Chapter 170: You Will Never Escape Me

The Artist had previously devoured tens of thousands of Fierce Ghosts, including S-Level entities. Given its abilities, any Fierce Ghost it consumed and assimilated became part of itself, entirely losing its independence.

This was the first time a devoured Fierce Ghost had managed to turn around and pollute it in return.

The Smiling Man was an existence surpassing S-Level and could not be judged by common sense. Xu Yuan had indeed been too overconfident.

However, he did not panic. Watching the human heads on his body undergo ghost transformation and escape one by one, while the remaining heads began to laugh maniacally, he maintained his composure and considered a countermeasure.

It appeared that erasing Gao Tian, the source, still couldn't stop the fact that the Smiling Man already existed.

After Gao Tian first used the Ghost Transformation Spear to commit suicide and turned into a ghost, the Smiling Man had already been born into space-time. Even if the Time Coffin pulled Gao Tian back, it only knocked the Smiling Man offline temporarily.

In other words, the moment the current Gao Tian died—by any method—the Smiling Man would immediately come back online.

The Ghost Transformation Spear wasn't even needed anymore.

The only good news was that the Smiling Man still obeyed the uniqueness of space-time.

Only one Gao Tian could exist in a single timeline. Gao Tian was Gao Tian, and the Smiling Man was also Gao Tian; the two were mutually exclusive. That was why the Smiling Man had vanished the moment Gao Tian resurrected.

If this era didn't want to face the apocalypse twenty years early, the only option was to bring the living Gao Tian back and use his existence to block the Smiling Man.

Ignoring the mutations occurring across his body, Xu Yuan turned and looked at the Supernatural Item named the Time Coffin.

From among the countless churning human heads, a bizarre face pieced together from two halves—one yin and one yang—surged into his palm.

Xu Yuan immediately lowered his massive hand, pressed the spliced face against the Time Coffin, and activated its rule:

The Twin Ghost Mask allowed a Supernatural Item to trigger the exact same effect as its previous use.

The Twin Ghost Mask could only lick each distinct Supernatural Item once. After that, it could never lick it again.

The Time Coffin's previous activation had reversed Gao Tian's body to its state at 5:17. As the Twin Ghost Mask licked the surface of the coffin, that exact same effect triggered once more.

The Smiling Man, who had been trapped inside Xu Yuan's body laughing wildly, slowly reversed out of his flesh, bit by bit.

The countless wounds on his body began to heal, and the ugly, twisted smile on his face was wrenched back to normal. His appearance grew closer and closer to that of an ordinary human.

The living Gao Tian had returned. He was logging back in, forcing the Smiling Man out.

Just as Xu Yuan thought the Smiling Man would be suppressed in this timeline, the corners of Gao Tian's mouth slowly curled up again, twisting back into that nightmarish smile. "Did you think—that just because I died—I would cease to exist—?"

"Once I am born—I exist across different timelines—"

"Even if I return—I am still me—"

"You—forever—your era—now that I've found it—will never—escape me—"

Gao Tian's face twisted in bizarre ways. Blood constantly seeped from his back and legs. Liver spots surfaced, faded, surfaced, and faded. Life and death were warring across his entire body.

If the Smiling Man came online again now, the living Gao Tian would go offline forever. Xu Yuan would have to face this temporal Fierce Ghost that could never be contained.

"Haha—heehee haha—wait for me—when I come to your timeline—"

"I will surely—make your world—just as beautiful—"

Right now, the consciousness occupied by the Smiling Man was growing larger and larger; he was on the verge of successfully taking over.

Its growth speed was astonishing. It could already resist the Time Coffin's reversal effect, and it intended to descend into this era ahead of schedule instead of waiting twenty years.

Looking at this filthy thing that was even more abhorrent than himself, Xu Yuan pondered for a moment. Though reluctant, he decided to lend Gao Tian a hand.

Before him, the staggering, tottering Gao Tian repeatedly flickered between the states of a living person and a corpse.

"Killing Rule No. 1112: Nightmare Apostle."

"Able to enter the depths of another's dream and converse with the dream owner's subconscious."

This Killing Rule was originally used by ghosts to enter other people's dreams, plant fear, pain, and hatred in their subconscious, and drive them insane.

Right now, however, Xu Yuan needed to enter Gao Tian's subconscious, pull him up, and force him to take control of his body.

By the time Xu Yuan opened his eyes again, his surroundings had drastically changed. It was already dusk.

At five in the evening, the bell for the end of the last class rang, and the campus relaxed from the tension of the day. The sky shifted from blue to a soft tangerine red, the clouds dyed with golden edges. A layer of warm light flowed across the glass windows of the teaching building, laboratory building, and library.

In front of the teaching building, students clutching books hurried out in twos and threes. Some discussed exercises, while others wore headphones. The evening breeze passed through the tree-lined path, rustling the leaves. The sunlight was sliced into mottled shadows across the flagstone road, lengthening the silhouette of every pedestrian.

This was the depths of Gao Tian's subconscious: the North Campus of Minghai Lanhai University.

Xu Yuan shifted his gaze. A ten-year-old boy sat alone at the bottom of the steps. Motionless, with his head lowered, he seemed to be waiting for someone.

It was young Gao Tian.

He knew nothing of the struggle happening outside. Completely immersed in his own world, he quietly counted the ants at his feet.

In Taoist terms, he only had a wisp of a wandering soul left; in modern medical terms, the patient was in a deep coma.

As long as this little Gao Tian was brought out of his subconscious, the living Gao Tian on the outside would be able to log back in, right?

Xu Yuan walked over.

He arrived in front of little Gao Tian, leaned over, patted his head, and spoke in a very gentle tone. "Don't play here anymore."

"Come with me. There are more important things waiting for you outside."

Little Gao Tian slowly raised his head and glanced at Xu Yuan. He shook his head. "No."

"I have to keep waiting here."

"I have to wait until they come back. I'm afraid they won't be able to find me if I leave."

Despite his size advantage, Xu Yuan didn't forcibly drag little Gao Tian away.

Human consciousness was a highly complex, precise machine. Relying on brute force to alter its structure would only cause greater damage.

Right now, he could only persuade little Gao Tian to leave voluntarily. If the boy refused to go, forcing him would be useless.

Even though things were critically urgent outside, Xu Yuan remained calm and asked gently, "Who are you waiting for? How long have you been waiting?"

Little Gao Tian wasn't very guarded. He looked up at Xu Yuan, and with a bit of grievance, said softly, "I'm waiting for my parents. They told me to just stay here for a little while, that they'd be back to pick me up very soon."

"But I've been waiting for a long time. Day after day, year after year. The leaves here have all turned from green to dark yellow, but they still haven't come back to get me."

"How long have I waited? I don't know... probably ten years."

Waited for ten years?

Xu Yuan slowly raised his head and looked at the teaching building in the distance.

In the top-floor laboratory, a raging fire burned. Behind the thick tempered glass, tongues of flame greedily licked at everything, casting a red glow over the instruments and pipes. Thick smoke laced with a burnt smell constantly poured out from the window cracks and vents.

This fire in the laboratory had also been burning inside little Gao Tian's subconscious for a full ten years.

Strangely enough, the university students, professors, and administrative staff passing beneath the burning building had no reaction at all. They turned a blind eye to the inferno above, going about their business as usual.

Xu Yuan knew this was a person's mental world to begin with; as long as little Gao Tian felt it was normal, the passing pedestrians wouldn't care either.

He also knew that the people little Gao Tian had spent ten years waiting for were never coming back. They wouldn't return even if he waited another ten.

Xu Yuan sighed and patted little Gao Tian's head once more. "If your parents never come back, are you just going to keep waiting?"

Little Gao Tian kicked a small pebble by his feet. "I don't know."

"Maybe."

"I'm scared. If I leave and my parents come back looking for me, won't they be worried?"

Xu Yuan guided him patiently, "Have you ever thought about why your parents haven't come back to find you all this time?"

"It's because they've already gone to another place and are waiting for you there. If you wait here, of course they won't be able to find you."

"They might be anxiously waiting for you right now, just like you're waiting for them."

A slightly stunned expression crossed little Gao Tian's face. He slowly looked up. "Mister, do you know where my parents went?"

Xu Yuan nodded and said seriously, "Of course I know. As long as you come with me, I'll take you to find your parents right now."

Tempted, little Gao Tian took two steps forward, but feeling a bit uneasy, he asked again to confirm, "You—you wouldn't lie to me, right?"

Beneath Xu Yuan's calm tone lay a trace of arrogance and conceit. "Every promise I make is absolutely valid."

"I'm not so despicable that I'd trick a little kid for fun."

Framed by the setting sun, two figures—one large, one small—walked away. Xu Yuan led the way, with little Gao Tian following behind. Ignoring the burning teaching building at their backs, they walked farther and farther away.

When Gao Tian slowly opened his eyes, Xu Yuan knew he had succeeded for the time being. The living Gao Tian had logged back in, suppressing the Smiling Man once more.

However, this override was only temporary.

The Smiling Man had already been born into their era. The moment Gao Tian died, he would instantly reappear.

For the moment, Xu Yuan hadn't thought of a particularly good solution.

The best outcome would be for the Artist to successfully devour the Smiling Man, not only gaining his abilities but ensuring this monster would never return.

But he had tried that earlier and ended up nearly being devoured himself.

The current stopgap measure was to keep Gao Tian like a pet, ensuring he couldn't die no matter what, constantly exploiting the uniqueness of space-time to block the entity.

Forget it. There would be plenty of time in the future; he would take things one step at a time.

Xu Yuan stopped dwelling on it.

He walked past the newly resurrected, highly confused Gao Tian. "You have good luck. I won't kill you for now. We'll head back to the Inner World first, and then I'll take you to find your parents."

"We had a deal."

"I, Xu Yuan, am not so despicable that I'd trick a little kid for fun."