Chapter 113: The Future

Ma Mei’s demeanor shifted noticeably the moment the Five Roads God of Wealth was mentioned. Perhaps even the little old woman herself was unaware of it; her tone and temperament had transformed, as if she were a different person. She became slightly agitated, morphing into a folklorist, and her expression grew faintly sinister. Under the pallid light, her gaze fixed upon the statue of the God of Wealth was truly terrifying—shudder-inducing to behold.

To an ordinary person, this would have been enough to scare them half to death. But to this group of battle-hardened reincarnators, Ma Mei’s slight change didn’t startle them at all. Instead, it allowed them to see something in this little old woman—a manifestation of what is called fate. The future of this world must have deteriorated to an irredeemable degree, or else such a reversal of cause and effect would not have occurred.

Ma Mei’s abnormality was only temporary. Without further provocation from Lan Yi and the other psychics, she stared at the statue for a long while before waking as if from a dream, having forgotten her own erratic behavior entirely. Instead, she began to bow and plead with Lan Yi, recognizing him as a man of great capability and the leader of the group. With no other options left, she pinned all her hopes on them to find her son, hoping they could locate him among the unknown ghosts—even if it were only his corpse. To be laid to rest was, after all, better than wandering as a lonely, lost spirit.

Wang Aoja and Li Yang exchanged a glance. The atmosphere in this world was stifling to an extraordinary degree. If they had acted rashly just now, it was hard to say whether they could have traced the source, but the situation would surely have deteriorated rapidly. It was not just Ma Mei; once that eerie atmosphere permeated the space, everyone in the building—and perhaps the entire residential complex, as far as they could perceive—began to take on the qualities of ghosts.

The boundary between the living and the dead had been blurred into nothingness.

After sending Ma Mei off to rest, only the three of them and the statue remained in the living room.

"What is the actual purpose of this sculpture?" Wang Aoja asked Lan Yi after studying it for a moment. He was no expert in the realm of supernatural entities. In his past life, by the later stages, ghosts or those consumed by obsession were no match for psychics; they were comprehensively crushed, possessing no advantages worth exploiting. If pushed to the limit, they would simply deploy artificial divine realms, a scene akin to a magnificent celestial court suppressing the ghost-ridden regions of a world. Therefore, the study of ghosts was always focused on how to dismantle them quickly and violently, rather than investigating their convoluted mysteries. However, Lan "the Old Demon" Yi—a lone wolf who frequently wandered and enjoyed venturing into dangerous borderlands—was a professional in this regard.

"This is a 'Future Body.' Its function should be to open a channel at a specific moment, similar to scanning a code to pass through a security checkpoint," Lan Yi said, tapping his fingers against the Five Roads God of Wealth.

Invisible currents surged into the statue, instantly sparking a ripple of psychic energy. The undulating waves manifested as grim, ghostly miasma. A face of agony emerged from the statue’s head upon the red cloth, looking fierce and chilling.

*Swish!*

The painful, twisted face was instantly silenced by a beam of scorching radiance shot from Li Yang’s fingers, forcing it to cower into stillness.

"The situation is quite clear then: the future of this world is precarious. Xu Tianze traveled to the future, and according to the information he left behind, this world will likely undergo a drastic change in the next few years. They are attempting to save the past by altering the future. What a naive idea," Li Yang said, blowing on his fingertips, having roughly deduced the objective of Xu Tianze and his peers.

This also explained why Xu Tianze could become a person consumed by obsession and evade the search of the psychics. There was another Xu Tianze existing in the future. But that future version must have already died; his death and subsequent transformation into a ghost coincided with the current Xu Tianze. The stimulation from the ghost’s power, combined with the excessively dense psychic energy in the current environment, allowed the present Xu Tianze to awaken and refine the ghost into a natural weapon.

"Someone is using them," Lan Yi noted, cutting straight to the heart of the matter. The actions of Xu Tianze and the others could not save the Artificial Divine Realm 2055. By constantly shuttling into the future to kill ghosts, they were only causing the people of the present to be force-fed quantum information. Without the corresponding quantum organs, they could not truly possess those memories; instead, it caused widespread damage to human souls and willpower.

Irritability, greed, fragility, shortsightedness, jealousy, hatred... once these emotions replaced balanced ones, there was little difference between the living and the dead. The most terrifying part was that every time an obsessed individual traveled to the future, it exacerbated the problem.

"The truth is out. It seems the Conquest Space wants us to deliver humanity from its suffering by killing all the obsessed ones and then destroying this time-travel mechanism," Wang Aoja said, slapping his fist into his palm. Now that the objective was clear, things would be easier.

Lan Yi and Li Yang remained silent. Was it really that simple? If so, why would the humans of this world go to such lengths to reach the moon? This was the most incomprehensible part, as the emotional tsunamis triggered by the obsessed ones, fed back from the future to the present, were like a pyramid scheme—violent highs and lows followed by a sharp collapse. In other words, there was no foundation of steady, long-term resilience.

Even though such diligent cultivation and steadfastness were the inherent nature of the River Civilization.

*Knock, knock, knock.*

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Lan Yi did not move, but the lock clicked open automatically. A disheveled old man walked in.

"We’ve run into some trouble," the old man said.

"What kind of trouble?" Lan Yi asked.

Clearly, this was a physical vessel for communication created by Juno using [Starry Sky].

"We might not be in the past anymore; we are in the future. While Lin Cheng and I were examining the memories of a target’s former colleague, we were attacked by something unknown." The old man synchronized the report with Juno’s side, and one could clearly see an expression of curiosity and helplessness on Juno’s face.

"I am currently in the year 2085, thirty years from now."

"There isn't a single human left here. The ghosts outside are present to a ridiculous degree. You’ve all heard of 'full-frequency jamming,' right? This is the ghost version of that—an apocalyptic flood."

That was certainly a vivid description. Juno continued, "Oh, and Lin Cheng just discovered a piece of interesting news."

"The fall of Shanghai happened in 2070, caused by the descent of a Great Terror. All these ghosts manifested by crawling out of human bodies."

"The Great Terror that destroyed Shanghai was the 'Five Rampant Gods,' and the past incarnation of one of them was Ma Mei. But here, that Great Terror seems to have been eliminated. Those obsessed ones who shuttle through time are quite efficient, though whether that is a blessing or a curse, I cannot say."

"So, you see..."

Juno’s voice suddenly cut off.

Without anyone noticing when it happened, Ma Mei was already standing silently at the bedroom doorway, her fingernails digging deeply into the doorframe.