Just like the previous hunter’s cabin, after Vivian’s dream collapsed, an area with a radius of a few hundred meters around Hao Ren still remained. It was a safe zone. At the edge of the grassland, a spatial rift had opened.

The spatial rift was the breach left behind after the explosion of the Wall of Roses. It had now become more robust, and there was a faint ray of light coming out from the crack. Hao Ren knew that it was the passage to the next point in time, just like the wooden door of the previous hunter’s cabin.

“Going through the door, we will enter the next space and time.” Hao Ren pointed at the rift. “If you still have anything to prepare, do it here.”

“What else do we have to prepare?” Hessiana shrugged. “It’s our consciousness that has entered this space and time. We’ve brought nothing except the gear we have on hand. Hey man, do you have anything to prepare?”

Hasse was not bothered by Hessiana’s rudeness. He just replied faintly, “Nope, let’s go.”

“Okay then, let’s go!”

Lily was the one most looking forward to the next adventure. She could not wait to explore what was on the other side of the spatial rift. Lily ran over happily, but just as she was about to reach the spatial rift, she suddenly stopped.

The word “stop” could not fully explain what happened to Lily. But Hao Ren had no idea what happened at that time. He just saw a coat of gray covering Lily’s body, just like the images of the past frozen in time. It was as if someone had pressed the pause button, Lily stood still in the air, her breath had quickly left the world, and she became a static image.

However, the pause did not last long. While Hessiana, who was witnessing everything, was struck dumb, Lily suddenly returned to normal. The husky maiden dropped to the ground and staggered to get up. She looked around in confusion, as though she had just passed out.

“Mr. Landlord, I think I just went back to the real world. I saw Wuyue and Sanba!”

The husky maiden scratched her head and looked back at Hao Ren with a baffled expression.

“What just happened?” Hao Ren, Hessiana, and Hasse asked in unison.

“I have no idea!” Lily replied.

“Was it a bad signal?” Hessiana asked. “Look, except for you, all of us come in with our consciousness while our real bodies are in the real world. What connects our consciousness and bodies together is the brainwaves. Just like wifi, when the signal’s bad, we stop working in here.”

What a witty analogy.

Just when Hao Ren was worried about what happened, Lily’s temperament changed suddenly.

She went from dumb to ludicrous.

Hao Ren was no stranger to this transformation. Lily had undergone the same thing back in Siberia during the previous leg of going back in time. Hao Ren knew what was happening: Raven 12345 was using Lily as a springboard to project her consciousness into this space and time.

He quickly explained to Hessiana and Hasse and then without waiting for Raven 12345 to speak, he said, “Boss, what just happened? Something seems not right with Lily.”

“Was it a bad signal?” Hessiana voiced out her suspicion.

Surprisingly, Raven 12345 nodded. “You guessed it. The situation is a bit off, but generally, it was because of a bad signal.”

“The sandbox system malfunctions? The consciousness projection can no longer work?” Hao Ren became nervous.

Hessiana was discouraged. “Oh, please! I have just come in and not done anything yet. I am still looking forward to meeting Lady Vivian in history.”

The Raven 12345 interrupted Hao Ren and Hessiana. “It is not like what you think. Not everyone will be kicked out. As you, Hao Ren, go farther back in time, people who are farther away from your current time coordinates will find it more difficult to sustain their presence.”

Hao Ren was baffled. “Boss, you can explain it in plain language?”

Raven 12345 seemed to have predicted Hao Ren’s reaction. She explained patiently, “As you go back in time, you are getting farther and farther away from the presence. But the active presence of everyone around you has a fixed threshold in history. Lily was active in the latest hundred years, Hessiana around the first AD, and Hasse in 4,000 BC. The original positions of these people in history are points in the timeline. You will pass these points and head further back in history.”

Hao Ren could now vaguely grasp what that meant. “People entering this space and time with their consciousness rely on the bodies of this space and time. But as I travel further back in time, some of them will pass the point of their birth, and their existence will lose support, right?”

“You are pretty smart,” Raven 12345 gave Hao Ren a rare compliment. “Just as you have understood, as your helpers travel back to the era when they did not exist, their existence in that time and space will produce a paradox. The sandbox can buffer this paradoxical effect, and their consciousness can still be with you. But as you travel further back in time, their pressure on the sandbox will only get more intense. I would call the time points where your friends were first active in history the Historical Reference Points. As you go further back in history, they will move farther away from their Historical Reference Points, and their consciousness projection will become unstable until they lost signal entirely.”

Then Hao Ren remembered what happened to Lily just now: she had apparently lost signal.

“The farther they are from the active period in their real history, the harder it is for them to maintain the connection. Is it?” Hao Ren frowned. “That is to say, as I continue to travel back in time, Lily will be the first to disconnect. Then it will be Hessiana and then Hasse.”

“In the end, you will be the only one left,” Raven 12345 said faintly. “Because in the early days of ancient times, all of your friends have not been born yet. The only person whom you know and was active on Earth 10,000 years ago is Vivian Ancestor.”

“This is out of my expectation.” Hao Ren could not help but sigh. “I thought I could have more companions and finally form an elite squad as I go. Apparently, I will end up being alone at the end.”

Hasse had also figured out what it was all about. The old demon hunter’s thinking was way more practical. “How long can we stay after crossing our own Historical Reference Point, which is our date of birth?”

“It is hard to say because there are too many variables, and there are no precedents. I can only roughly calculate that it will be about two thousand years before the Historical Reference Point,” Raven 12345 said cautiously. “So you do not have to worry too much about being kicked out after crossing the reference point. You all could still stay for a relatively long time.”

Hao Ren sighed, “It seems that Lily will be the first to leave the scene.”

“She is the youngest among us all.” Hessiana shook her head.

“But I am already thankful enough.” Hao Ren laughed. “I thought all of you would leave as soon as we crossed the Historical Reference Point. A 2,000-year grace period—I could not have asked for more. Hmm, that means even Lily can travel back to the first AD.”

“I thought you’d be upset.” Raven 12345 looked at Hao Ren through Lily’s eyes and forced a smile. “After all, the situation will only get worse.”

But Hao Ren seemed to be taking it easy. “There is nothing to worry about. I started out the mission with the understanding that I would be going it all alone. Now I have so many friends with me—though they are just temporary—it is better than I have expected.”

“Very good, it seems that I have not chosen the wrong person.” Raven 12345 smiled—in Lily’s skin. “My connection becomes unstable now. I shall go. I will find ways to increase the fault-tolerant bandwidth of the sandbox to allow your friends to maintain a consistent and stable connection as much as possible before they exit.”

Raven 12345’s voice slowly faded, and her air gradually left Lily. The husky maiden remained at the same spot for a while with her head lowered. She then suddenly regained her consciousness. “Mr. Landlord, I think I passed out again.”

“Yeah, Raven 12345 just came,” Hao Ren said. “Lily, let me tell you something.”

He explained the Historical Reference Point and interruption of consciousness projection to the husky maiden.

Lily’s crude nature did not prevent her from understanding these complex issues. “I see. Then I could only accompany you for a while. I thought I could meet the Battie of 10,000 years ago.”

Hao Ren returned a forced smile. Hessiana said, “Weren’t you the leader of the demon hunters in your previous life? If you count from that Historical Reference Point, you could actually follow Hao Ren to the end.”

“How could it be possible?” Lily waved her hand. “I am Lily Liu in this life and I was a different person in the previous.”

Hao Ren glanced at Lily. “Aren’t you always claiming to be the first empress of the demon hunters?”

“I was just kidding,” Lily said with a smile. “I just wanted to look cool. I know very well that the First Sage of the demon hunters and Lily Liu of Southern Suburbs are of two different generations. I cannot count on my previous life.”

Hao Ren looked at the serious expression on Lily face. He nodded and then let out a long sigh as he looked at the space crack not far away.

Lily also looked at that direction. She then went ahead. “Let’s go, Mr. Landlord.”

Without hesitation, the four of them embarked on the next leg of their journey into the unknown, distorted space and time.