Welcome Back

Zhao Kongcheng froze.

He truly had not expected this ordinary high school student before him to say something like that, to possess such mature thoughts...

Only then did he realize how ridiculous his earlier attempt to stir up the typical adolescent chuunibyou fervor and hot-bloodedness had been.

Lin Qiye was not an ordinary high school student.

Lin Qiye stood up and walked straight to the door. After hesitating for a moment, he stopped.

"Thank you for telling me so much. I'll sign the confidentiality agreement."

With that, he pushed open the door and left.

This time, Zhao Kongcheng merely sat silently by the bed. His body rose slightly, as if he wanted to pull Lin Qiye back, but after a brief pause, he sank back down weakly.

He knew what this boy represented, and he knew he bore the mission of bringing him back, but...

He could not do it.

"Xiao Qi, you're finally back? Why didn't you wear your school uniform today?"

"Auntie, I was in a rush this morning and forgot to put it on."

"You child... Won't your teacher scold you for not wearing your uniform?"

"He only said a couple of words. It's fine."

"Sigh, Xiao Qi, you've only just transferred to a new school. You can't leave a bad impression on your teachers. Be more careful in what you do."

"I know, Auntie."

"How are you getting along with your classmates at school? They haven't been excluding you, have they?"

"No, we get along quite well. They even walked me home, and I walked them part of the way too."

"That's good, that's good."

"I'm going back to my room, Auntie."

"Mm, go to bed early."

Bang—!

Lin Qiye shut his bedroom door, lay flat on his bed, and stared at the night outside the window as he let out a long sigh.

This world was far more complicated than he had imagined...

Still, it did not have much to do with him.

After resting for a while, Lin Qiye sat up. Just as he began taking off his clothes, a hard object fell out of his pocket.

Clang!

Lin Qiye lowered his head and picked it up, confusion appearing between his brows.

It was a metal ornament, something like an emblem. It was only slightly larger than a one-yuan coin. He had no idea what material it was made of, but it gave off a faint chill when he held it.

On the front of the emblem, two straight blades crossed each other, their bodies glowing with a pale blue light. Behind them was a star-studded night sky. The craftsmanship was exceedingly exquisite.

Below the pattern were three small engraved words: "Zhao Kongcheng."

"This is..." Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes slightly.

Lin Qiye recalled that when Zhao Kongcheng had dragged him toward the hotel earlier, he seemed to have touched Lin Qiye's pocket.

Had he accidentally dropped it?

Lin Qiye fiddled with the emblem and turned it over. Several lines of small words were engraved on the back.

"When the dark night finally descends,

I shall stand before tens of thousands,

Blade raised toward the abyss,

Blood Stains the Sky!"

"What spirit... Did Zhao Kongcheng write this himself? Or is it the creed of the Night Watchmen?" Lin Qiye muttered. "He looks so dull-witted. He doesn't seem like someone who could write something like this..."

After playing with it for a while longer, Lin Qiye placed it on the table, changed into his clothes, and climbed into bed.

Tonight, he still had something very important to do.

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the Psychiatric Hospital of the Gods within his mind.

At that moment, in the small courtyard of the psychiatric hospital, Nyx sat in a rocking chair with an armful of bottles and jars. She seemed to be murmuring something to herself, a smile occasionally appearing on her lips.

If one ignored the cloudiness in her eyes and the strange objects in her arms, the noble aura radiating from her every gesture would have made this an incomparably beautiful scene.

Before long, Lin Qiye, dressed in a white coat, slowly approached.

To better immerse himself in the role of a psychiatrist, Lin Qiye had specifically found a white coat in the director's office. He had even clipped a pair of plain glasses onto his collar.

At first glance, he really looked the part.

Lin Qiye walked to the rocking chair and silently gazed at Nyx's cloudy, vacant eyes, letting out a soft sigh.

From the mythological texts he had read, Nyx was indeed one of the oldest and most powerful gods in Greek Mythology. Both her status and strength stood at the very top.

But compared with the other gods, she had one most distinctive trait...

She loved having children!

By Lin Qiye's count, Nyx had at least twenty children, including the renowned God of Death Danaus, the God of Sleep Hypnos, as well as the god of space, goddesses of fate, gods of misfortune, and so on...

Aside from a very few, the vast majority of Nyx's children were Evil Gods. From the moment they were born, they brought disaster upon the world, and quite a few gods among them met tragic ends.

From the scattered fragments of myth, Lin Qiye could not learn more detailed information about the Goddess of Night. But he guessed that Nyx's current illness might be related to her children.

The doctor at Sunshine Psychiatric Hospital had said that one male patient had missed his wife so much that he imagined she was by his side. Was Nyx's illness the same?

Had she missed her children so much that she treated those bottles and jars as her children?

But what exactly had happened to her children to provoke such an intense reaction from Nyx?

And as an ancient god possessing divinity, could she truly have such intense emotions? Or perhaps... before she fell ill, her Divine Body had been taken away and her godhood stripped from her?

Lin Qiye had no way of knowing.

"Hypnos, don't be anxious. Your brother will be back soon. He was only off playing for a while...

"That child Danaus has loved causing trouble ever since he was little. Once he gets back, I must give him a proper lesson!"

Nyx stroked the vase in her hands and stared blankly into the distance. A trace of hope appeared in her eyes, only to cloud over again moments later.

She paused, her hoarse voice trembling faintly.

"But...

"It's been three thousand years. Why hasn't he come back yet..."

Watching this scene, Lin Qiye felt an inexplicable ache rise in his heart.

Who could have imagined that the once lofty Goddess of Night would now be so helpless and humble?

She was the Goddess of Night, but she was also a mother waiting for her child to return.

"To cure her illness, I have to start at the root..." The doctor's words echoed through Lin Qiye's mind once again. He lowered his head and thought hard.

The root... Nyx's illness lay in the children she had lost.

To cure her, he could only start with her children. But her children were all famous Greek gods. He could not possibly find them one by one and bring them before Nyx, could he?

Lin Qiye did not even know whether they had been brought into this world by the mist. Where could he possibly find so many gods?

Even if he found them, would those Evil Gods really obediently come with him?

Lin Qiye frowned in thought. Then, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind!

Perhaps... this could work?

Lin Qiye stood up and gazed at Nyx in conflict for a long time. At last, he made up his mind and stepped forward.

Under Nyx's vacant gaze, Lin Qiye walked toward her step by step...

He gently crouched down,

Then reached out and embraced Nyx,

Whispering into her ear,

"Mother, I'm back."

At that instant, Nyx's eyes suddenly shone with a brilliance unlike anything before!!

She stretched out trembling hands and held Lin Qiye tightly. After a long while, she finally managed to say a complete sentence in a quavering voice:

"Welcome back, Danaus, my child..."