Chapter 539 - 302: Old Sights, Tragic Truth

Chapter 539: Chapter 302: Old Sights, Tragic Truth

Earth? Where did Demons come from?

Why are Demons roaming the streets?

Where are the humans?

BOOM!

Lu Cang landed with a thunderous crash!

In an instant, he transformed into a streak of white light, descending upon a familiar street—Wuyue Plaza...

During business hours, it was always bustling with people.

But now, not a single person could be seen in Wuyue Plaza.

All he could see were large Demons, over two meters tall and covered in fur. They looked to be only Tier One or Tier Two—incredibly weak.

Lu Cang didn’t move to kill them.

An even more ominous premonition loomed over him.

His gaze shifted toward his home.

His Perception entered his house, sweeping meticulously through every nook and cranny.

But he saw no trace of his parents.

No...

It wasn’t that there were no traces at all.

The photographs were still there. The furniture inside was exactly as he remembered.

At least, the decor was the same as when he’d come home for the Lunar New Year last year. If this wasn’t his home, then no place was.

Every little detail was a testament to the lives once lived here.

Even...

...the big family portrait was still hanging there.

WHOOSH!

His mind was a tangled mess of a thousand thoughts and ten thousand speculations.

He felt nothing but terror and unease.

The next instant, Lu Cang left the plaza. Like a streak of light, he appeared inside the familiar apartment.

Ruihe East City, Building 8, Unit 2, Apartment 901.

"I... I’m home."

Home again.

His voice was trembling and boyish.

It was still a child’s voice, not that of a man who had entered the workforce and navigated office life for years.

The apartment was empty. No one answered.

The electronic calendar on the wall displayed April 1, 2026.

The exact date he had left and transmigrated to this world.

’No... what am I doing here?’

’This isn’t the time for nostalgia. The most important thing is to find them.’

’That’s right.’

’My Talent... it points toward people...’

’Not just toward Earth.’

His mind was in turmoil. It was too chaotic to think. Only a few fleeting seconds had passed between him seeing Earth and returning home.

Every piece of information he gathered exploded in his mind like lit dynamite.

He had no idea what to do.

’I have to calm down!’

THOOM—

In an instant, everything froze!

Time had stopped. This was the Static World—

Lu Cang now had all the time he needed to think...

’There are no humans in the entire city, but I can see Demons roaming about. The Demons haven’t caused widespread destruction to the buildings...’

’I don’t see any bodies on the streets either.’

’If Demons had slaughtered everyone, the whole city should be a bloodbath. It shouldn’t look so tidy.’

’At least, most of the buildings are intact.’

’The humans weren’t massacred.’

’But... where did they go?’

’One possibility is that this Earth never had humans. It’s not the Earth I know, but a fake.’

’But if it were fake, how could my Talent have possibly led me here?’

’The other possibility is... the humans on Earth all turned into Demons.’

As soon as this thought surfaced,

Lu Cang instantly recalled a scene he had witnessed in the Secret Sea.

In the Secret Sea, a young member of the Fishman Race had once tried to turn himself into a Demon.

Humans turning into Demons—it was possible.

And this place was also the Secret Sea, just within its Abyss of the Sea.

’My combat status still hasn’t deactivated, which means... something hostile is still here, watching me.’

’And it’s watching me—and the others—with its own two eyes, as simple as that...’

’It’s just like during a fight.’

Even when Lu Cang activated Unsolvable Mystery, enemies could still find him.

Unsolvable Mystery wasn’t true Invisibility.

The Talent was like a stealth bomber: undetectable by radar, but visible to the naked eye.

’Perhaps it’s staring at Kumironi.’

’Kumironi has a Special Constitution that all Demons covet. By traveling with her, I naturally became a target too.’

’Did it have a hand in what happened to Earth?’

’The calendar says April 1, 2026. That means if this is the real Earth, everything happened between last August and this April—in just eight short months.’

’It all happened after I transmigrated.’

’Could this be related to the reason I transmigrated in the first place?’

’There are too many truths to uncover.’

’The first priority... is still to find my parents.’

VMMMM—

The time stop ended.

Lu Cang’s thoughts snapped back to the present. His gaze instantly shot in a specific direction... his heart pounding with apprehension.

Because...

Hidden Origin could point to corpses.

His Perception followed the guidance, and he saw... two weak... Demons.

Demons...

Lu Cang’s heart clenched.

He saw two jelly-like Slimes, one blue and one pink, inching along Coastal Avenue.

And what his Talent was pointing at...

...was them. These two Demons.

’Are... these my parents?’

Within his Hidden Origin Talent, the image he had of his parents suddenly changed. The shrewd, capable, middle-aged man and the gracefully aging woman from his memory transformed into the forms of a blue and a pink Slime.

Hidden Origin allowed him to see a target’s image.

But that image was based on the user’s most recent memory of them.

’Why... is it like this?’

Lu Cang’s fists clenched.

What in the world had happened to Earth?

WHOOSH!

Like a soft ray of light, Lu Cang descended before the two Slimes.

Seeing Lu Cang appear, the two Slimes froze for a moment.

Then they immediately began to bounce, lunging at Lu Cang.

This was their way of attacking.

Lu Cang didn’t fight back. He simply let the two Slimes leap onto his body.

The instant they made contact, Lu Cang received the information from his Talent.

[Divine Level Hidden Origin] triggered.

[Water Slime]

[Demon Tier: Tier One, 0 Metamorphoses]

[Original Human Form: A male named Lu Zhenghang]

[Creator: Luo Mo—Hidden Knowledge: A Demon from the Mutated Nest that has awakened its Spirituality.]

[Location—First Floor of the Sea Abyss]

"Dad... it’s really you..."

And the other one, the pink "Flower Slime," was the human female named Li Youxiang. His mother.

’What in the world happened while I was gone?!’

WHOOSH!

A flash of jade-green light descended, and Kumironi landed beside Lu Cang.

"Lu Cang."

She looked at the two Slimes clinging to Lu Cang’s arms and felt the intense, complex emotions radiating from him.

Kumironi seemed to understand.

"Is this... your home?"