On the journey back, Li Ban’s mood steadied. He gathered his thoughts and shared a portion of the truth about what had happened inside Heaven Beyond Heaven with the other three.
Aside from keeping the power of the Star River a secret, Li Ban revealed all his other discoveries.
"Are you saying there really is a way out of the Recycling Station through Heaven Beyond Heaven?" Tail was the most excited, both of her ears standing straight up.
"Yes, but the price is that even if you manage to leave, you'll lose your mind and turn into a man-eating bug."
That price was far too steep.
"Is there no way around it?" Tail frowned, biting her slender nails.
"Maybe, but we haven't found one yet. Furthermore, breaking through the barrier of Heaven Beyond Heaven would likely unleash a massive crisis upon the Wizard World."
"What do we care about a crisis in the Wizard World? We're all people abandoned by the world anyway!" Tail said dismissively. However, after glancing at Zhu Yao, she tactfully dropped the subject. "Alright, I guess Heaven Beyond Heaven is a dead end."
Ming Kai and Guo Kao didn't react as strongly as Tail.
Surviving in the Recycling Station for so many years had long since stripped them of their stubbornness and moral boundaries.
They simply agreed with Li Ban's reasoning.
It would be impossible for them to keep their sanity while escaping the Recycling Station through Heaven Beyond Heaven.
So, the group quickly abandoned Heaven Beyond Heaven as an option and decided to focus entirely on attacking the Sea of Monsters.
Li Ban had reached the same conclusion—that they needed to concentrate their efforts on attacking the Sea of Monsters—but he didn't feel the trip had been a waste.
Even without obtaining the Spatial Guidance Art, learning about the structure of Heaven Beyond Heaven and the situation in the Unreturning Place made the journey worthwhile for him.
Moreover, he had a particular idea in mind that he needed to test.
After another two days of travel, the five people and one dragon returned to Wanghai Cliff.
As soon as they arrived, Li Ban brought Zhu Yao down to the mental domain construction platform.
To his surprise, Zhu Yao was barred at the door.
"My apologies, but Priest Zhu Yao is not permitted to enter." The Director's voice came through the intercom on the door.
"Why?" Li Ban knocked on the door.
Was it because Zhu Yao had never been to the Ring World that she wasn't allowed into the Director's mental domain construction platform?
"Because her body doesn't have a connection port."
Zhu Yao's body didn't have a connection port, but did Li Ban's?
Li Ban examined himself.
"It's not a mechanical port, it's a biological one."
Zhu Yao stepped forward. "If surgical modification is required, I can accept that."
"Priest Yao," the Director's voice suddenly carried a different emotion, "do you remember the Ring World?"
"The Ring World?" Zhu Yao looked bewildered. After a few seconds of recollection, her face suddenly paled and she stumbled back a step.
"Yes. The Ring World that was completely destroyed, with your active assistance."
Li Ban was stunned. He looked at Zhu Yao, then at the Director. "What do you mean? Wasn't the Ring World already on the brink of destruction? What does Zhu Yao have to do with it?"
Through Gu Yi's Testament, Li Ban already knew that the Ring World had been pushed to the brink of destruction by a sudden, cosmic-level disaster.
The Ring World's wizard embryo had also shattered into several pieces.
At the time, Gu Yi's only hope of saving the entire world was to find a way into the Wizard World and become a priest.
He possessed Wizard Embryo Fragments, so he needed more fragments to obtain a complete wizard embryo.
A wizard embryo could sustain a world's existence, buying the Ring World precious time to survive and resolve the disaster.
However, even though Gu Yi sacrificed himself and split his mind into tens of millions of separate spiritual entities, he still failed to reforge a complete wizard embryo before the world collapsed.
What did Zhu Yao have to do with any of that?
Zhu Yao suddenly looked at Li Ban. "Are... are you from the Ring World too?"
"He isn't," the Director answered for Li Ban.
Li Ban noticed Zhu Yao's face relax slightly upon hearing this.
"What exactly happened between you two? If there is any other bad blood, I think we'd better clear the air before we enter the Sea of Monsters."
Even if they couldn't fully resolve it, they had to shelve their grievances in the face of their ultimate goal: leaving the Recycling Station.
Li Ban absolutely would not allow anyone to drag the others down over past grudges while they were fighting for their lives against the Sea of Monsters.
Not even if that person was the Director!
A heavy silence fell over the brightly lit corridor, but a dark cloud weighed down Zhu Yao's heart.
A moment later, she broke the silence. "Before I entered the Recycling Station, we discovered a massive influx of raw souls infiltrating the Wizard World through hidden channels. As you know, I always fought in the Nine Heavens Sea, and our enemies were those raw souls. So, when we realized they might all be coming from the same minor world, we started looking for a way... to deal with those raw souls at the source."
Obviously, the Ring World was the source of those raw souls.
But Zhu Yao likely hadn't known that they weren't just destroying the Ring World Gu Yi had constructed using the Mobius Ring Necklace—they were destroying Gu Yi's only hope of saving his true world.
"Why?"
Li Ban remembered how Priest Yao on the outside hadn't tried to kill him and Du An when she found out they were raw souls from other worlds. Instead, she had even guided them to formally become white-robed priests.
"Because a small number of raw souls isn't an issue. If they have the potential to become priests, we're actually very willing to take them in."
Zhu Yao's voice started out weak, but as she continued speaking, it gradually solidified.
"But taking in the raw souls of an entire world is impossible. It would destroy the balance of the Wizard World."
"The fact that the Ring World could freely enter and exit the Wizard World meant the Wizard World had an uncontrollable loophole. I'm sure you both understand what a loophole implies."
As an outsider, Li Ban could listen calmly to Zhu Yao's explanation, but he didn't know how the Director would take it.
Although the Director's temperament had mellowed after spending so many years in the Recycling Station, Li Ban couldn't be sure he'd remain calm and let go of his past hatred when faced with matters related to the Ring World's destruction.
To make matters worse, Li Ban had no standing to demand that the Director let go of that grudge.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he trusted the Director. Li Ban decided to stay silent for now and see what the Director wanted.
Just when Li Ban expected the Director to at least argue back at Zhu Yao, a soft chuckle suddenly came through the intercom.
There was no mockery in it; it was just a simple, brief laugh.
"You don't need to be so tense. I was just explaining why you don't have a port on your body."
Zhu Yao bit her lower lip, her eyes involuntarily darting toward Li Ban.
Li Ban gave her a nod. "I'm sorry, Zhu Yao. I wasn't aware of this either. Why don't you head back for now? We'll talk about it later."
Whatever the real reason was, Zhu Yao clearly wasn't getting into this room.
"Alright." Zhu Yao lowered her head. "I'll go back and wait for you."
"Yeah. Same as always."
Li Ban's last remark made Zhu Yao softly let out a breath of relief.
Since things were the same as always, that was good enough.
Only after Zhu Yao left did the Director finally open the main door.
Li Ban stepped inside. Just as before, the moment the door shut behind him, he lost all control over his body.
The Director was still sitting in his wheelchair. It wasn't until his consciousness loaded into the mental domain construction platform that he stood up again. He said to Li Ban, "I hope the conflict between the Ring World and the Wizard World won't influence your choices."
Li Ban was surprised.
"I thought I should be the one saying that to you."
"I'm not angry. The destruction of the Ring World is something that happened hundreds, even thousands of years ago for me. To me, revenge is a meaningless act. Moving time forward is what we should be striving for."
"I'd expect nothing less from you, Director."
"Because I lied," the Director said, a slow smile spreading across his face. "She wasn't barred because she lacked a port."
Li Ban raised an eyebrow, waiting for the Director to continue.
"Not everyone in the Recycling Station will work together. Some people will even sabotage our plans for no reason at all. Therefore, I wrote a foundational rule into the mental domain construction platform's underlying logic—only I am allowed to enter."
Li Ban could understand why Chen Dong had been able to enter, but—
"Then why can I enter? Is it because I'm currently in Gu Yi's body?"
"No." The Director tapped Li Ban's legs. "It's because you're using my legs."
Li Ban froze, looking down at his own legs.
The legs he had right now were a model constructed by the mental domain platform, but his legs in reality were the ones he had swapped out on his very first day in the Recycling Station.
When he looked back up, his eyes were filled with disbelief.
"How is that possible? On my very first day here... Did you know I was going to appear all along?"
The Director waved a hand, saying calmly, "I've been watching you ever since you entered the Recycling Station. Cliffside Camp was one of my arrangements. The look in your eyes when you arrived here showed that you had already seen that secret metal room at Cliffside Camp and the priests kept captive inside. The reason you rushed straight to Wanghai Cliff instead of building up your own faction first was because you saw the Conversion Box inside that metal room turning spiritual rhinoceros into other forms of energy, along with the text inscribed on it."
"You knew about me before I even entered the Recycling Station?" Li Ban suddenly found the Director terrifying. No wonder Shaman Ming held him in such high regard, despite him merely being one of Gu Yi's fragmented minds.
"I'm not magical, and I can't see the future. In truth, my collaborators were the ones who found Gu Yi's body first. They recognized him and passed the information to me through the Swing Forest. I needed to use the Gu Yis from other timelines to understand the situation outside, so I had them preserve that body until the corresponding soul entered it. As for swapping in my legs... that was because I couldn't be sure whether the other fragmented minds from different timelines were worth cooperating with."
"By the way, the person who cut off your original legs was Priest Gu Sa from Cliffside Camp. You should be quite familiar with the Rending Technique he used. If you're feeling unhappy about it, feel free to beat him up when you get the chance."
Li Ban sighed, leaning back against the silver-white sofa and crossing his arms. "I feel like you had my every move completely planned out."
"There's no need to feign weakness to test me." The Director shook his head, once again conjuring a can of cola for Li Ban. "I was sincerely just inviting you to Wanghai Cliff."
"In the Swing Forest, I realized that your mental fluctuations were almost identical to mine, so I immediately recognized that you had taken the place of the other Director. My curiosity about you far outweighs my interest in any of Gu Yi's other fragmented minds."
"And the facts have proven that my choice to cooperate with you wasn't wrong."
"Then why didn't you say anything when you saw me earlier?"
"Because... you didn't ask."