Frightening Joke: Above the Mist

"Alright, you don't need to think about escape methods anymore."

Bai Yanren cast a shallow glance at Yu Wenxuan.

"I don't want to kill you anymore. You can be a witness."

"Witness?" Yu Wenxuan found this claim of not killing rather annoying. If living was unpleasant, it was better to die early, "Witness what? Witness you busy yourself for nothing, only to be disappointed?"

Yu Wenxuan's expression was disdainful: "You are a being born from residue, now trying to merge the Fog Realm and the Mortal World into one, merge residue and humans into one, to create a new world. But in doing so, humans won't thank you, residue won't thank you either. You are a monster, an anomaly, you have no kind, no one to share your joy and ambition with, so you need to flaunt it to me?"

Yu Wenxuan even reflected on himself, a sneer escaping his lips: "Do I also appear neither human nor ghost? Am I like your kind?"

Bai Yanren didn't reply.

His gaze swept over Yu Wenxuan's calm face, the power originating from residue roamed the surroundings, a power with the same origin as ghosts.

It was like countless invisible fine threads, burrowing into the texture of human skin and flesh, clearly perceiving everything about humans.

So Bai Yanren well understood what Yu Wenxuan was thinking and knew what Yu Wenxuan intended to do.

But he didn't care.

Just like Yu Wenxuan said.

He was a person without kin, his only kin... being the separated copy of himself.

One called Bai Yanliang, a failed individual tainted by human emotions.

If Bai Yanliang abandoned human emotions and consciousness, he might still have a chance to compete with this original body for the Fog Realm's Origin power, after all, they share the same root, or rather... they are two sides of the same person.

But just like what was seen before, Bai Yanliang was already tainted.

At this moment, Bai Yanliang was a complete human, and humans, when faced with the power of consciousness, were merely worms that only knew how to squirm.

It's not arrogance, but fact.

Bai Yanren waved his hand, restricting Yu Wenxuan's movements and speech, capturing him behind.

"I told you, you only need to witness."

Exactly.

The transformation had commenced.

Although the Fog Realm didn't open on time, the outcome would not change.

From the moment Bai Yanren was born from residue, achieving self-awareness, it was no longer a homeland.

That world could not accommodate a being with self-awareness.

And the human world, or the material world, couldn't accommodate an anomalous creature capable of altering material with consciousness.

What Yu Wenxuan said was indeed correct, he was rejected by both worlds, which is why he created this thing called Fog Gathering, conducting experiments of final integration with Fog Gathering's fierce ghost and selected humans.

Fortunately, he succeeded.

A new world was about to be born, where spirit and matter depend on each other, life and death transform into one another, and the cycle of matter would no longer be random, everything would become completely controllable.

Bai Yanren's form flickered, bringing Yu Wenxuan above Ye City.

His terrifying consciousness seemed to spawn strands of heartstrings, roaming over the myriad citizens of Ye City.

Just like a spider weaving a massive web in all directions, Bai Yanren sat steadily at the center, the intersecting silken threads binding every human, as well as each residue, to fuse, destroy, and be reborn. To give and to take, life and death, all at his command.

"The human fear accumulated in Fog Gathering, and the scattered resentment of residue, is enough."

"Let it begin."

Yu Wenxuan's heart shook, seeing with his own eyes, a crimson door appearing out of thin air before Bai Yanren.

And the oppressive feeling that door brought was extremely familiar.

This was clearly the Fog Gathering.

Behind this door was the Fog Gathering!

When the real upheaval occurred, it was actually silent.

Bai Yanren did not perform any earth-shattering action, nor utter any grand words.

He simply pushed the massive door with force...

Gray and white mist, terrifying in nature, suddenly surged out from the door.

And amidst the contesting forces of the giant tree in the sky and the spirits on the earth, they seemed particularly insignificant at this moment.

Cracks like tangible lines spread across the void.

It seemed to shatter the world into shards of broken glaze.

From the cracks, dazzling lights shone, gray and white mist "whooshing" from the cracks, as if the opened door of Fog Gathering was not just about releasing mist.

But the moment the door opened, it shattered the barrier of the material world, and now, every cracked gap in the air was emitting mist.

The inverted tree from the Fog Realm seemed clutched by an invisible giant hand, the earth began to tremble, whispering softly then gradually evolving into a roar.

The crowd in the city was panic-stricken, the fissures on the ground rapidly spreading, branching out like a spider's web.

Buildings creaked in intense tremors, then began to collapse, rocks flying, dust billowing.

From the gaps in the ground, eerie gray and white mist emerged, turning everything it touched into blinding white indistinctness.

Outside of Ye City, the change in the entire world was even more astonishing.

Mountains collapsed, waves surged toward shores at incredible speed, forming towering waves dozens of meters high, devouring anything that dared to obstruct them.

The voices of the people became the most insignificant wails in this moment.

Cries and shouts attempted to weave together, yet they still dissipated within the monumental changes brought by the powers of heaven and earth.

Peaks, seabeds, skies, earth, every inch of fractured space was seeping out mist.

This mist spread worldwide at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye.

And more terrifyingly, within the mist, there were eerie, indistinct human-shaped figures.

"Before the final plan, I gave you all a choice."

Bai Yanren said softly.

"My mother, shortly after I was born, wanted to annihilate me."

"After failing to annihilate, she began mentally tormenting me, hoping to turn me into a madman with a split consciousness."

"I prepared in advance, separating the blankest part from my birth," Bai Yanren looked at Yu Wenxuan and smiled, "I didn't leave a trace of resentment in the separated part, not even a hint of negative emotion."

"But... my mother still succeeded, even though I separated a blank Bai Yanliang first, ten years ago, the other half of me did exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia."

"I sealed one half of myself in the Time-Space Gap opened by the key, while the other half wasn't enough to act, could only lay dormant, nurturing, waiting for time."

"On that night... I locked one half of myself, hid the other half, creating the space for the consciousness initially separated and named Bai Yanliang, to freely operate."

"See... I have been exceedingly kind."

"Even so, I still gave you all the right to choose."

"Not a corpse, not a skeleton, I am not me, man is not man."

"Do you know what most of you chose?"

Bai Yanren laughed heartily:

"You clearly know those beside you are ghosts, yet you still... refuse to let go of each other."

"Therefore, the new world I intend to create won't encounter resistance."

"On the contrary... those attempting to stop it from arriving, are truly your human enemies."