"Shh."
"I am the devil."
The elegant man in a suit smiled as he leaped from the high building, landing heavily. Li Dongyun coughed up blood and staggered back, his expression grave:
"Madman! What do you want?!"
"Hehehehe!"
He laughed, spun around, and danced, as one Fire Gate member after another had their throats torn apart, gasping for breath.
Li Dongyun's eyes turned red as he bent low, like a bowstring releasing an arrow, creating a whirlwind of white energy as he charged at the madman!
"I~ am~ so~ scared~"
The madman spun around, exploding into a cloud of mist, reappearing a hundred meters away in another burst of fog. His sharp nails slashed across the throats of more Fire Gate members as he sang and danced away.
"Li Dongyun, you are truly impressive."
Before leaving, the madman praised him, ripping the head of the last Fire Gate member from the spine, blood splattering across his face like mottled paint.
Gripping the base of the spine like a flail, the madman hurled the decapitated head towards the incoming Li Dongyun!
The head exploded, and the terrifying force sent Li Dongyun crashing back, his legs carving long trenches in the ground!
"This kind of power…" Li Dongyun's expression darkened. "Are you walking the path of the Old Ones?"
"Guess?"
Another burst of mist erupted, and the madman vanished, leaving behind hundreds of corpses and the barely breathing Li Dongyun.
…
Far away.
At the top of the building.
In the shadow of the water tank, the elegant man stepped out of the mist.
He answered his phone:
"It's me. So, how many men has my sweetheart slept with this time?"
"She's dead? Reduced to blood and mud? Hahaha…"
The elegant madman laughed gracefully, tears mixing with his laughter:
"Terrifying giant? Chen Xiang? What an awful name. Is he bigger than me? I want to meet him! I want to meet his family, bringing my most sincere and heartfelt greetings!"
The madman crushed the phone, leaping off the top of the building and gliding towards a riverside villa to the south.
His eagle-like eyes spanned over ten kilometers, clearly seeing a short woman pushing a boy in a wheelchair back to the villa.
"I'm coming~"
The madman murmured, his voice a mix of laughter and tears, carried away by the wind.
Meanwhile…
"Little brother didn't come back for lunch, you need to eat more... Salengg, did you hear?" Chen Shaoyan asked.
"Got it, got it, so annoying."
Lu Salengg muttered, calmly glancing at the sky to the north.
He withdrew his gaze, his expression unchanged.
…
Nine Rings, Zenith Grand Hotel.
Li Xiaotong remained silent for a long time before lowering her head and speaking:
"My father's lineage has always been cursed by the Evil God, destined to be born incomplete, forever tormented by the Knowledge Demon."
Chen Xiang listened patiently.
"My father was born lame, I was born blind in my left eye, and every night, I hear forbidden whispers. They are knowledge, but also poison—madness, rage, insanity…"
"At six, my grandmother gave me this eye. From that day on, all forbidden whispers vanished, as if the Knowledge Demon feared this eye, but I could also see things beyond ordinary vision…"
A look of fear appeared on Li Xiaotong's face:
"I can see that the sun and the red moon are alive, the white moon is a forbidden palace. I can see Knowledge Demons all around my hometown, the massive shadow on the president of my hometown, countless spheres of light…"
"Later, my parents took me away from our hometown to Great City… it's much better here, no omnipresent Knowledge Demons, no maddening scholars…"
Chen Xiang waited for her to finish and softly asked:
"Where is your hometown?"
"The White Star Country, which worships the Great Master of Knowledge."
Chen Xiang pondered:
"Do you know where your grandmother got this eye?"
Li Xiaotong shrank her neck, stammering:
"I… I don't know…"
Before she finished speaking, she saw the terrifying figure of the man shrouded in burning black flames suddenly lean forward:
"You're lying!"
The hiss sounded eerily similar to the whispers of Knowledge Demons and mad scholars, overlapping as if ten thousand voices screamed at once!
Li Xiaotong was so frightened that she fell to the ground, her mind shaken, the fear amplifying to its peak. She felt like a drowning person, sinking into a river of fear, uncontrollably revealing the truth:
"I, my grandmother is the fourteenth seat of the [Secret Society]. She stole the eye from the society. We came to Great City to escape the society's pursuit…"
"Secret Society? What kind of force is that?"
Chen Xiang stopped the communication with the [Mind Mentor] glasses in the crack, his voice returning to normal.
The single-lens glasses could perceive emotions and manipulate them.
Li Xiaotong gasped for breath, trembling:
"The Secret Society is an underground organization resisting the Knowledge Church, somewhat similar to the Old Council…"
Chen Xiang understood; he had just heard this term from the lecturer, Zhu, in the class on [Mystical Societies and Secret Cults]. No wonder it sounded familiar.
Since it was an organization opposing the Outer Gods, he wondered if it could unite?
Unfortunately, if he remembered correctly, Zhu had said that this organization had fallen into obscurity fifteen years ago… hmm?
Chen Xiang's heart stirred; Li Xiaotong was twenty-one, and the eye she received at six was exactly fifteen years ago.
"What is the Knowledge Demon?" he asked.
"I… I don't know…"
"Do you understand the significance of your left eye within the Secret Society?"
Li Xiaotong shook her head again.
Chen Xiang decided not to press further; the girl's knowledge was limited, possibly less than his own.
He thought about it, his gaze flickering. Li Xiaotong didn't realize that he understood; the eye was likely that of the [Thinker]. The Secret Society was in opposition to the Knowledge Church, thus also an enemy of the Thinker. The eye was probably the most crucial artifact within the society, even a trump card against the state religion of the White Star Country—the Knowledge Church. Losing the eye would naturally lead to the decline of the Secret Society.
Hmm, the [Prophet] is from the White Star Country and even a member of the Knowledge Church; perhaps I can subtly inquire during the next meeting.
Regaining his composure, Chen Xiang smiled at Li Xiaotong:
"Will you speak of today's conversation?"
Li Xiaotong shook her head vigorously.
Chen Xiang shook his head in return:
"Better to be cautious; if your family finds out about this conversation, it could lead to some trouble for me…"
Li Xiaotong's breath quickened:
"No… don't kill me…"
She saw the terrifying figure chuckle silently:
"I'm not a bloodthirsty person."
As he spoke, the burning figure touched the horrific crack on his wrist, coming into contact with the winding river of time flowing within.
A rune, the time-loop rune etched into the room on the first day, was quietly activated.
A small segment of time in this little area shifted slightly forward.
*Knock, knock, knock.*
The door was knocked on. Chen Xiang dragged his suitcase to open the door, and Li Xiaotong stood outside, timidly saying:
"Teacher Chen, my mom asked me to call you; she said it's time to take us back to the Eight Rings…"
"Alright."
Chen Xiang smiled and nodded.