Yan Rongjun scratched her head. "Um... I don’t quite understand it, but there is a timeline where you’re not a nuisance, right?"

"That’s... one way to put it, m’lady." Wei Chen’s mouth twitched. Was this lady boss trying to pick a fight? Wait, even if she did, he could not win against her anyway.

The two then walked toward Lian Cheng, who was tied up with his cultivation sealed.

Yan Rongjun looked closely at him, scrutinizing him from head to the stumps of his legs.

"So this is him, huh? The guy who made hundreds of our technicians in the data center nearly lose their minds over an error they couldn’t fix," Yan Rongjun said with a teasing smile.

"Youqi said to leave him here or seal him in the mortal realm, right? Because his duplicate soul might make our system worse, and she doesn’t want to take any chances," she asked.

Wei Chen nodded. "Yes, Lady Yan. She instructed me that if this guy proves to be useless to us, we need to seal him in the mortal realm and not kill him."

Lian Cheng listened with a mix of confusion and horror as their words sank in.

"What... What are you talking about? Underworld? Who exactly are you!?" he shouted, as if raising his voice would lessen his fear.

Wei Chen smiled. He took out a black folding badge case and flashed it for Lian Cheng to see.

"I’m Wei Chen, UBI, Underworld Bureau of Investigation. I’m here on behalf of the Underworld Lord to investigate the anomaly that caused the system in the Underworld to malfunction, resulting in collateral damage to our facility. You are under suspicion of being a lost soul from another timeline, causing soul duplication, which led to a fatal error in the reincarnation system."

Wei Chen spoke in a stern, professional tone, like a secret agent, before quickly tucking the badge case back into his robe.

{Yes! Flashing a badge like those cops and FBI agents in crime thrillers was one of the things I wanted to do before I die. Mission accomplished!} Wei Chen celebrated inwardly.

Of course, what he just said was only half true. The only part that was not fabricated was the damage caused by Lian Cheng’s existence to the Underworld system.

"Huh? Is there even such a department?" Yan Rongjun asked, confused.

"Anyway!" Wei Chen cut her off, ignoring the question, "what do you have to say for yourself, huh? Mr. Lian Cheng?"

Lian Cheng was stunned. He stared at Wei Chen, his eyes filled with confusion, unable to fully grasp the meaning of what Wei Chen had said.

"Are you... people from the Underworld? The underworld where the dead go?" he asked.

"Yes, that’s us," Yan Rongjun replied.

Hearing that answer, Lian Cheng’s face turned pale. All of his arrogance quickly vanished. If he had held thoughts of revenge before, now only resentment remained. He no longer dared to act on it.

Lian Cheng, as the former Heaven Forging Lord, admitted that he was arrogant, and he knew it. But recklessly suicidal? Never. He always measured his opponents and acted with caution.

Before, he had thought Wei Chen was just an idiot young master from some hidden clan, someone within a range he could handle.

But an agent from the literal Underworld?

Unfortunately, that was far beyond his level.

He was just a genius artificer, and he knew his limits. He was not one of those terrifying cultivators who could die, retain their strength, and storm the Underworld in an attempt to seize control.

And from what he knew in his previous life, none had ever succeeded in overthrowing the Underworld. Every single one of them had their memories wiped and were sent to be reborn. Some who angered the Lord of the Underworld were even reborn as animals, or worse, as maggots.

With all of this in mind, a chill ran down Lian Cheng’s spine.

"What... what do you mean by saying I am a lost soul from another timeline?" Lian Cheng continued, trying to clarify what he did not understand, his voice carrying a trace of growing fear.

"I admit, I died once, but I was sent back to the past. This is my second chance. This is my own body, my own life. I am not someone who defied death. What really happened is that I lost to the Fate Weaver Sovereign and died. The next thing I knew, I regained consciousness here, in my younger body," Lian Cheng explained, laying everything out.

Wei Chen listened to him and let out a sigh. He signaled the guards to pick Lian Cheng up and set him down in the gazebo. Then he sat opposite him, with Yan Rongjun sitting in the middle between them.

"Look..." Wei Chen started. He paused, as if trying to find the right words. "It’s not like I want to burst your bubble or anything, but... this timeline..."

"Is not your original timeline, buddy." His hand waved, pausing midair as if trying to make what he was about to say easier to accept.

"What do you mean?" Lian Cheng asked.

"I mean... there are two identical souls. The first one is Lian Cheng at seventeen years old. And you... you are the Lian Cheng who is occupying that seventeen-year-old body. Everything is identical. Appearance, date of birth, even all the experiences up until that age."

"But the strangest thing is, Lian Cheng in the mortal realm is still alive, while his date of death has already been recorded. That should not be possible."

"And since our boy Lian Cheng is currently in the Underworld, that leaves only you. The anomaly occupying his body. The only reason the system still shows that Lian Cheng is alive, even though his soul is already in the Underworld, is because the soul inside that body is also Lian Cheng... just from another timeline. Which is you," Wei Chen explained.

Lian Cheng fell silent. He wanted to argue, but... everything he had experienced after regaining consciousness told him that what Wei Chen said was true.

In his previous life, he remembered that no one had occupied the Flaming Lotus Secret Realm, and he had taken full advantage of it. But in this life, it had already been taken over by the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Mo Xingyao had not shown any interest in him like she did in his previous life.

Also... that arrogant bastard Ximen Hao had shown a strange lack of reaction. He had not even gotten angry when presented with the bait of the artifact Lian Cheng offered. And Lian Cheng remembered clearly, in his previous life, that man only showed such tolerance toward women he wanted to bed.

And most importantly...

Lian Cheng looked at Wei Chen and Yan Rongjun.

This Wei Chen did not exist in his previous life. And Yan Rongjun... if he remembered correctly, at this exact time, she should still be rampaging in the Immortal Realm, causing trouble for the Immortal Emperor.

Not staying here as the wife of some Underworld lord.

"So... this is the truth?" Lian Cheng muttered. He seemed to age more than ten years in an instant, his strength leaving him.

"Yeah... but I think that’s the least of both your problem and ours," Wei Chen said.

"What do you mean?" Lian Cheng asked.

"I mean... have you ever asked yourself why you were sent here?" Wei Chen said.

Lian Cheng frowned. All his resentment and hatred toward Wei Chen were pushed to the far corner of his mind.

"What do you mean, why was I sent here? I was..."

Wait... before he came here, he had fought the Fate Weaving Sovereign. His final moment was when his heart, dantian, and brain were pierced by three separate swords, one for each.

He did not know what those three swords were, but each had a distinct design. And he felt something... a pulling force. No... "sucking" was the better word.

Three swords... brain, heart, and dantian, one for each? He remembered that the Fate Weaving Sovereign never mutilated corpses or used excessive force. He always used the least effort necessary to kill.

So why was his case different? Brain... heart... dantian... could it be?

Lian Cheng’s expression suddenly turned solemn. His brows furrowed as if he had realized something.

"You seem to have recognized something... What exactly happened before you died? Can you tell us?" Wei Chen asked.

Lian Cheng looked at Wei Chen, then at Yan Rongjun. At this moment, he finally grasped the core of the problem. At the back of his mind, he had thought that the changes were caused by this Wei Chen, since in his previous life, this man did not exist.

But if Wei Chen was an anomaly, then how could he explain why this Heavenly Immortal General was here, sitting in the Underworld?

Clearly... this place, according to Wei Chen, was not his original timeline.

Yes, his judgment had been clouded by pride before. That was his flaw. But he was never stupid. When nothing blinded him, he could see clearly.

"Fine... I will tell you what happened before I died." Lian Cheng finally relented and began to explain everything.

The two listened calmly, and Yan Rongjun’s eyes lit up as if she had recognized something.

"Brain, heart, and dantian... wasn’t that Fate Weaver guy using you as some kind of living beacon?" Yan Rongjun asked.