A community psychologist consults a private clinic.

Liao Ke smiled as he sent away the last patient who came for psychological counseling and closed the door. He took off his white coat and hung it behind the door. The smile on his face slowly disappeared. He turned to the back of the clinic and pulled open a blue sanitary curtain.

Behind the curtain is a narrow compartment.

In the narrow compartment was an old trolley no more than 80 centimeters wide, with rust growing on its four wheels. The bed was piled with miscellaneous items, obscuring the face of the person lying on the trolley.

The man was so quiet, his breathing was barely audible, and so he remained lying behind the curtain without being discovered.

Liao Ke rolled up the curtains. He looked at Lu Yizhan, who was unconscious on the gurney, and let out a long sigh.

Lu Yizhan's face was half buried in the pillow. The half of his face that was exposed looked so weak that not a single blood color could be seen. His lips were dry and black, his eyes were sunken due to his exhaustion, and his body was shaking uncontrollably. Liao Ke turned over the quilt covering his shoulders and found that blood was still seeping out.

Liao Ke silently undressed Lu Yizhang and found that the bandage on his shoulder that he had changed at noon was soaked with blood. His whole face was red and felt incredibly hot. His eyelashes and forehead were covered in sweat, and his breathing was rapid. It was obvious that he had a severe fever.

The bunk bed was too narrow, and Lu Yizhan's left hand was hanging outside. Liao Ke put Lu Yizhan's left hand back on the bed, then replaced the bottle of anti-inflammatory medicine that was being given to Lu Yizhan, put an ice pack on Lu Yizhan's forehead, and then moved a stool and sat opposite Lu Yizhan with his hands on his knees. Liao Ke couldn't help but sigh again.

He can neither go to the hospital nor go home, nor let anyone know that he is injured. He can only hide in this small clinic and recuperate. Lu Yizhan, you are truly the most miserable team leader I have ever seen.

While Liao Ke was moving Lu Yizhan's shoulder to change his bandage, he said to himself, "When Fang Dian was the captain of a team and faced Bai Liu directly, she didn't suffer this much."

"It's still your own problem, Lu Yizhan..."

Liao Ke looked at Lu Yizhan, who was still frowning in a coma, and sighed: "Why did he have to succeed in order to save everyone?"

"You are just one person, and it's good enough that you can save most people, but you have to try to save heretics, monsters, and even gods - even Bai Liu."

Liao Ke threw the blood-stained bandage into the medical waste bin, turned around and found a piece of gauze to wipe the sweat off Lu Yizhan's face, then turned off the lights in the clinic. In the dark night, he watched over Lu Yizhan, who had not yet woken up, staring blankly at an unknown point in the air, muttering:

"It's impossible for a human to do so many things, Lu Yizhan."

"If you can't stop Bai Liu from winning the league championship this time, even if you don't die now, you will die miserably in the future."

"Lu Yizhan, do you know what you are doing?"

Lu Yizhan was lying on the bed, sleeping motionlessly, and did not answer him.

Deer Hunter Guild Meeting Room.

After the game, it is customary to replay the video and analyze the results, but now the analysis has been completed.

But now the meeting in the conference room has ended, and only Cen Mingming, who is sitting at the back of the room, is left.

The lights in the conference room were not on, and it was pitch black inside. Only the screen in the front was glowing dimly. Cen Mingming watched the scene of Nishen killing him replayed on the screen over and over again with a dim gaze. He rested his hands on the back of the chair and unconsciously turned the ring on his right hand with his left hand.

Brother, why did you rebel against the Heretic Administration?

Seven of the eight [Inquisitors] led by Captain Fang Dian have already failed. In the reincarnation of more than 600 timelines, these seven Inquisitors were lured, deceived, and tortured by Bai Liu, time and time again. The evil god enjoyed their pain to his heart's content in a game-like way until they could no longer bear the pain.

The seven [Judges] eventually lost the game. They surrendered, and sold their souls to Bai Liu with tears in their eyes. They cried in pain and turned into seven stone sculptures that Bai Liu used to decorate his temple.

Brother, you are the last Judge.

Are you going to follow the same path as the previous seven judges, kneeling at the feet of the evil god derivative of a certain world line, selling your soul to the other party, and then becoming one of Bai Liu's boring decorations?

I can't believe you'd come this far, brother. You're the only Judge who's survived more than six hundred games.

So, Brother—

Cen Mingming clicked on the system panel, and the image on the screen changed, turning into a snow screen. In the lower right corner, it was written [The Wandering Circus vs. Russell Cemetery]. He looked at the snow screen. When the snow screen finished playing and the system prompt [Russell Cemetery won the game] popped up on the screen, Cen Mingming narrowed his eyes——

——You are so close to Bai Liu, are you trying to make him lose the game?

Temple of Rahleyah.

Amid the endless sound of dark waves, the prophet covered with groupers sat on a stone bench with his eyes closed and his head lowered. Opposite him sat the evil god wearing a hood, leisurely teasing with his fingertips a seabird that had landed on the stone table and was pecking at the cards.

The cards on the table were blown around, but they seemed to be fixed in place by some magical force and did not fly around.

There was nothing left on the cards of the Prophet, but the cards on the Evil God's side were still thick, as if they were a stack that never ended. The top card showed a magnificent retro opera house located on the sea, which looked somewhat similar to the Temple of R'lyeh.

"As long as Bai Liu wins a league match, our game will be over, prophet." The evil god sighed with regret, "It's a pity that you no longer have any cards in your hand to stop him from winning again."

The evil god looked up at the prophet who was in deep sleep with a half-smile: "Except yourself."

"But I don't know how much your incomplete prophet card can do to prevent Bai Liu's destined victory."

The prophet still kept his head down. The evil god gently raised the seabird's beak. Following his gesture, the seabird flapped its wings and flew into the air briefly. Its feet landed on the prophet's already petrified right shoulder and grasped it.

After being petrified, the originally strong right shoulder was grabbed by the seabird and then, as if hit by a bullet from somewhere, it cracked into spider-like patterns from the center. The scattered shoulder part of the stone sculpture matched exactly the part of Nishen's soul that burned and disappeared after being hit by the soul-crushing gun.

The seabird raised its head and screamed, then flapped its wings and flew away from its broken shoulders, disappearing into the dark clouds.

The evil god extended his slender index finger and pressed it against the forehead of the stone sculpture opposite him, which only had its shoulders left to maintain its human form. He lowered his eyes and whispered:

"The game between us is not over yet. Wake up from your dream, prophet."

A drop of water dripped from the prophet's hair.

The sea breeze blew strongly from behind his head, blowing the drop of water that was about to fall onto the table far away. Seabirds screamed from the clouds, and their outstretched wings seemed to be able to break the remaining sunlight that could shine on the Temple of R'layah.

The prophet's eyelids twitched slightly.

He seemed to be blown along the drop of water into the faraway clouds and into the faraway sea, sailing endlessly in the wind and waves, crossing more than 600 dark timelines, and finally arriving at his destination - where it all began.

——The very beginning world line.

"Land Station!" Someone waved at him from a distance, and used the other hand to block his mouth to amplify the sound, "The registration point for the training of the First Team of the Bureau of Heresy is here! You went the wrong way!"

He stopped moving and turned around. The scene made of time around him paused for a moment, and then began to flow madly in the opposite direction.

The reverse flow of time pulled everything into colorful abstract lines. Lu Yi ran in the tunnel formed by these lines until everything instantly returned to its original state beside him.

He stopped.

Lu Yizhan turned around and looked like he was about 17 or 18 years old. He was confused and asked, "Did I go the wrong way?"

The man said helplessly, "Of course it's the other way around. That's where the second team registers. The first team is over here."

Lu Yizhan looked back curiously at the registration area where Team 2 was queuing. He saw a stern-looking but youthful boy with his back straight. He raised his head and reported to the people at the registration area in a mature manner that did not match his appearance: "Cen Mingming, 17 years old."

"My ambition is to join the second team. After joining the second team, I will help you kill all the heretics who bring trouble to the party."

Lu Yizhan retracted his gaze, and the person next to him whispered in his ear: "Team Two is an outfield team, a high-risk team. People who aspire to be in Team Two are very murderous. They are usually children who have been severely persecuted by heretics, their families have been destroyed and they are the only ones left. They were adopted by the Heretic Handling Bureau and raised in a training camp."

"This Cen Mingming probably thinks the same thing."

"I still prefer Team One. Lu Yizhan, your ambition is also to be a member of Team One, right?" The man looked at Lu Yizhan and nodded in agreement. "You have a good ambition. Team One is not that dangerous."

Lu Yizhan thought for a moment and asked, "Team One and Team Two are both field teams, aren't they both very dangerous?"

"It's different, isn't it!" This person seemed to be talking about something exciting, waving his arms and legs, "The captain of Team One is super strong! It won't be as dangerous for us to go on missions with her as it would be with Team Two! She has a super strong team of seven people, the highest-end combat force in the entire Bureau of Heresy—"

"——Call the [Inquisitor of the True Cross]."

The man held his chest with his hands, his face full of dreams: "I wish I could join the Inquisition one day."

Lu Yizhan smiled and patted the man on the shoulder: "As long as we work hard, it will be fine!"

The man was instantly frustrated: "How is it possible? It's a blessing for ordinary members like us to be able to squeeze into the team and go on a mission with the Inquisition."

"Do you want to join the team so badly?" Lu Yizhan scratched his head and smiled nonchalantly, "I don't have any obsessions. I can go anywhere."

The man glanced at the registration desks of other teams and whispered, "Lu Yizhan, if you can join Team 1, you should. I heard from them that the atmosphere in other teams is not very good. Unlike Team 1, where the captain will protect the newcomers, they will bully the newcomers."

"Good luck to Team One for the written test!"

Lu Yizhan nodded, but soon forgot about it. He didn't take it to heart.

It was not until after lunch that he was blocked by a group of people in the alley behind the cafeteria. There was obvious anger between the brows of this group of people. Lu Yizhan, who did not want to cause trouble, simply scanned these people's faces and instantly remembered their identities.

They were the ones who were eliminated from the written test this morning.

One team does not want trainers with bad records on their files. These trainers obviously have more or less records of fighting on their files. They are unhappy after being eliminated, so they are looking for trouble with Lu Yizhan, who has passed the written test with high scores.

"Of course." A man put his hands in his pockets and looked at Lu Yizhang from head to toe with contempt, "I can't believe you're such a top student, Lu Yizhang."

Lu Yizhan immediately raised his hands to show his surrender. He didn't like to cause trouble, so he smiled and said, "It's just good luck."

"If you just don't like me joining the first team, I can change my ambition this afternoon and join the second team."

The group was startled, and their aggressive looks froze, as if they had not expected Lu Yizhan to admit his mistake so quickly. However, they were unwilling to leave like that, and they found fault again: "How do I know you will change?"

"How about this? The captain of the first team will interview you in person this afternoon. She doesn't like her team members smoking, and if she smells cigarettes on you, she will probably not let you pass."

The group of people took out a wrinkled cigarette from their pockets and handed it to Lu Yizhan, saying with a wicked smile: "If you smoke it, we will let you go."

Lu Yizhan never smoked. He looked down and weighed the choice between smoking this cigarette and spending another fifteen minutes dealing with this group of people. He took the cigarette readily and leaned forward naturally towards the person who handed him the cigarette, motioning for him to light it.

The other party subconsciously lit the fire for Lu Yizhan, and only realized something was wrong after he finished lighting it. He was about to curse him in anger, but he found that Lu Yizhan suddenly started coughing, and then he burst into laughter.

Lu Yizhan was smoking and crying because of the choking. He never smoked before and never thought the smell of cigarettes was so pungent.

I should have known not to smoke.

Amid the laughter, Lu Yizhan couldn't smoke any more after the third puff, but the people around him would not let him go so easily and kept forcing him to smoke.

"Hey, what are you doing over there?" A slightly lazy female voice came from the entrance of the alley.

The group of people paused. Lu Yizhan, with a cigarette still dangling from his lips, squinted at the woman standing at the alley entrance against the light.

This woman was carrying a heavy sword that was taller and stronger than her body. Her shoulders and hips were leaning loosely on one side. She had her hair in a high ponytail. Just standing there gave off a strong sense of oppression. Even when Lu Yizhan was standing at the entrance of the alley, he could smell the blood coming from her.

Someone shouted tremblingly, "Formation! Good!"

This sound was like a prelude to a group of people shaking, and they began to tremble one after another. The woman responded lazily, "You guys too," and walked in dragging the heavy sword.

When the strong light faded from her face and her appearance could be seen clearly, the team was already very close to the Land Station. She had no makeup on and was wearing a Heretic Management Bureau uniform jacket. Her facial features were very outstanding, but more attractive than her appearance, or more intuitively, was the strange temperament of her that seemed as if she could draw her sword and chop people at any time, mixed with laziness and beauty.

Her eyes swept from the corners of Lu Yizhan's eyes, which were red from being sneered, to the cigarette that he had only taken two puffs of, and then she glanced at the trembling trainees: "I will consider sending your files to the third team."

——Team Three is the one with the worst conditions among the several detachments.

Most of the trainers were too scared to speak out, but some had the guts to raise their hands and ask, "Team Leader, we were just teaching him how to smoke, and we didn't break any team rules, so why are you sending our files to Team 3?"

Fang Dian smiled, leaned against the wall and nudged Lu Yizhan with his elbow: "They said they would teach you how to smoke, is that true?"

Lu Yizhan met the men's fierce and threatening gazes. Adhering to the principle of less trouble is worse than more trouble, he paused and admitted, "Yes."

"But I see you don't seem to have learned how to smoke." Fang Dian turned her head and her eyes fell on the cigarette in Lu Yizhan's mouth. She did something that made everyone dumbfounded. She laughed and said, "It seems that they didn't teach you well enough. I'll teach you myself."

Fang Dian casually used two fingers to pull the cigarette from Lu Yizhan's lips, put it to his lips in front of everyone's stunned eyes, took a puff, and slowly exhaled.

Lu Yizhan's pupils shrank into a point, and his eyes were fixed on the cigarette holder that Fang Dian had licked.

"If you want to teach how to smoke, you should demonstrate it yourself first." Fang Dian raised his cigarette and said calmly, "If anyone wants to learn in the future, just come to me in person. I won't bother you to teach me."

"This is also my duty as captain."

"If I see someone forcing someone to smoke in private again..." Fang Dian's eyes swept across, "I don't mind helping him quit smoking myself."

The group of people were stunned for a moment, then they agreed and ran away like rats crossing the street.

After Fang Dian finished teaching the man a lesson, he ignored Lu Yizhan who was standing behind him without saying a word. He casually stuffed the cigarette back into the hand of Lu Yizhan who had been frozen in place for almost no movement. As if he didn't notice that this was an ambiguous move, he casually waved his heavy sword at Lu Yizhan behind him and walked out of the alley.

Lu Yizhan suddenly shouted loudly: "Parade!"

Fang Dian nodded and turned around: "Anything else?"

Lu Yizhan's face flushed. He held the extinguished cigarette in his hand, took a deep breath, straightened his back, and spoke clearly, "My name is Lu Yizhan, I'm eighteen years old."

"——Since I was a trainee, my ambition has been to be in the first team. I ranked first in the written test this morning. I have always admired the team very much."

Fang Dian smiled and said, "That's good. Very good."

"The First Team welcomes you to join."