Chapter 71: Memory or Illusion?

Even at a distance of less than two feet, the thing was shrouded in a black mass, its shape completely indistinguishable. There was no telling what kind of monster it was, but four red flames glowed within the shadow, resembling eyes.

Given those four eyes, He Lingchuan wouldn't consider it human. It also extended thin, long limbs, piercing his chest in one swift motion.

The movement was so fast that He Lingchuan couldn't even make out the shape of its sharp claws before he cried out in agony.

The pain was soul-piercing, utterly unbearable.

Of course, he wouldn't just wait for death. But several hard punches struck the shadowy figure, seemingly having no effect at all.

At that moment, he suddenly felt that the scene before him was familiar:

Months ago, on Gourd Mountain, his original body and a sand leopard both plummeted off a cliff, perishing together!

Yes, this was the exact scene.

As soon as this thought flashed through his mind, everything around him instantly became clear: a clear blue sky above, swaying green trees, and the cliff edge receding further and further from his view.

The creature pouncing on him was precisely that light-yellow, spotted sand leopard!

The sand leopard had its mouth wide open, preparing to bite through his carotid artery.

He had no way out; he would either be bitten to death or fall to his death.

He Lingchuan couldn't help but curse loudly: "Get lost! What does any of this have to do with me?!" These were things his original body should have seen and endured before dying, completely unrelated to him!

As soon as he cursed, the scene blurred again.

The blue sky, white clouds, and cliff all disappeared. The surrounding light was bizarre and kaleidoscopic, like a grand collection of points, lines, planes, and a painter's palette.

And then, he fell heavily to the ground.

Concrete ground.

Stars dotted the sky, but it must have rained earlier, as the ground wasn't completely dry, and small puddles remained in the road's depressions.

He Lingchuan landed right in a puddle, splashing muddy water all over the sand leopard's head and face.

The monster seemed somewhat bewildered too; it looked around, instinctively loosening its grip on its prey.

The aroma of jianbing guozi wafted through the air, and He Lingchuan was stunned.

This intersection was eerily familiar; wasn't it his usual route home from work?

He turned his head and saw the jianbing stall on the street corner. The "Three Yuan Each" sign was written in bold capital letters with a marker pen, its handwriting as ugly as ever.

Wait, could it be that night?

He turned his head further left and indeed saw a little girl in a skirt. The girl's mother was buying something by the roadside, completely oblivious to her daughter chasing a rolling coin all the way into the middle of the street!

Just then, a car sped towards them.

Such a familiar scene.

This was the memory he should possess.

If everything went as usual, he should rush across the road with the girl, averting this sudden disaster.

But now the situation had changed: he and the sand leopard were blocking the car's path to the girl.

He was lying down, but the sand leopard had propped itself up, looking left and right, clearly surprised by the scene.

The next instant, the car ran over them.

Strictly speaking, it rolled over him. As for the sand leopard, it was directly hit by the front of the car, then dragged under the tires, making a crisp "thud."

After that, the car swerved across the road and only stopped when it crashed into a wall.

He Lingchuan scrambled to his feet, gasping for air. He patted himself all over. Huh, no injuries?

Smoke billowed from the front of the pickup truck, and its engine died.

He Lingchuan scratched his head. In his memory, it was a sedan that had hit him, but here it was a high-clearance pickup truck. Had he remembered it wrong, or was something amiss with this place?

A car accident had occurred in the middle of the street, and people slowly gathered around. The little girl picked up her coin, smiled at him, and ran to her mother.

He Lingchuan shook his head and walked to the wall. Under the car wheel, it wasn't the sand leopard; it was clearly the black shadow he had first seen.

It was pinned and unable to move, resentfully extending its claws towards He Lingchuan. Of course, He Lingchuan wasn't that foolish and immediately retreated two steps.

Soon, the black shadow shrank into a small ball and disappeared.

"What the hell was that thing?" He Lingchuan muttered. He then saw a glowing blue mark revealed within the plaster of the wall broken by the car.

He wanted to get closer for a better look, but suddenly the world spun, and everything went black again.

He Lingchuan blinked, still not fully awake.

Something in his vision was infinitely magnified, like four... enormous fangs, two on top and two on the bottom.

Even in such dimness, the fangs seemed to glow.

Suddenly, something round came flying, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him back about ten meters.

The giant mouth from nowhere missed its target, bit into a battlement, and slowly lifted its head.

It was the black flood dragon.

Looking up from this angle, that thing was unbelievably huge. He Lingchuan pointed at it and cursed: "How can you be so heartless, abandoning me so quickly! And I even helped you... cause a ruckus earlier!"

His cursing wasn't satisfying, because with the heavy blow to his chest and abdomen, he felt irritated and nauseous every time he took a breath.

The black flood dragon ignored him, turning its head to chase the white light in the air.

Only then did He Lingchuan remember that he had been struck in the face by that thing earlier, and probably even invaded. Otherwise, how could those bizarre scenes have occurred?

Zeng Feixiong came over to help him up and said, "My lord, forgive me, I threw that rolling stone. Are you alright?"

"You saved my life, *hiccup*, you'll be handsomely rewarded later!" He Lingchuan also saw clearly that the object that sent him flying was a rolling stone from the city wall, only slightly smaller than a millstone. It was meant for a trebuchet, but Zeng Feixiong had thrown it to save his life.

But the force used was undeniably real. Thanks to He Lingchuan's sturdy constitution, had it been He Yue who took such a hit, he would likely have suffered internal injuries and been bedridden for over half a month.

He was going to heavily reward and thank the person who had just injured him. What was happening here was indeed more fantastical than the last.

After escaping from He Lingchuan, the white light finally remembered to find Nian Songyu.

It was extremely agile. The black flood dragon tried to intercept it repeatedly, but its massive body made it repeatedly miss, allowing the light to slip through.

Sun Fuping noticed the white light's movement and quickly picked up Nian Songyu, moving to meet it. The black flood dragon then swung its tail again, sending him flying.

However, Sun Fuping was quick-witted and agile, throwing Nian Songyu towards the white light just in time.

The two finally met in mid-air, and the white light directly entered the mouth and nose of the tightly-shut-eyed commandant.

Just before being swallowed by the black flood dragon, Nian Songyu finally awoke.

He took a long breath, a red light flashed in his eyes, and the giant phantom behind him reappeared, its size astonishingly twice as large as before.

Correspondingly, its two phantom blades were also twice as long, reaching an astonishing eight zhang (over twenty meters)!

Nian Songyu then grasped the long blade, aimed at the black flood dragon's abyssal maw, and delivered an upward diagonal slash from below!

The people on the city wall seemed to see a sudden flash of moonlight, like mercury pouring down, and the black flood dragon's head was split in two, its lower half crashing heavily to the ground.

"No way?" Zeng Feixiong was startled. "Is it really that useless? All that size for nothing."

The black flood dragon was dead. What about them? Were they to be buried with it?