Night’s Nomenclature-Chapter 885: The Dignity of Being Human

Qing Chen opened his eyes in the darkness.

He was still at the wingsuit flying training base, and cries of alarm and screams came from outside, a chaotic mess.

Those few Time Travelers who had entered the Forbidden Zone with the Blackwater City Army were now nothing but bones gnawed clean by the Forbidden Zone beasts.

Because they had died so recently, blood and flesh still clung to the bones, and several students who saw them vomited for a full hour.

There were cries outside, and someone even called the police, but it all seemed irrelevant to Qing Chen in the room. His first act was to call Boss Zheng: "Boss Zheng, Boss He is in trouble."

He knew that if there was anyone in this world who would unconditionally help He Jinqiu, it would be Zheng Yuandong.

Zheng Yuandong asked solemnly on the phone: "What do you need me to do?"

Qing Chen thought for a moment: "We must find him first."

Boss He must have returned by now, but for some reason, he hadn't contacted Qing Chen and Zheng Yuandong.

Something was definitely wrong.

If He Jinqiu really had a way to escape, he should have contacted Qing Chen immediately and told him the plan.

Two police cars arrived at the training base, and Qing Chen gave a statement.

However, the European police seemed to be used to such Time Traveler death incidents, and they left after a cursory investigation.

The next day, many students chose to temporarily leave the training base due to the incident.

The once bustling training base suddenly became deserted, leaving only seven people.

Alice drove her pickup truck, sending the students one by one to Kulsaval International Airport. She felt a little lost when she returned to the deserted training base.

Entering the classroom, she saw Qing Chen quietly folding his parachute pack. Alice was curious: "Tager, why didn't you leave?"

Qing Chen smiled: "I haven't learned all the skills of wingsuit flying yet, so naturally I didn't leave."

Alice was stunned: "Actually, you're also a Time Traveler, a very powerful one, aren't you?"

Qing Chen didn't answer: "By the way, I introduced you to a new client, his name is Zhang Jian, and he's also very rich. He'll be studying with me."

The matter of the twenty-nine people participating in his rescue had been relayed by Li Tongyun and confirmed by the Giant; twenty-nine was indeed fine.

Qing Chen decided to include twenty-nine in the Knight reserve, to learn from him.

Also, the Black Knights incident had alerted him.

Perhaps in his generation, no Knights would go astray, but what about the future? So many Knights, might some of them also lose themselves in power, authority, and money, like the Black Knights?

Now, none of the Black Knights could pass the Trial of Heart.

But what about back then, when they were full of blood and passion, could they have passed? Qing Chen believed that one or two could have passed the Trial of Heart.

The Trial of Heart is only a moment, but people can fall.

How many people, with fervent hearts and great ideals, eventually betray those ideals? Too many.

Therefore, future Knights will also need an internal review mechanism; the Giant's psychic ability seems like a good method.

All day long, Qing Chen diligently followed Solare to learn skydiving, and for the first time, he took the base's helicopter for his first skydive with Solare.

Everything went smoothly; Solare had never met such an obedient student.

In the evening, Zheng Yuandong called: "We couldn't find him. All members of Nine Provinces are unreachable. They only said that after attacking the Kingdom and Future Headquarters, he stayed alone in New York and never appeared again. He didn't return to Whale Island Cultivation, and there's no record of any consumption. He must have used his backup identity information, and the Nine Provinces safe house in New York."

Qing Chen asked: "Do Yu Cheng and Jiu Ran from Nine Provinces have information about the safe house? He Jinqiu certainly didn't build the safe house himself. Let's follow this lead."

Zheng Yuandong: "That's my intention. I'll arrive in New York tomorrow and check all of Nine Provinces' safe houses."

"I'll wait for your news."

In a suburban villa in New York.

He Jinqiu opened the refrigerator and took out a freshly thawed steak. He stared at the steak for a long time, even wanting to feel like a test subject, but after a long time, he didn't feel any craving for the meat.

He tried to bite into it raw, immediately finding the raw beef too greasy, and spat it into the trash can.

Strange, was he still considered a test subject?

At this moment, the vines were gone from He Jinqiu's wrist after his return, and he moved freely.

The whip marks on his body were completely healed, showing no signs of past injury. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

If nothing unexpected happened, he would, like all the test subjects, have a permanent lifespan, because cancer cells do not die of old age.

"So I've become Wolverine?" He Jinqiu mocked himself. "But even Wolverine has a day of aging and death, I'm much better than him."

Saying this, he turned to the bedroom, opened the closet, and picked out his white shirts and gray suits.

He found that each one looked mismatched with his skin tone.

In desperation, he could only take out a more casual black jacket to make himself look more relaxed.

He Jinqiu had now shed his depression, and his whole being was calm, like a warrior preparing to die. He knew what choices he had to make and what he had to face, so everything was clear to him.

He put on a baseball cap to try to hide his gray skin.

He then took out a nail clipper, and cut small nicks in the cutting edge before managing to clip a nail.

Later, he simply took out large pruning shears, painstakingly clipping his long nails, then using a file to smooth them.

It seemed that only in this way could he slowly regain his dignity as a human being.

Boss He was still the meticulous Boss He.

He wrote another note on the table and left the house.

When he went out, he met a neighbor, and the old woman saw his gray cheeks and neck, immediately recoiling in fright.

He Jinqiu was startled, and he smiled and apologized.

Then, nine Jade Heart Swords merged into one, and he flew away on his sword, across the ocean.

He felt that since he had made up his mind, he should see a few more people and places.

Half an hour later, Zheng Yuandong, dressed in a Zhongshan suit, arrived at the door of the safe house. He was stunned; the villa didn't even have its door closed, as if the door was specifically left open for him.

His intuition told him that this was the safe house where He Jinqiu had once lived.

Zheng Yuandong pushed the door open, only to see a handwritten note on the table: Don't look for me.

The other party had anticipated that Qing Chen would tell him, and that he would come looking, but had left one step ahead.

Zheng Yuandong was a little worried.

He knew He Jinqiu too well; the other party must have encountered a problem that even he couldn't help, or one that might put him in danger too, that's why he acted so decisively, not wanting anyone else to interfere.

He Jinqiu didn't like owing favors to others, and he didn't like others owing him favors.

Zheng Yuandong called Qing Chen: "I think he may not be able to solve this problem himself. Do you have any ideas?"

Qing Chen replied: "Let's try to keep looking for him. Boss Zheng, if he's going to die in the Inner World after time travel, where do you think he'll go? Also, I'll help him hold back the main force of Silver City, and even pull Silver Duke over. I'll do my best."

He Jinqiu flew on his sword, swaying in the sky.

On the fourth day, he crossed the ocean, watched whales surface in the Pacific Ocean, spraying water columns more than twenty meters high from their backs. He also saw pods of killer whales rampaging through the ocean, slapping sea turtles out of the water with their tails.

He also saw a huge sea turtle floating on the surface, the turtle was as big as a house, it must be that a powerful Metahuman had coincidentally died near it.

The Outer World has a Forbidden Sea too?

He Jinqiu landed on the back of the sea turtle and let it drift slowly for a day.

The sea turtle didn't get angry, it just slid slowly, letting him lie on its back, one man and one turtle cuddling together in the lonely sea world.

On the fifth day of his return, he returned to China, just in time to encounter a flock of migrating geese. The geese slowly flew to him, letting him break the wind as the leader, giving him a free ride.

As children, everyone learned in textbooks about how geese sometimes fly in a person-shaped formation, sometimes in a single-file line.

He Jinqiu chuckled, he never thought he would become part of this human-shaped formation, and even become the lead goose.

These geese were very docile, they didn't flinch even when he reached out to touch them.

So, he spent another day specifically escorting these geese.

At one point, he suddenly felt that he had wasted his whole life, there were so many interesting things in the world, so many beautiful sceneries.

Yet every day he was scheming on how to let Nine Provinces and overseas forces contend for hegemony, on how to make himself stronger and never be betrayed again.

He missed all of this.

What a pity.

On the sixth day of his return, He Jinqiu returned to his birthplace, Wuhan. He went to buy a bowl of hot dry noodles and a portion of doupi, holding the paper bowl and eating as he walked.

He looked at his neighborhood in Hanyang Wangjiabai, feeling how much it had changed, completely different from more than ten years ago.

Gradually, people on the road began to point at him, apparently noticing his abnormality.

He thought for a moment and simply flew away on his sword, and many people took photos of him flying into the sky.

Arriving at his parents' graves, He Jinqiu solemnly kowtowed several times.

He had been away in the Inner World for more than ten years, and his parents were already buried by the time he returned; it was his uncle who had handled the funeral arrangements.

After creating Nine Provinces, he secretly moved his parents' remains to avoid retaliation.

Only now did He Jinqiu realize that he had been an unfilial son. When he left home before, he felt that home was particularly annoying, and he didn't want to stay there for a minute.

After joining the army, he joined the scout battalion selection to avoid going home, and then to avoid leaving the army and going home, he went to the peacekeeping forces.

Thinking about it now, he really was too selfish.

He sat at the grave, quietly telling his parents everything he had experienced since joining the army, regardless of whether they could hear him.

As he spoke, He Jinqiu fell asleep at the grave. This time, he didn't dream; he slept extraordinarily soundly.

For almost twenty years, he had never slept so soundly.

The moonlight shone on him, like a blanket, like his mother quietly coming into his room before he left home, gently stroking him.

Boss He wasn't afraid of ghosts; if there really were ghosts in this cemetery, they should be afraid of him.

On the seventh day of his return, he flew on his sword to Shamao Town in Hannan, gently landing on the riverbank.

They had fought floods and disasters here back then; there wasn't the concrete riverbank like there was now, only mud everywhere.

The rain was too cold, so sometimes when carrying sacks of sand, their feet would sink in the mud, and they would find the earth to be warm.

He Jinqiu didn't know why his last stop was here.

He only felt that this was when he had experienced the most bitter and difficult times in his life, and yet he kept dreaming of this place.

He Jinqiu didn't finish high school before joining the army.

Many years later, he overheard Nine Provinces members chatting about how, years later, they would still dream of going back to high school, studying, and taking the college entrance exam.

Remembering those terrifying yet beautiful times.

He Jinqiu would think, his time was spent on this riverbank, only it was tens of thousands of comrades then, now there was only him alone.

However, as night fell, he heard footsteps behind him.

He Jinqiu smiled and said, "Didn't I say not to look for me?"

Zheng Yuandong also sat down on the riverbank: "Since when did a recruit start giving orders to his sergeant? You say don't look, and I won't?"

He Jinqiu laughed: "You're right."

"Tell me, what's the plan?" Zheng Yuandong asked.

"Of course, I'm going to kill everyone who plotted against me," He Jinqiu narrowed his eyes slightly. "They thought they could trap me there and render me immobile, but they underestimated my character."

"As long as you have a plan," Zheng Yuandong nodded. "Qing Chen said he lured away all nine people from the Black Knights; Silver Duke is still in the city, and the other two are the Tenth Knight and the Twelfth Knight. Silver Duke is a Demi-God, you probably can't beat him."

"How can we know we can't beat him without trying?" He Jinqiu said calmly. "You saw me, I'm in this state now, of course, everything obtained will be lost, there is a price, so there is a reward."

He Jinqiu continued, "I'm actually quite surprised. I didn't expect Qing Chen to help me so much. When I first met him, I thought he was like me, selfish and cautious. But in City 10 experiencing the Rat Tide, I found that our lives were exactly the opposite. I started with blood and passion and had it extinguished by others, while he was gradually awakened by others to the fervor in his heart."

He Jinqiu sighed, "I'm really envious. By the way, thank him for me."

"Mm," Zheng Yuandong nodded. "I'll try to get there, but the uncertainty of the Key Gate is too high, I'm not sure how many times I have to try before I can succeed."

"It's fine," He Jinqiu said with a smile. "I know what to do."

"What do you need me to do now?" Zheng Yuandong looked at the countdown on his arm; he was about to time travel.

He Jinqiu raised his hands: "Use your black knife, cut off my hands; once I arrive in the Inner World, I can go on a killing spree."

He was bound by vines in the Inner World, his strength and abilities were unusable.

The way to remove these vines is simple, but the Black Knights don't think He Jinqiu has the guts.

But he does.