What Did You See in the Divine Gift?

Terror made Su Yang's body spring into action. Every muscle drove him up from the bed and into a corner against the bedroom wall.

Putting some distance between himself and the man in red who had suddenly appeared, Su Yang lowered his center of gravity and watched him warily.

Su Yang could not understand why, one moment, he had been on the terrace at Ren Yexue's home, enjoying the view and chatting with her, only to arrive at his own home the next.

But that did nothing to stop his body from sending him frantic warnings.

His intuition told him that the man before him was dangerous, extremely dangerous!

He was so dangerous that Su Yang felt every cell in his body tremble in terror, every cell wanting to flee his body!

For an instant, Su Yang even wanted to follow his instincts and escape through the bedroom window!

But how could he run?

His grandmother was still sleeping soundly in the next room!

Forcing down his physical discomfort and the questions in his mind, Su Yang gritted his teeth, reached out with his right hand, and drew at the empty air.

He wanted to manifest his Black Longsword!

But to Su Yang's astonishment, the Black Longsword that followed him like a shadow did not appear!

Being unable to manifest the Black Longsword felt as though someone had hacked his arm off while he was still alive.

That feeling of helplessness made Su Yang's heart sink.

Without the Black Longsword, if a fight broke out, he could only grapple with the mysterious man in red before him.

The man's eyes were covered with a strip of black cloth, so he should not have been able to see anything clearly, yet he seemed able to perceive what was happening in Su Yang's bedroom through some peculiar sense.

The next moment, he used his hand, its joints distinctly defined, to gently take a piece of black jade from inside his robes.

On it were several small characters written in regular script: [Soul-Reaping Bureau, Heng Hong].

After seeing the black jade, Su Yang's tense body relaxed a little. The man was from the Soul-Reaping Bureau.

Why had someone from the Soul-Reaping Bureau appeared in his home out of nowhere?

Although the visitor had identified himself, Su Yang did not lower his guard entirely and continued to stare fixedly at him.

The man slowly spoke, his voice possessing a peculiar gentleness and composure.

"Can you no longer sense that longsword of yours?"

"Hmm... I'd guess the God of Fate and Reason is using it. After all, you and the God currently share the same authority."

The man's words stunned Su Yang. This was the first time he had heard someone use a Deity's specific title.

"God of Fate and Reason? Who is that?"

"How do you know I have a Black Longsword? I've never seen you in the Soul-Reaping Bureau!"

The man smiled. Instead of answering Su Yang, he walked toward him with a calm expression.

Seeing the man move, Su Yang instinctively wanted to retreat and put some distance between them, but he discovered in horror that he could not move.

It was as though an invisible force had pinned him firmly in place.

The oppressive feeling left Su Yang unable to breathe.

The man walked up to Su Yang and said calmly,

"Su Yang, there's no need to be nervous. Let me introduce myself. I'm Heng Hong from the Soul-Reaping Bureau."

"I'm thirty years old, and I possess a sixth-tier ability of the Omniscience Sequence."

The words spoken by the man calling himself Heng Hong plunged Su Yang into an ice cellar and made his eyelids twitch.

"A Demigod?!"

This man in red was actually a Demigod of the Omniscience Sequence? A Demigod with the mighty power to burn mountains and boil seas?!

Su Yang abruptly recalled what Ren Yexue had told him earlier: a Demigod of the Omniscience Sequence was waiting for him at home!

But...

How had Ren Yexue known?

Wasn't she an ordinary person without a Sequence Ability?

"Hmm... by the unofficial title, I can indeed be called a Demigod."

"It's just that I severed my own divinity to delay my corruption."

Heng Hong pointed to his eyes, covered by the black cloth, and a trace of mockery appeared on his face.

"That's how I went blind."

"That's also why I can enter the God of Fate and Reason's divine kingdom."

"But none of that matters. Su Yang, I came to help you remember some things and then have you answer a few questions."

Heng Hong, dressed in red, produced a page of manuscript from somewhere.

Holding it in front of the immobilized Su Yang, he read aloud.

"Su Yang came to the Soul-Reaping Bureau's attention in the year 2098 of the New God Calendar. In the year 2099, he passed the Soul-Reaping Bureau's assessment and joined the bureau."

"Over the three months following his entry into the Soul-Reaping Bureau, Su Yang broke through three ability tiers in succession, becoming a Sword Envoy in the year 2099 of the New God Calendar."

"Because of his exceptionally rapid breakthroughs, the major factions vied to recruit Su Yang for a time. His momentum even surpassed Gai Fengyan's before him."

"But during a Divine Gift after he became a Sword Envoy..."

At this point, Heng Hong paused, as though the writing further down the manuscript was difficult to make out.

"...Su Yang, whose expression had been peaceful, suddenly changed. His face twisted, his eyes squeezed shut, and he frantically tore and clawed at his own body..."

"In the end, Su Yang died while muttering incessantly... He was buried beneath tombstone number 23 in the Soul-Reaping Bureau's Nineteenth Jurisdiction..."

"What Su Yang kept muttering before he died was, 'The God has already...' (crossed out)."

Heng Hong tossed the manuscript in front of Su Yang. The text in the first half was exactly what Heng Hong had just read.

But in the latter part of the manuscript, the sentences concerning the God had been scribbled over in a mess, making it impossible to see what followed.

"Su Yang, what did you see in the Divine Gift? Why did you die muttering?"

Without taking in Heng Hong's question, Su Yang stared at the manuscript on the floor in utter panic.

The lines of small, neatly written characters looked like demons crawling out of hell, scaring his soul from his body.

"The year 2099 of the New God Calendar? A Divine Gift?"

"What's going on? Could I have died once...?"

Su Yang's mind was in chaos. If Su Yang really had died once, who was he now?

A monster? An undead?

Or some other indescribable thing?

No! Impossible!

He remembered it all clearly!

He had only joined the Soul-Reaping Bureau a few days ago, only met Ren Yexue a month ago, and only met Zhao Shengshen and the others at the Soul-Capturing Bureau a month ago...

What was written on this page couldn't be true!

Su Yang took a deep breath, suppressed the terror in his heart, and shouted at Heng Hong,

"This is absurd! Nothing of the sort happened in my memory!"

"If you really are a Demigod of the Soul-Reaping Bureau, then listen carefully to every word I'm about to say!"

Heng Hong raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I'm all ears!"

Su Yang spoke each word distinctly.

"Listen carefully! This world has been tampered with! Everyone's memories have been thrown into disorder!"

"There might be some earth-shaking force working in secret, trying to accomplish some objective!"

"For example, my former homeroom teacher died at the hands of a strange, ugly Tentacle Monster!"

"I don't know why my memories weren't altered, but this is the truth!!"

After saying all this, Su Yang felt somewhat relieved, like a child who had finally voiced a grievance after suffering an injustice.

He looked toward Heng Hong, hoping to see a shocked expression on his face.

But all Su Yang saw was Heng Hong pressing the corners of his mouth tightly down.

Su Yang could tell that Heng Hong wanted to laugh.

"You don't believe me?"

The next moment, Heng Hong finally failed to hold back and burst out laughing in Su Yang's bedroom.

"Hahaha..."

"Su Yang, the God of Fate and Reason has really kept you in the dark! Very well, very well. Let me show you the real truth."

Heng Hong gently waved his hand, and the scenery before Su Yang's eyes spun.

Light and shadow crossed, and every object before his eyes turned into threads, twisting together.