I can rewind time to prevent death

Chapter 368: Chapter 294: Spirits (5) (4300 words)_2

Wow!

Just then, a baby’s loud cry echoed, and the woman’s screams came to a halt.

Yan Junze was stunned for a moment; without looking in the direction of the swollen cocoon, he dragged Zhang Di and motioned Zhao Qi to follow by his side as they hurried toward the door of the isolation room.

But as they nearly reached the door, the baby’s crying suddenly deepened, losing the “wah wah” sound and turning into a low growl, like the warning rumble of a beast about to attack.

Immediately, the woman who had just been giving birth let out a piercing shriek, a shadow swiftly crawled out of the cocoon, dragging something along as it quickly approached Yan Junze and Zhao Qi.

...

Yan Junze whirled around, his phone flashlight shining in that direction. Under the beam of light, a green-skinned and slippery baby with a ferocious face crawled toward him, still trailing its uncut umbilical cord.

Behind the umbilical cord seemed to be something else being dragged, but Yan Junze dared not look any longer.

He immediately shifted his gaze to Zhao Qi, who had been burying his head all along.

Zhao Qi’s face was bitter, “I’m sorry, I can’t control it. This child… he must have been born dead, which is why he turned into a monstrosity and even killed his mother.”

Yan Junze was speechless, knowing that this was also a whimsical idea that had just occurred to Zhao Qi, yet this guy couldn’t control his own mind.

Rewind!

Time traveled back thirty seconds.

At this moment, the woman conjured by imagination was screaming in pain from childbirth, the cocoon showing incessant movements, Yan Junze held onto the corner of the sheet wrapped around Zhang Di, signaling Zhao Qi to follow him out.

When they were about to reach the door, a baby’s cry of “wah” sounded, followed immediately by the cessation of the woman’s agonized shouting.

Yan Junze spoke up promptly to Zhao Qi, “Now, imagine that the baby that just cried out is you, envision the scene of years ago, that tender moment when your mother gave birth to you.”

Zhao Qi was taken aback, then his body suddenly shook violently, trembling in disbelief as he stared at Yan Junze. The bizarre idea about a “dead infant becoming a monstrosity” that had just sprung to mind was interrupted the instant Yan Junze spoke.

His lips trembled with fear, completely puzzled how his thoughts had just arisen and how Yan Junze knew about them.

After moments of shivering, he finally managed to utter, “You know what I’m thinking?”

Yan Junze didn’t answer him but instead turned his head to stare into Zhao Qi’s eyes.

Zhao Qi realized that the notion of the dead infant turning into a monstrosity had once more surfaced uncontrollably. However, he followed Yan Junze’s suggestion and began to imagine that he too was a newborn, the scene of being held in his mother’s arms in the delivery room right after being born.

A warm sensation arose, a bit of warmth filled his heart, replacing the fear and taking over the horrifying thoughts he could not accept but kept emerging.

At that moment, the woman in the cocoon behind them gave birth to the baby, and the infant, instead of becoming a monstrosity, lay there quietly after crying a few times, seemingly enjoying the warmth of the mother’s embrace as well.

This method was Yan Junze’s current temporary measure to cope with the living spirits.

He had no choice, for this guy’s thoughts were so capricious that he would easily come up with uncontrollable bizarre ideas from a single impression, so Yan Junze had to use a bit of energy to go back before Zhao Qi came up with that idea, and provide a similar, distracting scenario that could replace it and shift the guy’s attention.

The downside to this approach is the need to repeat the process continuously and the constant drain of Different Dimension Energy. Fortunately, each rewind was brief, and the energy expended was not too substantial.

For now, Yan Junze could still persevere.

In fact, Zhao Qi’s whimsical thoughts typically only lasted a few seconds to perhaps a minute at most, and they would likewise be disrupted by external factors or other thoughts of his own.

But this guy was powerful, capable of conceiving a monstrosity in the brief span of a few seconds with a single thought or imagination.

By shifting the thought of the deceased infant to the scene of his own birth, the feeling of being held in his mother’s arms allowed Zhao Qi to forget continuing the imagination of the dead baby, and thus the thought vanished.

Yan Junze had already grabbed the doorknob, turned it with one swift movement, and walked out while dragging Zhang Di.

Zhao Qi, startled, hurriedly followed, stepping out of the isolation room and standing in the hallway.

But as Yan Junze was the first to step out of the hallway, his body suddenly froze, and the sight before him nearly frightened him out of his wits.

In front of him, Zhang Xiaomo held another Yan Junze’s head in her left hand, exposing his neck completely, while her right held a magnetic knife. In one swift, resolute stroke, she slashed at the neck of the Yan Junze in her grasp.

The decisiveness, cruelty, and ruthlessness of the act, devoid of any past affection, made Yan Junze’s heart pound furiously.

Discarding another Yan Junze whose neck had nearly been snapped, Zhang Xiaomo raised her head, inserted the magnetic knife into her belt, and casually patted her hands with a nonchalant smile on her face, “You’ve finally come out.”

“I think I might still be safer in the isolation room,” Yan Junze swallowed nervously.

His mind was still haunted by that terrifying scene, as if his own neck felt a cold draft.

No joke, witnessing that woman ferociously slashing at her own neck upon his first glimpse was a jarring experience for anyone.

Of course, the very next second after witnessing the scene, he knew that the Yan Junze being attacked was his doppelganger. Zhang Xiaomo cutting that guy’s neck couldn’t be wrong, it’s just that her manner was a bit…

“Actually, I just want to know who gets to call the shots at home in the future,” Yan Junze suddenly remarked.

Zhang Xiaomo rolled her eyes at him but seemed pleased, looking behind him, she said, “Is everything okay now? What’s Zhang Di up to?”

“He’s just unconscious, nothing serious,” Yan Junze replied, then pointed at Zhao Qi, “He needs to stick with me for now, I can help him temporarily.”

Zhang Xiaomo nodded in confusion, not asking for an immediate explanation.

Yan Junze suggested, “Let’s go into the Exorcist’s room. There’s a couch in there. We can rest for a bit.”

Zhao Qi gave Zhang Xiaomo an embarrassed smile. Without speaking, Zhao Qi helped Yan Junze carry Zhang Di into the Exorcist’s room, where they laid him down on a small bed.

The room had three large sofas and a small bed. After laying the unconscious Zhang Di on the bed, Yan Junze and Zhang Xiaomo took a seat on one of the sofas, while Zhao Qi naturally found a seat on another.

“Have you run out of ideas now?” Zhang Xiaomo asked.

“I have,” Zhao Qi replied with a bitter smile, and then shook his head, “For now, I don’t have any. I need some rest.”

Zhang Xiaomo turned towards Yan Junze, just in time to see him fiddling with his phone. He quickly sent a voice message: “I’ve sent you the address. Navigate here immediately. We need your help here.”

“Who did you send that to?” Zhang Xiaomo inquired.

“You’ll know soon enough,” Yan Junze set down his phone and said, “This situation is more complex than I thought. First of all, Zhao Qi isn’t really a strangeness. This is different from the usual exorcisms, so I can’t harm him. Most importantly, he should be a good person.”

Yan Junze whispered the last sentence close to Zhang Xiaomo’s ear; Zhao Qi did not hear it.

But the man was hanging his head low, seemingly rife with volatile emotions again.

Zhang Xiaomo pulled Yan Junze aside to a window near the small bed, looked at Zhao Qi who was still staring downward, and asked Yan Junze in a hushed voice, “Can you directly eliminate his Spirit Body identity?”

Yan Junze raised his hand in a gesture of helplessness: “Kidding, this guy’s magnetic field is terrifyingly strong. You should really consider bringing him back to headquarters for research, not eliminating such abilities.”

Zhang Xiaomo sighed softly.

“Doesn’t headquarters have any effective means to restrict this person’s abilities?” Yan Junze suggested, “Like some kind of helmet that isolates magnetic fields, or a device that could reduce emotional stimuli for him?”

Zhang Xiaomo explained, “During training, I heard there’s a helmet that can reduce the emotional perception of a Spirit, causing its thinking to become dull. A thought could take a very long time to form, and by the time it does, it poses no threat to others.”

“Where is that helmet?” Yan Junze’s eyes lit up.

“In Great Capital, USA. It’s said that the research facility of the Half Moon Association—an organization of Exorcists there—has successfully invented it, and it’s currently in the testing phase,” Zhang Xiaomo said.

Yan Junze: “…”

…

Meanwhile, at the same moment.

Across the street from that old building, outside an alleyway, stood a tall man clad in a grey-white trench coat.

The man wore a duckbill cap, pulled very low over his face, obscuring most of it, leaving only the lips and tip of the nose visible; yet one could still notice his distinctly chiseled facial features and high-bridged nose.

He stared silently at the second floor of the old building while, in the alleyway behind him, four other men stood in silence.

One of them was holding a small, sealed metal box.