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Chapter 498: Chapter 498: Opportunity

Beitian Academy quickly dispatched a special car to pick up Lin Qing, Elorie, and Ji Lian to the Celestial Ridge District.

As soon as the three got out of the car, they saw Miss Honglian standing guard at the shop entrance.

After entering the shop, Lin Qing’s heart immediately sank to the bottom—it was no longer the magical shop she knew. The stairs leading to the second floor had turned into a white wall, and the elevator beside the bar, which could directly connect to the branch store, was nowhere to be seen. The fruits on the shelves emitted a sickly sweet fragrance, the smell of overripe and spoiled produce, clearly indicating that Honglian hadn’t been in the mood to manage the shop’s business these past few days.

The fact was unmistakable, although the shop was still here, it had shed its extraordinary guise and turned back into an ordinary community store.

Honglian pulled down the roller shutter, "You—"

"Where is Chen Xuan?" Lin Qing finally poured out her pent-up questions, "You should have been with him, right? What exactly happened here!?"

"Miss Lin." Ji Lian lightly coughed twice, "I believe everyone wants to know the answer. Miss Honglian must have also exerted all her efforts to find him."

Lin Qing was taken aback; she then realized that her tone carried a hint of reproach.

Looking at Honglian again, her eyes were bloodshot, her eye bags swollen, and her lips dry and cracked, as if she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time.

A wave of guilt surged in her heart.

"I’m sorry, I just..."

"It’s okay, it’s my responsibility. I couldn’t protect him." Honglian shook her head, her gaze dim, "After returning to the shop that day, Liuli and Xu Xuanling went upstairs to rest while I stayed on the first floor to look after the shop. Then... I heard the elevator door opening."

The elevator door?

Lin Qing looked towards the empty wall, "Did he say which branch he was going to?"

"No, I didn’t think much of it at the time, after all, he would always tell us when he was going far away." Honglian said with difficulty, "I thought... he was concerned about you all and went back to the Lotus Cloud Sect for a trip..."

She had been holding on to this hope these days, waiting, maybe Chen Xuan would return with Lin Qing and Elorie after they woke up.

But after receiving Lin Qing’s call and knowing that she appeared at Invasion Point C98, Honglian knew this hope was shattered.

When an Ability User dies, any powers they’ve exerted vanish. Now, much evidence pointed to one result: Chen Xuan was no longer in this world.

Lin Qing’s mind was instantly in turmoil.

She instinctively resisted this conclusion, yet she couldn’t ignore the reality in front of her. She had finally found her way home, but Chen Xuan was gone, the destruction of humanity in the future was also certain, so what meaning did staying in Jiang City have anymore?

"Have you... looked for him?" Elorie asked softly.

"Where to look?" Honglian gritted her teeth as if trying hard to suppress her emotions, "Jiang City? Or his hometown? If he just went to those places, how could he abandon the whole shop and us scattered in different worlds?"

"Miss Honglian, calm down..." Ji Lian comforted her, "Have you seen Xu Xuanling afterward?"

She took a deep breath, then slowly shook her head, "Xu Xuanling and Liuli disappeared with the guest room. I don’t know if they returned to their own world or, like Chen Xuan, just disappeared..."

Everyone’s expression was somewhat grave.

The Ability Store was definitely more than just a place for trading abilities to them.

It was hope, reaching out a helping hand when everyone was at the bottom of a dark and lightless valley.

It was also a bond, tightly tying together the fates of people from different worlds.

"No... I believe Chen Xuan isn’t dead." Lin Qing suddenly spoke, "He couldn’t just abandon us like that!"

"Miss Lin..."

"Sister Lin Qing..."

The others looked at her, their gazes complex, wanting to say something but stopping.

"I don’t want to believe it either, but!" Honglian’s teeth were almost sinking into her lips, "But just believing won’t change the current situation!"

Lin Qing stubbornly replied, "I have evidence."

In an instant, this short sentence made everyone’s eyes light up with eagerness.

"What evidence?"

"When I passed through the Erosion Zone, I felt a very subtle sensation, as if the place I wanted to go was the next exit that would open." Lin Qing slowly explained. Her slow pace wasn’t due to any doubt about herself, but because it was indeed difficult to describe that feeling in words, "However, there was a deviation both times I crossed the Erosion Zone, like a wall blocking me."

"A wall blocked you in the Erosion Zone?" Honglian looked at Ji Lian and Elorie, but their expressions were as blank as hers.

"Exactly." Once she said it out loud, Lin Qing’s words flowed more smoothly, "You can say it’s just my illusion, but now I’m gradually understanding, this wall might be what the Celestial Patrol refers to as the ’Ascension Predicament.’ It’s like a forbidden zone, refusing anyone to return to that point in time."

Because Chen Xuan was both a witness to and the facilitator of the ascension.

No one can change this history anymore.

"What does this have to do with the evidence you mentioned?" Honglian still didn’t understand; if history couldn’t be changed, didn’t that mean there was nothing they could do?

"It’s a direction." Lin Qing paused, "I set Chen Xuan as the coordinate for the destination. Although I didn’t successfully arrive at the node before his disappearance, the general direction hasn’t deviated."

Elorie’s eyes brightened, "You mean the prerequisite for deviation is... this coordinate had to exist first?"

She nodded emphatically, "Both times passing through the Invasion Point landed between 2025 and 2026, I don’t think that’s a coincidence."

"But even if it’s evidence, where do we look for him?" Honglian asked the most crucial question.

Despite sounding incredible, Lin Qing’s description couldn’t be used as a clue.

Even if everyone accepted this hypothesis, it would at most boost morale.

Confronted with this question, Lin Qing could not answer either.

Just as the anxious silence was spreading, the four suddenly heard a slight noise.

"Click."

It seemed like something... fell on the floor.

Lin Qing suddenly raised her head, "Did you hear that?"

This time it was no longer only her feeling; the other three nodded!

The quieter the setting, the more abrupt the unusual sound appeared. However, the store was already closed, leaving the four of them on the first floor; none of them had made any extra noise just now.

Of course... it could have been noise made by rats, stray cats, or other animals, but no one wanted to think that way at this moment.

"It seems to have come from the direction of the bar." Elorie cautiously said.

"Not the bar, above the bar." Ji Lian looked at the wooden ceiling, "Miss Honglian, are you sure the second floor disappeared?"

Honglian didn’t know how to answer this question.

With the stairs and elevator connecting other floors gone, the shop turned into the most ordinary community convenience store, so the extra floor should have disappeared too.

But she hadn’t verified it—how could she just take a sledgehammer and smash through the ceiling?

"You said... the last place he went before disappearing was the elevator?" Lin Qing suddenly asked.

"Uh... yes." Honglian replied reflexively.

She exchanged glances with Ji Lian, then nodded, "You go ahead."

The latter stepped forward and summoned two Thousand Thoughts Swords, directing them to fly towards the wall where the elevator should have been.

The blade transformed into a point chisel, quickly chipping away a large section of concrete from the wall.

There was no hidden mysterious passage inside the wall... As the concrete layer peeled off, the internal rebar was revealed.

"Try going up." Lin Qing unsatisfied said.

Soon, the Thousand Thoughts Swords chiseled along the wall up to the ceiling. After the wooden ceiling was broken open, cracked fluorescent tubes and wires were exposed, followed by concrete blocks and intersecting reinforcement bars...

It was evident that both the wall and the ceiling were solid building structures, impossible to hide an elevator shaft.

All they would get would be a dilapidated shop and angry complaints from the residents above.

But at that moment, Ji Lian suddenly uttered a "huh," and beckoned back the Thousand Thoughts Swords.

"There’s something in the ceiling."

Upon hearing this, Lin Qing ignored the still falling dust and was the first to rush under the bar.

Amidst the dense rebar net, she saw a coin half-embedded in the concrete. It emitted an ominous black glow, the center barely the size of a fingernail but giving the illusion of being bottomless, like a black hole in Xingyu devouring everything.

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