# 1955
Chapter 1955
Time Deception
From the moment he boarded the plane, Lin Qiye had fallen into a deep sleep again. He only woke briefly when getting into the car after landing. When he finally regained full consciousness, he was standing in front of the Shangjing courtyard.
Lin Qiye did not return to Night Watch headquarters for two reasons: first, Night Watch's focus was entirely on the three frontier passes, so headquarters was nearly empty anyway; second, an office simply didn't have a bed... For resting, this place was far quieter and more comfortable.
Lin Qiye pushed open the courtyard gate. Dim yellow withered leaves scattered across the yard. He glanced at the chessboard beneath the tree and walked straight into his room.
He set an alarm clock, removed his clothes, and lay down. Half a second later, Lin Qiye sank into deep slumber...
The wall clock's pendulum swung gently. Time passed second by second.
All was silent.
...
BANG——!!
A dull thunderclap echoed from the border of Great Xia.
The snow-covered wilderness shuddered violently. Countless birds took flight in terror, soaring into 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 Great Xia's borders!
Dark, low-hanging clouds shrouded the heavens. Crimson lightning crackled like blood vessels in the sky, constantly intertwining and pulsing. At the far end of the horizon, a black tide was sweeping across the earth like a tsunami, rushing toward them at breakneck speed!
As the black tide approached, the tremors beneath the earth grew increasingly violent, like a volcano about to erupt shaking violently.
The next moment, piercing alarms blared across the heavens!!
Dense shouts erupted from within the pass. All artillery simultaneously locked onto the distant horizon. Just then, a blood-red giant eye seemed to slowly open in the churning clouds like a crimson abyss...
Beneath that giant eye stood the war fortification with its alarms wailing!
The clouds churned. A massive goat's hoof descended like a falling mountain, crashing down onto that war fortification. It crushed the tall outer wall beneath it. Countless blood-red tentacles extended from the eyeball, madly pouring into the fortification's interior. Ear-piercing screams rang out in succession.
Several dark red figures attempted to fly into the clouds but were struck 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, it seemed as if a colossal creature stood between heaven and earth, tearing apart everything within that fortification. The alarm that echoed across the sky lasted less than a minute before falling into complete silence.
Before this writhing monster, the war fortification stood almost no chance of resistance. As the earth's tremors grew increasingly violent, that all-engulfing black tide had already broken through Great Xia's borders, surging past the shattered remnants of the pass, directly冲向 the snow-covered wasteland beyond!
Tall young 【Black Goat】 creatures trampled hills and snow forests beneath their feet. Wherever they passed, nothing survived. They were like locusts crossing a field, reducing every terrain and substance to nothing.
Eerie, sharp shrieks rose and fell repeatedly. The vast black mass filled 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 here from the distant north. In the pristine white hospital room, the hanging IV fluid rippled with tiny waves in its transparent bag.
On the hospital bed, an elderly man with silvery-white hair had his eyelids trembling lightly. Then, as if sensing something, he abruptly widened his eyes!
His peripheral vision caught the ripples in the transparent bag. Beneath the oxygen mask, his aged face twisted in shock!
"How is this possible... how is this possible???"
The elderly Wang Mian's trembling hand reached out, barely managing to remove the oxygen mask from his face. A hoarse, unclear voice emerged from his throat...
His hands supported his withered frame as he tried to rise from the bed, but he could only collapse weakly to the floor beside it. He stared up at the pale ceiling, his breathing growing uncontrollably heavy. Everything before his eyes seemed to be consumed by darkness...
Beep— beep— beep beep— beep beep beep beep—
The vital signs monitoring device raised an alarm. The elderly Wang Mian's palm reached desperately toward the bedside. There, a long blade named 【Mandarin Arrow】 and a gray cloak leaned quietly against the wall.
As powerlessness invaded his entire body, the last trace of vitality remaining in his system was silently depleting.
His eyes closed involuntarily. The fingertip that had yet to touch the blade's handle also went limp, falling to the ground... The shrill alarm echoed within the room. The bed frame creaked under the faint tremors.
His heartbeat fell silent.
Beep————
...
In his sleep, Lin Qiye jolted awake!
He shot up 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 turned to the clock beside him.
Countdown: 4 hours 20 minutes.
He'd come back to the Shangjing courtyard to sleep, and less than three hours had passed... There was still plenty of time before the Cthulhu Faction launched their all-out attack. So why would there be an earthquake for no reason?
For some reason, an ominous premonition surged in Lin Qiye's heart.
"Dingaling——"
The phone rang. Lin Qiye grabbed it immediately:
"Hello?"
"Commander! Something's happened." It was Min Junliang, the secretary overseeing the situation at Jialin Pass. His voice was frantic with anxiety. "Half a minute ago, an emergency distress signal came from Snowchill Pass. The 【Black Goat】 has led millions of its young directly through from the north!"
"Half a minute ago? Snowchill Pass?" Lin Qiye's heart sank.
"Yes, Commander. The timing, the location—everything is completely different from what Wang Mian said!" The voice on the phone was filled with chaos. Min Junliang had to raise his volume to speak again.
"Currently, Snowchill Pass and Beichong Pass have completely lost contact. If I had to guess, they most likely..."
Before Min Junliang could finish, Lin Qiye cut in:
"What about Jialin Pass? How's Jialin Pass doing?"
"Right now there's no sign of anything at Jialin Pass... Wait! Something's coming!"
Violent tremors came through the phone. Then came the roar of a massive beast. Several seconds later, Min Junliang's voice returned:
"Jialin Pass is under attack by a Cthulhu Faction deity! We just received word that Banruo Pass and Shanhaiguan are the same!"
"Three S-rank passes are all being attacked by a Cthulhu Faction god simultaneously?"
Lin Qiye's brow creased even tighter.
This is bad...
The situation had already completely exceeded Great Xia's expectations.
The future the elderly Wang Mian had seen had not come to pass. The timing, the locations, even the targets of invasion—everything was completely different! And all the arrangements and preparations they had made up until now were建立在 this foundation!
But without external interference, the trajectory of future warfare shouldn't have deviated so drastically. After all, their successful destruction of Vishnu and others at Sunken Dragon Pass had already proven this!
The elderly Wang Mian would never deceive them. Which left only one possibility... time had been tampered with.
The elderly Wang Mian had traveled back from the future to the past, wanting to change this timeline's future based on his known intelligence. But this intelligence had failed to materialize. This meant that those who had witnessed that future and returned to this timeline weren't limited to just him!
Just as the elderly Wang Mian had shared intelligence with them, someone else had shared the future of another timeline with 【Chaos】!
No... if we consider this more deeply, perhaps the 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 to let their side obtain future intelligence, then watch them personally alter the future... In this way, through this one massive deception, all of Great Xia had pointlessly exhausted enormous amounts of time and energy!
And among the Cthulhu Faction, there was only one with the ability to orchestrate such a time deception...
【Key to the Gate】, Yog-Sothoth.