Chapter 415: Memory

Chapter 415: Memory

In a secret base in Jiangbei, Zhang Yini, clad in a bathrobe, pinched the chubby girl's cheek as she focused on devouring a chicken leg, all while gazing towards the direction of the Ice Hell.

"Judging by the time, he should be arriving soon, right? I wonder what the outcome will be."

As she murmured, a rare hint of tension crept onto Zhang Yini's face.

She despised this feeling of helplessness, where she could only gamble with her life.

But she had no choice.

The decision wasn't hers to make, and she couldn't resist.

Zhang Yini's worry caught the attention of the chubby girl beside her. After some hesitation, she pulled the half-eaten chicken leg out of her mouth and offered it to Zhang Yini.

"Auntie, don't cry, eat!"

Zhang Yini didn't mind the dirt and smiled, then took a big bite, leaving only the bone.

The chubby girl was stunned by this action and stared at the chicken leg for a long time. Finally, her big eyes filled with tears, and she burst into a loud 'Wah' of crying.

The mischievous Zhang Yini watched the crying girl, feeling triumphant instead of comforting her.

As she laughed, Zhang Yini's expression suddenly turned grave.

She reached out and caressed the girl's head.

"Sweetie, do you know? If you're not careful, your boyfriend will be gone!"

The chubby girl paused her crying and tilted her head to look at Zhang Yini, as if asking a question.

What's a boyfriend? Is it tasty?

"It's not tasty, it's smelly!"

...

Ice Hell.

The area where Li Wu was located.

As Ryuichiro Ryukawa's sword thrust forward, Iria and Arthur's faces showed complex expressions.

It's over.

Li Wu is finished!

He couldn't possibly survive this sword strike.

Not even the Twelve Elders of Elder Mountain would be able to withstand such a strike in this state.

Iria and Arthur, on the other hand, were doing fine.

They just had some mixed emotions.

Some people had already lost control of their emotions at this strike.

Of course, this wasn't Pismis, although he had been searching for a worthy king. Li Wu was clearly not his type.

He didn't feel anything for Li Wu, and seeing him about to die didn't make him nervous; he just felt like running away.

The one whose emotions were out of control was someone hidden in the shadows.

When Ryuichiro Ryukawa's sword thrust out, this person burst out, only to find themselves unable to move, just like Hahah.

In his urgency, he frantically activated the Gateway Fragment, hoping to rely on its power to save Li Wu.

If he could successfully activate the fragment, it was possible.

The Gateway Fragment could unleash enough power to save Li Wu, but it wasn't something just anyone could activate.

It was also selective.

Cold Duddu could do it, but the current holder of the fragment couldn't.

The fragment didn't respond to his attempts, so despite his best efforts, he couldn't save Li Wu.

This left him in despair, thinking Li Wu was beyond help.

But suddenly, Li Wu opened his eyes, staring directly at the incoming sword.

In that moment, Ryuichiro Ryukawa's sword seemed to freeze in mid-air, as if piercing an invisible steel barrier.

At the same time, everyone's attention was drawn to Li Wu's eyes.

They appeared calm but concealed a raging storm, filled with extreme obsession and an unimaginable allure.

They were also eyes that Li Wu shouldn't have.

Gazing into those eyes, Iria, Arthur, and even Pismis, including the one in the shadows, were left speechless, evidently stunned.

However, Ryuichiro Ryukawa, facing him directly, showed no surprise on his aged face.

"So, it was you? Is this youth the one you chose?"

'Li Wu' didn't respond but slowly extended his hand. In that instant, an unimaginable, indescribable terrifying phantom appeared behind Li Wu, enveloping everyone present in an overwhelming sense of suppression and fear.

He would be crushed to death! If he were standing in front of him, he would surely be crushed!

This was the feeling that emerged in Pismis and the others' hearts.

They were almost consumed by suppression and fear.

But Ryuichiro Ryukawa, standing before them, had an even more tragic fate.

As the terrifying phantom appeared, Ryuichiro Ryukawa's aged body began to crack.

Gorgeous blood blossoms continuously bloomed.

With each bloom, Ryuichiro Ryukawa's life rapidly faded.

Everyone could sense that this legendary figure was about to meet his end, inexplicably dying before 'Li Wu' in this very moment.

At that moment, a difficult smile appeared on his aged face.

"Unconscious clones, only capable of counterattacks and killing instincts?" he mused. "She guessed right!"

As Ryuichiro Ryukawa spoke, his body exploded, and the sword that had been blocked momentarily unleashed an unimaginable radiance.

The previously immovable longsword suddenly surged forward a few centimeters before being blocked again.

In that instant of blockage, the sword cracked, and a powerful sword intent filled with essence pierced through Li Wu's skull.

However, Li Wu's head remained intact despite the strike.

The reason this sword intent could touch Li Wu was primarily because it posed no threat to him.

This sword was not meant to kill Li Wu but to aid him.

As the sword pierced Li Wu's skull, he felt as if something within him had been shattered, and the intense headache he had been enduring suddenly vanished. Li Wu found himself drawn into a wondrous space.

It was a pink realm filled with cherry blossoms.

In the center stood an enormous cherry blossom tree.

At that moment, the tree was in full bloom.

A gentle breeze blew, causing pink petals to float slowly downward, creating a mesmerizing and enchanting scene.

One of the petals drifted in front of Li Wu, and he instinctively reached out to catch it.

As the petal landed in his hand, an unexpected event unfolded before Li Wu's eyes.

The space around him transformed, and the world seemed to spin.

When Li Wu regained his bearings, he realized his surroundings had changed. He seemed to have traveled back to a world before the Great Calamity and had entered the body of a teenager.

Well, it might not be entirely accurate to say he became a teenager; it was more like he was observing through the teenager's perspective.

This teenager's name seemed to be Ryuichiro Ryukawa, indicating that he was from the 11th District.

The timeline appeared to be set before the Great Calamity.

In this world, there were no Summon Beasts yet, and this Ryuichiro Ryukawa's dream was not to become a Summoner.

This boy was a bit mischievous, even though he was the son of a Kendo Dojo master. His dream was not to become a Kendo or Dance Master.

When Li Wu arrived, the teenager was secretly reading manga.

He aspired to become a manga artist, inspired by his idol, a renowned manga creator.

Under Li Wu's watchful eye, the teenager embarked on his journey to become a manga artist.

He was not a naturally gifted artist.

Initially, his drawing skills were so poor that even Li Wu couldn't bear to look, and his storytelling was equally disastrous, comparable to the works of a certain manga artist named Nu, known for his mediocre creations.

However, this teenager worked harder than Nu.

To compensate for his lack of talent, he studied the works of masters, imitated their styles, analyzed their storytelling, and often stayed up late into the night to draw in secret.

In the 16th volume, 1st book, 1st edition, and 1st print, he finally made his breakthrough!

His efforts paid off.

Under Li Wu's observation, he improved rapidly.

Within just a year and a half, he created his debut work, a youth manga starring a monkey protagonist.

While it might not have been exceptional, it was still a significant achievement considering it was created under Li Wu's watchful eye.

Li Wu was well aware of the teenager's dedication to this manga, so when his debut work was completed and recognized by a publisher, Li Wu's emotions mirrored the teenager's joy.

Finally, the teenager could hold his head high and breathe a sigh of relief.

He could now openly tell his father about his dream of becoming a manga artist.

Just as the teenager walked home with this newfound determination, the originally dusky sky suddenly lit up. Li Wu and the teenager looked up.

In that instant, they froze in place.

A massive, unimaginable beam of light appeared in the sky, seemingly connecting the earth and heavens.

As Li Wu gazed upon the beam, it shattered, releasing an invisible force.

From a vantage point high above, one could see a massive wave emanating from the world's highest peak, engulfing the entire world.

In an instant, the wave enveloped everything.

As the waves swept through, the affected areas began to undergo astonishing transformations.

The landscape was altered by an invisible giant hand, as one secret realm entrance after another materialized out of thin air. The world seemed to be rebooting, fundamentally rewritten from the ground up.

Near Li Wu, he witnessed the harmless animals around him undergo horrifying transformations in an instant.

The entire world began to resemble a chaotic dance of demons.

At the same time, in front of Li Wu, or rather, not far from Ryuichiro Ryukawa, the swordsmanship dojo was suddenly sliced in half.

Then, the scene before Li Wu distorted again, and before he could react, he found himself back in the cherry blossom-filled space once more.

Li Wu was stunned and subconsciously touched the petals before him again.

As Li Wu touched the petals again, the world transformed, and he was transported back into Ryuichiro Ryukawa's body.

But this wasn't the moment when the dojo was split open.

Time had progressed significantly, and Ryuichiro Ryukawa had grown from a teenager of sixteen or seventeen to a young man in his early twenties.

Years had passed, and he had not become a manga artist.

Because in this new world, the profession of manga artist no longer existed.

Since that pillar of light, the world had changed.

The entire world entered an era of great catastrophe.

Human society was shattered, and Summon Beasts dominated.

To survive in this world, Ryuichiro Ryukawa was forced to take up the sword, an art he originally disliked, and became an even more exceptional swordsman than his father.

After all, in this world, being a manga artist could neither save the world nor ensure his survival.

However, even with his mastery of the sword and his superior skills as a swordsman, Ryuichiro Ryukawa's safety was not guaranteed.

Human swordsmen were no match for Summon Beasts.

Despite his remarkable talent with the sword, which allowed him to become one of the best swordsmen in just a few short years, he still couldn't defeat Boss-level Summon Beasts.

The sanctuary he had painstakingly established was also breached and destroyed by a Boss-level Summon Beast.

The people he cherished were killed one by one before his very eyes.

On that terrifying night, he lost almost everything.

After that night, all he had left were the sword in his hand and the daughter he held in his arms.

Regarding his daughter, during the years Li Wu was absent, he had gained a child.

Li Wu wasn't sure how this daughter came to be.

However, Li Wu knew that after that night, this daughter, not yet three years old, seemed to become Ryuichiro Ryukawa's entire world.

He began wandering with his daughter, struggling to survive in this terrifying and hopeless world.

But he was too weak.

Carrying a burden like a child made survival in this world incredibly difficult.

Yet, no matter how challenging it was, he held onto that child, never letting go.

Because that child was his only motivation to keep going.

Without her, he might not have survived even a day.

But fate wasn't done tormenting him; sometimes, it would also show him mercy.

Among the cherry blossoms, the last thing Li Wu saw was Ryuichiro Ryukawa finding a divine artifact, a mere artifact in Li Wu's eyes.

...

The next scene was the third wave of cherry blossoms.

This wave of cherry blossoms fast-forwarded the timeline by a decade.

Ryuichiro Ryukawa was thirty-three this year, and his daughter was thirteen.

His strength had also improved significantly, and in ten years, he had reached the Lord Rank 3 level.

This strength meant nothing in front of Li Wu, but at the time, Ryuichiro Ryukawa seemed to be the strongest being in his world. He established another sanctuary.

He became the protector of this sanctuary and his daughter's guardian.

In these ten years, he even met a lover, and although they didn't end up together due to his daughter, their interactions provided Li Wu with plenty of entertainment.

Li Wu could tell that at this point, he was very happy.

He was full of hope for the future and life.

However, fate wasn't done with him yet.

In this memory, a mysterious and powerful person arrived at his sanctuary.

Much later, Ryuichiro Ryukawa learned that this person had founded an organization called Zero, and he was the leader of the Zero Organization.

This person's appearance shattered all of Ryuichiro Ryukawa's hopes and dreams.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end