"Shhh, shhh, shhh..." A low, raspy scraping roused Zhou Heng from his stupor. Realizing something, his eyes flew wide, and he sprang up from the bed. He immediately looked toward the sound. A middle-aged man holding a short knife was honing it against a whetstone. Then Zhou Heng looked past the man and surveyed his surroundings. This was an exceedingly crude but sturdy wooden hut, roughly four square meters in size. Aside from the space occupied by a bed, there was barely anywhere to stand.
Zhou Heng narrowed his eyes, watching the middle-aged man while trying to work out why he had lost consciousness. Soon, he remembered: when he had used "Time Corrector" to travel through the temporal void to the Second Chapter, the tragic ancient legendary "The Fall of the Sakaste Empire," he had passed through a profoundly dark black wormhole, then lost consciousness. When he awoke, this was the scene before him.
"My lord, you're awake. It is my honor that you chose me. I have no grand wishes. I only hope that you, who come from the Federation, can rescue my daughter." The middle-aged man stopped what he was doing and looked at the awakened Zhou Heng. He dropped to both knees facing him, then raised the knife before Zhou Heng's eyes and stabbed toward his own neck...
Thump! Zhou Heng reached out and stopped him, frowning. "What are you doing?"
The middle-aged man looked at Zhou Heng in bewilderment, confusion, incomprehension, and bitterness in his eyes. "You... didn't choose me? My wife would do as well. All we ask is that you save our daughter from this tragic chapter. We..." Before he could finish, tears streamed down his face. He repeatedly struck his head against the ground, wanting to express his devotion through pain, yet also