Chosen: Beyond Fate

Lian Cheng laughed wildly and sang in a frenzy. As long as he possessed this divine essence, one day he, too, would undergo his final transformation. He would become a servant and a part of the Absolute Abyss, and ultimately evolve into a true Upper Abomination.

“Did you see that? I won! Hahahaha, hahahahahaha!!!” He kissed the bone relic in his hand, laughing hoarsely in overwhelming ecstasy. He stared at Ji Jue, who no longer had any ability to resist, and declared, “I’m the winner! Me! And now I want you dead. Go die! No one can save you!”

“Is that so?” Ji Jue asked indifferently. “Did you forget something?”

Lian Cheng froze. He quickly scanned his surroundings warily, but saw no one. Rage burst out of him. “Stop trying to play tricks!”

Ji Jue lowered his gaze and let out a faint sigh. “Even now, you still haven't figured out the real contradiction at the heart of this Time Ruin and the real world.”

From behind him came a broken, trembling voice. “Liar...”

Lian Cheng’s body went rigid. As though dreading what he might see, he slowly turned around.

From the shattered, withered flesh tumor on the ground, beneath the writhing limbs and organs, a hollow, aged face emerged. Its eyes, filled with blood and tears, slowly lifted to look at him. “Liar.”

From within the mass of flesh, a second indistinct face murmured weakly in delirium, “Liar...”

And then a third massive mouth erupted in grief and fury as it screamed, “LIAR!”

One after another, human faces emerged from the rotting flesh. Countless mouths split open like spreading cracks, all wailing the same accusation. “Liar! Liar! Liar!”

They screamed and wept as they condemned the one person who should have been able to save them all as they begged for freedom.

Crimson tears streamed down their faces, falling drop by drop to the ground. The bloody droplets wound their way forward, tracing a path across the earth.

In their reflection stood a blurred figure.

Liar.

A rain of bloody tears fell from the sky.

The Time Ruin cried out in sorrow as it wailed and roared. Thunder echoed across the hollow heavens above, as though the entire world was mourning.

Outside the ruins, darkness suddenly swept over Tong Hua's vision. She staggered backward, unable to maintain her footing, and collapsed onto the ground while gasping for breath.

The stories of the past, the shattered fragments of memory, and the scattered records of bygone days all surged back once more, overwhelming everything like a flood that swallowed all in its path. They were reflected in the Aether Eye amid the unending cries of pain.

On a stretcher, a dying patient reached out, trying to grasp the hand before him while pleading, “I’m in so much pain, doctor. Please save me... save me... hasn’t the rescue team arrived yet?”

No one answered.

A mutated patient struggled frantically, pulling against chains as he screamed, “Why... Why am I still not dead?! Didn’t you say it would be over soon?! Speak! Say something!”

Still, there was no response.

A disfigured old man clawed at his own flesh as tears streamed down his face. “Please save me, doctor. I don’t want to live anymore... Please... kill me... please kill me!”

No one fulfilled their request.

“Liar!” cried the patient who had seen through everything.

“LIAR!!” wailed the one who had fallen into utter despair.

“LIAR!!!” screamed the aberrant, lost to madness.

The exhausted, disheveled doctor clasped his hands, pleading again and again, “Just give me a little more time. Even a little will do. Hold on a little longer. Just... a little longer...”

He no longer believed in salvation, nor did he believe in freedom. Even death had become an unattainable luxury. All that remained was hell. Hell was here, in the endless cries of suffering and the crushing depths of despair.

The world had fallen into an abyss of unending darkness. No rescue was coming, and there was no hope left to cling to.

In the shattered makeshift hospital, the last doctor turned around numbly when he heard a barricade collapse. The maddened patients had broken through. They swarmed over him, tearing and biting at him without restraint.

As they descended upon him, he forced his eyes open, trying to catch one final glimpse of the sky as it was slowly consumed by darkness. Yet, he could no longer see anything.

He did not struggle nor cry out. In the end, he could only let out a weary, helpless smile.

So... I really was a liar after all.

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” he murmured softly, offering what little comfort he could one last time to those trapped in despair. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”

In the final moment before being swallowed by the monsters, the doctor reached out toward the empty sky and made his last plea.

God... if there truly is a God in this world, please save them. Even if it’s only one person... even if it’s just one...

But his prayer went unanswered.

And so he was torn apart amidst the biting and the frenzy, ripped to pieces until not even his bones remained. But a single light remained. It was a tiny fragment of will, no brighter than a firefly.

Years passed. Ten years became twenty, twenty became thirty, then forty, then fifty. That light never faded. Even if fire burned it and floods drowned it, even if heaven and earth collapsed, even if it had to wander on through the endless darkness alone, it never faded.

Over time, that faint resolve began to take root and grow once more. Until one day, from that firefly light, a spirit was reborn. And the first thing it saw was a tragic world filled with suffering, despair, and endless cries of anguish.

Ah... Why? Why?

There were still patients suffering in this world. There were still people crying out in pain, and the source of that suffering remained.

And so, the doctors, aberrants, and deities all reached out their hands.

Don't be afraid. A doctor is able to save patients. A doctor is meant to save patients. And this time, the doctor will save the patients.

With that conviction, they struggled to their feet once more. Then they began moving forward again, dragging their weary bodies onward one step at a time. They walked on and on, following the sound of the cries.

Only a rain of tears stained their white coats red.

The remnant shadow behind Lian Cheng reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Finally... found you...” the battered doctor told him. “You are sick.”

“Get lost!” Lian Cheng staggered backward in shock and swung his arm, trying to knock away the hand resting on his shoulder, but his hand passed straight through the phantom, finding nothing there at all. “What... what is this?!”

It had no heartbeat, no blood flow, no life force, no spirit matter, and no soul. There was nothing there at all. How could that be?

The doctor staggered forward, muttering hoarsely, “The patients were sick. They wanted to die, and I couldn’t save them. But you're sick too. And you still want to hurt even more people. Your illness is far worse.”

Another face emerged from the darkness, looking up at the rain. Bloody tears slid from the corners of its eyes as it said in a gentle voice, “Don’t be afraid. I will save you. We will save you.”

More voices joined in. “We’ll save you. We will definitely save you.”

There was no need to panic or suffer anymore. All he had to do was close his eyes and wait with hope.

The doctors opened their tear-filled eyes and looked at Lian Cheng. One by one, they reached out toward the patient who needed saving. This time, the doctors would definitely send this suffering patient into eternal, peaceful sleep.

Lian Cheng let out a bloodcurdling scream. Where his right eye had once been, there was now only a bloody cavity.

The hospital director opened his mouth and swallowed the eye that had been taken. Just like that, the right eye that was tainted with wicked visions was “cured.”

Then the deputy director reached out, opened his mouth, and devoured the left eye as well, curing the eye that nurtured malice and cruelty.

Mr. Chen from the Department of Otolaryngology removed the mouth that had spoken lies and caused suffering. The attending surgeon cured the hands that had administered poison and torment to patients. Dr. Xu from Orthopedics corrected the spine that had upheld a body built from sin and corruption.

Lian Cheng struggled fiercely. He unleashed wave after wave of indiscriminate soul shocks and repeatedly tried to spread his corruption, but that no longer had any effect. He collapsed to the ground, writhing like a maggot and struggling without end.

The doctors remained by his side. Regardless of the price they were paying, they continued devouring the corruption and aberration within him, refusing to abandon their patient. At last, they removed the brain that had conceived deceit and evil thoughts, and Mr. Qian swallowed the heart that held neither remorse nor understanding.

The patient was healed. He had finally died.

Countless spectral doctors gathered around the patient's remains. Their figures overlapped and merged as they celebrated the arrival of health and sang of a better world yet to come, yet tears still streamed uncontrollably down their faces.

“Liar!”

From the fleshly mass, the patients who could not die continued to wail, accusing them again and again. “Liar! Liar! Liar!!!”

A doctor’s figure flickered.

“LIAR!!!”

The doctor lowered his head. He gently stroked the faces embedded in the fleshy mass before sinking wearily to his knees. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry... I can’t... save you...”

“LIAR!!!”

The aura of corruption coiled around him. The doctor repeated his apologies again and again, but under the relentless erosion and contamination, even his voice was beginning to fail.

Behind them, Ji Jue silently approached and bent down. He picked up that pitch-black remnant bone, its fractured edge as sharp as a blade, and clenched it tightly in his hands. Pacifier flowed through his hands, silently catalyzing, extracting, forging, and integrating the malignant divine essence within it. From a distance, he aimed it at the doctor’s completely unguarded back.

He would only get one chance.

The contradiction at the heart of this Time Ruin, the very core upon which it had been built, stood right before him. The remnant shadow had already begun to solidify into reality.

If he drove this into the doctor’s body, shattered the last resistance, and completely erased its existence, then everything would come to an end.

Yet as Ji Jue raised his hand, he saw the doctor's face turning back toward him. And he saw the tears in his eyes. The bone weapon, already poised to strike, froze midair. For a brief moment, he hesitated.

Immediately after, someone screamed, “What do you think you're doing?!”

His wrist was suddenly seized in a vice-like grip. The doctor looked up at him, furiously glaring with a twisted expression as he demanded, “Is this... is this how we taught you to behave?!”

By the time Ji Jue realized what was happening, those hands were already gripping his arm and guiding him forward, forcing the remnant bone into the doctor’s chest.

The bone sank all the way in. No blood flowed, and no cry escaped his lips. There was only a soft pop, like a bubble bursting. It sounded almost like the fading echo of a beautiful dream coming to an end.

The doctor’s indistinct face slowly shifted, and Mr. Chen’s features emerged from the blur. Looking at his stunned junior, he gave a stern rebuke. “As a doctor, how can you hesitate when faced with a disease and its source?”