Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao followed Alice for a long time, finally arriving at Mech City, the slums, and a dilapidated, drafty thatched hut at noon.
For some unknown reason, although this thatched hut was located in the slums, it was not crowded around. Instead, a large area was left vacant.
"Welcome to my Time Cabin!"
Alice smiled at Ye Feng and then made a gesture of invitation.
Ye Feng glanced around, his expression as usual, but he was secretly vigilant.
"Creak~"
Pushing open the old and rotten wooden door, Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, and Alice entered the thatched hut.
The interior was very simple. The furniture, such as tables and chairs, was for one person, indicating that Alice lived alone.
What surprised and puzzled Ye Feng was that the walls of the entire thatched hut were covered with all sorts of clocks, and all of them were broken and not ticking...
The most conspicuous item in the thatched hut was a glass counter, inside which were several broken clocks and some tools like small screwdrivers.
"You fix watches?"
After a look around, Ye Feng asked Alice with some bewilderment.
Alice smiled slightly, but did not answer. She slowly walked behind the glass counter where the clocks were kept, took out an ancient box from a drawer, and opened it. Inside was a deck of tarot cards.
Unlike the tarot cards Ye Feng had seen at the auction before, the backs of this deck of tarot cards did not have the pattern of some magic array, but rather individual clocks.
"Young man, let's have a divination!"
Alice took the tarot cards out of the ancient box and placed them on the glass counter in front of Ye Feng, saying.
"This person..."
Ye Feng was speechless, and also a little puzzled. Why did this strange old woman insist on giving him a divination?
He wanted to ask her what she meant by "Don't you want to know why you came to this world," but he suppressed the urge, deciding to see what kind of strange divination this fortune-teller was up to.
So, Ye Feng began to shuffle and cut the cards, following the same procedure as at the auction.
A minute later, Alice spread the cards in an arc and said to Ye Feng, "Please choose one!"
Ye Feng did not hesitate. Just like last time, he casually drew one and turned it over.
"What the..."
Seeing the front of the tarot card he had drawn, Ye Feng was immediately speechless, because this tarot card was the same as the one he had drawn at the auction, a jester.
"Hey, are you tired of messing with me?"
Ye Feng's voice had a hint of anger.
Alice did not speak. She stared blankly at the tarot card in Ye Feng's hand, her face full of disbelief, "The Fo... Fool... You... Are you really the one in the prophecy..."
"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock..."
Before Alice could finish speaking, the entire thatched hut was filled with the dense sound of ticking. The broken clocks on the wall suddenly started ticking, and they even faintly emitted a strange glow.
"What's going on?"
Ye Feng was completely baffled.
"Dong!~"
At this moment, a dull bell sound reached Ye Feng's ears.
The bell sound was incredibly loud, as if he was being crushed under a giant bell and someone was striking it nearby. The immense sound made Ye Feng's ears ache to the point of losing all sensation, reaching directly into his mind... He felt like his head was about to explode...
"Ah! Help!"
"Run, so many monsters!"
"Save me!"
"Ah~ Don't kill me!"
...
Immediately after, a series of dense cries for help and shouts rang out, some near and some far.
Ye Feng, who had closed his eyes due to the intense pain, forced them open with great effort upon hearing the cries for help, enduring the agony.
"Boom!~"
"Bang bang!~"
"Crackling! Boom! Rustling!"
...
As soon as Ye Feng opened his eyes, various sounds of explosions, collisions, and whistling followed.
"This..."
Seeing the scene before him, Ye Feng was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
Because there was no trace of the thatched hut in his vision anymore. He was standing at the top of a mountain peak, and as far as he could see, smoke was billowing everywhere, as if some war had broken out. In the distance, a volcano was erupting, with large amounts of volcanic rocks and lava flowing down...
"Roar~ Caw caw caw~"
"Jie! Jie jie~"
"Hiss hiss hiss~"
...
As a series of strange cries sounded, Ye Feng saw various monsters appearing around him, ravaging the land. Human screams were interspersed with the roars of the monsters...
The sky in the distance seemed to be broken by something, with a large hole cracking open. Space, like shattered glass, was constantly falling off...
"Boom! Bang~~"
At this moment, a huge crashing sound occurred, and then the mountain peak where Ye Feng was located shook and disintegrated. Ye Feng, losing his support, began to fall downwards.
"Holy crap, what is that!"
As Ye Feng was falling, he saw the scene below and was greatly alarmed. Below was not the ground, but a giant black abyss emitting black mist, with something wriggling inside.
An elephant that fell in was instantly reduced to bloody foam...
"Oh no!"
Ye Feng's heart sank with anxiety because he found that his body seemed to be restricted by some power, and he couldn't move at all...
Just as Ye Feng thought he was done for, a somewhat aged hand suddenly reached out and grabbed him...
"Whoosh!~"
A gentle breeze blew, and the scene before Ye Feng's eyes suddenly changed. From a doomsday scene, it transformed into an autumn countryside.
In the distance were golden rice paddies. He was sitting under a large ginkgo tree, and an old man in plain clothes was leading a leisurely grazing water buffalo, standing not far from him...
"Was it him who pulled me just now?"
Looking at the somewhat familiar old man in plain clothes, Ye Feng was quite surprised.
It was this old man who had drawn on the sky with a tree branch, which enabled him to learn "Cun Mang." Su Jianying, who claimed to have divine powers in the sand dunes, had also died under his somewhat cryptic sword strike...
At this moment, the old man in plain clothes turned his head to look at Ye Feng, showing a kind smile.
This was Ye Feng's feeling. The old man in plain clothes gave him a sense of familiarity, but he could not see the other person's face clearly...
"Plop!~ Clang~"
Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering rang out.
"Big brother, are you okay?"
Then, Ye Feng heard Xiao Xiao's faint voice, seeming to come from a distance.
Immediately after, the scene before Ye Feng's eyes shifted again, from the autumn countryside back to the thatched hut.
The thatched hut was now buffeted by a strong wind. The sound of shattering glass was from a clock on the wall falling, and Xiao Xiao was holding his arm, looking at him with concern.
"Big brother, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's voice sounded again. This time, he could hear it clearly, unlike before.
"I'm fine!~"
Ye Feng shook his head gently and then looked at Alice by the glass counter. It seemed that it was her divination that had caused these strange occurrences.
"What the heck... What's going on now?"
As soon as Ye Feng turned his head, he was startled.
Because Alice was now bleeding from all seven orifices, slumped on the glass counter. She looked at Ye Feng with immense shock, muttering, "The death knell has sounded... The final judgment day is coming..."
"...The prophecy... Wait... That... That knife..."
As she spoke, Alice trembled and pointed her right hand at Ye Feng.
...