By some coincidence, or perhaps because like attracts like, Li Ban's soul actually reunited with his second body after falling into the Dark Side of the Universe.
'This is another strange world.'
Li Ban pressed a hand to his chest, noting that he actually had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing.
'The body is locked in a special state. My soul must be driving it. It's a bit like my soul has become the person, and the body has become a mech. Only this mech is a bit battered.'
Li Ban waved his hand, testing his speed and strength.
'My speed is about the same as a 1st Tier Spirit Cultivator. That should be because this body was previously nourished by spiritual rhinoceros. My strength is a little higher. But overall, it's not exactly powerful.'
Li Ban felt he should be capable of much more, but restricted by the body, he couldn't unleash his true capabilities.
'After becoming a Cloud Hidden Priest, my soul is even less compatible with this body.'
The feeling hadn't been this obvious back in the Wizard World, but now that he was back in Gu Yi's body without any spiritual rhinoceros to assist him, the sheer heaviness of his physical form became glaringly apparent.
Compared to his soul state while under the Faceless One's protection, the difference was more than just one or two levels of power.
"And there's no spiritual rhinoceros in this world either," Li Ban said in frustration. "Why can't I ever go to a normal minor world? Well, this is the Dark Side of the Universe, so I shouldn't expect it to be normal."
He finally understood why the Faceless One had told him he was out of luck in the beginning.
For an ordinary spirit practitioner or even a priest to fall here—wouldn't it be exactly like falling into the Trash Realm?
He took out the Realm-Breaking Stone.
Sure enough, there was no reaction whatsoever.
'The Faceless One seemed to want me to temper my mind here. Is it because when a person loses their power and is knocked back to their original form, their mindset undergoes a massive shift?'
He brought out the Faceless One's Self-Seeking Mirror.
He called out to it for a long time, but at most, the mirror's surface only displayed an empty stone throne.
'Where did he run off to now?'
Knowing he could only rely on himself to explore now, Li Ban put everything away and picked up the small half of a face lying nearby.
"Can you understand what I'm saying? If you can, blink twice."
The eyeball darted wildly, but it didn't blink.
'Just as I thought, a language barrier. Last time, Star River helped me translate, though it took a few days—probably to collect the linguistic habits of the Trash Realm. But this time, I don't even have anyone to talk to.'
Li Ban looked at his legs. Moving around without both legs was far too difficult.
Although he could still use the spiritual rhinoceros inside the Wizard Embryo Fragment to cast spells, without a sustainable way to replenish his spiritual rhinoceros, he had to conserve it.
Just then, Li Ban heard the sound of footsteps and rolling wheels.
'No engine noise. It must be a handcart.'
He stuffed the half-face into his pocket, grabbed the tree trunk with both hands, and climbed up.
Two people and a wooden cart appeared in his line of sight.
A woman walked in front with her head bowed. A towing rope was slung over one shoulder, and both her hands gripped the handles of the cart as she trudged forward with great difficulty.
Another man was pushing the cart from behind.
Compared to the woman in front, the man in the back looked extremely short, only about 1.2 meters tall. In particular, his pair of stubby little legs looked highly disproportionate to his upper torso.
He was quite sturdy, however, somewhat resembling the dwarves of legend.
A tattered black cloth covered the cart they were hauling, concealing the bulging items piled on top.
They didn't notice Li Ban's presence. Pulling the cart, they cautiously approached a light-colored stone.
The stone was relatively thin, seemingly wedged into the ground on purpose to mark the boundary between the mud and the solid earth.
The man and woman stopped to unload the cart.
The woman lifted her head right then, allowing Li Ban to see her face clearly.
Li Ban immediately sat up straight.
'Priest Zhu Yao?'
Exactly the same.
Whether it was her appearance or that aloof, detached aura, they were completely identical.
It was as if she had been teleported straight here from the Nine Heavens Sea.
It was just that the sleeveless tank top and leather shorts barely covering her body looked nothing like the clothes Priest Zhu Yao would ever wear.
As for the short man, he didn't recognize him at all.
Zhu Yao walked to the side of the cart and yanked off the black cloth, revealing several large burlap sacks underneath.
The man grabbed the bottom corner of a sack and began to drag it off the cart with great effort.
"Ed, don't drag it. Lift it up. This bag isn't sturdy—"
To his surprise, the language these two spoke was almost identical to the language of the Wizard World!
Just as Zhu Yao finished speaking, there was a loud rip. The man tore a long gash into the burlap sack, and its contents tumbled down the cart and crashed onto the ground.
The two fell silent for a few seconds.
The man named Ed apologized in a low voice. "Uh, sorry."
Zhu Yao sighed. "Forget it. Once winter is over, I'll figure out a way to get you a new pair of legs."
They bent down and started gathering the items that had spilled from the sack.
Li Ban saw them clearly now. It was actually a pile of mangled human body parts.
Most of them were so mutilated that they were even smaller than the half-face Li Ban had picked up.
'Get a new pair of legs?' Hearing this, Li Ban looked down at his own missing legs.
This didn't look like a high-tech world, but if getting new legs was possible, it might have something to do with the unique nature of physical bodies here.
He tossed the small half of a face from his hand, and the noise immediately drew the attention of the two people moving the sacks.
The woman who looked like Zhu Yao dropped the sack, drew a blade from her waist, and looked up toward the source of the sound.
When she realized it was just a mutilated face, her gaze followed it upward until she spotted Li Ban sitting on the tree branch.
Li Ban pushed aside the branches, smiled, and waved. "Hello there. I ended up here by accident. Could I ask you what this place is?"
Zhu Yao looked Li Ban up and down. When she saw his legs, her tightly guarded eyes narrowed, but when she saw his eyes, her expression relaxed slightly.
"A newcomer? When did you regain consciousness?"
Li Ban thought for a moment. "I just woke up. I was in the mud when I came to."
He was still covered in a large amount of wet mud.
The woman who looked exactly like Zhu Yao nodded and picked up the sack she had just dropped with one hand.
"This is the Recycling Station," she said, one corner of her mouth curling into a mocking smile. "No matter who you were in your memories, or what kind of abilities you had, you can consider yourself a new life here. Ordinary and brief."
Li Ban rubbed his chin, picking off the mud stuck to it.
'Recycling Station,' he thought to himself. 'No matter what identity you hold in your memories, you're an ordinary person here. So... could this place be the recycling station for erased progress across various worlds?'
Seeing Zhu Yao's demeanor, Li Ban probed, "Since this is the Recycling Station, does that mean we are all discarded people?"
"You could understand it that way. Or you could say 'deleted'."
It really was deletion.
"Zhu Yao... Priest?" Li Ban tried calling out her name again.
But the woman replied without even turning her head, "Very good, it seems you know quite a bit. However, I'm probably not the Zhu Yao you know. Though Zhu Yao is indeed my name."
The two of them were no longer paying much attention to Li Ban. One after the other, they hoisted the massive sacks and dumped their contents entirely into the mud.
Inside the sacks were finely chopped pieces of flesh.
Among them were twitching eyeballs and mouths that opened and closed.
But the Recycling Station's Zhu Yao and Ed were already entirely used to this sight.
They emptied all three sacks from the cart into the mud and watched as the chopped pieces slowly sank into the black sludge.
Afterward, Ed carefully folded up all the empty sacks while Zhu Yao walked under the black willow tree and looked up at Li Ban.
"Do you need help?"
She was referring to the fact that Li Ban had no legs.
"Uh, no thanks." Li Ban didn't climb down from the tree right away, otherwise he would have to crane his neck to look up at her.
"Though I might need your help to understand this world."
Zhu Yao nodded faintly. "In exchange, you'll need to work for me for a period of time. Of course, if you get erased during this time, our deal is off."
"Erased?"
Zhu Yao raised her hand and pointed her thumb behind her. "Just like that pile of pieces back there."
"Why would we get erased?"
"I don't know. Maybe the Lord God is just in a bad mood."
"The Lord God? There's a deity in this world?"
In the Wizard World, where supernatural powers were outwardly manifested, almost no one believed in deities.
"We don't know what kind of entity the ruler actually is either. For instance, the people on another continent believe the God of Death controls everything. They think we aren't deleted individuals, but resentful spirits of the dead, and that disappearing is just the start of a new reincarnation cycle," Zhu Yao said with utter indifference.
Beside her, Ed quietly reminded, "Zhu Yao, we should head back."
Zhu Yao nodded and said to Li Ban, "Are you coming with me?"
"Of course."
Zhu Yao looked at Li Ban. Seeing that he had just arrived and remained calm despite missing both his legs, she hesitated for a moment before asking, "Were you also a priest?"
"I still am."
Zhu Yao shook her head. "You'd better level your expectations. Once you fall here, even a priest has no way to absorb spiritual rhinoceros. Once you use up that bit of energy in your body, you'll be forced back to being an ordinary person."
"Is there nothing else that can replenish energy? Like electrical energy, for example?"
"This is the Recycling Station. A lot of things are different here. But there's no need to rush. As long as you aren't erased, you'll have plenty of time to learn the rules of this place."
Her expression placid, she reached her arms up high. "We should go. Come on down. Do you need me to carry you?"
Naturally, Li Ban didn't need Zhu Yao to carry him down the tree.
However, since it was inconvenient to travel without legs, he ultimately sat on Zhu Yao's wooden cart, letting her pull him back to the camp.
Ed was sitting on the other side of the cart.
The guy had tiny, stubby legs.
Without three large sacks of severed limbs weighing the cart down, Zhu Yao pulled the two 'half-men' with relative ease.
Li Ban wasn't used to letting a woman pull a handcart for him, but Ed sat beside him looking completely at ease.
"I heard you mention earlier that you can get new legs. Could someone in my state get a pair fitted as well?"
"Of course." Zhu Yao leaned forward, pulling the cart step by step. "Although spiritual rhinoceros is extremely precious, I suggest you spend a little to exchange for a pair of legs. That way, when your spiritual rhinoceros runs out, you'll at least be capable of supporting yourself."