Ji Yushi’s heart, which had been hanging in suspense, seemed to settle only after seeing Song Qinglan.

The feeling of being reunited with a teammate was so wonderful that Ji Yushi almost forgot how much he used to prefer acting alone.

Ji Yushi’s back was aching from the impact, but he didn’t even feel angry: “Captain Song?!”

Not Song Qinglan, but Captain Song.

The tone wasn’t very warm, but anyone who knew Ji Yushi well could tell how happy he was to reunite with his teammate.

Pressed against the wall, Ji Yushi didn’t struggle and answered off-topic, “You’ve grown so much facial hair!”

Just like in the Chaos mission, Ji Yushi was still clean and tidy, while Song Qinglan looked disheveled. The Sky Vault seemed particularly fond of making Song Qinglan show his rugged side, whether he liked it or not.

Song Qinglan hadn’t looked in a mirror for some time, and his expression darkened.

Ji Yushi’s bright eyes landed on Song Qinglan’s chin, puzzled, “Have you been here for a long time?”

The proximity allowed Song Qinglan to feel Ji Yushi’s breath, making the gaze on his chin almost tangible.

Song Qinglan’s Adam’s apple bobbed: “I’ve been here for over a week.”

After saying this, he loosened his firm grip on Ji Yushi’s shoulder and took a few steps back.

“Consultant Ji!”

Song Qinglan was tall, and as he moved aside, Ji Yushi noticed there were two more people who had entered the room with him.

One was Duan Wen, equally delighted by the reunion and sporting stubble, and the other was a tall, fair-skinned young man with peach blossom eyes, wearing a black combat uniform with the number “9” on his chest.

The young man gracefully nodded to him: “Hi.”

Ji Yushi: “…”

This person was—

Ji Yushi knew who he was and wasn’t surprised by his presence. The Sky Vault, capturing guardians in transition to complete this multi-person task, made it possible to gather all guardians here.

There’s a saying that enemies meet on a narrow road.

Ji Yushi thought, wasn’t the chance of encountering this Team 9 leader a bit too high?

The other party briefly greeted Ji Yushi.

Unsettlingly, though they were from different teams, neither Song Qinglan nor Duan Wen seemed inclined to introduce the new arrival.

The newcomer didn’t seem embarrassed and stood there leisurely, allowing Ji Yushi to scrutinize him.

Ji Yushi didn’t know him well, and his only knowledge came from Li Chun’s enthusiastic gossip, mostly negative. Feeling awkward, Ji Yushi wasn’t sure whether to greet him.

Fortunately, before Ji Yushi’s social anxiety could fully kick in, Duan Wen stepped forward and blocked Lin Xinlan’s figure.

Duan Wen’s eyes were misty: “Consultant Ji, do you know how hard we searched for you just because of a glimpse of your back?”

Ji Yushi: “What back?”

Duan Wen said: “Actually, I didn’t see it with my own eyes, so I can’t describe it well. It was just that in some room, when we moved from one room to another, Captain Song said he saw you just leaving that room. He called out, but you didn’t turn around, and by the time we caught up, you were gone.”

Ji Yushi was puzzled: “I didn’t hear anyone calling me.”

“I guessed you probably didn’t hear.” Duan Wen sighed, “With your memory, you should recognize other people’s voices, so why didn’t you recognize Captain Song’s? I suspect Captain Song might have mistaken you for someone else. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you respond?”

No wonder Song Qinglan asked “where did you go?”—had they been looking for him all this time?

Ji Yushi explained: “Since entering here, I’ve only traversed five rooms, including the one we’re in now.”

Duan Wen was surprised: “Only five rooms?”

So much time, and Ji Yushi had only been in five rooms?

Everyone was taken aback.

Song Qinglan said: “Is it like in the Rift, where there are issues with the flow of time? A week for us might be just an hour for you?”

“Not entirely.” Ji Yushi clarified, “I didn’t spend much time in the earlier rooms, and adding the time waiting for you with Li Chun and Tang Qi, it was just about three or four hours.”

Duan Wen: “You met Chun’er and Tang Qi?!”

Ji Yushi nodded: “Yes, we arrived at this ‘cube’ together. After we got separated, I met other guardians, and one died along the way for unknown reasons. We were trapped in that room. About five hours later, another guardian left, and I didn’t dare to take risks, so I stayed in that room for over ten hours before arriving here.”

Hearing that Ji Yushi and Li Chun got separated and that someone died midway, Song Qinglan’s frown deepened.

Ji Yushi thought he was going to offer some insight, but instead, he asked, “You stayed alone in that room for over ten hours after everyone left?”

Ji Yushi was curious why Song Qinglan repeated the question: “Yes.”

Song Qinglan: “Didn’t the presence of the corpse make you uncomfortable?”

Ji Yushi said: “Not at all. If I hadn’t found a breakthrough, I could have stayed even longer.”

Song Qinglan didn’t ask further.

Ji Yushi suddenly realized, could Song Qinglan be worried about his hyperthymesia?

As a captain, Song Qinglan was always concerned about his teammates.

But perhaps due to the presence of outsiders, even though everyone was in the room, Ji Yushi felt that his being cared for seemed overly conspicuous.

They had been together for over a week, and his sudden appearance made him stand out like an intruder.

“I’ve discovered that these rooms have time discrepancies.” Ji Yushi tried to focus on the main points, “I and the fellow travelers I met thought that rooms with spheres of the same color were safe, but this situation isn’t absolute. These rooms have different time discrepancies, which might be why our perceptions of time differ. In these rooms with time discrepancies, making a wrong move can result in immediate death. Determining safety based on color alone is purely a matter of luck.”

He recounted Morita Yuu’s dangerous situation and then asked, “Did you encounter such situations on your way?”

“No.”

Someone spoke up, it was Lin Xinlan.

Song Qinglan and Duan Wen both turned to see Lin Xinlan sitting against the wall, naturally joining the conversation.

Duan Wen’s forehead twitched.

“I had already told Captain Song and Old Duan that I met other travelers on the way. But the situation was different from what Consultant Ji described. The traveler who entered different colored rooms had their entire body’s flesh and blood instantly disintegrated, as if pulverized and turned to dust…”

He spoke slowly, casually, “By the way, let me introduce myself. I’m Lin Xinlan, Captain of Team 9 from the Sky Vault’s Jiangcheng division. Ji Yushi, I’ve heard your name before.”

As a person of many rumors, Ji Yushi’s name was known throughout the Sky Vault.

“Hello.”

Ji Yushi only nodded, remaining calm and composed.

With the greeting exchanged, Ji Yushi could ask: “Captain Lin, when you encountered such situations, which colors did you transition between?”

Before Lin Xinlan could speak, Song Qinglan answered coldly, “Green to Purple.”

Having been interrupted, Lin Xinlan wasn’t annoyed, his expression unchanged.

He seemed to have a good temper and high tolerance.

Ji Yushi asked: “What colors did you encounter on your way?”

Song Qinglan: “Yellow, Blue, Purple, Green, Red.”

Were there only five colors as he had seen?

Ji Yushi thought for a moment and asked: “Which color was the most frequent?”

Duan Wen answered: “Green and Blue were more common, Red only started appearing recently.”

Ji Yushi took out his communicator, drew a cube in the air, and chose a red pen: “The travelers I met and I saw more Red initially, gradually encountering Green and Blue, and now we’re here. This suggests we are near an intersection point and converging towards the same point.”

He marked Red on one face of the cube and Blue and Green on the adjacent faces.

Everyone watched him analyze quietly, observing the projected colors on his face.

This was the Ji Yushi his teammates knew well.

Ji Yushi’s thoughts were clear as he explained while drawing, “We know moving from red to yellow results in death, and moving from green to purple also results in death. If we assume that red’s opposite is yellow and green’s opposite is purple, then this forms a kind of layout.”

The cube in the holographic projection was now colored.

Except for the side opposite the blue, whose color was still unknown, the layout was clear.

“My theory is that, like in a real Rubik’s cube, it’s impossible to move from one color to its opposite,” Ji Yushi said. “Moving between adjacent colors is safe. If we need to navigate through these rooms, we must avoid the ones opposite the current color.”

Duan Wen was astonished: “How do we choose?”

Song Qinglan considered, “You’re saying we need to exclude rooms with the same color but different time discrepancies, as well as those with opposite colors to the current one?”

Ji Yushi was pleased someone understood quickly: “Exactly.”

No one spoke for a moment.

Ji Yushi gave them a moment to process.

In the quiet, Lin Xinlan spoke up again: “So, we’ve been moving through rooms of the same color without encountering the time discrepancies you mentioned, and we’re still unscathed. Seems like we’ve been incredibly lucky.”

Everyone could sense the veiled skepticism in his voice.

For those who didn’t know Ji Yushi well, it might seem far-fetched that after only a few hours in a single room, he had come up with such bold theories.

Lin Xinlan asked, “Bold question—how do we complete this ‘splicing’ while ruling out these possibilities?”

Ji Yushi answered, “We first need to figure out the movement pattern of these rooms.”

Lin Xinlan asked, “How do we do that?”

Ji Yushi responded, “Whenever someone leaves a room, that room moves. It’s simple. Before we leave a room, we remember the surrounding room colors. Then, while ensuring safety, we try each room to see how the colors shift.”

Lin Xinlan followed up, “And then?”

The back-and-forth between them was starting to become a bit tense.

Duan Wen was bewildered.

What was happening?

Song Qinglan had already stepped in front of Ji Yushi, blocking Lin Xinlan’s view completely.

With his arms habitually crossed, Song Qinglan looked more mature than usual, thanks to his stubble, yet still appeared rebellious and aloof.

He spoke coldly: “Then we break the puzzle, obviously. Captain Lin, our Consultant Ji has already kindly explained how to navigate safely. As for breaking the puzzle, that’s for you to figure out on your own. Don’t forget, we’re competitors in this task, so don’t try fishing for answers.”

Lin Xinlan chuckled: “Caught me.”

Song Qinglan said, “If you doubt the analysis, you don’t have to follow us.”

Lin Xinlan replied, “Nah, I’ll stick with you. I trust you.”

Song Qinglan shrugged, not interested in further conversation.

He turned and saw Ji Yushi pulling something from his pocket and marking the floor.

Ji Yushi was using a zipper pull from his clothes to draw strange symbols on the ground—neither numbers nor letters, making it hard to decipher at first glance.

When he finished and stood up, both Duan Wen and Song Qinglan recognized the marks.

Song Qinglan almost wanted to laugh.

Ji Yushi, holding a grudge after nearly being tricked into revealing information, had written the symbols in a language that no one would understand. It was one from a parallel universe, even considered endangered.

“Let’s go,” Ji Yushi said calmly. “Let’s check the colors in the surrounding rooms.”

They chose the room with the green sphere, which was directly above them.

Duan Wen climbed up first, waiting at the opening to prevent the door from closing and separating them again.

One by one, everyone climbed the ladder.

“Song Qinglan,” Lin Xinlan suddenly called out.

Ji Yushi turned his head and saw Lin Xinlan sitting on the floor, extending his hand: “Give me a hand, my leg’s numb.”

Ji Yushi: “…”

He decided to keep climbing.

Behind him, Song Qinglan said coldly, “Get up yourself.”

Lin Xinlan sighed dramatically: “Sigh, we’re friends, aren’t we? What did I ever do to offend you?”

The atmosphere grew strangely ambiguous.

Ji Yushi suddenly remembered Li Chun’s colorful descriptions of Lin Xinlan. It seemed they weren’t too exaggerated.

As he climbed into the new room, Ji Yushi resumed marking the floor with his zipper pull, pointedly ignoring the banter behind him.

Suddenly, a pair of black boots appeared in front of him.

Song Qinglan crouched down beside him, cleared his throat, and then whispered, “Um, Lin Xinlan is from a year ago.”

A year ago.

Ji Yushi paused, not looking up: “Before he confessed to you and gave you PTSD?”

PTSD?

Who gave that term to this mess?

The timing and context were all wrong, and Song Qinglan had no idea how to explain this situation: “…”

Ji Yushi finally raised his head.

He looked at the scruffy-faced Song Qinglan with calm, clear eyes and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Captain Lin. I understand—don’t change the past, don’t talk about the present.”