Shaun floated in the middle of cosmic space, with magnificent and magnificent nebulae in front of him.
"Am I dead? Is this heaven? Hell?" Shaun couldn't perceive the existence of his body at all, but could see his body floating in a large shape in the void.
The nebula in front of his eyes gradually pulled in, countless stellar planets swept by Shaun, gradually increasing in speed as the nebula transformed into countless rays of light.
The image in front of his eyes suddenly stopped, and a blue planet appeared in front of Shaun.
"This is ... Earth?" Shaun thought.
Suddenly there was another change in front of his eyes, Shaun felt his body crashing towards the earth, the speed was getting faster and faster, the picture of the earth was gradually distorted into a cylinder, in the cylinder was the picture of the evolution process of life on the earth, from the emergence of single-celled organisms to the Internet era, a vast picture scroll of the history of human civilisation was condensed and presented in front of Shaun's eyes in this cylinder tunnel which was like a time tunnel.
The moment he got out of the tunnel, Shaun was surrounded by endless darkness, without any light source, without any sound. But Shaun felt that his ability to dominate his body was being restored little by little.
In the endless darkness, there were some perceptions that slowly returned to him. The eyes slowly perceived light through the eyelids.
"Am I still alive?" Shaun slowly opened his eyes and quickly closed them again as the light pierced them.
"Pure white space? I've come to the Spirit Realm?" Shaun squinted and tried once more to keep his eyes open.
Pure white space, but with a soft light that wouldn't have felt harsh if Shaun hadn't stayed in the lightless darkness.
"This should be alive." Shaun tried to move his arms and legs and slowly sat up.
There was no familiar orb of light gatekeeper, yet there were three comfortable chairs not far from where Shaun was, around a small coffee table.
Two of the three chairs had people sitting in them and one was empty.
Sitting in the chairs were two middle-aged men with similar looks and temperaments, both of them had very ordinary, non-impressive looks, one with dark hair and the other with silver hair, the dark-haired one had a milder face and the silver-haired one had a colder expression. The brunette's eyes varied in colour between blue, green, black and red, while the silver-haired man's eyes were as black as ink.
Both were dressed in loose, plain, home-coloured casual clothes, each holding a teacup and sipping tea, with a tea set on the coffee table in front of them, and a teapot being boiled on a small stove.
"Shaun, come sit over here and have a cup of tea together." The black-haired one spoke first, speaking in standard Mandarin, and waved at Shaun with a smile, then took a teacup from the tea set and poured a cup of tea.
Shaun was a little dazed at the prospect of being confronted with a scene beyond his usual perceptions, but after all, he was a spiritual agent who had seen it all before, and he did have a bit of a dry mouth, so Shaun stood up and walked over to him, thanked him, and sat down in the empty chair across from the two men.
"To acclimatise you, we appear as ordinary humans and also talk in your native language." The brunette said gently to Shaun.
Shaun nodded, thinking to himself that he didn't know which two bigwigs in the Spirit Realm these two were, either way both are here.
Reaching over, he picked up the cup of tea and took a sip, noticing that although it was freshly poured, it was at a moderate temperature. So he reached out and poured himself another cup and drank it all in one go, smacking his lips, only then did he taste the flavour, it was a fine frozen top oolong.
"Did the anti-matter bomb blow up?" Shaun put down his teacup and asked.
"It blew up, but it was wrapped in the Coffin of Stasis." The black-haired man said as he looked at Shaun.
Shaun froze and continued, "So it's okay?"
The brunette nodded:"It's okay this time."
Shaun scratched his head: "Is there a next time?"
The brunette nodded again:"That's up to you."
Shaun was stunned: "It's up to me?"
The brunette nodded slowly again and smiled:"No introductions yet, I'm the King of Demons, the Lord of Demon Spirits, some people call me Satan, or Lucifer or whatever, it's me anyway."
The white haired man said stiffly with a stern face, "I'm the Guardian of the Spirit Realm, the Demon King's counterpart, the creator of the Secret Stone System."
Shaun's mind went "boom" and he was completely confused. After a while, Shaun tentatively asked, "What do you two want from me?"
The King of Demons looked at Shaun and said kindly: "Yes, we two are old rivals, but we have always been attentive to maintain the balance of good and evil, black and white, light and darkness in the world. Throughout the history of mankind, light and darkness have always gone hand in hand, cancelling each other out, and neither one has been able to destroy the other."
The Spirit Realm Guardian hardened and continued, "Good and evil are both the essence of the human species, they cannot be eliminated, a balanced coexistence is sufficient. In the history of human development, evil appeared in different faces at different times, early killing, war, and now the bloody game between capital, politics, are a way of expression of evil."
The King of Demons went on to say: "These are behaviours that are in accordance with the laws of nature, and are recognised by the God of Nature. To explain it with your Chinese wisdom, it is that heaven and earth are unkind and take all things as ruminants."
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm went on to say: "But as mankind gradually grasped the sharp tool of science, some people's desires swelled, wanting to become gods, or summon gods."
The Demon King said: "Science can grant humans the ability to approach the gods, and the first people to realise this set up an organisation, and after more than a hundred years of experimentation, they finally summoned, or created, the first ancient evil god:Chaos, the God of Chaos."
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm said with a stern face: "Their previous experimental summoning triggered World War I and World War II, and after World War II in order to prevent the emergence of a new disturbance of the natural order, I made a pact with the God of Nature and established the Secret Stone System. The God of Nature insisted on adhering to the way of nature, and did not allow the gods to interfere too much in the real world. So after making the contract, I lost part of my power."
The Demon King laughed and said:"I'm pretty much the same, and in order to distribute my power to my servants, the God of Nature constrained my power as well."
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm said:"But the evil gods created by those crazy humans don't care about the ways of nature. Destroying the balance of nature is exactly their purpose, and they take pleasure in it."
The Demon King continued: "Yes, so they must be stopped."
Shaun's expression had twisted a bit when he heard this: "Both of you, I still don't understand, what does this matter have to do with me?"
The Demon King and the Spirit Realm Guardian simultaneously picked up their teacups and took a sip of tea and looked at each other, then the Demon King said, "When the antimatter bomb exploded on you, you opened the Coffin of Stasis, and the stasis force field fixed the huge energy of the explosion within a small space, and because the energy was too great, this collision formed a black hole, which in turn was compressed by the stasis force field into the Secret Stone of Time."
"The Secret Stone of Time?" Shaun reacted for a moment.
"Yes, never before found by an agent, one of the three Secret Stones of God, the Secret Stone of Time, has appeared and become associated with you in this situation." The Spirit Realm Guardian said with a stern face.
Shaun looked at himself and touched himself and didn't feel anything that produced a change.
"And when you got the Secret Stone of Fire before, the secret stone absorbed the purest magic spirit power, which is my power, when it was condensed, so you got the purest magic spirit power at the same time you were associated by the Secret Stone of Fire." The Demon King renewed another cup of tea and said as he drank, "The axe you cleaved was originally not manageable with your spiritual power, and after you cleaved it through anger and fear, you should have died with your entire body dislodged. But you associated the Secret Stone of Time and came here."
The Spirit Realm Guardian concluded seriously, "In short, you are the one chosen by fate."
Shaun looked at the Demon King and then at the Spirit Realm Guardian and had the feeling that he was being counted.
Shaun took a deep breath and asked, "What do you need me to do?"
The Demon King nodded: "You are now a four-dimensional being like us and can travel to any point in time. We can't become entities to personally intervene in reality. But you can."
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm said coldly:Â "You going back in time and dismantling the organisation that created Khaos is the only way to get to the root of this crisis."
The King of Demons said: "The situation facing the real world right now is:imminent destruction. Cologne is just the beginning, and Chaos will continue to use the world as its toy."
Shaun gulped and asked, "Back when?"
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm said:"1900, the year that that organisation was founded, when the old and new centuries met, when the old and new eras changed."
The King of Demons smiled and said, "Don't worry, since you have the purest power of demonic spirit in you, you will be born as a demonic son in the image of a demonic egg, and all the demonic servants of that era will be at your command. Of course, there aren't many true demon servants, more stupid humans who think they are demon servants."
The Guardian of the Spirit Realm said: ''But you're wrong to think that you can easily complete your mission like that. That organisation is made up of nine of the most powerful families that hide in the shadows and manipulate the world, and some of them are thousands of years old, even if you count by the year 1900. The Mellen family involved in the Cologne incident is one of them."
The Demon King continued, "In 1900, although they were not yet able to summon the ancient evil gods, they were already able to create monsters with supernatural abilities. So, even if you have the power of the Demon Spirit and the support of a Demon Servant, it's possible to be crushed by your opponent."
The Spirit Realm Guardian said, "The simpler way is to penetrate them. This is just a suggestion, it's up to you to carry it out or not. Another way is to find other secret stones and improve your abilities. Every time you find one more secret stone now, in addition to the stacked secret stone abilities, the corresponding power that can be used to harness the power of the magic spirit will also increase."
Hearing this, Shaun hurriedly asked, "Wasn't the secret stone system established after World War II? How come there will be one in 1900?"
The Spirit Realm Guardian replied with a stern face: "I will put twelve Secret Stones in Europe specifically for you at that point in time in 1900, including the two you already have and the two you can no longer get. This is not a violation of the contract. The other rules are the same as in this time and space, the secret stones are autonomous and it is up to you to find them."
"So there is no longer a portal to the Spirit Realm in that time and space, right? And I won't be able to seek help from the Gatekeepers and the Spirits?" Shaun asked.
The Spirit Realm Guardian replied, "No, you can create a portal through the Secret Stone of Time to enter the Spirit Realm directly and meet with my doppelganger in that time and space without any restriction of location, this is the privilege of having an agent of the Secret Stone of God. But don't be discovered by others when you enter, outsiders entering the Spirit Realm or destroying the portal is very troublesome. The Spirit Realm is very vast, all you can reach is the boundary we have established. In addition there are many ancient mythological creatures and ancient gods present in the Spirit Realm. So be careful when entering the Spirit Realm."
The Demon King said: "When you create the portal, you can infuse your demonic spirit power into the secret stone of time and enter the portal to enter the Demon Realm, I do have a way to communicate with you. I can also give you a certain amount of help, but note that my help is subject to a quid pro quo, requiring you to do something for me in the real world." Speaking here a hint of cunning appeared in the Demon King's gentle smile.
"So where is the Secret Stone of Time? How come I didn't feel its existence?" Shaun asked.
"Given that what you're about to do is rather special, for convenience I processed your Original Secret Stone and the Time Secret Stone together, merging them into one and spiritualising them. You can manifest them by gazing with your spiritual energy, just like manifesting a magic spirit weapon." The Spirit Realm Guardian said.
Shaun tried to condense his spiritual energy in the palm of his hand, a small translucent ball emitting bright light gradually coalesced and took shape above his hand, inside the ball floated a spiral nebula, just like the cosmic wonders Shaun had seen before he woke up.
Shaun suddenly felt that he was holding the entire galaxy in the palm of his hand.