Grotesqueries of the Old Domain

Chapter 70 : The Sun

Chapter 70: The Sun

At this moment, the three of them were frozen in place, as if immobilized. No one dared to move an inch.

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Zhang Wenda looked up, stunned, at the thing looming just inches away.

It was a grotesque giant. Its arms and legs were like concrete pillars, and most of its body had merged with the nearby utility pole. Where a head should have been, there was only an empty void.

Zhang Wenda’s mind went blank. One second, two seconds, three seconds passed—an eternity in silence. When he realized that the giant hadn’t moved, he immediately understood: it hadn’t noticed them.

"Walk. Slowly... Don’t make a single sound..." Zhang Wenda said in a deliberately low voice.

Beside him, Song Jianguo held her breath and quickly waved to the cat. The cat tiptoed forward, forming a straight line with the others like a black magic carpet, silently lifting Zhang Wenda and carrying him away.

When they reached a long, narrow alley, everyone exhaled deeply at the same time.

Aunt Flo, drenched in cold sweat, said to Zhang Wenda, "Wenda, you could’ve given us a heads-up if we’d be facing *that* thing. That was terrifying."

"How was I supposed to know? It's my first time here too—I don’t know what reflections of the Adult World exist here."

Regaining his breath, Zhang Wenda looked at the others and said, "We don’t need to fight them. We just need to find a way to leave this place. As long as we can get out of here, we can call the cops or whatever."

Since they were already here, turning back wasn’t an option. They could only follow Zhang Wenda, moving forward with utmost caution.

Along the way, they encountered more bizarre giants. Most of them were motionless, partially fused with the surrounding buildings. None of them had heads—only antennae where heads should be.

Perhaps it was because they were small, or because the cat moved silently, but none of these beings stirred.

Judging by their number and location, Zhang Wenda deduced they had entered the Concrete Building Cluster, though he couldn’t tell exactly where.

One problem remained: he had no idea whether the way back was a door or some other device. And from this perspective, he couldn’t tell what it symbolized.

So far, all he could determine was that these giants were symbolic representations of people. Everything else was a mystery.

"No, I’ll have to go back once the area clears," Zhang Wenda muttered to himself.

Finding a street without nearby giants, he told Song Jianguo and the others, "Wait here.

I’ll check the Adult World to see what’s going on."

He lightly pressed the Yellow Core, and the environment rapidly shifted. He found himself in a dim, garbage-strewn unfinished building. Clearly, he had entered.

Zhang Wenda heard faint rumbling outside. He gave the cat a silent gesture and cautiously approached the source of the sound.

Following a corridor made of the same bare concrete, he reached the end and was met with a miniature world.

A basketball-sized sun hung suspended in the air inside the room, radiating light. Next to it, clouds rumbled with thunder and rain.

A bolt of lightning shot from the clouds, instantly striking down a thirty-centimeter-tall tree.

As Zhang Wenda stood stunned, several people entered the room holding transparent jars, reaching out to harvest the sun.

They used tiny scrapers to peel fuzz from the sun, carefully placing it into the bottles.

They weren’t just collecting sunlight. They gathered lightning from the clouds, flames from the tree, even rolled up the rainbow that appeared after the rain and stuffed it into a bottle.

Zhang Wenda was dumbfounded. He’d imagined all sorts of illicit activities—drug manufacturing, maybe—but he hadn’t expected this.

What even *was* this? He couldn’t even begin to describe it, nor could he fathom why it had to be done in secret.

"Amazing, right? Pretty wild, huh?" a voice said from behind Zhang Wenda.

Almost instantly, Zhang Wenda gave a slight nod. "Yeah, impressive. Got a cigarette?"

A cigarette was handed over promptly. Zhang Wenda accepted it casually and lit it using the other person’s flame.

The other didn’t attack, and Zhang Wenda didn’t panic.

He’d guessed correctly. Since he appeared in the inner sanctum without triggering an alarm, they must have mistaken him for one of their own.

The man had a pistol for a head. His exposed arms and chest were covered in tattoos, and he was impressively built.

Zhang Wenda didn’t even lift his gaze, pretending to be casually smoking while observing everything.

"Must be pricey, huh?" he continued, following the previous topic.

"You bet. That’s the Sun, after all. Priceless. Our boss went through a lot to get it."

Zhang Wenda’s gaze shifted to the blazing orb. Everything else—the lightning, the rainbow—was spawned from it.

Clearly, it had been placed here for continuous collection of derivatives.

"The Sun? Must be scorching hot."

The gun-head replied proudly, "No worries. Our boss stole it at night."

"At... night? He stole the Sun *at night*?"

That sounded absurd—so much so that Zhang Wenda began to suspect they’d seen through his disguise and were messing with him.

But he quickly realized the guy was serious. He genuinely believed his boss had pried a piece off the Sun at night and brought it back.

"Don’t tell me—the Sun, like Time, mutated too? It’s not hot at night? Is there *anything* normal in this place?"

Taking a deep drag, Zhang Wenda suppressed a twitch in his lips and mimicked their tone, "Yeah... Wonder how long we’ll have to hold out."

"Hold out? Not much longer. Three months tops, then we’re relocating. We never stay in one place too long."

Zhang Wenda’s heart pounded. He’d guessed right—they *could* move freely through past time.

All he needed was that method, and returning would be easy.

As they made idle conversation, Zhang Wenda’s mind raced, figuring out how to extract the secret from this guy.

He flicked the cigarette butt away and grumbled, "Haven’t had a break in ages. Would love to sneak back for a bit."

The gun-head sneered. "Forget it. Without the boss’s password, that book won’t even—"

He suddenly froze mid-sentence, eyes locked onto the edge of Zhang Wenda’s sleeve, where the cigarette toss had caused it to slip slightly.

He reached out and yanked it up, revealing both the Red Core and Yellow Core.

Recognition flashed across his face. "You—You’re from the Third Front Unit?!"