Chapter 1

Qinghe District, one o'clock in the morning.

A very remote old tavern, its signboard dimmed under the neon light.

An old man in a white suit, leaning on a violet wooden cane, slowly walked into the tavern. Perhaps because of its remote location, the tavern was deserted, though it should have been open for business.

Zhou Jiren arrived at the bar. He lit a cigarette, glanced at the inside of the bar, and tapped on the countertop.

"Dong, dong."

The vibration wasn't loud.

But with two taps, the entire bar top, including the huge display cabinet and shelves behind it, seemed to ripple.

If there had been other customers in the tavern, they would have seen the space like a lake, vibrating with consistent ripples with the two taps...

From a dark shadow inside the bar, someone suddenly opened their eyes.

A burst of light flashed in their eyes.

It was hard to believe that the sudden light came from a ragged old man, draped in a thin, beggar-like cloth. Underneath the clothes, he was so skinny that he looked like a skeleton, with sunken eyes and a sleepy look, clutching a greasy wine bottle in his hand.

Two old men, standing in light and darkness, their clothing, figures, and spirits forming a stark contrast.

"Didn't expect your business to be so bad... I won't be the only one here, will I?"

Mr. Shu slowly sat on a barstool and offered the lit cigarette.

The ragged old man took it and took a deep drag. He chuckled softly, his voice as hoarse as a skeleton.

"Who else would come to a tavern like this except you?"

He took out a wine glass from the display cabinet and skillfully mixed a drink under the counter, handing it to Mr. Shu a moment later.

"Rum, lemon, ice, coffee, honey... hmm... the familiar taste of freedom, just a little weird." Zhou Jiren took a sip, frowned at the glass, and muttered, "You didn't sneak anything extra in, did you?"

"No money, can't afford coffee or honey."

The old man, who finished the whole cigarette in two or three puffs, turned around and began to tidy the display cabinet behind him. Because of the ripples just now, the positions of some of the wine bottles had changed, and some bottles had cracks that were hard to see with the naked eye.

He reached out a hand and stroked the surface like a mirror, slowly smoothing it over.

His withered palms seemed to possess incredible magic. The echoes of the vibrations instantly disappeared, and the subtle ripples that were still reverberating were wiped away at that moment—

The slight buzzing noise was completely eliminated in an instant.

The tavern was silent enough to hear a pin drop.

"As expected of the man who was once invincible in Nagano, even after twenty years of wasted cultivation, you're still a lion." Mr. Shu said lightly, "Baishu, are you going to hole up in this place for the rest of your life?"

"..."

The ragged old man named Baishu smoothed the ripples on the wine cabinet and sat back in the darkness, saying softly, "Being invincible in Nagano is just a joke... Even if I cultivate for another hundred years, I still wouldn't be a match for Gu Changzhi."

"Look on the bright side, being invincible in Nagano without Gu Changzhi is still being invincible in Nagano. No need to compare yourself to him."

Mr. Shu sighed deeply.

"Besides," he exhaled a puff of smoke and said leisurely, "I admire a hero like you who knows when to yield. Look... none of those who burn themselves out too early have a good ending, do they? Gu Changzhi has been lying in bed since he came back from outside, and it's hard to say if he'll even wake up. If you fought him now, you'd definitely win."

"Get lost!"

Baishu said coldly, "Zhou Jiren, if you just came here to humiliate me... you've succeeded. The drink is finished, you can get lost."

"Don't, don't, don't... let's talk this over."

Zhou Jiren immediately relented, putting on a flattering smile, slapping a file bag on the countertop, and then handing over a box of cigars.

Baishu frowned.

He took the cigars but didn't take the file bag.

"Alan Turing... A-009... Ruler of Truth..."

Mr. Shu said softly. He spoke in hushed tones, and upon hearing some of the keywords, Baishu narrowed his eyes, slowly pressed down on the file bag, and dragged it in front of him.

He opened it expressionlessly and read it word by word.

During this process, Zhou Jiren kept his eyes on Baishu's face. He observed the other man's expression, and after seeing the confusion he had expected in Baishu's eyes, he grinned and said, "This file is quite interesting... isn't it?"

Baishu closed the file.

"An interesting young man," he said. "A file that has nothing to do with me."

"I don't understand... what's the point of showing me this?"

He looked at Mr. Shu blankly and said, "This world is developing too fast, and it has nothing to do with relics of the old era like me. I just want to live underground, and that's all I deserve."

"You can go out and take a look. The young people are doing well, but this world still belongs to us old guys." Zhou Jiren shrugged and smiled, "But one person's strength is ultimately weak. I haven't looked for you all these years, haven't disrupted your life, but after seeing this file, maybe you should change your mind."

"Never come looking for me again."

Baishu didn't hesitate for even a second.

He said expressionlessly, "Zhou Jiren, you should know very well... if I wanted to go out into the world, if I still had the personality I had twenty years ago, you wouldn't have been able to step into this tavern safely today. The moment you walked in, I would have attacked."

"You used to be my friend, but now..."

Baishu leaned back slowly.

"What I hate the most... is the Council, the Tribunal, and people like you who know the truth but still work for them."

Mr. Shu fell silent.

After saying that, the tavern returned to a state of extreme silence.

Baishu pressed down on the file bag and pushed it back to the edge of the table.

He didn't speak again, not even bothering to open his eyes, just waving his hand in a gesture of shooing away a fly.

This time, he didn't even bother to tell him to get lost.

"..."

Mr. Shu retrieved the file bag. He stood up, walked to the tavern door, stopped, and then returned again.

Baishu in the shadows still had his eyes closed, frowning and showing an impatient expression.

"No matter what you say... at least I'm doing something to chase after hope. Even if the hope is slim, even if she still won't be resurrected in the end." Zhou Jiren said coldly, "And what about you? Lying in a broken tavern, half-buried in the ground, just drinking and sleeping. Are you planning to fulfill your promise to her in your dreams?"

Baishu opened his eyes.

A blazing fire of rage erupted in those eyes.

In an instant, something unfurled.

The entire underground tavern fell into absolute stagnation—

Including Mr. Shu.

And the next moment, all the fire went out.

Baishu closed his eyes.

His voice was devoid of anger and sorrow, only endless emptiness and numbness.

"Fool..."

"Stop chasing it." He turned over and murmured in a dreamlike voice, "Hope is something that shouldn't exist in the first place."