During this time, Lin Site felt like he had become a celebrity in Rose Creek.
Although they didn’t discuss it to his face, the laughter and whispers of those girls, along with the strange looks from some team members, made the short man realize that his performance that night over half a month ago had become widely known.
Xu Aiyuan, the Rose Queen who would rather sacrifice her life than let the enemy have leverage; YangZicang, the big client team leader who turned his gun on himself upon realizing it was a psi field; and himself… who could break the real-manifestation psi field.
All of them had become topics of private discussion.
The first two were fine, but when it came to him… some of the heartfelt words he’d uttered that night had already been recited verbatim by others. This made Lin Site feel tormented no matter where he went, to the point where he sometimes wanted to give himself a couple of slaps—why did he have to make such a confession in front of so many people? Now the very person was right inside that hall, and he didn’t dare go near it.
“Sigh!” Beneath the collapsed brick wall, Lin Site tossed aside the earth brick he was holding, plopped down onto a roof beam used as a makeshift seat, took a couple of gulps from his water bottle, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“In the long river of time, who will stay by your side in the end? Only heaven knows.”
Footsteps approached, and the short man looked up.
A figure wearing light brown glasses and clean white clothes appeared outside the collapsed city wall.
“Who are you? Report before entering here.”
Lin Site stared grimly at this visitor dressed like a celebrity. In the Lost Frequency Land, such attire basically meant a being with formidable or bizarre abilities. But he wasn’t afraid now, because Mr. Morrie had given him a very powerful secret technique.
“Hello, Mr. Lin Site, I’ve come specifically to find you.”
“Find me?” The scrawny man froze for a moment. Compared to the other, he was just a dirty little potato—they were from two different worlds.
“I’m from the Lost Illusion Company. My name is Yu Bifang.”
“Oh, the Lost Illusion Company again? Haven’t you guys already approached me?”
“Oh, you mean the Starlight Illusion?” Yu Bifang let out a light laugh. “I’m not with them. I’m from another Lost Illusion Company, one called The Blackfish.”
“What do you do there? Also extract and guide the information bands within Cruxspace?”
Yu Bifang crouched down, casually picking up two bricks to use as a seat before saying:
“In our former world, countless Lost Frequency bands rolled like a flood. If Starlight Illusion is like a river regulator—dividing the flood into fine branches and channeling tamed waters to the arid land—then we are like treasure seekers who dive deep into the flood to retrieve valuables.”
Lin Site grasped the gist as soon as he heard it.
“Your work is even more dangerous?”
“Yes. Walking Amid all manner of devastating flood bands in a psychic body is an utterly perilous endeavor.”
Yu Bifang, dressed in a crisp white suit, nodded.
“There, you may encounter psychic wavebands as terrifying as solar storms, but you could also reap rewards as dazzling as diamonds. One accident can plunge you into hell, or bring you wealth like treasures from heaven. Therefore, you must consider carefully.”
He had already received a job offer from the Lost Illusion Company over ten days ago. Back then, Lin Site refused without a second thought. He only wanted to stay at Rose Creek and protect the Rose Queen with his own strength.
But over the past half month, Lin Site had felt increasing pressure from gossip. After all, he was a quadrilateral model who had been hiding all along. He had also heard about Yang Zicang’s subsequent performance in the psychic field.
He was no match for that level of power.
He had soberly asked himself that sometimes the protection he wanted to provide might just a wishful thinking.
“If I join you, can I come back here?” Lin Site asked the bespectacled man in front of him.
“No.”
“Then I refuse.”
“You don’t have to answer so quickly.”
Yu Bifang took out an invitation similar to the Starlight Illusion’s from his pocket and handed it to the man.
“Take this for transportation as well. After all, traversing the ‘Death Mist’ is impossible without a vehicle.”
Lin Site looked at the small silk scarf the man handed him.
[I obtained Unknown Replica No. 1, remaining usable time appears to be three more days.]
“Isn’t this Yang Zicang’s…”
“Clothing Carpet-ization is a very ancient and secret alchemical technique. Coincidentally, our company has managed to retrieve part of the formula for this secret art from the ‘Ocean of Lost Thoughts.’ Although the road to repairing something as precious as what Mr. Yang Zicang holds is still very far off, we can produce these temporary items.”
“Wow. No wonder.”
Lin Site stroked the silk scarf in his hand and could sense how to use it.
Yu Bifang stood up and glanced around at the figures busy repairing the buildings.
“With so many people missing from Earth, it still spins 365 days a year. Hmph, young man, don’t let hormones fool you.”
The man said to the thin Lin Site with a smile:
“In short, if you decide to join, set off within two days. At Lost Illusion Company, your strength will improve greatly. And when your mental power is enhanced, others will think you look very handsome!”
“Wha… what?” Lin Site looked up.
“I look forward to your joining on behalf of the company. Sir, I take my leave.”
This person turned and walked away step by step, like an ordinary person, taking a while to go far, his figure growing smaller and smaller.
Lin Site stood up, looked at the hall behind him, then back at the figure that had vanished into the southwest.
Clenching his teeth, he unfurled the scarf. With a puff, it transformed into a flying carpet, floating before him.
Lin Site took a deep breath, sat down on it amidst the astonished stares of those around him, and suddenly shot high into the air, hurtling swiftly toward the distance with a whoosh.
Before long, Yu Bifang below noticed the gaze from the sky. He looked up, adjusted his glasses, waved at Lin Site, smiled, and continued walking.
Lin Site was stunned as it occurred to him—he hadn’t simply vanished. Shouldn’t beings like that just use some ability to get back instantly?
The flying carpet slowed down, hovering at a low altitude.
“Want to come along?” Lin Site asked.
“No need. I’ll just walk—it’ll only take a few days.”
“A few… days? You mean you’ve been walking this whole time?”
“That’s right.”
Hearing this, Lin Site felt his brain short-circuit for a moment, then a wry smile tugged at his lips. “Alright… well, take care, sir.”
“Thank you. See you again at the end of the month.”
……
“Is death redemption? If I can still have a wish, please let me… continue struggling in this eternal hell…”
In a violent explosion, a hand with torn, bleeding flesh reached out, mustering its last strength to push the half-rolled, tattered scroll to the person before it, then shoved it forward—
“Go! We’re the strongest mercenaries in this world—there’s no mission we can’t complete! Go! Take my place as captain and bring it back…”
The image rapidly shrank with a tremble, like a reversed explosion. The woman suddenly opened her eyes, her heart pounding like a drum, fine beads of sweat seeping from her forehead.
The roar of the plane’s engines gradually replaced the explosions in her dream.
She took a deep breath. *Again with this dream… no matter how much time passes, these memories are still impossible to forget.*
A few minutes later, looking out at the deep night, the woman threw off the covers, got out of bed, and walked barefoot to the door.
[Why is it that even here, I still don’t like wearing shoes?]
[Perhaps only this feeling of solid ground beneath my feet can bring peace. Only then can I feel that the earth still exists…]
She dragged her small suitcase to the middle of the compartment, raised her hand, and pushed the door open.
Hong Haocheng lay sound asleep, his body tangled messily in the covers, sprawled close to the edge of the bed as if he might fall off at any moment.
“It’s already the fourteenth.”
She walked over and sat beside the man, gently stroking Hong Haocheng’s cheek, her fingertips lightly brushing across his skin, as if to confirm that he was truly there.
“Will you make it happen…?”
She increased the pressure of her caress slightly, a trace of barely perceptible sorrow in her eyes… the end of the journey was not as beautiful as imagined.
Hong Haocheng’s breathing was steady. His eyelashes fluttered faintly, as if he were responding to her touch in his dreams.
“My husband really is handsome. Maybe now I understand why I ended up marrying you in the future.”
Feeling her caress and this ethereal whisper in the darkness, the man, weary after half a month of travel, groggily opened his eyes. Through the haze, he saw her gentle figure sitting by his side.
“You… what are you up to now?”
She rose and crouched down, her face level with the boy’s on the bed.
“I want to take my husband somewhere.”
“What, where? Where haven’t we been in the past half month?”
She showed a beautiful smile, then stood up and slowly untied her gauze veil.
Hong Haocheng was dumbstruck.
He slowly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, looking at her graceful figure and said, “You… you wouldn’t actually… be serious? Didn’t you say you’re taking me somewhere?”
Her hand moved to the bedsheet and lifted it…
“Into my heart.”
“Hey! Mmph…” His lips were suddenly sealed by something.
Hong Haocheng felt as if he had been swept into an irresistible oceanic storm, like a fish caught in a warm current, unable to refuse being carried along the waves. He tried to break free but couldn’t resist the soul-deep tenderness.
Late in the night, now lost in slumber, Hong Haocheng found himself wide awake inside a dream.
“This is…”
He suddenly realized he was falling.
Around him were thick clouds, and his figure was like a gliding fish, diving toward the pitch-black earth covered in flames below.
Just as he flailed about in panic and isolation, a hand suddenly grasped his own. Hong Haocheng turned to look to the right, and a woman white as a spirit turned to him at the same time, smiling at him.
{Don’t be alarmed. This is in my heart.}
“Inside your heart… why does the world look like this… Am I really in a dream? It feels so real.”
The two of them were like dive-bombing fighters. She pointed forward with her other hand, and suddenly everything around them shifted rapidly, as if a deity were moving heaven and earth.
The scenery changed abruptly; the buildings engulfed in flames quickly restored themselves, and the mountains and rivers were brilliantly beautiful, stretching endlessly.
“These buildings are so strange. What place is this?”
Hong Haocheng watched the silvery raindrops falling from the sky like countless exquisite pearl curtains.
The woman grabbed his hand and pulled him, and they embraced. Hong Haocheng looked at the face before him—more enchantingly beautiful and pure than an elf’s, inhumanly so.
“How am I so blessed to meet a woman like you?” he murmured.
The boy realized he had truly fallen in love with her soul.
{Because you successfully awakened the ancient lost bloodline—that fragment of lost bloodline inside you, pure enough to even contain the monsters’ “Marked Traces of Mind” bloodline.}
As the woman’s words faded, Hong Haocheng felt something stirring inside him.
His eyes widened as an appetite surged within his mind.
At that moment, Hong Haocheng suddenly saw countless trajectories behind her—in golds and purples, reds and violets—forming a complex, intricate weave. Innumerable lines outlined every land she had crossed, every path she had walked.
“Units, tens, hundreds, thousands… billions, 2.5 billion square kilometers?”
The falling Hong Haocheng recalled the monster that had devoured his classmates in the rented house; he felt that thing awakening inside his spirit!
That thing inside him wasn’t dead yet!
It was the same presence that had spoken to him before—that very monster!
[Delicious…]
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