Chapter 101: Time Forest

Chapter 101: The Time Forest

"Alright, I know you two are so in love."

The system quipped, "Dammit, no matter which version of the Prophecy Book it is, you're always the protagonist and the villain, yet you still got together."

"Guess the web novels were right!"

Shen Ji looked down at the ring on his finger.

It was worn on his ring finger, a silver band engraved with a small butterfly beneath it. Looking at this butterfly, he was reminded of Li Zhiyan.

He smiled faintly, unusually refraining from retorting to the system’s words.

"Alright," Shen Ji said. "Now we're going to enter another timeline."

He walked up to the enormous clock.

The clock had a bronze hue, bearing the worn look of an old object. Its glass cover was shattered, and only the hands slowly moving could be seen. It was hard to imagine that this was the core of the entire Time Forest.

Shen Ji put his hand on the large clock.

"Though I’d like to say something grand, it’s better not to jinx it."

"Just don't die."

As soon as he finished speaking, a blinding white light flashed before Shen Ji’s eyes. The intense glare made him instinctively squeeze them shut. When he opened them again, he found himself standing in a small square. He heard a roaring sound in the sky and looked up to see a helicopter.

As the helicopter flew past, countless people dropped from the sky like dumplings, their parachutes deploying mid-air.

It looked like a military operation.

"In the early stages of the Red Mist incident, there was no specialized organization to deal with pollution," the system explained. "So during the most difficult period, the military and police were responsible for rescue and disaster relief in dangerous areas, protecting the people. However, due to the high-pollution zones, their contamination rates were extremely high."

"It wasn’t until the Pollution Prevention Center was established and further divided into various branches to break down and handle pollution incidents that the high casualty rates among the military and police were reduced."

"So they’re here to suppress the pollutants?"

"Exactly," the system said. "Turn around and look to your left."

Shen Ji glanced to the left, and the next moment, he saw a gigantic tree towering over the city. It was even taller than the low-rise buildings in the residential area.

Willow-like branches swayed in the wind, each one studded with a human head. Even more heads were still immature, sleeping like children.

The troops landed in various locations, their guns aimed at the tree of heads.

The heads on the branches slowly opened their eyes, all simultaneously letting out mournful wails. The moment the sounds erupted, everyone clutched their ears in agony.

Ordinary ear protection was utterly useless against the pollution-carrying sound waves flooding their ears.

Some people exploded on the spot amidst the sound waves, turning into clouds of blood mist. Only their heads remained, still wailing in pain. From their shattered necks, tendrils sprouted, carrying the heads as if alive as they scurried toward the pollutant.

The scene caused instant panic among the surrounding people.

Most of them were ordinary people who had not yet adapted to this world filled with pollutants. Such monsters far exceeded their understanding, and no amount of written or audio materials could prepare them for the shock of seeing it happen right in front of them.

Shen Ji sighed. "If this continues, these people will all die, won’t they?"

"Yes, this is a B-class pollutant."

"Most of these people are ordinary civilians, with only a few mutants among them. The highest rank is only C-class. Without a proper method to handle this, everyone here will be contaminated."

"But it was through such high-casualty trial and error that the Pollution Prevention Center was able to steadily establish itself in the future."

"Trial and error is fine, but high casualty rates are unnecessary."

Shen Ji pointed toward the tree, his eyes instantly turning pale. A shadowy blackness spread rapidly from his feet.

While everyone was enduring the sound waves, the shadow had already reached the base of the tree of heads.

The hyphae viciously burrowed into the tree trunk.

The tree of heads abruptly fell silent. Before anyone could react, it let out another wail, but this time it was not a threat—it was a death cry.

The branches flailed wildly, smashing violently into the surrounding buildings. The troops sent to suppress it had no idea what was causing its frenzy and could only retreat, waiting for the tree to calm down again.

Watching everyone withdraw, Shen Ji narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Actually, there was no need for you to save them."

The system said, "This is an abandoned timeline. After the Prophecy Book altered time, this place became an illusion that no longer exists, preserved only in the Time Forest. Even if you save them, time won’t move forward."

"But I wanted to."

Shen Ji said, "I still can’t easily watch people die before my eyes."

He sighed softly. "It seems I’m still more human than not."

The system marveled: Even after regaining the memories of the filth, the little reporter’s heart remains soft.

Only after devouring the entire tree, until the heads on the branches shriveled and the trunk withered and bent, never to move again, did Shen Ji withdraw and turn to leave.

He didn’t let the small mushroom completely consume the tree. Although he knew this timeline had stagnated, he still left behind the pollutant’s corpse, no longer releasing pollution, for them to study.

This was Shen Ji’s unspoken kindness.

The troops stared in astonishment at the withered tree of heads.

After a long while, someone finally spoke. "Why did the tree stop moving? It looks like... it’s dead?"

"Did it wither and die?"

"Why did it suddenly wither and die?"

The captain raised his hand to silence them. Then, holding his gun, he cautiously approached step by step. Even after reaching the edge of the safe perimeter, he saw no movement from the tree. Finally, he tentatively prodded a fallen branch on the ground with the muzzle of his gun and had his team members use a detector to confirm its vital signs.

Only after confirming that the thing was truly dead did they feel a sense of having narrowly escaped death.

But how had it died?

"Did a new mutant appear?" the captain suggested during his report. Because it was a new term, he stumbled slightly over the words. "With everything so chaotic right now, mutants haven’t been fully documented. Could there be a new mutant we haven’t discovered yet?"

Whatever was said on the other end, the captain’s eyes widened, and after a moment, he frowned, sucking air through his teeth in thought.

"I understand. I’ll keep an eye out."

"If his whereabouts are discovered, I’ll report immediately."

After the communication ended, he waved to the people behind him, "We need to haul away the pollutant's body now!"

"Everyone, come and help!"

The real culprit, Shen Ji, had no intention of meeting them at all.

This is the first timeline, a timeline abandoned after the Prophecy Book reversed time. In other words, it is actually quite similar to the third false timeline.

However, because time had genuinely progressed here, it seems a bit more real than the third timeline.

"Actually, the time reversed by the Prophecy Book wasn't for very long. From the looks of things, it’s been at most three months."

The system said, "So the first timeline is basically consistent with the reality timeline, except that Li Zhiyan was put into a 27-year slumber early due to the Red Mist Incident, and you also survived earlier because of the Red Mist Incident, becoming a new S-Class pollutant."

"Only three months?" Shen Ji was somewhat surprised. "After being an S-Class Mutant for just three months, Li Zhiyan was able to kill the Prophecy Book?"

"He might also have experienced something off with his Talent due to the timeline changes."

"For example, in the third timeline: if you were a mutant, your Talent wouldn’t be this bunch of little mushrooms either."

Shen Ji tsked, growing even more interested.

He really wanted the system to infiltrate the Pollution Prevention Center right now to check Li Zhiyan’s records, but in this world, signals were unstable, the power was spotty, pollutants were everywhere, people were displaced, and the Pollution Prevention Center existed only as a proposal on paper.

In the years before the Red Mist Incident, order was kept by the government, military, and police.

So, there was only one way left.

"Find the Prophecy Book," Shen Ji nodded. "The Prophecy Book must have Li Zhiyan’s outcome written in it."

There were many pollution incidents after the Red Mist Event, among them the Prophecy Book Event.

The system infiltrated the local network, sifted through the system for reports about the Prophecy Book Event, and once they had the address, Shen Ji took off immediately.

/

Upon arriving in the town, Shen Ji sensed something was off.

Unlike the chaos outside, the town was eerily quiet.

"In all horror movies, the quieter the place, the more dangerous it is," Shen Ji clicked his tongue. "This looks like it's following the same pattern."

"I already told you the area where the Prophecy Book is located has temporal disturbances. It’s so quiet here precisely because of that temporal disturbance."

Shen Ji stepped inside, and the next moment he realized it had turned dark.

Stars hung in the sky, streetlights gave off a faint glow, and even the chirping of insects could be heard. A few young people were squatting by the roadside drinking beer, empty bottles littered everywhere, with no regard for anyone else.

Shen Ji walked forward with his hands in his pockets, looking around as he went.

Honestly, it had been a long time since he’d seen such a modern city, and it made him nostalgic.

As he passed by these young people, Shen Ji overheard them bragging—about how cool their motorcycles were, how some sports star was a wimp, not even worth their pinky finger.

Shen Ji: ...

Even these dumb youths felt familiar.

Shen Ji continued walking, crossing the street to the next traffic light intersection, but in the blink of an eye, he heard the young people running their mouths again.

Turning his head, he saw the same group of dumb youths, their beer bottles now full again.

"This is temporal disturbance," the system said. "Time might reverse, or it might fast-forward. Aging and rejuvenation can happen in an instant."

So Shen Ji shrugged and kept walking.

He encountered the same group at the third intersection.

Was he stuck in some kind of ghost loop?

Before Shen Ji could react, one of the drinking youths suddenly spoke up, "Hey."

They called out to Shen Ji, "Didn’t you just come from this way? You’ve passed by three times now?"

"How did you... keep circling back?"

Their voices grew increasingly shaky, their breathing heavier, the scare sobered them up instantly.

Shen Ji turned to look at them.

He deliberately misinterpreted their meaning, saying, "It’s not that I want to walk this path three times. I just can’t leave this place."

"Can you help me get out of here?"

With that one sentence, the group of young men screamed in terror and ran for their lives. One even tripped over a beer bottle on the ground but didn’t bother to stop, scrambling away on his hands and knees.

"..."

"Such nasty humor, Doctor Xiao Ji."

"From today on, they won’t be getting drunk and causing a ruckus at midnight. I’ve done a great deed."

"But this is a polluted zone. Even if you hadn’t scared them, they wouldn’t dare go out disturbing people at night because of the pollution incidents anyway."

Shen Ji retorted righteously, "Well, since they’re going to be scared either way, it’s better they’re scared by me than by pollutants."

That was true.

If they were scared by pollutants, they might get contaminated and turn into pollutants themselves. But if Shen Ji scared them, they’d just get a fright without any transformation.

What a bargain!

Not really.

The system continued guiding Shen Ji, "Turn left ahead. I sense the pollution aura of the Prophecy Book."

Shen Ji kept his hands in his pockets. After the youths ran away, the time loops stopped, and he successfully reached the destination.

It was a small market, or more accurately, a convenience store outside a residential area.

The convenience store was lit up, but no one was inside. Fluorescent lights buzzed, lighting up every corner.

On the checkout counter, Shen Ji saw a phone with its screen lit up.

Picking up the phone from the counter, Shen Ji saw this edition of the Prophecy Book.

"Due to an uncontrollable Talent, S-Class Mutant Li Wuyan lived a life worse than death. He could neither work nor protect anyone, and even his sanity was gradually eroded by pollution."

"Signing the Academy of Sciences’ body donation form was his only remaining value."

"Li Wuyan," Shen Ji muttered to himself. "Right, at this time, Li Zhiyan was still called Li Wuyan. He wasn’t using an alias yet."

"But, an uncontrollable Talent?"

Shen Ji flipped the page to continue reading.

Only to find the rest was blank... that's it?

Shen Ji put down the phone, turned, and stepped outside. The moment he stepped out of the convenience store, he saw dense red fog.

Countless people were running outside in the red fog, including the few young men he had frightened earlier. Everyone was fleeing in terror, chased by a long-haired pollutant creature holding a red umbrella.

Upon closer inspection, Shen Ji realized it wasn’t holding a red umbrella—the red umbrella was its head.

Blood dripped down from the red umbrella head as it was slowly scanning for humans nearby.

The young men spotted Shen Ji and instantly remembered how this person had passed by them three times. Terrified, they turned and ran in the opposite direction.

After just a few steps, they began retreating step by step.

Because ahead of them was another red umbrella head.

"Ordinary D-class pollutants. They look scary but can be killed with weapons. They’re low-level pollutants."

But where would ordinary people get weapons?

They huddled on the ground, seemingly scared out of their minds. Shen Ji sighed and stepped forward, positioning himself between the young men and the pollutants.

"Scare you once, save you once—this trade-off isn’t working in my favor."

Shen Ji stared at the red umbrella head ahead. "Get lost."

An intense pollution aura erupted. These low-level pollutants had a nature of preying on the weak but also an instinct to avoid danger. Sensing the powerful pollution aura from Shen Ji, they quickly retreated, vanishing within seconds.

The young men were too weak-kneed to move, still whimpering in fear.

"Get inside," Shen Ji said. "Try not to stay exposed in the red fog."

They nodded tearfully, helping each other as they ran toward the nearest building.

In their haste, one of them dropped their phone from their pocket. Shen Ji bent down to pick it up and immediately noticed it displayed content from the Prophecy Book.

The text Shen Ji had seen earlier was being deleted piece by piece, then slowly retyped.

Until it formed a new story.

"Li Wuyan was dissatisfied with his future and refused to let his fate be written in a book. He decided to leave."

"He left... left..."

A mess of chaotic characters appeared on the phone screen, flickering as if two people were fighting over the typing.

Shen Ji suddenly remembered when he had just been polluted—back then, the Prophecy Book he saw had also been shattered and reassembled in this way.

Countless jumbled characters vanished, finally forming a single line.

"Li Wuyan wants to change the future."

Bang—a bullet grazed Shen Ji’s hair. Shen Ji looked up and glanced backward: a red umbrella head lay on the ground, twitching.

Shen Ji’s eyes gradually turned pale before shifting back to black a moment later.

He turned to look ahead. On the steps in front of him sat a person.

He wore form-fitting black clothing with red markings embroidered on the cuffs. The white shirt inside was slightly stained, and perhaps feeling uncomfortable, he had unbuttoned it, revealing his neck and half of his chest.

Shen Ji could see red marks on his wrists and ankles, like friction burns.

A familiar person smiled at him. "Hey, handsome."

Shen Ji tilted his head slightly, appearing serious and silent.

With black-framed glasses, Shen Ji indeed gave off this impression—after all, he was accustomed to pretending to be human and carried an aura of calm rationality.

And right now, it worked well for bluffing.

'System.' In reality, however, the seemingly calm and silent person was frantically calling out to the system. 'Can I meet the protagonist of this timeline?'

"Huh? I don’t know?"

"Anyway, this timeline doesn’t exist anymore. Just go for it," the system replied, resigned.

'Mainly, why is he here?'

"Of course he’s here. Did you forget?"

The system said, "It was Li Zhiyan who destroyed the Prophecy Book, forcing it to reverse the timeline. Since we know the Prophecy Book is here, in the original timeline, Li Zhiyan must have been here tracking it too."

Shen Ji took a long breath and looked back at the person sitting on the steps.

No Pollution Aura, no little blue butterfly accompanying him, black short hair and black eyes—the appearance of Li Zhiyan in his dreams.

He was undoubtedly good-looking. Even without the unconventional white hair and blue eyes, his superior height and appearance made him stand out strikingly.

Human, S-Class Mutant: Li Wuyan.

"I saw it. You saved them."

Li Wuyan said, "But I’ve never seen you before. Where’d you come from, mutant?"

Shen Ji stood still, not moving, just gazing deeply at Li Wuyan.

After a long time, he finally spoke. "You’re not money, so of course there are people you haven’t met. Besides, before asking who someone is, shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?"

Li Wuyan laughed. "You’re really interesting."

"...?"

"Where exactly is that interesting?" the system mused.

But looking at Shen Ji and Li Wuyan’s expressions, neither of them found anything ambiguous in those words.

No? Why?

Why didn’t the system understand these two?

Ignoring the system’s confusion, Shen Ji stepped forward, walking up to Li Wuyan.

"So, who are you? Why are you here?"

"Introductions already?" Li Wuyan didn’t avoid him, instead showing a hint of subtle interest.

Since Shen Ji was standing and he was sitting, Li Wuyan even had to look up at him, which felt condescending.

But Li Wuyan didn’t mind.

After making eye contact with Shen Ji for a moment, Li Wuyan lowered his gaze to Shen Ji’s fingers, and his eyes landed on the ring on his ring finger.

“Wow, you’re married?”

“So young, yet already jumping into love's grave.” Li Wuyan said in a tone of pity, “Such a handsome face—what a waste.”

Shen Ji: …

He kind of wanted to record this and play it back for the real Li Zhiyan to hear.

Listen, just listen! You used to despise marriage so much—how did you turn into such a marriage-crazy person now?!