Chapter Thirty-Two: The Future That Once Was

Having shed the disguise granted by his Ring of Deceit, Li Ren made his way back to Skull Mountain. He had already traveled this path once before, when he came from the direction of the skull, and there was nothing particularly noteworthy along the route. As he gazed at the beautiful world before him, the absence of that teeming throng of players left the landscape cloaked in tranquility. The perfection of nature that unfolded around him sent his thoughts wandering far into unknown realms.

This journey had inadvertently revealed things to him that made the true nature of this world seem even more obscure. Not to mention the loose threads left behind by Mo Ran—just the bizarre events that had happened to him were enough: the Woma Temple under complete control, Zhao Yun appearing at his side and leaving behind a sword technique, and the Azure Dragon Five Movements that, after contact, seemed to pull him into another world.

His head felt like a giant bellows, with two dark red flames burning fiercely in his pitch-black eye sockets.

“This damn place is so strange. The things appearing in this game are just too bizarre. If this were a normal system, nothing like this would ever happen—and that Zhao Yun… he doesn’t feel like an NPC to me!” Li Ren’s thoughts surged turbulently.

Caught up in his rumination, he paid no attention to his surroundings, walking forward mechanically, step by step, until he finally noticed that the entire environment had changed, dragging him out of his reverie.

“Huh? What the—? Where am I?” Li Ren looked around in confusion. All around him, both before and behind, the ground was covered with smooth pebbles.

Each stone was polished like jade, reflecting gentle beams of light under the sun—a peculiar but not unattractive sight.

“I actually got myself lost? That’s impossible!” Li Ren tensed instinctively.

“I don’t remember any place like this in the Misty Mountains,” he muttered, scratching his head as he pulled up the map provided by the system.

On the vast map, his own marker was nowhere to be found!

“This… this…” Li Ren stared around himself once more, unable even to figure out the direction from which he’d come.

Since he was here and it seemed impossible to get out for the moment, he let go of his concern. Having witnessed several strange occurrences lately, his nerves were now immune to such oddities.

Following the direction the pebbles seemed to lead, Li Ren strolled along at a leisurely pace.

At first glance, these stones appeared scattered and random, but a closer look revealed a pattern in their seeming chaos.

He hadn’t gone far before the world around him shifted again, in an eerie and inexplicable way.

The pebble-strewn ground vanished, replaced by a small pond.

The water lay still as glazed porcelain, with a few lotus leaves floating atop it like carvings of emerald.

At the pond’s edge sat a solitary figure, gazing across the water at Li Ren.

The man was draped in black robes, shrouded entirely in darkness.

Motionless and silent, he seemed as lifeless as a statue—so too did the pond and its lotus leaves, devoid of the faintest spark of life.

His eyes were lost in confusion, staring unfocused in the direction of the lotus leaves.

Li Ren simply stood there in silence, not uttering a word.

A long time passed.

“It’s good to see you again,” the man said at last, word by word, as though fulfilling a long-held wish.

With his voice, the confusion faded from his eyes, and his lost focus at last settled upon Li Ren.

“Heh, what a strange feeling,” he murmured, a soft laugh on his lips—one that carried sorrow and helplessness.

“I know you, Li Ren, but you do not know me. I know I am waiting for you, but I do not remember my past.” He glanced at the silent, unmoving Li Ren. “I have lost myself, yet I know I was fated to meet you here.”

“Who are you?” Li Ren’s calmness bordered on madness.

“Me?” The man forced a bitter smile. “I don’t even know who I am.”

“Where is this place?”

“This is the Last Watch—a secret space.”

“What do you want from me?”

“To help you.”

Li Ren turned on his heel and walked away. He had no interest in engaging in madness with this figure, even if it meant missing out on some gain; after all, nothing was ever gained without some price.

“Sword Art Online! Ninety-three!” Li Ren kept walking.

“Lan Xiaowu.” Li Ren suddenly stopped.

The man sighed.

“You told me once—and as it turns out, you were right.”

“Who are you, really?” Li Ren’s tone was cold as he stared at the enigmatic figure before him.

Cautiously, the man approached from the water’s edge, stopping in front of Li Ren, meeting his sharp, chilling gaze.

“You can think of me as an NPC. Or as your most loyal subordinate, your follower—because we once made such a promise.”

“Once?”

“Yes. You may not know it yet, but in the future…” He paused, sighing deeply.

Li Ren waited in silence.

“You once said, as long as I uttered the name Lan Xiaowu before you and gave you this, you would believe me.”

As he spoke, he drew a small object wrapped in black silk from his robe.

It was a small, circular token cut from ordinary wood, its surface polished smooth from frequent handling, though a fissure had begun to show with age.

On the token, a single character was carved in bright red. Li Ren glanced at it and waved his hand dismissively.

He stopped the man from speaking further. He understood well enough that this man was about to tell a story—and it was a tale Li Ren no longer wanted to hear.

The things this man said, and the token he produced, forced Li Ren to accept that everything he claimed was true.

“I understand. In that case, perhaps you should tell me your story,” Li Ren said, dropping to the ground as if laying down an immense burden and suddenly feeling much lighter. The man, too, sensed that Li Ren now truly believed him; even he found the whole situation deeply strange.

But only Li Ren knew there was nothing strange about it at all. That timeworn wooden token was a secret he had once shared in the real world with the steward who cared for him like a grandfather. There was nothing extraordinary about it, except that it carried with it memories tinged with nostalgia and a trace of unforgettable regret.

“I come from the future. To be precise, I was once just like you.”

His first words immediately piqued Li Ren’s curiosity.

“All I remember now are some of the things that will happen from this moment onward, and some of what you have experienced. For the sake of our old convictions, we placed our final hope on you.” The man glanced at the little pond, then continued, “As for me, I suppose I am now truly an NPC. My name and identity were lost in a future long gone. To leave you with as much as I could, I had to relinquish everything else.”

Li Ren said nothing. He still didn’t know why, but he could sense, in the calmness of the man’s tale, the price he had paid—and the unyielding spirit that even now burned within him.