Ding!
The call ended.
Ye Guizhou's knuckles, gripping the phone, had turned slightly white. It felt as if a stone had been thrown into his chest, churning his heart like a lake, but he merely lowered his eyes and stood still for two seconds. When he looked up again, his face had returned to its usual calm.
Mo Qing, who was nearby, saw this and immediately stepped forward to ask.
"How is it? When are the children coming back? I've already prepared to show off my cooking skills!"
Ye Guizhou didn't answer immediately. His fingertips unconsciously rubbed the armrest of the sofa, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he were weighing his words.
Mo Qing saw him put on that usual stern and aloof expression again and was instantly infuriated, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"What's wrong with you? I rarely have this much enthusiasm! Usually, getting a chance to taste my cooking is a rare opportunity!"
Mo Qing chattered on for a long time, but seeing that Ye Guizhou still wore that stern, unsmiling expression and wasn't moved by her words at all, she finally sensed that something was wrong.
She dropped her playful demeanor, frowned, and asked, "Ye, what's wrong? Could it be that Acheron was bullied by someone?"
Ye Guizhou looked at his wife, his eyes swirling with complex emotions that were difficult to describe, guilt and heartache.
He didn't speak. He simply took a gentle step forward and reached out to pull her into his embrace, his movements as tender as if he were holding a fragile treasure.
"Ah!! Ye... what are you doing?"
Feeling the warmth from Ye Guizhou's chest, Mo Qing's cheeks flushed, and she instinctively tried to pull back, but he held her tighter.
But the next second, her heart felt as if it were being gripped by an invisible hand, and she panicked for no reason. That sense of unease came without warning, yet it was incredibly strong. She kept feeling as if something bad was going to happen.
Feeling the person in his arms breathing unevenly, Ye Guizhou loosened his tight grip and instead used his palm to gently stroke her hair.
He didn't say many comforting words, only using the warmth of his palm to convey certainty.
"It's alright. Acheron knows what she is doing. We just need to trust her."
"Oh."
Mo Qing replied vaguely, her heart a tangled mess. Was it the thrill of the embrace, or the unease of the unknown? Even she couldn't tell.
Ye Guizhou held his wife's soft body tightly with one hand, his chin resting on the top of her head. While his palm felt her warm body temperature, his gaze drifted past her shoulder, landing on the ink-like night outside the window.
Acheron, this daughter of his, was as mysterious as a book that would never reach its ending.
Intuition told him that what Acheron wanted to hide in that phone call just now was not simple, and that it concerned his own daughter.
But for now, none of that mattered.
Just as he had said before, he trusted Acheron and believed she would handle everything.
But...
Ye Guizhou lowered his eyes to look at the person in his arms, his gaze carrying a hint of imperceptible apology.
'Sorry, I couldn't explain it to you immediately. Please forgive my and Acheron's unilateral actions.'
Mo Qing in his arms seemed to sense his thoughts. She shifted slightly, and when she looked up, there was not a trace of dissatisfaction in her eyes, only tenderness.
"It's okay, Ye. Just as you trust her, I will also always trust Acheron."
It was as if she were replying to him, and also as if she were saying it to herself.
Inside "Muyun City."
Crack! A crisp sound like breaking glass exploded abruptly on the street, sharp and piercing.
A three-meter-long purple rift suddenly appeared out of thin air, its edges as neat as if they had been cut by a sharp blade. Deep within the rift, silver-purple lightning surged faintly, and a heart-palpitating sense of oppression rushed toward them, causing anyone nearby to instinctively stop.
Clack, clack, clack!!! The crisp sound of heels striking the ground emanated from the rift, interweaving with the sizzling sound of lightning.
The next second, a purple silhouette slowly stepped out with elegant, composed steps. Her figure was slender and graceful, as if she weren't walking through a dangerous rift that had just opened.
With her appearance, the lightning surging within the rift gradually calmed, and the rift itself slowly stitched itself closed, finally disappearing completely.
Feeling the sensation of solid ground beneath her feet, Acheron looked up, her gaze sweeping calmly across her surroundings.
The city's outline and street layout before her were almost identical to Muyun City, but upon closer inspection, one could always find slight deviations.
"Using the original world as a template, did it replicate a [Muyun City]?"
But what was the purpose of doing this specifically?
Acheron's purple gaze suddenly narrowed. She had a faint guess in her heart.
Just at this moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded from beside her, its tone carrying its habitual languor.
"Yo, I didn't expect it to be a special scenario. That's a bit of a surprise?"
There was no look of surprise on Acheron's face. She merely lowered her head slightly, her gaze sweeping diagonally to her side.
Silver Wolf's virtual projection was standing there. Her arms were crossed, her posture lazy, and she was observing the city before them, which was exactly like Muyun City, up and down with undisguised curiosity.
"Didn't you need time?"
"Hey, hey, you're looking down on me too much, aren't you?"
Silver Wolf glanced sideways at Acheron with some dissatisfaction.
"Using your existence as an anomaly as an anchor point, deploying a temporary virtual projection is just a trivial matter for me."
But for now, that's all it is.
"Is that so... how much time do you need?"
Silver Wolf thought for a moment before slowly opening her mouth. "About half an hour should be enough."
Acheron nodded gently.
"Mm, thank you for the trouble."
"Don't be happy too early."
Silver Wolf suddenly changed the subject, her gaze shifting abruptly to the full moon in the sky.
"The situation here is more complex than I imagined.... You should have sensed it too, right?"
"Mm."
Acheron did not deny it. She simply looked up, her purple eyes gazing at the full moon hanging in the night sky.
"Two worlds overlapping, the replicated [Muyun City]... Perhaps as time goes by, even without your interference, the two Muyun Cities will truly merge together."
By then, this [The Hidden World] will intervene in the real world.
"Mm, this means that the things hidden in this world are also very likely to truly descend upon Blue Star along with it."
If Acheron's saying "time is running out" not long ago was just a vague warning based on intuition, then at this moment, the two could almost conclude that the preparation time left for them was far less than they had imagined.
Just at this moment, her blue virtual projection began to flicker, the light intermittent, and even her voice started to stutter.
"Tsk, it seems the signal interference here is even more severe than expected."
Silver Wolf knew that the time left for her was not much. She put away her usual languor, and her gaze toward Acheron carried a bit more seriousness.
"What I'm about to say next, if you want to be the Deliverer, just pretend I didn't say it. In short, before we are fully prepared, you'd better not be too 'high-profile.' Otherwise, if you leave another mess this time, I won't have the ability to clean it up for you."
Acheron nodded slightly.
Although she was very confused about Silver Wolf's dissatisfaction, she still roughly understood what the other party meant.