Chapter 555: Matters Here Are Concluded, Cat Ship, Set Sail! (Two-in-One)

Had he done something earth-shattering in the River of Time?

Yan Jing blinked, drawing a complete blank.

He still didn't feel he possessed any particular value. Perhaps he was just a bit luckier than most. Without the system, he was, at his core, an ordinary person.

None of that mattered now, though. Everyone had been brought back, and that was enough.

The two of them carefully discussed the timeline, completely untangling the sequence of events.

Yan Jing had charged into the fire and pushed Wen He out, and then he had ended up in another world.

For some reason, he had attracted the River, and his memories had been distorted.

He wanted to save Wen He, so he entered the River.

Meanwhile, during this period, Wen He had been immersed in grief over Yan Jing's death.

Without Yan Jing, her once-bright life had plunged back into darkness. She was entirely lost, attempting suicide several times.

But for some unknown reason, every attempt failed.

Not only that, but because she missed him so intensely, she dreamed of him every single night.

In her dreams, they continued living just as before. And right as the dream was about to end, Yan Jing would seem to truly come alive, telling her that she needed to live well on her own.

But Wen He still couldn't do it.

She was already suffering from an incurable illness. Even before she met Yan Jing, she had long since lost all hope in life.

Now that Yan Jing was gone, she found life even more meaningless. Her favorite thing to do every day was simply sleep so she could see him in her dreams.

She bought a lot of sleeping pills. Aside from eating her daily meals, she did nothing but sleep.

Until one day, the Yan Jing in her dreams looked at her increasingly emaciated form and seemed unable to bear it any longer. He told her to go find a river.

He told her that the river was located in a desolate, uninhabited place, high upon a mountain, and that it was the node connecting reality and illusion.

To reach that river, she had to build up her physical strength so she would have enough stamina and energy to make the climb.

Wen He believed him.

From then on, she began to exercise. She enrolled in mountaineering classes, spending the money she had saved to buy a house for Yan Jing on professional hiking instruction.

The Qinling Mountains, Mount Everest, Medog—

After tempering herself between life and death, she set out on the journey alone. She walked a little further each day, using Yan Jing's guidance in her dreams at night to determine her direction.

She never told anyone about this.

She just assumed she had gone mad.

But she had to find him.

And finally, she really did find it.

Deep in the heart of a massive mountain.

There was nothing here that could even be called a path. She had hacked her way through entirely on her own, relying on her tools.

But she had truly found that river.

It was incomparably clear, yet completely bottomless.

Specks of light like starlight drifted across its surface. Every splash of water and every ripple was distinctly visible. It was only a few meters long, with just a small section exposed above ground. Its source was unknown, as was its destination, and it looked so dreamlike that it seemed to transcend the boundaries of reality.

Wen He gently reached out her hand, and the moment she touched the water's surface, she was pulled into the River of Time.

Unlike Yan Jing, the moment Wen He entered the River, she already possessed a Tier. It was as if someone had specifically left it there for her.

Her starting point was the Eighth Tier.

During this timeframe, Yan Jing had already entered the River and was steadily growing.

In the end, the two of them finally met.

And then, Yan Jing brought Wen He out.

But when Wen He woke up, she found herself still beside the river, as if it had all been a dream.

She was the one who had been saved.

Therefore, she remembered everything.

Furthermore—

She unexpectedly still had her Tier.

It defied common sense, but it had genuinely happened. The Tier she had possessed as soon as she entered the River had followed her back into reality.

She waited every moment of every day for Yan Jing to come find her.

But evidently, Yan Jing had already re-entered the River.

At first, Wen He didn't realize anything was wrong and simply kept waiting, but Yan Jing never appeared.

She thought about entering the River again, but knowing what kind of place it was, she felt that if they continued like this, the two of them would just fall into an infinite loop.

Ultimately, she began searching for the secrets of the original world, wanting to cross over to the world where Yan Jing was.

Although the process was incredibly difficult, she finally succeeded.

She transmigrated to this world.

And then—

Then came the story that followed.

She found Yan Jing's diary.

She entered the River.

She began searching endlessly, starting from a point thousands of years in the River's past.

She found Yan Jing's remnant soul.

Mistakenly believing this was Yan Jing himself, she began waiting continuously alongside him.

Dying time and time again in the River, withdrawing, and then walking back in just like the Yan Jing from before.

Exactly how many times she had entered and withdrawn, she couldn't count, nor could she remember. She only knew that in the midst of it all, she had gradually blurred the boundary between the River and reality, unable to tell whether she was in the Inner World or the River.

It was an extremely dangerous thing to do, but she could no longer bring herself to care.

And during this process, she gradually saw some of Yan Jing's footprints.

From these traces, she vaguely guessed that Yan Jing must have done something incredible in the River, which had led to their previous meeting.

It was also during this process that she altered the storyline from thousands of years ago in the River. Because of that, Wen He existed in the memories of Huo Tong and the others.

After that, it wasn't until this moment that she finally ran into Yan Jing again.

"Even if it's a dream, it doesn't matter."

Wen He hugged Yan Jing tightly.

Having listened to the entire story, Yan Jing stroked Wen He's head, his expression softening.

He didn't know what kind of suffering he had personally endured, but Wen He had certainly suffered.

A girl suffering from a terminal illness had gone to such extremes for the sake of a dream.

This touching story sounded beautiful now.

But exactly how much Wen He had endured was something only she knew.

"Look, Little Jing. I even kept your diary from back then."

Wen He carefully fished out several pieces of paper from her inner pocket and happily presented them to Yan Jing.

She pointed at the words on the pages, as excited as if she were looking at a diary Yan Jing had written in his childhood. "Look. You said you were going to find people."

"Find a lot of people."

Yan Jing looked at the notes on the pages; it was indeed his own handwriting.

But he truly didn't remember any of it.

He carefully scrutinized the words in the diary, and some memories seemed to gradually revive in his mind. They were memories of his interactions with the phantoms of Mantou and the Old Man in the River of Time.

He stared, captivated, as the memories in his mind grew clearer.

Right then, Wen He's voice came from beside him. "Little Jing, you said you were going to find a lot of people. Have you found them all now?"

She widened her eyes, yet her hands still clung tightly to him.

It was as if she were afraid Yan Jing would say he had to enter the River one more time.

In Yan Jing's mind, silhouettes flashed past alongside the open pages of the diary in his hands.

Mantou, Rose, the Old Man, Fei Yu, Boss Rat, Zeng Qing, Wen Qiao—

Suddenly, it felt as though a cold wind had blown past.

Another figure appeared in Yan Jing's mind.

It was a figure clad in luxurious robes with pure white hair, dressed in attire that exuded a profound sense of nobility from head to toe.

Back then, he had arrived in that place which placed a heavy emphasis on Bloodlines, and he had nearly been beaten to death as a slave.

It was that figure who had saved him.

Unfortunately, the person behind that figure had ultimately died.

Because he had attempted to elope with a young woman from an opposing Clan, the two of them had perished together.

And during his final entry into the River, he had brought that person back.

"I found them. I found them all," Yan Jing said with a smile.

He hadn't expected Chen Nian to actually look quite handsome.

It was truly a pity that such a cool, elegant face was hidden behind a mask.

He didn't know what Chen Nian had gone through after being saved in the River of Time to end up in his current state.

"Let's go, Sister Wen He."

Yan Jing looked at Wen He.

Everything had been cleared up.

After Mu Tian's death, the Great Prison had reached the brink of collapse.

The most urgent matter now was to transfer everyone onto the Ship.

"Mhm."

Wen He nodded. She released her embrace around Yan Jing and instead tugged on the hem of his clothes.

The two of them arrived at the Great Prison's Fortress.

Yan Jing looked at the lesser wandering ghosts surrounding the Fortress and called out, "Lift!"

Just as they had planned, the moment Yan Jing's voice faded, the swarms of lesser wandering ghosts exerted their strength in unison, hoisting the entire prison Fortress onto their shoulders.

Yan Jing took out a walkie-talkie. "Disable the Fortress's levitation."

Although the staff on the other end of the walkie-talkie didn't understand the reason, they still followed Yan Jing's orders and disabled the prison Fortress's levitation.

"Heave."

The shoulders of the lesser wandering ghosts sank uniformly as they steadily bore the weight of the prison Fortress. Under Yan Jing's lead, they flew toward Haidu in the distance.

Yan Jing used March to accelerate everyone.

A few dozen minutes later, the group arrived above Haidu. Under the astounded gazes of the crew on the Ship, the prison Fortress landed smoothly in its pre-reserved position.

Yan Jing stood at the bow of the Ship. Beside him, the two stitched-together corpses of Sha Like and Zhan Cangtian materialized.

He looked toward the several Ninth Tier experts hurrying out from the cabin.

"Long time no see, everyone,"

Yan Jing said with a smile.

Zhou Mian and Bai Yue exchanged a glance. They looked at Wen Xu and Merkel beside them, wanting to see how those two would react to Yan Jing's actions.

Wen Xu didn't say a word, while Merkel offered a slight bow. The two immediately understood and hurriedly bowed to Yan Jing as well. "Greetings, Warden Yan."

"I am no warden."

Yan Jing smiled. "My recent battle with Warden Mu was merely a sparring session. No victor was decided."

"The old gentleman felt a bit tired and decided to evict everyone else from the Great Prison so he could seek a moment of peace. Thus, he arranged for me to have all of you leave the Great Prison on this pre-prepared Ship. That's all there is to it."

Bai Yue and Zhou Mian exchanged another glance.

This excuse was simply too clumsy.

So clumsy that if anyone were to expose it right now, they would merely be asking for trouble.

Thus, the two nodded in tacit understanding. "We will obey all arrangements made by Warden Mu and Commissioner Yan."

"Very good. According to Warden Mu's instructions, Mao Si is henceforth appointed as the Captain of the Cat Ship, and Wen Xu is appointed as the Cat Ship's Chief Overseer. Sha Like and Zhan Cangtian will serve as the Cat Ship's Guardian Corpses."

"Bai Yue, Zhou Mian."

Hearing Yan Jing call their names, the two hurriedly straightened their backs.

"I appoint you two as the Ship's Vice Overseers."

"Understood!"

The two bowed in unison.

"In addition, Bobo is appointed as Vice Captain, Merkel as Chief Helmsman, Liu Ye as Chief Diplomat, the Master Rank as Chief Mechanic and Designer, and also—Bai Chen."

Hearing Bai Chen's name, Bai Yue's eyes suddenly lit up.

She hadn't expected Bai Chen to actually still be alive.

She stared intently at Yan Jing's mouth, terrified that he would say Bai Chen had been turned into a Guardian Corpse.

"Bai Chen will be—"

Yan Jing dragged out his words. "—the Chief Navigator."

Bai Yue trembled, barely suppressing her excitement and nearly jumping on the spot.

Very soon, Bai Chen was released from the prison. After understanding the situation, a flash of joy crossed Bai Chen's eyes as well, and he bowed to Yan Jing. "Many thanks, Commissioner Yan."

"I will be withdrawing from the Inner World. Moving forward, Wen Xu's word is my word."

Yan Jing said softly, "After this, the Cat Ship will need to undergo spatial navigation for a very long period of time. I hope all of you can discipline yourselves and the other crew members, and contribute to the betterment of the Cat Ship."

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone bowed in unison.

"Then—"

Yan Jing raised his head, looking toward the horizon.

By now, more than half of the boundless sky had turned pitch-black. The aura of Chaos permeated and spread within it. Endless rain poured down from above, with only a few sparse clouds and fragments of the sky still struggling to hold on.

On the sea's surface, crisscrossing rifts seemed to possess lives of their own, continuously expanding, growing, and spreading as they swallowed countless tons of seawater.

The distant deserts, the Desolate Forest, and those cities—all of them had disappeared without a trace.

This Domain had already become a dead realm.

Just like the God Storage Land.

A thought suddenly flashed through Yan Jing's mind.

He wondered if, should someone else accidentally enter this place many years from now, the same drama would play out all over again.

Time—perhaps it was ultimately just a cycle.

"Set sail."

He commanded softly.

Bobo hurriedly directed the crew members who had long been standing by at the energy supply stations, instructing them to channel their Weird Energy into the energy ports.

Hum...

A crisp rumble echoed out, and the lamps on the Ship lit up one after another.

Like a dragon soaring through the heavens slowly awakening and opening its eyes.

The orange-yellow lamplight stretched out for thousands of miles, thoroughly illuminating the pitch-black sea.

The city—the streets—the malls—the administrative centers—

Building after building sat upon this colossal Ship, their lights linking together into a single expanse. As the people on board witnessed this scene, their hearts inexplicably tightened, as if they, too, were bound together by something in this very moment.

An indescribable power surged upward from the Ship, ascending into the sky alongside the colossal vessel.

At the exact moment the Ship left the ocean surface, everyone looked down and saw that the sea level beneath them seemed to have dropped a little.

The Ship took flight.

And a massive sigil rose into the air above the Ship.

It was a gigantic cat head.

Behind the cat head was a black cloak.

It held a scythe, and a Soul Lamp was placed beside it.

Up close, that cat head was a sigil.

But if someone were to look from afar at this moment, they would be astonished to find that the cat head looked just like a seed.

The cloak was the seed's clothing, the Soul Lamp was the seed's heart, and the scythe was its sprouting bud.

This was the Domain Seed.

Which meant that, from this moment onward—

The Cat Ship.

Had officially become a Domain.