Chapter 382: Old Man's Lullaby, Super Giant Octopus

“A lullaby? Well, it sounds like some sort of ritualistic thing. Could it be used to lull some entity to sleep—perhaps that fellow who resets the entire realm? He must be the one occupying this void.”

Wang Yu’s associative powers were quite impressive; once he confirmed the melody was a lullaby, he quickly drew connections. Yet, these were merely conjectures, and without verification, they held little significance.

“If we want to get out, we must find a way to break the peculiar nature of the area where we fell. Otherwise, with our current abilities, it is impossible to fly out, and we still cannot confirm the status of the Professor and the others.”

Avia pondered briefly. The problem returned to how to escape this place. They could not stay in this hellhole, which was scoured by a wave of destruction every single day. Heaven knows when a single mistake—failing to catch the loosening of the void on the eve of the destruction tide—would lead to their absolute demise.

“It’s a pity the Scarlet Mark was handed over to the Lady of the Night. Otherwise, locating the Professor shouldn’t be difficult. The silver lining is that the Night Church should be able to pinpoint our location.”

“But relying on the Night Church to rescue us is highly unlikely. The Dragon God sent us down here, and He certainly has the means to ensure we never leave alive. To be fair, if not for our unique nature, it would have been over the very first day the destruction tide arrived.”

Shaking his head, Wang Yu’s words carried a tinge of regret. The only artifacts he carried now were the Endless Pages, the Banner of Triumph, and the Casting Hammer; none of these items with absolute properties seemed of any use in the current scenario.

“Wang Yu, since you are certain you can hear that lullaby even in the void—and even more clearly—and we cannot find the source of the sound in the material world, is it possible that the origin of this melody exists within the void itself?”

The girl pointed toward the city square, the spot where the lullaby sounded loudest to Wang Yu, though their previous search there had yielded nothing.

“It’s not just possible; that’s essentially how it is, unless this environment is so peculiar that there’s a third realm beyond the void and the material world.”

With a grin, the answer to the problem came much faster than expected. Although Wang Yu didn't know what he could do even if he found the source of the song, it was far better than being completely in the dark. Change was a good thing.

The two headed straight for the square. Searching took about half a day. It was now a sun-drenched afternoon, and the entire city exuded a sense of languor. Most pedestrians walked aimlessly, and occasionally one could see a few figures slumped by the roadside, lost in thought, their minds elsewhere.

Avia and Wang Yu sat down in the square. A quick glance revealed that the middle-aged man Wang Yu had tripped with the power of the Chariot on the first day was already there, leaning against a tree, staring blankly at a photograph in his hands.

“The people in this city seem a bit too idle, don’t they? Judging by the scale of the city and its use of magic, it doesn’t seem prosperous enough for these residents to live their lives doing absolutely nothing.”

While waiting for the destruction tide to descend, Wang Yu and Avia had the leisure to observe the city’s character. Wang Yu’s casual remark, however, immediately made him realize something was wrong.

“No… the state of these residents is wrong, both mentally and otherwise.”

Wang Yu frowned. The behaviors of the residents he had seen in the city began to string together. The city guards, while maintaining a semblance of posture, didn't even keep their backs straight.

The shops seemed to be going through the motions of daily work; there was no haggling, no disputes over prices—a rarity indeed.

Not to mention the residents idling about on the roadside. Upon arrival, the crowd had felt lively, but thinking carefully, that seemed to be a false impression created by these aimless wanderers.

“Tsk, what does this crowd feel like to me? It’s as if they’ve all just given up, going through their usual routines, only the driving force behind them has completely changed.”

Wang Yu walked up to a resident, observed his expression, and then turned to Avia, who was looking down at the crowd from the square’s high platform.

“Indeed. The state of these residents is very strange. Rather than saying they’ve given up, it’s more like they’ve found a sense of relief after accepting something.”

The Perfect Fractal Lens projected the residents’ facial expressions before Avia one by one. The looks in their eyes varied, but nostalgia, regret, and relief were the dominant emotions. Deeper than that, Avia could only sense a resolute determination.

“Remember those movies from Earth you told me about? The state of these residents is a bit like that—knowing what is about to happen, and then choosing to accept it and find peace.”

The girl turned to meet Wang Yu’s gaze, stating her judgment. The rest was already tacitly understood by both.

What was coming, and what needed to be accepted and reconciled with, was actually quite clear: the destruction tide that scoured this realm every day. These residents seemed to have learned of its arrival…

“It’s almost certain. This guy seems to be the lord of this land; look at the emblem on his chest, it’s the same as the mark on that building resembling the City Hall. If even this guy can come to the square looking so melancholy, it must be a disaster on the level of the destruction tide.”

Wang Yu crouched in front of the middle-aged man, poking the medal on his chest with a finger imbued with the power of the Chariot. As he spoke, the man looked left and right in confusion, unable to understand what was happening.

The mystery deepened, but the path forward for the two became clearer: wait for the destruction tide, then enter the void.

Like a truly idle couple, Avia and Wang Yu sat back-to-back in the square, discussing their future plans while waiting for the tide of destruction.

The daylight faded, and the sky in the distance began to collapse once more. The destruction tide rolled in, sweeping away everything in its path. This time, Wang Yu and Avia did not run; they simply waited quietly for the void to unseal on the eve of the tide’s arrival.

The surrounding residents once again showed terror, instinctively beginning to flee. Yet, some kept running, while others stopped after a few steps. It seemed that in the face of this great horror, true acceptance was hard to achieve; instincts were not so easily overcome.

The void unsealed. Avia communicated with the void to open a rift, and Wang Yu pried it wider. They leaped in, the entire process fluid and flawless, without a single mistake.

Trailing the filaments formed by the Shattered Meteorite Blade, the two began to descend at a constant speed. Upon entering the void, Wang Yu had already spotted their target.

Not far below, a figure appeared in their field of vision. As they descended and the distance closed, the lullaby in Wang Yu’s ears grew louder.

“It’s a nice tune, sure, but it’s a bit too noisy…”

Wang Yu muttered, telling the girl to grab his neck and hang onto his back. He gripped the filaments of the Shattered Meteorite Blade, waiting for the destruction tide to pass before descending further; he had to ensure they could retreat from the void immediately, as it was unclear whether the figure below was friend or foe.

After a brief wait, the destruction tide ended. Wang Yu began to descend, extending the power of the Chariot toward the figure that kept singing the lullaby. He paused for a moment upon contact, then gathered his courage, grabbed the entity, and pulled himself and Avia toward it.

“This guy seems to be a god, but his state is just like that of the ancient Night Deity after his brain was removed. Only the power and the shell are here; the ‘soul’ has no idea where it went.”

Wang Yu hung in front of the figure, describing its state. The feedback from the Chariot’s power surprised him—how could a brainless god exist here?

The entity appeared as an old man with a kind face, wrinkled skin, and long, white hair and beard, giving the impression of a grandfatherly figure who cared for his descendants.

The entity showed no reaction to their arrival. As Wang Yu said, it had no “soul.” The only thing moving was its mouth; the lullaby was sung by this entity.

The scene was quite eerie: a kind old man suspended in the void, mouth moving incessantly, singing a lullaby without end. And the fact that he was a god whose “soul” had vanished made it even more bizarre.

“…A deity? Combining what he is doing now with the deities not found in the records of the continent, he is likely the Dream God—a deity with a very small domain but a vast reach of existence.”

Avia’s judgment remained swift and sharp. After Wang Yu used his experience to determine the entity was a god, she quickly formed a hypothesis about which god it was.

Dreams—something almost all sentient beings possess—are vague and hazy. Logically, this would be the best time to influence their minds, guiding the behaviors and thoughts of sentient beings to a great extent.

Yet, in the history of the continent, there had never been a record of a deity sending dreams. Succubi and void creatures knocking on doors in dreams were common, but this was a strange anomaly, which became the key to confirming the old man’s identity.

“That makes sense. But it seems I’ve stumbled upon a windfall. Since this guy’s ‘soul’ isn’t in his body, I can temporarily take over the power of this shell with the Chariot’s power.”

Wang Yu stared at the “old man music player” for a while, then covered it with the power of the Chariot. Much like his previous control of the soulless orc Amon’s body, Wang Yu took over a portion of this body’s power.

However, the power of a deity was too vast; Wang Yu could only command a tiny fraction. Some information was transmitted back: the entity’s power was spreading through the void, seemingly masking something visually, and only visually, nothing else.

After telling Avia, Wang Yu drove the Chariot’s power to withdraw. The object masked by the deity’s power gradually revealed itself to them. The moment Wang Yu saw it, he couldn't help but almost choke.

“Damn it. Dreams, the ocean floor, a giant octopus—the elements are so complete that if I didn’t know better, I’d have to call you Cthulhu today.”

The reason for Wang Yu’s loss of composure was simple. The moment the deity’s power was withdrawn, the background of the entire space seemed to tear away like a curtain, revealing what was hidden beneath.

Located at the very bottom of the space, serving as a background or foundation, was a gargantuan, entirely green octopus of unimaginable size.

Its existence filled the entire void. Its thick, winding tentacles, absurd in number and length, wrapped around the void like roots. As the veil lifted, Wang Yu and Avia realized that the moment they entered the void, they had already been captured by this giant “octopus.”

Fortunately, its eyes—or what were likely its eyes—were tightly shut, deep in a profound slumber.