Boom!
Explosive flames erupted upon the woman's body, yet they dissipated in an instant, as though doused by an unseen force. She remained unscathed.
"What?!" Shen Lingxue's eyes widened in utter disbelief. "Not a single injury? Run!"
She immediately grasped the gravity of the situation—the entity before her was far beyond her ability to handle. Without hesitation, she turned to flee. But at that very moment—
The woman's pale, slender hand brushed gently through the air.
Something unseen rippled through the space. The next instant, as Shen Lingxue and Li Wenhao bolted for their lives, their heads slipped cleanly from their shoulders, the severed edges smooth as polished glass.
Swish!
Without a moment's pause, Fang Xiu lunged toward their lifeless bodies, swiftly rummaging through them.
"Husband, what are you looking for?"
A soft, tender voice murmured beside his ear.
Fang Xiu ignored it, continuing his desperate search for anything useful.
Then, a searing pain coursed through him. His vision darkened, and his consciousness faded into oblivion.
...
...
The night sky stretched vast and deep, adorned with a scattering of stars.
Fang Xiu stood before his home, the moment precisely aligning with his escape from Qingshan Asylum.
"Oh? The death-rewind point remains unchanged? It seems leaving the asylum marked a critical event. My death at home, when I used the scalpel to test my wife, must have triggered the next checkpoint. Unless a new anomaly occurs, the point of return should remain fixed.
That means tomorrow at 8:40 a.m., the Investigation Bureau will come knocking. It's time to let the world witness the power of foresight."
Fang Xiu's mind whirred with plans. Now that he knew of the Investigation Bureau, it would be foolish not to exploit their existence.
After all, if he wished to make every anomaly in this world suffer, he couldn't do it alone. He would need external forces.
Bang!
Pushing open the door, he stepped into his home, paying no heed to the woman inside. He strode straight to the bedroom, turned on his computer, and accessed the Global Anomaly Forum.
The site address had been given to him by Shen Lingxue and Li Wenhao last time. Though they had yet to appear in this timeline, Fang Xiu had already memorized the link.
As the page loaded, an enormous skull dominated the screen. It lingered momentarily before fading, revealing a dark red interface.
The forum was divided into numerous sections—North America, Asia, Japan-Korea, Domestic...
Each section was further categorized: Anomalies, Spirit Masters, Cursed Artifacts, Bounties...
Scanning the thread titles, Fang Xiu felt an intense surge of curiosity. Hidden within these discussions might lie the truths of this world—the truths of anomalies.
While he didn't expect to uncover everything, this was certainly a faster route than fumbling through blind exploration.
However, when he casually clicked on a post discussing the origins of anomalies, a notification popped up:
Insufficient balance. Please recharge.
His gaze shifted downward, where a long string of zeroes awaited.
A quick mental calculation told him that viewing this single post would cost approximately a million.
Silence.
He glanced at his bank account—just a few hundred yuan.
With a sigh, he checked other threads. Without exception, the cheaper ones cost tens of thousands, while those containing classified information ranged in the hundreds of millions.
"So this is the world of Spirit Masters—the world of the wealthy," Fang Xiu murmured wistfully.
The stark realization of his poverty only strengthened his resolve. He had to feign the ability to foresee the future, using it to amass wealth. Otherwise, he couldn't even afford to browse a forum.
Resigned, he opened the Domestic section's free-tier board. The posts here were mostly common knowledge, questionable rumors, and empty boasts.
The top-ranked thread caught his attention: I Have Awakened the Power to Control Time.
"Time manipulation?" Fang Xiu's expression darkened. If time-related abilities truly existed, his foresight would be significantly devalued.
Clicking in, he read:
"It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning split the heavens, winds howled through the void, and the blood moon rose in the east…"
After enduring a thousand words of flowery description, he reached the conclusion:
"And that was how I awakened my ability to control time. But unlike the time-stopping or time-reversing powers seen in fiction, I have named my ability—Wasting Time!
For instance, you, who have read this far, have just had five minutes of your life stolen."
The comment section exploded.
"F*** you!!!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"No way I'm suffering alone. This thread needs to stay at the top!"
Snap.
Fang Xiu closed the tab in silence.
He glanced at the username: Cosmic Invincible Pretty Warrior.
Noted.
"…Is this really what's available for free?"
Suppressing his irritation, he continued browsing. An hour later, he finally unearthed a few official posts published by the Investigation Bureau. Since they were verified, the information contained within was solid.
There were analyses on the origins of anomalies, fundamental knowledge on Spirit Masters, and descriptions of Cursed Artifacts.
Fang Xiu picked one at random and immersed himself in reading.
He spent the entire night absorbing information.
The classifications for anomalies, he learned, were based on their level of threat, ranging from highest to lowest: S, A, B, C, D.
Some anomalies were not necessarily powerful but were extraordinarily dangerous—thus, their threat ranking was higher.
For example, a foreign anomaly codenamed Plague was inherently weak. If one located its true form and took the proper precautions, even a First-Rank Spirit Master could exterminate it.
Yet, this very entity had caused mass outbreaks of disease, resulting in millions of deaths.
Thus, it was designated an A-Rank Threat.
If left unchecked, A-Rank anomalies could wipe out an entire metropolis.
S-Rank anomalies, on the other hand, were nation-destroyers—capable of obliterating entire countries within mere days.
In most cases, the stronger the anomaly, the more devastating its threat. Exceptions, like Plague, were rare.
As for the origins of anomalies?
Uncertain.
They seemed to have existed since antiquity, lurking in the shadows of myths and legends. Some scholars theorized that ancient mystics and sorcerers had actually been early Spirit Masters.
For a time, however, anomalies and supernatural beings vanished from history.
Then, in the modern era, they resurfaced.
Between these two periods stretched nearly a century of silence—an era devoid of anomalies, its cause unknown.
At least, within the free-tier sections of the forum, there were no answers.
Most anomalies manifested without warning, with no discernible patterns.
Initially, their numbers were sparse, scattered across the globe. But as time progressed, the frequency of their appearances only increased.