# 1953
Chapter 1953
Time Deception
From the moment he boarded the plane, Lin Qiye had fallen into a deep sleep again. He only woke briefly when getting off the plane and into the car. When he finally regained consciousness, he had arrived in front of the Shangjing courtyard.
Lin Qiye did not return to the Night Watch headquarters for two reasons: first, the Night Watch's focus was entirely on the three border passes, so the headquarters was nearly empty anyway; second, there was no bed in the office... For rest, this place was still quieter and more comfortable.
Lin Qiye pushed open the courtyard gate. Dim yellow withered leaves scattered across the courtyard. He glanced at the chessboard beneath the tree and walked straight into his room.
Setting the alarm, removing his clothes, climbing into bed—half a second later, Lin Qiye fell into a deep slumber...
The clock pendulum on the wall gradually swayed. Time trickled away second by second.
Silence reigned supreme.
...
BANG——!!
A muffled thunder echoed from the border of Great Xia.
The snow-covered wilderness shuddered violently. Countless birds took flight in terror toward the clouds.
At that moment, on the outer wall of that silver-white pass, a Night Watch soldier seemed to sense something and abruptly turned to look beyond the border of Great Xia!
Low-hanging dark clouds shrouded the sky. Crimson lightning flickered like veins across the heavens, constantly intertwining and pulsing. At the edge of the distant horizon, a black tide was sweeping across the earth like a tsunami, rushing toward this location at breakneck speed!
As the black tide approached, the trembling of the earth grew increasingly intense, as if an erupting volcano were shaking violently.
The next moment, piercing alarms blared across the sky!!
Dense shouts rang out from within the pass. All artillery locked onto the distant horizon. Just then, a scarlet giant eye slowly opened within the dark clouds, like a bloody abyss...
Below that giant eye stood the war fortification with its wailing alarms!
The clouds churned. A massive goat's hoof descended like a falling mountain, crashing down upon that war fortification with earth-shaking force, crushing the tall outer wall beneath it. Countless crimson tentacles extended from the eyeball, madly pouring into the fortification's interior. Piercing screams rang out in succession.
Several dark-red figures attempted to soar into the clouds, only to be crushed down by a second falling hoof. As the pass was trampled into mud.
Both hooves landed. The giant eye gaped like an abyss. Beneath the writhing clouds, a colossal entity seemed to stand between heaven and earth, tearing apart everything within this fortification with savage fury. The alarm that had echoed across the sky lasted less than a minute before falling into complete silence.
Against this writhing monstrosity, the war fortification had virtually no resistance. As the earth's trembling grew more intense, the overwhelming black tide burst through the border of Great Xia, surpassing the shattered pass fragments, and charged directly into the ice-snow wasteland beyond!
Towering young 【Black Goat】 creatures trampled hills and snow forests beneath their feet. Wherever they passed, nothing survived. They were like locusts sweeping through a region, crushing all terrain and matter into nothingness.
Eerie, shrill shrieks rang out in waves. The vast blackness dominated the sky and earth. As far as the eye could see, there was no end in sight.
...
At the same time.
Shangjing City, Great Xia Night Watch Headquarters.
A faint aftershock swept from the distant north to this location. Inside a pristine ward, the hanging IV fluid rippled with tiny waves in its transparent bag.
On the hospital bed, an elderly man with silver-white hair blinked gently, then as if sensing something, abruptly widened his eyes!
His peripheral vision caught the ripples in the transparent bag. Beneath the oxygen mask, his aged face contorted with shock!
"How can this be... how can this be possible???"
The elderly Wang Mian trembled as he extended his hand, barely managing to pull off the oxygen mask. A hoarse, slurred voice emerged from his throat...
His hands braced against his frail躯干, seemingly trying to lift himself from the bed, but he could only tumble powerlessly to the floor. He lay gazing up at the pale ceiling, his breathing growing uncontrollably ragged. Everything before his eyes seemed to be consumed by darkness...
Beep—beep—beep beep—beep beep beep beep—
The medical monitoring device raised an alarm. The elderly Wang Mian's hand reached with tremendous effort toward the bedside. There, a long sword named 【Mandarin Arrow】 and a gray cloak leaned quietly against the wall.
As the weakness invaded his entire body, the last trace of vitality remaining within him was also silently exhausted.
His eyes closed involuntarily. The fingertips that had not yet reached the sword hilt dangled limply to the floor... The piercing alarm echoed within the room. The bed frame creaked under the slight tremors.
His heartbeat fell silent.
Beep————
...
In his sleep, Lin Qiye abruptly startled awake!
He shot upright from the bed like lightning. The slight earthquake had made the Straight Blade on his nightstand rattle against the wood.
An earthquake??
His brow furrowed tightly. His gaze immediately shifted to the clock beside him.
Countdown: 4 hours 20 minutes.
He had only slept less than three hours since returning to the Shangjing courtyard... There was still a long time before the Cthulhu Faction's full-scale attack. But why would there be an earthquake out of nowhere?
For some reason, an ominous premonition surged in Lin Qiye's heart.
Ding ling ling——
The phone rang. Lin Qiye immediately answered.
"Hello?"
"Commander! Something's happened." The speaker was Secretary Min Junliang, who was managing the situation at Jialin Pass. His voice was frantic with anxiety. "Half a minute ago, we received an emergency distress signal from Snowchill Pass. The 【Black Goat】，带着数百万幼崽，直接从北方冲进来了！"
"Half a minute ago? Snowchill Pass?" Lin Qiye's heart sank.
"Yes, Commander. Everything—the timing, the location—it's completely different from what Wang Mian said!" The voice on the other end of the phone was chaotic with noise. Min Junliang had to raise his volume to speak again.
"Currently, both Snowchill Pass and Beichongguan have completely lost contact. If I had to guess, most likely..."
Before Min Junliang could finish, Lin Qiye cut in immediately:
"What about Jialin Pass? How is Jialin Pass?"
"At Jialin Pass, we haven't seen anything yet... Wait! Here it comes!"
Intense shaking sounds came from the other end of the phone, followed by the roar of a giant beast. Several seconds later, Min Junliang's voice returned:
"Jialin Pass is under attack by a Cthulhu Faction deity! We just received news—Banruo Pass and Shanhaiguan are the same!"
"Three S-rank passes are all being attacked by a Cthulhu Faction deity simultaneously?"
Lin Qiye's brow creased tightly.
This is bad...
The situation had already completely exceeded Great Xia's expectations.
The future that elderly Wang Mian had witnessed had not come to pass. The timing, the locations, even the targets of the invasion—all were completely different! And all the arrangements and preparations they had made up to this point were built upon that foundation!
But without external interference, the trajectory of future warfare should not deviate this drastically. The fact that they had successfully slain Vishnu and others at Sunken Dragon Pass earlier had proven precisely this point!
Elderly Wang Mian was absolutely incapable of deceiving them. Which meant only one possibility remained... time had been manipulated.
Elderly Wang Mian had traversed back from the future to the past, naturally intending to change this timeline's future using the intelligence he already possessed. But that intelligence had failed to materialize. This indicated that whoever had witnessed that future and returned to this timeline was not the only one!
Just as elderly Wang Mian had shared his intelligence with them, someone had shared a different timeline's future with 【Chaos】!
No... if we consider this more deeply, perhaps elderly Wang Mian crossing the river of time and returning was itself part of the enemy's scheme? Perhaps They had deliberately allowed Wang Mian to return?
Their purpose was for our side to obtain intelligence about the future, and then to personally alter that future... In this way, the entirety of Great Xia had been deceived. They had wasted enormous amounts of time and energy for nothing!
And among the Cthulhu Faction, there was only one capable of setting such a time-deception...
【Key to the Gate】, Yog-Sothoth.