In a world frozen in time, Jonathan Black was stunned.
"What the hell is going on!" He tried to speak, but no words came out. It was as if, aside from his thoughts, even his body was locked in this paused moment.
In the next instant, Jonathan Black's pupils shrank—something moved in this frozen world: the second hand of the pocket watch! With a crisp tick, the second hand jumped backward. Tick, tick, tick-tick, tick-tick-tick-tick—the clock started rewinding faster and faster. In this frozen world, the second, minute, and hour hands all spun wildly in reverse, looking eerie and unnerving, with a strange sense of pressure.
Whoosh—the spinning hands turned into a swirling vortex of light and shadow. Suddenly, a twisted time-hole formed at the center of the watch, sucking him in. He felt like Sun Wukong being sucked into a magical gourd or jade bottle—one blink and the watch face expanded endlessly before his eyes.
Gulp—he felt himself crash through the watch face, falling into the deep well of time, then tumbling uncontrollably deeper and deeper, upstream through his memories. Everything that had happened flashed by in reverse, like reading a book backward. The sensation was weird and mysterious, totally against human nature. Endless memories surged in, making Jonathan Black's head ache so much he couldn't help but groan in pain.
Luckily, the next moment, a mysterious divine light swept over and wrapped him up. Jonathan Black's mind instantly cleared, feeling much better—he knew his cousin had stepped in to help. Steadying himself, he pushed aside panic and fear, and instead charged upstream into his memories.
No matter how much he pretended not to care, deep down, he was the one who most wanted to know what had really happened to him.
Meanwhile, in the material world, Jill Young and Dream Monroe each sprang into action, protecting one person apiece. The Divine Ring of No Leaks flew from Jill's mind-sea, hovering over her cousin and senior brother like a golden hoop. First time doing this, Jill was on high alert, not slacking off one bit. On the other side, Dream Monroe formed a ritual gesture, her body radiating starlight—clearly pulling out all the stops.
A hazy spiritual glow enveloped all four of them at once—the Eternal Night Queen and the Fated One were shielding the two men. Their spiritual power was like sturdy ships, carrying Jonathan Black's consciousness upstream. And because of this, the two women also saw everything Jonathan witnessed as he traveled back through his memories.
These memories naturally included tons of top-secret Eternal Night intel and Jonathan Black's personal life, but honestly, who cared about the little details right now? The two women stayed focused and unshaken.
One minute ago, one hour ago, one day ago, one week ago—the pace kept accelerating, and endless memories surged in like a dam bursting. Even with her Dreamsea Memory Retrieval ability, Jill Young couldn't help but frown. Tracing her own memories was one thing, but carrying someone else's was a whole different level of mental strain—even for a saint among mortals, it was a heavy burden.
As for Dream Monroe, her magic was more suited to the spiritual realm, and her mental cultivation was higher than Jill Young's, but she wasn't having an easy time either. Her mind's wisdom sword kept swinging, chopping away irrelevant memories to keep her spirit clear.
Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks—scene after scene flashed by. Jonathan Black's busy life made his memories a tangled mess, piling extra pressure on the two women.
"That's enough." The memory review hadn't turned up any problems so far, which was already a win for their first attempt. Jill Young and Dream Monroe decided to play it safe—next time, they'd prep more and try a checkpoint-and-resume approach.
But just then, Jonathan Black's consciousness dropped back to a month ago and suddenly landed in a weird zone. In the physical world, his aura spiked—he started panting hard, burning through his mental energy way faster than normal. Something was definitely off.
Senior Brother didn't open his eyes, but shouted excitedly, "Found it! There really is something wrong!"
Jill Young and Dream Monroe's eyes flashed—they both ramped up their mental output. Each used their own skills, breaking through the fog and diving deep into Jonathan Black's mind. Suddenly, the time-well where Jonathan's main consciousness had fallen started shaking, and the memories pulled up became jumbled and fragmented. Senior Brother did his best to keep the tunnel stable, but with Jonathan's pained howl, the time-space passage suddenly shattered.
Bang! A silent explosion swept through the whole spiritual realm—the time-space tunnel blew up completely. Countless fragments, like a shredded CD, shot off in all directions, scattering into endless darkness.
"Aaaagh!" In the physical world, Jonathan Black suddenly clutched his forehead and cried out in pain. Everyone around him jumped to their feet—Paladin gathered holy light, ready to heal, but hesitated, unsure if it was their place to intervene.
In the spiritual realm, Senior Brother's expression changed dramatically: "Crap, why did the memory suddenly shatter?"
His spirit floated in the chaos left behind by the shattered memories, hands raised, as two phantom pages appeared around him. The pages were covered in dense writing, but outsiders couldn't make out the content. Jill Young instantly understood—Senior Brother had snagged the Heart of Impermanence Sutra.
Senior Brother slapped one page with his left hand, and it flashed with brilliant light: "Freeze!"
Buzz—the explosion and fragmentation stopped instantly.
Senior Brother slapped the other page, and countless words appeared: "Rewind!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the fragments that had shot out were pulled back from the black chaos by an overwhelming power. Jill Young and Dream Monroe both shouted, channeling their strength to guide the fragments home. Jonathan Black gritted his teeth, face flushed, fighting with all he had.
Endless fragments returned from the chaos, drifting past the four's spiritual consciousness. Thousands of shards reflected light like mirrors, each one showing a different scene: huge ships, nighttime oceans, fierce battles, wild firefights.
Jill Young immediately recognized the scenes: "Isn't that the SD Syndicate's ship?"
What's up with the SD Syndicate's ship, anyway?!
Just then, a fragment floated by—pure white, just like that strange space inside the ship. The whiteness seemed contagious, spreading from one shard to the next until every last fragment turned white. The pure white shards danced through the air, not forming a memory tunnel, but instead coming together to spell out a giant English word—
EDEN.
The giant word radiated an ominous, unsettling aura. Just one look made people shudder, as if some deep disaster was lurking behind all that pure white.
"EDEN? That's the name of that strange room, but what's really wrong with it?" Jill Young shouted to Senior Brother, "Quick, rebuild Jonathan's memory tunnel, or his mind's gonna snap!"
"Wait, hold on!" someone yelled, stopping them—it was Jonathan Black. He clutched his head, face twisted in pain, but still yelled, "I—I can feel it. This name means something, it's gotta be tied to something important! I have to figure it out, I have to face the truth!"
Dream Monroe tried to reason with him, "But your mind might take a huge hit."
"Doesn't matter! Ever since that day, I've never been able to remember where I saw something like this, but it's been stuck in my head! Today's my chance—I can't let it slip by. I gotta see what this name is hiding!" Jonathan Black screamed in pain, but acted without hesitation. His spirit turned into a streak of light, diving recklessly at those letters: "Cousin, help me!"
"Screw it, I'm all in!" Jill Young instantly followed, the Divine Ring of No Leaks snapping onto Jonathan's spirit. At the same time, a second divine ring lit up on her brow—Big Wood was lending support from infinity. Dream Monroe gritted her teeth and dove in too: "I'm all in, too!" Senior Brother threw himself in, "If we're dying, we're dying together!"
With a thunderous crash, Jonathan Black slammed into "EDEN" like some ancient god butting heads with the sky pillar. The pure white word exploded into a chaotic vortex. The four's consciousnesses got stretched through a warped wormhole, racing through ages in a blink, skipping every step and heading straight for the deepest roots of memory, the very beginning of life.
In the material world, Jonathan Black's eyes rolled back, convulsing like someone having a seizure—no one could hold him down, and it was honestly terrifying.
Whoosh—the four burst out of the wormhole, met by a flood of shattered light spots. These were even more fragmented than before, like melted glue ground into powder.
Senior Brother stared blankly at it all, muttering, "This is the deepest layer of your mind—these are your earliest memories... But why are they so weird and messed up?"
"Whatever the reason, I know—the truth is right here." Jonathan Black felt the pull of destiny, slowly and resolutely reaching out to touch the swirling lights: "Let me see what really happened."
Ding—like a pebble dropping into water, Jonathan's touch sent ripples through the lights. But the next moment, the lights whipped into a frenzied storm. They spun and tangled, turning into a terrifying whirlwind. Jonathan's spirit was powerless, sucked into the eye of the storm in an instant. The flying lights sliced him like blades, shredding him in a blink. Crimson blood sprayed out like a fountain, dyeing every shard red.
"Aaaaaaaaah——!!!!" In the material world, Jonathan Black's eyes snapped open, wild with bloodshot veins. One hand reached for the sky, the other clawed at his chest, veins bulging on his face, twisted in agony, fighting for breath like a suffocating fish. He struggled with everything he had, but in the end, he only managed to shout one word:
"PROJECT——!"
Bang—Jonathan's arm dropped suddenly, thudding onto the couch. His whole body went limp, silent as the grave—his heart had stopped once again.