It's Time

Just as Li Qinghe was about to explain, the space nearby shimmered, and Lu Yuan materialized beside her.

At the sight of him, Li Qinghe's eyes lit up. "Yuan-didi, you're done already?"

Lu Yuan smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Found the Soul-Devouring Orb bearer and took him out."

Li Qinghe let out a quiet breath of relief. The others snapped out of their daze and turned to stare at Lu Yuan with strange expressions.

So when Li Qinghe said earlier that the bearer was dead — it was because Lu Yuan had killed him?

The gray-white haired Battle Emperor at the front of the group studied Lu Yuan for a moment, then chuckled and spoke up.

"You're Lu Yuan? The one who just claimed rank 40 on the King Rankings?"

Lu Yuan blinked, glanced at the elder, then nodded with a smile. "That's me, Senior."

"What a remarkable young man."

The elder shook his head with a sigh of admiration. "We've been searching for any trace of that Soul-Devouring Orb bearer and turned up nothing. And then you've gone and dealt with him just like that."

"You're too kind, Senior." Lu Yuan smiled modestly.

In truth, it was all the Evolution Cube's doing. Without its tremors guiding him, he never could have located the bearer so quickly.

Imperial Capital. Inside the Small World.

The Cloaked Figure stood as before — motionless before the gray mist, watching the cluster of black light points. The lights looked slightly larger now. A touch brighter.

His blood-red eyes were calm, carrying the faintest trace of satisfaction.

*It's going smoothly. It won't be long before the fruit is ready to harvest.*

Then — without warning — one of the ten remaining black points began to fade. It dimmed slowly, then vanished altogether.

The Cloaked Figure's body went rigid as though he'd absorbed a blow. A low, pained grunt scraped out of his throat. Something dark — like droplets of blood — seemed to seep through his crimson eyes, and dense tendrils of black mist coiled and surged around him.

"What happened? Another Soul-Devouring Orb found..." His voice was raw, edged with fury. "How are they finding them?"

He stared at the remaining points of light drifting in the gray mist. His gaze shifted. Then threads of black fog poured from him and seeped into each remaining light, carrying his will outward.

"Leave your cities. Now."

His black cloak rippled. "It seems we must begin immediately..."

He raised his hand. A wooden door materialized — identical to the one Lu Yuan had seized during the incident in Yali City. The moment it appeared, the wooden door deep in the Underground Containment Room beneath Night Watchman headquarters gave a faint shudder.

With the Soul-Devouring Orb bearer in Yunzhou City dealt with, Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe departed once more via spatial teleportation, leaving behind a wave of grateful farewells from the senior Night Watchmen and the great clan powerhouses assembled there.

Two bearers down. Nine still at large.

Tedious work — but for Lu Yuan, extraordinarily gratifying.

After all, each recovered Soul-Devouring Orb meant a substantial flood of unknown energy to absorb. Both bearers had been devouring souls without restraint, pushing themselves to Battle Sovereign rank in the process. The unknown energy saturating Battle Sovereign-level Soul-Devouring Orbs was nothing to dismiss. If he could gather all nine remaining orbs, it would be an enormous windfall — and likely not long before the Evolution Cube underwent another metamorphosis.

Their next destination: Haiyang City.

Perhaps owing to the hour, the city looked calm enough in the daylight — the Soul-Devouring Orb here had apparently not yet triggered any Aberration.

They went directly to the local Night Watchman branch. Li Qinghe reported in, as she had at each stop, alerting the resident powerhouses.

Three individuals came forward. At the front was a solidly built elder with close-cropped dark brown hair. Behind him trailed two Battle King Rank warriors — both of whom Lu Yuan recognized. They were the middle-aged man and the handsome, youthful-looking warrior who had left headquarters with him earlier.

The elder wore a warm smile. "Elder Lu, Elder Li — welcome. We're glad you could come. We'll be counting on you."

Lu Yuan paused, studying the elder. "Senior, you knew we were coming?"

"Just a while ago," the elder said, "Director Bai Linlong of the Xikou City branch sent word to all of us branch directors about your accomplishments. Then Director Mikuse from the Yunzhou City branch confirmed it. In Xikou City and in Yunzhou City both, the Soul-Devouring Orb bearers were tracked down and eliminated by you, Elder Lu. Meanwhile, the rest of us can only manage to suppress the Aberration after it breaks out — we haven't turned up a single lead on any of the bearers. I'll be honest: we've pinned all our hopes on you."

The middle-aged man and the handsome young warrior who had come with Lu Yuan exchanged a glance, their expressions caught somewhere between curiosity and disbelief. The story had seemed hard to credit when they first heard it. Yet if it was true — well, that was good news for everyone here.

*So it was Director Bai and the others who spread the word,* Lu Yuan realized, understanding dawning in his eyes.

He smiled. "I'll do my best."

"That's all we can ask. That's all we can ask."

Two days of constant travel with no rest had taken their toll. Lu Yuan felt fine, but he was thinking of Qinghe. He looked at the elder.

"Senior, we've been running non-stop for two days. We're a bit worn out. Would it be possible to rest for a while?"

"Of course!" The elder looked between the two of them, smile broadening. "I'll have a room prepared for you."

One room?

Lu Yuan paused, then glanced sideways at Li Qinghe.

A faint blush had spread across her cheeks. She looked ever so slightly flustered — but she offered no objection.

Lu Yuan smiled inwardly. He had no objections either.

"In that case, Senior, could you also share whatever information you have on file? It would help us narrow down our search."

In truth, he didn't need any files at all. The moment an Aberration broke out, he could pinpoint the bearer precisely. But he had to keep up appearances — otherwise there'd be no way to explain how he kept finding them.

"Absolutely. Goes without saying."

The elder agreed without hesitation and had someone escort them to a rest room on the tenth floor.

Lu Yuan had stayed in similar accommodations at the Yali City branch before — this one in Haiyang City was much the same.

The moment they entered, Li Qinghe threw herself onto the bed and flopped down with a long exhale. "I'm exhausted. Finally, a proper break."

She rolled over to face him, a faint smile on her lips. "Yuan-didi, I feel like I haven't done anything useful this whole trip. You clearly could've found all those bearers entirely on your own."

Lu Yuan, utterly composed, walked to the bed as if nothing in the world were out of the ordinary and lay down beside her. They were close — close enough that he could catch the faint, sweet scent of her.

A soft flush rose on Li Qinghe's cheeks, then quickly faded. She didn't move away.

"Who said that?" Lu Yuan said at last. "Having you here gives me more drive, Qinghe-jie. It'd be terribly dull doing this alone."

*Dull.* Li Qinghe rolled her eyes and gave him a look of exasperated disbelief. Then curiosity won out. "Actually, Yuan-didi — how do you keep finding these bearers? Every single time it's you, and I can't manage it at all."

A flicker of frustration crossed her face as she said it. Her cultivation rank was higher than his, after all. And there was now a real chance he'd surpassed her in actual combat strength too. On top of that, she'd been a Night Watchman for years — and yet even at tracking down Aberration Entities, she couldn't keep up with him?

She was enormously proud of how fast he'd grown. It even made her a little happy. But she couldn't deny the helplessness mixed in. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before he left her behind entirely.

She thought back to their time in Xili City, where she'd been the one protecting him. How had it all changed so quickly?

Li Qinghe sighed inwardly.

"I think my perception is just unusually sharp," Lu Yuan said lightly. "Whenever an Aberration breaks out, the bearer gives off an energy signature. I can pick it up."

"Really? I don't sense anything like that."

"Maybe I'm just a little unusual." He smiled. "Back in the Mist Forest, I was the one who spotted the Mirage Dragon, remember?"

Li Qinghe gave a small nod. "That's possible, I suppose."

Her expression shifted — something expectant lit in her eyes. "In that case, next time you go searching, how about I come with you? If we find another bearer, I can watch your back. Give you a bit of moral support!"

She patted her chest with an air of total confidence.

Lu Yuan smiled. His strength had already surpassed hers — but the Soul-Devouring Orb bearers weren't impossibly dangerous. She might not be able to defeat a Battle Sovereign-rank bearer outright, but holding her own was no problem. And he could protect her regardless.

"Works for me. Come along, then, Qinghe-jie."

"Hehe, that's more like it." Li Qinghe's lips curved — warm and faintly beguiling — radiating satisfaction. She reached out and poked his cheek. "All those years of doting on you weren't wasted."

As he looked at her face — so close — something shifted in Lu Yuan's eyes. A warmth that edged toward something more possessive. He found himself drifting closer, slowly.

Li Qinghe caught that look — the one that made her feel like prey. Her heart stuttered. A strange, pins-and-needles sensation bloomed somewhere in her chest, equal parts anticipation and alarm.

Color rose on her cheeks. A teasing smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Yuan-didi, why are you looking at me like that? You're not thinking of kissing your si—mmph?!"

She never finished the sentence.

Her eyes went wide, locked on his face just inches from hers. For a moment she froze — then it registered.

She scrambled back and leveled him with a glare. "You little — you actually dared to take advantage of me! Are you tired of living?! I'm going to sleep!"

She spun around and turned her back to him.

Lu Yuan watched the tips of her ears glow pink, and let a slow smile spread across his face.

With her back to him, Li Qinghe raised a hand and softly touched her lips. A dazed look drifted across her face. Then came shyness. And then, quietly, the corner of her mouth curved upward.

The room settled into silence. Neither of them spoke.

After a few hours of rest, Li Qinghe sat up and ran a hand through her dark hair. She stole a glance at Lu Yuan beside her — and found him lying there with his eyes wide open, watching her with amusement.

She stiffened. Then a mischievous grin spread across her face.

"Yuan-didi, staring at me like that — does that mean you think I'm pretty?"

Lu Yuan nodded with complete solemnity. "Naturally. Qinghe-jie is the most beautiful."

"Oh?" Her smile turned sweet and dangerous. "And what about your mentor? I'll be sure to pass your evaluation along to her."

Ah. Lu Yuan's expression faltered. He schooled his features back into perfect seriousness. "Of course she's equally beautiful."

Li Qinghe let out a short, flat sound of displeasure and leveled him with a glare. "Get up. Let's go look for that Soul-Devouring Orb bearer."

"I've been sensing the whole time," Lu Yuan said, a little wearily. "There's no Aberration right now — if they're not active, I can't find them. Want to lie down a little longer?"

*And I say 'sensing' as though I'm doing any of the work,* he thought privately. *The Evolution Cube handles it automatically. I'm just here for the ride.*

Li Qinghe arched an eyebrow, smile turning sly. "You want me to keep you company in bed? No."

Lu Yuan sat up halfway. "What if instead of lying down, I just held you?"

"Get out."

She punched him in the arm.

Lu Yuan relented. "All right, all right. Let's head out and take a look."

"Fine."

The two left the rest room, exited the Night Watchman branch, and began wandering the city in a loose, open-ended sweep.

But by the following evening, Haiyang City remained perfectly calm. No Aberration had broken out at all.

They'd bought baozi from a street vendor and were eating on the roadside when Li Qinghe took a bite and smiled faintly.

"This reminds me of when we were in Xili City."

Lu Yuan smiled back. "Once this is all over, want to go back and visit?"

"Mm." She nodded.

Then a small frown crossed her face. "Why hasn't anything happened yet?"

Lu Yuan shook his head, equally troubled. "Maybe the deaths of the other two bearers spooked the rest of them. They might be keeping a low profile and waiting us out."

That was his greatest worry. If the remaining bearers went to ground and stayed still, things would get genuinely difficult.

Just then, both of their phones buzzed simultaneously.

They pulled them out, read the message — and in the same instant, their expressions grew grave.

It was an emergency alert from headquarters. Haiyang City and the eight other cities where Aberrations had previously broken out were now reporting nothing — but new Aberration events had erupted in cities that had been untouched until now.

*They moved.* Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed. *Just as I suspected.*

"Yuan-didi, what do we do?"

Li Qinghe looked to him.

"We head over." His tone was easy. "I have spatial teleportation."

Li Qinghe nodded quickly. "Then let's go."

Lu Yuan took her hand, and in the next instant, both of them vanished from the street.

Nearby pedestrians startled — two living people had simply ceased to exist before their eyes. They looked around frantically, and then, hearts hammering, turned and fled.

The recent Aberrations had left the whole city on a knife's edge.

At that same moment, in the Imperial Capital's Small World, the Cloaked Figure's blood-red eyes stirred. His voice came out low and hoarse.

"It's time."

He opened the door standing beside the gray mist. At the same moment, deep beneath Night Watchman headquarters — in the Class-B Aberration Entity containment zone of the Underground Containment Room, inside the small chamber housing the wooden door recovered from Yali City — space began to warp. The door shuddered. And slowly, it began to open.