With the movement of the Wang Family's First Generation, this memory world suddenly lurched to a halt. Together with Shen Lin and the other person, everything in the surroundings fell into a standstill. Even the rapidly collapsing horizon in the distance stopped in its tracks.
Li Leping looked around and said in surprise, "This is simply absurd... He actually forcefully fixed the dissipating memories in place."
Within the frozen world, the Wang Family's First Generation walked toward the two of them step by step.
"Young ones, it's time for you to be on your way."
Li Leping suddenly spoke up: "You should be Wang Chaling's grandfather, right? You said the Wang Family would one day end the supernatural era. Whether that can succeed, I do not know. But I do know that if you kill the two of us now, the Wang Family might very well end with Wang Chaling's generation."
The Wang Family's First Generation did not stop his movements. He clearly did not believe Li Leping's claims.
"No need to say more. With my protection, unless those few appear, it is absolutely impossible for anyone to kill him."
"I never said it was a human attacking him. Before entering, he gave me a pocket watch. I don't know what it signifies, but that item is in the bag on my right now."
The palm that was about to touch Li Leping suddenly froze, suspended in mid-air. A trace of surprise flashed across the gloomy face of the Wang Family's First Generation.
Gradually, the two felt their hands regain mobility, but their feet remained fixed in place, unable to move.
"Take it out."
Li Leping immediately fished out an old pocket watch from his bag. It was covered in scratches and looked to be of considerable age.
The Wang Family's First Generation took the pocket watch. After opening it, the hands inside were still ticking away, unaffected by this space.
"It was actually real..."
The place where this pocket watch was stored was not in reality, but inside a photograph. Even if someone could truly kill Wang Chaling, they absolutely could not obtain this watch.
Not to mention, once Wang Chaling died, the two ghosts controlled by the Wang Family's First Generation couple would immediately go out of control. Under such circumstances, wanting to retrieve the watch would be even more impossible.
After confirming the pocket watch's authenticity, the Wang Family's First Generation stopped his assault. Shen Lin and the other person immediately felt their entire bodies relax, regaining their mobility.
"Tell me, what kind of assault have you suffered, to the point that you needed to invade memories to find a solution?"
Shen Lin looked at the horizon. The surrounding space had already been fixed in place by the Wang Family's First Generation. The two of them were temporarily out of danger.
"A mass of black fire, suspected to possess the characteristic of replacing cause and effect. Other than that, there is no other intelligence. Under Wang Chaling's suggestion, we came here to retrieve a pendulum clock."
"Black fire?"
The Wang Family's First Generation pondered for a moment, seeming to recall something.
"When I was young, I met a woman surnamed Yang. She was very special. From her, I learned of an exile plan abroad, which mentioned black flames. But at the time, I was busy looking for something else, so I didn't ask too much about it."
He paused, then continued:
"The pendulum clock is not here; otherwise, I wouldn't dare let these ordinary people repair this place. You've come too early. But consciousness-type supernatural phenomena are always strange and unpredictable. Time does not exist here. You can head toward a memory point closer to where Wang Chaling is. The closer you get, the more clearly he remembers, and the higher your chances of success will be."
"It may be dangerous, but it is still worth trying."
After speaking, the five fingers on his hand twisted in a bizarre manner, but upon closer inspection, nothing had happened at all. The surrounding memories were gradually fading. It seemed this medium, which existed attached to Wang Chaling's consciousness, was about to disappear.
"You two go. Find that pendulum clock. Wang Chaling knows how to use it."
Shen Lin looked around. There was still some time. He opened his mouth to ask, "Is there anything you want us to pass on to Wang Chaling? If you miss this chance, there may never be another."
A trace of loneliness appeared on the Wang Family's First Generation's face. He let out a long sigh and spoke:
"In the face of the supernatural, no one in this world can be spared. But there are some things that always need someone to do. Whether it's me or those seven, we are all searching for a path that can be walked."
His figure slowly dissipated, becoming transparent.
"Once, someone told me that the supernatural is always full of uncertainty. I didn't believe it before. I thought that if we followed the steps, our Wang Family would reach that point one day. But today, having seen the two of you, I know I was wrong. There still exist many supernatural things in this world that I cannot understand."
The Wang Family's First Generation's figure had already disappeared, but his voice continued. It seemed he could even resist absolute death like the dissipation of memories to some degree, and this was merely a portion of the supernatural power he had left behind.
"The two of you are truly excellent. I roughly know what you want to do, but I only guessed it thanks to your hints. To be able to make such a judgment so quickly when facing a supernatural event that even my ghost couldn't resolve—I have to say it truly is astonishing. Wang Chaling having teammates like you, I am very pleased..."
"Sigh... it must be hard on him..."
The voice completely disappeared. All that remained was nothingness. Only a patch of land beneath the two of them remained intact, as if the Wang Family's First Generation had deliberately left this medium at the end to give them more reaction time.
Li Leping picked up the pocket watch from the ground, turned around, and said, "Let's go. What he said is correct. We need to head toward a clearer point in time within Wang Chaling's memories."
The two figures abruptly dissipated, and this memory fragment also completely disappeared.
At this very moment, within the Wang Family's ancient mansion in Dadong City.
Many ghost controllers on the verge of revival existed here. To survive, they were forced to be imprisoned here, facing endless cycles without ever seeing daylight.
At a certain instant, everyone smelled a faint odor of corpses. Unlike the cold, gloomy stench of death that filled the ancient mansion year-round, this smell seemed like a corpse was being burned.
Within the memories were two men. From afar, they looked exceptionally terrifying, quickly walking toward them.
With the invasion of the two, it seemed to trigger some unknown rule within the ancient mansion. The timeline throughout the entire mansion began to shift.
"Tick-tock..."
The sound of hands moving continuously rang out from the depths of the ancient mansion, growing increasingly urgent to a degree of near madness.
Due to the rough supernatural interference of Shen Lin and Li Leping, this ancient mansion was constantly changing and shifting its timeline.
But within memories, time was no longer linear. The constantly shifting time had no effect on the two of them.
The two figures constantly shuttled through the ancient mansion, flickering in and out of sight, as if they had entered a constantly shifting dimension where time and space interwove into a web.
Suddenly, Li Leping stopped, looking toward a stairwell.
"Found it."