# 884
Chapter 885: Fortunately, It Was Us
He was all too aware that with his current "Klein" realm strength, he could never escape this closed loop. Therefore, he had to forcibly break through and reach the Human Apex realm—that was his only chance for survival.
Yet, he had already pushed his potential to the absolute limit, yet still couldn't break through that barrier of realm.
The lifespan remaining to him was running out.
An unprecedented agitation and fury surged through his heart. He began to hate his own weakness, began to regret why he had ever walked into this fishing village, and even began to resent his future self for why he had to set up this closed loop here.
Was it intentional?
Did he want to kill me?!
Wang Mian raised his head, his crimson eyes gazing at Chen Yangrong's chest, which was nearly completely submerged within the stomach wall—that longsword wreathed in flowing rings of light...
In that moment, a mad idea flashed through his mind.
What if... he just directly pulled out that sword?
As long as he pulled out that sword, both he and his teammates would survive. As for what happened afterward... what did that have to do with him?
They of 【Mask Squad】 had toiled for so many years, lived with their heads on the line, dancing on the blade's edge. They'd escaped death countless times. They'd done enough for Great Xia—why couldn't they be selfish for once?!
Wang Mian struggled to his feet, his crimson eyes locked onto the 【Mandarin Arrow】. He moved toward it with slow, unsteady steps.
"Yes! That's it!" Chen Yangrong, now reduced to only having his head exposed, grew ecstatic at the sight. "Pull out that sword! Everyone can survive!"
Clad in his gray cloak, Wang Mian stumbled to Chen Yangrong's side. His right hand slowly rose, reaching toward the longsword embedded deep within the flesh and blood...
His heart suddenly lurched. In those reddened eyes, a flicker of clarity flashed!
His palm froze in mid-air.
What was he doing?
Wang Mian quickly withdrew his arm and raised his head to gaze at the emptiness above. Bewilderment and lingering fear flickered in his eyes.
It was that crimson moon.
After all this time, that crimson moon's influence over one's emotions had reached a truly terrifying level.
He had just lost the race against time, his mind in its most vulnerable state. Corrupted by the red moon's侵蚀 of his senses, his rationality was rapidly fading... he'd nearly done something irreversible.
What about the others?
Wang Mian bit through his tongue, using the pain to keep himself as clear-headed as possible. He turned back and swiftly moved toward the exit of the giant beast's corpse.
---
At the same time.
The Fishing Village.
On the scorched, blackened earth, the blood-soaked Xuanwo sat slowly down, holding a burning incense stick in his hand.
The incense's blue smoke rose gently, forming semi-physical chains that bound the four beside him—the howling Moon Ghost, Sandalwood, Star Scar, and Rose—tightly together. Their pupils had already turned completely crimson.
"Xuanwo, are you really okay?" Tianping, beside him, asked weakly, his face beaded with sweat.
"I'm fine. I can hold on a bit longer."
"Who would've thought that under this crimson moon, you'd be the one who lasted the longest among us."
"Right? I'm amazing, aren't I?" A勉强 smile tugged at Xuanwo's lips.
"Amazing." Tianping's admiration was genuine. "To be honest, I realized a long time ago that you're smarter than any of us. You've just been pretending to be foolish this whole time..."
Xuanwo shrugged. "Having you as the smart one on the team is enough. Being a carefree fool who occasionally lightens the mood isn't so bad either."
Tianping gazed at Xuanwo for a long moment, then smiled faintly. "Which is why you're smarter than me."
Xuanwo didn't respond. He simply stared peacefully at Rose and the others, who'd fallen into madness, then closed his eyes with a resigned sigh and spoke softly:
"Truthfully, I regret it."
"What?"
"You know, we好不容易 had a vacation. What's wrong with everyone going out to have some fun together? Why did we have to take on this job?" Red flickered in Xuanwo's eyes as his voice rose in pitch. "We've done enough for Great Xia. We just wanted to rest properly—what's wrong with that?
Now look—vacation's ruined, and we've gotten our lives caught up in this mess..."
Tianping was silent for a long while before speaking. "You're not wrong. But have you ever considered—if we hadn't come, then the ones dispatched here... would have been 【Night Watch】."
Investigating a fishing village—this wasn't a job that should have fallen to a veteran special team like 【Mask Squad】.
If 【Night Watch】 hadn't gone missing in Japan. If they hadn't happened to return at this exact time. If their return hadn't shared the workload with 【Mask Squad】. Then 【Mask Squad】 wouldn't have gotten this vacation. Without that vacation, they wouldn't have come to investigate this fishing village on the way, and they wouldn't have fallen into this temporal loop...
A series of coincidences had shifted the special team arriving here from 【Night Watch】 to 【Mask Squad】.
The elderly Wang Mian had exhausted every effort to change history and salvage past regrets. But as Haku had said, some people's fates cannot be altered.
Hearing Tianping's words, Xuanwo froze.
In his mind, he glimpsed those young figures standing on the podium... They were the juniors that 【Mask Squad】 had watched grow up with their own eyes.
After a moment, Xuanwo sighed:
"Then... fortunately, it was us who came."
Fortunately it was us,
and not them.
Both fell into silence.
Right then, a figure streaked across the sky and landed before them.
"Captain?!" Xuanwo's pupils contracted at the sight of the aged Wang Mian. "How did you—"
Wang Mian didn't answer. He silently turned to regard the others beside him—already having lost their sanity, bound in place. His brow furrowed deeply.
He opened his mouth, about to speak, when the earth suddenly quaked violently.
BOOM—!!
In the sky, that crimson moon had completely emerged from behind the clouds. Scarlet light bathed the earth. At the same moment, a dazzling silver gleam erupted from the depths of the sea, weaving into a ring with head meeting tail, rapidly expanding outward.
Every material thing this ring passed over was utterly annihilated. Simultaneously, a brand-new world instantly restructured itself. Time had reversed to three days prior.
"It's over! The loop is over!" Wang Mian sensed the terrifying law of time contained within that silver ring, his pupils constricting sharply.
The loop ending meant... the time law's erasure had begun.
Xuanwo stared blankly at the ring rapidly approaching in the distance. He suddenly spun around and seized the aged Wang Mian's shoulders. Two purple vortices bloomed simultaneously—one swirling around Wang Mian's body, the other revolving over Xuanwo's own chest.
A purest essence of spiritual power madly flooded into Wang Mian's depleted form.
Wang Mian was stunned. He turned to look at Xuanwo, disbelief flashing in his eyes:
"Xuanwo! What are you doing?!"