Kill the Body, Crush the Heart

"Master, I've been eating very well these past few days. Aunt Yang Yang treated me to a lot of food."

"Master, Aunt Yang Yang said she'll take me to Luocheng in a little while. She said that's where you live."

"Master, you must take care of yourself. I'll be waiting for you in Luocheng," Xiao Zhenji Qing Chen on the phone for a long time.

Qing Chen asked, "Have you been training these past few days?"

Xiao Zhenji's breath hitched, and her crying stopped, "I gave the phone to Aunt Yang Yang."

Qing Chen laughed, "We can't let our guard down anymore once we get to Luocheng."

Xiao Zhenji: "Hmm..."

"I told her not to train. If you have a problem with me, come at me. Don't blame the child. We're on the run for our lives, what's the point of training?" Yang Yang muttered as she took the phone.

For some reason, at that moment, the old saying "a doting mother spoils her son" flashed through Qing Chen's mind...

He asked, "What are your plans next?"

Yang Yang: "I plan to leave as soon as possible, send Xiao Zhenji back, and then come right back. The entire island nation is under lockdown right now, so flying back with you should be the easiest way to leave. But before I get back, can you hold out? Let me tell you, be careful of the remaining three Chosen One; they might be the most troublesome. I suspect two of them are A-rank. Also, Kashima's Li Yunze —no one has seen him anywhere. If he's here too, he might try to ambush you."

Li Yunze was the Chosen One fought against the Six-winged Angel with his clone back in Europe.

At the time, Li Yunze's face was half destroyed by a roadside bomb, and this debt was actually owed to the Joker.

Yang Yang said, "You must be careful. I'll come back for you."

Qing Chen smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm in a very safe place now. As long as you don't get lost, I'll definitely be able to hold out until I see you."

"Safety?" Yang Yang asked doubtfully. "Didn't you say that the Age of Gods has that shikigami, the Cloud Mirror? It can observe you every four hours, and it can see you wherever you go."

There's always a way.

"Why don't I go and meet you both, and we can head back together? It'll be slower, but it'll get you out of here sooner."

"No need, I still have some things to finish."

Yang Yang understood; Qing Chen had already come up with a solution.

Although she didn't know what the solution was.

"By the way," Yang Yang said, "The news that the Lord of Daybreak appeared in Osaka to avenge 'Qing Chen' seems to have spread. The Daylight Organization will soon become a household name. Even if it's just for face, Kamishiro will definitely retaliate. They may not be able to do anything in the Outer World, but in the Inner World, they will definitely take action."

"Yes, I know."

After the great battle, Qing Chen's heart had completely calmed down.

He needed to conserve his energy and prepare for the crossing in seven days; he couldn't afford to get injured again.

At A02 Base, nearly a thousand Qing clan intelligence personnel are waiting in that bitterly cold place.

At that very moment, in the underground air-raid shelter of the Osaka City Hall, the alarm clock beside Kamishiro Kongxu went off.

She precisely timed it for four hours, cut open the chest of a corpse, and offered the body as a sacrifice to the Cloud Mirror.

"Wait, why can't I see anything in the Cloud Mirror?" Kamishiro Kongxu wondered.

All they could see in the Cloud Mirror was darkness; there was no sign of Qing Chen at all.

Kamishiro Kongxu glanced at his watch. It was clearly 9 a. m., and the sky was already bright, so why was the area observed by the Cloud Mirror pitch black?

Is the Cloud Mirror broken?!

Wait a minute, this is a shikigami, not some cheap household appliance, how could it break?

Four more hours passed, and it was still the same; the Cloud Mirror remained pitch black.

Another 24 hours passed, and it was still the same!

Kamishiro Kongxu got up and walked outside; she needed to tell Kamishiro Yunluo the news.

Upon hearing this, Kamishiro Yunluo simply smiled and explained, "It's not that your Cloud Mirror is broken, but rather that he has been hiding in an absolutely dark place, making it impossible for you to find his location from the details. There are many such absolutely dark places; it could be in a sewer, in a shipping container, in a room covered with blackout tape, or even in the underground, enclosed environment that Zard created for him."

Kamishiro Kongxu was stunned for a moment. Was this guy exploiting a bug?!

Qing Chen's methods for fighting against the Cloud Mirror were both too simple, yet she was helpless against them.

Despite having a tracking device, they couldn't catch a single hair.

Just then, Kamishiro Yunxiu sat in his office, holding his phone, and said, "Just 24 hours ago, someone posted a 'Complete Guide to Avoiding the Tracking of the ATS-088 Shikigami Cloud Mirror' online. It explained in detail the functions of Cloud Mirror, how to use montage techniques to mislead tracking, and how to avoid being spied on by Cloud Mirror. One of the tips was to hide in a completely dark environment so that you can't see anything... This post was quite popular in China."

The so-called montage technique is when you are actually visiting the Forbidden City, but you are deliberately holding a souvenir from the Temple of Heaven, making the user of the Cloud Mirror mistakenly believe that you are at the Temple of Heaven.

After all, the range that the Cloud Mirror can see is only so big.

Kamishiro Kongxu was immediately disgusted. How could this be so cruel as to attack someone's spirit? It's one thing to exploit a bug yourself, but to teach others how to exploit bugs too?!

Are you capable of earning negative emotion points or something?!

"But how can a person stay in the dark for so long? Won't he go crazy?" Kamishiro Kongxu recalled. She had also undergone closed-circuit training, which all Kamishiro Family combat personnel had to go through, to teach them how to face fear and loneliness.

Back then, Kamishiro Yunxiu stayed in the sealed room for five days, Kamishiro Yunluo stayed for six days, while Kamishiro Kongxu himself only stayed for three days.

This kind of complete darkness and claustrophobic terror is not as simple as it seems; it is the extreme oppression that occurs when humans lose their sense of space and time. Only those who have experienced it can understand.

Kamishiro Yunluo said calmly, "He's enduring it, trying to tough it out until the moment of transmigration, and doesn't want any unforeseen complications before then. After all, Qing Chen of the Daylight Organization is still imprisoned in the A02 secret base. Qing Chen is only C-Class, and it's impossible for him to escape on his own. Therefore, after this Lord of Daybreak comes to take revenge, he will definitely want to preserve his strength to carry out the rescue plan in the Inner World. So, he can't afford to get injured before transmigrating, lest it affect the plan."

Kamishiro Yunxiu pondered for a moment, "It's alright. The entire territory is under lockdown now. He'll eventually emerge from the darkness, and we'll find him sooner or later. At the latest, he'll be unable to bear the darkness and loneliness for more than six days. Even if he manages to endure this time travel, he'll still have to come out after his next return. No one can endure the darkness forever."

"So, are we just going to wait?" asked Kamishiro Kongxu.

Kamishiro Yunluo: "First, spread the word that the Lord of Daybreak killed people, so that the whole world knows that the Lord of Daylight killed four of the Chosen Ones of Kamishiro. We also need to prepare well, because when we return to the Inner World, we will face a joint interrogation by ten council members. We will put all the blame on the Lord of Daylight."

Los Angeles.

A brand-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan slowly drove into an old residential compound on Xingshu Road.

The car stopped, and Qin Shuli got out of the car with a light step, while Zhang Wanfang held Haohao's hand and waited to the side.

Seeing her husband struggling to carry so many things, she said, "Let's put them in the trunk first, and then my brother and my younger brother can come down and help us carry them. Anyway, the things we bring for the elders always end up being divided up by them, so it's only right that they help us carry some."

"Okay," Qin Shuli nodded.

With the Chinese New Year approaching, Qin Shuli and his family of three came to visit Zhang Wanfang's parents.

The New Year's gifts included top-quality Jinhua ham, made from a whole pig leg, and a case of Moutai liquor, something that ordinary families rarely drink. Just this case of six bottles would cost more than ten thousand yuan.

In the past, when Qin Shuli came to pay New Year's visits, it was considered quite good if he brought two bottles of Wuliangye liquor.

That's how it is in the real economy. Business may seem to be doing well, but 90% of the money is tied up in materials, inventory, and debts. You have very little cash on hand, and you're just barely getting by.

Therefore, Qin Shuli's original car had not been changed for seven or eight years.

As Qin Shuli entered the building, he noticed a Porsche 911 in the adjacent parking space and glanced at it a couple more times.

The family of three went up to the fourth floor and rang the doorbell.

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged man wearing a flashy shirt.

The other person sized up Qin Shuli: "Why did you come empty-handed? I heard your factory didn't do well this year, but it's not appropriate to visit your parents empty-handed during the New Year."

Zhang Wanfang led Haohao into her house and casually retorted, "Who asks others for New Year's gifts?"

This is Zhang Jianjun, Zhang Wanfang's older brother and Qing Chen's maternal uncle.

He used to work as a worker at Luocheng Bearing Group. After being laid off, he didn't look for work and stayed at home every day to take care of his elderly parents, living off their pensions.

His family urged him to find a job, but he refused, saying he was perfectly content with his current situation.

He was considered a well-known street urchin in the area.

While cracking sunflower seeds, Zhang Jianjun said, "Wanfang, I heard Qing Guozhong was arrested for gambling and sentenced to three years? Are you still in contact? He still owes me five thousand yuan. I only lent him the money because he was my brother-in-law. What about the money now?"

Zhang Wanfang felt embarrassed when her ex-husband was mentioned in front of her current husband. Qin Shuli sat on the sofa beside her without saying a word. She said angrily, "Over the years, have I ever let you pay a single penny when Mom and Dad were sick? Every time they were hospitalized, I paid for everything. Why are you bringing this up now?"

"One thing at a time," Zhang Jianjun said nonchalantly.

Zhang Wanfang: "You still don't go out to work, you're almost fifty years old and still living off your parents every day, how can you be so shameless?"

Zhang Jianjun spat out a mouthful of sunflower seed shells. "The economy is bad right now, nothing makes money... By the way, you guys know about Time Walker, right? Being a Time Walker is quite lucrative. See that Porsche downstairs? The neighbor's kid became Time Walker and even joined some local Los Angeles Time Walker organization called 'Parent's Association' Association.' He just got promoted to 'Green Family,' and he's making a fortune! That Porsche 911 is his!"

Just then, the door opened, and a young man in his thirties walked in. "Hey, have you seen that Mercedes downstairs? I wonder whose it is? It's really beautiful!"

Qin Shuli hesitated for a moment, then took out his car keys and said, "This car is mine. There are some New Year's gifts for my parents in the trunk, including a case of Moutai. You can carry them all up."

Zhang Jianjun and Zhang Jianbing's eyes lit up.

Zhang Jianbing exclaimed in surprise, "Brother-in-law has made it big! Where are you making your fortune now?!"

Qin Shuli thought for a moment and explained, "I've also become Time Walker and joined the local 'Parent's Association' in Los Angeles."

"Huh?" Zhang Jianjun was taken aback. "Wait, you've become Time Walker? Between you and that 'Green Family' next door, who's higher-level?"

Qin Shuli said reservedly, "I'm Blue Family, one level higher than him. However, my promotion was rather special. I performed meritorious service in a previous operation, so I was promoted ahead of schedule. If the person next door is from the Parent's Association, he should have heard of me."

Although Qin Shuli did not receive any special treatment from Luo Wanyai at the Parent's Association, many people knew that the destruction of the Mechanical God Cult headquarters was originally Luo Wanyai's attempt to save Qin Shuli.

Therefore, Qin Shuli's status in the Parent's Association was not bad, which was all due to the respect that everyone gave to Luo Wanyai, a member of the Black Family.

Although no one knows what the relationship is between Luo Wanyai and Qin Shuli.

This time, at Zhang Wanfang's urging, Qin Shuli auctioned off all the medicines he had brought back from the Inner World, and suddenly became quite wealthy.

He truly hadn't expected that those popular celebrities would be willing to spend so much money on high-end beauty products from the Inner World.

At this moment, Zhang Jianjun's attitude completely changed. "Brother-in-law, come here, tell me what happened at that Parent's Association. Do you think I have the potential to become Time Walker?"

Qin Shuli said helplessly, "Whether you can become Time Walker is not up to us. It depends on whether there is someone in the Inner World who corresponds to you. Right now, many people are taking turns going to various public beta cities to try their luck. Why don't you give it a try?"

Zhang Jianjun said excitedly, "Sure, now that I've become Time Walker, can you protect me?"

"I..." Qin Shuli knew that his Blue Family were also corrupt, so he dared not make a promise easily.

At this moment, Zhang Jianbing said, "Sister, brother-in-law, you've really made it big now! If you have any money-making opportunities, tell me about them. It's perfect timing, Qing Guozhong is in jail now, no one's bothering you anymore, life is getting better."

Zhang Jianjun suddenly asked, "By the way, where's Qing Chen?"

Zhang Wanfang was stunned for a moment. "... We haven't been in contact for a while, and he blocked me."

Zhang Jianjun said, "It's good that he doesn't answer the phone. As the old saying goes, dragons beget dragons and phoenixes beget phoenixes, and a rat's son knows how to dig a hole. What good can Qing Guozhong's son be? He might become a gambler in the future. Let's cut off contact early and let him fend for himself."

Zhang Wanfang remained silent, and the atmosphere in the room became awkward.