Chapter 235: The Town Where Memories Are Forbidden

Chapter 235: The Town Where Memories Are Forbidden

At the same time, in the third dimension, Earth.

Under the cold white light, Meng Siyou held a pen and took his seat opposite the table.

His face was a mix of distress and difficulty, and he finally sighed helplessly, "I apologize, but we need to go through the standard procedures—our conversation will be recorded in full. Thank you for your cooperation and support with the Anomalous Affairs Bureau."

"Alright, let's begin," Meng Siyou turned to nod at the surveillance camera, then looked at the most special witness ever to be interviewed, speaking solemnly, "May I have your name?"

"Yi Fengchu."

"Gender?"

The black-haired young man seemed momentarily speechless but still cooperated, "…Male."

After a series of simple questions about basic information, Meng Siyou, noticing Yi Fengchu's growing impatience, moved on to the main topic:

"So, you're stating that the two unauthorized intruders from another world landed near your residence at exactly nine o'clock this morning, and they illegally entered your home, attempting to threaten your property and…personal safety?"

Meng Siyou paused at the end, his expression somewhat complex.

It was one thing that these two criminals used their Abilities without the Anomalous Affairs Bureau's supervision or permission in a residential area, but their first act was to rob a divine being…

The fact that the two were still breathing when Yi Fengchu tossed them straight to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau's doorstep was a testament to his restraint.

Anyone who dared to provoke a higher divine being and survived would surely be considered lucky by anyone who heard the story.

Yi Fengchu gave a cold laugh, recalling some unpleasant memories. His fingertips began to tap on the table, the rhythm quickening like the rapid drumming of raindrops during a heavy storm, "They also broke my window glass and stepped on the windowsill and cabinets without changing their shoes…"

Without exaggeration, the moment Yi Fengchu saw the series of messy and dark footprints in his home, a string deep in his mind snapped.

Even as he struggled to maintain his composure, countless clones emerged from him, their silver scales tightening around the two intruders, breaking their ribs before restoring them to their original state, over and over again, like wringing out wet clothes.

It took some time for Yi Fengchu to suppress his anger and toss the two who had lost their wits from directly beholding a divine being to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau for handling.

Describing his painful experience, Yi Fengchu asked, “My resistance, would it be considered self-defense?”

“Of course,” Meng Siyou nodded in affirmation, “After investigation, the two criminals were remnants of the Burning Pure Land, who escaped to our world during the organization's purge. Thank you for your contribution to maintaining social order; if left unchecked, the harm they could cause is immeasurable.”

In terms of crimes, those two Ability users were utterly wicked, deserving death ten times over.

By comparison, Yi Fengchu was practically a law-abiding divine being of the new era.

He even brought the criminals intact to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau to report the incident, rather than devouring them alive or resorting to other more brutal and cruel methods. How law-abiding he was!

Meng Siyou genuinely marveled at this.

After completing the record, Meng Siyou closed the interrogation notebook and escorted Yi Fengchu to the door.

During their time alone, he looked hesitant, finally gathering his courage to speak as they stepped out of the Anomalous Affairs Bureau:

“Have you encountered something recently?”

Yi Fengchu paused, raising an eyebrow at him. “Why do you suddenly ask that?”

“I feel that anyone who has interacted with you face-to-face can sense… you seem more irritable than usual, as if you have something on your mind.”

Meng Siyou tried to say it tactfully and humorously, “Recently, you’ve scared several of my colleagues who were patrolling nearby. They’ve been subtly asking me if they’ve done anything to offend you. I’ve been reassuring them not to worry, almost wearing out my lips from repeating it.”

Meng Siyou’s gaze, tinged with concern, fell upon Yi Fengchu.

Lately, the temper of this offspring of a deity had become abnormally irritable, a fact that was evident to everyone.

Most of the time in the past, Yi Fengchu had not been difficult to get along with.

Though his expression tended to be indifferent, this calmness was not particularly aggressive. It was more like a snake lazily coiled on a branch, steady as a rock, neither particularly joyful nor sad or troubled.

He would simply remain in one place, allowing the myriad facets of life to pass before his eyes. Occasionally, when someone poked him without malice, he would move slightly and respond politely.

However, recently, the aura around Yi Fengchu had become even more oppressive and terrifying, as if suppressing an invisible, scorching flame.

His face remained expressionless, but a casual glance carried an indescribable pressure, once causing a sensitive Ability user in the Anomalous Affairs Bureau patrol team to freeze in place, momentarily unable to move.

"—Like a stormy day with brewing thunderclouds, making one feel suffocated."

One of the patrolling Ability users described it this way.

Some Ability users, emboldened by curiosity, even suggested that perhaps a deity-like creature resembling a snake might also have troubles like shedding its skin?

Would the mood be even more unstable during the shedding period?

Amidst discussions laced with curiosity and fear, the members of the Anomalous Affairs Bureau were privately compiling their observations into a booklet titled *Observations on the Deity-Like Creatures Under Destiny's Knee*.

But Meng Siyou did not dare let Yi Fengchu know about these discussions. He merely said, "If you need anything, you can come to me."

"Even if I can’t solve the issues troubling you, I believe that venting your feelings is meaningful in itself."

Yi Fengchu pondered for a moment.

He had seen many believers who, when faced with significant events and decisions, would pray to him—not for the protection of miracles, but merely for solace in their hearts.

Hmm... Is this really effective for humans?

Yi Fengchu decided to try it himself.

He vaguely summarized: "I have a vague sense that something modeled after me has come into being. Through the connection between the 'original' and the 'replica,' it can gain some power, replicating my state from a certain period in the past."

"And these are things you don't want to see?" Meng Siyou put himself in Yi Fengchu's shoes. "No one likes their own replica."

"It's not just that."

Yi Fengchu sighed, his gaze shifting to the glass window beside him, fixing on his reflection, his voice soft and low: "More importantly, it's the state it presents."

State?

Meng Siyou stroked his chin, trying to delve into the mental health issues of divine beings: "Is it because it stems from you but is only a clumsy imitation, causing you rare, prolonged worry and even anger?"

"No," Yi Fengchu stared at his reflection in the window, forcing a smile, but his brows remained heavy, his eyes dark like a brewing storm and rain, "quite the opposite."

"—It's too much like me."

"Like a certain period of me."

"Like the me I once resisted, feared, and hated—the me dominated by my beastly nature."

Yi Fengchu's tone was almost a sigh: "You never doubt your identity as humans, but I need to hold onto more anchors, to stabilize myself in the current portrait."

For a time, Yi Fengchu would see a huge silver mirror in his dreams.

And there, on the other side of the mirror, that beast-like figure squatted, spanning a long stretch of time, watching the present Yi Fengchu with those cold, emotionless golden eyes.

He was drenched in blood, it was unclear how much was his own and how much came from his prey or enemies.

His body was composed of countless snakes of various sizes, entwined and gathered together, giving him abnormally elongated and supple limbs that dragged along the ground. He barely maintained a rough humanoid outline, struggling to keep an eerie balance. The edges constantly disintegrated and collapsed, with thin, small snakes continuously falling off, slithering around on the ground.

In a distant past, Yi Fengchu had once instructed Bryce:

"If one day I go mad, losing my humanity and reason, I hope you will be responsible for killing me."

But his disciple fell before his teacher.

Thus, after Bryce's death and after hiding within the black goat for many years, Yi Fengchu once fell into a period of madness.

—This time, no being could awaken him, nor could any being fulfill the promise to kill him.

In the end, how did he stabilize his consciousness?

The current Yi Fengchu could not recall clearly, nor did he wish to delve into the memories.

All he knew was that when he opened his eyes in a daze, his mouth was filled with the taste of blood, and around him lay numerous small snakes, torn in half, still slowly wriggling... He had consumed many of his own duplicates.

And at that moment, Yi Fengchu felt a sense of relief:

Just eating duplicates... How fortunate.

Fortunately, even in his most chaotic and mad state, he did not bring irreparable errors and disasters to the many worlds.

He did not become the serpent of calamity.

Now, that period is actually quite distant for Yi Fengchu.

But perhaps because the heart in his chest is dissolving, it inevitably stirs up ripples in the deep sea of memories, bringing back scenes long forgotten to the surface once more.

Yi Fengchu isn't fragile enough to be overwhelmed by these fragments of memory; he even has a somewhat indifferent attitude toward them.

In every dream, Yi Fengchu shatters the silver mirror with his own hands, watching as web-like cracks tear through his reflection before he wakes up and continues with his current life.

Recently, however, there has been a force pulling that "him" beyond the realm of dreams, allowing Yi Fengchu to experience another self living like a pure beast.

It is a past he detests most, yet it is being replayed in reality.

Meng Siyou roughly understands the reason for Yi Fengchu's recent irritability and can't help but show sympathy.

Being someone close to Yi Fengchu's daily life, he can clearly witness the shadows cast upon Yi Fengchu beneath the glory brought by divine blood and favor.

Ordinary people don't need to question: Who am I?

But for someone like Yi Fengchu, a unique existence with divine blood flowing through his veins yet growing up in the human world, this is a question that must be seriously considered.

Torn between the stars and the earth, the world Yi Fengchu sees is too vast, too expansive—so vast that it feels alien to most ordinary people.

Therefore, Meng Siyou can imagine how much heavier the "anchor" Yi Fengchu needs to secure his place in such a boundless and bewildering world must be compared to others.

It is certainly not an easy task.

And the existence of the "replica" in Yi Fengchu's description is no less than an exposure of his past and self that he is unwilling to mention, a provocation to the present Yi Fengchu, and a destabilization of the anchor.

"Then let's solve it."

Meng Siyou patted Yi Fengchu's shoulder in a comforting manner: "You should be quite good at this."

Unconsciously, all Ability users had come to a consensus—high-ranking figures in the Fate Domain were always brimming with martial virtue.

Meng Siyou also gave full affirmation to this.

But Yi Fengchu slowly said, "Not yet... Due to some special reasons, I currently find it difficult to pinpoint its location accurately."

"If I'm not mistaken, it should be located in the Shadow Realm, where layers of shadows blur my perception."

Meng Siyou frowned, momentarily feeling stumped.

The domain of the Goddess of Misfortune has always been exclusive and isolated, making it hard for external forces to probe or interfere.

Over time, the Shadow Realm became a notorious "no-man's land" in the mystical world.

Even heretics heavily wanted by various churches would be considered dead in the material world once they entered the Shadow Realm, no longer pursued with zeal.

And indeed, most of these fugitives never reappeared alive, whether they truly hid until the end of time in the Shadow Realm or met their true death in some unknown place.

In any case, it was a territory that only true deities could intervene in.

Meng Siyou hesitated, glancing at Yi Fengchu with uncertainty: Would the Narrator notice the abnormality of the offspring and intervene in the matter of the "replica"?

At this moment, Yi Fengchu suddenly looked into the distance as if sensing something, his tone softening slightly as he murmured:

"But, it should be soon..."

From a perspective unseen by others, Yi Fengchu's fingertips subtly moved, delving into the river-like, thread-like fate, sensing the slight tremors of a few threads.

His memory was excellent, allowing him to recall most of the high-ranking Ability users in the Fate Domain, except for himself. At this moment, he instantly recognized the source of this slight tremor—

It was Lena's "Fate Stitching."

Coincidentally, her location was also vague and almost overlapped with that of the replica.

Yi Fengchu foresaw that the opportunity was near.

He waited, anticipating the chance to personally slay his "self" once again.

…

Lena stamped the "Human Skin Factory" and then discovered the corpse of a short man in a nearby alley.

Kicking the telescope that had rolled beside the body with her shoe tip, Lena muttered softly, "So, it was you who was peeping at me earlier…"

She examined the body carefully and found no signs of injury from head to toe. The deceased had not even struggled or fought before dying; instead, they had lost their life in an instant.

As if a pair of scissors had snipped, and the thread had floated down silently and weightlessly.

Lena's expression grew serious as she recognized this as similar to her own Ability.

It seemed that someone had created another version of her through memories.

But who here knew her?

The Rat-Eyed gang had undoubtedly been unfamiliar with Lena, so they shouldn't have repeatedly recalled her… Who could it be?

Deep in thought, Lena suddenly remembered a long-ignored question: What was her purpose for coming here before she lost her memory?

Could it be that she followed someone who knew her, or perhaps trailed closely behind them, only to mistakenly enter this unfamiliar territory of the Shadow Realm?

As she pondered, Lena suddenly felt a surge of danger, her hair standing on end.

She snapped her head up and saw that the distant streets and buildings were layered with overlapping images. The vines climbing the outer walls turned from lush green to withered yellow, and the walls themselves alternated between being yellow and cracked and freshly new—images from different points in time, past, present, and future, intertwined, creating a temporal chaos.

And this phenomenon... was rapidly approaching Lena from afar.

Sealed memories seemed to stir, and Lena quickly realized:

It was an intangible "spear" that existed only within the temporal field, hurtling towards her like a meteor.

Almost instantly, Lena sensed in the depths of her mind that the spear came from an old adversary who caused her discomfort; and a name of an ability, both strange and familiar, surfaced in her thoughts.

—This is the 7th Rank "Reversal Spear" of the Time domain, which causes temporal disorder and reversal wherever it passes!