372

After 1,000 heartbeats, Derrick waited for a while before he felt that he had entered the silent and peaceful temple.

As soon as he opened his eyes, one scene after another suddenly flashed back in his mind, as if some external force had instantly refilled all the lost memories into his head.

Those scenes include: collapsed city walls; intertwined white and blue buildings; a temple of the "Fallen Creator" similar in style to Silver City; murals detailing the scene of doomsday and the "Fallen Creator" resisting the six evil gods and protecting the remaining humans; beautiful murals

A dangerous "mushroom"; an unusually strange boy with blond hair named Jack who comes from nowhere.

This scene was repeated over and over again, five times, but each time there were some differences in details:

The first time, all the animal skin lanterns were extinguished outside the Temple of the Fallen Creator, almost causing a tragedy. The second time, someone couldn't control himself and almost swallowed the "mushroom". Fortunately, Chief Colin stopped it in time.

Three times, the little boy Jack told a story, that is, he and his father were searching for the sanctuary of the Creator in the endless ocean, and encountered a huge storm. The fourth time, Joshua was killed without a trace.

The little boy Jack, who mutated without warning, was seriously injured. For the fifth time, the temple collapsed completely, blocking the exit to the underground area.

And every time, it ends with the "demon hunter" Colin killing the little boy Jack, and starts with resting in the camp and preparing to enter the ruined city, starting from end to end, and repeating the cycle.

We have explored the temple five times... We have been living in this experience, and there is no way to really end it! The more Derrick understands his sudden extra memories, the more frightened and creepy he feels.

"Justice" Audrey, who was sitting on the other side of the long bronze table, originally wanted to say hello to Mr. Fool and everyone as happily and briskly as usual, but when she glanced around, she immediately realized that the mood of the little "Sun" was not right, and immediately

He opened his mouth and asked:

"Mr. Sun, what happened? The operation to explore the real, uh, Temple of the Fallen Creator did not go well?"

Derrick "The Sun" seemed to have grasped hope, and quickly described what happened in general, and finally said:

"After the little boy was eliminated by His Excellency the 'Chief', we all closed our eyes and then woke up in the camp outside the city, ready to start a new exploration without any memory of the previous one."

"This process was repeated five times, with only slight differences in details."

"If Mr. Fool hadn't reminded me, I wouldn't have even known that I had been living a repetitive life during this period."

He took it for granted that the extra memories he had after coming above the gray fog were due to Mr. Fool's reminder, so he stood up and solemnly saluted the blurry figure sitting at the top of the long bronze table.

It was only after I listened to your description that I understood what happened... "The Fool" Klein has been a little confused from just now to now.

He maintained his original posture and nodded slightly in response.

Without understanding the cause of the problem, superiors cannot express their opinions easily or speak rashly... Klein secretly reviewed the knowledge he came into contact with when he was a keyboard expert in his previous life.

Seeing Mister "The Fool" as if he was a deep ancient well without waves, Derrick "The Sun" felt a lot more relieved and felt that the matter could finally be solved.

He turned to look at "The Hanged Man", "The World", "Justice" and "The Magician", and asked sincerely:

"Everyone, do you know the root cause of the problem? How to solve it?"

After brainstorming, everyone immediately began to think in order to help "The Sun" get out of this cycle as soon as possible. "Justice" Audrey wanted to help, but she had never experienced such an extraordinary event and had no clue for the moment. "Magician" Forsi

The same is true for .

Klein made a few bold guesses based on the supernatural horror movies he had watched. He wanted to control the "world" and express his thoughts. However, no one around him spoke, so he remained low-key and motionless, waiting.

Others speak first.

Finally, the experienced "Hanged Man" Alger took the initiative to speak. He combined the actual situation encountered by Derrick and inferred based on his own experience to give two tentative guesses:

"I can only think of two possibilities. One is that you have encountered nightmare or hallucination abilities that exceed the demigod level. After you retrieve your memory with the help of Mr. Fool, you should be able to detect it as soon as you return to the real world.

If something goes wrong, the problem will be easily solved."

"The second is that you were forced or actively entered a strange space or state at a certain node, where time maintains a certain degree of flow, but is fixed within a certain range, repeating the cycle, and continuing in balance.

That is, it is relatively still.”

"In this case, there are not many ways to end the cycle. Either there is an external force that forcibly breaks the balance, or we find a key point that connects the time distortion."

Hearing the external force breaking, everyone couldn't help but think of Mr. "Fool". But Derrick "The Sun" didn't say anything. Telling him about the memory he had lost in five cycles was already a gift from the gods. Mr. "Fool" had nothing to do with it.

Doubt is a benevolent god, but I can no longer continue to pray for help without knowing what is wrong.

Derrick had a clear understanding and thought about it:

"Mr. 'The Hanged Man', let's assume it's the latter situation. What do you think is the key point that connects the time distortion before and after?"

Without waiting for "The Hanged Man" to reply, "Justice" Audrey guessed with interest: "That little boy Jack?

"When facing him, can't we kill him?"

"The Hanged Man" Alger nodded: "It's possible."

He considered it for a moment and said hesitantly:

"The description of Jack and his father in 'The Sun' reminded me of something."

He turned to look at Miss Justice: "Did I mention that I once hunted down a 'Listener' from the Aurora Society on the sea. His goal when he went to sea was to find the sanctuary of the 'True Creator'."

Audrey recalled carefully and said uncertainly: "It seems that there was such a thing."

"The Hanged Man" Alger immediately said in a deep voice:

"The 'listener' also brought his child, whose age is very close to the Jack described by the 'sun'."

"You mean, that Jack came from your world to the area around Silver City?" Derrick "The Sun" asked in shock.

After a brief period of calm, he felt inexplicably happy.

Because this means that the area where Silver City is located has not been completely sealed off, and there is still a chance to connect with the normal world where "The Hanged Man" and "Justice" live!

"I can only say that it is possible." "The Hanged Man" could not give a definite answer.

He thought for a while and suggested:

"You can find an opportunity to mention Sunya Sea, the Kingdom of Loen and the port city in front of the little boy Jack. There may be different reactions. Of course, try to avoid the chief of your Silver City.

"Also, the key point does not necessarily lie in the little boy Jack. We should also consider other possibilities. If you tell us the specific situation, such as the details of the mural, maybe we can find something useful."

Having said this, Alger began to look forward to the information he could obtain.

373

Wen Xia was walking on the streets of the town carrying a bucket. It was obviously afternoon, but every household in the town had their doors closed.

There were no children playing on the road, and the shops on the street were not open. Occasionally there were one or two passers-by in a hurry. The old man sat by the door and squinted his cloudy eyes to rest. The young and middle-aged people were missing. The whole town was lifeless.

After walking on the road for a while, Wen Xia pulled up her veil and hurriedly walked towards the path leading directly to her house. Because soldiers often rode by on the road, if they collided with them or were noticed, she might die.

Save.

There was no one along the way, and Wen Xia breathed a sigh of relief.

She pushed open the creaking broken wooden door and opened the closed window, letting the sunlight shine in from outside, adding a little light to the dark interior.

There is a sketch of a family member placed on an old cabinet. It is not framed and the sketch paper is yellow and brittle.

The Bailang people would retrieve the bones of their dead elders, pick out the most meaningful pieces as a souvenir, and make utensils to place in the most eye-catching places in their homes, while Wenxia's home was empty.

Her father went to a distant place to dig gold mines for foreign businessmen, which was a relatively lucrative job. However, after his father left for several years, he never had any money to send.

When his father was still alive, Wen Xia could still go to the city to learn reading, writing and painting, and he and his younger brother worked part-time jobs to make money after school. Her mother's eyesight was not bad and she was able to work as a tailor to supplement the family income. That was the best thing in Wen Xia's memory.

A wonderful time.

Later, I don’t know when, the family became more and more constrained and could no longer expect the living expenses from my father. My mother became increasingly silent. Finally, she was kidnapped by a slave trader when she went out to buy food, and she and her father disappeared together.

In Wen Xia's life.

The disappearance of his younger brother became the last straw for Wen Xia. The activities of slave traders became more and more rampant, and young adults continued to disappear in the town. The police station did not accept it at all, and some people even swore that they saw them with Lu

En's soldiers traded people.

She had obviously told her brother not to go out, and she had tried her best to keep him with her, but after only two hours of separation, her lively, well-behaved, and lovely brother disappeared.

In just 6 years, his family fell apart.

Wen Xia frantically went around the town asking questions from door to door, but when she knocked on the door, all she saw were faces with similar sad faces to hers.

Finally, she finally got news from her friends: her brother was last seen in the small post office in the town, with two other children in the town, and was said to be working in a company in the town.

people to introduce them to jobs.

Later, people in the town found out that that person was a member of the trafficking team. Not only was Wen Xia's brother, but more than ten people in the town had left with them before disappearing.

In the folklore of Bailang, the boundary between the living and the dead is not clear. Dead relatives will come back and live with the living. But if the bones of the relatives cannot be enshrined at home after death, then the souls of the relatives will not be found.

to your own home.

There is not a single bone in Wen Xia's family. Even after her death, she will not be able to reunite with her family.

This was a huge blow to her. She was confused for a long time and almost went crazy. Finally, her playmates who grew up together couldn't bear to watch anymore and pulled her to join a prayer meeting of a group of desperate young people.

She also prayed without hope for a few days. She thought it was just nonsense, but she didn't expect that she actually got a response.

She sat down on a single chair, held a piece of red candle in her arms, and stared at it dreamily.

At this moment, someone suddenly knocked on the door. The visitor shook the dilapidated wooden door, causing dust to fall from the door.

Wen Xia shuddered, friends would not knock on the door so rudely! She quickly picked up the hatchet leaning on the door, stood by the window, and shouted in the direction of the door: "Who is it?"

Someone whispered something outside the door, but it was not in plain language, so she couldn't understand it.

The knocking on the door sounded more violently, as if the door was being kicked down, and the wooden board seemed to be broken in the next second.
To be continued...