The Diary of a Renter

101. Anchor Points in Turbulent Flow

Intense white light and out-of-control spatial turbulence completely engulfed Jiang Yu and Pan Shi. It wasn't a feeling of falling, but a far more terrifying experience—as if their own existence was being dismantled into countless parts and simultaneously thrown into countless completely different "moments".

One moment, Jiang Yu seemed to see the Tree of Hope growing lush and verdant before his eyes; the next, he "saw" it turn into charred, withered wood collapsing in the flames; at the same time, he heard Annie's silvery laughter and her desperate wails before death; the aroma of roasted meat from the Blood Axe and the stench of rotting corpses alternated around his nose... Countless fragments of past, present, and future, like a shattered kaleidoscope, flooded into his consciousness simultaneously in a destructive way, almost bursting and tearing his soul apart.

The young Rock was in even worse shape. He let out a painful roar, the giant shield slipping from his grasp. His body tumbled uncontrollably in the turbulent currents, the wound on his left arm, corroded by the void, felt as if countless ice needles were piercing and twisting it simultaneously. His consciousness rapidly dimmed in extreme pain and chaos, like a candle flickering in the wind.

Just as Jiang Yu felt her mind was about to completely collapse and turn into a wisp of unconscious dust in the turbulent flow of time and space, the wisp of "Dust of Time" originating from Xuan Tongjun within her body suddenly lit up! It was no longer merely a tool for perceiving time, but rather, in this absolute chaos, it burst forth with a gentle yet incredibly firm light, like a lighthouse suddenly lit in a raging storm.

This light did not illuminate the outside world, but rather focused inward, firmly anchoring itself on the "continuity" of Jiang Yu's own existence. It forcibly rejected those fragmented pieces of time, constructing a tiny yet absolutely stable "base" at the core of his consciousness, allowing him to rediscover the meaning of "who I am".

"Rock solid!" Jiang Yu roared amidst the turmoil of his consciousness, desperately extending his power with the momentary clarity brought by the "Dust of Time".

Like a lifeline thrown into a storm, he struggled to search and sense amidst the chaotic energy flow. Finally, he caught a faint yet incredibly tenacious will to survive—a steadfast rock. The instinct for protection and survival, deep within the blood of a shield warrior, kept him from giving up even as his consciousness waned.

Jiang Yu recklessly extended the power of the "anchor point" over, and the light transformed into an invisible bond, tightly binding the consciousness of the rock that was about to dissipate, forcibly pulling him towards his "base point".

Bang!

As if passing through a viscous, highly elastic barrier, all the tearing and chaos vanished abruptly. The two were pulled from the deep sea, crashing heavily onto the hard, cold ground. A wave of intense dizziness and nausea washed over them. Jiang Yu lay on the ground, retching uncontrollably, her ears ringing, and stars flashing before her eyes. Pan Shi, on the other hand, fainted, though his chest still heaved slightly.

102. The Misaligned Corridor

After a long while, Jiang Yu barely managed to suppress the churning sensation and struggled to open his eyes. The scene that greeted him made him instantly suffocate, his blood almost freezing.

The surrounding area still features the familiar architectural style of the endless corridor—the familiar vaulted ceilings, the familiar stone textures, and the unique halo outline of the Tree of Hope in the distance… but everything is shrouded in a layer of despairing, deathly gray.

The corridor was no longer clean and bright; the walls were covered with shocking scars: huge claw marks tore through the stone walls, charred marks left by scorching energy were everywhere, and in some places, there were even crystalline wrinkles like scars that had not fully healed after spatial distortion. The air was filled with a heavy smell of gunpowder, a faint stench of blood, and an indescribable, strange odor, like burnt electrical circuits mixed with rotting plants, replacing the warm flow of energy and the aroma of food of the past.

What was most unsettling was the deathly silence. There was no faint popping sound of a zero-space jump, no Blood Axe Uncle's hearty laughter, no children chasing and playing, no gentle melody of Shirin's starlight flowing... nothing at all.

Only the occasional, tooth-grinding creaking of the building structure under stress, and the faint, mournful sound of the wind passing through the broken window openings, could be heard from afar.

The Tree of Hope still stands, but its light is dim and flickering, like a seriously ill patient barely supporting a small halo of light, beyond which lies an impenetrable darkness. There are no residents gathered beneath the tree, only scattered fragments, their original form unrecognizable.

"Where...where is this?" Young Rock also awoke, struggling to sit up, the wound on his left arm still gruesome. He looked around, his eyes filled with utter confusion and fear, his voice hoarse and trembling, "This...it seems to be a corridor, but...it's completely different! What happened? Where did everyone go?!"

Jiang Yu's heart felt as if it had been drenched in ice water. He understood, he understood completely. Xuan Tongjun's words had come true. They had neither returned to the "present" nor remained in the "past." That out-of-control temporal collapse had thrown them into a flawed, off-track, and already fallen "possible future"—a branch of time where an endless corridor had been destroyed by an unknown disaster, and all the inhabitants were likely dead.

“We… have fallen into a ‘bad’ future.” Jiang Yu’s voice was terribly dry. He could feel the Source Key’s instinctive repulsion towards the thin and malicious energy field of this place, as well as the mournful warning from the “Dust of Time” about this timeline irreversibly sliding towards ultimate annihilation. The air here carried a chilling despair.

103. Clues in the Ruins

Suppressing the turmoil and immense grief within her, Jiang Yu forced herself to calm down. Xuan Tongjun had said he was a "variable." His presence here was no accident. She had to find clues.

"Look around... see if any information has been left behind," Jiang Yu said to Pan Shi, his voice low and suppressed.

The two cautiously explored the desolate ruins. Each step they took rustled through the rubble and unidentified debris, the sound particularly jarring in the silence. They avoided several areas where the energy was extremely unstable and the space was slightly distorted, exuding a dangerous aura.

Jiang Yu stopped beneath a relatively intact section of the corridor wall. The walls were covered in a thick layer of black ash, but upon closer inspection, there appeared to be engravings beneath the ash. He brushed away the dust, his pupils suddenly contracting.

On the wall, in a charred, almost blackened state, as if left by some kind of high-energy instantaneous burning, was etched a line of intermittent, eerie runes that sent chills down his spine.

The structure of the runes and the residual energy fluctuations were strikingly similar to the residual fluctuations of the broken runes he had sensed in the tampered altar. However, the runes here were more chaotic and distorted, exuding a hysterical despair and a deep-seated malice, as if they were marks hastily left at the last moment with endless resentment.

“It was left by the same ‘existence’…” Jiang Yu stroked the scorch marks, feeling a cold sensation on her fingertips that seemed to absorb heat. Yuan Yao felt a wave of disgust. “It not only altered the past… its tentacles have already reached into the future. In this ‘failed’ timeline, it has also left its ‘mark,’ as if… declaring victory, or performing some kind of sacrifice.”

Just then, beneath a pile of collapsed decorative stone pillars and rubble, Pan Shi discovered a tattered leather notebook with its cover half-burnt. The notebook's style and material were exactly the same as the one the administrator's grandfather often used, except that it was covered in stains and blackened bloodstains.

Jiang Yu's heart suddenly raced, and he almost trembled as he took the notebook. The edges of the notebook were curled, and the pages were stuck together. He carefully opened it; most of the pages were burned or the writing was blurred by some kind of liquid, but on the few remaining pages, in scrawled, almost uncontrollable handwriting, were recorded chilling contents:

"...The third line of defense...collapsed at noon...'They' are not physical entities...'manifested directly from the shadows...attack...attack the 'existence' itself..."

"...Communication...completely cut off...Source Key Resonance...forcibly severed...Jiang Yu...missing...is the key...must be found..."

"...The last hope...may lie in...tracing back to the 'initial cause'...we must...go back to...before everything began...the 'contract'..."

The handwriting became extremely chaotic here, the last few lines almost illegible. On the last page, there were no words, only a huge, menacing exclamation mark drawn with some kind of dark red, long-dried liquid, conveying an endless sense of warning. The red was as glaring as congealed blood.

The information on the notebook exploded in Jiang Yu's mind like thunder, piecing together a blurry yet terrifying picture: an incomprehensible war, an enemy attacking "existence" itself, the destruction of communication and source key systems, her own disappearance becoming the key, and the last hope pointing to the "initial cause" and "before the contract was established".

This undoubtedly points to the "Contract of Time" with Xuan Tongjun. Could the root of all this be related to the release of Xuan Tongjun? Or is the enemy exploiting this very point?

A wave of confusion, pressure, and a chill instantly overwhelmed Jiang Yu.

104. Broken Echoes

The blood-stained notebook and the chaotic runes on the wall were like a bucket of ice water, instantly sobering Jiang Yu. Despair and fear were replaced by a stronger sense of urgency stemming from a sense of responsibility. The enemy not only existed, but its shadow had already loomed over the future. He had to find a way back and stop it all.

“We can’t stay here any longer,” Jiang Yu said in a low voice, carefully putting away her notebook. “The deathly stillness of energy is intensifying, and this ‘future’ is collapsing at an accelerated pace.”

As if to confirm his words, a muffled sound of structural cracking, like the dying groan of a giant beast, came from afar, and the entire ruins of the corridor trembled slightly, causing more dust to fall.

Young Rock gripped his massive shield tightly, its surface riddled with cracks, but his eyes remained resolute: "Administrator, where are we going?"

Jiang Yu's gaze drifted deeper into the corridor, to the area where the energy was most chaotic and the darkness most intense. The faint resonance of the Source Key and the intuition of the "Dust of Time" both pointed there—it was the only place in this desolate ruin where intense "temporal disturbances" still existed, and also the most likely place to hide the truth or a way out.

“Go to the heartland. There… something is ‘active’ there.”

The two cautiously traversed the devastated corridor. The deeper they went, the more horrific the scene became. They saw guardian puppets torn to pieces by some force, twisted humanoid shadows solidified on the walls, seemingly trying to escape at the last moment but instantly vaporized, and even passed through a huge, gaping void, a void of absolute darkness emanating a suction force that devoured everything. They had to detour around it.

In the deathly silence, only their footsteps and breathing could be heard, along with the ominous sounds that occasionally drifted from afar, foreshadowing the final collapse.

As they passed through a spacious hall that might have been a public rest area, a sudden change occurred.

The space in the center of the hall, like water tossed with a pebble, began to distort and ripple violently. Then, a semi-transparent figure, barely formed from faint light particles and fragmented data streams, slowly emerged. The figure's outline was exactly the same as Jiang Yu's own.

The mirrored Jiang Yu raised its head, its face expressionless, its eyes vacant like two bottomless black holes. It opened its mouth, emitting a distorted, unnatural whisper, as if from the depths of an abyss, piercing the air and resonating deep within their consciousness:

"Struggling... in vain..."

"What you have protected... will eventually return to silence..."

"What you trust... is the root of destruction..."

"To give up... to merge into eternal... nothingness... is... the only destination..."

This whisper wasn't just a simple threat; it carried a power that directly eroded will, instilling in one a sense of despair, a willingness to give up everything. The young rock groaned, his eyes momentarily unfocused, and the wound on his left arm seemed to throb again.

"Shut up!" Jiang Yu roared, his voice trembling with rage, yet exceptionally clear. A faint but pure light erupted from the Source Key on his chest, dispelling the mental pollution. "You are nothing but an abandoned, malicious echo, a failed illusion. The true future is to be created by our own hands!"

Seemingly stung by the light of the Source Key, the image emitted a sharp, inhuman screech, its form twisting and flickering violently before vanishing into thin air with a "snap," leaving only a nauseatingly malicious echo.

"What...what is it?" Rock gasped for breath, still shaken.

“It’s the ‘resentment’ of this despairing space-time, combined with the illusion projected from my perception.” Jiang Yu’s face was pale, but her eyes were sharp. “It’s afraid. Afraid that we will find the truth, afraid that we will change all of this.”

This minor incident only strengthened their resolve. They continued onward and finally arrived at the core of the energy disturbance—a vast circular plaza with its dome partially collapsed. This place seemed to have once been the site of important ceremonies.

105. Unique Coordinates

In the center of the plaza, instead of an altar, stood a complex, severely damaged yet stubbornly functioning instrument riddled with cracks. Constructed of unknown metals and crystals, its style drastically different from the endless corridor, resembling more of a highly advanced spacetime detection device.

Most of its structure was broken, but on the core diamond-shaped crystal screen, extremely faint spots of light and unrecognizable, rapidly flowing data streams flickered intermittently.

Most shockingly, a human figure was sitting next to the equipment.

It was a figure in a tattered administrator's uniform, his back to them, head bowed, motionless, as if frozen in stone. His body had an unnatural grayish-white hue, as if his life force had been completely drained.

Jiang Yu's heart sank. He cautiously approached. When he saw the figure's profile, he was struck dumb—it was the older, all-too-familiar Rock! Rock from this fallen future, the one who had survived the final battle.

His massive shield, the "Unbreakable Barrier," shattered into several pieces, scattered around him. The dark gold emblem that once symbolized protection on the shield's surface was now dull and cracked. His right hand, until his death, tightly gripped a palm-sized black crystal plate that had detached from the instrument.

Jiang Yu, suppressing her grief and dizziness, gently pried open the cold, stiff hand and removed the crystal panel. The panel was icy to the touch, its surface smooth. The instant Jiang Yu's fingers touched it, the panel suddenly lit up, projecting an extremely brief image filled with interfering stripes:

In the image, it is an older Jiang Yu (perhaps this future Jiang Yu), covered in blood, the light of the Source Key extremely unstable, shouting hoarsely at the crystal panel, against the backdrop of a constantly collapsing corridor and the encroachment of countless shadows:

“...Coordinates...Anchor point...'The Moment of Beginning'...Error...Contract...It's a trap...I must...warn...the past...me…”

The video abruptly ended there, and the crystal panel went completely dark, turning into dust.

These fragments of information, however, are like key pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, suddenly connecting with the notes in the notebook and the hints from Xuan Tongjun.

From the very beginning, a contractual trap warned my past self.

All the blame points back to that starting point—the moment when the [Contract of Time] was made with Xuan Tongjun! Was releasing Xuan Tongjun itself a huge mistake? Or was the enemy exploiting this contract?

Just then, the damaged instrument suddenly emitted a final, piercing shriek. The light spots on the screen flickered wildly, eventually coalescing into an extremely complex and ever-changing spacetime coordinate model. At the core of the model, a point was clearly marked—the energy signature of that point resonated strongly with the mark of the [Contract of Time] within Jiang Yu's body.

At the same time, the instrument used up its last bit of energy, and a line of intermittent text flashed on the screen:

[Final Warning: Source locked... Higher-dimensional trap... The only chance for reversal... is before... the contract is established...]

The text disappeared, the instrument became completely unusable, and turned into scrap metal.

Jiang Yu stood rooted to the spot, powder in his hand, staring at the lingering, distorted coordinates on the screen, his heart churning. He understood. This fallen future, with its final existence, had shown him the way—not to escape, but to charge forward! To return to the source of all the wrongs, to return to the crucial moment before he made the pact with Xuan Tongjun, to uncover the truth, and to reverse this inevitable fate.

“Rock,” Jiang Yu turned around, looking at his young partner, whose eyes were filled with confusion but who trusted him completely, his voice hoarse but with an unprecedented determination, “We have to go back… back to an earlier ‘past.’ There, all the answers and the only way to survive are hidden.”

The young Rock looked at his older, fallen self on the ground, then at Jiang Yu, and nodded heavily. His shield would be pointed towards the distant past, to wage an ultimate battle that would determine the survival of all timelines.