Chapter 283: Never Retired

Federal First Central Hospital, Special Care Ward.

Morning sunlight streamed through the gaps of the blinds, dappled on the pure white sheets. Everything seemed so peaceful and beautiful, until the man opened his eyes.

Liang Wen sprang up from the hospital bed, his signature hairstyle turned into a bird's nest after a night's sleep, but he obviously didn't care.

He covered his left eye, wrapped in bandages, and stared fixedly at the ceiling with his other eye, letting out a low growl as if an ancient god had clenched his throat.

"No mistake...... this feeling......"

The little nurse who was about to add medicine to his IV was startled, the tray in her hands shaking.

Liang Wen completely ignored his surroundings, he thrust his right hand forward, fingers splayed toward the void, where black flames that didn't exist seemed to be blazing fiercely.

"Shatter, reality! Crush, spirit! Banish this world!"

This shout, with breath sunk to the dantian and full of vigor, directly made the Special Care Ward sound like the Vienna State Opera.

Clang.

The little nurse ultimately couldn't hold the tray steady; the stainless steel tray crashed onto the tile floor, making a noise even sharper than the previous roar. Medicine bottles rolled everywhere, glass shards scattering.

Liang Wen maintained that embarrassingly flamboyant pose, turned his head, and even flirtatiously tossed his messy hair.

"Mortals, no need to panic." Liang Wen curled the corner of his mouth, showing a mouthful of white teeth; his expression was three parts nonchalant, seven parts supremely self-important, "Just now I was merely suppressing the dark power rampaging inside my body. If that force went out of control, this floor...... hum, would probably all turn to ash."

The little nurse sat slumped on the floor, looking at the man in a patient gown still striking a pose, tears welling in her eyes. During her orientation, no one had told her that the Special Care Ward housed escapees from a mental hospital.

"Although my seal has loosened, but to this extent......"

Before Liang Wen finished speaking, the heavy soundproof door was pushed open.

No knock.

It was like a gust of cold wind suddenly poured into the warm room; the temperature in the air instantly dropped to freezing. The little nurse instinctively shivered, even forgetting the earlier fright.

The one who entered was an old man.

Dressed in a gray Zhongshan suit, wearing double-layered cloth-soled shoes on his feet, he walked in with his hands behind his back, leisurely; his murky old eyes swept the room, finally landing on Liang Wen, who still had his hand raised.

Wei Gong.

Liang Wen's hand, held midair, stiffened for a moment, then he naturally scratched the back of his head.

"Hello, Wei Gong." Even the Dark Lord of the Abyss must observe workplace etiquette and hierarchical relations.

Wei Gong didn't respond.

He merely waved his hand at the little nurse on the floor, the motion as light as shooing away a fly.

The little nurse, as if pardoned, didn't even bother to clean up the mess on the floor, scrambling out of the ward and, as an afterthought, kindly closed the door behind her.

Only two people remained in the room.

And the ever-increasing oppressive pressure.

Wei Gong walked to the foot of the bed. He pulled out a document, a thick stack, that was the freshly issued physical examination report.

"Pa."

The report was tossed onto Liang Wen's lap. Not heavy, but the sound, heard in Liang Wen's ears, was louder than his earlier shout of "Shatter reality!"

"Take a look." Wei Gong pulled over a chair and sat down, his back ramrod straight.

Liang Wen's smile hadn't fully faded; he picked up the report with his good hand, didn't even open it, just tapped his fingers on the cover.

"No need to look, I know what it says." Liang Wen shrugged, tossed the report aside, "Old man, you seriously underestimate the recuperative power of an Abyss Walker. Give me two days... no, one day, and I'll be back on the job, jumping around."

"Telomere wear is at thirty-five percent."

Wei Gong's voice was very calm, calm as if he were reading an evening press release.

Liang Wen's smile froze.

"Internal organs show irreversible signs of failure...... especially the heart and liver." Wei Gong stared into Liang Wen's eyes, that gaze sharp as a scalpel, wanting to dissect this kid's ruffian exterior and see the rotting flesh within, "Put plainly, in this thirty-something body of yours, you now have the organs of a fifty- or sixty-year-old."

The ward was eerily quiet.

Only the cardiac monitor was still ticking, tick-tock.

Liang Wen fell silent for about five seconds. He lowered his head, looking at his own hands wrapped in bandages. Those hands were steady—steady when slaying the weird, steady when saving people—but now his fingertips trembled slightly.

"Two times."

Liang Wen suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse, lacking the earlier theatrical flair, "That night, I rewound twice."

"One time equals ten years......?"

Time has never been a free lunch.

To become a thief of time, time will take your life as collateral.

This is the price of being an Abyss Walker. Each reversal of causality drains vitality.

Wei Gong said in a deep voice, "If you do it two or three more times, you'll really be going to see King Yama."

"So what?"

Liang Wen lifted his head, his peach-blossom eyes bloodshot yet startlingly bright, "Let me retire? Chief, this doesn't match your style of employing people. Aren't you the one who loves squeezing out every last bit of value?"

"You can switch to a desk job."

Wei Gong looked at this young man he himself had promoted.

He remembered the first time he saw Liang Wen; this kid was practicing sword draws in front of a mirror, muttering something about a "Black Flame Dragon," so foolish it made you want to kick him.

But it was exactly this fool who, in his darkest hour, single-handedly bore the fate of the entire city.

"The Investigation Bureau has a idle consultant post; salary still paid, benefits unchanged. You could go mentor newcomers, teach them how to survive." Wei Gong's tone softened a bit; this was the biggest concession he could make, "You've done enough, Liang Wen. Leave the stage to Jiang Yuan and the others."

Semi-retirement.

This is the Federation's destination for this savior.

Liang Wen suddenly laughed.

He laughed so hard his shoulders shook, as if he'd heard the funniest joke ever. He looked left and right, reached over to the nightstand, picked up a cigarette box, skillfully shook out a cigarette, and held it in his mouth.

"Pa-da."

The lighter's flame flared up.

Smoking in the Special Care Ward should be a violation. But Wei Gong didn't stop him, nor said a word, just watched silently.

Anyway, the kid is a patient.

The acrid smoke circled his lungs, then was exhaled, blurring Liang Wen's somewhat pallid face.

"Old man, do you really think that if I don't use that ability, the world would be at peace?"

Liang Wen held the cigarette between his fingers and pointed toward the window.

The sky was a dull gray, as if it hadn't yet recovered from last night's cataclysm.

"I saw it."

Liang Wen's voice was soft, yet each word seemed forced through his teeth, "Before that Rewind, I saw the bone city Ouyang Feng became, and saw corpses strewn everywhere."

Wei Gong's pupils contracted slightly.

"That kind of despair, that loneliness of being the only one in the world who remembers what happened..." Liang Wen inhaled deeply, the ember flickering, reflecting in his right eye, heavy fatigue hidden within, "It's truly disgusting."

"If I don't use it, those tragedies will truly become reality."

"I am the Revoke Key. As long as I can move, as long as I can breathe, I must stand in that position."

Liang Wen ripped the blanket off abruptly, ignoring the IV line still attached to the back of his hand, yanking it away. The needle drew a string of blood droplets that fell onto the pristine sheet, shocking to the eye.

"Where are you going?" Wei Gong frowned, but didn't move.

"Discharge, recuperate for a while, then return to duty."

Liang Wen stood barefoot on the floor, the iconic black Windcoat hanging on the rack by the door. He walked over, slipped it on smoothly, the hem stirring a gust of wind.

He put the Fingerless Gloves back on, adjusted the collar, even though he was still in the blue‑white striped Patient Gown underneath. Once the Windcoat was on, that late‑stage "Dark-Blooded King" seemed to return.

Liang Wen twisted his mouth into an exaggerated grin, his right thumb and forefinger resting over his left eye, striking the classic shameful pose.

"I am the wanderer of the Abyss, the master of time, the embodiment of black flame, Dark Lord of the Abyss! How could the petty rules of mortals possibly bind my soul?"

"As long as this world still stages tragedies, as long as those Weird still rampage..."

"My performance will never end!"

Finishing his words, he didn't wait for Wei Gong's reply, flung the door open, and strode out. His aria‑like voice echoed down the Corridor, startling passing doctors and nurses who hurried aside.

"Tremble, world! Your king has returned!"

In the ward, Wei Gong still sat in the chair.

He watched the door that was left open, watched the extremely arrogant figure's back vanish at the far end of the Corridor.

A long time passed.

The Investigation Bureau director, famed for his iron‑blooded coldness, suddenly bent down and picked up the crushed cigarette butt from the floor.

"You scoundrel."

Wei Gong muttered a curse.

But on his wrinkled old face, a profoundly complex smile gradually emerged. It was resignation, regret, and a kind of... pride belonging to elders that he had never shown before his subordinates.

He stood, brushed the dust off his garment's hem.

"Relay my orders."

Wei Gong spoke into the empty room, his voice regaining that chilling, decisive coldness, "Raise Liang Wen's file encryption level to the highest. Also, double his supply quota..."

The old man adjusted his collar, turned, and left the ward.

The sunlight was just right.

But everyone knew that for these Night Watchers... the long night had only just begun.