Han Meng had naturally heard whispers of the legends of the Gray Realm.
The aura of humans did not belong to this world. Once they ventured into the Gray Realm for too long, they would inevitably attract a multitude of calamities. However, Han Meng didn't expect these calamities to arrive so swiftly. It had only been a few minutes since he entered the Gray Realm.
The bony claws pierced deeply into the earth, grasping Han Meng along with the ground and rock beneath, forcibly tearing them out and swiftly ascending towards the sky!
The black windbreaker was torn into numerous cracks. Han Meng forcibly fired a shot, breaking the claws, and escaped from the Bone Eagle's grasp. The latter's hollow pupils manifested fury, and its massive bone wings flapped, chasing after Han Meng at an astonishing speed!
Even though Han Meng's speed was not slow, this Bone Eagle's speed was nearly double his. In just a breath, it caught up, and a hurricane rose from the void, slamming Han Meng heavily from the sky!
Boom—!!
Han Meng's body fell from a hundred-meter height, crashing into the black earth and creating dense cracks. He violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his face as pale as paper.
At the same time, the numerous Shadow Centipedes nearby suddenly stopped moving. They looked around the surrounding wilderness as if they had lost their target and began aimlessly circling in place... Finally, the fifth-stage mother turned around from within the black tide, its head's hollow gaze fixed on Han Meng.
"Shit." Han Meng saw this scene with his remaining vision and struggled to rise from the ground, barely able to stand.
Although he didn't know what had happened, whatever had been attracting these Shadow Centipedes since earlier seemed to have disappeared... These Shadow Centipedes had recovered from their blindly following state and redirected their attention to him.
With the mother's shriek, hundreds of Shadow Centipedes surged towards Han Meng like a tsunami, and the mother, resembling a small, winding mountain, was also rapidly approaching this place.
With the Bone Eagle above and the Shadow Tide below, all of Han Meng's escape routes were blocked.
And what he faced was the siege of two fifth-stage calamities.
The ragged black windbreaker swayed lightly. Han Meng sighed deeply, silently lit a cigarette and held it between his lips, his face solemn as he tightly gripped the gun handle...
...
Above the black earth, a vivid crimson color slowly advanced.
This crimson was like the only existing color in this gray world. It was so piercing and eye-catching, as if revealing its danger to all surrounding creatures. He walked quietly for several minutes without any calamity approaching him.
Suddenly, those hollow eyes trembled slightly, as if something was about to awaken. He subconsciously stopped in his steps.
"Where... am I?"
Chen Yifei felt his mind was in chaos, as if he had just awakened from a nightmare. The hollowness in his pupils regained its vitality, and he looked around in a daze.
What... happened just now?
Chen Yifei's last memory was still of igniting the warehouse. He vaguely remembered feasting in the sea of flames, but the specific details were unclear. The only thing he remembered vividly was the pain and suffocation of being burned by the flames in the end.
Regarding the process of fighting with Xi Renjie and others after the warehouse door was opened and entering the Gray Realm... he didn't have any impression at all.
"Did I advance?"
Chen Yifei immediately noticed the changes in his body and his eyes lit up.
Previously, he was only half a step away from advancing to the second stage. It seemed that the last feast had shortened some of his time, completely breaking through that barrier and advancing to the second stage of the Divine Path.
At the same time, he could also perceive that he had gained an additional skill.
Chen Yifei digested the information about this skill in his mind, and his expression gradually became strange... Compared to [Formlessness], this skill seemed even more mysterious.
This skill had two functions.
One was similar to a deception, able to conjure non-existent things from nothingness or transform something into an item with a similar appearance, like magic. However, this magic only changed the appearance and did not possess any additional effects.
Even if he transformed clothes into snakes, these snakes wouldn't actually bite; they could only serve as intimidation.
Judging from this function alone, this skill was simply an illusion, but what truly surprised Chen Yifei was its other function...
He could use something from his own body to remotely replace any item with a similar appearance nearby.
For example, he could use a banana to swap away the gun in an enemy's hand. In this way, the banana in Chen Yifei's hand would become a gun, and the enemy's gun would become a banana... Of course, the banana here didn't have to be a real banana; it could be a stone, a piece of charcoal, or something else with its appearance modified by an illusion.
The simplest application of this function was to derive a "law": when Chen Yifei and an enemy simultaneously pointed a gun and a banana at each other, regardless of who held which weapon, the one who would ultimately be shot would always be the enemy.
These two functions, the former being purely "illusory," while the latter could conceal "reality" within the "illusory," alternating between reality and illusion, making it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood.
"It sounds like some kind of trick for killing people..." Chen Yifei pondered.
"Then let's call it... [Crimson Deception]."
After digesting his new skill, Chen Yifei began to carefully observe his surroundings. This place looked very much like the legendary Gray Realm, but he didn't know why he was here... However, Chu Muyun had told him earlier that under the influence of the Twisted Divine Path, he would enter a brief state of mental confusion every time he advanced.
Maybe his appearance here was also related to that state of mental confusion?
Chen Yifei walked aimlessly while pondering. At this moment, a loud rumble came from the distance.
Chen Yifei turned his head and saw a large dust cloud rising from the horizon, with several blurred shadows flashing within, as if a great battle was underway.
"Is it a calamity? Or a person?"
Chen Yifei's eyes slightly narrowed. After a moment of hesitation, he still stepped towards there.
Boom—!
The earth trembled as a skeletal giant eagle soared into the sky from the flying dust. At the same time, a bloodied figure frantically dashed through the low sky, fleeing rapidly towards the end of the horizon.
Above the earth, a dense black tide surged, and a massive Shadow Centipede resembling a small mountain wound its way closely behind that bloodied figure.
Under the dual pursuit of the land and the sky, that bloodied figure did not give up any chance of escape, constantly seeking a breakthrough between the overlapping Bone Eagle and Shadow Tide. However, his speed was still slower compared to the Bone Eagle. After dodging several times in succession, he was once again slammed heavily into the ground by a claw!
"Han Meng?!" Chen Yifei recognized that fleeting figure and was shocked.