"This Music Rune can save your life. Your boss is pretty good to you, right?" Lin Yun said with a grin, then conjured another rune and gave it to Li Xiye.

Then she saw Zhou Chen, who had accepted his rune, staring at her eagerly, as if to say, ’Boss, how about a little more?’

"Boss, can you spare a few more goodies for your favorite underling? I’m your number one guy, bar none," Zhou Chen said, putting on a fawning smile.

"Why don’t I just give you a full set of god-tier gear? Every strike will be a Critical Strike for 999 damage, and you’ll be able to kill anyone who gets in your way, be they man or god. Or how about I just become your 24/7 personal bodyguard?" Lin Yun asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes! That’d be great!" Zhou Chen knew the King of Music’s personality well. She might actually go through with it.

"Great my ass! Solve your own problems. If you have your boss clean up all your messes, how are you ever going to grow? How will you get stronger? How will you reach the pinnacle of your life?

Alright, I’ve got things to do, so I’m heading out. Call me if you need anything."

With that, Lin Yun reached out, opened an Any Door, and casually departed.

After she left, the atmosphere grew a bit awkward.

"Should we... head back?"

"Let’s go back," Li Xiye said, her face expressionless. She seemed truly exhausted.

The spot wasn’t far from the restaurant, so they walked in silence for a few minutes back to the parking lot. Zhou Chen drove with Li Xiye in the passenger seat.

Neither of them spoke a word the entire way. Zhou Chen wanted to say something several times but didn’t know what. Li Xiye leaned her head against the glass, quietly watching the scenery fly by outside the window, showing no intention of talking either.

Back home, Li Xiye went straight upstairs, returned to her room, locked the door tight, and collapsed wearily onto her bed. But of all the times, her phone chose that moment to ring—it was Guan Yao.

"Hello?" Li Xiye answered, her voice listless.

"Did it work?" Guan Yao asked impatiently.

"It’s all your lousy idea’s fault. It was a total bust!" Li Xiye said irritably.

"What? No way, how could that be? There’s no way he could resist your charms... So what’s the situation between you two now?"

"We’re going to be friends."

"..."

·

·

Zhou Chen went to the basement to meditate, trying to settle his restless heart and calm his mind, but he couldn’t help but sigh helplessly.

’Just friends...’ He could lie to others, but not to himself.

’There’s no such thing as a purely platonic friendship in this world. One side is bound to have other feelings, unless both the man and the woman are ugly... but that condition didn’t apply to them.’

’Given Li Xiye’s personality, after realizing she’d been played, she would have just said goodbye to me for good. There’s no way she’d agree to keep being friends...’ Zhou Chen had already figured it out. Lin Yun must have pulled some strings behind the scenes.

’Honestly, I feel like a complete scumbag for playing with her feelings. If Lin Yun hadn’t interfered, Li Xiye would have been completely heartbroken, right?’

The memory of the young woman’s forced smile, her reddened eyes, and the way she fought back tears made Zhou Chen’s resolve waver. He was wracked with guilt and even had the thought, ’Maybe I should just accept her.’

’After all, you can write whatever you want in a letter. What if Li Xiye just made it all up?’

’I had analyzed several possibilities before, like whether the letter’s contents were true or false. If the letter was fake, one possibility was that I never returned to the future and instead lived on with Li Xiye. Then, when the designated time came, Li Xiye would just write any old letter to lure the unsuspecting me to Hong City...’

’What if that was the case?’

His thoughts raced for who knows how long. Zhou Chen let out a soft sigh, shook his head to clear it, and cast out all distracting notions.

’Overthinking this will only make it worse. I should just let things run their course. Once I’ve dealt with my other problems, I’ll naturally find out which possibility is the truth.’

’The Prophet said I don’t have to do anything, that things will come to me on their own. In that case, I need to use this time to improve myself and be fully prepared.’

At this thought, Zhou Chen closed his eyes, cast aside all his wild and distracting notions, and let his consciousness float upward into the Round Table Hall.

He glanced at the various materials laid out on the ancient Obsidian Round Table, then let his body sink down to the side of the Wishing Fountain.

He had been fighting a lot recently, and his consumption of wish-power had been enormous, especially that one time he’d spied on Charles, which had used up a massive amount of Wishing Spring Water...

’Wait, why did spying on Charles consume so much wish-power?’

Zhou Chen frowned in confusion. It didn’t make any sense. Even if Charles had been trapped in another dimension, spying on him shouldn’t have cost that much.

Suddenly, the Round Table Hall trembled. The white mist churned violently, and a jolt went through Zhou Chen. A hazy memory that had been almost completely forgotten, as if wiped clean of dust, resurfaced with clarity in his mind.

—The Forbidden Ancient Book!

In that instant, with his memory restored, a chill ran down Zhou Chen’s spine. He was horrified. He had somehow, at some point, forgotten about the Forbidden Ancient Book!

’Forgotten it completely, utterly and totally!’

’Why did this happen... Why did I forget about the Forbidden Ancient Book... When...’

Zhou Chen’s brows furrowed deeply. He realized he couldn’t recall when he had forgotten about it at all. It was as if he had treated it like some trivial, everyday matter and naturally let it slip his mind. And when he’d been talking with the King of Music, he hadn’t recalled this crucial piece of information either.

’I remember Mandala saying that the Star Association once used a meme to make people forget the name of the Forbidden Ancient Book, to prevent them from being eroded and corrupted by it. Could this be the memory-wiping effect of that meme?’

Zhou Chen sat on the edge of the Wishing Fountain, his mind racing as he thought it through.

’No, that’s not right. If it were the effect of the meme, then no one should know about the Forbidden Ancient Book at all. The meme only erased the book’s name, not its existence. Besides, I forgot about the Forbidden Ancient Book all of a sudden...’

HISS...

Zhou Chen sucked in a cold breath, a vague suspicion forming in his mind.

’The Forbidden Ancient Book... has become sentient!’

’It seems to have imperceptibly erased the memories of everyone who knew about it!’

’If I hadn’t entered the Round Table Hall, this Wishing Divine Kingdom, and used its power to evade and block the Forbidden Ancient Book’s influence, I probably would have completely forgotten the book’s existence too!’

That Forbidden Book, which recorded the secrets of the Abyss, was truly sinister.

’Could what happens next be related to the Forbidden Ancient Book? Hmm... Based on my experience, there’s a ninety percent chance it is!’

’Now that I know how bizarre it is, shouldn’t I discuss a countermeasure with the King of Music?’

Just then, Zhou Chen recalled the Prophet’s words—

Do nothing!

’If you told fortunes under the Celestial Bridge and only said things like that, you’d get beaten up. God, I hate people who speak in riddles.’

Zhou Chen felt a headache coming on. ’Do nothing... On second thought, maybe that makes sense. It’s not like there’s anything I can do. Who the hell knows where the Forbidden Ancient Book went after Charles died?’

’It’s hard to find a sentient, evil book. The best way is to wait for it to come to you.’

’The Prophet’s prediction sounded pretty optimistic, so there shouldn’t be any danger... right?’

Even if there was danger, he still had a powerful backer to rely on. To get in on the action, the King of Music would definitely stick around in Hong City until things went down.

Lin Yun might be a bit unreliable, but she was a Tier Four, so she had the strength to back it up. Besides, she was well-connected; if she couldn’t win a fight, she could always call for backup. Having a powerhouse like that around gave him a great sense of security.

But Zhou Chen knew he had to make his own preparations. Just as Lin Yun had said, you can’t just rely on others. When push comes to shove, you can only rely on yourself.

’As for wish-power, the Wishing Spring Water is accumulating pretty quickly. Hong City has a large population, so the base number is huge. I can just keep AFKing and harvesting.’

’As for Artifacts, I need to process the materials I confiscated from the Blood Race’s warehouse and convert them into my own combat power.’

Zhou Chen’s body floated upward, and he arrived at the Obsidian Round Table to inspect the Extraordinary Materials confiscated from the Blood Race’s warehouse.