Yang Ze thought about how to answer that question. With his lack of knowledge of this place, no matter what he says, there were bound to be some mistakes. So, instead of making things difficult for himself, it was much better to just stay silent.

He simply opened his mouth, as if wanting to speak, but he didn't say a word. Instead, he showed them inside his mouth, where half his tongue was missing.

The girls in front of him simply hopped in front of him while carefully observing his tongue, which looked like it was cut off purposely.

Yang Ze's body trembled in response as if he was extremely afraid of them, even taking a step forward. This lessened the somewhat cautious expression on the girls' faces as they carefully observed him further.

Yang Ze thought about something as he simply raised his hand and pointed in a random direction.

"You came from there?" The oldest girl amongst the group couldn't help but ask with a frown while her eyes occasionally glanced at the other girls beside her.

"Wait here." After making sure that he was harmless, she signalled the girls to follow her before the five of them stood almost twenty meters away from Yang Ze while whispering to each other.

"What should we do?" The youngest girl amongst the five, named Qing Cao, was the first one to speak, her voice containing a hint of excitement and fear.

This was the first time someone from the outside came to their village. For a moment, she didn't know what to do. On one hand, she wanted to help, and on the other hand, she was afraid that something might go wrong.

"Kick him out." Mei Ling, who was a year older than her, spoke in a cold, emotionless voice.

"We are already having difficulty trying to survive. It is impossible for us to take care of one more burden."

Her words made the group of girls hesitate for a while. Just as she said, they were already having difficulty with their own survival; how could they hope to take care of one more person?

Qing Cao, the youngest of them, didn't say a word but looked at the leader of the group, the oldest girl Yan-er, with a pleading gaze.

How could Yan-er not understand what she meant by it? In the end, she closed her eyes for a long time. Her eyelashes trembled from time to time as if she were making a hard decision.

"Forget it." In the end, she couldn't help but let out a sigh before nodding towards Qing Cao.

"You…" The remaining three girls were a bit angry by her decision, but in the end, they chose not to say a word. Instead, they all looked at Qing Cao with an annoyed expression, who, in response, simply averted her gaze, though one could see the slight smile at the corner of her lips.

Yang Z,e who was standing far away from them, clearly heard everything they said. From what he had seen and heard, he could already guess a few things.

The entire town didn't have any adults, and the children in the village were dependent on these five girls for survival.

Though he still had many doubts, he wasn't in a hurry. He would have plenty of time in the future to uncover the whole truth.

He watched intently as the youngest girl, Qing Cao, walked towards him.

"Come with me." Without waiting for him to respond, Qing Cao pulled him away, taking him towards one of the distant crude houses.

Yang Ze didn't pull back or say anything. He quietly followed behind the girl while looking curiously around him.

Once they reached their destination, the girl pushed open the crude door, revealing a simple inside with two beds, which were more like a bunch of sticks grouped together to make a bed above the ground.

Other than the two beds and a couple of clothes, there wasn't anything else.

Yang Ze quietly looked around as the girl finally released his hand.

"This is where you will live from now on."

Pointing to the bed on the side, she continued.

"And you can pick any clothes that you want."

Yang Ze merely nodded in response, appearing extremely thankful.

"The food will be distributed in the evening."

Speaking till here, she hesitated for a moment before asking again.

"You do know the rules, right?"

Yang Ze simply shook his head in response.

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" This time, the little girl's voice increased a few pitches as if she couldn't believe it.

"How did you even survive till now?"

Yang Ze's eyes merely narrowed in response as his body shivered in fright, as if he remembered something extremely terrifying.

"...."

"I almost forgot that you can't even speak." She kept on muttering to herself before patting her chest and speaking in a grim voice.

"Remember… there are only three rules."

"Do not go outside the house unless we call you."

"Do not ask for anything."

"And do not make any decision by yourself."

"Do it, and you will be safe."

"Do you understand?"

Hearing her solemn words, Yang Ze simply nodded in response.

"Good." The little girl simply clapped her hands with a slight smile before rushing out of the house, shutting the door, leaving behind a lingering voice.

"I will be back soon."

"..."

"..."

"What a weird child." Once the door was shut and the room once again enveloped in darkness, Yang Ze finally muttered to himself. He observed the room first and, after finding nothing amiss, simply walked out of the house with his body enveloped by the illusion, making him perfectly blend with the surroundings.

Yang Ze first looked at the five girls, who, after taking one last look at the village, headed out with their bows and arrows.

"Now then…" With them gone, Yang Ze began to explore the village slowly. Unfortunately for him, nothing was out of the ordinary. He even managed to peek inside the houses, but their insides were no different from the ones he was living in.

The only noticeable thing about the village was an old water well at the very back of the village. He tried to peek in, but found it to be covered by the similar black fog that he had seen previously at the cave's entrance.

"This thing again?" Yang Ze tried using his all-seeing eyes to identify what it was, but nothing came up. In the end, he could only give up hopelessly. As for trying to explore it, the moment this idea came to his mind, he felt an eerie sensation crawling up his spine… It was as if his instincts were warning him not to try it.

"What a weird feeling." Yang Ze didn't make any rash moves, but after some hesitation, raised his hand, using the Sevenfold illusion, and created a clone.

"There shouldn't be a problem now." Yang Ze wasn't sure what lay beyond the black fog. Though he didn't want to take risks, it didn't prevent him from summoning his clone and using it to explore the mysteries beyond the fog.

Controlling the clone, Yang Ze glanced at the pitch-black well before jumping in.

The moment Yang Ze jumped down, the black fog underneath him seemed to have come alive. Instead of fog, it looked more like a living entity with innumerable tentacles all wrapping around the clone, dragging it into the water.

The moment Yang Ze's clone entered the dark water, in that instant, Yang Ze felt a profound sense of nothingness. He knew that he had jumped into a small well, and should be surrounded by the walls, but instead, he felt like he was in the middle of an endless ocean.

No matter how much he struggled to find the wall of the well, he couldn't find anything.

Even with his night vision, he wasn't able to see anything. The pitch-black fog was constantly covering his eyes, making it impossible for him to see even his hands, much less anything around him.

Blind and straddled in what felt like an ocean… words were not enough to describe the feeling of terror that Yang Ze was feeling at the moment. There were only a few things that could bring out the most primal fear in a man, and being stranded in the middle of an endless ocean was definitely one of them.

Thankfully, it was just a clone, so after the initial fear passed, a feeling of excitement and novelty overwhelmed him. It was a weird feeling, controlling both his real body, which was out in the real world and his clone, which seemed to be in an ocean.

Controlling the clone, Yang Ze felt the dark fog around him thicken before a sense of weightlessness overwhelmed his body.

"What the…" And just when he was wondering what was going on, he felt the surrounding temperature plummet as the black fog disappeared, finally revealing the surroundings to him.

And the moment Yagn Ze saw his surroundings, a shiver ran down his spine as he almost cursed at the top of his lungs.

"FUCK."

What came into view was an endless ocean and a sky full of stars. As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but water.

Further, in the distance, he could even see waves as high as hundreds of meters, rampaging all around.

"How the hell did I end up here?" Yang Ze's mind almost stopped working. He was sure that he jumped into the well. In that case, how did he even end up in this ocean?

"A teleportation? Or a secret realm?" These were the first thoughts that crossed his mind. He used to have a teleport skill, so the idea of a teleportation point didn't seem outrageous to him. And he had explored a ruin with Cang Yue before, so the idea of the Secret Realm was feasible too.

"Just my shitty luck." Yang Ze constantly felt the strength of his clone fading away. It was as if the ocean itself was draining him of energy.

Were it before, he wouldn't have cared about it in the least; after all, he had the blue talent, affinity for water.

But he lost it when he tried to merge the blue talents in the Caludron of creation due to his overexcitement.

Now, without the talent, Affinity for water(blue), it was impossible for him to breathe underwater.

Feeling the fading strength in his body, Yang Ze didn't fight back, but simply gave up. He quietly gazed at the starry sky that was exceptionally clear from this place.

Slowly, his body began to sink into the water.

Even without the ability to breathe underwater, Yang Ze could hold his breath for almost half an hour, and that was when his clones had only thirty per cent of his strength.

As Yang Ze began to slowly sink down, he felt an invisible force locking on his body.

It was an intangible thing, forcing him to turn around, with his face towards the endless darkness beneath him.

Yang Ze didn't know how deep the ocean was… It just seemed endless.

And just when he was wondering what was going to happen, he saw a sight that he would never forget.

In the endless darkness beneath him, two pairs of eyes slowly opened. The scale of the eyes was so big that for the first time, Yang Ze felt his own insignificance.

But before he could come out of this shock of his, he saw what looked like a mouth opening in the ocean beneath him.

The scale of the mouth was so massive that its size rivalled the entire Yuyang City. Yang Ze had no doubts that this thing beneath him could swallow the entire Yuyang City in a single bite.

"This… this… this…" Even though he was controlling the clone, Yang Ze felt a sense of terror unlike anything before. Even in his wildest imagination, he hadn't expected to face something like this.

For a moment, he was even cursing Lin Meilin and her eighteen generations.

And at the same time, he was thankful in his heart for not doing something as stupid as jumping by himself.

He couldn't see what the creature beneath him was. It was perhaps the largest living thing he had ever seen. In front of this behemoth, the previous Primodial Earth Sovereign was akin to a small child.

Yang Ze watched in awe as the giant mouth filled with countless teeth the size of mountains, some even bigger than the sword sect's peak, came crashing towards him.

Yang Ze wanted to use his tempest call, but to his dismay, he found out that his entire strength was suppressed. He couldn't even use his internal energy and mental energy. This also prevented him from using Inverted Wail.

In the end, the only thing he could do was watch helplessly as the insurmountable giant mouth swallowed an insignificant speck of dust like him in a single gulp, and with it, an overwhelming pressure descended, crushing the clone into nothingness.

"HUff… huff… huff…" Back in the small village, Yang Ze, who was standing in front of the well, took a step back while gasping for breath.

He didn't even dare to take another look at the well. Instead, he simply took a step back and rushed towards the house he had been assigned before shutting the door, while his back was drenched with sweat.

"This…" He opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was his gasp.

It took a moment for him to come back to his senses before he gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice.

"This damned world."

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