Free Web NovelBefore Shen Baiwei pushed open that terrifying metal door, Lu Yibei had half-jokingly, half-seriously wondered if a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood would gush out once the door opened. She never expected her words to come true.
As the zombie-like Shen Baiwei fell into slumber beside the giant snake, the newborn on the snake's head let out its first cry. The giant snake suddenly "came alive," twisting its massive body and rushing out of the room at the end of the corridor.
But the corridor was narrow, unable to accommodate the giant snake's bloated and hideous body. The walls deformed under its immense pressure, emitting a low rumble.
Floorboards fell one by one, shattering on the ground. Exposed rebar and various metal pipes rusted at a visible rate under the influence of some force. Water gushed from the broken pipes, mixed with a large amount of rust, turning the color of fresh blood, surging forward.
The giant snake crawled with astonishing speed. Its scales, made of fingers and toes, trembled continuously as it moved, and its nails scraped against the collapsing corridor, producing a dense, teeth-grinding sound.
And wherever the giant snake passed, everything seemed to be swallowed by an invisible, gaping maw, disappearing without a trace, returning to darkness.
Seeing such a sight, Lu Yibei didn't hesitate for a moment, turning and running.
If it had been any other time, she might not have simply fled. At the very least, she would have fought while retreating, throwing a few Alchemy Dirty Bombs at the giant snake to test its strength.
But now, she had no idea what this damned place was, and the Spiritual Energy circulation within her body was strongly suppressed. Even Lingtai Pure Karma seemed to be out of service, unresponsive.
Under such circumstances, should she wait for death instead of running?
However, only when she truly started running did Lu Yibei realize how far she had followed Shen Baiwei. The long corridor seemed to have no end in sight. Aside from the different numbers on the metal doorplates on both sides, almost every scene was identical.
The already dilapidated corridor continuously collapsed under the pressure of the giant snake's immense, rampaging body, with explosions following one after another.
Her vision became blurred due to the thick smoke from the explosions and the intense burning sensation in her eyes. Surging dark red water rose above her knees, shaking her already precarious balance amidst the panic.
Lu Yibei sprinted forward at full speed in this extremely harsh environment, yet she could never shake off the giant snake behind her, just as she had been unable to catch up to Shen Baiwei not long ago
.
In a trance, she felt as if she was trapped in some endlessly repeating loop, never reaching the end, until she could no longer run, collapsing to the ground from exhaustion, submerged by the blood-like water.
The cold water flowed into her heavily gasping mouth and nose. A sense of suffocation surged, and her consciousness gradually blurred. Everything around her seemed to recede, only the bloated, ugly giant snake was still approaching
.
When the giant snake approached her, Lu Yibei heard Shen Baiwei's whispered description of her authority in its hissing tongue.
"...All beings drown within it, casting off one body to receive another, like a dream, like a nightmare..."
"The Tail-Eater is born into the world, devouring yesterday, without beginning or end. The beginning is the end..."
Listening to those whispers, a thought flashed through Lu Yibei's mind a second before her consciousness sank into silence.
Could this be the process Shen Baiwei has to go through every time she "reloads"? If so... no wonder she made such a wish.
————
"Miss Shen? Miss Shen? Why are you lying here?"
Lu Yibei didn't know how long she had been unconscious. Only when Dragon Tang's ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ voice sounded in her ears did she feel the warmth of the sun again.
Opening her eyes and sitting up, she greedily breathed in the air of the mortal world, like a demon crawling out of hell.
Immediately after, as if completely oblivious to Dragon Tang and the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers surrounding her, she looked around. After finding Shen Baiwei's figure, she hurried forward as if afraid of someone snatching away something important, hoisted Shen Baiwei onto her shoulder, and then looked back at Dragon Tang.
"I'm fine. Perhaps I was too tired and suddenly felt unwell and fainted, but I'm much better now."
Lu Yibei repeated almost verbatim what she had said the previous time, and before Dragon Tang could speak again, she preemptively cut him off.
"Last night, I had some follow-up matters that I didn't have time to deal with, and I suddenly fainted. Now I don't know if it's too late. I need to go deal with it quickly, so I won't stay here any longer. If there's anything, we can talk about it in detail when we return to Daimu Courtyard later."
Return to Daimu Courtyard? Only a fool would go back! There might even be spies from Chawan Temple in Daimu Courtyard... Going back would only narrow the search area, Lu Yibei thought.
Having experienced it once, she clearly realized that if she wanted to do anything in Yumen Pass, the top priority was not to be caught by the Chawan Temple's master. Otherwise, no matter how many ideas she had, they would be useless.
The best way not to be found was to blend in with the fleeing residents in the city.
Although the Chawan Temple's master possessed the ability of prophetic dreams and had a high probability of miraculously finding them again, blending into the vast crowd of Yumen Pass would always buy more time.
It was like two strands of ginger being easy to find on a cutting board, but if they were mixed with shredded potatoes, you wouldn't find them until you ate them.
Since "Shen Baiwei" had just dealt with the enemies who had infiltrated the city and was suspected of delaying the advance of the Shaman King's vanguard army, she was highly trusted by Dragon Tang at this moment. Therefore, he did not doubt what "Shen Baiwei" said, only nodded, and pointed to the Miss on "Shen Baiwei's" shoulder, asking, "Who is this?"
"My friend!" Lu Yibei said expressionlessly. "A friend I've known for many years, who knows me inside and out. Definitely not a suspicious person, you can rest assured."
Hearing this, Shen Baiwei, who had just woken up amidst the noise and wanted to shout "I am Shen Baiwei!" paused for a moment and then closed her eyes, which had just opened a crack.
"......"
Strange, the Disaster seems very familiar with those people. She could have taken this opportunity to trick me and restrict my freedom...
But why did she say that? Shen Baiwei wondered in confusion.
The Disaster suddenly becoming friendly is definitely a dangerous sign!
———— freewebnøvel.coɱ
After leaving with Shen Baiwei, although Lu Yibei had some initial plans for her actions after a successful reload, she did not rush into action. Instead, she took Shen Baiwei all the way to the west of Yumen Pass, where residential areas were most concentrated, and then stopped in a secluded corner near the western city wall.
Gently placing Shen Baiwei on the ground, she tilted her head and observed the still feigning-death Shen Baiwei, then crossed her arms over her chest and said, "Alright, stop pretending. You woke up a long time ago, didn't you? Get up quickly, I have important things to discuss with you."
Since she had to move around the city with Shen Baiwei, reaching a certain degree of consensus with her was essential.
Friendly reminder: The Website is about to be revised, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your "book shelf" and "reading record" in time (screenshots are recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!
Leaving aside the extreme situation where Shen Baiwei deliberately exposed their target to the Chawan Temple's master by acting up during her operations, even if she just secretly ran away, Lu Yibei would have to spend a lot of time searching, which would be quite troublesome.
Generally speaking, even with a top-tier player trying their best to carry, they can't carry an actor who deliberately drags them down.
What's more, Lu Yibei didn't think she was a top-tier player; at most, she was a small-tier player.
After hearing Lu Yibei's words, Shen Baiwei slowly sat up, glaring at her with a face full of resentment. "Although I don't know what your purpose is in using my authority to come to Yumen Pass a thousand years ago, no matter what you want to do, don't even think I'll cooperate with you, so we have nothing to discuss!"
Although she was backstabbed by her Spirit Mark and failed to retain the memories of the previous time rewind, by observing the extent of the Spirit Mark's loss of control and the environment and passersby along the way, she could vaguely determine that she and the Disaster were not experiencing a time rewind for the first time.
This was the experience that naturally arose after becoming familiar with her own Spirit Mark to a certain extent!
"Don't be so fierce!" Lu Yibei spread her hands and said, "I haven't even said what we're discussing yet, and you're already rushing to refuse. Is that really okay?"
"......" Shen Baiwei opened her mouth, then her expression darkened and she said, "No matter what, there's nothing to discuss."
"Is that so?" Lu Yibei sighed silently, and after a few seconds of contemplation, she said expressionlessly, "Speaking of which, this isn't the first time we've rewound time. You must have guessed that already, right?"
Shen Baiwei didn't respond to Lu Yibei's words, but her eyes, wide as if they were about to fly out from behind her glasses, had already given an answer.
Not only did she guess it, but she also wanted to kill the woman in front of her!
"Speaking of which, the last time I rewound time, before I woke up, I had a very strange dream..." Seeing Shen Baiwei remain silent, Lu Yibei continued to speak to herself, "In the dream, I vaguely saw some things, and I roughly understood why you made such a wish."
It wasn't vaguely seen, but clearly seen, and she almost died there... Lu Yibei secretly added in her heart.
Lu Yibei had quite a bit of experience dealing with people like Shen Baiwei. All she had to do was move her with genuine emotion. Who said that genuine emotion with a purpose couldn't be considered genuine emotion?
However.
Although she guessed that the scenes she saw before waking up were probably the pain Shen Baiwei had to endure every time she rewound time, just like the many times before when her eyes felt hot and she glimpsed the events of urban legend, she didn't intend to explicitly tell Shen Baiwei.
This kind of thing is like a person's most painful scar. Gently stroking the scar and saying, "I see your wound, it must hurt a lot?" usually has a better effect. But directly exposing the scar and pointing at the bleeding wound saying, "Wow! Amazing, it's spraying blood, won't that kill you?" will only backfire.
Z Country people have always been subtle and reserved in such matters. At least, her relationship with Shen Baiwei wasn't good enough to directly expose her scars.
Although, at heart, Lu Yibei, a famous "scholar of suffering" in Hua City, preferred to expose people's scars and then sprinkle sugar and ants on them...
Vaguely saw some things? What things? Hearing Lu Yibei's words, Shen Baiwei paused for a moment.
While she was momentarily stunned, Lu Yibei stepped forward and said sincerely, "I'm sorry! I didn't know before that you suffered so much pain every time you used your ability. If I had known earlier..."
Damn it! If apologies worked, what would we need the police for? Shen Baiwei wanted to say this to the Disaster, but the Disaster's next action forcefully blocked the words that were already in her throat.
The Disaster unexpectedly hugged her shoulders, pressing her head against her chest, and gently stroked her head as if comforting a wounded small animal.
Shen Baiwei suddenly froze, her mind a blank.
She couldn't remember the last time she had been hugged like this. The last time was probably seven or eight years ago, shortly after she was diagnosed with severe black night disease, the night before her mother, unable to bear the heavy burden of expensive medical fees, abandoned her and her father and left.
Shen Baiwei wanted to break free, but the Disaster's embrace was truly fragrant and warm, and she could feel the Disaster's genuine apology.
It was a kind of intuition that was hard to explain, an intuition she had developed after being repeatedly tortured and mutilated by the insincere kindness of experimenters in Tethys Laboratory, allowing her to instinctively distinguish between fake kindness and true concern.
It was somewhat like a seasoned veteran's body instinctively reacting before danger arrived.
From a scientific perspective, liars have various subtle movements and different hormone levels in their bodies, and her subtle intuition was a reaction based on these differences. With the enhancement of an A-level Spirit Ability User's spiritual perception, it wasn't difficult to capture these details.
Today's Disaster seemed unusually gentle! This thought flashed through Shen Baiwei's mind.
But then she shook her head, discarded the thought, and pushed the Disaster away. "Stay away from me, you shameless Witch Seed! I'm not falling for that!"
Gentle my ass! Is it scientific to talk about science with urban legend?
For a Witch Breed, lying and deceiving are as simple as breathing. How could they have the subtle reactions of normal people when they lie?
You think this can fool me, Shen Baiwei? Shen Baiwei thought fiercely.
It was not without reason that the priests in the Holy Church's jurisdiction liked to roast captured Witch Seed over a fire.
A priest who had been seduced and corrupted by a Witch Seed once said before his death, "The gentleness of a Witch Seed is a deadly poison coated in sugar..."
Facing Shen Baiwei's intense reaction, Lu Yibei spread her hands expressionlessly. "Think what you want, but I've decided. This time, I will do as you say and not interfere with anything that happened in the past, only be a quiet bystander."
"And what I want to discuss with you is simply for you not to run around during this time, and not to contact the Chawan Temple's master... Oh, I forgot to tell you, the Chawan Temple's master is the founder of your Miracle Order. Last time we rewound time, he almost killed us."
At least ninety-nine percent of what Lu Yibei said was true, except for the part about Hong Bian almost killing them.
This time, she indeed only planned to be a bystander, to observe how Divine Kingdom Jade Gate became a sealed, millennium-old dead zone under the series of chaotic actions by Hong Bian, Nangling Commander, and the Shaman King.
Once she knew the process and the outcome, finding a way to break it would be much simpler.
As for Shen Baiwei...
She only said "this time" she wouldn't interfere with the past, but she didn't say she wouldn't interfere next time, right? And she certainly didn't say she wouldn't use Shen Baiwei's ability to rewind time again after quietly observing, right?
So, how could this be considered deception?!
