I can rewind time to prevent death

Yan Junze untied the restrained hands of Ku Zai and asked, "Are you okay? Don't worry, no one can hurt you."

Ku Zai shook his head, seemingly unwilling to talk, yet his face was pale.

Yan Junze felt some pity and apologized, "This first experiment, I merely wanted to confirm a thought I had in mind. It won't be like this in the future."

As soon as the words fell, a task prompt popped up in his mind.

[Special Attraction, Anxiety-Inducing (High), Completed, Obtained 400 points of Different Dimension Energy]

[Special Attraction, Trembling with Fear (Low), Completed, Obtained 600 points of Different Dimension Energy]

[Special Attraction, Trembling with Fear (High), Completed, Obtained 900 points of Different Dimension Energy]

These three tasks popped up in less than a minute, then the fourth task completion notification appeared.

[Special Attraction, Hair-raising (Medium), Completed, Obtained 1200 points of Different Dimension Energy]

In total, four strangenesses were attracted, matching the four completed task notifications.

Now it seems, just as Yan Junze had previously speculated, the [Special Attraction] task with Ku Zai is an ongoing one, only likely to cease if one day his physique no longer attracts other strangenesses.

At present, driving away the strangenesses that want to approach Ku Zai is indeed the quickest way to earn Different Dimension Energy, even though it seems almost like torture for Ku Zai on the brink of collapse.

After this experiment, Yan Junze felt that although the method was good, he couldn't bear to continue using it.

Moreover, not all strangenesses merely clung to Ku Zai without harming him, such as the vomiting strangeness that just tried to bite off a chunk of Ku Zai's flesh.

Xiang Er's appearance indeed terrified those strangenesses, especially when they saw the vomiting strangeness, which seemed formidable moments ago, get pinned down and dragged across the ground upon encountering her.

The other strangenesses completely abandoned the idea of seeking out Ku Zai again, so this time, Yan Junze received the task completion notifications faster than ever, harvesting a large amount of Different Dimension Energy right then and there.

However, Yan Junze noticed that the occurrences of higher-level tasks seemed to be increasing, likely related to the evolving and transforming strangenesses of this world.

If a year ago tasks of the "Hair-raising" level were rare, their frequency had noticeably increased a year later.

Nonetheless, the overall strength of the Exorcist team was also enhancing, with the proportion of three-star Exorcists within Shuntian on the rise. Thus, in the evolution of both Exorcists and strangenesses, there was still a subtle balance.

After consoling Ku Zai for a while, they returned to the city and Yan Junze treated Ku Zai to a meal of meat and fish, which seemed to somewhat stabilize the boy's mood.

Back at home, Yan Junze personally brewed the green tea that his father, Yan Daguo, had bought for Ku Zai, who was a little flustered by the attention, thanking him profusely with both hands.

Xiang Er was beside them, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter.

At night, turning on the TV, while Yan Daguo was engaging Ku Zai in a lively and boisterous conversation, Yan Junze retreated to his bedroom alone.

Lying on the bed, he recounted the day's earnings; this trip out, using Ku Zai's ability, had netted him a total of 3100 points of Different Dimension Energy in one go.

Honestly, if it could continue like this, Yan Junze felt the Atlas would soon be fully illuminated, and it seemed that nearly half of it was now showing.

Of course, all this was predicated on the fact that Ku Zai would not be frightened when facing the strangenesses and that his body would not suffer any harm.

In reality, when Yan Junze first encountered Ku Zai, the first impression he got was that the kid was just a step away from death.

The strangenesses had tormented Ku Zai beyond recognition, and it was unknown what was keeping the guy going. For Ku Zai, being haunted by strangenesses was a nightmare he would never forget in his lifetime.

Today's test was just that, a test, proving that Yan Junze could collect Different Dimension Energy using this method, but he questioned whether he could continue to do so.

Moreover, it was manageable if it only summoned strangenesses weaker than Xiang Er, but if it attracted a major strangeness, they might seriously offend it.

Having some free time, Yan Junze also took a closer look at the Spacetime Atlas.

One side of the Atlas that had its nodes illuminated was fully lit up, showing a clear layout with distinct locations for the special nodes.

The part of the Atlas that remained unlit was still darkened, unclear as to how much was left on that end, but Yan Junze estimated that nearly half of all the nodes might be illuminated.

Now he had also discovered that as nodes were constantly being lit, Different Dimension Energy increased, but the frequency of special nodes began to gradually decrease.

The last special node was "Strange Event Lockdown," and since then no other special nodes had appeared.

Yan Junze had yet to use the "Strange Event Lockdown," but he knew that this node's function was incredibly powerful. If he wanted to keep a strangeness event in the same state as when it was discovered, preventing it from evolving or leveling up, he just needed to use this function.

No matter what, that strangeness event would remain in the state in which he had found it for a certain period of time until he had the time or the ability to deal with it.

In other words, if the event were to lead to other unexpected situations, Yan Junze could also contain all of these situations with this function.

A moment later, after withdrawing his consciousness from the Spacetime Atlas in his mind, Yan Junze felt a bit fatigued and thus closed his eyes to rest.

It wasn't long before he heard the bedroom door open, followed by Xiang Er's footsteps.

After entering the room, Xiang Er, acting as if she couldn't see Yan Junze at all, locked the bedroom door and then opened the wardrobe to take out a set of leisure clothes and began to change.

Yan Junze smiled wryly with his eyes closed. He couldn't remember how many times he had reminded Xiang Er. Although he had seen her body countless times, there should still be some taboo.

The last thing he wanted was to have to explain to certain people if they got jealous. After all, even a rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow! He didn't want the trouble of explaining.

His thoughts drifted for a moment, and as he heard the rustle of Xiang Er changing clothes, his consciousness began to blur.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he was suddenly jolted awake and found himself sitting in an unfamiliar place.

This appeared to be a specially made room, with a raging fire burning below, achieving an intensely high temperature, yet the room was undamaged. The temperature inside, however, would likely kill an ordinary person entering it in just a few seconds.

Soon, Yan Junze noticed that his hands were bound behind him to a special chair, the high heat scorching his body. He looked at his limbs to see steam rising up, and he could hear a chorus of low chants whispering in his ears, resonating around him.

Just then, the door directly in front of him creaked open, and a figure in a white protective suit holding a small cage that resembled a laser beam entered, aiming the cage into the room and pressing a button.

With a bang, an even smaller figure was ejected from the cage, crashing onto the floor of the room.

The figure didn't get up immediately. Yan Junze moved slightly, feeling angry and helpless, as the prostrate figure raised its head and struggled to rise, then roared at the now-closed door with a familiar rage.

"Yah yah yah yah yah..."

Immediately, the figure jumped up, landed in front of Yan Junze, and clambered into his embrace. A small face came up close, looking at Yan Junze, its expression gradually changing as if it had seen something surprising.

"Eh!"

"Ke'er!!!"

A tremendous force instantaneously pushed Yan Junze out of that bizarre room. He startled awake and sat up in bed, looking astonished, with his mouth slightly open, gasping for air.

The bedroom was bathed in moonlight, though curtains blocked the windows, so the light only fell on the desk in front of the window.

Xiang Er was standing by the window, admiring the night scene, and was startled when Yan Junze suddenly woke. Turning around, she asked, "What happened? A nightmare? Lantern Woman?"

It was Yan Junze's shout of "Ke'er" that had slipped out loud, waking Ku Zai as well, who lifted his body to look towards the bed, not daring to speak.

It took Yan Junze a good while to collect himself, and shaking his head, he picked up his phone to check the time, a quarter past three in the morning. He then lay back down and said, "Maybe... I had a nightmare."

But once he lay down, he found himself unable to sleep again, tossing and turning restlessly.

Xiang Er heard the commotion and seemed to know he was troubled and couldn't sleep.

She didn't ask more, gave up continuing to enjoy the night scene, and came over to sit on the bed.

After a moment's thought, she reached out with her right hand and, like Yan Junze used to do for her, took hold of Yan Junze's left hand lying outside the blanket.

A bone-chilling coldness spread through his hand.

This woke Yan Junze up even more than before.