This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 464: The White Knight

Chapter 464: Chapter 464: The White Knight

Lin Yan’s electronic voice betrayed no emotion, only slowing in pace.

"But no matter how many times you restart, that world isn’t truly real, is it? It exists within the dream of deities, and even if people found a way to kill a deity, they couldn’t change the status quo," Chen Ke said, puzzled.

"Divine’s Dream interferes with the past, creating a new timeline, when the time of that timeline reaches the year 2137, subjective reality will overlap with objective reality," Lin Yan explained.

"Are you saying that the world in the dream will replace reality?" asked Chen Ke.

"Not quite... It won’t just replace it directly. The overlapping effect looks like the old world colliding with the new world, the former being a phantom of the latter, like waves crashing onto the shore. We call this effect time grounding," Lin Yan explained.

"2137, huh... In 999 restarts, how many times did time grounding occur?" Chen Ke asked.

"Not many... Only 12 times," Lin Yan replied.

"Out of 999 restarts, only 12 worlds made it to 2137... Are you kidding me?" Chen Ke was somewhat astonished.

"In 2100, for the first time, we came into contact with the deities and began studying the application and dangers of Transcendent abilities, until we lost control of them and triggered the apocalypse. To give humanity in the past more time to understand and research the powers of the deities, the Foundation advanced the time of humanity’s first contact with the deities upon restarting the world, leading to a series of problems," Lin Yan elucidated.

"The thirst for power, the misuse of Transcendent abilities... I understand, humanity always repeats the same mistakes. So are you trying to say that, out of 999 restarts, only 12 worlds settled all their disputes, united, and made it to the present, to this reality, and the rest just doomed themselves?" Chen Ke inquired.

"Mostly, yes," Lin Yan agreed.

"Mostly... What about the minority?" Chen Ke sensed a hint of foreboding.

"A part of the worlds experienced the invasion of deities... and met their apocalypse prematurely," Lin Yan remarked.

"The dream can be invaded too..." Chen Ke was taken aback.

"These deities aren’t just going to sit back and wait; they’ve been searching for and trying to stop the Foundation. My summoning you from the subjective reality this time has already resulted in exposure here," Lin Yan said.

"Will they... come here?" Chen Ke asked.

"They are already on their way... But rest assured, your true self is in subjective reality, and you now are only a frequency; they can’t harm you, they could only drive you back into subjective reality," Lin Yan assured.

"And what about you?!" Chen Ke inquired anxiously.

"I’m as good as dead right now," Lin Yan said matter-of-factly.

"What if I let you down, what if I die before the world restarts?" Chen Ke asked.

"This is a gamble, and you are my last chip. I’ve considered the worst scenarios; what if the person who obtained the power was still a child? What if it was a vicious criminal? What if it was an elder on the brink of death? Compared to those, the you before me is already as good a result as it could possibly be," Lin Yan reassured.

"I’m not as optimistic as you. My ability has always been unlocked in response to stress, and up to this point, I haven’t fully mastered this power... and then, there’s the life countdown... My life is constantly decreasing, and I would die if nobody tried to kill me," Chen Ke disclosed.

"I know this deity better than you do. Do you really think that’s your life countdown?" Lin Yan inquired.

"It says so, at least," Chen Ke replied.

"Do you know that when deities communicate with people, they misuse certain words because they don’t understand the multiple meanings of our language?" Lin Yan posed another question.

Chen Ke remembered, the black stone in his heart was indeed like that.

"What exactly does that countdown signify?"

"Why not try letting it reach zero and see?" Lin Yan suggested.

Chen Ke had never thought to attempt that.

"Time is your currency; use it well," Lin Yan urged.

At that moment, the massive iron door produced an agonizing screech. Chen Ke turned around and saw a person about his own height at the doorway, having forcibly pushed the door several stories high open by a hand’s width.

Chen Ke stared at the person, who stood where the light did not reach, revealing only a dense shadow.

"Who are you..." Chen Ke began to ask.

The man did not answer, slowly approaching the white deity who lay sprawled on the ground.

"I am Alpha, I am Omega, I pour the water of the Life Spring freely for the thirsty people on the earth..." the man muttered as he stood in the midst of the light.

Chen Ke’s heart sank. It was the figure glimpsed in the hallucination, riding a horse, a white thing...

That person... if he could still be called human, had a human-like form, his whole body covered in chitinous shell-like substances, as if he were a statuesque figure from the Roman era. His white hair trailed to the ground, his face handsome, showing no emotion, his golden pupils shining in the darkness.

"We... can cure you... We haven’t given up on you," Lin Yan said.

"But we have given up on you," the man said.

He extended a hand, golden particles gathering in the air, swiftly coagulating into a military saber.

"I’ve seen you..." Chen Ke asked.

"I don’t remember," the white being replied indifferently, extending his left hand and tearing container number 999 from the pipeline, crushing it into a ball of metal with a fist.

The white being loosened his grip, the iron ball floated in mid-air, then clanked to the ground.

Lin Yan was irrevocably dead.

Chen Ke clenched his fists, but he did not exist in this moment, his ability lost, incapable of doing anything.

"You are just a worm that has crossed time and space, in the kingdom of God, there is no place for man. Roll back to your dream, live your life through birth, age, sickness, and death." The white being said this, brushing past Chen Ke, heading straight for the deity lying on the ground.

"We will meet again, and when that time comes... damn it, it will be a battle that will be engraved in your bones and memory," Chen Ke said.

"I’ll be waiting," the white being turned back to glance at Chen Ke, then pierced the head of the white deity with a swift thrust, purple blood spurting like a fountain.

Chen Ke began to blur, feeling a force pulling at him, as if trying to tear him apart.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah!" Chen Ke cried out in pain; darkness came over his eyes, and he heard a splash as he fell into a pitch-black deep sea.

The burbling sound of water flowed around his ears, tumbling through the water, carried away by the rushing undercurrent toward an unknown destination.

"Chen Ke?"

"Chen Ke?"

"Burble, burble, burble..."

"Hello...?"

"Burble, burble..."

"Why... is there so much water coming out..."

"Mmm, mmm, mmm..."

"Chen Ke!"

Chen Ke suddenly opened his eyes, his legs giving way, kneeling on the ground. Xu Jing, beside him, caught his arm, preventing him from falling.

Chen Ke held his forehead, swallowed hard, and saw himself standing in front of a mirror.

He got to his feet, looked around, and he was back, in the antique shop in Opportunity City with Xu Jing by his side.

Chen Ke was soaked, he pulled out his phone, liquid dripping from the earpiece hole.

"Chen Ke? What... happened?" Xu Jing asked in confusion.

Chen Ke calmed his emotions, holding his chest, unable to feel his heartbeat. At the corner of his eye, the countdown of life still ticked away, 19 hours and 20 minutes remaining.

"Did you say you’re from the year 2137? Time is about to run aground..." Chen Ke said.

"Eh?" Xu Jing did not understand.