Chapter 808: The White Coffin in the Ruins

808. The White Coffin in the Ruins

The inside of the coffin was pitch black. The moment Lin Ye closed the lid, he noticed something different.

The coffin didn't block spiritual perception. In that instant when the lid shut, the blood-corpse outside and those burly men all vanished. The entire ruin fell silent, as if he had been switched to another place.

Lin Ye pushed open the lid and climbed out of the coffin. The courtyard now only held the flower field of flesh and blood in its normal state. The earlier scene of the flower field's super-speed growth had completely disappeared, like a hallucination.

'Could this be the real ruin?'

Lin Ye retraced his steps. Soon, he returned to the entrance of the ruin and passed through the flesh-and-blood vortex, smoothly leaving the ruin behind.

The flesh-and-blood vortex spun slowly. The van was still parked nearby, but there was no one inside.

The car keys were still in the ignition. Lin Ye drove the van back to the city center.

Nothing had changed here either, except that the corpses on the road were all gone.

There wasn't a single person in the city. The only sound on the road was the van driving.

Lin Ye parked outside a fishing supply store. He planned to go fishing at the port as originally intended.

Not long after, Lin Ye arrived at the port with his fishing gear. The once-bustling port was now completely empty, with a few boats moored nearby.

Lin Ye chose a medium-sized boat and anchored it several dozen meters from the port.

'I wonder how things are going over there...'

Lin Ye cast his fishing rod. Soon, he reeled in a big fish weighing at least forty pounds.

"Can you put me back?"

The big fish lay on the deck, its fish lips opening and closing.

"...Since you can talk, why did you bite the hook?"

Lin Ye probed it with his perception, but he couldn't figure out what this fish really was.

"Can you put me back?"

The big fish stared at Lin Ye with its bulging eyes and repeated the same words.

"That's the only line you've got?"

Lin Ye poked the big fish's belly with his rod. It was his first time encountering a fish that could talk.

"Can you put me back?"

The big fish kept repeating that sentence like a broken record.

"Fine."

Lin Ye threw the big fish back into the sea. Even if it was just a broken record, he didn't want to eat something that could talk.

The big fish sank into the water. Lin Ye cast his rod again and soon reeled in a second fish.

This one was a small white fish, probably only a few pounds heavy.

"Could you not eat me?"

The small fish looked at Lin Ye and made a sound, just like the previous one.

"You're a broken record too?"

Lin Ye had originally planned to cook some fish soup. If all these fish could talk, he figured coffee would taste better.

"I'm not a broken record. I'm a fish."

This time, the small fish didn't repeat its previous line.

"What's going on with you guys?"

Lin Ye was starting to lose interest in fishing.

"Could you not eat me?"

The small fish seemed to only know how to say those two sentences.

"...Don't tell me every fish I catch will have one more line?"

Lin Ye threw the small fish back into the sea and continued hauling in new catches. Just as he suspected, each new fish added one more sentence to their vocabulary.

After multiple attempts, Lin Ye found that these fish didn't say anything important. Most of their words were meaningless.

Occasionally, a fish would hold a conversation with Lin Ye, but only for simple questions and answers. They didn't even know what one plus one equaled.

"What the hell am I doing..."

After finishing a conversation with the hundred and thirty-seventh fish, an intense sense of emptiness surged in Lin Ye's heart.

He tossed that octopus back into the sea, lay down on the deck, and stared at the dim sky.

The boat drifted back to the port under the current. Lin Ye checked the time—three hours remained until the cruise ship docked.

'Whatever. Time to go back.'

Lin Ye drove back to the entrance of the ruin. The flesh-and-blood vortex was still spinning slowly, and nothing had changed nearby.

There were no anomalies inside the ruin either. It seemed those people hadn't moved over here through the coffin.

Lin Ye lay down inside the coffin and closed the lid.

The inside of the coffin was pitch black. Lin Ye probed the outside with his perception and found nothing had changed.

This was very abnormal. Even if the flower field of flesh and blood had returned to normal, some traces should have remained.

The blood-corpse was also gone. The ruin was dead silent.

Lin Ye didn't rush to open the lid. He was thinking about what this situation meant.

'So the coffin's function isn't to switch between two mental worlds, but something more complicated.'

'Or maybe switching requires energy, and it can only be done once every certain period... Well, I can rule that out.'

A group of cultists in black robes with hoods walked into the courtyard. They placed sacrificial offerings near the coffin and began conducting a sacrificial ritual.

Lin Ye didn't open the lid. He stayed lying inside the coffin, thinking about how to get back.

'Does every time I lie in this coffin, I end up in another similar mental world? Then how do I get back?'

This was the first time Lin Ye had seen such a frustrating coffin.

The cultists outside quickly completed the first step of their sacrificial ritual. They walked over to the coffin and opened the lid.

"Hello there."

Lin Ye greeted them calmly.

The cultist who opened the lid got such a fright that he hurriedly pushed the lid back into place.

The moment the coffin lid shut, all those cultists vanished from Lin Ye's perception.

Outside was now the empty courtyard of flesh and blood.

'How do I get back?'

Lin Ye felt like he had drifted far from the City of Spirit he had reached with the blue boat ticket, sinking deeper and deeper into the mental world.

'Whatever. Let me take a look first.'

Lin Ye pushed open the lid and climbed out of the coffin.

The courtyard of flesh and blood was very quiet, giving a feeling very similar to the second ruin.

Lin Ye closed the coffin lid and left the ruin along the corridor of flesh and blood.

Outside was still that flesh-and-blood vortex, but there was no highway near the vortex, nor was there that city in the distance.

Surrounding him was a silent wilderness. As far as the eye could see, there were only some weeds—no living creatures in sight.

Since he was in a relaxed state, Lin Ye could sense that dangerous areas were everywhere nearby. Only the area around the vortex was relatively safe.

He took a few steps outward. The weeds wrapped around his ankles and began absorbing his mental energy.

But under the influence of his Special Ability, the weeds couldn't absorb his mental energy. They just hung from his feet.

Lin Ye easily broke free from the weeds' grip. He walked a few steps forward, then returned to the area near the vortex. He could feel something watching him from the depths of the wilderness. If he strayed too far from the vortex, there might be some risk.