Lord of Prayer

Li Xiye’s shoulder-length hair whipped in the fierce wind. She gripped her Golden Long Sword, azure arcs of electricity dancing around her as she cut down the lunging enemies one by one.

Her eyes were as stern as a god’s, the fighting spirit in her heart soaring to unprecedented heights. Her blood boiled, hot as fire, and for some reason, she felt a rush of excitement. This was the moment she had always dreamed of—to be swept up in a mysterious and dangerous Extraordinary event and put her skills to the test!

The roar of explosions, the stench of blood, the smoke of battle… all of it sent her adrenaline soaring. The unrestrained slaughter brought her no discomfort. Instead, she felt an unprecedented excitement… even pleasure!

“This is amazing, Zhou Chen.”

Her sword whistled through the air as Li Xiye continued her slaughter. Bathed in the rain of blood, she broke into a wide, exhilarated grin.

She turned her head and was suddenly struck to see the exact same smile on Zhou Chen’s face.

“Yeah, it is,” Zhou Chen replied with a smile.

They rode the Returnless Tank, fighting with wild abandon on the Road to Hell as they charged madly into its depths!

Viscous, scarlet gore splattered through the air. They had slain countless monsters, yet the tide of creatures surging from all directions didn’t seem to diminish in the slightest. The slaughter felt as if it would go on forever.

Just then, the Chariot drifted, its tail swinging wide. Li Xiye lost her balance and was about to fall from the roof when Zhou Chen swiftly wrapped an arm around her waist. He spun with the momentum, pulling her back in a dance-like motion.

“Is this your way of asking me to a ballroom dance?” Li Xiye asked with a teasing smile as they spun.

“Shouldn’t a ballroom dance be in some gorgeous hall? This godforsaken place hardly qualifies as an elegant, high-class venue.”

“But I want to dance,” Li Xiye said, placing one hand in Zhou Chen’s. She stepped back to give herself room to spin, then suddenly thrust her sword out, piercing a rotting corpse trying to climb onto the roof. Fine azure arcs of electricity surged forward, blasting it off the Chariot.

After that, she spun back gracefully, her blade flashing past the hem of Zhou Chen’s clothes in a horizontal slash that beheaded a bizarre, tentacled cat.

“Dance with me for a while, won’t you?” Li Xiye turned back to face Zhou Chen, murmuring the invitation as if she had completely forgotten they were on the Road to Hell.

“It would be my pleasure.” Zhou Chen fell in step with Li Xiye’s dance of death.

Linked by the Contract Ring, their minds were connected, their coordination perfectly synchronized.

They became an impenetrable storm of saber and sword, battling in all directions, fiercely cutting down the endless waves of monsters. Atop the blood-soaked Chariot, they performed an elegant, bloodthirsty dance, their weapons reflecting a dazzling chaos of light and shadow.

They changed their steps to an unseen rhythm, slaughtering their enemies in a deadly cadence.

·

“You are really something else.”

At some point, an illusory, mirage-like scene had appeared on the endless road to Hell. Reality and illusion were separated by the dividing line down the center of the road.

On one side was the Hell Tank, rampaging through a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, leaving a gory storm in its wake.

On the other was a black car speeding down a chaotic road, a path ahead forcibly cleared by its onboard gravity waves.

Spanning sixty years of time, they drove side-by-side.

Inside the car, Old Yang stared, dumbfounded, at Zhou Chen dancing with a young woman on the menacing-looking Chariot. He instinctively pulled out his phone to record it.

‘I’ve got to send this to Jiang Che, and to Erin…’

‘The kid was having this much fun sixty years ago, and I was worried sick about him every day. Bah!’

‘Huh? Wait, who’s driving?’

Old Yang blinked. Across sixty years of time and space, he locked eyes with a husky, its tongue lolling out. His eyes widened in horrified silence, his mind going completely blank for a moment.

‘Holy shit!’

‘A husky that can drive!’

Old Yang was utterly shocked. He knew some animals could possess intelligence far beyond the norm—like Jiang Che’s Forbidden Object, that orange cat—but a husky? No matter how you looked at it, that breed didn’t seem capable of high intelligence…

‘And it’s driving!’

‘This is way rarer than seeing pigs fly!’

“Hey, Zhou Chen, can you hear me?” Old Yang shouted, rolling down his window to try and get Zhou Chen’s attention.

He didn’t know how this mirage-like Illusion had formed, but based on the current situation, it wasn’t hard to guess. The space-time of two different eras was likely merging, which meant the situation was dire.

‘Jiang Che had told him to stay in Hong City and coordinate with Zhou Chen. Now, the time had come.’

Old Yang seemed to have a flash of insight, figuring out some of the key points, but his attention was quickly drawn back to Zhou Chen.

‘They look like they’re fighting monsters… That girl is pretty hot, and she’s a good fighter, too. I never knew the kid was such a smooth operator, dancing while he kills. Who could resist that…? It seems like they can’t hear me…’

Luckily, however, the dog saw Old Yang and barked twice to get Zhou Chen’s attention.

Zhou Chen, who had been engrossed in his deadly dance with Li Xiye, snapped back to his senses. He turned his head and saw Old Yang recording him with his phone, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

“So you finally see me, kid.”

Old Yang stopped recording. But to Zhou Chen, there were only mouth movements, no sound. He cut down two of the Skinless with his saber and mouthed back to Old Yang, “Can’t hear you!”

‘Of course he can’t hear me. How could he from sixty years away? If he could, that would be an even bigger problem… Still, the fact that we can see each other is a big problem too.’ Old Yang grumbled to himself, then switched to sign language.

“Jiang Che told me to destroy the Eternal Life Machine. What about you?” he signed.

“Same, destroy the Eternal Life Machine. But we’re also going to run into a super-troublesome final boss,” Zhou Chen signed back, taking a moment amidst the slaughter.

“Looks like our missions are the same, then. Only destroying the Eternal Life Machine can stop the timelines from merging. How do you need me to coordinate with you?” Old Yang asked.

‘Coordinate with me?’ Zhou Chen was confused. He signed, “You’re sixty years in the future. How can you coordinate with me?”

“I dunno,” Old Yang signed, shrugging helplessly as he continued to drive and communicate. “Jiang Che was the one who told me to stay here and coordinate with you.”

‘Jiang Che told Old Yang to stay in Hong City and coordinate with me… Coordinate on what?’ Zhou Chen thought for a moment before signing, “He probably just meant for you to go destroy the Eternal Life Machine.”

‘I know that, but why does it have to be me… Ugh, from a temporal perspective, at this exact moment sixty years ago, I’m the one communicating with Zhou Chen across time. If I hadn’t come, would history have changed? So, is that why I had to stay in Hong City? Man, time travel is such a troublesome, brain-melting thing…’

As Old Yang thought about it, he just gave up. ‘If I can’t figure it out no matter how hard I think, then I’ll just stop thinking about it. Besides, the big shots upstairs will handle the fallout. I just need to play my part and be a good tool.’

“Do you need weapon support?” Zhou Chen signed.

“Yes,” Old Yang signed back decisively. Although Jiang Che had prepared a sniper rifle for him, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be enough.

‘Charging into the Blood Race’s territory to destroy the Eternal Life Machine with just a sniper rifle? That’s a death wish.’

“That’s a shame, then, because I can’t help you,” Zhou Chen signed, shrugging while holding his blood-drenched Long Saber. “I don’t have a free hand right now.”

‘Then why the hell did you even ask…’ Old Yang waved his hand dismissively and sighed, signing, “Forget it. I’ll just leave it to fate.”

After they drove a little further, the mirage-like Illusion vanished, and the two timelines no longer overlapped.

“Was that… a friend of yours?” Li Xiye asked.

“Yeah. An unreliable senior, but he’s pretty dependable when it counts… I think?”

Li Xiye subconsciously tightened her grip on her sword’s hilt, a wave of disappointment washing over her.

‘What just happened was a reminder that Zhou Chen is from the future. He has his own friends and family. He doesn’t belong here.’

‘Sooner or later, he’ll leave. He’ll leave my side.’

‘—But thankfully, not yet.’

Arcs of electricity surged wildly, coating her blade. The azure light of her sword swept out, mowing down a large swath of Nightmare Monsters in a spray of blood and severed limbs.

In the howling wind that rushed toward them, she once again took Zhou Chen’s hand and smiled. “Let’s continue.”

‘Continue this… our final moments together.’