The entire expanse of space dimmed in comparison.
It was a dazzling golden light, tinged faintly with blood-red, radiating boundless brilliance—so much so that even this endless panorama was cast into shadow.
Within that blinding golden radiance, a figure stood quietly in midair. His outline was swallowed by the scorching glow, making it impossible to see his face.
The ghost eye instantly shut, not daring to open at all, while the ghost shadow, merely touched by the golden light, felt an abnormal burning sensation arise.
Squinting at that dazzling golden silhouette, Yang Jian sensed it.
“Divinity.”
Something illusory and intangible.
At this moment, before Yang Jian’s eyes, it had taken form.
What was shocking was that the figure seemed to have discovered Yang Jian and slowly turned his head.
He—or rather, “He.”
Among countless possibilities, only this figure was an exception. Only “He” had discovered Yang Jian’s existence.
Yang Jian instinctively realized that this figure could help him resolve his own problem. Like the awe lowly creatures felt toward higher beings, this was a natural instinct.
Yang Jian stepped forward, slowly approaching that figure.
Abruptly, without the slightest warning.
It was a patch of absolute black, blocking Yang Jian’s path.
At this moment, visual logic completely collapsed.
Within this absolute darkness, a black human figure stood silently.
In this blackness, so profound it could not be parsed, Yang Jian clearly saw a deathly still black figure.
Above the forehead of that figure, a faint point of scarlet flickered softly.
The next moment, golden light erupted, like the sun falling from the heavens, illuminating all things.
Yet this golden light, powerful enough to sweep away everything, could not illuminate this dark void.
Immediately after, within Yang Jian’s field of vision, the figure in the golden light raised a hand.
In an instant, all the timelines before his eyes collapsed.
Golden light filled the entire space, all of the past, present, and future.
Countless branches of fate were erased by the golden torrent. All possibilities were overwritten in this moment.
It was a power that could not be defied, an absolute that stood above everything.
Like the ultimate convergence of countless timelines and countless possibilities.
It eliminated all uncertainty, reduced every unstable future completely to zero.
“He” was absolute.
The golden light was unmatched.
The next second, that blackness vanished, as though it had never existed.
As if by deliberate intent, the golden radiance did not cover that deathly still black shadow.
The black shadow stood where it was, motionless.
It seemed to be in some kind of dazed, bewildered state, ignorant and unclear.
It was as though a very long time had passed, and yet also as though it had only been an instant.
The black shadow turned to look at Yang Jian.
The moment their gazes touched, Yang Jian disappeared.
No, he did not disappear.
Rather, Yang Jian had never experienced the reality he had just gone through.
Yang Jian had never seen that golden light, had never experienced everything that had just happened.
But none of this had received “His” permission.
That eternally unchanging golden light violently tore through this “nonexistent fact” and invaded.
But in the next second, the golden light abruptly contracted back.
“He” seemed to have discovered something, or perhaps seen something.
It was some possibility that even “He” found interesting.
The black shadow still stood motionless. From the instant he descended, this world’s future—its absolute timeline—began to fluctuate.
Along with the existence of this black figure, the future began to drift, began to change drastically.
Like a perfectly smooth, perfectly spherical object—unpredictable, incomprehensible. No one knew toward what unknown it would go.
“He” did not seem to intend to interfere.
Or perhaps, “He” wanted to see whether this future would give birth to some unknown existence.
Whether it would give birth to that other one-in-a-million exception.
Because even “He,” when facing the supernatural, still had too many mysteries yet to be unraveled. Evil ghosts were like eternal shadows that could not be dispelled, following as closely as one’s own form.
“He” had never been able to find that perfect path—a path without evil ghosts, where only humans existed.
The golden light abruptly vanished, and the entire space returned to normal. The images of countless timelines reappeared, as if everything just now had never happened.
Before his eyes, countless possibilities were rapidly peeling away, and his form was becoming faint.
The scene retreated madly.
First, the image of the pitch-black universe rushed straight toward his face. Then he sank into a resplendent Milky Way. After that, he gazed into the distance and saw the burning sun.
Finally... he saw Earth.
It happened in a sudden instant.
By the time Yang Jian came back to himself, he was already standing on the moon, with the captains beside him.
Everything seemed unchanged. Everything seemed as though it had never happened. Yang Jian had never left; from beginning to end, he had been standing here.
“Yang Jian?”
Beside him, Liu San asked tentatively, somewhat uncertain.
At this moment, on Yang Jian’s numb, ashen face, that scarlet ghost eye slowly turned—deathly still, indifferent, without the slightest emotion.
Behind him, on the neck of the headless ghost shadow, a mass of black flame burned quietly.
“It’s me. I succeeded.”
“Good.” Wang Chaling immediately controlled the two elderly figures behind him and had them retreat. If this frenzied restart continued, he could not be sure whether the Wang family’s curse would still be effective.
He had gone abroad to study since childhood, and before he could conduct any deep research into his family, his parents had died mysteriously. As a result, his understanding of the family curse could be said to be superficial at best.
The pendulum clock had already become almost transparent, and Shen Lin and Li Leping were the same, looking as though they might dissipate at any moment.
Li Leping lightly touched the pendulum clock, and it immediately vanished from where it was. At the same time, Wang Chaling’s memories were gradually recovering, though they were still incomplete.
Shen Lin walked over carrying the axe. He looked at the black fire on the headless shadow behind Yang Jian, and a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes.
He asked, “Yang Jian, did you control the black fire? Or have you only suppressed it temporarily?”
Sweeping his gaze over everyone, Yang Jian did not respond. It was not that he did not want to speak, but that even he himself did not know how that cold, terrifying black fire had appeared on the headless shadow.
Only, for now, the black fire was very stable, and he also seemed able to use its power. Yang Jian judged that this should be a state similar to having controlled it.
In his mind flashed that majestic figure shrouded in gold.
“Could it have been him?”
But now was not the time to think. Yang Jian glanced at Zhang Sun’s corpse, and at that rust-covered coffin nail.
An extreme scarlet sharpness instantly covered the entire surface of the moon.
Above a cold lake, black flames burned. On the lake’s surface, Yang Jian, accompanied by a massive black dog, slowly walked over.
He pulled out the coffin nail in one motion, then turned his head to look at the azure Earth in outer space.
After a long silence, a cold voice rang out.
“It’s time to go back.”