but within these ruins appeared many black torrents, resembling both gas and matter, almost spanning the entire city, forming a web-like scene.
In the far distance, he could vaguely see these black torrents densely converging onto a super colossal object far away.
This super colossal object towered into the heavens; even Wu Piwu couldn’t see its height.
It was at least at the horizon’s distance, towering to an unimaginable height, breaking through the atmosphere, and its size was beyond comprehension, as if it had swallowed an entire continent.
Just as Wu Piwu was gazing at this gigantic entity, he suddenly felt a tightness in his heart and immediately averted his gaze, only looking down at the ground.
After at least ten seconds, the sweat on his body finally dared to emerge.
In that brief moment when he shifted his gaze, it seemed countless eyeballs had opened on that colossal object.
Fortunately, he reacted very quickly, averting his gaze just before the moment of sight, a certain intuition had prompted him to do so in advance.
(Is the third layer of truth already this terrifying? Even the enhanced Yellow Lotus Fragment cannot avoid dual-phase probing… This weekend is going to be terrifying!)
Wu Piwu’s vigilance immediately heightened.
He raised his head to control his senses and looked at the bustling urban night scene before turning to Jiujiu and saying, “Let’s go.”
Jiujiu obediently took Wu Piwu’s hand and moved forward, but after taking a few steps, Wu Piwu suddenly stopped and held Jiujiu back.
In the crowd ahead of them, a humanoid figure about two meters tall was approaching them from the throng.
However, Jiujiu saw something entirely different; she saw nothing, neither the two-meter-tall figure nor any other abnormalities, so she looked at Wu Piwu with a puzzled expression.
But in Wu Piwu’s eyes, this two-meter-tall figure was so conspicuous; it looked human, but its eyes were dark and enormous, its mouth filled with sharp teeth and a gaping maw, its skin pale as a corpse, exuding an abstractly twisted horror that could not possibly be human.
“So… it’s a Pseudo-Human!?”
(End of Chapter)