# 530
**Chapter 530: The One Behind Him**
"You said he’s going to die—what do you mean?"
Lin Qiye stood outside the cell of the Secret-Peeker, one hand gripping the bars, brows knit tight.
The red-eyed shadow shook its head. "I don’t know the details."
"Can’t you see the future?"
"I can only glimpse what a single object will experience within a week, and only from that object’s point of view—not omniscient foresight."
Lin Qiye’s gaze sharpened. "You’re telling the truth?"
"I swear by the name of the supreme master I serve."
"Can the future be changed?"
"It can." The red-eyed shadow nodded. "My Secret-Peeping Eye doesn’t absolutely predict; it extrapolates. When the expected course is disrupted, the future changes."
"So if someone intervenes, he might not die?"
"In theory, yes—but it’s not that simple." The shadow traced a finger through the air; several black threads appeared from nowhere. "Everything exists along its intended path. Some call it fate, others destiny…
Imagine these threads are those paths. The thicker the thread, the greater the being’s influence. A bug’s thread is thin—born Monday, stepped on Sunday. Delay the passer-by by a second and the bug lives; the cost is trivial.
But beings near the world’s apex have threads like cables. Their every move sways thousands of lives, even natural law. Altering their fate demands a staggering price. If the intervening force isn’t strong enough to snap that cable, the world itself corrects the timeline—and nothing changes."
Lin Qiye fell silent.
"You’re saying reality has an auto-correct function. Unless the power spent matches the price demanded, any short-term change gets pulled back?"
Now the shadow stared. "You… understood?"
"Hardly rocket science," Lin Qiye arched a brow. "Change demands payment—just another conservation law."
"When the great being first explained it to me, it took ages to grasp," the shadow sighed. "As expected of you, Director Lin… So, may I stay in this asylum?"
It gazed at him, hope and sincerity shining in its crimson eyes.
Lin Qiye considered. "Yes—but one more question."
"Ask, as long as it doesn’t touch upon that lord."
"Twelve years ago, when you descended on Cangnan, what did you do?" Lin Qiye’s eyes narrowed.
The shadow hesitated, then spoke slowly. "Following my master’s guidance, I found a little girl at the edge of Cangnan City…"
"A little girl?"
"About seven or eight. Her name—Jinian."
Lin Qiye’s heart skipped. He knew that name: the letter in the director’s office of the Asylum of the Gods had been signed Jinian—almost certainly the asylum’s previous director.
"Then?" he asked.
"I gave her the lord’s letter and a formation diagram."
"What did the letter say?"
"I wasn’t allowed to read it; I don’t know. But…" It paused, "I saw the diagram: the Three-Sage Spirit Array. With three artifacts containing law-power, it can briefly break space-time, letting someone attack from any point in past or future within the array’s range."
"Three artifacts?"
Instantly Lin Qiye thought of the three artifacts Jinian had won. According to Master Chen, after Cangnan was erased by the Śiva’s Grievance, Night Watch dug up fragments of three artifacts beneath the shack where Lin Qiye had lived. His survival likely hinged on them.
Piecing it together: twelve years ago the red-eyed shadow, obeying its master, came to Great Xia and found Jinian. A deal was struck via letter. Jinian slipped into the shack, secretly laid the Three-Sage Spirit Array underground, and implanted the Asylum of the Gods into Lin Qiye’s mind.
When Śiva’s Grievance wiped Cangnan, the array activated; that being struck across time, preserving him. Then the Seraph chose him as agent. Vast divine power flooded his brain, awakening the hidden asylum—but his mental strength was too weak to perceive it for years. Once he grew strong enough, the rest followed.
In short, the being behind the shadow had not only saved his life but given him the asylum and the Seraph’s mantle. Without it, Lin Qiye would have died with Cangnan twelve years ago.
He recalled the fate-thread theory. If erasure had been his destined end, that being had rewritten his future into something incalculable.
What price had it paid?
And why?
The only answer he had was the shadow’s first words:
"…Because He and you stand on the same side. Even if the whole world opposes you… He will always be with you."