Frightening Joke: Above the Mist

On the other side, after Ren Wudao leaped into the fluorescent abyss, the concrete scene disappeared from his vision.

Pulling, deforming, twisting shapes rushed past, and eerie wailing constantly lingered by his ears.

Ren Wudao even felt as if he had completely lost his body, leaving only a hollow consciousness falling endlessly.

He did not know how long this falling lasted until... a boundless gray plain appeared before his eyes.

This was a faded wilderness, without life, without sun or moon, no wind, no rain, and except for the gray-white meadows, there was nothing else.

Ren Wudao looked down at himself, he saw no hands, no feet; indeed, his body did not exist.

Only a consciousness was observing this world.

He wasn't really looking, yet he could clearly perceive everything.

He tried to move. Although he had no body, he could move rapidly across the gray plain just by thought.

This novel experience was easy to get immersed in.

This feeling... of accomplishing everything merely by thought.

It felt wonderful.

Until he "saw" from a distance, at the horizon of his vision, there appeared a massive tree almost indescribably shading the sky and covering the sun.

The closer he got to the tree, the more lush the surrounding gray-white meadows became.

At the same time, as he got closer to the tree, some inexplicable images started projecting into his consciousness.

He seemed to see endless scenes flowing away.

Perhaps a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, or even hundreds of thousands of years...

Because he "saw" humans evolve from eating raw meat and drinking blood to establishing nations, the emergence of civilization, population from sparseness to concentrated eruption...

Human history itself is a history of war. He "saw" the wars erupt from primitive society during tribal eras for prey and territory. He "saw" ancient wars after the establishment of the nation, fought for territory and resources.

He also saw modern era wars between nations waged for interests and geopolitics...

Where there is war, there is sin.

During the outbreak of human wars, plunder, slaughter, bloodshed, tears, wailing; the crimson images filled every corner of Ren Wudao's heart.

He "saw" it all and understood the hellish sins humanity underwent to establish order.

He "saw" as well the black-red substance rising in strands after every sin, drifting to unknown destinations.

"This... is... the origin... of your world..."

A fragmented voice abruptly appeared in Ren Wudao's heart.

"Human... sin..." the voice continued, "is... our... nourishment..."

After the voice appeared, the images projected into Ren Wudao's consciousness suddenly changed again.

This time, it turned into those bewildering, terrible, twisted specters he had encountered or heard about in Fog Gathering.

Are they ghosts?

Wait...

They seem to be...

Life forms... of this world?

"We... feed on... your... negative emotions..."

"The more... twisted... dreadful... we become..."

"The more... terrifying... you are..."

"Shut up!"

Ren Wudao shouted in his heart.

He gradually realized that maybe what the voice said was true.

Those so-called "ghosts" were indeed another world's life forms nourished by human negative emotions.

The stronger, more terrifying, and more bizarre a ghost's power, the more human negative emotions were sent to their world.

And more overflowing negative emotions inherently pointed to some fatal flaw in the human race that could not be ignored.

"We... are... you..."

The voice abruptly halted.

The scene before Ren Wudao cleared once more, returning him to the gray-white plain.

At this moment, he stood under the monumental tree.

In his vision, twisted humanoid figures silently "watched" him.

In that brief moment, Ren Wudao saw several humanoids "burst" like foam.

They shattered into crystalline dust and quickly merged into the ground, disappearing completely.

"Alright, don't listen to that voice."

Suddenly, a familiar voice jolted Ren Wudao's chaotic thoughts.

Zhou Tian!

Right... according to Zhou Tian, I became the Fish Eye of the Mortal World, and he became the Fish Eye of the Fog Realm, establishing a balance between the two worlds.

The words Zhou Tian had spoken before flashed through Ren Wudao's mind.

But why am I in the Fog Realm now, and he's here too?

Where is the Fish Eye of the Mortal World?

Wait...

Ren Wudao was surprised to find that Zhou Tian's form had already revealed itself, yet he remained without form, still just a consciousness.

A dangerous premonition sprouted in his heart.

But before Ren Wudao could ask, Zhou Tian spoke: "This voice comes from the only entity among these things that developed self-awareness. It escaped to the Human World many years ago and has been trying to awaken self-awareness in its own clan. The so-called Fog Gathering is actually its laboratory."

"What?" Ren Wudao was hearing this explanation for the first time.

"You mean the entity that escaped from the Fog Realm has infiltrated the Human World?"

"Yes, and it has become increasingly human-like."

"Over the years, it has found the most effective way, which is to directly feed human consciousness to its clan, but..."

Zhou Tian's voice paused, and he took a step toward Ren Wudao.

Ren Wudao pondered Zhou Tian's words. Hearing this, he couldn't help but ask: "If that's the case, wouldn't it be easy for him to achieve this?"

"No, while human consciousness can indeed be fed to these things to help them awaken self-awareness, once human consciousness leaves the body, it disperses immediately and cannot be preserved or transferred."

"Unless..."

Ren Wudao ceased speaking once again.

"Unless what?"

Ren Wudao pressed on.

"Unless a certain negative emotion of humanity is pushed to its extreme, and the fear rooted deep in human primal instincts becomes the best choice."

I see...

In other words, the reason Fog Gathering exists, often making Ren Wudao feel that the fierce ghosts in Fog Gathering were strange as if restricted by certain abilities—clearly capable of quickly eliminating ordinary humans but weren't doing so.

Now it appears to be a deliberate limitation imposed by that person behind Fog Gathering, because what they truly wanted was not human lives, but the fear after it was amplified to the extreme...