Chapter 550: Everything Is Marching Toward Death (Two in One)

Yan Jing tuned out the surrounding noise and went straight back to his room.

He worried that if he heard Wen Qiao crying again, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from looking back.

Lying on his bed, he stared blankly at the ceiling.

Soon after, he raised a finger. Faint ink oozed from the tip, and he drew a line in the air in front of him.

Assume this is the River of Time.

He drew another identical line beneath it.

Assume this is the real world.

"The River of Time isn't time itself."

Yan Jing stared at the two parallel lines, murmuring the river's true nature.

No one could clearly explain what time was, but it almost certainly didn't contain a world identical to reality.

The River of Time was merely a conduit for returning to a past world. It let you touch time, but it wasn't time itself.

"Suppose I entered the River of Time at this specific point."

Yan Jing marked a dot on the line representing the real world, then drew an arrow pointing to the other line. The arrow slanted backward, indicating his return to the past.

"It can only go backward. The river only pulls in people it deems valuable," Yan Jing reasoned.

He didn't think he had been anyone of value in his previous world, so it was highly probable the river had only taken an interest in him after he arrived here.

And the reason was most likely the Life Role-playing System.

As far as he was concerned, that was his greatest value.

He had likely transmigrated to this world due to some unknown event, acquired the Life Role-playing System, and slowly learned about the River of Time as his strength grew. Then, he had traveled back to fish Wen Qiao out.

This particular segment of memory had simply vanished or distorted because of the river.

Of course, this theory left a few unexplainable holes. For instance, Wen Qiao claimed she had walked downstream along the river.

Then...

He drew a circle where his newly drawn arrow intersected the line representing the River of Time, marking Wen Qiao's point in time.

If Wen Qiao was fished out, then according to her own words, a rescued person wouldn't return to the timeline where they died. This meant she would follow him back to his current point in time.

That directly contradicted her claim of walking downstream in the River of Time.

It also contradicted the fact that he had entered the River of Time on multiple occasions.

Yan Jing blinked. Unless...

He drew an 'X' over the arrow.

He hadn't saved Wen Qiao. At least, not the first time.

And then...

He marked another dot further along the real-world line and drew a second arrow slanting backward.

He drew another 'X'.

Finding a third dot further down the line, he drew yet another backward-slanting arrow.

Next, he drew a fourth.

Until finally, a fifth.

"I failed to save Wen Qiao the first few times."

"It wasn't until the fifth attempt that I finally saved her," Yan Jing muttered under his breath.

"But it shouldn't have been that hard."

"If I had already reached Summit, crossing the River of Time to return to that fire and save a single person should have been trivially easy."

"Unless..."

"Wen Qiao wasn't there anymore."

At the cluster of arrows on the upper line, he drew a new arrow following the line downstream.

"By some stroke of fate, she became a River Envoy while inside."

"That's why she was able to walk downstream."

"Since I couldn't find her, I would have realized this, which means..."

He revised the arrows, making each one correspond to a new dot.

Looking at the completed diagram, he nodded. It felt like the most logical explanation for everything so far.

It was still a bit of a stretch, but it tied up most of the loose ends.

Of course, this entire theory rested on two conditions.

First, that Wen Qiao was truly Wen He.

Wen He was just a sickly, ordinary human. Logically speaking, she shouldn't have attracted the river's attention and become a River Envoy.

Second, there was no way to explain his own strength.

Going by the logic of his diagram, if he had reached Summit before fishing Wen Qiao out, he should have still been at Summit when he returned to the real world.

Yet, when he transmigrated this time, he had clearly been nothing more than an ordinary person.

That was incredibly hard to justify.

Unless he was still in the river right now.

Yan Jing considered the possibility.

Though Mu Tian had claimed this wasn't the river, Weng Lingxiao had also stated that other people's judgments about the river didn't matter.

Mu Tian was likely lying to him.

If he really was in the river—and he had sought out the wrong person—it was highly possible he would end up lost.

Yan Jing felt his newly clear thoughts tangle into a mess once again.

This might be an unsolvable puzzle.

Mu Tian couldn't solve it back then, and he was finding it exceedingly difficult right now.

"Forget it."

He rubbed his temples.

In truth, he hadn't planned on dwelling on any of this.

He had already made his decision.

The right time simply hadn't arrived yet.

Goading Wen Qiao had only been a tactic to confirm a few suspicions.

"Waiting. Waiting is important."

"Ask when the grapes will fully ripen; you must wait quietly, and wait some more."

He repeated that famous quote from his previous world, the very same words he had once said to Zeng Qing.

Boom!

BOOM!

The thunder was growing louder.

The streets of Sky Domain were completely empty. It wasn't just because of the late hour, nor the torrential downpour. Mostly, it was out of fear of the thunderclouds gathering overhead.

Streaks of lightning occasionally flashed through the grim, mold-colored storm clouds, illuminating the scene within. Thick bolts of lightning coiled like massive dragons, blotting out the sky. A pair of eyes glared down in fury, looking ready to devour anyone at any moment.

In truth, hiding indoors was useless. Someone had just watched a house a few hundred meters away get struck by a thunderbolt. Roaring flames erupted in an instant, spewing thick black smoke that even the torrential rain couldn't extinguish.

"Where are the domain lords? Domain lords, we beg you! Please appear! Save us!"

As house after house was struck by lightning, sending columns of fire into the air and dyeing the sky red, people fell to their knees before their windows, clasping their hands in desperate prayer.

They prayed for those two figures to appear and turn the tide.

Little did they know that the very saviors they hoped for were currently facing a crisis far more dire than their own.

Bang!

Zhan Cangtian dashed out from a spatial rift, throwing a devastating punch straight at Bai Yue.

Bai Yue's face was ashen, her eyes glazed over.

She seemed completely oblivious to the incoming Zhan Cangtian.

She couldn't help it; the pain was simply too agonizing.

The sharp thorns embedded in her body felt like they were constantly whipping her spine and gnawing at her flesh. Driven to hallucinations by the intense agony, she saw the charging Zhan Cangtian as an angel, his oncoming fist transforming into a warm embrace.

Fortunately, Bai Chen gritted his teeth and flashed forward, blocking the strike with his massive wings.

But he wasn't faring much better.

He let out a muffled groan, clenching his jaw tight to keep from crying out.

Staring at Zhan Cangtian, despair gripped his heart.

His opponent was already a corpse; negotiating a truce was impossible.

And if he used his trump card, it would certainly be effective, but he would find it hard to escape alive.

Judging by Bai Yue's current state, if Yan Jing had sent more than one person, both of them were probably going to die here today.

What should he do? What could he do?

Watching an iron halberd materialize in Zhan Cangtian's hands, Bai Chen burned with anxiety.

Right then, a voice suddenly echoed from above.

"Eeya, eeya~" Xiao Xin crawled out of a hole in the sky. Taking a portrait from her small satchel, she looked carefully at Bai Chen and Bai Yue, then glanced down at the drawing.

"That's them!"

She nodded happily and cleared her throat before announcing, "Listen well! By the order of Zhu Leng, I have come specifically to deliver Zhu Leng's will!"

"Zhu Leng advises you to surrender immediately! Only by handing over one of you can the other survive!"

Hearing Xiao Xin's words, Bai Chen's expression shifted.

It didn't take a genius to realize that the master this little doll spoke of was naturally Yan Jing.

But... hand someone over?

"In your fucking dreams!"

He roared and charged directly at Zhan Cangtian on his own initiative.

A second later, Zhan Cangtian's iron halberd struck right against a Fear Thorn embedded in Bai Chen's shoulder. Bai Chen convulsed, veins bulging on his neck, nearly collapsing to the ground from the sheer agony.

Taking advantage of that split-second pause, Zhan Cangtian sent Bai Chen flying backward.

Xiao Xin seized the opportunity to lean forward and loudly repeat Yan Jing's ultimatum.

Bai Chen said nothing. He simply charged forward once more.

And once again, he was swatted away.

This time, he crashed into a puddle of stagnant water.

Rain mixed with blood splattered over his body, drenching the tattered wings on his back. His greatest point of pride—his speed—was completely useless now.

The uncontrollable pain was eroding his mind. It wouldn't be long before he ended up exactly like Bai Yue.

Watching Zhan Cangtian bear down on him, he lay on the ground, making no move to get up.

He almost wanted to accept his fate.

It just hurt too much.

If he could end his life right here and now, it seemed like a decent option.

It really hurt too much.

It hurt so much that he was scared.

Scared to keep living.

But... he turned his head and looked at Bai Yue, who was still standing blankly where she was.

Finally, he took a deep breath and forced himself into a sitting position. "I'll go with you. Let Bai Yue go."

"Very well!"

Task accomplished, Xiao Xin nodded in satisfaction and stuffed the portrait back into her satchel.

Meanwhile, Zhan Cangtian stepped up and drove his long halberd straight through both of Bai Chen's wings in a single thrust.

"Ugh!"

Bai Chen gave a violent jerk, blood slowly trickling from the corner of his mouth.

He had bitten his tongue.

He looked back at Bai Yue, who was still standing in a daze.

"Bai Yue! Bai Yue!"

Beneath his shouts, Bai Yue's consciousness finally began to return. Her vacant eyes slowly regained their focus.

"I'm going with them."

Bai Chen stopped Bai Yue from stepping forward and quickly explained the situation. "You know more about the affairs of Sky Domain. It's better for you to stay."

"Then what about you? I'll go with you."

Bai Yue gritted her teeth and rushed forward, holding out her hands to let Zhan Cangtian tie her up too. "I'm going with you!"

But a second later, Bai Chen kicked her flying. She landed in the exact same puddle he had just occupied.

"There are so many people in Sky Domain! If we both leave, what happens to them?"

Bai Chen's face was grim. "We can't be this selfish. We are the ones chosen by Sky Domain, so we have to take responsibility to the end."

"You're staying, and that's final."

"Let's go."

Bai Chen lifted his head and looked at Xiao Xin.

"Okay!"

Xiao Xin drew a large circle in the air with her hand. "Let's go!"

Taking a deep breath, Bai Chen followed behind Zhan Cangtian and stepped into the circle.

"Brother!!!"

Bai Yue's sobbing voice echoed from behind.

Bai Chen clenched his teeth, pretending not to hear her.

Ever since Bai Yue reached Summit, they hadn't addressed each other as siblings again.

Reaching Summit was just like that.

Growing up was just like that.

You had to abandon many things to make it to this stage, only to gain many things you never even thought of wanting.

It was the same for everyone.

"I'm not dead yet!"

Bai Chen roared back. "Think about how to keep Sky Domain alive! You're an adult now! Stop crying! You always just look to me to figure out what to do!"

"I am deeply disappointed in you, Bai Yue!!"

The crying behind him slowly died down.

But the rain seemed to only pour harder.

Xiao Xin looked back at Bai Yue, whose mouth hung open in a silent wail.

Unstoppable tears tumbled to the ground, blending into the rain.

Right now, the person before them was no longer a Ninth Tier powerhouse.

She was just a girl who had grown up depending on her older brother to survive.

"Give this to them as you see fit."

This was something Yan Jing had instructed her to do long beforehand.

"Go to the west."

She fished a piece of paper out of her satchel and tossed it to Bai Yue. "Take the people of your domain and head over there."

"Someone there can save you."

"There's no way to survive here anymore, you bunch of idiots."

"Even if you win, there's no way you can keep the people here alive."

"This is an annihilation. An annihilation that has happened many times before."

"A kind mast—a kind person has prepared a ship! Go! Head over there!"

With that, she, along with Bai Chen and Zhan Cangtian, stepped into the hole and vanished without a trace.

Only Bai Yue was left sitting in the puddle. Clutching the piece of Pseudo-Divine Source that Bai Chen had deliberately hidden in the water, as well as the paper Xiao Xin had thrown, she sobbed uncontrollably.

As time trickled by, the Great Prison truly seemed to plunge into the final apocalypse.

The entities living in the Desolate Forest could no longer withstand the bitter cold. Some migrated east, attempting to enter Elite City, only to find that snow had begun to fall there as well. The city's food supplies had run dry, and countless beings brawled in the streets, drenching the entire city in blood.

Sand Tower had been entirely submerged by floods. The deluge churned the sands that had accumulated over many years into thick sludge. The residents and creatures that lived there lost both their families and the homes they had occupied for so long to the raging waters.

Above Haidu, the number of rifts continued to multiply.

A woman sat on a wooden board, cradling a swaddled infant in her arms. She could do nothing but watch helplessly as the board beneath her was slowly drawn toward those abyss-like rifts.

The infant began to cry.

Yet that sound, which would normally stand out so sharply in any environment, was completely drowned out by the tempest and thunder.

This was the apocalypse.

It was the unluckiest of times for a newborn to arrive.

The woman kissed the baby's cheeks over and over, soothing him in a whisper. "Don't cry, don't cry... It'll be okay, baby. It'll be okay. Everything will be okay..."

But by the end, she was already sobbing too hard to speak.

She knew no one was coming.

The only thing waiting for her and her child was death.

She only hoped that her baby wouldn't die in fear.

He was still so small; he shouldn't have to understand fear at such an age.

But suddenly, beside her ear—

A voice boomed out: "Hoist the sails! Set sail! Start the ship! Captain Cat has arrived!!!"