A deep, dark jungle. The whistling wind rustled the leaves in the forest. There was a symphony of annoying noisy insects and the occasional roar of beasts in the distance. Yang Qiu, who had traveled back from the civilized world to this wild jungle, was dumbfounded.
"WTF?!"
Yang Qiu looked around in horror. Not far from his crossing point, the cross-sections of several fallen trees were still very fresh. There were many blackened bloodstains on the crushed and trampled vegetation and soil around, as well as broken arrows, fragments of clothing corroded by black magic, and remains of armor twisted and deformed by some spell.
This was where he'd had that big fight with the lunatics of the Inquisition. Apparently, the battlefield had been cleaned up and the bodies had been taken away. The lunatics probably didn't find him and left.
——That's not the point! The point is, how did he return to this fucking world?!
Yang Qiu lowered his head and looked at the stone ball in his hand. After all, he was a dark magician who had struggled in this alien world for three hundred years. His control over magic power was not only meticulous, but his style was very different from the indigenous spellcasters in this world who relied entirely on faith to cast spells. Even if he had traveled through time without even having time to take the college entrance examination, he would not abandon the scientific method.
If his perception was correct... when he input magic power into the stone ball with the qualities of a spellcaster, the slight pulling sensation was transmitted from the direction of the stone ball to his entire body.
"Could it be that... this thing is a dimension-travelling artefact? It has the magic power to jump back and forth between two planes?" Yang Qiu thought uncertainly, "But when did this thing get into my space ring? Could it be that I picked it up accidentally and forgot about it?"
He couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he looked around and found a big tree that was sturdy enough but had sparse leaves on the crown and climbed up. This was an instinct he had developed from being forced to survive in the wild for decades. It was best to climb a tree when spending the night in the forest, otherwise you never knew when you would be bitten by a small thing that jumped out of the grass; and you couldn't climb a tree with a too dense crown, because such a tree might hide poisonous snakes or other annoying things...
Picking a tree branch to sit on, Yang Qiu took out pyrethrum powder from his space ring and sprinkled it on his body, then he calmed down and started meditating. Meditation was a common magical trick used by spellcasters to quickly restore magic power, which was somewhat similar to the Taoist meditation on Earth.
Of course, one did not need to sit in meditation to be in a meditative state. One only needed to concentrate on releasing all of the senses and quickly absorbing the floating magic factors between heaven and earth.
In this dark magical world, magic was also a very dangerous thing. In the process of absorbing magic power, it was possible that the indigenous spellcasters would gradually lose their sanity, degenerate, lose their ability to think intelligently, and turn into killing monsters with only instincts, or even turn into a pool of rotten meat.
Once upon a time, Yang Qiu was an unlucky magic apprentice. He helped an old man sweep the wizard's tower every day and racked his brains on how to make delicious food. The old man warned him countless times about the three laws of spellcasters: Don't be dazzled by power, don't be addicted to magic, and don't fall into the endless pursuit of knowledge... Yang Qiu's ears were covered with calluses from hearing the old man's warnings.
After becoming an apprentice dark magician... Yang Qiu discovered that although absorbing magic power did have certain dangers, it was not to the extent that one could easily lose control. At least it was still easy for him.
Well, this was also the reason why the old man soon became dissatisfied with him and kicked him out... In the face of jealousy, the master-disciple relationship became vulnerable.
Yang Qiu, who was already quite talented in magic, recovered his magic power particularly quickly this time. After about ten minutes, Yang Qiu opened his eyes and ended his meditation.
"It's probably because I had a good sleep and a hearty meal back on Earth. I haven't felt this state of relaxation for at least sixty years." Yang Qiu sighed after decades of painful running away, put on his gloves and took out the stone ball.
He definitely didn't want to stay in this fucked up world, he wanted to go back to Earth. Since this stone ball could have the power to travel through dimensions after injecting magic power into it, he had to try and use this stone ball to find a way to return home.
A faint blue light symbolizing abundant magic power lit up on his palm, and Yang Qiu tried to inject the magic power carefully. As soon as the magic power touched the surface of the sphere, Yang Qiu's face changed drastically - this thing was like a black hole with an independent consciousness, not only madly sucking away his magic power, but also trying to compete with him for the control of it!
"What the hell!" Yang Qiu instinctively realized that something was wrong and immediately tried to cut off the magic connection. But... things seemed to be out of control. Even with his control as a high-level dark magician, he couldn't even snatch the magic back from the stone ball...
Soon, his magic power, which had just recovered to its full state, was completely sucked away by the stone ball. Then, the ordinary stone ball suddenly turned into a faint white mist with a "bang" sound, and merged into Yang Qiu's body in front of his horrified eyes...
"Ugh…!!"
Yang Qiu's whole body trembled, his head tilted back, and he began to shake violently and uncontrollably. It was like diving into the water from a great height, or like being wrapped in undried cement. Every pore in his body seemed to be squeezed by some external force... Something was invading his body like an uninvited guest!
This illegal invasion was not limited to the body, but also included the soul - his brain seemed to be being forcefully penetrated by some unknown external force. The huge and complex information, sometimes as high-pitched as an opera and sometimes as low as a whisper, was frantically washing away his reason and corroding his nerves!
"It's... an Elder God!"
In the double pain of body and soul, Yang Qiu, whose eyes began to roll back, calmed down in his heart. The first of the three laws of spellcasters was not to be deceived by power. This lesson, which was learned by countless seekers at a heavy price and left to future generations... also existed in the ancient teachings of various "professionals". The reason was that the path of pursuing power was the way in which ancient gods tried to revive themselves - and the revival of the ancient gods was a huge mountain weighing on the heads of all intelligent races in this dark alien world!
The Stone of Crossing Planes... was undoubtedly the tentacle of the ancient god of the "rule system"!
"So that's how it is - a mortal body simply can't withstand the pull of traveling through planes. The reason I was able to successfully wear it back then was because the ancient gods were anchoring it!"
"But when I traveled through space, I knew nothing about the rules of this world. Only by 'not knowing and not seeing' could I avoid being influenced by the ancient gods and successfully leave this jungle."
"Three hundred years later, I came to this jungle again and awakened the tentacle of the ancient god... Now it's actively approaching me!"
"Yes - no wonder after traveling across the Earth and coming back this time, not much time has passed here. The cross-section of the tree I crashed into during the previous battle is still very new, and the bloodstains on the ground can still be seen... The reason is that I, an Earthling, have been anchored by the tentacle of this ancient god!"
"It wants to assimilate me and use me as an anchor!"
His mind raced as he sorted out the causes and consequences. Yang Qiu, who had been twitching and rolling his eyes, finally had his pupils return to the center of his eye sockets.
"You're kidding, idiot!!"
Anger was an emotion that could multiply a person's mental strength in a very short period of time. Yang Qiu was not just angry at this moment, he was angry enough to spit blood... He was originally waiting to enter the third year of high school, but he was dragged into this world without knowing it and suffered for three hundred years. This was bad enough!
He finally came back to Earth, only to see his sister and be rejected. He hadn't even had time to see his mother. He just had one meal from his hometown food, but was then immediately told that the steamed buns and spicy hot pot were his last meal - how could he be willing to accept that! !
In a rage, Yang Qiu not only did not try to close all his senses and grit his teeth to endure like the indigenous magicians did when their minds were invaded by the ancient gods, but instead he opened up all his senses, forced himself into a meditative state, and frantically absorbed the magic power from all around.
The exhausted magic power began to recover within a few seconds - this too-fast recovery was harmful to the caster, but Yang Qiu didn't care about that - when the magic power recovered enough for his soul to have the strength to fight, he concentrated all his mental will and launched a frantic counterattack against the whispers of the ancient god invading his brain!
Isn't it just mental pollution? Isn't it just nagging? Who can't do that?
The veins on Yang Qiu's forehead, temples, and neck were all bulging, and his mind was divided into several thoughts. Each thought carried a lot of information, which was mixed with the old god's whispers to drown it out.
Well... it sounded very grand, but in fact, Yang Qiu, a high-level magician with a spiritual power a hundred times that of an ordinary person was simply chanting "Gangnam Style", "Spielen Dota", "Little Apple", "The Most Dazzling National Style", "Five Rings Song", "Mouse Loves Rice", "My Skateboard Shoes", "The most annoying song that anyone's heard".
It doesn't matter if you can't sing the whole song, just focus on the most catchy refrains and sing them repeatedly.
The brainwashing songs he could remember were not enough, and he had a lot of free time to recite the core socialist values, the motto of Anshi No. 2 Senior High School, chemical formulas, and Hua Mulan's "The Memorial to the Emperor on Leaving the Capital" and "The Road to Shu is Difficult".
It doesn't matter if you can't remember everything, just recite the parts you remember over and over again!
Isn't it just a massive information war? How could this successor of earthly cultures lose?
Yang Qiu's eyes were bloodshot and his expression was ferocious. The high intensity of squeezing his own mental potential caused the blood in his body to surge wildly. A large number of capillaries on the surface of the skin on his neck and face burst due to being unable to bear the heavy burden, and blood slowly oozed from his nostrils, eye sockets, and corners of his mouth.
This kind of pain was nothing to him! He could still output at full strength!
In the spiritual realm, the white mist that was entangled with his soul was gradually stained with Yang Qiu's color...