Chapter 888: Chen Ling's Memories?

Xiao Jian was stunned. He was just an ordinary servant, an insignificant being in Aurora City whom no one would care about even if he died. Yet now, someone stood before everyone, helping him straighten his back, which had been hunched for over a decade.

Xiao Jian didn't recognize him, nor did he know what "Spade 6" meant. But the moment Sun Bumian uttered those words, it was as if something deep within his mind was about to awaken, and an unprecedentedly intense emotion spread through his heart!

"Who are you, exactly..." Xiao Jian murmured.

"I am Sun Bumian."

Sun Bumian felt the tremor emanating from this memory, knowing the time had come. He reached into the void, grasping tightly the threads of Jian Changsheng's memory. He spoke softly,

"Jian Changsheng, it's time you woke up."

Then, with a forceful tug!

The threads of Jian Changsheng's memory rewound in Sun Bumian's hand, and the stolen memories surged out like a tide!

Jian Changsheng's bewildered eyes gradually cleared, and his entire demeanor began to shift. His subservient posture straightened, and just as Sun Bumian had said, he raised his head, calmly sweeping his gaze around.

His expression was complex.

"So, it was this memory after all..."

Meanwhile, bodyguards from the Starfall Merchant Guild and nearby law enforcement officers quickly rushed toward them. The butler, his nose covered in blood, stumbled to his feet. With their support, his confidence clearly surged.

Standing on the high steps, the butler pointed at Jian Changsheng in the snow and began to curse loudly:

"Xiao Jian!! Aren't you coming back?! Do you really think our Yan family can't handle you?? You're nothing but a dog-servant without our family's protection!!"

Whoosh— The wind and snow swept across the snowy ground in front of the door, gently fluttering the corners of the two figures' clothes.

"I didn't expect you to have lived such a repressed life before," Sun Bumian said leisurely to Jian Changsheng, not even glancing at the butler. Twirling the prayer beads in his hand, he continued, "Even though this is just a memory, why don't you take this chance to let off some steam?"

Jian Changsheng stood silently in front of the grand gate, his gaze sweeping over the familiar faces around him and the repulsive butler. The past suffering surged in his heart... But in the end, he withdrew his gaze and spoke calmly,

"...No need. Let the past be the past. Xiao Jian is dead. In Jian Changsheng's future...they are nothing."

The current Jian Changsheng was now Spade 6 of the Twilight Society, his renown having spread throughout the nine great realms. A small Yan family, a short-sighted butler — they were no longer worthy of his attention. Jian Changsheng no longer needed to stoop to look down on these insignificant beings.

Jian Changsheng turned and walked away. His cold, calm eyes sent a shiver through the onlookers, who instinctively made way for him.

Seeing this, Sun Bumian naturally said nothing more, shrugging his shoulders and following.

The butler on the steps, seeing that Jian Changsheng actually dared to leave, and with so many people watching, was instantly furious, his curses echoing in the wind and snow:

"Fine... fine, fine, you dare to leave, do you?! Where do you think this is? This is Aurora City! Do you think you can just walk away? I'll have them break your legs and make you kneel at my doorstep for three days and three nights! You're just like your father, destined to be a dog-servant!!"

Jian Changsheng's eyes narrowed slightly.

With a casual flick of his fingers beneath his sleeve, a peal of thunder immediately ripped across the sky!

The next moment, the head of the cursing butler on the steps exploded like a firecracker. Blood mixed with brains splattered across the grand gate, and the harsh curses abruptly ceased...

After a brief pause, screams of terror echoed from behind.

Jian Changsheng did not stop walking.

The past turned to smoke behind him as he gazed steadfastly into the void ahead, speaking slowly:

"Let's go. We're going to save Red Heart."

"How is Red Heart's situation?" Sun Bumian asked.

Jian Changsheng shook his head, his gaze complex.

"By myself, I can't save him... That's hell within hell."

Pale spotlights shone on Jian Changsheng's face.

He took a deep breath, slowly exhaled. After a long moment, he opened his eyes again, trying to face the dense, crimson eyes in the darkness with a calm state of mind.

"Is this your memory, Red Heart?" Jian Changsheng gave a bitter laugh. "What in the world... is all this??"

Since opening his eyes, Jian Changsheng had been on this mysterious stage. The first sight of the audience in the darkness made his scalp tingle, almost to the point of explosion.

Jian Changsheng tried to escape, but no matter which direction he went, he couldn't leave the stage. Moreover, the crimson eyes would follow his movements, staring at him with a chillingly mocking gaze.

This feeling made Jian Changsheng feel like a mouse for amusement, living bewildered in a glass box, experiencing intense psychological pressure.

Jian Changsheng also noticed a mysterious bookshelf beside the stage, seemingly holding several scripts. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make out what was written on them, nor could he take them down; they seemed to be locked in place.

Finally, Jian Changsheng's gaze fell upon the curtain.

Movie-like scenes flowed across it.

Jian Changsheng walked to the curtain, staring blankly at everything...

* He saw the dazzling glare of surgical lights shining overhead, figures pressing someone back onto a bed, meticulously cutting open their body with a scalpel;* He saw shovelfuls of damp earth obscuring the view, burying a blood-soaked body bag;* He saw a disheveled figure, soaked and forlorn, alone in a narrow room, chewing on fragments of a boning knife;* He saw a pair of parents personally drug their child, pull an axe from a sack, and cleave his head;* He saw a handsome young man in a theatrical robe standing in the house; as he gently blew out a candle, a cold wind swept into the room, and when he suddenly looked back, the youth had vanished...

"This is..." Jian Changsheng stood frozen.

Jian Changsheng watched Chen Ling rush onto the snow-covered wilderness, desperately digging through the earth beneath him, tears mingling with sweat streaming down his cheeks. Deep sorrow appeared in his eyes.

So, this was Chen Ling's past?

Jian Changsheng didn't understand why, if this was the same memory rotation, Sun Bumian could appear directly in his own memory, while he himself could only come to this strange theater and see Chen Ling's past through the curtain. But he knew that to redeem Chen Ling, he had to make up for his regrets.

"Damn it... How do I get in to help him??"

Jian Changsheng hammered at the curtain in front of him with his fists, but it was like hitting a concrete wall, producing dull thudding sounds. He couldn't enter at all.