"Alright, I've recovered. We can leave now. Where should we go first?"
Qian Niao looked at Wan Lei.
"Let's find the others first. While looking for the others and Xiao Yu, we can also search for the core of this ruin.
This place is truly vast. I suspect it was once a small space, a self-contained world. My communicator can scan for humans within a million miles, and yet there are only a few scattered across that entire radius."
"Then let's go. I think we might be in some fringe area. Let's find your companions first. Where there are more people, it might be closer to the center."
"Okay, the closest one is fifty thousand miles to the west. Let's go find that person first."
As Wan Lei finished speaking, he naturally reached out to hold Qi Manyao's small hand.
Qi Manyao's face turned as cold as ice, and she directly pulled her hand away, sneering,
"If you want to hold it, then keep holding it. Don't let go even when you see Fang Xiaoyu. If you don't dare, then don't pull me now. Sneaking around and being secretive like this, I won't play with you."
After a moment of thought, Wan Lei decided not to hold her hand.
"Tsk, coward, idiot, henpecked husband, useless weakling..."
Wan Lei pretended not to hear Qi Manyao's incessant taunts.
No choice, he was henpecked.
In this strange and eerie place, they were extremely cautious. Qi Manyao's ancient armor remained on, and Wan Lei's armor was also activated, though his helmet was not revealed.
He felt it was his duty and responsibility to let the little fangirl beside him admire his perfect face.
The Lei Yao Armor, crafted by the Immortal Venerable himself, was impervious to all poisons and could naturally resist the erosion of memes.
During this time, Wan Lei also removed the dim Dao Yun power core from his chest and replaced it with a new one.
They followed the four-way underground world passages towards the nearest light spot. Along the way, they encountered many bizarre memes.
These memes were strange and varied. Some had three heads and six arms, some resembled telephone poles, and more bizarrely, they encountered a talking house.
The house incessantly invited them to come in and sit, speaking in flowery language about the endless delicacies within, how it was a paradise, and that entering would grant them everything they desired.
Wan Lei looked at the house as if it were an idiot, but to his surprise, Qi Manyao and Qian Niao's eyes showed bewilderment and greed, and they were involuntarily drawn towards the house.
This startled Wan Lei greatly. He quickly pulled the two of them away, and only after flying a considerable distance did they awaken as if from a dream.
"What did you two see just now? Why did you rush into that meme house without caring about anything else? Was that thing like an illusion, bewitching your minds?"
Wan Lei asked the slow-moving Yao Yao and Qian Niao beside him as they flew forward.
Qian Niao smiled and said,
"Not exactly. I knew it was fake, but I just couldn't resist the urge to go and see, to try it. What if it was real?
It's like a gambler's mentality. Even with a one-in-a-million chance of winning, they still want to bet their entire fortune."
"So, what did you see?"
"I saw a spatial passage home behind that door. I was clear-headed, knowing it was impossible. This place couldn't possibly have a passage connected to that small mountain village, but I couldn't resist the desire in my heart to take that gamble."
"Oh, I understand. It's the infectivity of this meme, not that the illusion was particularly brilliant, but that it could stimulate a person's gambling tendencies and amplify their greed.
Perhaps this house was a casino for the demons here in the past. The nature of memes is closely related to their original form before the distortion and chaos."
Speaking of this, Wan Lei suddenly recalled the illusion he and Xiao Yu had encountered during their assessment and couldn't help but wonder what Qi Manyao had seen just now.
"Slow Yao Yao, why were you going towards that house just now? Don't tell me you saw the way home too."
Hearing this, Qi Manyao's face flushed slightly. She glared at Wan Lei resentfully,
"I won't tell you."
Wan Lei was stunned. Why was she getting angry just from a casual question? He immediately understood and chuckled wickedly,
"Don't tell me it's related to me?"
"Pah, not at all. I won't tell you, or you'll only mock and bully me more."
Qi Manyao's face turned even redder. She would never tell Wan Lei that in the house, she had seen a sticker. The sticker's effect was to be placed on a desired person, who would then fall helplessly in love with the sticker's host.
Even though she knew that meme was most likely fake and a deception, Slow Yao Yao still couldn't resist the greed in her heart and wanted to go and retrieve it.
Therefore, she was still bothered by Wan Lei pulling her away.
"I won't bully you, tell me quickly."
"You wish."
"Misbehaving, are we? Should I spank your bottom?"
"Uncle, can you not be so cheesy?"
"Uh..."
This brat's personality had changed so much, becoming clearer and harder to bully.
As the three of them flew, they noticed that the path they were taking was becoming wider, and fewer other passages appeared.
Wan Lei felt they were getting closer to the core area.
Wan Lei flew at the front. When they reached a bend, he suddenly pulled the two people beside him and ducked behind the rocks at the corner.
"Shh, there are enemies ahead."
Hearing this, all three released their divine senses to scan the situation ahead.
It was a wide passage, and in the middle of the passage, there was an extremely ancient and heavy grand door. However, this stone door had collapsed, leaving only the door frame and stone pillars still standing.
Behind the grand door was an open area, with at least a thousand demons present.
Most of these demons were at the Demon Lord cultivation level, with very few at the Mortal Realm.
After all, it was understandable. The demons who could be teleported here were all from the army that had previously besieged Wan Lei and his group, and those selected to attack Wan Lei were naturally the elite of the elites.
These demons occupied the open area, patrolling everywhere, searching for their own people and enemies.
"What should we do? With so many enemies, we probably can't defeat them, but if we want to go further, this passage is unavoidable."
As Qian Niao spoke, she had already unconsciously regarded all the demons as enemies.
"Let's use heavy weapons and blast a bloody path to break out and escape. They shouldn't be able to stop us."
Qi Manyao suggested.
Wan Lei pondered for a moment,
"Our main goal now is to find people, not to kill demons. We should avoid complications as much as possible. We just need to sneak past."
"Sneak? How do we sneak?"
Qian Niao asked curiously.
Wan Lei smiled slightly,
"Watch my thousand transformations."