Death-Chant Monastic Order

That meant Ren Yexue had never helped Grandma at all in the original world!

At some point in time, a pair of invisible hands had emerged from the darkness.

He had erased reality in secret, then rewritten it with new content!

That was why Su Yang had seen Grandma's notebook that day, though he had never seen it before!

And heard about a girl Grandma had never mentioned before!

"But... why did this change happen?"

"Why did everything change, yet I'm the only one who still has my previous memories?"

Su Yang frowned and thought the whole affair over again.

Cause and effect were intertwined; every effect had a cause! Someone had altered reality, so the person who altered it must have had a purpose.

"...Was it because of Teacher Zhao and that Tentacle Monster?"

Although Su Yang still didn't know who that person was, there was no denying that his power was beyond anything Su Yang could have imagined! He was so powerful that Su Yang couldn't even entertain the thought of resisting!

"Then why do I still have my previous memories? What's special about me..."

"My blood? My Black Blade? My Dead Man's Book?"

"Wait, the Dead Man's Book didn't just vanish into thin air, did it?!"

At the mention of the Dead Man's Book, Su Yang suddenly remembered something!

On the day he saw Grandma's notebook, the Dead Man's Book had recorded a departed soul!

The Soul-Reaping Bureau's Maiden's Soul! That class C containment item! Codename C-0188.

But after this world had been tampered with, Su Yang had joined the Soul-Reaping Bureau two years ago, and there had been no such thing as the Maiden's Soul.

Worry rose in Su Yang's heart. The Dead Man's Book was arguably the one thing he could least afford to lose now.

The tampering with this world would inevitably make some things that had originally existed disappear, and bring things that had never existed into being.

For example, hadn't Teacher Zhao's death vanished amid that invisible tampering...?

If the Dead Man's Book had disappeared too, Su Yang really wouldn't know what to do!

First, the Dead Man's Book was something his parents had left him.

Second, Su Yang simply couldn't do without the Dead Man's Book's help now. If it disappeared, then when the whispers came again, all Su Yang could do was sit and wait for death...

"Su Yang, are you okay? Should we go to the hospital now?"

A soft knock came from outside the bathroom, interrupting Su Yang's thoughts.

Ren Yexue's voice followed, reaching him inside the bathroom.

Ren Yexue stood outside the bathroom, her face full of concern—Su Yang had been in there for a full half hour!

Just as Ren Yexue was about to knock again, Su Yang opened the bathroom door and came out.

Seeing how worried Ren Yexue looked, Su Yang scratched his head, a hint of embarrassment on his face.

"Sorry..."

"I've been hungry all day. I got so dizzy from hunger that I even forgot our homeroom teacher."

Seeing that Su Yang was all right, Ren Yexue finally let out a long sigh of relief.

She patted her chest and lifted her snow-white chin, looking a little proud.

"It's okay! You've got me! I'll go make you a little more food. There are still some ingredients in my fridge."

"I'll have it ready in a little while! Have some of the fries I just made first!"

With that, Ren Yexue eagerly ran downstairs.

She was happy to have a chance to show Su Yang her superb cooking skills.

Su Yang watched Ren Yexue leave and forced a smile.

He walked slowly back to the terrace and sat down beside the glass table, casually picking up a fry from the plate and putting it in his mouth.

With a crunch, Su Yang bit through the fry.

He didn't know why, but it seemed to taste different, not as good as before.

Before he knew it, it was late at night.

In the city in the distance, many of the lights had gone out.

Compared with before, it was a little quieter, with a little less of the bustle of human life.

Looking at the lights still shining in countless homes in the distance, Su Yang felt somewhat lost.

How had things suddenly become like this? What was this world really like?

If even objectively existing facts could be overturned at will, what use had all his previous efforts been? They could be rewritten at will anyway...

"Is this world still the one I lived in before?"

"If everything here contradicts my memories, then who am I? Am I still Su Yang?"

"And Teacher Zhao... who will stand up for him? Did he really die for nothing?"

Lost in endless confusion, Su Yang took out his phone without realizing it.

His fingers flew as he skillfully entered a number on the dial screen.

A few seconds later, the call connected, and a kind voice came from the other end.

"Xiao Yang? Why are you calling Grandma so late? Aren't you staying at your classmate's house tonight?"

"...Grandma, I'm so glad you're still here..."

"Oh! What's wrong, Xiao Yang? You sound like you're about to cry. Did you have a fight with your classmate? Do you want Grandma to come get you?"

"It's nothing. I just suddenly missed you, Grandma."

Deep in the mountains, amid dense forest, stood an ancient palace.

The palace was enormous, filled with countless stone pillars covered in intricate patterns and emanating extraordinary power.

At the very center of the palace stood a gigantic divine statue.

The statue was neither male nor female, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither joyful nor sorrowful, and had no facial features.

A number of people in white robes knelt on the floor, surrounding a man dressed in red.

The man in red had his eyes covered with a strip of gauze.

Beneath the statue, he wore a benevolent expression, the corners of his mouth raised in a constant smile.

In the distance, a group of heavily armed Sword-Bearers watched the man in red, listening intently to his murmurs.

"God says: in the Nineteenth Jurisdiction—"

"Withered petals fall upward, and autumn's migratory birds fly north."

"The seawater turns red."

"The sun grows dim, and the moon shines dazzlingly bright."

"The God of Fate and Reason has descended into the mortal world!"

"Go, my children, and use the swords in your hands to slay that beautiful woman."

At the edge of the city, in a dark basement.

A gaunt old man sat within a strange formation drawn in blood.

He held a piece of black jade in his hand.

On its front were engraved the small, neatly written characters "Sword Guardian of the Soul-Reaping Bureau," though the name following them had been savagely scratched out with a knife.

On the back of the black jade, there were also several lines of small writing.

[The dead have crawled out of their graves, and cause and effect have fallen into disorder as a result.]

[Amid the clash of Deities, we may be able to find our salvation.]

[There is no need to search for me! At the boundary between light and darkness, at the birthplace of blood and song, at the destruction of the old order and the birth of the new, I will reveal myself!]

[—Death-Chant Monastic Order]