The Last Sentinel

The rooster crowed, and the sunlight pierced through the thin mist.

In the early morning, the gray tiles and old locust trees shaded half the courtyard, and clotheslines crisscrossed, with polyester clothes swaying gently in the wind.

A coal stove in the corner emits wisps of smoke, housewives wearing cloth aprons toss iron pots, a girl with wavy hair carries soy sauce through the house, an old man fans himself with palm-leaf fans while chatting and playing chess, and children chase each other around the yard in jelly sandals.

A silver-haired young man, whose style clashed with the overall aesthetic of the courtyard, suddenly appeared at the entrance.

His silver hair reached his waist, his cyan vertical pupils were cold and narrow, and his handsome appearance was almost inhuman. He wore a long black trench coat with cold silver shoulder armor, and a cross belt ran across his chest. His tall figure, combined with his long silver-white metallic hair that moved without wind, made him seem like someone from another time and space.

The people in the compound watched Ye Feng warily, but when they saw Ye Feng's silver-white left eye and black-red right eye, and the horizontal 8-entropy eye being released, everyone froze, and the entropy increase space was directly frozen.

Ye Feng strolled over to the outside of the small coal briquette shed.

In the makeshift kitchen outside the coal briquette shed, the ruthless stepmother was feeding Xiao Yefeng.

Xiao Yefeng looked at the silver-haired Yefeng with curiosity. His innocent eyes were filled with a little confusion. He couldn't explain why he felt a special sense of kinship with this stranger.

"Have a meal!"

His stepmother slammed her hand on the table in annoyance, and Ye Feng hurriedly buried his head in his food.

The stepmother turned to look at Ye Feng, a hint of impatience in her eyes. "Now that you've obtained a corner of Ye Hei's coffin and suppressed the ominous signs within you, why don't you leave? What are you doing back here?"

Ye Feng said, "I have some things to give to Lao Ji."

The stepmother glanced at him and said, "I'm warning you, don't reveal too much to him. Under the laws of time, you are just an observer and cannot participate. If you forcibly intervene in time using the Entropy Eye, it may cause the time wormhole to collapse and the laws of time to be destroyed. At that time, your past self will be lost. Without your past self, it will be impossible to cultivate to the realm of 'one proof, eternal proof'."

Ye Feng said, "No, I haven't fully mastered the Eye of Entropy yet. I won't rashly interfere with the laws of time or disrupt the time wormhole."

"That's good." Stepmother wiped her hands. "You have ten minutes. After you finish speaking, go back to your timeline! I don't like you. I like three-year-old Ye Feng."

Ye Feng smiled wryly, "Thank you for the ten minutes, stepmother."

"Don't call me Mom!" the stepmother said indignantly. "I don't have a son as old as you."

Ye Feng watched his stepmother leave, then walked up to three-year-old Ye Feng.

Three-year-old Ye Feng looked at the silver-haired Ye Feng in front of him, his mouth still covered in cornmeal, and raised his little hand, trying to touch Ye Feng's cheek.

Ye Feng did not stop him, letting the three-year-old Ye Feng's hand rub against his cheek. The warm little hand was like the gentlest breeze in the world, blowing on his face. At this moment, an unprecedented feeling of warmth burst forth in his heart.

It's a wonderful feeling known as family happiness.

He was born at the end of the War of the Gods five thousand years ago, and never saw his father and mother. Such happiness was out of the question for him.

Some might say stepfather or stepmother.

However, the stepfather and stepmother left faster than a passing lantern; before they could even develop feelings for each other, their relationship ended and they went their separate ways.

At that moment, as Xiao Yefeng's hand wiped his cheek, he seemed to have a thousand words to say.

"Old Ji, you've worked hard all these years."

"I can feel all the pain, confusion, helplessness, and the helplessness of forcing yourself to move forward."

"I don't know how to help you, I'm just a three-year-old child..."

Ye Feng reached out and grabbed Xiao Ye Feng's wrist, his eyes sparkling: "Xiao Ji, I won't follow Sentinel Lin Qilin's example of merging and devouring all of myself. I will preserve every part of myself, including you. You are my best family, my last hope. Wait for me. When I comprehend the 'Ancient Ones' left by my father, I will take you to show off, take you flying, and soar to the heavens!"

Little Ye Feng looked at the silver-haired Ye Feng. He didn't understand anything about the heavens, the ancients, or the concept of "showing off and taking off." He just gripped Ye Feng's hand tightly, his little hand turning blue, his eyes filled with unwavering determination.

Ye Feng's voice was deep and resonant. "I've already planned my future. My mother's 'Everyone is a Dragon' technique taught me: a dragon is ever-changing. A dragon cannot be confined by a carbon-based sequence, nor can it be limited by the essence of life. A dragon can be anything, and anything can be a dragon. Breaking through the shackles, my true form transforms into a dragon, with countless living beings as cells within my body. Transcending the fundamental nature of life, I break through horizontally, with the blue star in my mouth, smashing through the fourth wall! I will invade the universe!"

Ye Feng remained silent, but his stepmother inside the door spoke softly, "You're setting a 'flag' a bit too early. Are you worried that Xiao Ji won't die fast enough?"

Ye Feng didn't turn around or argue; he simply stood up and patted Xiao Ji on the head, saying, "Go for it, Xiao Ji!"

As he finished speaking, his silver hair fluttered in the wind, and Ye Feng prepared to leave.

Little Ye Feng watched Ye Feng's retreating figure and called out in his childish voice, "Love yourself, old man! You must love yourself! Remember to love yourself!"

Ye Feng stopped in his tracks, then clenched his fist and waved it towards the sky, "I love you, Xiao Ji! Be good and sensible! Your stepmother really loves you! Goodbye!"

Outside the gate, the silver-haired youth's figure blurred and disappeared.

The instant Ye Feng disappeared, everything in the courtyard began to blur, as if high-definition images had turned into mosaics.

The stepmother walked out of the house, looked at the front door, and muttered, "He seems jealous that I love him more when he's three years old."

From behind, a dark figure chuckled and said, "Jealous of himself, this kid is really speechless."

Xiao Yefeng looked up at the room. "Uncle Ye! Didn't you want to see Lao Ji? Why don't you step forward! You're only separated from him by a door! Why don't you see Lao Ji? He's very sad, he's very lonely!"

Inside the room, the dark figure spoke slowly, "Whether I see him or not is unimportant. What matters is that he knows I'm watching him, and I know he knows I'm watching him!"

The stepmother said worriedly, "Speaking of Ye Fan, the ominous signs on Ye Feng..."

The shadowy figure said, "It cannot be eliminated, only suppressed."

The stepmother asked, "Isn't there any way to cure it completely?"

"Yes," the shadowy figure said. "To slay the source of misfortune."

The stepmother frowned. "Speak like a human being."

The shadowy figure sighed, "Kill all the powerful beings in this era of the heavens, unlock the Nine Cauldrons, force a reverse version, go to the previous era of the heavens to find the ominous and strange taboo that crushed the ancient races back then, kill all the sources of the strange taboo and ominous, and you can completely eliminate the ominous signs on your body."

The stepmother sighed, "What a mess! I really don't understand what Lin Qilin is up to with such a big matter! He chose a moment of glory to sacrifice himself, then ran away with the 'one certificate, one license' scheme, and now he's dumping all the work on a kid. Is that appropriate? Lin Qilin really has no sense of responsibility at all! Or is Lin Qilin plotting something big behind the scenes?"

The shadowy figure said, "Please, is Ye Feng just an ordinary child? Have you ever seen a child who survived the Battle of Zhuolu? Even by the shortest timeframe on Earth, he's five thousand years old! To put it bluntly, at that age, he's a living ancestor of the Great Xia Dynasty, a living fossil who actually saw the Yellow Emperor!"

The stepmother said, "You're being so disrespectful. I strongly suspect you've met with Lin Qilin in private, and that you're playing a big game with him! Otherwise, you wouldn't be siding with Lin Qilin!"

"No, let's talk this out, okay!"

"What a load of rubbish! I've waited all these years for your reincarnation, and you come back expecting me to reason with you?"

"Wait, why are you bringing up the history of BeiDou again?"

"By the way, your Mercedes has been parked at Mount Tai for so long, aren't you going to pay the parking fee?"

"..."