My mom is waiting for treatment, and you're summoning me to be a hero?

"His Majesty is back! His Majesty is back!"

"What?! Hahaha! I knew His Majesty couldn't possibly be dead!"

"Did my husband come back too? He suddenly disappeared that day."

"Your husband? Oh, the spirit Wang, right? He must have come back with you."

……

The entire capital city was in an uproar.

Everyone was shouting the same name.

Amidst the deafening cheers, Lin Mo passed through the city gate, crossed the square, and headed towards the palace.

He stood on the steps of the main gate of the palace and delivered his speech, his voice amplified by the laws and resounding throughout the entire capital.

"The Empire will thoroughly settle accounts with this invasion, and all races and forces involved in the rebellion will receive their due punishment in the coming days."

The crowd below the steps erupted in even more enthusiastic cheers, with some shouting that they wanted to raze the ancestral land of the Shifu tribe to the ground and others demanding blood for blood.

Some people reunited with their soulmates with smiles on their faces.

Lin Mo continued with the complex reading.

Of course, Lin Mo himself was neither good at nor interested in doing these things. At this moment, he had already wandered into the depths of the palace through the side gate.

The improved summoning circle has been laid out in the very center of the hall.

Every rune was personally verified by Yin Xue, and every crystal core base was crafted from the highest quality magic crystals that He Yuan had sourced from the imperial treasury.

Blood danced above the magic array, her two small hands moving swiftly, connecting the last few energy loops to the array's core, all the while muttering to herself.

"The energy nodes are fine, the positioning runes are fine, the soul binding is fine, we're just missing the last step."

She flew back from above the magic circle, hovered beside Lin Mo's shoulder, and patted him on the shoulder.

"After that, all we need to do is lock onto Earth's coordinates and inject energy."

As Yin Xue spoke, he picked up a level 90 Beast King Crystal Core.

This crystal core, which could cause major families across the continent to fight tooth and nail, was incorporated into the magic array.

Lin Mo stared without saying a word.

He simply stood at the edge of the magic circle, watching the slowly flowing rune light, his fingers gently stroking the hilt of the black sword.

He was excited at that moment.

It's a burning sensation that's been suppressed for so long, so intense that we've almost forgotten it's even there, slowly rising from the depths of our chest.

From the church in the ancient village to the arena of the Holy Ancient Empire.

From the top of the Papal Palace in the Holy Tower Kingdom, to the dark, sunless floating islands and void within the cracks.

Everything I do is for this moment.

As long as he can go home, Gao Yang is not important at all.

I can go back every few days, and I treat life here like a job.

The only thing that needs to be addressed is the length of time I can stay each time I go home, but that can be done slowly, as long as I can get back.

Click.

A thin crack suddenly appeared on the level 90 Beast King Crystal Core in the center of the magic array.

The cracks spread from the top of the crystal core to the bottom, and then the entire crystal core turned into a clump of grayish-white powder, which fell into the center of the array.

Yin Xue's smile froze on her face. She frowned and muttered, "Something's not right."

He then grabbed a new level 90 crystal core from the pile of materials and re-embedded it into the array eye.

Her ten fingers once again drew dense array hand seals in the void, this time her movements were slower and more cautious than before.

Each handprint was precise to the millimeter, and even a fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Lin Mo sensed something was wrong.

He knew about Yin Xue's talent for array formations; she had used summoning arrays more than once.

They have never failed to send medicine or messages to Earth.

But this time, a rare hint of anxiety flashed in her eyes, which were usually only arrogant and haughty.

Not long after, the second crystal core shattered again.

"What's wrong?"

Lin Mo finally spoke, his speech a beat faster than usual.

Yin Xue did not answer immediately.

She looked down at the pool of crystal core powder in the center of the array, her scarlet eyes churning with complex emotions.

She turned to look at Lin Mo, and for the first time ever, there was no teasing or arrogance on her small face, only an extremely serious confusion and solemnity.

"I can't find my location on Earth anymore; it's like someone has severed the connection between the two worlds."

Lin Mo frowned, his fingers tightening sharply on the hilt of the black sword until his knuckles turned white.

"How could this be? Wasn't this magic circle an improved version of the one used to summon heroes? It should be connected to Earth by itself. For three thousand years, the Holy See has been using this magic circle to summon heroes from Earth. It's impossible that it suddenly can't find its location."

Yin Xue's face was also grim. She flew to the top of the magic array and pointed to the most crucial positioning rune in the center of the array.

"Theoretically, that's how it is, but the positioning runes don't lie. Either the magic circle itself is faulty—but I've checked twice, and all the nodes are connected—or..."

Before she could finish speaking, a blinding white light suddenly shone in the center of the hall.

A narrow, elongated rift was torn open in the space from the outside, and two figures slowly walked out of the rift.

Those were two divine messengers dressed in the white robes standard of the divine realm.

One of the younger ones had a smug, mocking smile on his lips.

The other one was older, with no extra expression on his face, but his eyes gleamed with a haughty indifference.

The young divine messenger reached out and brushed aside the spatial debris escaping from the edge of the rift, as if parting an overly bright curtain, his tone light and smug.

"Tsk tsk, the gods were right after all. He really did want to go home as soon as he got back, and didn't even eat a bite at the victory banquet. All those mortals outside shouted themselves hoarse in vain."

Lin Mo's eyes turned icy cold in that instant.

A killing field silently spread out from beneath his feet, a dark red light curtain extending along the floor of the hall, and a killing intent that made even the soul tremble permeated the air.

His fingers were already on the hilt of the black sword, and the blade slid half an inch out of its sheath, the dark blue light of the sword drawing a cold arc under the holy light pillars of the hall.

If those two divine messengers had spoken even half a second later, they would have been turned into two corpses.

But the young divine messenger seemed completely oblivious to the murderous intent, crossing his arms and continuing to speak with an unchanged smile.

"Give up. The gods foretold that you would lose your motivation after returning home, so they personally severed the connection between the two worlds."

Lin Mo's hand froze in mid-air, the half-inch of the black sword that had slid out of its sheath hovering motionless under the light.

Seeing this, the elder divine messenger sighed softly, his tone remaining as bland and businesslike as ever.

But a barely concealed sense of pleasure lingered in his eyes, as if he were reading a death sentence.

In other words, you can never go back.

"Your expression is really interesting."

The young divine messenger tilted his head, scrutinizing Lin Mo's frozen face.

His tone was full of barely suppressed schadenfreude.

"Your Majesty Lin Mo, the most powerful demon king on the continent, a demigod who can split half a battlefield with a single sword strike, now has this expression on his face, as if he wants to kill someone but has no choice but to listen. Those people outside who kneel and shout 'Long live the Emperor' should really see this."

The young divine messenger's words continued to pour into Lin Mo's ears, each word like a salt-dipped whip lashing the same wound.

"Oh, by the way, before the deity severed the connection between the two worlds, he specially sent us to your world, saying he wanted to bring you back a souvenir. Guess what we found?"

He pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from the sleeve of his white robe and slowly unfolded it.

The edges of the paper were already a bit fuzzy, and the printing ink had developed fine cracks due to repeated folding, but the writing and photos on it were still clearly legible.

That was a missing person notice.

The photo is of Lin Mo; he looks haggard, and his eyes are full of exhaustion.

That's Lin Mo in a family photo taken after Zhou Xiaomei was diagnosed with liver cancer.

Below the photo are a few lines of text.

Lin Mo, 12 years old, went missing on December 21, 2025.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the number below; a generous reward will be offered.

The contact person was Zhou Xiaomei, and the contact number was the string of numbers that Lin Mo knew by heart.

He stared at the missing person poster, his hands trembling slightly.