"Um... Hello, Daddy Cat. My name is Haoyun, and I'm from—" Haoyun hesitated for a moment, then decided to greet the strange creature.

But halfway through his sentence, Haoyun exclaimed, covering his mouth, "Heavens! I... I can speak!?"

Hearing Haoyun's voice, Dao Lao and Dream Jia, who were still carefully examining the strange space, immediately turned to look, both unable to hide their surprise as they exclaimed, "What? You can speak now?"

Then, seeing themselves also able to speak, they both turned to Daddy Cat, equally astonished.

Seeing all three of them focused on him, Daddy Cat seemed pleased. So, after happily spinning around a few more times, he said, "Meow! Because this is the backstage for performers to rest, everyone can temporarily leave their roles behind and communicate normally! That's why, even though we are not the same species, we can communicate freely again!"

Upon Daddy Cat's explanation, the three realized that the strange language he was using to communicate with them was indeed peculiar. In fact, Haoyun, Dream Jia, and Dao Lao had the ability to communicate freely with all intelligent beings in the lower realms of the Spirit Realm under the assistance of the Mold Spirit Energy Tracking System. However, after their system malfunctioned, they seemed to have lost this ability.

"Participants? Rest stop? Where exactly are we?" Haoyun asked, puzzled.

"Meow! As I said! This is the Dark Fragrance Nebula, a sanctuary specifically for survivors. Only lucky ones like you three have the opportunity to be discovered and brought here by Countess Gogolnikyeva to avoid being slowly devoured by the endless torment of the chaos void outside." Daddy Cat answered, pointing upward with his circular palm, which only had three fingers.

"Countess Gogolnikyeva? Who is she?" Dream Jia, although feeling extremely displeased, suppressed her anger, considering the consequences of their confrontation with the clowns earlier, so she had to restrain her anger and change the subject.

"Countess Gogolnikyeva is the creator of the Dark Fragrance Nebula, the ruler here." Daddy Cat replied, opening his arms and looking up with a very pious expression.

Then, Daddy Cat continued, "In a massive divine battle long ago, this galaxy was completely destroyed, turning into a huge, chaotic black vortex. Countless creatures living in this galaxy lost their lives as a result. Of course, many beings were lucky enough to survive that disaster. However, the surviving creatures were like exiles, drifting aimlessly in this chaotic void, hoping that the chaotic energy in the void would tear them apart."

"To provide a refuge for us wanderers who lost our homes, Countess Gogolnikyeva established the Dark Fragrance Nebula and rescued all the survivors she found, so that we could continue to live peacefully in this safe haven," Daddy Cat continued.

"Safe? Live peacefully? You make it sound so nice! Since being inexplicably trapped in this space, we've experienced three painful deaths! Are you kidding us about avoiding torment? Are you deliberately mocking our previous experiences, or are you deliberately deceiving us?" Haoyun cursed inwardly upon hearing Daddy Cat's explanation.

However, as Haoyun, Dream Jia, and Dao Lao expressed their anger at Countess's actions, they once again felt a surge of unease. If what Daddy Cat said was true, then they could rule out the possibility that they ended up here because of Elina's trap. But at the same time, it also indicated that they encountered an extremely powerful Mold Spirit Energy while tracking Elina. And this Mold Spirit Energy should be the Countess that Daddy Cat mentioned.

With new questions arising, the sense of crisis in Haoyun, Dream Jia, and Dao Lao grew even stronger, and they became more suspicious of their current situation. The enemy now clearly possessed the power to easily crush them, but why didn't they take action against them and instead played with them with such methods? Did that Countess and Elina really want to torture them slowly, or did those two have a bigger conspiracy in mind?

Thinking of this, Dao Lao interrupted Daddy Cat's attempt to continue speaking and asked, "By the way, Daddy Cat. How can we meet her?"

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Daddy Cat shook his head in response, saying, "The Countess is usually busy searching for and rescuing various survivors. Unless she needs me, it's difficult for me to meet her. So, don't even think about meeting the Countess! You should enjoy life in the sanctuary. Maybe one day, you'll be lucky enough to meet the Countess! Meow!"

"Humph! Nonsense sanctuary! In my opinion, this is not a sanctuary at all; it's a concentration camp! And it's a concentration camp that enjoys torturing and is full of malicious amusement!" Dream Jia couldn't help but curse.

Daddy Cat didn't seem inclined to argue. He sighed helplessly and said, "Well! After all, this is a sanctuary created by the Countess. It's already generous of her to grant us a place to rest! What you experienced before is what everyone here has been experiencing. How should I put it? Since our family is willing to provide us with shelter, we also have to contribute some labor in return, right?"

Upon hearing Daddy Cat's explanation, Dream Jia couldn't help but frown and retort, "Contribute labor? Is performing in the fire hoop what you call labor? Am I supposed to keep jumping through that unlucky hoop, experiencing the pain of being burned alive over and over again, just to be treated like animals forever trapped in a cage? Is that your idea of labor? This is pure torture! What kind of person is that Countess? She's clearly a sadistic maniac! Instead of enduring torture here, you might as well kick us out of here and let us fend for ourselves in the chaos void!"

"Hey! Miss, don't think like that. Since the Countess went to great lengths to bring you to the safe zone, why would she push you back into the fire pit? Jumping through the fire hoop is just a very realistic performance, don't take it seriously. The Countess just enjoys watching performances and wants this place to be filled with joy and laughter. So, she hopes that the rescued survivors can cooperate with her and perform the stage plays written by her personally." Daddy Cat replied nonchalantly, waving his hand dismissively.

"You—!" Dream Jia was extremely displeased with Daddy Cat's attitude and was about to retort.

Seeing this, Dao Lao, fearing that Dream Jia's temper might cause trouble again, hurriedly intervened through the system, "Dream Jia, let it go! This guy seems to have serious problems with his mind due to brainwashing or torture by that Countess. He has now delusionally turned evil into a good deed, and he seems to be enjoying it. In this situation, it's hard for us to reason with him!"

"Humph! Abducting people and subjecting them to slavery in exchange for so-called safety, this doesn't sound like something a decent person would do!" Haoyun, speaking on behalf of Dream Jia, muttered disapprovingly, questioning Daddy Cat's perspective.

"A decent person? Meow! Countess Gogolnikyeva isn't a decent person, then who is? Gods? If so, where were they after that divine battle destroyed this nebula? Did they think about saving us survivors? Did they think about helping us rebuild our homes? No, they didn't. After the divine battle ravaged everything here, they chose to leave. They never came back, otherwise, how could we end up in such a plight?" Daddy Cat sarcastically retorted.

Yes. After that divine battle, the Spirit Realm didn't set foot in this completely destroyed world again. But this doesn't mean that the Spirit Realm wanted to abandon this place; it's because this galaxy has become a chaotic world that is difficult for the gods to enter after the explosion caused by the divine battle. Now, all the Spirit Realm can do is wait, patiently wait for the chaotic energy flows here to stabilize so that they can find a way to enter again and rebuild this place.

Of course, due to various irresistible factors, the Spirit Realm knows very little about the true situation inside the black hole, and even before Haoyun and the others entered the black hole VOID-5173 this time, the Spirit Realm didn't know that there were surviving lower realm beings in the black hole. Therefore, the efforts of the Spirit Realm to block the black hole and the current helpless situation of the black hole couldn't be conveyed to the survivors in the black hole. This directly led to misunderstandings among these surviving beings about the Spirit Realm. This may also be the reason why Daddy Cat is so paranoid!

For Haoyun and the other three priests, they naturally knew the truth about the questions Daddy Cat doubted. However, they couldn't tell Daddy Cat the truth because they couldn't reveal their identities at will. Especially in such a grim situation, they couldn't easily reveal their true identities to avoid more crises. However, based on this, Haoyun and the others found that Daddy Cat seemed to be unaware of their true identities. This made the three of them slightly relieved because it might give them more opportunities to find a way to escape from here in the future.

So, to ease the awkward atmosphere caused by differing views, Haoyun changed the subject and asked, "By the way, Daddy Cat, what species are you, um—, and where are you from?"

As Haoyun spoke, he gestured in circles around Daddy Cat's floating body, which looked very distinctive, like a spinning top, suspended above the ground.

Upon hearing Haoyun's question, Daddy Cat seemed to be in high spirits again. So, he happily spun around in place once more before answering, "I am an Argonite, and I originally lived on a strange planet formed by argon. Everything in our world is evolved from argon, including us Argonites."

As Daddy Cat spoke, he lifted the corner of his garment to let Haoyun and the others see his body, which was formed by a vague and highly transparent mass of gas.