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Hart seemed to have noticed something unusual about the Grim Reaper before him as well. He asked tentatively.

"Could there have been some mistake?"

"I didn't make a mistake," the Grim Reaper said.

He stared fixedly at Hart. "Something is wrong with you."

He could review his memories at any time, ruling out the possibility that they had been altered.

He could say with absolute certainty that when he had previously looked up this name, the information stated that Hart would die today, from a punctured lung.

But now, the information above was completely different.

It read:

Hart Valentine died of a myocardial infarction at the age of seventy-two.

In the more than two hundred years since becoming a Grim Reaper, he had never seen the Book of the Dead change. That was the power of Fate. There could be no mistake.

"Did you encounter something?" the Grim Reaper asked.

"Encounter something?"

A subtle change came over Hart's face.

Almost instantly, he recalled the last person he had seen when leaving the Imperial Capital: Mr. Shaya.

And his blessing.

"Did you remember something?" The Grim Reaper sharply noticed Hart's unusual reaction and pressed on.

Hart came back to his senses and answered, "No, I don't remember."

Although he did not know who that person was, he roughly understood what had happened.

In his original fate, he should already have died, just as this Grim Reaper had said, with his chest pierced through.

But that person had changed everything. In other words, that person was his savior.

Hart did not know whether what his benefactor had done would anger the Grim Reaper before him.

But he would not do anything that might bring trouble to his benefactor.

The Grim Reaper fell silent. After a moment, he spoke.

"I understand."

Seeing this, Hart could not help asking, "Lord Grim Reaper, then I..."

The Grim Reaper came back to himself, glanced at him, and continued.

"You may leave, but..."

"Don't worry. I'll treat what happened today as if it never happened!" Hart hurriedly said. "I've never seen you!"

The Grim Reaper nodded.

Seeing that, Hart ignored the pain in his right arm, grabbed the reins, and drove the carriage onward. The road ahead was much flatter, allowing the carriage to move faster.

Right now, he only wanted to get as far away from this Grim Reaper as possible, preferably without seeing him again for a very long time.

The Grim Reaper remained where he was, quietly watching the departing carriage as thoughts churned through his mind.

It was not as though he had no way to make Hart tell the truth.

But after thinking it over carefully, the Book of the Dead had never been altered before.

Any being capable of doing such a thing was not someone a lowly employee like him could afford to provoke.

All he could do was report the matter and let his superiors handle it.

That was also why he had not erased Hart's memories of everything that had just happened. He needed to preserve those memories for his superiors to investigate.

With that thought, he turned and left. He needed to confirm a few things.

He headed straight for Cole Street in the Imperial Capital. It was a relatively obscure street, with most buildings on both sides serving as both homes and businesses, though many storefronts stood empty.

The most eye-catching place was a shop at the street entrance. A large sign with white lettering on a black background hung outside, decorated with white paper flowers. The shop was dim, lit only by several white candles.

Various styles of urns sat on the counter, while several coffins stood upright or lay flat around the room.

At the entrance, one could clearly smell a faint scent of death. In one of the displayed coffins lay a person, his fingers interlaced over his lower abdomen, his eyes tightly shut as he slept peacefully.

The Grim Reaper walked over and kicked the coffin. "Wake up, Sebas."

Sebas groggily opened his eyes and turned his head in confusion. Once he saw who had come, he instantly became far more alert and sat up from the coffin.

"Lord Baru."

Clearly, the Grim Reaper before him was his senior.

"Do you know Hart Valentine?"

Upon hearing that name, Sebas's heartbeat seemed to skip half a beat. He recalled what that gentleman had said a few hours earlier.

Coming back to himself, he asked tentatively, "What happened to him? Were you unable to take his soul?"

Baru nodded thoughtfully. "Looks like I'm not the one with the problem."

Hearing that, Sebas pressed on, "What happened?"

"You can use the Book of the Dead to look up that name right now," Baru said as he looked at him. The bone mask concealed his expression, but anyone could hear the gravity in his voice.

Filled with doubt, Sebas raised his hand. The Book of the Dead reappeared in his grasp, and he began searching for the man's information by name.

Hart Valentine died of a myocardial infarction at the age of seventy-two.

The moment the information appeared, his pupils trembled violently.

"The Book of the Dead has been altered," Baru said gravely.

He lifted his head to look at Sebas, who was still frozen in place, staring blankly at the Book of the Dead.

"Sebas?" Baru called his name once.

Sebas came back to his senses and looked at Baru in disbelief. "How is that possible?!"

At the same time, a storm raged within his mind.

He had originally thought that even if that person wanted to save Hart Valentine, he would only choose to seize the soul.

After all, that was the safest and most cost-effective method.

But unexpectedly—

He had not interfered with death, much less snatched a soul from a Grim Reaper.

He had directly altered Fate.

Sebas found it difficult to describe how he felt at that moment.

It was like a high-jump competition where one athlete was exceptionally short and almost certain to come in last. A group of people tried every possible method to get him a placing, whether through stimulants or intensified training.

But Shaya had simply changed the rules, turning the high-jump competition into a contest to see who was shortest.

An absolute, overwhelming disparity.

"I hope you'll go to the Underworld with me," Baru said. "We'll report this together. With both of us there, it'll be more credible."

Sebas was silent for a moment before saying, "All right. I'll go with you."

This was no longer something he could evade. Even if he did not go, once Baru reported it, someone would come question him anyway.

As they spoke, the two of them turned into a cloud of black smoke and left together.