Returning to the Mysterious Era

Rumble…

Rumbling noises filled the air as a giant black python, the size of a house, crawled down from a wooden platform. Its body was covered in black scales, but upon closer inspection, those scales were actually the faces of villagers—expressionless, dazed, with eyes glinting unnaturally.

As soon as the giant snake appeared, it opened its massive jaws and swallowed Cassius whole, leaving a crater in the ground where he had stood.

"Kusa!" The giant snake reared up in the moonlight, the faces on its body shouting in unison, creating a deafening resonance.

Not far away, Peacock watched this scene unfold with a smile on his face. He took out a translucent eyeball from his pocket. No, it was a human eyeball preserved in amber. The eyeball had two pupils in its center and was entirely a mysterious blue, the color as deep as the ocean.

It was the Blue Tear Eye, a tool from the Gate Organization, crafted by its leader, Xiadu. It was extremely powerful and could attract Gate Fragments but it was very fragile and could only be used once.

Peacock held the Blue Tear Eye in one hand and tapped it three times with the other, sending a subtle force into it.

Crack~

The amber began to break apart, and blue light burst forth from the cracks. The amber continued to fracture, layer by layer until Peacock let go. The blue eyeball floated in midair, casting two beams of light like searchlights that illuminated the giant snake slithering in the distance.

As soon as the light hit, the black snake shuddered and froze, unable to move, as if it had become a statue.

"Hehehe, hahahaha!" Peacock laughed as he walked over.

After ten years in the Gate Organization, he was finally about to obtain his own piece of the Gate Fragments. He didn't care which fragment it was—any Gate Fragment would suffice. He wasn't picky because any piece would help him secure his future!

"Now, where is it?"

Peacock eagerly waved his hands, tearing apart the human faces covering the giant snake. The snake, immobilized by the blue light, offered no resistance as Peacock tore into its belly, ripping out flesh and blood. Dozens of heads were tossed carelessly onto the ground.

"Where is it? Where is it?! The fragment…"

With his hands dripping blood, Peacock followed the compass's direction, digging deeper until he finally reached an enlarged section of the digestive tract—the snake's stomach. The compass's red light flashed rapidly before settling on a bright glow.

"It's here, for sure!" Peacock was ecstatic. But in the next moment, he uttered a confused sound. "Huh?"

Something seemed to be wriggling inside the stomach wall.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle…

Cassius was getting a firsthand experience of just how incredibly strong a snake's stomach acid was.

He had been swallowed whole by the python. Its insides felt like steel as it constantly compressed and exerted tremendous force! Cassius was already gravely injured, but he was now bleeding from every orifice. Fortunately, his hardening Qigong allowed him to endure the pain.

As he slid into the snake's stomach, the corrosive acid began rapidly eating away at his body. The sensation was more excruciating than practicing the Elephant Soul Secret Technique—a blend of gnawing and burning pain that was beyond imagination.

Cassius realized he had only one option.

He needed to channel all of his lingering attachment energy into the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant, triggering its third phase, which would transport him to a time-travel era decades in the past. Once his mind entered the time-travel era, time in the real world would come to a halt.

[Lingering Attachment Energy: 3.5]

A freezing-cold current surged from Cassius's body and flowed into the Wind Elephant Tusk Pendant around his neck.

"Ugh." Cassius suddenly groaned. It felt like something, like a shard of glass, was stabbing into his chest. But Cassius had no time to worry about his injuries. The time-travel was about to begin…

Buzz!

His brain jolted, and a hazy, blurry sensation enveloped him, cutting Cassius off from the outside world. Even the pain from the corrosion seemed to lessen.

Inside the pitch-black stomach of the giant snake, the entire space began to spin wildly. Cassius felt like he was being thrown into a washing machine, spinning in silence and blur. Finally, the vortex flung him out violently.

Crack!

***

Hongli Federation, Year 110, May 7.

Crack!

A jagged bolt of white lightning streaked across the sky. In Beiliu County, nestled within a dense forest, stood a small brown wooden cabin.

Two children near the cabin, a sturdy-looking boy and a cute-looking girl, seemed to be busy. They skillfully kindled a fire and began cooking food over it. Bubbles rose from the pot, and a light aroma wafted through the air, making one's stomach rumble.

The little girl swallowed hard, wanting to reach for the small wooden bowl nearby, but the older boy stopped her with a look.

"Xiala, we have to feed Uncle first."

"Okay." The girl nodded obediently, though she pursed her lips in slight disappointment.

Suddenly, a roar erupted from inside the cabin—a guttural cry that sounded like someone in excruciating pain.

"It's Uncle! His illness is acting up again!"

The boy jumped to his feet and quickly said to the girl, voice urgent, "Xiala, grab the wooden bucket and fetch some cold water from the river. I'll go check on Uncle. Be careful, but hurry!"

"Okay." Xiala disappeared around the side of the cabin while the boy pushed open the wooden door and stepped inside.

The cabin's interior was simple and had only a table, a chair, and two wooden beds, one large and one small.

On the smaller bed lay a thin middle-aged man, his body quivering violently. Sweat covered his forehead, and his face was twisted in pain, his scarred visage made even more terrifying and hideous by his suffering. Though he seemed to be in his early thirties, no older than forty, his hair was already white and lifeless, matted and tangled like dried weeds.

The boy took a few cautious steps closer and heard the man muttering feverishly, as if he were in a nightmare.

"It's my fault, all my fault!"

"Why do I keep running? Where can I even go?"

"Ahhh!"

"Li Chu, Lisa, Shirley… I… I… I…"

"Uncle!" the boy shouted, but the man didn't hear him. His bloodshot eyes remained wide open as he continued mumbling, trapped in his torturous memories. His pale, cracked lips moved constantly as he whispered to himself.

He said he was a coward, hiding like a wilted sprout in the corner while thugs assaulted his sister.

He called himself a bastard for fleeing like a spineless slug the night his sect was attacked.

He deemed himself a jinx, bringing misfortune to anyone who got close to him. The woman he loved the most died because of him.

He cried out that he should have died long ago, that when Shirley died seven years ago, he lost everything. Since then, he had been living in a nightmare—one he could never wake up from.

Now, the only thing keeping his shattered body and spirit together was the burning desire for revenge. He had long since exhausted his life force through forbidden techniques. He didn't want to forget those painful memories, because forgetting was more terrifying than death.

The boy listened to the man's tragic confessions without interrupting. Pulled a small stool next to the bed, he sat down, wiping away his tears as he listened. It wasn't until the man called himself worthless and said he deserved to die that the boy, bawling, tried to argue with him.

"I don't know what you were like before, but how could you be worthless now, Uncle? Didn't you save Xiala and me from those monsters? And Nasu, Mr. Sidney, Miss Kiara…so many others! Look, you've saved over ten people in just six months. How could someone like you be worthless?"

The boy scrubbed at his eyes with his hands, a snot bubble forming as he spoke through tears. His voice was loud as he recounted every event he had witnessed since Uncle had rescued him—every real, meaningful moment of Uncle helping people escape from their suffering, a little at a time.

So why was the savior still struggling in the mire?

The boy suddenly remembered a famous quote from his schoolbook:

People are like trees; the more they yearn for sunlight, the more their roots must stretch into the dark earth. To survive or to rot…

"Cough, cough, cough!"

The man started coughing violently, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth. Blood from his abdomen began seeping through his clothes.

Just then, the girl returned with the bucket of water. Several minutes later, hot water was poured into a wooden basin.

The boy carefully removed the man's shirt, revealing a scarred and disfigured torso. His body was covered in all kinds of wounds, as numerous as centipedes crawling across his skin. These were the marks left by frequent battles and the use of forbidden techniques.

His emaciated frame was like skin stretched over bones, his skin wrinkled like that of an old man. A bandage was wrapped around his abdomen, dark purple blood slowly oozing from a deep, gaping wound.

Half an hour passed as the sweaty boy and girl changed the man's clothes, replacing them with clean ones. The water in the basin gradually turned dark red.

The sky dimmed, the sun setting slowly. The faint sunset glow filtered through the cabin's window, casting a soft light on the bed.

The man's eyeballs rolled around beneath his eyelids. His fists were clenched tightly, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He seemed to be trapped in a terrifying nightmare. Just as the sunlight was about to disappear completely from the window, the man's trembling ceased. His breathing steadied, and his clenched fists relaxed.

In the darkness, a pair of blood-red eyes suddenly opened.