{The purpose of Death’s Prelude is to prepare people for future crises. Yet, those possessing this bloodline ability are deemed ominous.}
A hand like a gray crow’s claw rises within the scene.
The scene plays out at an accelerated pace, with over a dozen flickering images overlapping and manifesting around.
Yang Zicang sees one possibility born amidst eight or nine scenarios, differing in process but gradually converging toward the same outcome.
The scene slows down, and Yang Zicang sees that in more than half of the potential future images—
that massive Boulder Bull is shattered into fragments by a single gunshot from a figure suddenly appearing on the other side of the hall!
That figure steps into it, followed by another silhouette, both wearing baseball caps.
It’s Zhao Yun of the Xiongying Group!
It’s him—he’s likely to kill everyone else in the hall while taking down the giant bull!
In the image, Liang Xi charges forward in the first moment to buy time, protecting everyone.
“Yeah, that’s Liang Xi. That’s the kid!”
Yang Zicang recalls their first meeting: the boy who, gun in hand, didn’t hesitate to jump into an abandoned sewage pit—determined to see if Luo Bin was lying to him.
He also remembers how, at the C-level Intersection Ground, facing the thunderous moon-shadow-ranked monster, the same boy shielded them both behind himself!
Yang Zicang grits his teeth, his entire body trembling.
This is Liang Xi! This guy will definitely do what Gray Crow predicted as the most likely scenario—he will recklessly block the way in front of everyone.
“Senior, I’m willing. Do it now, please let me make that kind of investment for him!”
Gray Crow raised one of its five claws.
The scene around them receded, the perspective widened, and the great hall appeared in a bird’s-eye view.
Outside the hall, the borderlines of two cities emerged in silhouette.
“You’re—”
This was one of the five halls added by Croft at the junction of two mirror-image cities entwined like a Tai Chi symbol.
At this moment, Lü Bu and Zhao Yun had already advanced from the platform and would push open the door of this hall from the platform corridor of the 23rd City in less than a minute.
“Senior…”
A gold coin appeared in Gray Crow’s other claw. He weighed it in his hand, then put it away.
At this moment in the scene, Liang Xi, in order to dodge the stone ox, happened to run around the hall to the other side, intending to take on the giant monster from one side alongside Luo Bin from his.
And outside the door behind him, Zhao Yun stood at the foot of the stone steps, looking up at the eaves of the palace firmly nestled between layers of demon’s fangs like a hellish landscape.
—”This is where the earth-type ‘Thorn Claw’ is stored.”
In the scene, Lü Bu stood in front of Zhao Yun, nodded, and strode up the stone steps.
Yang Zicang’s heart was pounding with extreme tension.
Just as he was about to urge, that claw once again rested on his shoulder.
{I want to sign a temporary dominance agreement with you.}
[Gray Crow wants to sign a temporary dominance agreement with me.]
This is!
Yang Zicang’s scalp tingled for a moment before he immediately agreed.
[I have accepted the agreement, duration 10S.]
Subsequently, the youth’s mental body instinctively raised its hand.
Meanwhile, within the cube of the Lost Illusion Company, that silently standing figure also raised its hand, pointing in the same direction.
[According to the agreement, the dominator needs to exchange one of my miracles.]
His thoughts involuntarily began to recall, as if pulled by an uncanny force, drawing out a certain scene stored deep in his consciousness—in the cave, he was pierced through the chest by a spear under a frenzied attack and collapsed to the ground. At the last moment when he had almost lost all signs of life, the circlet on his chest flickered…
A faint glow faintly emerged within the outlines of the memory image.
At the fingertips of the two figures of Yang Zicang, a strange radiance began to gather.
{Things that could not be done in the old world—fortunately, some heroes found a solution.}
[I, the Great Quadrilateral… the temporal flash slumbering in my past…]
[“Breaking the impossible—Resurrection from the Brink of Death” is exchanged for “Shimmer of the Collective Heroes.”]
“Impossible…to possibilities…”
Lü Bu began to ascend the stone steps, with Zhao Yun following closely behind.
[I sensed the prelude to death unfolding, felt the arrival of the nether spirits… Life withers in sorrow, ignorant and powerless, in need of care.]
In Yang Zicang’s mind.
Within the halo on his dying chest, a string of long 0.00 kept scrolling by.
It was that instant of emptiness!
It was the rebellion for survival from the depths of origin!
It was a spark of inspiration that even he himself could hardly replicate!
This body seemed endowed with strange power. Driven by a fierce will to survive, it madly pulled out the shortening spear and blocked the ratman leader who was losing his investment.
A surge of heroic spirit arose.
[A flash of heroes!]
[I, the resilient quadrilateral, Yang Zicang! Investing in the sorrowful and withering life that awaits care! A new possibility one!]
His fingertips raised high. In the warp of fate, a new radiance began to gleam, resonate, and replace!
Between the fingers of the two figures, a flash of light shone, then faded away.
Lü Bu stepped onto the last step of the stairs. Zhao Yun came to his side, swapped the spear in his hand to his right hand, and pressed his left palm against the massive door.
It seemed as if nothing had changed, and everything appeared quite ordinary.
“Senior?” Yang Zicang turned his head to look at the ash crow beside him.
{Trust in your investment.}
The figure of Lü Bu ahead turned his head to look at the other end of the elevated corridor.
—“Wait,” said Lü Bu.
The aura of death’s prelude rapidly dissipated.
Yang Zicang watched nervously at the images of the two people right before him.
Zhao Yun retracted his hand, which had been about to push against the rocky door.
—“What’s wrong?”
—“‘Fang Tian’ just saw someone suddenly turn and head our way. They look a lot like… the top team of City 23, the Four-Phase Team.”
Zhao Yun’s face turned grim.
—“Indeed, we can’t let them catch the cicada, like the mantis. But still, I’d like to cross paths with them.”
[10 seconds have passed.]
The two turned and walked down the stone steps.
In the Spirit World, Yang Zicang slumped weakly to the ground.
“This… it’s too unbelievable.”
Back in the hall, Liang Xi and the others, oblivious to their close brush with death, continued attacking the mighty beast with fervor.
After resting for a few breaths, Yang Zicang watched Lü Bu and the other man advancing in the screen while asking Gray Crow.
“Senior, what was that investment just now all about?”
{“The so-called ‘flash.’ It is a radiance born from breaking through one impossible miracle after another. It makes that segment of your life, as if engraved, bloom with brilliance at any moment in time.”}
“That is the meaning of ‘flash.’”
Yang Zicang thought of the young journalists and the Land of Lost Frequencies.
{“By one’s own efforts, such a ripple is born within the course of fate. Recording it and grafting it onto someone whose destiny is in decline can twist their life’s turning point, allowing them to manifest new possibilities.”}
“That’s so amazing! It can change the direction of things just like that. Thank you, Senior Grey Crow.”
“The person you should thank is not me. It is that great existence, Mr. Lin Lei, who first extracted and applied them after reproducing the Fate Tracks of the old world… And also… yourself.”
Helkin looked down at the young man, a smile appearing on his rocky mask-like face.
“I hope that on the road ahead, you can continue, as you did today, to invest your own legendary experiences in those lives that cannot give birth to new possibilities. That is the meaning of those extra lifespans gathering around you.”
Yang Zicang was deeply moved.
Last time it was Xing Miao, this time it was Helkin—both times, it was through him that they completed the transformation to overcome impossibly powerful foes.
When would he ever truly become like them!
Apart from when he first entered this world and when he faced those bookshelves of mental power–related books, Yang Zicang once again felt his own insignificance. The martial force that currently seemed so awe-inspiring was nothing before a true powerhouse.
Helkin tilted his face toward the distance, felt the surroundings for a moment, and said in a low voice:
“I have to leave. You continue practicing here until the five-day confinement ends.”
With that, his form trembled, and he turned into a small black stork, flying off into the distance.
Yet this mental domain remained stably fixed in place.
It was only then that Yang Zicang realized that he was not in what the other had called a “Sea of Mind,” but in a True Arrival Ground that Helkin had concretized with his mental force.
“What a powerful person he is.”
Without the help of Gray Crow, the aura of the “Prologue to Death,” which had been nearly within reach, faded into extreme faintness once again, as if returning to the very beginning of this training session.
Yang Zicang attempted to control the Phantom of the Demon Hero Hall; fortunately, the permission granted by this Black Stork person still remained.
The distant figures of Lu Bu and his companion became clear again under Yang Zicang’s manipulation.
“This is the perfect tool for peeping—a little journalist’s perspective,” the young man thought oddly.
Then, he immediately recalled the event of a day ago when Gray Crow had caught his mental power without warning. In this world, casually using mental power to spy on others could lead to a miserable end if one encountered someone stronger. From now on, the Silent Night technique couldn’t be used recklessly.
In the scene, the strongest teams from the two cities had already met at the intersection point of the Abrasive Wheel Formation Eye. Zhang Zhiquan was dispatched to negotiate with Lu Bu.
—”You two are Lu Bu and Zhao Yun from the 23rd City, right? I heard you’ve cornered the lottery booth. Aren’t you afraid of getting taken down when you step out?”
Lu Bu, standing over ten meters in front of Zhang Zhiquan, seemed not to hear him, completely ignoring the question and instead conveying his gaze past Zhang Quantou toward Cheng Yunze, who was thirty or forty meters away.
After waiting a few seconds, Zhang Zhiquan’s face turned angry.
“Such an arrogant bastard! Just the two of you? I’ll clean you up on behalf of your city’s White Model!”
Thump, thump, thump!
Zhang Zhiquan’s form rapidly charged towards the platform, and halfway there, his figure abruptly accelerated, leaving afterimages. In less than two seconds, he appeared before Lü Bu with a ferocious punch.
Bang!
Zhao Yun, clad in battle armor, swept his spear to deflect the incoming punch shadow, then swiftly withdrew and thrust out again in an explosive stab!
Boom! A dragon’s roar seemed to resound.
A silver light flashed in the void, and an invisible spear shot out from Zhao Yun’s hands, hurtling forward to collide with Zhang Zhiquan before him.
—”Bursting Dragon Roar!”
Zhang Zhiquan’s bones clashed with the spear shadow, exploding with a bang into a wave of force that sent him staggering back a few steps. He looked up solemnly.
Zhao Yun smoothly withdrew his spear and stood beside Lü Bu.
Lü Bu said indifferently, “Not bad. Anyone who can force Zhao Yun to use ‘Roar of the Dragon’ is worthy of being considered formidable in my eyes.”
The sky before dawn brightened as a straight beam of light split the heavens and the earth.
Boom! The rock beneath Zhang Zhiquan erupted into debris.
In that instant, a Skeleton of Light overlapped Zhang Zhiquan’s form, blocking the strike descending from the sky.
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