Meanwhile, on the Other Side of the Central Continent,
In the busy city near the edge of the desert, Shen Yi floated high up in the empty sky, looking down intently at the southern part of Tian Bei city. He focused particularly on the Han clan's territory, located directly across from the fortress of their great rival, the Hong clan.
'I remember clearly that in the original story, Xiao Yan met the Han Clan right after he arrived on the central continent. It looks like my unexpected, continued presence has completely broken the main storyline,' he thought, his sharp eyes tracking a lone carriage moving below toward the Han clan mansion. Inside, there were several injured servants and a few Han clan soldiers, but the main character, Xiao Yan, and the young lady, Han Xue, were clearly missing.
"It seems those two people from the Hong clan successfully captured her and took her away. I'll have to capture her myself and question her directly to confirm if she crossed paths with Xiao Yan," Shen Yi muttered thoughtfully. His brow furrowed as he watched the Han clan grounds become increasingly restless and agitated after hearing the news that their group had been brutally attacked and that the Hong Clan had kidnapped the second daughter of the Han family.
"In any case, I must first check if the crucial safe points in the timeline have been changed. If they have, I must leave this central region immediately and return home."
Shen Yi murmured this decisive thought, and his figure instantly flashed, dissolving into a brilliant streak of golden lightning that vanished without a trace.
A short while later, a quiet, almost invisible ripple appeared high above the city's northern district.
Shen Yi stepped out from the invisible void channel, his black robe staying perfectly still in the gentle city wind that gusted past him.
He looked down, his eyes... now calm and filled with a faint, piercing gray-gold flicker... scanning the familiar city layout below. He quickly located the Hong Clan: a strong fortress radiating a sharp, cold Dou Qi, situated right opposite the Han Clan's grounds.
His massive soul power, which had now reached the level of a Dou Supreme, was theoretically vast enough to cover the entire continent, but he condensed it with absolute precision down to the size of a single, sharp needle, focusing all its terrifying force only onto the Hong Clan fortress.
"The Hong Clan," he murmured, quickly reviewing the clan's specific role in the original plotline as his senses swept the area.
He found Han Xue instantly. She was sealed within a thick, restrictive layer of ice-attribute Dou Qi and confined to the highest tower inside the Hong Clan's main reception hall, already being prepared for a brutal, agonizing interrogation or a far more sinister, unknown fate.
Shen Yi did not hesitate for an instant. He wasted no time flying or walking through the air. He simply dissolved his physical form into the space above, reappearing a mere breath later inside the top floor of the Hong Clan tower.
Two powerful guards, both strong Dou Wangs, stood rigidly before the sealed chamber door. Before they could even notice his sudden, silent presence, a single strand of invisible, highly refined soul lightning shot out from Shen Yi's palm. It wrapped around the two guards, instantly and silently shattering their wills.
Swish!
Their bodies crumpled silently to the floor, instantly incinerated into fine ash that dissolved before it could even settle on the ice-carved floor beneath their feet.
Shen Yi stepped through the now-unlocked chamber door.
Han Xue sat motionless on a chair carved from solid ice, her beautiful face pale and sealed beneath a thick layer of frost energy. Her breathing was dangerously shallow, but her eyes, when she finally looked up and saw him, were wide with a mix of terror and profound shock.
Shen Yi merely waved his hand. The crushing ice seal surrounding her instantly melted away, and the powerful Hong Clan's suppression-type Dou Qi dissolved into nothingness. He walked directly in front of her, gently holding her wrist with two fingers to check her pulse and vital energy.
"You're safe," Shen Yi stated, his voice quiet but demanding absolute obedience. He produced a precious Tier-Six recovery pill from his ring and offered it to her immediately. "Take this at once. You are not my actual target, but I urgently need information only you can provide."
Han Xue swallowed the pill without question, coughing harshly as the medicinal power rushed like a warm tide through her frigid body. Her shock slowly gave way to a deep, instinctive wariness as she stared at the strange man who had appeared out of thin air to miraculously save her life. "Who… who exactly are you?" she managed to weakly ask. "Why did you save me?"
Shen Yi's golden-gray eyes met hers, his gaze piercing and absolute. "I am merely a traveler passing through. Now, tell me precisely what happened with your group. I was led to believe a young man was traveling with your group… a youth named Xiao Yan."
Han Xue blinked, a look of utter confusion clouding her pale features. "Xiao Yan? I… I honestly do not know that name. Our caravan was led by Elder Mu Chen and was attacked. It was only me and my guards. The Hong Clan kidnapped me simply to pressure my older sister. There was absolutely no young man named Xiao Yan with us."
The answer was calm, honest, and delivered with a simple, undeniable truth. It instantly confirmed Shen Yi's worst fears: the carefully observed timeline had completely broken into chaos. The key, pivotal events of the Central Continent's story had been fundamentally swept away and altered by his own interference in this world. Xiao Yan, the world's true protagonist, was nowhere near his original plot point, or perhaps his entire journey had been irrevocably changed.
Shen Yi slowly stood up, the quiet, terrifying power surrounding him pulsing once, making the air in the small room oppressively heavy. He looked down at the pale, still-recovering girl.
"I see," he murmured. His expression instantly grew cold, and all traces of prior amusement or playfulness vanished completely, replaced by a deep, unsettling silence that promised violence.
...
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