"As for Chen Muye..." Yuan Gang tapped his knuckles lightly on the table, "To be honest, I don't know what happened back then either."
"About twelve years ago, after Chen Muye graduated from the recruit training camp, he and another genius were recruited into the Night Watchers team in Shangjing City. Their forbidden sequences were too rare and complemented each other. At that time, other special teams tried to recruit them, but the commander-in-chief overruled the objections and put them into the Shangjing City team."
"Chen Muye's Forbidden Realm is 037, the [Black Impermanence], while the other person, Shao Pingge, the current captain of the Shangjing City team, has a Forbidden Realm sequence of 038, the [White Impermanence]. Due to their Forbidden Realms, the two of them are also known to outsiders as the 'Black and White Impermanence of Shangjing City'."
"Black Impermanence and White Impermanence?" A hint of doubt appeared in Lin Qiye's eyes. "I've always been curious about who named this Forbidden Ruins, and whether these two are related to the Black and White Impermanence in the Great Xia mythology?"
"I don't know either. The origins of these two forbidden ruins are too ancient, and the relevant files are top secret among the Night Watchmen. I simply don't have the authority to access them," Yuan Gang shook his head and continued.
"They trained in the team in Shangjing City for two years, and then one day, Chen Muyi seemed to have received some special instructions, and disappeared from Shangjing City the next day..."
At that time, I had not yet joined the Night Watchmen of Shangjing City. It is said that Shao Pingge and the others went to the Commander-in-Chief that day to ask him what had happened, but the Commander-in-Chief only replied, "It is a confidential matter and cannot be disclosed," and then turned them away."
"At that time, everyone was still busy with the so-called 'catastrophe of the world'. After a long time, they finally had time to investigate Chen Muye's whereabouts, only to find out that... he had actually come to Cangnan City to be the team leader!"
"I heard from Shao Pingge that he had come to Cangnan several times to persuade Chen Muye to return, but Chen Muye refused each time. After several attempts, Shao Pingge finally gave up and returned to Shangjing City, where he gradually became the captain."
After listening to Yuan Gang's description, Lin Qiye frowned. Yuan Gang indeed didn't know much; the truly crucial part was missing, which made the whole incident seem mysterious...
"What is this 'catastrophe' you just mentioned?" Lin Qiye asked, puzzled.
"It's a forbidden object, the most terrifying forbidden object in history." Yuan Gang took a deep breath. "Its name is [Shiva's Wrath]."
"Shiva? One of the three main gods in Hindu mythology, the god of destruction?"
"That's right, the essence of [Shiva's Grudge] is an ancient parchment scroll, a terrifying, world-destroying divine ruin with Sequence 008. As long as a 'name' is written in the blank space of the parchment scroll, the 'concept' it points to will be directly destroyed."
Lin Qiye was taken aback. "Similar to Death Note?"
"They're worlds apart." Yuan Gang shook his head. "The Death Note can only kill people whose names are written on it, while [Shiva's Grudge] destroys more than just people."
"For example, on the surface of that parchment, the words 'Great Xia' were written..."
Lin Qiye seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly his eyes widened. "Then..."
"It will directly annihilate the entire Great Xia from a 'conceptual' perspective, which is to say... destroy the country!" Yuan Gang's voice was extremely deep.
"How could such an outrageous forbidden item exist?" Lin Qiye gasped, unable to contain himself.
"How could those top ten forbidden ruins possess such monstrous power? This has completely exceeded the scope of "forbidden ruins," hasn't it?"
"Of course, this is only in theory." Yuan Gang paused, then continued, "Although this forbidden artifact is powerful, activating it requires an enormous amount of mental energy. Even just writing a name on it, like using the Death Note to erase the life of an ordinary person, would drain the mental energy of a 'Chuan' realm expert, let alone achieving something as absurd as destroying a country."
"If that's the case, its threat doesn't seem that great, so why is it called 'the cataclysmic disaster'?"
Yuan Gang slowly closed his eyes. "Just because humans can't do it doesn't mean that gods can't... If divine power is poured into this forbidden object, although it may not be able to destroy a country, destroying a city would be a piece of cake."
"After the appearance of [Shiva's Lament], several evil gods wandering in the mist coveted its existence, and ten years ago, a divine war even broke out in their struggle to seize this parchment."
"A war of gods?!" Lin Qiye's eyes widened.
"Back then, five of humanity's greatest talents gathered on the border of the Great Xia Dynasty and engaged in a fierce battle with Loki, the Norse god of mischief, and Gaia, the Greek mother of the earth, causing the heavens and earth to shatter."
"Then what?"
"And then? And then I don't know." Yuan Gang shrugged and said helplessly, "I'm just the deputy captain of the night watch team in Shangjing City. I'm not a high-ranking person. How would I know about something that would obviously be classified as confidential?"
"In short, the Night's Watch leadership never mentioned [Shiva's Lament] again after that."
"...All right."
Lin Qiye sighed helplessly. He was just getting to the crucial part of the story when it suddenly ended, leaving him feeling like he couldn't catch his breath and his whole body felt uncomfortable.
"I've told you everything about the two of you, and even sent you the story of [Shiva's Lament]. The two million should be deposited into your bank account in a couple of days. I'll take this forbidden item and send it to the Night's Watch headquarters for you tomorrow."
Yuan Gang reached out and put away [Boiling Blood], then slowly said.
Lin Qiye glanced at the time, stood up, saluted Yuan Gang, and then turned to leave.
Yuan Gang sat in his office chair, watching Lin Qiye's departing figure, and let out a long sigh.
...
At this moment, at the home of a certain instructor.
Thick ancient books and papers were scattered on the floor, densely packed, completely obscuring the original dark brown floor. Among these stacks of books, Instructor Gu lowered his head and carefully studied the book in his hands, sometimes lost in thought, sometimes frowning...
"Is the world real... or fake...? No... this isn't right..."
Instructor Gu frowned, put down the book in his hand, rubbed his sore lower back, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked extremely haggard.
"Never mind, I'll just take a nap first."He glanced at the time and muttered to himself.
Instructor Gu slowly stood up from the floor, climbed onto the bed, let out a long breath, and closed his eyes...
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Half a minute later,He suddenly woke up with a start, sat up abruptly in bed, and started scratching his hair incessantly with both hands...
"Aaaaaah!! Damn it! Is this world even real?"
"Yeah?"
"Isn't that right?!"
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!"