Tiangu’s people wanted to see him?
Shi Deng swallowed a mouthful of congee. “Because of Feng City matters, or my blood?”
Uncle Fu said, “Not clear. They just said visiting. I guess probably both. Also, that Instructor Chi—he wants to see Shi-ge.”
“The entire elite team came. The rest are Tiangu’s upper echelon. They also brought doctors.”
Shi Deng wanted to speak, but Shi-ge fed him spoonful after spoonful with perfect timing, leaving him no chance to talk.
Only after finishing the bowl of congee did he hastily wave his hand. “I’m full.”
Shi-ge looked up. “You know their temperament—asking until they get to the bottom of things. Have you figured out what story to tell?”
“…”
Shi Deng: “What story can I tell? Forget it. Uncle Xiao Fu, help me change clothes. That leader’s outfit is fine. I’ll go see them.”
After speaking, he made a sound of surprise. “Why would Coach Chi specifically ask to see you? Shi-ge, did you privately seek him out?”
Shi-ge’s tone didn’t change. “Met once by chance previously.”
Shi-ge transformed Xiao Deng back into a cat, placing him in Shi Deng’s arms. “Let Uncle Fu and Xiao Deng accompany you. Chi Yu counts as an old friend of mine from the second reset.”
He didn’t tell Shi Deng about going to Tiangu himself.
Shi Deng didn’t suspect anything either. After changing clothes, he channeled his newly recovered ability through his legs. He barely stood up. The instant his feet touched the ground, his calves hurt unbearably. He nearly knelt directly down.
Shi-ge frowned, catching him.
The youth sighed. “…Haven’t gotten out of bed for half a month. Forgot how to walk.”
Uncle Fu: “The Leader still can’t walk. I’ve prepared a wheelchair.”
Shi Deng smiled. “I can walk propped up by ability. After identity exposure, the first formal meeting—sitting in a wheelchair, what would that look like… Too humiliating. Uncle Xiao Fu, leave me some face?”
Uncle Fu was so angry his beard bristled. “Face is important, or body is important?”
Unable to do anything with Shi Deng, he could only think of a compromise. “I’ll push you there in a wheelchair first. At worst, just don’t let them see.”
Shi Deng picked up Xiao Deng, raising both hands and paws in agreement.
***
This was Tiangu’s ninth visit in half a month.
Aside from Chi Yu and the elite team, when the remaining lower-strength upper echelons first came once or twice, they were still very uneasy, terrified they’d meet their end here.
But later, after coming many times, they discovered Yuan Guang seemed different from their imagination. Or rather, Yuan Guang had changed enormously these past years.
When the previous leader held office, he often allowed exotic beasts to destroy city safety. Yuan Guang’s people were also mostly trained loyal death warriors—cold-blooded and ruthless.
Add the contamination source ‘Yuan’ being at Yuan Guang, and Yuan Guang’s actions were overlaid with a layer of evil filter.
But counting carefully, since changing to the new leader, Yuan Guang hadn’t caused more trouble. Tiangu also lost far fewer people.
Just as Chi Yu and others waited to be refused again, Yuan Guang’s gates opened. An attendant bowed. “The Leader commands—please enter, everyone.”
Yuan Ting and the other two’s spirits lifted. They exchanged glances, finally stepping through this thick black gate.
The attendant led them along a very long, winding path.
Black architecture blocked sunlight. The surrounding light gradually dimmed.
Outside Yuan Guang were all tall trees. It seemed very cool.
The winding corridor was extremely quiet. Aside from the attendant leading them, not a single living person could be seen. But Zhi Ze could clearly sense quite a few formidably powerful ability users around.
Auras stable to the point of terror—probably Yuan Guang’s kept death warriors.
Their group finally reached the conference room. Doors slowly opened from inside. Yuan Ting looked up, finally seeing Shi Deng—
Yuan Guang’s Leader.
This was another side of him they’d never known.
At the end of the long council table sat their unfamiliar yet familiar friend.
The youth reclined in a crimson chair, wearing complicated red-and-black leader garments, casually stroking the kitten in his arms.
Collar and cuffs buttoned tightly. Aside from his somewhat pale face, not a trace of anything wrong showed.
“Honored guests from Tiangu coming from afar—no need for courtesy. Please, all sit.”
Chi Yu and several others sat separately on Shi Deng’s two sides.
Shi Deng: “Uncle Xiao Fu, have them serve tea.”
Hearing him call ‘Uncle Xiao Fu,’ Chi Yu gave an extra glance at that white-haired, elegant elder. He found it somewhat strange why the word ‘xiao’ (little) preceded the address.
Attendants served tea. During this time, the atmosphere was subtle. No one spoke.
Only after the attendants left did Yuan Ting fail to restrain himself. “Shi Deng, how’s your body? Is anywhere still uncomfortable? Do you want Sister Le to…”
“Cough cough!” Tiangu’s upper echelon coughed heavily.
Tiangu upper echelon’s attitude was very sincere. “Our visit this time is mainly still for Feng City matters.”
“Although we don’t know what purpose you had hiding your identity, becoming an elite team external support member for over two years, Tiangu suffered no losses during these two years. We even gained quite a bit of help.”
“Half a month ago, your identity was exposed. Feng City was also the place in most critical danger. Things happened suddenly. Tiangu’s way of handling the problem at that time was indeed improper. In this matter, we wronged you.”
Chi Yu had already told them his speculation—Shi Deng made himself a vessel bearing contamination, using blood as a medium to absorb contamination qi from human bodies.
This speculation was truly shocking. So much contamination qi entering the body—if not driven mad, one would be completely demonized. Yet Shi Deng that day clearly had his wits about him—
Maybe not entirely.
If truly lucid, how could he walk that bloody path out of Feng City?
Thinking of this, Tiangu’s upper echelon secretly glanced at Yuan Guang’s leader in the chair.
Brows and eyes indifferent, eyes clear and bright.
Didn’t look like a madman either.
Coming to Yuan Guang this time, Tiangu had already erupted into chaos. One faction believed Shi Deng’s actions harbored sinister motives—absorbing contamination qi was for a greater conspiracy.
But the rest—anyone who’d experienced Feng City’s incident—not one thought this way. Both sides argued endlessly. Ultimately, they dispatched this group.
Just observing this way, Yuan Guang’s leader appeared perfectly fine—didn’t look like someone who’d been unconscious for half a month after returning from Feng City.
Shi Deng didn’t rush to answer the official’s words. Instead, he glanced at Chi Yu. “Mr. Chi, the person you’re looking for is waiting for you elsewhere.”
Chi Yu wanted to see Shi-ge.
“Uncle Xiao Fu, have someone escort him there.”
Incidentally, several Tiangu upper echelon officials who came, including the one who’d initially spoken, were all reluctantly escorted away.
Now only the five of them remained in the conference room, including Uncle Xiao Fu. The atmosphere relaxed considerably.
Shi Deng stroked the cat. His fingertips couldn’t exert force. Movements very slight.
Faint stinging from his joints kept his mind clear instead.
The poured tea before him hadn’t touched a drop. Without using his ability, he simply couldn’t lift it. But if he used his ability, Yuan Ting and the other two present were all special-grade ability users. They’d probably instantly discover the fact his body was in terrible shape.
Shi Deng prepared his lie, planning to muddle through. “I…”
“Shi Deng,” Cen Le gently began, “before you lie, you never look people in the eyes.”
Zhi Ze added, “And your hands make small movements too.”
Shi Deng’s motion stroking Xiao Deng froze.
Yuan Ting had been very uncomfortable these past days. Even dreaming of Shi Deng covered in blood that day.
He rubbed his face, asking, “I’ve thought about a lot these days. Zhi Ze often says I’m stupid. I’m just slow to react. Shi Deng, when we first met—was it accident, coincidence, or did you deliberately arrange our meeting?”
Shi Deng: “Does it matter?”
Yuan Ting: “It matters.”
Shi Deng fell silent.
Zhi Ze: “Ye Fei later told us in F City, you once switched our mission order. But looking now, the switched mission order was clearly the most suitable type for us.”
“If you didn’t understand us extremely thoroughly, you absolutely couldn’t have switched out that kind of mission order. But at that time, the elite team had just been established not long ago. We ourselves didn’t yet understand our own abilities. How could you possibly understand us so well?”
Their three’s tones weren’t interrogations. Very gentle, calmly placing what they’d analyzed piece by piece before Shi Deng, then reaching an ultimately quite absurd conclusion.
Cen Le looked at him, uncertainly saying, “Shi Deng, did the few of us already know each other early on?”
The youth’s fingers stroking the kitten didn’t move again for a long time.
Long, silent silence stretched time infinitely.
Physical weakness and powerlessness made fatigue rise. Shi Deng closed his eyes. A heavy twilight air faintly appeared on him—somewhat unlike a youth.
“Over two years ago, meeting you all in F City was my calculation. That indeed wasn’t the first place we met.”
“I knew it!” Yuan Ting slapped the table. “I knew it! Shi Deng once jokingly told us he was nearly a hundred years old. I didn’t believe it. Looking now, it should be true.”
Cen Le & Zhi Ze: “?”
Shi Deng: “?”
Materials exposing Shi Deng’s identity showed he assumed office approximately seven years ago. But seven years ago, Shi Deng looked just like now. To this day, still unchanged in the slightest.
Yuan Ting’s previously shrewd expression vanished completely, revealing his true nature. Gesticulating extremely excitedly, the more he spoke, the more correct he felt his analysis was. He even stood up.
“The four of us should also have been friends a hundred years ago. But for some reason, we three died, leaving only Shi Deng.”
“Then for some reason, Shi Deng could live forever. His blood could also rival some eminent monk’s. He crossed a hundred years of time. After killing the previous reckless Yuan Guang leader, he met our reincarnations. So—
everything that followed happened!”
After his passionate analysis, he looked down to meet several pairs of eyes with indescribable expressions.
“…”
Shi Deng pondered.
How to put it—after resetting so many times, many things changed. Many things also didn’t change—like Yuan Ting’s train of thought, as if he’d stepped on a banana peel.
On the foundation of correctly breaking the question, he forcibly performed a reverse sprint. Though from a certain perspective, this already infinitely approached the correct answer.
Zhi Ze had a terrible headache. He tugged Yuan Ting down, saying seriously, “Don’t listen to his nonsense. Shi Deng, we’re friends. We don’t want to be kept in the dark about everything.”
Shi Deng: “You really want to know?”
All three nodded.
Shi Deng was quiet a while. The smile at his lips slowly flattened. Then he raised his hand and beckoned.
Uncle Fu understood. “Please, the three of you, follow me to the cliff edge at the rear hall.”
Yuan Guang’s cliff edge had dim lighting but a wide view. Standing here, one could overlook the entire forest. Yuan Ting and the other two didn’t understand the meaning, following here to stand properly.
Didn’t seem like a place for confession—more like an excellent location for destroying evidence.
Just about to ask something, they sensed an extremely strong ability fluctuation appearing at the sky’s edge. Immediately after, a blood-colored slender crack split open in the gray-dark sky.
Shi Deng propped himself up with his ability, walking out from the middle.
Zhi Ze recognized that extremely long blood-colored crack. Every time Shi-ge and Shi Deng instantly appeared or departed, this splash of blood color would appear.
But right now, this slender blood color didn’t disappear like before. Instead, it grew larger and longer. They even faintly heard the ‘rustling’ sound of wind blowing through leaves, and the sound of raging waves surging.
Ultimately, that splash of blood stretched across the sky’s edge, becoming an illusory yet immensely vast river. This river was sometimes clear and calm, sometimes blood-red and tumultuous.
Both riverbanks were covered with either verdant or yellowing reeds. There were countless faceless people wearing black cloaks and bamboo hats, forms illusory. They were ceaselessly weaving the reeds in their hands without rest.
The youth standing above the blood river lowered his eyes.
“My ability is manipulating time. And time’s two extremes include life and death. This river is the River of Time, also the River of Life and Death. Its name—”
“Yellow Springs.”
Faintly, a solemn, sacred voice rang out, heavily striking everyone’s hearts:
[River of life and death, time without order. No turning back, no flowing upstream. The living proceed forward, the dead retrace.]
***
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152