Calamity of Tomorrow - Chapter 18: Diary Continuation

The results of today’s research were very interesting. We found that the information contained in the Heavenly Tao had become more direct. Although the information was a little illogical, somewhat strange, and rather baffling, compared to the indescribable, ineffable “Tao” from the past, perhaps the current Heavenly Tao was easier to comprehend.

Haha, Liu Yuan and Alice are getting married. Everyone is delighted. This might be a rare piece of good news in these awful times.

We decided to rest for half a day to congratulate this newly married couple.

–Lots of meaningless writing and disorderly words

…

At this point, Zhou Bai frowned, suddenly remembering the page of diary that Alice showed him before. Recalling that page’s size, appearance, handwriting, and contents, he thought to himself, “That diary page seems to have been torn from here.”

He gave it some more thought and speculated in his mind. Then he continued reading.

…

That knowledge is very useful. It contained lots of information to speed up the progress of our practice. We’re all excited. If we continue like this, we might even be able to find a way to resist polluted Spark completely.

No, we can do even better. We will be able to analyze the entire Heavenly Tao. Humankind may reach an unprecedented height.

Another thing to be happy about– Mike is back. I thought he had been eaten. It looks like I’m too tired, perhaps I should find time to rest.

–Some disturbing curves and shapes that were hard to understand.

……

Li Zhengdao is awake. We healed him using the information we obtained from the Heavenly Tao.

But I feel like something is wrong. My chest is starting to hurt again. Maybe I should let Mike and the others treat me too.

–Lots of crossing out in bright red ink. There were also some deformed portraits that made Zhou Bai’s hair stand on end.

Wrong, everything is wrong. This is all a conspiracy. We have lost from the start. It’s a complete failure, and there’s no hope at all.

The information contained in the Heavenly Tao cannot be used directly. It will turn humans into distorted monsters. Does Paradise know about this? Conflict arose between Li Zhengdao and Mike. Who should I trust?

If human practitioners who comprehend the distorted Heavenly Tao will go insane, then what about all the deities in Paradise? Have they, who are closest to the Heavenly Tao, already become distorted and mad?

If they have already gone insane, then who are the ones making orders in Paradise?

–Consecutive missing pages.

War broke out too suddenly. I don’t know who started it.

Demonification not only will lead the body to become deformed but will also cause the primordial spirit to be infected and the human mind to be twisted and crazy.

Everyone is dead except for me.

I seem not to be completely insane. In fact, I feel even more clear-headed. The past is like a nightmare to me.

I should seek out the reason.

–Some words Zhou Bai could not understand.

I decide to go find other survivors. I need more test subjects. This is all for humankind.

The Heavenly Tao is becoming more and more obscure and blurry. The level of polluted Spark is increasing every day. Each time I practice is like walking a tightrope.

I am heading north, avoiding the demons’ search. The world is in tatters, and the situation is much worse than I imagined.

–A lot of indistinguishable doodling, seeming to describe things he saw on his journey.

In a few days, I’ll reach the edge of the Eastern Continent. I have searched through the entire continent.

On this journey, I only found less than 100 survivors. I hope they can make it to the base with me alive.

But the adults have already mastered primordial spirit power, and their level of infection far exceeds that of the children. I must make a choice.

After all, we are the only humans left.

This is all for humankind.

–Consecutive blank pages followed.

…

Zhou Bai took a deep breath.

“Is this…Professor Zhuang’s diary?”

“I didn’t expect the author of the diary to be him. But where are the other missing pages? And who tore them off?”

Although the diary raised many questions, it also answered many of Zhou Bai’s initial doubts.

Clearly, this base was built by Professor Zhuang and a group of other people. It seemed that they were researching a way to practice when the Spark was polluted, and the Heavenly Tao was twisted.

Their ending was very tragic. It seemed like Professor Zhuang was the only one to survive for some reason.

Then he looked for the other survivors and brought them back to the base. And just as Bando described, he tried to make them practice.

“That’s probably what happened.” Zhou Bai nodded to himself, but he still had many questions.

But Zhou Bai knew way too little. He didn’t even fully know the concepts of Paradise and deities in this world. He could only put away his doubts for now and wait to answer them in the future.

“There are still many things that remain unclear. What are the contents that were torn off and crossed out? Who touched my neck that night in the cafeteria? Was it Bando? Or was it someone else? And what are the effects of the contents taught in demon class? Why did Bando successfully awaken his primordial spirit power…”

Zhou Bai sighed. Everyone was dead now, and he probably could no longer find the answers to many secrets.

Zhou Bai continued flipping through the diary. After many blank pages, he was surprised to find there were a series of coordinates.

“In regards to the battle between Mara and Paradise, it seems like everything is not as simple as we once thought. Perhaps (lots of crossing out)”

“I preserved all the secrets I know in this location.”

Zhou Bai closed his eyes. He really wanted to know what Professor Zhuang found out in the end, but clearly right now was not the time to look for that place. What he needed to do at the moment was to live on and become stronger.

After resting for a while more, Zhou Bai tried to stand up but found he still couldn’t.

“But my primordial spirit power seems to be recovering more quickly. I’ll rest a little more and try to see if I can float using primordial spirit power.”

After another half hour, he heard loud human voices from above.

“Who is it?” Zhou Bai thought for a bit, then committed the coordinate numbers in the diary to memory.

He used his recovered primordial spirit power to destroy the diary, and then closed his eyes and played dead.

…

“Captain! There’s still one person alive.”

“He survived all this! How resilient. Bring him up.”

“Did you find any clues?”

“Even if there were, they must be burnt up by now. But this base seems to have many small children and testing equipment.”

“So it’s the survivors’ underground laboratory?”

“Captain! This is bad. Two survivors were unable to adapt to the distorted Spark. It looks like they are old humans who were delivered naturally.”

“How troublesome. There are still surviving old humans in this day and age? Put anti-infection suits on them. Whether they’ll survive will be up to their fate.”

Swaying bodies, clamorous sounds, all kinds of hollering, transporting, and machine noises rang endlessly in Zhou Bai’s ears.

When everything settled down, his eyelashes trembled, and then he slowly opened his eyes. He found that his body seemed to be wrapped in clothing made from some sort of special material.

Outside the suit was a steel ceiling. He looked outside and found that he seemed to be on some sort of transportation vehicle. The scenery around him ran backward.

“I wouldn’t move around if I were you.” Zhou Bai heard a husky man’s voice to his side. “Your body is so tattered it looks like you got hit by a car. What the hell did you guys encounter?”

Christina rapidly said in Zhou Bai’s mind, “I don’t know where these people came from. They turned the entire base inside out and rescued you as well….”

While Zhou Bai was pretending to be unconscious, Christina still retained her full senses in his mind and was able to observe everything around them carefully.