“But——” Wen Jiubo’s tone suddenly changed as he pulled his hand away from Shi Yitong. The light in his eyes became cold. “I never said it would be easy.”

“Huh?” Shi Yitong looked at Wen Jiubo, dumbfounded.

“First of all, we’re currently in the belly of the beast Nian. If any of us gets discovered by the beast, it can effortlessly get erase us from this world. This fate is even worse than death since when the beast kills someone, their whole existence gets destroyed, meaning that nobody will remember you.” Wen Jiubo looked at us. “Second, even if we’re lucky enough to hide from it, there are still countless ghosts and monsters that you’ve never met before. The beast is swallowing up all the monsters and spirits in the city, most of which are directly eliminated, but some of the more powerful ones are trapped in this four-dimensional space, just like us.”

Su Xiaoyun and Shi Yitong looked at each other and gulped.

“The most terrifying thing is that this space itself will create illusions to hamper you. Furthermore, none of you has a decent weapon. And right now, I can’t give you any protection or guarantees,” Wen Jiubo said in a low whisper. “That is to say, you’ll be risking your life to do this, and it is very likely that you won’t make it back.”

What he said silenced everyone present.

“The best scenario would be for all of you to come back alive after succeeding, but it is hard to say if it’s even possible. However, the most likely outcome is that one of us dies halfway through before being able to complete the task. So I say the probability of success for this mission is less than ten percent.”

It was deadly silent in the dark space. Then, Su Xiaoyun was the first to speak.

“Mr. Wen.. I want to know, is this the only way?”

Wen Jiubo nodded. “I’ve thought it over, and I think this is the only way. I’m very sorry.”

Shi Yitong interrupted, “What will happen if this plan works out?”

“Once the barrier is broken, the city can link to the outside world again and our space will not be able to support the beast’s four-dimensional body, so it will be rejected by the dimensions. Then, we can focus on Lingxiao and I can kill him easily since I’m way more powerful than him,” Wen Jiubo said affirmatively.

“But if we fail,” Bai interjected, “the beast Nian will continue to swallow everything around, and soon the whole city will be destroyed. It won’t take long for it to swallow the entire province and even the entire country. All of your relatives and friends will disappear from the timeline. Time will be altered to make it so none of us were ever born on this planet.”

“The Earth will become a lifeless planet,” Wen Jiubo said calmly.

I couldn’t bear to listen to it anymore. But before I could say something, Su Xiaoyun interrupted.

The elegant and beautiful straight-A college student used her finger to smooth away the hair on her forehead and then smiled.

“Then, I guess we have no other choice. Hand it over.” Su Xiaoyun held her hand out to Wen Jiubo.

“What?”

“The charm,” Su Xiaoyun said casually, as if she was just talking about the weather. “Don’t worry, just give it to us and we will get it done! Of course, if I can’t, I will try my best to get killed by the ghosts around me because if I die this way, you guys can still remember me, which is much better than being erased from our timeline.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Goddess Su is right.” Shi Yitong also held his hand out. He said in his signature arrogant tone, “It’s not that hard. We either make or break. Don’t look down on me, I’ll succeed no matter what. And even if I fail in the end, then I will die trying to save the world. How cool is that?”

Then, Zhu Xuan also slowly held out his hand, his voice was still cold as usual, “Fox, you know, I’ve never liked you.”

“I know,” Wen Jiubo answered.

“Sometimes I think you are the most annoying, shameless, and cunning person in the world. You lie not only to me, but to the whole world, and even to the ones you love. You’re willing to destroy the whole world just to save the one you love.” Zhu Xuan stared at Wen Jiubo sharply. “So I don’t trust you. And I don’t believe we only have a ten percent chance of success either.”

“And me!” Bai jumped out from nowhere. He stood firmly in front of Zhu Xuan. He was in his human form now, a handsome young man dressed in white, just like the day when I first met him. He held his hand towards Wen Jiubo.

“I can’t let those young human kids and a long-haired old monster take all the credit. Of course, I want to be part of this!” He then turned around and said to them, “Anyway, remember to call me to collect your bodies if you die before me.”

I was moved by them. But as I stood in front of Wen Jiubo and held out my hand, he interrupted me.

“Okay. Since you all want to get yourself killed, then so be it.” Wen Jiubo took out four paper charms and handed them to Su Xiaoyun, Shi Yitong, Zhu Xuan, and Bai. “For Su Xiaoyun, the eastern corner; for Shi Yitong, the western corner; for Bai Ze, the southern corner; and for Bai, the northern corner. That’s it. If you can’t decide the direction, just follow the wind blade wall. This place is a regular quadrilateral. You can just go along the walls and you’ll find your corner. Save your phone battery. Not only can you contact me with it, but you can also blind ghosts by pointing the flashlight at their eyes. Though you can’t drive them away, at least you can slow them for a short moment which will give you time to escape. Do you all understand?”

“Yes.” All four of them nodded.

“Wait!” I squeezed my way to the front. “What about me?”

Wen Jiubo glanced at me and said, “Four directions, four people. Which part did you not understand? We have four volunteers. You can just stay here.”

“I——” I was speechless.

“Old fox, still as selfish as ever,” Zhu Xuan glanced at him and said mockingly.

“All right.” Su Xiaoyun stepped forward and smiled at me. “Gu Yu, we’ll be off.”

“Let’s go. Hurry up, we can’t waste any time,” Wen Jiubo said.

“However, before I go I still have some words for Gu Yu.” Su Xiaoyun looked at Wen Jiubo and he nodded.

Words? To me?

I was confused, and then Su Xiaoyun whispered in my ear. I felt her breath brushing by my ear like a breeze.

“Gu Yu.. Since this might be my last chance, I want to tell you something.”

“Tell me what?” I asked.

Su Xiaoyun drew closer.

“Gu Yu, I like you.”

I was dumbfounded, but before I could react, she got up on her feet and walked to Shi Yitong like nothing had happened.

“Let’s go and save the world!”

“Yeah!” Shi Yitong got swept up in her mood, and he shouted to psych himself up.

They then went in four different directions, and I stared at their backs until they disappeared in the darkness and could no longer be seen.

This might be the last time I could see them. Thinking so, my heart was full of sadness.

However, my sadness soon turned into doubt. I looked at Wen Jiubo, whose expression had not changed since we met.

“They’ve left as you wish.” I asked, “Why? Why did you want me here? ”

Wen Jiubo sat cross-legged on the ground and grinned. “I just miss you so much. Wouldn’t it be okay to have some private time with you?”