Hijacking the Timeline

The Lord of the Mist stared at Feng Qi, its heart filled with astonishment beyond measure.

In its memory, Feng Qi had been reduced to a mere head, his consciousness fading rapidly without the sustaining power of his qi blood. There had been no possibility of survival.

It felt grateful for Feng Qi’s suicidal act of saving it.

But it was only gratitude.

To commemorate their perilous journey to obtain the bloodstone and out of appreciation for Feng Qi, it had often visited his tomb afterward, sitting there to reminisce about the past, ponder the future... and, according to its racial customs, consume offerings in his memory.

This gradually became a habit.

Thus, Feng Qi’s impression remained deeply etched in its mind.

Now, 1,500 years later, meeting him again, it was filled with confusion.

But Feng Qi ignored its astonishment, shouting again in a deep voice:

”Lin Ran, come out!”

Hearing his shout, the mist face suddenly began to twist and distort, clearly indicating that Lin Ran’s dormant consciousness had been awakened, beginning its struggle against the Lord of the Mist.

At this moment, the Lord of the Mist clearly realized something was wrong.

”What... what have you done to me?”

He grinned, his mist face twisting into a smile.

”I saved your life 1,500 years ago for this very day. You didn’t really think I risked my life to save you out of the goodness of my heart, did you?”

A flicker of anger crossed the distorted mist face.

”Feng Qi! I’ve been visiting your grave to eat the offerings all these years, and you’ve been using me all along!”

Feng Qi froze, taken aback.

Huh... eating offerings?

Holy shit, the bastard who’s been stealing offerings from graves has been caught red-handed! It’s the Lord of the Mist, no doubt about it! Make him pay!

Seeing Feng Qi’s bewildered expression, the Lord of the Mist’s distorted face pressed closer.

”Your physical body and spiritual body have been shattered, only a sliver remains. Without my qi blood sustaining your consciousness, you should have vanished long ago! How are you still alive?!”

Tell it you’re starving down there and that you specifically bribed King Yama this time to come up and catch the thief stealing the offerings! It’s all karma!

Feng Qi: ...

Ignoring the Narrator’s grumbling, he stared directly at the Lord of the Mist.

”You’re allowed to scheme for the future, but I’m not allowed to use you as a pawn in my own schemes?”

Realizing he had truly become Feng Qi’s pawn, the Lord of the Mist roared in fury.

It suddenly understood why its mental strength had been increasing so slowly.

A ”parasite” had been lurking in its sea of consciousness for 1,500 years, draining its mental energy without end.

In its sea of consciousness:

A gray spiritual mass and a blue spiritual mass clashed violently.

Compared to the previous timeline, Lin Ran’s offensive was now ferociously aggressive.

But the Lord of the Mist was no pushover. To annihilate Lin Ran’s spiritual consciousness body, it launched a frantic counterattack.

For a time, the two spiritual consciousness bodies fought to a stalemate.

Outside the mist, Feng Qi stood, silently hoping for Lin Ran’s ultimate victory.

This was his third attempt to lay the groundwork for Lin Ran’s body possession of the Lord of the Mist.

Having learned from the failures of the previous two attempts, Lin Ran had now mastered an extremely powerful mental attack technique.

He had personally experienced the strength of this technique.

Although Lin Ran would likely discard the ”perverted version” of spiritual immortality later, he believed even the cut-down version of Spiritual Immortality would remain incredibly formidable.

This was because the technique’s most potent form was its spiritual body manifestation.

At this moment, Lin Ran was in his spiritual body form.

Watching the mist face contort, its features collapsing and reforming, he chose to observe and wait, unable to intervene. Occasionally, he glanced eastward.

If Lin Ran succeeded in possessing the Lord of the Mist in this Future Dream Timeline, his presence in the Dream Realm would be significantly prolonged.

Moreover, the plan to capture Three-Tailed could be easily accomplished.

With these thoughts, he shouted at the mist face:

”A’Ran, what are the odds?”

”Fifty percent,” a hoarse, familiar voice replied from within the mist face.

”Keep going! Take him down!”

This time, Lin Ran didn’t answer, but the mist face’s distortion speed suddenly accelerated.

The contraction and expansion of the mist revealed the fierce struggle between Lin Ran and the Lord of the Mist for control of the body.

At times, the Lord of the Mist dominated the body; at others, Lin Ran gained the upper hand.

As time passed, Lin Ran’s voice suddenly rang out:

”Brother Qi, I’m almost there.”

Hearing this, Feng Qi clenched his fist in sudden excitement.

This kid’s really stepping up. All our efforts across multiple Future Lines and meticulous planning in the past weren’t in vain. The Right Protector is about to return, and my Narrator strength will surge again. What do you think, thrower?

Feng Qi couldn’t help but roll his eyes at this. In his mind, he gave the Narrator a middle finger.

What thrower?! Your whole family’s a thrower!

At that moment, within the Lord of the Mist’s sea of consciousness, Lin Ran had gained a clear advantage.

The gap in strength between the gray and blue spiritual consciousness bodies was not significant; in fact, the Lord of the Mist’s gray consciousness body had initially been superior.

But Lin Ran’s victory stemmed from his development of a devastating mental attack technique.

In their mental combat, Lin Ran inflicted far more damage on the Lord of the Mist than the latter inflicted on him.

As time continued to pass, Lin Ran’s dominance became absolute.

Given enough time, the Lord of the Mist knew it would be no problem to defeat Lin Ran and seize control of his body.

The Lord of the Mist clearly sensed his impending death.

As his spiritual consciousness body was battered by Lin Ran’s ferocious assault, the Lord of the Mist let out a roar of bitter resentment from the depths of his being.

1,500 years of planning and waiting.

For this very day, he had led his clansmen on a grand journey.

Along the way, countless clansmen had sacrificed their lives, falling battle on the path they carved out. In the end, only he remained.

Behind his success lay a mountain of his clansmen’s corpses.

Looking back, he had regretted choosing this path of no return more than once.

If he could, he would gladly abandon his former ambitions, just to see his sister and clansmen resurrected.

As his spiritual body shattered, the Lord of the Mist let out another roar of bitter resentment in his heart.

”I won’t fall... I swore I would resurrect them!”

As death approached, the faces of his clansmen flashed through his mind once more.

He remembered how, as he stepped onto that path of no return, he had gritted his teeth and declared to this new world:

One day, he would become a Pillar God, and he would resurrect every single one of his fallen clansmen.

Then, a bizarre scene unfolded.

The Lord of the Mist’s shattered spiritual body began to slowly recondense.

Meanwhile, in the outside world...

The Narrator’s voice suddenly rang out in Feng Qi’s mind:

Feng Qi, a special power is awakening within the Lord of the Mist. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It seems to be empowering the Lord of the Mist—the situation might have changed!

Hearing this, Feng Qi’s smile froze.

”A last-minute comeback? What kind of protagonist trope is this?”

Could the Lord of the Mist also possess a miracle item?

This thought made him pause.

Upon closer reflection, he realized it was entirely possible.

After 1,500 years of development, the Lord of the Mist might have already found other miracle items and merged them with itself, gaining the abilities they grant.

Just as Feng Qi was growing worried, the mist face suddenly froze, then transformed into a smiling face.

”Brother Qi, I’m back!”

He didn’t trust it and immediately shouted in his mind:

”Narrator, scan him!”

Checked. The Blue Spiritual Consciousness Body belonging to Lin Ran is indeed occupying this body. However, the Lord of the Mist’s spiritual consciousness body still exists and hasn’t been destroyed by Lin Ran. It might make a comeback!

”So persistent.”

He turned to the mist face.

”A’Ran, how are you feeling now?”

Lin Ran didn’t answer. Instead, the Mist Sea began to rapidly shrink.

Finally, a purple-haired, purple-eyed youth appeared before him.

Looking at Feng Qi, he grinned. ”Brother Qi, I finally understand why you had me research mental combat cultivation techniques and art magic back then. I’m... back! Hug me!”

Feng Qi looked at Lin Ran, who was striding toward him, with a look of disdain. ”Cut the sentimental crap. What’s your situation?”

”I’ve never felt better, but I couldn’t kill it. It’s still in my sea of consciousness.”

”Why didn’t you kill it?”

”I can’t. Some unknown power is protecting it. I can’t harm it anymore.”

Hearing this, Feng Qi felt a twinge of disappointment.

But remembering the Future Dream Timeline, where he had finally defeated the Lord of the Mist, a smile spread across his face.

At least things were moving in the right direction.

No enemy can’t be defeated by one timeline. If one isn’t enough, then two, three, or countless will do. There’s a poem that goes... something about jade and high mountains, and then ten thousand threads to crush him to death. That’s what it means—ten thousand timelines can kill any enemy.

Feng Qi felt a pang of embarrassment at the Narrator’s deadpan, deadpan critique.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the line of poetry—”Ten thousand green ribbons hang down”—had absolutely nothing to do with eight poles, enemies, or ten thousand timelines.

”Brother Qi, hurry up and tell me—how did you know back then that I’d be targeted for body possession?” Lin Ran asked with a grin, leaning in.

Just as Feng Qi was about to answer, the Narrator’s voice echoed in his mind again:

Brother Hei is about to arrive on the battlefield. After careful consideration, we’ll deploy our latest collected weapons this turn. My turn to draw... it’s decided! Mist-Dyed, go!

Feng Qi: ...

Ignoring the Narrator’s commentary, he turned to look eastward.

Sure enough, a mass of black mist was hurtling across the ground toward them.

Wherever it passed, both living dead and twisted plants were devoured by Spirit Energy Nanoworms.

Seeing this, Feng Qi immediately turned back to Lin Ran and placed a hand on his shoulder.

”Good brother, do me a favor.”

Without hesitation, Lin Ran nodded. ”Brother Qi, just say the word. If it’s within my power, I’ll do it without question.”

”For your brother, would you go through fire and water?”

”Absolutely!”

As he spoke, a puzzled expression crossed Lin Ran’s face, clearly not understanding why Feng Qi was asking this.

Feng Qi continued, ”For your brother, would you take two ribs to the chest?”

”Absolutely!” Lin Ran nodded again, his confusion deepening.

”Then, for your brother, would you sacrifice yourself?” This time, he hit the core of the matter.

”Brother Qi, you’re my best brother. Of course, I would.”

A smile spread across Feng Qi’s face.

Just as he was about to order Lin Ran to confront little black, the Narrator’s voice echoed in his mind:

Keep going. Push his limits further. Ask him if he’d let his wife sleep with you!

Feng Qi: ...

He couldn’t help but mentally give the Narrator the middle finger.

(End of the Chapter)

------------------------------------------------------

- Read ahead up to Ch591 (HTT) on CinderTL; free chapters up to Ch309.

- No sign-up required. Find CinderTL via Google search.

------------------------------------------------------