Beneath the earth, streams of energy coursed and slid into the stone coffin, forming cobweb-like patterns, but they failed to find the entity they were meant to bind.

A faint sense of oppression spread; rope-like shadows began to appear across the palace.

{Let’s go quickly. This place can’t stay like this for long.}

The Bound Spirit also lowered its head, extending its palm for the injured, one-armed Hong Haocheng to step onto.

The immense figure turned around and made its way outside, stepping into the layers of monsters crowding around them.

Dark clouds churned in the sky; sunlight slowly turned crimson.

Beneath a heap of rubble by a broken wall, the giant leaned against the wall, with the short figure of the boy right beside him.

“What’s your name?” Hong Haocheng asked curiously.

{Bo’an. It’s the code name the team leader gave me.}

The Bound Spirit, Bo’an, looked up at the swirling vortex of dark clouds.

{I need to go to a place. Only there can I avoid wasting the flesh you awakened in me. Otherwise, I’ll soon turn back into a monster that doesn’t recognize anyone.}

In Bo’an’s massive hand, the folding lines of a model outlined ten small insignias.

{Use it if you’re in danger. It will allow me to pinpoint your location.}

“What is this?”

{Something the leader made for us. Through it, we can quickly appear near this thing. Each use costs one year of life.}

Bo’an set Hong Haocheng down beneath a broken structure.

{Sorry, I can’t watch you recover your body anymore. If I don’t go there now, I’ll keep losing myself again.}

This enormous Bound Spirit’s body shrank slightly, turning into a form only a little bigger than an ordinary Bound Spirit, and it stepped into the midst of the waiting monsters.

……

Pivot Town.

Morrie looked up in surprise.

“The Hong Haocheng you mentioned… is that Hong Haocheng?”

“It should be him.”

Yang Zicang set down the milk tea Boboli had brought back and watched the white sunlight stream through the blurry glass window, illuminating this spacious room.

“Well, well… he drove the guy to cut off his own arm as soon as he arrived. Tch.”

“My fault. I should have thought of it sooner.” Morrie said, somewhat reproachfully.

“Thought of what?”

Yang Zicang turned to look at this close friend who, as promised, had confined himself to this house without stepping outside a single time since returning from Rose Creek.

“If I had gotten someone to sketch that kid’s appearance and given it to you earlier, this wouldn’t have happened, sigh!”

Yang Zicang’s gaze fell on a few sheets of white paper that Morrie picked up from the wall. He took them from him.

On the paper were several vivid portraits of a woman, painted with oil markers.

“These are…?”

“She is Julia.”

Morrie gently stroked the woman’s portrait on the paper with affection.

“A few days ago, a sketch artist was earning time sequence in the city. Many people longing for their hometown and relatives queued up for his sketches. It was really wonderful—just by descriptions, he brought back beautiful memories for everyone. Hah, at that moment, the entire city nearly erupted in tears.”

Yang Zicang thought of his own parents and his younger brother.

“Is that sketch artist still here?”

“Yeah, he went back, but he should come again. He never expected to earn that much time sequence. The guy was stunned. So many people wanted to tip him, but he refused, afraid of disappearing. Haha. So someone thought of me, and earned over a hundred thousand time sequences using my ability. That’s why all of these are free ones he drew for me.”

Yang Zicang nodded. Just now, he’d been thinking of having some sketches done himself. But after hearing Morrie’s mention, he realized that for ninety-nine percent of people, actions like this were truly moving.

Especially in a place like Pivot Town, filled with so many experts that knowledge learned simply on Earth could easily earn time sequences.

“Take a few with you. In case you ever run into Julia, you’ll recognize her.”

“Alright, I’ll take these—the front view, the side view, and this full-body portrait.”

Yang Zicang tossed away his empty milk tea cup, walked over, and patted him on the shoulder: “Hang in there, you just have to endure another two years and nine months.”

“Ha,” Morri gave a bitter smile. “I know. It’s not really like being in prison anyway. Every day I check in with your friends on the Frequency-Lost Land. They take me sightseeing and do immersive handicrafts with me.”

Seeing the scenery of the Frequency-Lost Land… wouldn’t that just make you even more depressed?

Yang Zicang tried hard to force a smile.

He went to see Li Mi, as well as Liang Xi and others who were crazily gaming with Boboli. Zhao Xuemei showed him the completed Zhang Fei armor and treated him to a meal.

The armor’s time-sequence canceling ability had significantly declined; it could now reduce the damage of attacks under ten thousand years by 10% to 20% per use, but the total cancellation couldn’t exceed fifty thousand years.

The inverted running ability still remained, though its duration was no longer long.

However, overall, it was still ranked among the top grade.

Thinking about how powerful Zhao Anlong had become after disappearing for only half a year, Yang Zicang decided to let Zhao Xuemei keep using the armor. As long as he protected this lady, Zhao Anlong would have no excuse to cause him trouble later.

……

The time left before he could enter City 11 was now only five days.

Yang Zicang continued floating through the air on his giant carpet.

Down on the ground, Cheng Yunze’s team members saw the floating carpet in the distance and shook their heads in dismay.

“Last time, they figured out the captain’s cards.”

“To be honest, I only knew the captain’s skeleton was incredibly powerful; I never expected that he could actually transform into that kind of state and even store his body inside the mysterious space where he keeps his skeleton.”

The man sighed. “That’s just insane.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Cheng Yunze stepped out of the tent.

The two immediately fell silent, pretending to look at the scenery.

Cheng Yunze gazed into the distance in a certain direction. At the same time, the flying carpet in the sky drifted over as well.

“Captain, what’s wrong?”

“There was a sudden burst of special mental energy just now, very similar to the Bound Spirit from before. Hong Haocheng is fighting someone.”

In the sky, Yang Zicang quickly approached the area where the mental energy had erupted.

On the ground lay several terrifyingly huge craters, with a few human corpses lying pitifully on the ground.

He jumped down; these people were not from either his side or Cheng Yunze’s side—they must have been someone who happened to run into Hong Haocheng.

“Still holding onto his humanity after all this time.”

He frowned. It seemed the “Intelligence Collection Mission on Cleanup Targets,” triggered by Hong Haocheng, really would have to escalate its access level. Still… a conscious Bound Spirit probably wouldn’t be actually killed by the Lost Illusion Company.

……

Two days later, the oppressive pressure of that mental wave appeared again. This time, it happened twice in a single day.

Cheng Yunze’s link connected with Yang Zicang’s.

{Are you the ones chasing him?}

[I was about to ask if you’re the ones chasing him.]

{So that means the target of the teams from other cities is Hong Haocheng, or that special Bound Spirit beside him.}

Yang Zicang narrowed his eyes.

[I’ll go take another look.]

In the night, a ghost-like train carried Yang Zicang as it shuttled through the city.

……

At that moment, Hong Haocheng was gasping for breath, his fingers broken, though the wounds had already begun to squirm and scab over.

“Damn thing.”

He pointed his sword at the person held by Bo’an in front of him and shouted, “Why do you keep coming after me? Do you really not fear death?!”

The man’s face twisted in pain, but he remained stubborn:

“In a world like this, who doesn’t die? It’s just a matter of time. I’ve had enough. As long as I can catch you, death is a release.”

“Then go die!”

Enraged, Hong Haocheng swept his sword across the man’s throat.

Another translucent body within this man—an energy form—was scattered and dissipated by the blade’s edge.

Though he was still breathing, he was utterly dead.

{It seems their city is ruled by tyranny.}

Said the giant Bo’an.

The halo in Hong Haocheng’s eyes faded as he turned to look at Bo’an.

“Have you been okay these past few days? Summoning you so often… does it make you suffer? If so, I can give you a few more fingertips.”

Bo’an shook his head.

{The bloodline is not about quantity, but whether it exists and whether it’s pure. Besides, for us, repeated use builds resistance; it cannot keep me lucid indefinitely.}

The giant looked up at the swirling dark clouds.

{And as long as this city exists, I can’t truly return to normal.}

“What if the city disappeared?”

{We are the Void Zero, meaning we are virtually nonexistent. So if the city vanished, there would be no reason for us to exist at all.}

Behind the giant, magical runes emerged, enveloping him before disappearing in a flash.

Hong Haocheng checked the emblem in the model that allowed him to summon Bo’an; there were only seven left.

Just then, the huge carpet flew over the horizon. Yang Zicang, at its edge, glanced downward, then steered the flying carpet away.

“What a pretentious guy.”

The boy muttered with a frown.

How could he be discovered by this guy every single time?

It seemed he really needed to study those memorized textbooks on stealth and reconnaissance more thoroughly.

……

Lost Frequency Lands, the gathering place of Dajiafang.

By the edge of a lush green field, Aya was seated at the doorway, mending a large hole in a man’s coat. The half-grown beast cub that could only spit lightning lay at her feet, tongue lolling out.

“Woof arf~ Woof woof~”

The woman paused her work and looked up to see a visitor leaning on a long walking stick, wrapped in a thin dust-proof cloak. The visitor was also a woman, with a face marked by the ravages of weather and hardship.

The cub barked twice and returned to resting its head on its paws. After exchanging glances and a smile of acknowledgment with Aya, the woman crouched down and gently stroked the cub’s head.

“Hello, are you new here?” Aya asked.

“Oh, tsk tsk,” the woman cooed to the small creature, then looked up at Aya and said, “I’m just passing through. And I thought I’d stop by to see you.”

“To see me?”

The woman in the thin cloak glanced around, showing a hint of regret. “Too much has changed here.”

“Have you been here before? Well, with Big Jijia in charge now, things have definitely changed a lot.”

“It’s a pity that it wasn’t meant to be this bustling. But since it’s come to this, there’s nothing left to do but accept it.”

The woman looked up at the smiling Aya.

“You no longer feel regret, do you.”

“What?” Aya was taken aback.

The woman grasped her long staff and stood up, “Compared to the destruction here, what I regret more is…”

She turned her head around, “That you, who used to be constantly filled with regret, no longer seem to regret anything, even.”

“You… what are you talking about!”

Aya grew tense. The woman in front of her, whose skin was so dry it was cracking, spoke in such a strange manner.

She opened her mouth slightly, but a massive silhouette had already charged in front of her. Her chest lit up with a halo that began to spread threads, yet an extremely weathered hand pressed onto her shoulder. A mysterious aura instantly enveloped Aya’s entire being, forcing her to recall everything from her past in a fleeting moment. The intense terror, confusion, sorrow, and boundless regret she had once experienced surged incessantly into her mind, as if trying to tear her will to shreds.

Thankfully, this runaway horse of emotions finally came to a halt… starting from the thought that she had already moved to the Dajiafang settlement.

She suddenly had a realization—the moment she encountered the Frontier Station Team, her fate had already been turned around.

When Aya regained her composure, the strange woman from before was gone. Aya wanted to inform the person in charge of Dajiafang about this odd incident, but as soon as the thought arose, she immediately remembered that both Luo Bin and Lyu Zhi were away. Besides, nothing had happened to her, so why should she cause everyone else to feel unsettled?

It was better to simply let it go without making a fuss.

She quickly cast aside her worry and began sewing briskly, while the little beast continued to curl up peacefully at her feet.

“Hmph… hm heh heh henh henh…”