Chapter 645: The Late Coming Story of Youth

Huge raindrops pounded the car roof like a drumbeat echoing across heaven and earth, thudding and thudding.

Zhou Mingrui changed into a black suit and a plain white tie, arriving outside the city's largest church.

He opened his umbrella, stepped forward after a successful WeChat Pay, and walked into the dense crowd.

Luxury cars were parked everywhere; only he, who had come by taxi, seemed out of place—but he had no energy to care about such trivialities.

"Come in," the guard nodded to him.

After verifying his identity, Zhou Mingrui walked along the carpeted path into the church.

The church was filled with candles, their glow like mountains and seas; the organ played a somber mass, and a white hexagonal coffin rested on the altar.

The one presiding over the memorial was not a pastor, but a young girl with black hair and golden eyes.

Her long hair shone like silk, with delicate bangs framing her face; she wore a black evening gown that clung to her figure, like a proud black swan.

The moment he appeared, camera-carrying journalist crews swarmed him like flies, blocking the front and leaving Zhou Mingrui unable to see anything.

He found a random seat, propped his chin on his hand, and silently gazed at the coffin.

To be honest, as a friend, Li Jiatu wasn't bad.

He often pushed me the WeChat IDs of pretty girls, turned meals into blind dates, and sent me erotic pictures daily, completely unconcerned whether I needed them.

Oh, and last time he promised to take me and Miss Huang Beibei to dinner, ordered a hundred-thousand-yuan meal at a Michelin restaurant, then vanished.

It was Miss Huang Beibei who paid for me, sparing me the fate of scrubbing dishes with steel wool in the neighboring White Horse Club.

Aside from these annoying things.

He was actually quite a good person.

Zhou Mingrui did not look at the "body" inside the coffin; it was said the killer's methods were extremely brutal, and when the police arrived, Li Jiatu's body had not a single intact patch.

The sight of his death was too horrific.

"Isn't that Young Master Shangguan?"

"Young Master Duanmu, long time no see—have Master Murong and Young Master Ye come too?"

Zhou Mingrui glanced at the four second-generation rich kids chatting nearby.

Only then did he realize that many of the guests invited to Li Jiatu's funeral were still discussing business, exchanging pleasantries, using the occasion to make connections.

A young man had died, yet no one seemed willing to genuinely mourn Li Jiatu.

Zhou Mingrui fell silent for a moment, then suddenly stood up and walked out—he didn't want to linger in this place of sorrow.

"Zhou Mingrui? Wait." Someone called out to him.

Zhou Mingrui turned his head and saw it was Miss Lu Mingfei.

Her eyes were as dull as ashes, like gold coated in dust, cold as ice, expressionless—but for some reason, Zhou Mingrui now felt

'There's an angry lion in her eyes.'

An automatic thought surfaced in Zhou Mingrui's mind.

The quiet little grove behind the church.

Zhou Mingrui and Lu Mingfei walked side by side along a path flanked by tombstones; Li Jiatu's sister, Lu Mingze, rushed toward Lu Mingfei as if reuniting after a long separation.

"Big Sister~" Lu Mingze clung to her, sobbing:

"While you were gone, Brother Jiatu kept bullying me! He stole my body, but he can't steal my heart, wu wu!"

Had he misjudged that beast Li Jiatu?

Hearing this explosive revelation, Zhou Mingrui felt all his earlier sorrow had been fed to dogs.

Lu Mingfei's face visibly turned green.

She used all her strength to peel off the gothic little girl, Lu Mingze.

"Go play somewhere else!" Lu Mingfei's tone was sharp: "Why didn't you get buried with him?!"

Lu Mingze stuck out her tongue, then resumed her haughty expression, as if Li Jiatu's death had affected her not at all.

This family was all a bit off.

"You," Lu Mingfei turned to him, opened her mouth, and said:

"Li Jiatu mentioned you to me—I'll keep helping you with the Tai Chu Group's bid to buy your company."

Zhou Mingrui was surprised.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

After saying that, Lu Mingfei kept her gloomy expression and walked forward, neither letting Zhou Mingrui leave nor speaking another word.

Zhou Mingrui thought she was probably too grief-stricken to act normally.

"Please accept my condolences."

"."

They walked for a while longer, then Lu Mingfei suddenly stopped, standing before a freshly dug grave.

Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the grave; beside it stood an unmarked tombstone.

Overcome with grief?

Zhou Mingrui sighed silently; he wasn't a talkative person, but decided to find a topic:

"I didn't know you were Li Jiatu's sister—I spent a month's salary on your first concert ticket; your singing and dancing were full of energy."

"What do you think of the view here?" Lu Mingfei asked, pointing to the grave, her voice slow: "Do you like it here?"

"?" Zhou Mingrui froze.

He hadn't noticed a small hill far behind him.

"You're something else," said a girl with eyebrows like distant mountains dusted with ink, waist-length black hair, and silver-gold eyes, slowly lowering her telescope.

"Don't move yet," Li Jiatu, his neck crushed by the Sky Phantasm, eyes rolling back, gasped: "Let me… explain first."

"The form before the grave is stable; you don't need to explain." Su Yuling said.

"Big sister, why not have some afternoon tea?" Lu Mingze placed a plate of pastries on the table and urged.

"You've tried this many times already—normal methods won't kill your brother~"

Su Yuling crossed her legs, gazing at the delicate pastries and cake Lu Mingze had brought, paired with the white porcelain set—she had seemingly become a noble young lady's afternoon tea gathering.

"Tsk. Impolite little girl."

Ripples appeared simultaneously on the Azure Form and Su Yuling's body, like ripples on water.

After a while, the Azure Form transformed into Su Yuling's appearance, while Su Lin sat in the chair he had just vacated.

The scene now showed a young girl using her slender arms, with astonishing strength, to single-handedly grip a man's throat and lift him high into the air.

Which one is Su Lin?

Both are.

Su Yuling is his image within the dream world; from the moment he entered this world, Su Lin was fixed to the identity of 'Su Yuling,' synchronizing with the dream world's background and setting.

It felt like waking up suddenly after sleeping for a very long time.

The Azure Form happened to be Su Lin's inseparable spiritual entity, so it was also brought into this dream world.

And because the rank of the First Azure still existed, his power was not restricted.

Crack.

Li Jiatu's neck snapped.

The Azure Form retracted; Su Lin's hair grew again, his facial contours softened, and subtle changes occurred in his bones.

Su Yuling pulled out a mirror, gazing at that face—the most beautiful in the universe—and sneered: "You should be grateful everyone is scattered, not gathered in one place; otherwise—"

"Otherwise what?" Li Jiatu twisted his neck back into place and rose from the ground, pointing toward Zhou Mingrui with a chuckle:

"That pop idol, the Disaster Witch identity? I made it for myself!"

"If I hadn't thought he seemed more interested in you, I'd have taken matters into my own hands soon, using the whole 'mysterious idol moves next door' plot to fill my buddy's emotional void!"

"Don't you find it fascinating to deceive an amnesiac, emotionally cold buddy into falling for you?"

"Especially the moment he wakes up and questions his entire existence."

"Hmm, it does sound interesting." Su Lin ran his fingers through his hair, gathering all the loose strands to the back and tying them with a string.

"You understand me?!" Li Jiatu exclaimed. "You've evolved to this level already?"

"No, I mean, Lu Mingfei, you need to work harder." Su Lin picked up the walkie-talkie and spoke: "I want to watch this."

There was no sound from the other end of the walkie-talkie.

Since he didn't speak, he must have agreed.

Li Jiatu—or rather, Old Lu—still had a backup identity in this dream world, so no matter how hard Su Lin attacked, this guy remained unkillable, like he had invincibility enabled.

But Lu Mingfei was unlucky.

Since Li Jiatu's identity was occupied by Old Lu, the moment he appeared in this world, he automatically logged into Old Lu's created Witch account.

This shameless thing had turned this dream world into a life simulation game—after feminizing himself, he went on stage to sing, dance, and rap, becoming a top idol.

"So I'm the Goddess of Light in his subconscious?" Su Lin frowned.

"Not exactly. I just thought this image was too good to waste, so I made him remember the Goddess of Light." Old Lu slumped in his chair, smiling weakly:

"So even if you kill me, you won't revert to your original form in this world~"

Old Lu aided memory recall, reinforced by Kleine's cognition, using the 'Goddess of Light' image and Su Lin's mental template to deceive the world and fabricate this false entity.

"Has his stupidity always been this intense?" Su Lin pointed at Old Lu and asked Lu Mingze.

Crack.

"No," Old Lu straightened his neck and said:

"If I hadn't been suddenly trapped here and couldn't leave, I wouldn't have gone this far. I just didn't expect you to find a way in so quickly."

Lu Mingfei had absorbed the City of Calamity; when Old Lu realized Kleine's dream was subtly aggregating all the Primordial Essences, he, bored and idle, brought Lu Mingze into this dream world.

Similar to how Su Lin influenced the dream through his Nascent Soul's connection to Yuanshi Tianzun and the Primordial.

He'd only wanted to find a place to play and kill time.

But as he played, the world quietly changed.

A layer of chaos—formless, shapeless, ever-shifting, corrupting primordial essence with blind folly—had spread along the boundaries of this dream world.

Ascended to an Elder?

Elders couldn't create such a spectacle.

"And you weren't kicked out?" Old Lu was astonished. "Su Yuling's identity was declared dead, wasn't it?"

Su Lin raised his hand; the inverted Kabbalistic Tree's fallen emblem appeared on his palm.

The moment he awoke, a force had enveloped him—he'd seen before him an unfathomably vast darkness.

At that moment, this emblem dispelled the darkness.

"It seems Tianzun did leave a backup plan." Su Lin seemed to understand: "Troublesome fellow."

Probably because his previous fusion with Meng Wangle had led him to discover an alternative ascension ritual.

His apparent helplessness and compromise, using Nyarlathotep's rank to fabricate reality's acknowledgment as Kleine's divine aspect—was all a performance for Su Lin and others, meant to lull them into complacency, making them ignore or abandon interference with the dream world.

In truth, if Tianzun had truly abandoned resistance and lost all selfhood, even if Kleine's ascension drew closer to the Blind Folly God, Su Lin and the others entering the dream world should not have been targeted or rejected.

The only reason this dream world exhibits such anomalies is one.

"He's still here."

【Tianzun retained some selfhood; these remnants do not reside on Zhou Mingrui, but within all things of the dream world—so even I am rejected.】

—Reporter · Primordial Creator

Zhou Mingrui believed death was a heavy thing.

But he still lay down in the newly dug grave, following the "Witch of Calamity"'s advice, to test whether it was comfortable for Li Jiatu.

This left him covered head to toe in dirt!

Back home, after bathing and changing clothes, Zhou Mingrui began to rack his brains: who would have it in for a carefree, eccentric rich kid?

"Ah," he let out a sigh.

He wasn't a police officer or a detective; thinking too hard about it was useless.

He gazed out the window at the city's sunset scenery, at the bustling elevated highways, and gradually sank into a sense of loss, a feeling of helplessness spreading through him.

As time passed, the sky grew hazy and dim, the nightfall descended, and stars dotted the heavens.

"It's said Li Jiatu had many girlfriends before, and plenty of reports condemned him; his current girlfriend is overseas and hasn't returned—could this be a love-related killing?"

There's a possibility.

Zhou Mingrui felt he could regulate his mood well; it hadn't been long, and he'd already shaken off the sorrow of his friend's departure.

There was no choice—life had to go on.

Reason told him so.

Ding dong!

Ding dong!

Ding dong!

The clock's chime jolted him awake; Zhou Mingrui turned to look at the alarm clock on the wall, then at the time on his phone, stepped forward, and adjusted the hands back to the correct position.

This alarm clock was something he'd picked up at an antique shop—it was old, and needed occasional adjustment.

"I should go buy some dinner…"

He glanced at the residential compound and saw no one around, so he opened the window, stepped onto the sill, and leapt down with practiced ease.

In the wind, his body felt weightless, as if all his worries had been blown away.

Since becoming an assassin, this was his favorite thing to do.

Moments later, he floated down like a feather.

He landed steadily. Zhou Mingrui didn't move further—he just stared, stunned, at a girl ahead holding a suitcase; she stepped out from the corner, her black-blue hair, delicate face, and ruffled lace dress catching his eye.

She looked familiar.

"Zhou Ge?" she exclaimed happily.

"Huai Zhi." Zhou Ming's pupils shrank: "Suzi?"

He seemed to remember something—the Cycle Space, missions, Huai Zhi, the Marvel instance.

"Come help me with my luggage," Huai Zhi said. "I've returned from studying abroad."

"Oh oh." Zhou Mingrui's pupils gradually returned to normal.

He remembered—Huai Zhi Suzi was the child next door, his childhood friend?