165: Chapter 165 So That's How It Is

Inside the iron shack, the dim lightbulb buzzed with electric current, its flickering light reflecting on everyone's faces. The atmosphere was as stifling as the calm before a storm.

Following Captain Shen's words, "You are the source," the room fell into a silence that lasted for half a minute.

"Huh?"

Li Murou was the first to break the silence. She blinked her large eyes, pointing at her group and then at Captain Shen, with an expression that clearly said, "Are you kidding me?"

"Captain Shen, this joke isn't funny at all."

"What do you mean we are the source? What do you mean it's closely related to us?"

Li Murou said, somewhat frantically: "Come on, we're only 18 this year! We've been freshmen for less than two months! Those beasts have been wreaking havoc on Earth for over a hundred years! Don't tell me... we traveled back in time and let them out?"

"Exactly."

Su Xiaoxiao also furrowed her brows. Although she trusted Captain Shen, these words defied all logic: "Captain Shen, I know you wouldn't make baseless claims. But... this is too absurd. How could Chen Xi and Ye Fei possibly be related to a disaster from a hundred years ago?"

Chen Xi did not speak.

He just watched Captain Shen quietly, his deep eyes narrowing slightly, while his brain spun rapidly.

The source? Eliminating the beasts?

If it were before, he would have definitely thought Captain Shen was crazy.

But, after experiencing the surveillance of that purple bat in the Black Swamp Forest, witnessing those mysterious Men in Black who could control the space-time rift, plus Ye Fei's inexplicable ability to make beasts submit...

All the clues connected, seeming to point toward an incredible truth.

"Captain Shen."

Chen Xi spoke slowly, his voice terrifyingly calm: "Since you said so, you must have your reasons."

"Stop playing coy. Tell us everything you know."

Watching Chen Xi's composed demeanor, Captain Shen nodded inwardly: "I knew you wouldn't be able to accept it at first."

He gave a bitter smile, reached up to touch his black eye patch, and his tone became somewhat ethereal, as if lost in that terrifying memory: "The story is long and bizarre. But this is indeed the truth I traded this eye for."

"It all started when I met 'myself from thirty years later' in that dungeon..."

And so, in this narrow and crude iron shack at the camp, Captain Shen recounted the story he had heard from the Black-Robed Shen Ye in front of the altar Outside the Border, word for word, without reservation.

From the future space-time travel plan to the accidental arrival in the peaceful era of a hundred years ago.

From Ye Fei creating the Guardian Beasts to protect humanity, to human greed and betrayal.

From the tragedy of the Guardian Beasts being slaughtered, to their forced exile and mutation.

Finally, to the altar that became the totem of faith for all beasts.

As Captain Shen spoke, the air in the room grew colder and heavier.

The wind outside the window seemed to turn into the wails of countless wronged souls.

When Captain Shen recounted how the originally gentle Guardian Beasts, who only wanted to help humanity, were used as live targets for leveling up and were cruelly slaughtered, the kind-hearted Li Murou covered her mouth, her eyes instantly turning red.

When he spoke of how the Guardian Beasts created by Ye Fei eventually turned into the bloodthirsty, vengeful beasts of today, Ye Fei's body began to tremble violently. She clutched Little Si in her arms, her face as pale as paper, her eyes filled with fear and confusion.

Until Captain Shen finished the last word.

"So..."

Captain Shen raised his head, looking directly at Chen Xi and Ye Fei, his voice as heavy as iron: "The so-called beasts are not some extraterrestrial creatures, nor are they a result of natural mutation."

"They... are the 'children' we created with our own hands."

"They are the... products of our attempt to save the past, which ultimately destroyed the future."

"Boom!"

Outside the window, a bolt of thunder exploded, and the pale lightning instantly illuminated the ghastly pale faces of everyone in the room.

Inside the iron shack, there was not a sound.

Chen Xi sat on the chair, his fingers tapping on the table unconsciously, but the rhythm had long since been lost.

Shock.

Unparalleled shock.

Even as a transmigrator, even with his system, Chen Xi was stunned to the core by this truth, which was filled with fatalism and tragedy.

Every detail in this story could be matched with reality!

Why could Ye Fei make the beasts submit?

Because she is the creator, the mother!

The logic closed the loop.

"Is... is this the truth?"

Li Murou's voice choked with sobs. She looked at Ye Fei, her eyes filled not with blame, but with heartache: "So... the monsters we've been killing all this time were once so kind..."

"No... impossible..."

Ye Fei was completely broken now.

She curled up in the corner, holding her knees, trembling all over.

The girl with hair like fire, who was high-spirited on the battlefield, was gone, replaced by a child crushed by guilt.

"I... I didn't..."

Ye Fei muttered incoherently: "How could I do such a thing? How could I cause the death of so many people? I just wanted to save people... I don't want to be any creator... I don't want to..."

She looked at her own hands, as if they were stained with blood.

She thought of all the civilians she had seen torn apart by beasts along the way, the ruined walls and broken houses.

So, the culprit of all this was actually her future self?

This blow was simply too cruel for a girl still in her freshman year of college.

Su Xiaoxiao watched Ye Fei in this state, unable to bear it, wanting to step forward to comfort her, but not knowing what to say.

In the face of this heavy truth, any language seemed pale and powerless.

Captain Shen sighed and looked at Chen Xi: "Chen Xi, I know this is hard to accept."

"But this is the fact."

"That Black-Robed Man... that is, the future me, he doesn't know how many times he tried before he finally succeeded in waking me up in this era. He waited so long just for this moment, for a chance to break the cycle."

Captain Shen stood up, walked to Chen Xi, and his tone became exceptionally serious: "In this life, because of his prior warning, I was able to find you early and tell you this fate... A variable has appeared."

"Therefore, we must join forces."

"Before that tragedy happens, before you and Ye Fei truly step into that river of time... we must find a way to end all of this once and for all!"

Chen Xi slowly raised his head.

He looked at Captain Shen, at the broken Ye Fei, and at his worried teammates.

The confusion and shock in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a sharp, blade-like coldness.

He did not comfort Ye Fei, nor did he rush to express his stance.

Instead, he stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the pitch-black night outside.

"So that's how it is."