Chapter 1801: His Whereabouts

Li Rider looked up to see a mountain peak standing tall above the gray-white earth.

Seeing this familiar peak again after two years, Li Rider’s expression was complex… He climbed the steps one by one, the hem of his British-style overcoat brushing silently against them, the blue silk on his top hat looking elegant and profound in the sunlight.

Li Rider stepped, one by one, all the way to the very top of Ugly Peak.

A small figure was sitting in front of a bare stone house, clutching a few pebbles in his hand, playing with them tirelessly.

He would occasionally lean over to flick the stones, making them click against each other, or point at the void in front of him, laughing and babbling as if there were a playmate of his own in a place no one else could see.

Li Rider stood still before him and spoke respectfully:

“Fifth Uncle.”

The Clown tilted his head, let out a babble at Li Rider, and then went back to his own crazed play.

After offering his greeting, Li Rider continued walking toward the back of Ugly Peak. He walked straight to the edge of the towering cliff, took a deep breath, and bowed to the void ahead:

“Li Rider, I request that my uncles open the gate.”

As his voice fell,

An illusory curtain was drawn open from above the cliff.

Li Rider stepped through with practiced ease, his figure vanishing into the curtain without a trace.

When he reappeared, Li Rider was already in an open grassland… A range of snow-capped mountains stood in the distance, brightly colored houses were close at hand, and countless colorful flags danced in the wind, making a soft rustling sound that made one subconsciously relax.

Li Rider closed his eyes gently and took a deep breath, the familiar scent of soil mixed with the smell of cooking smoke entering his nostrils… The time he had spent here in the past flashed through his mind like clips from a movie.

Having not returned for two years, nothing here had changed at all.

“Nephew.”

In front of one of the houses, a man in white smiled and waved at him.

A smile appeared on Li Rider’s face. The coldness that usually covered his face like an iceberg melted away like snow in this moment. If the few Saint Thieves of the Fire-Tamers were to see this, their jaws would likely drop…

Li Rider walked up and bowed respectfully:

“Greetings, Uncle.”

“You, you finally know to come back for a visit… Why have you been away for so long this time?” Ning Ruyu patted his shoulder, looking him up and down carefully. “Not bad, you’ve grown a bit sturdier.”

Li Rider smiled, not knowing how to answer.

“Where is your master? Didn’t he come back with you?” Ning Ruyu asked.

“……No.” Li Rider paused. “He said he still had some things to handle and told me to come back first.”

Ning Ruyu nodded. “Your master is just as busy as you are lately… Go back and get some rest first, and make sure to come to your Third Uncle’s place for dinner tonight.”

“Alright.”

After saying goodbye to Ning Ruyu, Li Rider walked toward the other houses.

The five houses that were originally on the grassland had somehow become six. As Li Rider’s footsteps trod across the soft grass, he caught sight of a certain house out of the corner of his eye and subconsciously stopped.

That house was currently unoccupied, and a sign hung on the door, looking somewhat aged, with four large characters written neatly upon it:

——Home of the Sixth.

This was where his master used to live.

Li Rider paused at the door, his gaze complex. No one knew what he was thinking. After a long while, he moved on, continuing toward the back.

Soon, the sixth house on the grassland came into his view.

It was a house with a layout similar to his master’s, with small blue-black flags fluttering on the roof in the wind. At the door of the house, there was also a sign, with the name written in neat Chinese:

——Li Rider.

Actually, at the very beginning, Li Rider had written [Rider·Li] on this sign, but later Ning Ruyu said that since this was the Ancient Theater of Arts, why write in a foreign language? In the end, the sign was changed to the Chinese "Li Rider"…

However, now that Li Rider looked at this sign, the more he looked, the more pleasing it seemed.

“Ancient Theater of Arts……”

Li Rider muttered to himself, “Back again, are we……”

He took off his top hat and pushed the door open. With a slight creak, the door slowly closed.

……

“Mr. Chen, long time no see.”

Inside the office of the Fusion Faction’s Mother Tree, a man wearing a gray shirt and simple black-rimmed glasses smiled and pushed a cup of hot tea toward Chen Ling.

Chen Ling gave a hum and took the teacup. Through the rising steam, he could see many lively children playing in front of the Fusion Faction, their laughter and playful shouts drifting over from afar.

“Indeed……” Chen Ling smiled. “It must have been… seven or eight years?”

“Eight years exactly.”

Teacher Ye seemed to recall something, his gaze filled with emotion. “When you graced us with your presence back then, it gave everyone in the Fusion Faction quite a scare… I almost thought the Fusion Faction was going to be wiped out.”

“That’s all in the past.” Chen Ling waved his hand. “How is the Fusion Faction doing now?”

“As you can see, the children are all very healthy… With your guidance, our research into fusion has also been progressing very smoothly.”

“That’s good.”

“If it weren’t for Mr. Chen’s reminders, the Fusion Faction might have gone further and further down the wrong path… In the end, it would surely have led to a catastrophe and become a scourge to humanity.” Teacher Ye’s tone was extremely serious. “We, the Fusion Faction, owe Mr. Chen a great debt.”

“Let’s not talk about that for now.” Chen Ling paused for a moment. “I came this time to ask about that matter……”

“Understood.”

Teacher Ye stood up, took a file from the bookshelf nearby, and opened it. “For so many years, the Fusion Faction has been searching every corner of the Gray Realm for ‘Jian Changsheng’ according to Mr. Chen’s description… But unfortunately, to this day, we have no eyewitness reports of him at all.”

Hearing the last sentence, Chen Ling’s body trembled slightly, and the faint light in his eyes dimmed instantly.

“In the Gray Realm… not even there?” he muttered to himself.

Nine years ago, Chen Ling had already mobilized Liu Qingyan’s informants in all the major human prisons, searching for Jian Changsheng’s whereabouts like a dragnet… But ever since the Yan family in the Aurora Prison was raided and the father and son were killed, Jian Changsheng had completely vanished. There was no news of him in any prison; it was as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth.

But Chen Ling knew very well that the deaths of the Yan father and son must have been related to Jian Changsheng… After all, according to the original life trajectory and abilities of Jian Changsheng in this world, he absolutely did not have the ability to kill the Yan father and son alone, especially since they had sacrificial artifacts to protect them. The deaths of the Yan father and son were not only related to the Jian Changsheng of the Sixth Generation world, but also definitely related to the Jian Changsheng of the Fifth Generation.

After that, Chen Ling mobilized the power of the Fusion Faction to start searching in the Gray Realm… After all, if Jian Changsheng was still alive and not active in the human prisons, he could only be in the Gray Realm… But now it seemed there was no progress there either.

Neither in the Gray Realm nor in the human prisons… Where else could he have gone?