Just as Xiao Lou confirmed this was the Twin Kings' Chamber, a young man's voice came from afar: "Brother Xu said everyone patrol carefully. Nobody sleeps tonight. If those people don't die completely and return from the Nightmare Chamber, we must kill them immediately and not give them any chance to retaliate!"
Xiao Lou's breath caught in his throat, and he immediately hid behind a low wall.
He quickly looked around—it seemed there had just been an explosion; there was black ash and broken bricks everywhere, along with fragments of clothing. He could even clearly see an arm in the sand not far away.
Judging from the clothing, the arm clearly belonged to Boss Shao.
Boss Shao was currently in his Insect King state, with extremely strong healing abilities; the arm should have grown back.
According to Hua Ying's description, she, Liu Qiao, and Boss Shao went to the hospital to cooperate with Gui Lao's act, but Xu Muran ignited the explosives buried underground, and the resulting raging fire leveled the entire hospital.
It seemed this was the hospital where the explosion had occurred. Many hunters were patrolling nearby, and Xiao Lou dared not venture out rashly. He had finally managed to return to the Twin Kings' Chamber; he couldn't afford to be killed again so soon after returning.
Just then, hurried footsteps suddenly came from afar: "There seems to be a shadow moving over there. You guys follow me, go check it out!"
Xiao Lou's heart tightened. The footsteps were getting closer and closer. As he was thinking about how to escape, a notification suddenly popped up in the floating window: "Received a teleportation invitation to Peach Blossom Spring. Do you agree to the teleportation?"
His teammates were there to meet him! Xiao Lou immediately pressed "agree. "
Cheng Ziyang led several hunters to the hospital ruins, searching around, but saw nothing. The boy following him said nervously, "Senior, could we be seeing things?"
Cheng Ziyang frowned: "Everyone, stay alert and continue patrolling!"
Meanwhile, Xiao Lou had already been summoned back to Peach Blossom Spring.
Seeing him appear under the peach blossom tree, Ye Qi immediately ran to him with red eyes, her voice trembling, "Professor Xiao, you're finally back..."
Xiao Lou didn't have time to catch up with everyone. He looked at Tang Ci and said, "You knew I just got back?"
Tang Ci explained, "The contract is in my hands. I've been observing the names on the contract. When I saw your name appear, I immediately had Ye Qi activate the teleportation."
Fortunately, Mr. Tang was cautious enough to pull Xiao Lou into Peach Blossom Spring immediately.
Xiao Lou asked directly, "Where's the data?"
Tang Ci didn't waste any words and simply handed Xiao Lou a few sheets of paper: "These are what Elder Gui and President Shao found. I've summarized them to make it easier for you to organize your memory. Time is limited, Professor Xiao, memorize them as soon as possible."
Gui Yuanzhang and Shao Qingge were still with the Hunters, and they would inform Ye Qi of any information they found through telepathy. Tang Ci was responsible for organizing and recording.
Mr. Tang's "key notes" were very clear. Xiao Lou read them quickly, forcing himself to memorize them completely. Especially the map of the surveillance distribution, he went over it in his mind several times.
Ye Qi wanted to ask Captain Yu and Ninth Brother why they hadn't returned, but seeing Xiao Lou's pale face, he swallowed his words and looked to Tang Ci for help.
Tang Ci whispered in Ye Qi's ear, "The teammates in the Nightmare Chamber probably risked everything to protect Xiao Lou and bring him back alone. Time is limited, don't let him get distracted."
Ye Qi's eyes stung, and he nodded vigorously.
Xiao Lou closed his eyes and concentrated, memorizing all the information Tang Ci had given him as quickly as possible. Then he took the contract from Tang Ci, looked up at his three teammates in Peach Blossom Spring, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm going back."
Tang Ci stepped forward and gently held Xiao Lou's hand: "Go with peace of mind. I think my past self would have believed you too."
Ye Qi also said, "Yes! I also think that my past self would have fully cooperated with Professor Xiao!"
Long Sen said with red eyes, "Thank you for your hard work, Professor Xiao."
Although the temperature transmitted through his fingers was cold, the trusting gazes of his teammates warmed Xiao Lou's heart. He nodded, said nothing more, and simply activated Time Reversal.
[Time Rewind Activated]
[Time Rewinds 5 Hours; Only Card Users Can Retain Memories of This Period]
After two lines of prompts popped up, the people and objects before Xiao Lou's eyes flashed back rapidly like a movie scene. The scenes became increasingly chaotic, then suddenly froze—
Xiao Lou looked closely and saw a building before him, eerily familiar.
A prominent red cross symbol marked the top of the two-story building; this was the Oasis Hospital he, Ye Qi, and Liu Qiao had found. At this moment, Yu Hanjiang was shrunken to the size of a thumb, lying unconscious in his pocket with a high fever.
10:30 PM.
Time rewinds 5 hours, returning to this crucial moment!
To find medicine for Yu Hanjiang and Long Sen, Xiao Lou split his team into two groups. Ninth Brother led a few people south, while he, Liu Qiao, Ye Qi, General Manager Shao, and Hua Ying headed north. Upon arriving at Oasis Town, due to the numerous forks in the road, Hua Ying and General Manager Shao split up again, leaving only Liu Qiao and Ye Qi by his side.
The doctor on duty at the entrance was still dozing off. The familiar scene perfectly overlapped with his memory.
Last time, Xiao Lou had unhesitatingly brought Liu Qiao and Ye Qi into the hospital, only to be affected by the mirror illusion. Liu Qiao was switched by her sister, and Xiao Lou was stabbed to death. Then, like a butterfly effect, many irreversible things happened: Xiao and Yu died one after another, forcing Gui Lao to expose his identity and, in a desperate gamble, kill Ninth Brother.
Now, back at this crucial juncture, Xiao Lou certainly couldn't just walk into the hospital. Oasis Town was riddled with surveillance cameras; Xu Muran had already tracked their movements.
What to do?
Xiao Lou stopped and glanced at the contract.
The team-limited cards [Resurrection] and [Time Reversal] had disappeared, but the cards in his personal card pack had returned to their state five hours earlier. Cards like Tao Yuanming, Li Qingzhao, Su Shi, and Lu Yu all had their skills available.
Xiao Lou quickly considered a solution. After a moment, he made up his mind and pressed his voice headset, saying to Shao Qingge, "President Shao, you still have a Tao Yuanming scroll. Could you please use the vineyard teleportation to pull everyone in?"
Shao Qingge didn't ask any questions and simply activated Peach Blossom Spring.
Ten seconds later, the entrance to Peach Blossom Spring appeared, and Shao Qingge initiated a team teleportation. The teammates all arrived under the peach trees.
Looking at Xiao Lou, whose face was as pale as paper, everyone exchanged bewildered glances.
Ye Qi asked nervously, "Why the sudden teleportation? Does Professor Xiao think there's something wrong with that hospital?"
Shao Qingge asked, "What happened?"
Lu Jiuchuan and Xiao Lou shared a telepathic connection. At this moment, he could sense Xiao Lou's intense emotional turmoil and the chaotic jumble of memories in his mind. He saw many terrifying images flashing through Xiao Lou's mind, including a scene of him and Yu Hanjiang covered in blood, guns in hand, standing in a strange corridor filled with mirrors, wildly firing.
That scene was so vivid that Lu Jiuchuan was momentarily dazed: "Xiao Lou, why do you have so many strange memories in your mind? Is it a dream?"
Xiao Lou's gaze swept over everyone, and he said, word by word, "I come from the Nightmare Chamber."
His teammates: "..."
This sentence sent a chill down everyone's spine. They looked at each other, not immediately understanding Xiao Lou's meaning.
But the words "Nightmare Chamber" were enough to put everyone on guard.
Xiao Lou opened the contract and showed it to everyone, quickly flipping to the last page: "Look at the contract, the two team-limited cards, [Resurrection] and [Time Reversal], have disappeared. I used [Time Reversal] to rewind the events of the secret room to the present. Because in the next 5 hours, I, Han Jiang, Ninth Brother, Lao Mo, Wan Yue, Hua Ying, Liu Qiao… we all died."
Hearing him say this calmly, everyone was stunned.
They all died?! This is terrifying! What is Professor Xiao saying?
Gui Lao's expression changed slightly the moment he saw the Time Reversal card disappear. He walked up to Xiao Lou and asked in a low voice, "The plan succeeded? They brought you back?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "Senior, thank you for taking the risk and giving me the opportunity to change my fate."
The teammates were increasingly confused, after all, at this point in time, none of them remembered what happened afterward; their memories were all stuck at this point in time.
Team Leader Yu and Long Sen were infected with the plague, and Xiao Lou decided to go find medicine. Professor Xiao actually said that everyone died later? The news came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, leaving everyone in disbelief.
Seeing the doubt on his teammates' faces, Xiao Lou quickly calmed down and looked at Lu Jiuchuan: "Brother Jiu, you and I are connected by a telepathic connection. You can prove that what I'm saying isn't false. It was you, Hanjiang, and Huaying who risked their lives to escort me out of the Nightmare Chamber."
Lu Jiuchuan's face turned pale, then flushed. The clear and vivid images in Xiao Lou's mind couldn't be faked. However, he truly hadn't experienced any of these things in his memory.
Could it be that Xiao Lou really... came from the future?
Lu Jiuchuan exchanged a glance with Tang Ci, seemingly seeking Tang Ci's opinion.
Tang Ci calmly said, "Professor Xiao's words are quite astonishing, but the Time Reversal in the contract has indeed disappeared. This card only allows the user to retain memories, so we don't know if what he said makes sense. Besides, Ninth Brother and he are in perfect sync; he may lie with his words, but he can't lie with his thoughts. I'm willing to believe him."
Lu Jiuchuan said seriously, "The images in Xiao Lou's mind are very realistic, not like hallucinations or dreams. I don't think Xiao Lou, as the team leader, has any reason to lie to us. Since Time Reversal has been used, it must have been used by someone in our team. Think about it, have you ever used this card?"
Everyone subconsciously shook their heads.
Lu Jiuchuan waved his hand decisively: "That settles it then, it must be the card Xiao Lou used! The rest of us don't dare to use team-limited cards easily, Xiao Lou is the captain, it's most reasonable for him to use it. That's why Xiao Lou has memories of the future, while we don't. What he said are all things that will happen in the future."
Lu Jiuchuan glanced at Yu Hanjiang in Xiao Lou's pocket, his brows furrowing slightly: "Hanjiang is currently unconscious. If he were awake, he would definitely believe Xiao Lou. As Hanjiang's brother, of course I'm willing to believe Xiao Lou as well."
Xiao Lou's eyes welled up slightly—when he returned to where he was five hours earlier and found himself at the foot of the hospital, he wasn't really sure, worried that his teammates wouldn't believe him, and afraid that he wouldn't be able to change anything in the future.
However, Tang Ci's calm analysis and Ninth Brother's clear stance finally put his mind at ease.
As long as Tang Ci and Ninth Brother were willing to believe him, the other teammates would soon stand on his side as well.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and looked at his teammates: "Are you all willing to believe me?"
Ye Qi immediately nodded: "Professor Xiao has never lied to anyone. As long as this Professor Xiao is real, I'll believe him!"
Shao Qingge said: "He has a contract, and his telepathic connection with Ninth Brother has never been broken, so it must be real. I believe him."
Qu Wanyue, Liu Qiao, and Chu Huaying, the three girls, also nodded to indicate their willingness to believe.
Gui Yuanzhang was originally the planner of the time reversal project, so he was the first to believe Xiao Lou. Seeing that his teammates believed him, he simply asked: "Professor Xiao, tell me your plan. How do you deal with Xu Muran?"
Many teammates had never heard of Xu Muran and looked at Xiao Lou blankly.
Lu Jiuchuan, Tang Ci, and Chu Huaying exchanged glances, then asked in confusion, "Elder Gui, are you talking about Xu Muran?"
Gui Yuanzhang nodded, "That's right. Xu Muran is the leader of the Twin Kings Chamber Hunter mission."
Lu Jiuchuan raised an eyebrow in surprise, "He actually betrayed us?!"
Chu Huaying said with a grim face, "How did Elder Gui know?"
Xiao Lou interrupted them in a low voice, "Now is not the time to dwell on these things. Hanjiang, Ninth Brother, and Huaying are still in the Nightmare Chamber. The time flow in the Nightmare Chamber is different from here. I don't know if you in this world will be affected if they are wiped out by the Nightmare Chamber. Time is of the essence; let's think about how to deal with the Hunters."
Lu Jiuchuan nodded in agreement, "Alright, we won't ask any more questions; we'll follow your arrangements!"
Tang Ci said calmly, "Professor Xiao comes from the world five hours later. He brought a lot of information that we might not understand in a short time. So, Professor Xiao, just tell us how to cooperate with you."
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and said, "This method is a bit risky—I think I'll turn the tables and stage another play."
******