Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 725 Uneasiness

The Dream World, Black City.

Natural Church Church.

A gentle light of life flows beneath a dome composed of ancient vines and warm jade, and the air is filled with the fresh scent of plants.

This should have been a sanctuary for solace, but Tan Zhixin felt a sudden pang of anxiety. Her slender fingers unconsciously tightened around the hem of her dress, and her delicate brows furrowed.

"Strange..." she murmured to herself, her voice sounding somewhat out of place in the empty sanctuary. "Wasn't the threat from the Lord of the Deep Sea and the worms gone? Why...why do I feel so uneasy?"

As if to confirm her unease, in the center of the sanctuary, the verdant branches of the tree of life, symbolizing the will of the tree, suddenly... moved without wind.

It wasn't a natural swaying, but a painful trembling, like the heart being clenched.

The leaves rustled, and the originally gentle light of life flickered, as if it were enduring a tremendous impact.

Tan Zhixin immediately sensed the unusual fluctuation, and a sense of foreboding intensified in her heart. She quickly stepped forward. "Lady Trova? Is that you? You..."

Before she could finish her question, a voice filled with endless vicissitudes, compassion, and heaviness resounded as if directly from the depths of her soul, carrying a sense of helplessness and sorrow that understood fate.

"He... still took that step..."

"Him?!" Tan Zhixin's heart sank.

Although Trova didn't say it explicitly, her tone, the context, and the specific word "him" pierced through Tan Zhixin's last hope like a cold, sharp awl. Who else could it be but Tang Zijun? Her face turned deathly pale. "Lady Trova, what did you say? Are you talking about Tang Zijun? He...what happened to him?"

Trova fell silent.

The light on the trembling branches grew dimmer, leaving only a silent, painful tremor.

Unable to get an answer, Tan Zhixin's panic spread and overwhelmed her like a cold tide. She turned around abruptly, her eyes scanning every corner of the sanctuary like a startled deer, as if trying to grasp a glimmer of hope.

Just then...

The shadow behind her, the dark place barely illuminated by the light of life, twitched silently, like viscous ink.

Immediately afterwards, a tall, aloof figure, shrouded in a deep aura of shadow, slowly emerged from it.

It is a loss.

She stood there quietly, her usual playful and flamboyant aura completely vanished.

Her face was paler than ever before, and in her deep, shadowy eyes surged complex emotions that Tan Zhixin had never seen before: heaviness, helplessness, and... a deep-seated, unspeakable repression.

She just stared at Tan Zhixin quietly, her eyes darting around, her lips pressed tightly together, like a child who had done something wrong but didn't know how to explain.

Upon seeing Shi Yao appear, Tan Zhixin's tense nerves seemed to have found the only clue. She almost pounced on her and grabbed Shi Yao's cold arm.

"Shiyao, you're here. Where's Tang Zijun? Has Tang Zijun come back too? Where is he?" Tan Zhixin gripped Shiyao's arm tightly, her eyes full of anticipation.

Her swaying body stiffened slightly under Tan Zhixin's grasp.

In the past, if Shi Yao had seen Tan Zhixin so worried about Tang Zijun instead of focusing on herself, she would definitely have been annoyed and grumbled a few words. But now, she had completely given up on that.

She could feel the trembling from the other person's fingertips and the burning hope that almost scorched her. She opened her mouth, but her throat felt like it was blocked by something, and she couldn't utter a single word.

Faced with Tan Zhixin's increasingly desperate and out-of-control gaze, she could only shake her head with difficulty and extreme slowness.

This action struck Tan Zhixin's heart like a hammer blow.

Tan Zhixin's voice instantly became hoarse, as if all her strength had been drained away. Her hand, which was gripping the shaky hand, slipped weakly to the ground. She staggered back a step, her body swaying precariously, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"What on earth happened?" She suddenly looked up, tears streaming down her face like a burst dam, instantly blurring her vision. "Where is Tang Zijun? Where is he? What did he do? Tell me..."

Facing Tan Zhixin, Shi Yao bit her lower lip hard, even tasting a hint of blood.

She simply shook her head.

That silent action was more cruel than any words. Tang Zijun... wouldn't be coming back, at least not... for now, and perhaps... forever...

Seeing Tan Zhixin's breakdown, Shi Yao took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind, and squeezed out a sentence with great difficulty in an extremely hoarse voice.

"He...went to a place...a place...where he had to go alone to complete his mission..."

"He told me... to take good care of you... and Qin Nan..."

"Mission? Where?!" Tan Zhixin suddenly looked up. "Tell me! I need to find him!"

Shiyao closed his eyes in pain and shook his head again.

"No...you can't go...there...it's..."

Just then!

boom!

The heavy doors of the sanctuary were violently kicked open.

Chang Lei's figure rushed in like a gust of wind. His face was ashen, his forehead was covered in sweat, and his eyes were sharp as an eagle's. His gaze immediately locked onto Shi Yao.

"Shi Yao!" Chang Lei's voice was filled with an undeniable urgency, even ignoring Tan Zhixin beside him. "Where's Tang Zijun?! Where is she?!"

This sudden intrusion and questioning was like a stone thrown into a stagnant pool, instantly breaking the oppressive silence. Tan Zhixin trembled, quickly wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, forcing herself to pull a sliver of reason away from her despair.

She took a deep breath, suppressing her surging emotions, and looked at Chang Lei, her voice still slightly hoarse. "Chang Lei, what happened? How come you..."

Chang Lei's gaze finally shifted from Shi Yao to Tan Zhixin, his brows furrowing into a deep knot, his tone urgent and grave. "Langya, Langya has suddenly disappeared!"

"What?" Tan Zhixin exclaimed in surprise.

Langya is Tang Zijun's vehicle, and it is in tune with his heart.

"Just now," Chang Lei said rapidly. "It vanished into thin air without warning, leaving behind an energy beacon."

He raised his hand, and a miniature rune projection, its structure intricately interwoven with dark blue and dark gold energy, appeared in his palm. "I've analyzed it; the core function of this beacon is to communicate through the reversal channel."

He paused, his expression turning even uglier, and his voice lowered even further.

"But what Langya opened... is definitely not a passage to an ordinary reversed space or a dream world. The door that the beacon points to..." The energy fluctuations emanating from the other side... are chaotic, ancient, and filled with... a destructive sense of rejection. I have never felt such a chilling aura of rejection. That is definitely not a benevolent place, I am certain of it!

His gaze sharpened again as he turned to Shiyao, his eyes filled with intense questioning and accusation.

"I'm not like Tang Zijun, a self-taught individual. I've been a high-ranking official in the Greedy Sect, and I know this very well." Chang Lei's voice carried an undeniable authority. "This level of spatial beacon, this ability to directly communicate with the reverse core and forcibly open channels to unknown deep dimensions—this is absolutely beyond Langya's capabilities. Its authority and power are insufficient. The only thing in this world that can make Langya submit, that can make it go to any lengths to execute such operations beyond its own limits... is Tang Zijun!"

He stepped forward, exuding an imposing aura, his gaze fixed intently on Shi Yao.

"So tell me, what kind of passage did he open in Langya? Where did he go?"

Where is he right now?!

Shi Yao was cornered by Chang Lei's barrage of questions, and she looked into his eyes, which were filled with worry...

Anger and an unyielding determination to not be deceived, he glanced again at Tan Zhixin's face, which had turned deathly pale once more, and the last shred of thought of concealing the truth vanished completely.

She knew she couldn't hide it anymore.

There's no need to hide it anymore.

"He..." Shi Yao's voice was hoarse. She avoided Chang Lei's piercing gaze and looked into the void, as if recalling that chilling scene. "He went... to the source of the nightmare."

Under the intense gaze of Chang Lei and Tan Zhixin, whose pupils suddenly contracted, Shi Yao quickly recounted Tang Zijun's conversation with Poseidon, the truth behind the Mirror God's agreement, the establishment of the reversal passage, and Tang Zijun's eventual solitary journey onto the path known as the Path of Annihilation by the gods, using the most concise yet cruel language.

"...He said it was a responsibility he had to bear...only he could try...to find a way to end the nightmare..." Shi Yao's voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible.

It was like two thunderbolts exploding simultaneously in Tan Zhixin's and Chang Lei's minds.

Alone, searching for the source of his nightmares?

The Path of Annihilation, a desolate place from which even the Mirror God and the gods could not return.

Tan Zhixin's body swayed violently, and she would have collapsed to the ground if she hadn't been holding onto the jade pillar beside her.

She had only a premonition that Tang Zijun had embarked on an extremely dangerous path, but she never expected it to be such a deadly road with no chance of survival, a path even the gods would consider a grave.

Chang Lei's face turned a terrifyingly ashen. As a former high-ranking official who had been corrupt, he knew better than anyone what the "source of the nightmare" meant. It was not just a matter of "danger"; it was absolute, conceptual annihilation.

Tang Zijun, he's completely insane, going to his death!

"That...bastard!!"

Chang Lei slammed his fist into the stone pillar beside him, and the hard jade was cracked in a spiderweb pattern. His chest heaved violently, and his eyes burned with raging anger and disbelief.

He was angry at Tang Zijun's unauthorized actions, and even more angry that she chose to bear such a desperate situation alone.