Chapter Eighty-One: The Ruins of the Megacity

A cold, pale purple moon illuminated the land.

At this moment, Ji Yu stood amidst the ruins of shattered walls, surrounded by wild, overgrown grass and scattered fragments of stone. Ahead, in his field of vision, loomed a cluster of concrete and steel buildings, some leaning at precarious angles, others cleaved in half. The facades of these towers were blanketed in thick vines and moss, and among the moss, sparse young trees had managed to take root and grow.

Staring at this scene, Ji Yu could hardly believe his own eyes.

“Does the world of the Purple Moon have its own modern civilization?”
“And was this civilization destroyed by the Purple Moon?”
“Is Blue Star the next target of the Purple Moon?”

Such thoughts roiled through his mind in chaotic waves. This cityscape utterly shattered all his previous fantasies about the world of the Purple Moon. He had always imagined it as a realm of monsters and chaos, yet what he now beheld struck down those assumptions completely.

Ji Yu had considered that perhaps these ruins were cities pulled from Blue Star’s reality into the world of the Purple Moon—but was that truly possible? Could a city, now so thick with vines, rampant with weeds and trees, fall to such ruin in a short span of time? Moreover, if a modern city truly vanished from reality, could any government possibly keep it a secret? This was not a case of one or two missing persons. Here was an entire city—by the scale he could glimpse, even with the deer’s far-reaching sight unable to take in the whole expanse, the population must have been in the millions, perhaps even tens of millions. No government could conceal such an event.

Therefore, the very instant he beheld these ruins, Ji Yu’s sense of caution and vigilance surged.

He gazed up at the purple moon in the sky and glanced at the new countdown that had appeared in his interface, taking a deep breath.

2:34:15

This was the second time Ji Yu had been pulled into the world of the Purple Moon. The first had been as the oak tree, and now, as the deer. The process was different, yet there was a common thread: both incidents were related to his incarnations actively making contact with the energy of the Purple Moon, and both incarnations were extraordinary beings.

From this, Ji Yu formed a vague hypothesis: the higher the level of the extraordinary, the deeper their contact with the Purple Moon, the greater the chance of being pulled into this world, and the longer they would remain here.

With this conclusion, a silent alarm rang within Ji Yu’s heart. Unless absolutely necessary, he must never allow himself to come into contact with anything related to the Purple Moon. Although this deduction was rather crude, and it did not explain why those people near the oak tree had also been pulled in with him, in the absence of reliable information, it was the only conclusion he could draw for now.

Better safe than sorry.

Having reached this conclusion and made his decision, Ji Yu set the deer in motion.

A gentle breeze stirred beneath the purple moon, setting the grass and leaves of the ruins swaying. As the wind threaded its way through narrow alleys and broken gaps, it conjured low, mournful howls. Ji Yu guided the deer to climb up the slanted remains of a toppled building. Every step was taken with utmost caution as he scanned the surrounding vines and undergrowth. Though these plants were far more robust than those of Blue Star, they still paled in comparison to the deer’s massive form. Most were blackish-purple, some tinged red or blue, and under the purple moon’s rays, a few even glimmered faintly.

This world was fantastical, yet suffused with a peculiar eeriness.

After the incident with the radish creature, Ji Yu was not about to underestimate any vegetation. Who could say whether these plants were truly what they appeared to be? Were he not worried about stirring up a hornet’s nest by accident, he might have been tempted to try life-grafting onto some of them, just to see what might happen.

Ultimately, until he had a better grasp of the area’s dangers, Ji Yu resolved to refrain from such reckless actions.

Thus, step by careful step, he ascended toward the highest point of the slanting tower.

Under the purple moon, viewed from a distance, the deer under Ji Yu’s control did not appear as alien to this world as he had feared. From afar, a fifty-meter-tall beast would be enough to frighten off much of the native fauna. Though the creatures of the Purple Moon’s world might be violent, they were evidently capable of choosing their adversaries. The giant stag, as large as a hillock and adorned with strange, bloody blossoms, each bloom now unfurling and glowing faint red under the moonlight, was a sight to behold. Crimson flowers, crystalline antlers catching the light—this radiant display of energy would surely make lesser beings retreat.

Step by step, after a minute Ji Yu finally reached the summit of the slanted building.

Along the way, he made a discovery: there was no shortage of Purple Moon creatures here. As he clambered up, the noise he made caused countless hidden lives in the shadowy ruins of the neighboring buildings to observe him in secret. Yet all these creatures remained motionless, concealed in silence.

Ji Yu was more than content to let them be, for slaughtering these minor creatures would do him no good and might instead attract the attention of powerful, territorial denizens of the Purple Moon.

Standing atop the building, Ji Yu finally gained a clearer view.

As he looked around, his heart grew heavier and heavier.

There was a simple reason for this.

Within his field of vision, the breadth of the city’s ruins was even more terrifying than he had imagined. Though the deer could not see a hundred kilometers in the darkness, it had no problem observing scenes ten or twenty kilometers away when there were no obstacles. Yet now, gazing out, he could not see the end of the ruined city.

In front of him, countless towers, some collapsed, some still standing, stretched away in endless succession. Even ten kilometers out, Ji Yu spotted a half-ruined skyscraper that had not yet fallen. Its height exceeded three hundred meters, its I-beam silhouette rising in lonely isolation.

Looking left and right, the same desolation met his eyes: a broken, sprawling urban wasteland fading into darkness.

Slowly, Ji Yu turned and looked back toward the spot where he had first appeared.

There he saw a broad, low-lying expanse, stretching more than three or four hundred meters across. At first glance, it seemed as if some enormous being had crushed everything in its path, leaving a flat, featureless swath amid the uneven surrounding ruins. The flattened remains stood in stark contrast to the jagged cityscape around them.