Chapter Twenty: A Warning Message

Because the secret realm was far from the entrance, Yi Shen had spent a total of seven or eight hours clearing it today. He also had to consider the time required for the return journey and organizing his spoils. After exiting the secret realm, Yi Shen chose to head straight back to the city.

When he left the Bone-Burial Snowfield today, the sky was just beginning to lighten. Yi Shen took a deep breath, savoring the freedom in the air. While the atmosphere of the other world wasn’t bad, for reasons he couldn’t explain, only on Earth did he feel that familiar sense of homecoming.

He caught a ride back to his hundreds-of-square-meters mansion. The fridge was stocked with plenty of food, but Yi Shen only opened a bottle of cola produced in Jingmen Safe Zone to celebrate.

What he needed now was a proper rest, and to consider how he would face his parents’ questions when they returned—how to answer them reasonably without revealing his extraordinary gift.

His talent was simply too powerful. So powerful, in fact, that he felt it was best not to share it with anyone.

As he pondered these matters, drowsiness washed over him, and he drifted off to sleep on the sofa.

When he woke again, it was already afternoon. The sky outside glowed with a hazy gold. By rights, his parents should have been home by now, waking him and nagging him a bit as usual. Yet the house remained silent.

Yi Shen picked up his phone, which was connected to Jingmen Safe Zone’s internal network, and sent a message to his parents. He followed up with a phone call, but was told the number was out of service.

Because the navigation networks of the other world and Earth were separated by the dimensional gate, they weren’t interconnected. Out of service meant his parents hadn’t returned as planned, causing a slight furrow to form between Yi Shen’s brows.

There was danger in the other world. Whether it was a major guild or an official team, they always arranged entry and exit times in advance to avoid losing contact. Although Yi Shen didn’t know what mission his parents were on this time, under most circumstances they would check in as scheduled. Even in special cases, someone from the guild would report their safety to the family.

This time, Yi Shen hadn’t received any message, and of course he couldn’t help but worry.

His unease grew until it peaked between eight and nine that evening. After some thought, Yi Shen sent an inquiry to the guild department where his father worked.

Both his father and mother belonged to the “Peach Blossom Cove” Guild of Jingmen Safe Zone, which had half-official backing. Yi Shen had met the uncles and aunts in charge of communications several times. The guild was sizable, formerly part of a large conglomerate, and his father was now vice captain of one of the main divisions.

As expected, when Yi Shen asked for news, Peach Blossom Cove replied that three or four major divisions—more than a hundred people in all—had failed to report back. It was suspected they’d been trapped by some special monster or secret realm.

“Shouldn’t they be okay?”

Because his own monster hunting had gone so smoothly today, Yi Shen honestly couldn’t gauge the strength of monsters above level sixty. He scoured the internet for news about Jingmen Safe Zone and the guild, and finally, in the early hours, heard a rumor: Peach Blossom Cove had triggered a special condition, causing a surge of energy in the “Land of Moonlight” dimensional gate, which led to large numbers of elite and even boss monsters roaming everywhere.

The information was piecemeal and chaotic, but one thing was clear: something had happened at the dimensional gate where his parents were.

Yi Shen felt a strong urge to go and see for himself. But he knew that, despite his strength, against monsters above level sixty, he would be little more than cannon fodder.

Restless and anxious, Yi Shen lingered at home for over three more hours, until it was already nine at night. Just past nine o’clock, his communicator suddenly lit up.

Seeing that the message was from his mother, Yi Shen’s face lit up—his parents must have escaped danger.

But when he read the message, he froze, never expecting his mother to send him something like this:

“Leave Jingmen immediately. Go to Beiyang and find your aunt. Trust no one. Don’t wait for contact from your father or me. We will come find you ourselves.”

The message was brief and left Yi Shen baffled. When he tried to reply, he discovered his mother’s device was already turned off.

“My aunt?”

“Isn’t my aunt…”

Yi Shen remembered he did have an aunt, whose family had once lived in the city of Beiyang, now Beiyang Safe Zone. But the problem was, his aunt had died in the chaos years ago. His mother had mourned her many times.

His mind raced, immediately formulating two possibilities.

First, perhaps his aunt had not died, but had been living well in Beiyang all these years. Something had happened to his parents, so he was being told to leave Jingmen and seek out his aunt, trusting no one.

Second, perhaps the message was not meant only for him. If the communicators weren’t secure and could be hacked, sending him to his aunt’s would serve as a diversion, misleading anyone else monitoring the message.

Yi Shen leaned more toward the second possibility.

His mother’s message ended with “Don’t wait for contact from us; we’ll come find you ourselves.” This implied the communicator was not safe, possibly even trackable. More important than the mention of his aunt were the instructions: “Leave Jingmen immediately” and “Trust no one.”

His parents feared someone might track him down by any means, so this was a warning. If he didn’t leave, he risked being assassinated or captured as leverage against them.

...

After a ten-second assessment, Yi Shen shut off his communicator.

Taking nothing with him, he slipped out the back of the house. Though unsure if his guess was correct, he was certain the house was no longer safe.

He avoided city cameras as much as possible, discarded the communicator, and found an obscure shop down a side street, where he changed into black clothes. He circled the city several times, changing his appearance with each round, until he was confident no one could track his movements.

Only then did he feel a modicum of relief.

From a high vantage point, Yi Shen gazed distantly at his home. As expected, seven or eight shadows had appeared there. Though he was too far to see their faces, anyone showing up at this hour probably did not have good intentions.

Yi Shen’s expression grew somber.

He had felt nothing, no emotional stir, even when facing seven or eight monsters at once—just the satisfaction of a swift, crushing victory. But being forced from his home by circumstances beyond his control gave him an unprecedented sense of reality.

He clenched his fist. Suddenly, he felt an urge to go level up. With the Mage’s Heart, he could solo group secret realms at level ten. His spell mastery skills could boost his attributes; by the time he reached level sixty or seventy, his stats would be several times higher than those of his peers!

Next time, he hoped things would be different—that his mother wouldn’t tell him to run, but rather to refrain from causing trouble for others.