I can rewind time to prevent death

Chapter 367: Chapter 294: Spirits (5) (4300 words)

Tap tap tap tap tap…

A series of crawling sounds echoed in the room. Yan Junze quickly swung his cellphone flashlight around, chasing the source of the noises, but he could no longer see the owner of the pant leg he had just glimpsed.

Now he understood why Zhang Xiaomo and the others hadn’t just knocked Zhao Qi out—because his dream manifestations were equally terrifying.

Moreover, it could be said that the imaginations that came to him while he was conscious were even harder to control than those that manifested without his awareness.

Zhang Xiaomo and her people were experienced in handling strangenesses, and although they had encountered a Spirit for the first time, they might have learned these essential facts during their training.

Still, Yan Junze had never expected that Zhao Qi, who had just fainted, would immediately manifest a dream into reality so swiftly—it was utterly inconceivable.

...

However, this also indirectly showed that Zhao Qi’s thoughts were too active, several times more so than an ordinary person’s, and combined with his status as a Spirit, it was a perfect match, a despair-inducing combination!

The crawling noise persisted throughout the room, now to Yan Junze’s left, now to his right, and before long, it seemed to have moved onto the walls and the ceiling, completely erratic.

Yan Junze tried to track the crawling with his flashlight several times but never succeeded.

Just then, the skittering sound resurfaced, as though burrowing under the bed behind him, and the distance between it and Yan Junze was closing in, making a rustling noise and no longer just crawling.

Yan Junze spun around, flashlight beam aimed forwards, and his entire being jolted in shock.

He hadn’t expected that the person who had been crawling would stand up after emerging from under the bed, let alone stand less than half a meter behind him; he turned around to be almost face-to-face with the figure.

If it had been a normal person’s face, Yan Junze wouldn’t have been startled, but this face was swollen like a steamed bun, with lips parted and two rows of sharp teeth, resembling those of a piranha.

The person’s eyeballs bulged slightly, the irises were amber-brown, and a multitude of blood vessels spider-webbed across them. The neck was also much thicker than normal, and the veins bulged so much that they seemed ready to burst through the skin.

As Yan Junze faced this visage, the figure’s mouth opened slightly, a viscous yellow fluid oozing out, trickling down the rags that cloaked its body.

“Damn, Zhao Qi, always full of whimsical ideas, who knows what this is about?”

Having just fainted, there was no rousing him now, so Yan Junze chose to Rewind once more.

This time, upon Rewinding, he found himself back at the moment after finishing his conversation with Zhao Qi. However, he no longer planned to knock the guy out; instead, he pulled out a dagger from his backpack and quickly moved to Zhang Di, who resembled a cocooned moth, slicing open the thin membrane and rescuing him.

He acted quickly this time; while the idea of a “strangeness crawling out from the belly” had not yet surfaced in Zhao Qi’s mind, Yan Junze had already dragged Zhang Di to the edge of the bed, yanking down the duvet to wrap Zhang Di securely, leaving a corner of the sheet for easy pulling.

Right now, Zhao Qi was clutching his head; any moment now, his troublesome thoughts would resurface. It was evident that he was struggling fiercely.

After dealing with Zhang Di, Yan Junze stood straight and spoke to the floundering Zhao Qi, “Discard that thought about something crawling out of your belly, and if you can’t resist it, switch your thinking—imagine a woman giving birth…”

Clutching his head, Zhao Qi, who was caught in anguish, paused, lifting his head in astonishment to look at Yan Junze.

He didn’t understand how the other knew what he was thinking, and not only was it accurate, but Yan Junze had also offered advice on how to change his thought process.

This shock interrupted Zhao Qi’s bizarre thoughts, but within a few seconds, they surfaced again, stubborn as burrowing maggots, impossible for Zhao Qi to shake off.

Yet, enlightened by Yan Junze’s suggestion, he tried to shift his thought process.

Yan Junze carefully watched Zhao Qi’s reactions while occasionally glancing at his own stomach to check for any abnormalities.

Seconds later, in the corner of the bed where Zhang Di had curled up, the shriveled membrane suddenly expanded into a human shape, followed by a woman’s screams and cries as if suffering through unbearable pain—a sound unmistakably from a delivery room.

Indeed, inspired by Yan Junze, Zhao Qi successfully shifted his thoughts, transforming the idea of a strangeness crawling out of the belly into an image of a woman in childbirth. Upon manifestation, not only did a woman appear, but she was indeed in the midst of giving birth.

“This method seems to work,” Yan Junze thought, seeing a glimmer of hope and having an idea for what to do next.

However, this plan required Zhao Qi to stick with him constantly and not to be kept in isolation as he was now.

In reality, Zhao Qi being kept in a separate room had provided little benefit, or else Zhang Di and Zhang Xiaomo would not have encountered a Doppelganger so stealthily.

Grabbing the corner of the sheet dragging Zhang Di, Yan Junze turned to Zhao Qi and said, “From now on, you stick with me and follow my orders.”

Zhao Qi was somewhat perplexed but still nodded his head; the reason for his assent was simple—Yan Junze had indeed helped him before.

Truthfully, he felt helpless and had even fallen into despair, so having his thoughts successfully redirected by Yan Junze was like clutching a lifeline, sparking a flicker of hope in his heart that he had never felt before.