The strange dream still tormented Ethan at night, but this time it seemed different from the past.

　　Ethan seemed to dream of a world, an alien civilisation - its development process and vicissitudes, its cultural practices and historical changes, its pride and helplessness ......

　　At first the dream was filled with castles and temples of strange styles, tall, thin, stooped commoners struggling to survive, and legends of gods, demons, and legendary creatures circulating on the land.

　　The kingdom's legions fought for the king's pride on the borders, always leaving behind a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood no matter if they won or lost, and after the saturation bombardment of the mage corps, there was hardly even any weeds growing in the ground. In order to pay for the huge military expenses and safeguard the logistics, the government increased taxes over and over again. Civilians born near war zones were even more pitiful; they were often forcibly conscripted, and no matter what the quartermasters told them to do, most of them never came back.

　　Mercenary groups embarking on "dragon slaying trips", adventurers discovering new resource mines, grand duchesses lusting after each other, and young ladies having affairs with royalty all became news that spread throughout the kingdom, diverting people's attention.

　　......

　　Enemy invasions, internal uprisings, one kingdom falling, one kingdom rising, yet mostly repeating these things.

　　It seemed like that world wasn't much different from ancient China or Europe except for the fact that it possessed magic. Only the mages never stopped pursuing the truth, they used another way to manifest the rules of the universe and analyse everything in the world, which was very different from the civilization of the Earth. This is how the magical civilisation began to emerge, and how the society progressed.

　　When the "civilian army" broke up the charge of the Bloodline Knights on the battlefield, and new weapons took the place of the old battlefield mages, the old feudal system began to collapse. People began to think, and for the first time, they knew what life was.

　　Battle Mages withdrew from the stage of history, but instead allowed the world's civilisation to have a faster development.

　　Machines roared and runes glowed.

　　......

　　Deserts that were once rumoured to be limitless were spanned by highways, bridges were erected over geodesic canyons, and traffic ran through the world. Fleets of cruisers break through the myths of the Dead Sea, armies of the developed world advance to the edges of the territories of the legendary races, and warplanes and airships challenge the majesty of the erstwhile gods.

　　The world grew and progressed at such a rapid pace that people could not believe they had made it this far every time they looked back.

　　......

　　Highly developed civilisations, the great fusion of races, the East and West kingdoms that you chased after each other, and the high speed development of magic made the whole world change day by day, and become incomparably unfamiliar.

　　Chip intelligence, space experiments, one new term after another accompanied by one new problem after another.

　　Finally, the viewpoint was fixed on a high mountain, and it seemed that the old mage was standing in this position, looking at the horizon that could be described as a huge modern city - the tall buildings even broke through the clouds, higher than the surrounding treacherous mountains, and the civilian flying objects that came and went like bees could only pass between the gaps in the buildings. One wonders what kind of heart and feelings the old mage held at that time, to be here gazing at this civilised world that was so different from his youth.

　　......

　　Ethan woke up and realised it was only half past six, which was about time to get up and make breakfast.

　　He sat up in bed and rubbed his swollen head for a moment. If he remembered correctly, this would be the only time he had dreamed of the old mage's civilisation up to this point, the rest of the time it had been a mountainous landscape.

　　Getting up and washing up for a few moments, he started to get busy.

　　Making breakfast, he gave one to the old mage first as usual, and then went to the other end of the corridor to wake up Elaine, and the two of them walked downstairs together with breakfast in hand.

　　Meeting the cleaning aunt halfway, he immediately greeted her with a smile, "Good morning Auntie Tang, have you eaten?"

　　"Eaten." The cleaning aunt straightened up, one hand on the mop and one hand on the waist, showing him an amiable smile, "My granddaughter has to go to school in the morning, I ate and then came over, and by the way, I sent her to school."

　　"So!" Ethan smiled, "Then we'll go downstairs first, take your time."

　　"Okay, be careful, I just mopped the floor, it's slippery!"

　　The hotel was almost open at this hour, and the diligent Evelyn said she had sat at the front desk for twenty minutes fantasising about this morning's breakfast several times.

　　Ethan brought down two drawers of freshly steamed frozen steamed dumplings and a bowl of skinny congee with eggs, while Elaine served a plate of mixed pickles and a plate of tofu curd. Except for the congee, which was a bit time-consuming, the rest of the food was very simple, and about as difficult to make as bubble noodles.

　　Just after breakfast, the cleaning aunty came down and asked Ethan, "That boss, do you need to clean the stairwell on the second and third floors with the door closed?"

　　"Eh, not that one."

　　"I mean what about ...... the door won't even open." The cleaning aunt muttered and found a random place on the stairs to sit down, unscrewing a water cup and drinking water.

　　The cleaning aunty is called Tang Guixiang, and also lives in this area, riding a motorised auto-rickshaw over five or six minutes. But unlike Evelyn, who used to live in a rented apartment, the elderly have nothing to do and want to find some work to do, to earn some money for their children to reduce some of the burden, and in the meantime to give their granddaughters pocket money is not so tight.

　　Originally, Ethan was supposed to pay for her food and accommodation, but since she lives close by, and since she has to bring up her grandchildren and go back to cook for her son and daughter-in-law at lunchtime, she doesn't eat or live here, and doesn't ask for more money. The downside is that sometimes she may not be around if urgent cleaning is needed.

　　Probably because of yesterday's incident, Evelyn was still very formal when she ate this morning, but at least she dared to take the initiative to add congee, and ate almost a drawer of dumplings all by herself.

　　It's just that she ate slowly, in small bites, making it easy for people to overlook the fact that she ate a lot.

　　"I'm done eating, you guys take your time to eat ......," Ethan had just put down his chopsticks when he suddenly felt a throbbing in his heart, causing him to frown, "Hmm?"

　　This feeling he remembered, he felt it once a few days ago, the day the old mage came!

　　Elaine looked over at him, "What's wrong? Eating flies?"

　　"No!" Ethan said, standing up, "I suddenly remembered I have something else to do, so I'm going upstairs first!"

　　"You just don't want to do the dishes!" Elaine rolled her eyes, "Go go go."

　　Evelyn also hurriedly swallowed the bite of bun in her mouth and said, "You guys go ahead when you're done eating, just leave the dishes here, I'll wash them."

　　Ethan nodded and turned to head upstairs.

　　As he walked around the corner of the stairs, his speed sped up and he quickly ran to the first floor and knocked on the old mage's door.

　　"Mage Mage, there's a newcomer here!"

　　"Ka!" The old mage's door opened in response, and the face with the vicissitudes of age, embellished with a pair of wise eyes, appeared before him and said to him, "There's no need to panic, and that one won't be able to come out anyway if you don't open the door."

　　"Well, that's true."

　　The two of them then went up the stairs without panicking, opened the warehouse door and walked into the dark and boundless node space.

　　The node space was still empty except for the luminescent body, and Ethan stared at the luminescent body for a few moments before saying, "He's a bit slow, he should be here soon."

　　After such a long time, his connection with the node space seemed to be getting stronger, and coupled with the old mage's enlightenment, he could already sense quite a few changes in the node. Based on these changes and sensations, he could draw out a lot of information, and the old mage was equivalent to saving him a very long process of figuring things out.

　　"Mage, if the visitor is not good, you old man must help more!"

　　"The universe is endless, there are too many powerful creatures or races." The old mage shook his head, "I can't be sure if I have a force advantage against that one."

　　"If you protect me for an instant, we can run out!"

　　"Anyone who strikes at the first glance is reckless." The old mage laughed and said, "But if a reckless person does come, I will definitely try my best to protect you."

　　"...... "Ethan's face was heavy, in case the old mage left in the future but really came a reckless man ......

　　It seems that it is better to learn to cope with it yourself.

　　Suddenly his face condensed-

　　"Coming!"

　　Only to see the luminous body suddenly flickered with light, this increase in brightness is difficult to notice without looking closely, but Ethan this time is unusually sensitive to this.

　　The first thing that caught his eye was the end of a sheath, used by its owner to protrude tentatively from the luminous body - the sheath was of a very common yellow wood, partially wrapped in thin iron, and protruded two feet, beautifully formed and slightly curved.

　　Next was a long, snowy, narrow blade, slightly thin, straight in the first half, with an upward curve at the tip, nearly a metre long, shaped like a goose feather, the hilt of which was vaguely visible through the luminescent body, held by a slightly thin hand.

　　Ethan's impression of China's ancient Ming and Qing dynasties also have a similarly shaped belt knife, shaped like a wild goose plume, so the name of the wild goose plume knife. It was a type of knife that was prolonged with the development of the times and the advancement of cold weapon technology, and it was also the final pinnacle of Chinese cold weaponry, and this knife was just too much like a long knife-

　　If the other world also has geese, the other world also see the goose plume and make this knife, this knife should also be named the big goose knife!

　　And from this knife can also be seen, the owner of the knife does not seem to be any good, at least not like a highly educated white-collar workers, geeks and so on.

　　Because the knife is not only shiny, the knife body sheath has a lot of wear and tear, depression and blood grooves are accumulated a layer of black stains, obviously the owner of the knife is not to use it as a decoration or just a simple defence. Ethan seemed to be able to imagine the bloodshed and fierce battles that this knife had been through. It must have taken a lot of slashing and clashing to wear the blade down like this.

　　Without waiting for him to continue thinking, the sheath and blade suddenly retracted, and then a foot stepped over!

　　This time, the owner of the knife seemed to be unusually decisive, and in just the blink of an eye, a figure in kudzu clothing with a narrow scar on its face appeared in front of Ethan's eyes.

　　There were breasts, bulging and not small!

　　Ethan froze, this ...... is a female? With a long Asian face and long black hair tied behind her shoulders, she was very English.

　　Then only to see this woman holding a knife sheath in one hand, the other hand is carrying a long knife, so that people feel that her whole body is permeated with danger. And coming to this space to see such a scene, she was also slightly stunned, and moments later her eyes quickly sank, staring at the two strangers in front of her.

　　The murderous vigour appeared, and the murderous aura exuded outwardly!

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

　　Ethan couldn't help but be chilled, only to feel that there should be a special effect of rolling blood qi churning behind her.

　　"Hiss!"

　　He took a deep breath.

　　However, the old mage seemed to have suddenly relaxed quite a bit.

Chapter 16: God and Ghost Invincible Mighty and Overwhelming Woman

　　Ethan and Old Mage looked at each other.

　　The old mage nodded at him and smiled slightly, indicating that the level of force of the visitor was within his control. There would be no need for Ethan to take defensive, flight, or other countermeasures.

　　Ethan nodded along with it, and after a slight hesitation, straightened himself up and took a small step forward, looking directly at the woman.

　　"Visions!"

　　The snowy blade reflected his face, which was slightly distorted by the pits and dark stains on the blade.

　　Ethan was stunned, holding back from stepping back and asking forcefully, "Who are you?"

　　The woman stared up at him, her phoenix eyes that were supposed to look flirtatious were heavy with menace, and as she sized him and the old mage up, she returned, "&*%$#......"

　　"...... "Ethan looked to the old mage, "Trouble you."

　　"A show of hands is not enough." The old mage took a step forward and raised the staff in his hand high.

　　The crystal ball at the top of the staff suddenly shone brightly.

　　Ethan asked anew, "Who are you?"

　　The woman's posture and demeanour still revealed a strong aggressiveness, and when she heard Ethan's voice, she was really stunned, and then coldly returned, "And who are you? And where is this strange place? Why do I understand the nonsense you are saying?"

　　"My name is Ethan, you are now in a time and space transit station, and I am the administrator of this time and space transit station, which can also be called the station manager. This old gentleman next to me is currently my assistant, and he uses spells to translate the language for us. Now that you have come to my territory, it is only right that you should be questioned by me." Ethan said seriously, "Now can you put the knife down? You're making me feel ...... disrespected."

　　"You're the station manager of what-what?" The woman frowned, ignoring his offer in the slightest.

　　"......" Ethan had no choice but to repeat, "Stationmaster of the Temporal Transit Station, also known as Nodespace. You came here from another world, don't you know?"

　　"Another world ...... knows." The woman finally agreed with his words and nodded, sliding her long knife back into its sheath in one beautiful motion.

　　Although Ethan and the old mage's height had initially put a lot of pressure on her, a few moments of careful observation showed her that the stationmaster in front of her had a combat strength equivalent to 0.8 at best, well below the average of adult men in their world. And the old man didn't look too hard to clean up after being so old.

"So what's your name?" Ethan fumbled for his mobile phone.

　　"Phoebe," the woman spat two strange syllables out of her mouth, then craned her head to survey the dark, infinite node space and narrowed her eyes, "Is this the Upper World? How can the upper world look like this ......"

　　"......" Ethan froze, Asian face, American name, something strange! It was instantly clear that she hadn't understood a word he had just said to her.

　　"Phoebe...... will be called Phoebe." Ethan looked down and typed the word Phoebe on the second line of the first column of his mobile phone form, the first being the title line.

　　Phoebe looked at him slightly warily, "What are you doing? What's that in your hand?"

　　"Checking in." Ethan said without looking up before jumping to the next cell, "Everyone who comes in has to register. The gender ...... is female, right?"

　　"Say! How am I going to get the hell out of here!" Phoebe's eyes sank, she didn't want to stay in this hellhole where there was nothing. And the fact that there were actually people in this place made her a little ...... scared.

　　"You got here how you got here and you're leaving." Ethan jumped to the next cell, "Where did you come from?"

　　"How did you come ......" Phoebe did not answer his question, but slightly proudly raised her head, "I Phoebe all martial arts has reached the realm of perfection, and accidentally found the rumoured Void Order Arrow of the jianghu, so I borrowed the Order Arrow power to break the void and travel to the legendary upper ......"

　　As she spoke, she touched her bosom, but she didn't touch anything. So her unfinished words died in her belly, and her movements paused.

　　Then she quickly felt around her waist.

　　It was still empty!

　　Phoebe's face instantly changed drastically, ''Void Arrow! Why is my Void Arrow gone! I clearly had such a big and long Void Arrow on my body!"

　　Ethan watched in stupefaction as she fumbled around on her body, and couldn't help but tug at the corner of his mouth as he lifted his head to look round.

　　Phoebe, however, hung her head violently, her eyes blossoming with murderous intent like a lone wolf as she asked, "Where's my Void Token Arrow!?"

　　Her gaze flickered over Ethan and the old mage while quietly gripping the hilt of her blade, but judging from the movement of the five fingers of the hand holding the hilt that kept adjusting its position, she was more than likely a little nervous inside as well.

　　"...... It's not like I took your token." Ethan rolled his eyes and pointed towards her head-

　　But this action startled Phoebe, causing her to instantly retreat at least five metres away, and the long knife in her hand was sheathed with a vis-a-vis sound and pointed at Ethan.

　　The blade reflected the blue light of the luminous body, making it even colder!

　　Ethan also froze -

　　This woman seemed to leap backward and jumped at least five metres away, this ...... is really what she, a normal person with a five-foot-five frame, can do?

　　Phoebe was a little annoyed, "What are you doing!"

　　"I want to say ...... you see if that one on top of your head is some kind of token you're looking for." Ethan was a little confused.

　　Phoebe looked up and glanced-

　　A dark golden token arrow floated about five metres above her head, causing her eyes to glaze over.

　　"Brush!"

　　Phoebe instantly flexed her legs and jumped upwards, actually leaping up several metres again, her arm swung with precision and grabbed the arrow.

　　But when she landed and spread out her hand, it was still empty.

　　"Eh?" Phoebe blinked twice, then inclined her head towards Ethan, her right hand gripping the hilt again.

　　"What are you looking at me for! Is there something wrong with you people! I didn't take your order!" Ethan, quite speechless, pointed again to a spot a little back from her head, "There it is!"

　　Phoebe twisted her head and looked, it was really there.

　　The picture changed suddenly!

　　Only to see Phoebe constantly doing jumps in the node space that made Ethan's jaw drop in shock, jumping up and down to grab the arrow, jumping up to seven or eight metres at the highest point. But the result was that no matter how much she jumped, she couldn't touch the arrow, which made her a bit confused and puzzled.

　　In the end she gave up jumping, stood in the same place and let out a long breath, looking at Ethan: "Is it ...... ouch so tired ...... is it you who messed up?"

　　"None of my business." Ethan spread his hands.

　　He had already seen based on the drawing style that this female warrior was probably not a match for the old mage.

　　Then what was he afraid of?

　　"None of your business? Then why can't I get my token." Phoebe narrowed her eyes at him, "Didn't you say you're the station master of this haunted place? Then surely you must know what's going on! And surely ...... surely there must be a way to get it back for me!"

　　"Yeah." Ethan held out his hand and the dark gold token flew into his hand automatically, "Here, got it."

　　"......" Phoebe's eyes widened all of a sudden, her five fingers gripping the hilt of the knife quietly exerting pressure, "Give it back."

　　"May I allow me to explain something to you?"

　　"Give it back!"

　　"Well, you take it easy, here's the thing." Ethan said in a calm tone, "Because you borrowed this time and space prop called the Void Token ......"

　　"Give it back!" Phoebe interrupted in a low voice, "It's mine! Mine!"

　　"I'm sorry, I wasn't finished, you're making me feel like I'm being disrespected." Ethan said.

　　"Retard!" Phoebe snarled.

　　Not bothering to waste more time with Ethan, in the next second, she had already drawn her long knife with a brush, and her whole body also quickly ran towards Ethan, as fast as the wind!

　　......

　　She ran and ran, but found that the target of her attack always stood in that position, and the distance never drew closer.

　　And Ethan also stood somewhat dumbfounded, looking at the legs that moved like stumps as she ran rapidly, muttering under his breath, "Humanoid ...... cheetah."

　　Shaking his head, he came to his senses and said in a serious tone, "Forget it, this is my territory after all, although I haven't trodden the ground well yet either, but don't you think it's too much effort for you to fight me here?"

　　Phoebe, slightly out of breath, really stopped, but still staring at him, said, "Mine."

　　"Fine, fine, yours yours. I didn't say I was going to take yours, really!" Ethan casually threw the Void Token Arrow, and it flew up to the top of her head full of Phoebe's earnest gaze, eventually floating at a position about fifty metres away from her.

　　Phoebe looked down at Ethan.

　　Ethan also looked at her somewhat expectantly.

　　"Damn it!" Phoebe violently threw the long knife in her hand, which spun several times in the air and flew straight towards Ethan.

　　The old mage's eyes slightly condensed, and the long knife then stopped, strangely suspended in the air, doing a slow spinning movement, but no longer flying towards Ethan.

　　Phoebe was stunned.

　　Ethan, on the other hand, had a look of disappointment in his eyes, it seemed that this warrior woman could only jump seven or eight metres high.

　　"I really have no interest in that baby of yours." Ethan spread his hands, "Look I gave it back to you, you just couldn't get it."

　　"Nonsense! There are countless heroes and heroines all over the world, who don't covet the Void Order Arrow!" Phoebe said angrily, "And it wasn't you who messed up that I couldn't get it, just take it down and hand it over to me!"

　　"Hey, please pay attention, firstly, I'm not one of those heroes and heroines, secondly, there's not much use for me to hold the token arrow, and lastly, all of us have come to this place, who hasn't brought a treasure on them?" Ethan was really speechless. As a gentleman, picking up gold is a basic quality. "If you don't believe me, look at that scroll on the left side of your head, it's even longer than your token arrow!"

　　Phoebe froze, which silenced her.

　　After a moment, she collected her temper, "It seems like you have a little bit of truth, but ...... but what does an inch longer mean?"

　　"An inch longer is stronger." Ethan looked her up and down, "Girls who haven't grown up don't understand that."

　　"Hmm?" Phoebe frowned not understanding, "Then why won't you give me back my token? Station Master."

　　"Allow me to organise my words." Ethan mused before saying, "Because the place you're going to is too far away from your original world, and the energy of that time prop on top of your head isn't enough to send you to your destination in one go. So you and your space-time prop have to make a transit stop at my place, waiting for the energy of the space-time prop to recover before you can set off again. And since I'm the station master of this space-time transit station, you must still have my approval for your next departure before you can do so."

　　"A ...... staging station?" Phoebe froze.

　　"That's right, it seems your world is still primitive." Ethan said, "You're pretty smart though."

　　"It's ...... is it?" Phoebe blinked twice, then frowned, "But I'm a jianghu person, and I'm not a government or military person, I can't live in a stagecoach."

　　"......" Ethan retracted that previous sentence.