Ji Jue pinched his chin, scrutinizing the skull in front of him, with the numerous applications of modern alchemy, as taught by Professor Ye, coming to mind...

Could he really create another big explosion now?

He hadn't felt so affluent in a long time. Ever since he had entered the Time Ruins, the suppressed emotions inside him had begun to lighten up.

However, Tong Hua, who was organizing records beside him, appeared to be distracted.

Always daydreaming.

Absent-minded.

Ji Jue looked at her curiously, "What's wrong? Did you find something else?"

"No, not yet. There's just too much miscellaneous information in the archive. It's all quite tangled and will take some more time," Tong Hua rubbed her brow. After hesitating for a long while, she finally ventured to ask tentatively, "Are you... okay?"

"Huh? What's wrong with me?" Ji Jue asked, puzzled, immediately becoming wary. Could it be some kind of curse?

That he had failed to notice from the start?

"Uh, I mean..."

Tong Hua pondered, as if choosing her words carefully, cautiously probing, "I feel like you've been, perhaps... a bit... extreme lately?"

"Ah?"

Ji Jue was startled, clueless. He looked at Tong Hua point at the explosive barrels, then at the pile of bloody surgical tools, and finally had his moment of realization, then slapped his forehead.

"Uh? Indeed." He nodded after thinking for a moment, "Being so heavy-handed, it's indeed a bit improper, there's no need to overdo it when killing."

"Don't worry."

He made a reassuring gesture with his hand, "It won't happen again!"

After all, she was a teammate. He had to take care of her psychological health.

Poor girl, having been sheltered from B-movies and even more so from gory scenes in real life... Better to just do things quietly behind her back in the future!

In response, he received a helpless sigh.

"I'm not talking about that. It doesn't matter how the scum die. Worshipping evil and undermining the foundations of reality is already a death-worthy sin. How you handle it doesn't matter."

Tong Hua sighed and looked at him,

"I mean you."

Ji Jue, surprised, pointed to himself and tilted his head: ?

"What I'm trying to say is... there's no need to push yourself so hard. Plus, I'm here too!"

Tong Hua's speech was only halfway through when she felt her example was not quite reliable, and she quickly changed her words, "Even if I'm unreliable, there's still Wen Jie, Old Zhang, and Xiao An, right?

Although Tong Shan always has a grim face, in situations like this, he's definitely the first to charge to the front. The Security Bureau has a complete contingency plan for disasters in the Time Ruins.

Moreover, having coexisted with Cliff City for so long, the Tong family surely won't stand idly by now."

She coughed twice, trying to muster a serious expression, and patted him on the shoulder, "There's no need to shoulder everything on yourself.

You've already done enough; there's no need to torture yourself. Cliff City is so large; it won't be destroyed just because the two of us failed to take down the Evil Cult, right?"

Silence.

In the long silence, Ji Jue didn't speak, just stared blankly at Tong Hua.

Until she herself felt guilty, lowered her head, sat back in her original place, awkwardly fidgeting with her foot, trying to find another topic to erase this awkward history.

And then, he heard Ji Jue's voice.

"So that's how it is..."

Ji Jue smiled, enlightened. Since he had entered the Time Ruins, he had never shown such a genuine smile, "Thank you, Tong Hua."

He had never expected to feel such sincere concern and comfort from her, the naive miss.

Rather than focusing on the difficulties and troubles, she was prioritizing his own well-being, truly treating him as a vitally important friend, offering solace.

Touched by her gesture, Ji Jue felt even the mischievous thought of catching her in a small trap fade away... for that brief moment.

And when Ji Jue's tone was no longer flippant and teasing, Tong Hua became even more embarrassed, bowing her head and talking about everything else.

"…Knowing to say 'thank you' is good enough."

She glared fiercely at Ji Jue, "Stop clicking your tongue at me in the future, got it!"

Click...

"Did you just click your tongue at me again!"

Tong Hua glared, bursting into a rage.

"Alright, alright, don't worry, I promise, okay?"

For once, Ji Jue sincerely raised his hand, making a promise, and only after soothing Tong Hua, who was full of shyness, did he finally correct her, "However, there's something you might have misunderstood."

"Ah?" Tong Hua was puzzled.

"To be honest, I don't have as strong a sense of mission as you think nor do I have the same sense of responsibility as Sister Wen has. I initially had no interest in the Evil Cult.

Ji Jue thought for a moment, shrugged slightly, and laughed sarcastically, "The reason I'm doing this is purely out of personal vendetta, nothing more."

Tong Hua fell silent and said no more.

When Ji Jue smiled at that moment, there was no warmth in that smile, just a bone-chilling malice.

Cliff City?

He might worry about Cliff City, but only a little.

Even if heaven and earth were to shatter, Professor Ye's workshop would still stand unshaken, not even a tile out of place.

Even if the old Ji family house fell down, rebuilding it wouldn't cost much.

But, what about beyond that?

Beyond himself?

Brother Feng's company had started operations, progress was promising, and it had become a good partner for various breeding grounds. Every day after installing cameras, he would bring home all sorts of cauliflower, tomatoes, and green beans. Although he would curse the practice of running a tab each time he returned, he'd do the same thing the next day.

Xiao Ling was also doing very well in university. The teachers and students liked her, and she even won a gold medal at the sports meet.

Lately, Lu Ma had been smiling a lot more, and the amount of meat in her cooking had increased, too.

The third child was a crybaby, not great at studying, but sweetly smiling when hugging his own legs. The youngest loved to watch people put down their plates, and their foolishly smart antics were also quite cute.

They were all good people, the best people in the world.

Such people deserved to live a peaceful, serene, and happy life.

But what about it?

There's always dog shit, garbage, bastards, pests... who can't bear to see even a glimmer of light in others' lives. Like clowns, they revel in cesspools, praising the stench, worshipping Evil Foolish, believing themselves to be mighty and exalted.

If the Time Ruins were really to explode in Cliff City, under the pollution worse than dirty bombs and disasters, how many frail glimmers of life would be destroyed, how many more pitiful beings like Ji Jue would be created?

There were already too many disasters in this world.

Enough was enough.

Ji Jue would often feel upon waking from countless midnight alarms that perhaps he had died in the blaze ten years ago, and everything since was just a pre-death hallucination.

The cries and wails from his nightmares had lingered for over a decade, up to this very day.

Up to now.

Now, someone wanted to push him, everything he treasured, into Hell.

The Security Bureau might strike with Thunderbolt, the Tong family might take drastic measures, and perhaps more righteous souls would stand up to fight evil.

But none of this concerned Ji Jue.

In the broken mirror, the smiling face burned, countless regrets, and fury rose from the flames in his eyes, a silent scream, and roar.

Before all that—

—I will tear you all to pieces!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.