Chapter 43: Severed Scar

Inside a seemingly abandoned building, more precisely in its subterranean level, Shen Shenghua was delivering a report to China's Special Department, Bureau 739.

"In other words, the entity sent from the future is what led Ains Connor to make the decision to commit suicide?"

A middle-aged man with a stern expression asked from behind a desk.

Shen Shenghua looked at the titles on the bookshelf across the room, and finally confirmed: "Yes, the entity from the future told Professor Connor that everything was moving toward destruction precisely because of his existence."

"Moving toward destruction?"

The stern-looking middle-aged man frowned slightly: "Someone with completely selfless motives, at worst, might simply lack sufficient capability. How could he possibly drive the world toward destruction? Perhaps some worse possibility has emerged."

"Indeed. However, the present is where we reside; Professor Connor is dead, and that future no longer exists."

Shen Shenghua finally picked up a book titled *Andersen's Fairy Tales*, and said softly, "Don't you find that everything feels just like a fairy tale? It's spine-chilling and leaves no room for salvation. This world is terrifying to the extreme."

"Indeed."

The middle-aged man lit a cigarette, but Shen Shenghua stepped closer and pinched it out.

"We should still calculate the trajectory of the future. The second and third quantum computers are about to be completed. Continuing to sit idly by and wait for death will likely only usher in total destruction."

Shen Shenghua's voice always carried a strangely comforting tone.

"The power of choice remains in the hands of the present."

...

Meanwhile, at the landing site of the time-travel machine carrying Amy, Li Fengyin and Shen Liangxin stood at the edge of a deep crater.

"These are the wreckage; they are of no further use."

Amy's voice carried a slightly metallic timbre, devoid of emotion.

"Then we'll leave it to Bureau 739."

Shen Liangxin had already smoothed things over, and Shen Shenghua had never exposed Amy's existence. To the outside world, the three of them were merely passers-by who had stumbled upon the wreckage of the time machine.

Soon, a helicopter flew in from the distance and landed at the rim of the crater. Li Fengyin explained the process of their discovery, signed a confidentiality agreement, and then departed with Shen Liangxin and Amy.

"That woman, the sword strapped to her back, seems somewhat out of place."

A researcher watched the three figures leave and uttered these words. A police officer named Gu Aaichen replied, "Focus. The wreckage here might originate from the future; don't get distracted."

"Understood."

The topic was ultimately dropped. People carrying swords were a common sight nowadays—cosplayers, a youth trend that many adults failed to understand.

There seemed to be nothing particularly unusual about it.

...

Upon returning to the underground research laboratory at Tsinghua University, Li Fengyin told Shen Liangxin that he was about to set off for Panzhihua, where his sworn older brother was waiting for him.

"Alright."

Shen Liangxin looked at the research data and simply uttered that single word.

"My stay in Panzhihua's duration is uncertain, but I should be back."

Li Fengyin sensed that Shen Liangxin seemed to be concealing something, but his attention was immediately diverted by her next question: "What are your views on the past, the future, and the present?"

"The past has already happened and cannot be changed; the future has yet to appear and holds infinite possibilities. As for the present... it seems to be merely the place where existence takes place."

Li Fengyin took over the conversation.

"What if the only thing that truly exists is the present?"

Shen Liangxin looked at the calculation results before her and softly posed this question.

"The only thing that truly exists is the present? Do you mean that the past and the future no longer exist at all?"

"Yes. The past is where the former present has passed through, yet it is gone; the future is where the present is about to pass through, and it does not exist either. This is probably the origin of the term 'everything'—all things exist only in this single, fleeting instant of the 'present'."

...

Three days later, in Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, a young man wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans with deep, thoughtful eyes appeared. It was none other than Li Fengyin. Walking beside him was a stunning woman with silvery-grey eyes—Amy.

With a silver metallic longsword strapped to her back and facial features as exquisite as if meticulously carved, Amy drew an absurdly high level of attention here.

Ultimately, Li Fengyin made Amy pull up her hood to conceal her true face.

Arriving at an antique shop on an old street, Li Fengyin found the shopkeeper. The man looked slightly weathered, with short, messy black hair that wasn't particularly long, and a gaze carrying a hint of melancholy. He was likely a man of profound depth.

"Hey~"

Li Fengyin greeted the moment he stepped into the shop.

This person was none other than Li Fengyin's sworn older brother, Dong Yunpo, the Soul-Suppressing Envoy of the Soul-Suppressing Hall.

"Currently, the Soul-Suppressing Hall is divided into three factions," Dong Yunpo looked at Li Fengyin, cutting straight to the point: "The Soul Lords, the Soul Masters, and the Neutral Faction to which I belong."

"The current situation leans toward a balance, but the extinguishment of the Soul-Suppressing Heart Lamp is a foregone conclusion. The Hall Master of the Soul-Suppressing Hall is using his own soul power to keep the Heart Lamp burning, but this cannot last long."

As he spoke, Dong Yunpo lit a cigarette, his brows furrowing slightly as if searching for a way to break the deadlock.

At that very moment, a young man with short black hair and a blade—more precisely, a *broken blade*—strapped to his back appeared outside the shop.

Li Ziye glanced at him. The youth appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old, and strapped to his back was an archaic-looking blade that had been snapped in two.

Yet, that aura—Li Ziye could not possibly mistake it. He had only felt a similar presence once before, when Su Minyu drew his dagger. This person was connected to Su Minyu.

This feeling gave Li Ziye a hypothesis: something must have happened between them.

"Yunpo, is this your younger brother? The one destined to break the deadlock?"

Luo Yu Duanhen spoke first. "Isn't it enough that I'm helping you?"

"Not enough," Dong Yunpo said. "You are only here for the Soul Lord. Once your objective is achieved, you won't care about matters on my end at all."

"True."

The seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth grinned, turning his head with a slight smile: "Hello, my name is Duanhen, or you can call me Luoyu Duanhen. I rank fifth in the Luoyu Pavilion."

*'That strongest assassin organization in China?!'*

Li Fengyin felt a jolt of shock, his earlier hypothesis instantly confirmed. As far as he knew, Luoyu Firearms—namely, Zheng Chao—only ranked ninth within the Luoyu Pavilion.

The youth before him radiated an intangible, ambient aura. He was likely a master of internal energy manipulation.

Ever since learning about the Underworld, witnessing lesser ghosts and Asuras, and acquiring abilities like the Void Mirror Technique, Li Fengyin had always been intensely curious about one thing: what kind of indigenous inheritances and martial arts did people in China truly possess?

Perhaps now he would get to see them.

"Hello, my name is Li Fengyin," Li Fengyin replied softly. "And this is 'Amy' by my side."