Everyone could hardly believe that Ye Liangchen would make such a crazy move.

All of them stared at him with astonished faces.

Ye Liangchen continued:

"Here, I can abandon that train which is always marked by the system, and which could be controlled or discarded /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ by It at any time."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the two Employees behind him, who had remained silently by his side, their auras also carrying a sense of resolve:

"I'll only take the two of them. Lightly equipped, we'll forge a path... that belongs entirely to me, Ye Liangchen."

"You..." Bai Cheng opened her mouth, wanting to persuade him further, but seeing the unshakeable fire in Ye Liangchen's eyes, she knew that any words at this moment would be pale and powerless.

This man had adventure and rebellion etched into his very bones. When a fork in the road appeared that seemed capable of breaking fate, he would never choose the stable, smooth path.

Ye Liangchen turned to Bai Cheng, his eyes complex—there was the sharpness of a competitor, a hint of acknowledgment after fighting side-by-side, finally resolving into pure determination:

"Bai Cheng, you're right, we need to verify the truth ourselves. But there isn't necessarily only one way to verify it. You take your broad road, I'll cross my single-plank bridge. We—"

He took a deep breath, his voice ringing with power:

"See you inside the Infinite Realm."

With those words, he no longer hesitated. He nodded to the two Employees behind him, and the three of them simultaneously shot forward, rushing without hesitation towards the increasingly unstable energy vortex in the center of the stone platform.

The vortex seemed to sense their resolve, its light suddenly intensifying, instantly swallowing their figures. It left behind only a faint spatial ripple in the air and the rapidly thinning transmission fluctuations.

Bai Cheng's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, then slowly lowered.

She watched as the vortex, after Ye Liangchen and the two others entered, began to fluctuate violently and shrink, clearly about to close completely, as it lost the continuous supply of the valley's residual energy.

"This madman..." Yu Nian murmured, her tone complex.

Leng Ningxue silently watched the spot where the vortex disappeared, and whispered, "But... he indeed chose a path we dared not take."

Liu San sighed, "I hope he... has good luck."

Bai Cheng retracted her gaze, her eyes once again sharp and clear.

The familiar, omnipresent, subtle sense of the system's "surveillance" was slowly seeping back in as the valley's barrier disintegrated.

"Everyone has their own choices."

Bai Cheng's voice returned to its usual calm, yet carried a hint of imperceptible gravity,

"He chose his path, and we also have our mission that must be completed.

This is not a place to linger. Pack up and prepare to return to the train. Our path... still lies ahead."

Everyone nodded silently, taking one last look at the valley, now covered in battle scars and about to return to normal, and at the direction where Ye Liangchen had disappeared.

They turned and headed back the way they came, towards the train that was always connected to the system, yet also carried them throughout their journey.

The wind in the valley still carried the mixed scent of sulfur, ice, and humus, but the eerie sense of independence within it was rapidly fading.

Two completely different paths diverged here, each disappearing into the unknown mist.

Only the ultimate goal of the Infinite Realm, like a distant star, still hung in the night sky before everyone.

Everyone quickly returned to the train, but Bai Cheng did not rush to check the system's messages immediately.

Both she, Yu Nian, Leng Ningxue, and even Liu San and the others were currently focusing their attention intently on Ye Liangchen's train.

Now an empty train, how would the system deal with it?

Bai Cheng's speculation was not unfounded.

As she, Yu Nian, Leng Ningxue, and Liu San stepped into Ye Liangchen's empty train, an unusual silence enveloped everyone.

Everything inside the train was as usual: battle marks, the placement of personal items, even the air still carried the unique energy signatures of Ye Liangchen and his two Employees. Everything indicated that the owner had only recently left.

However, the train, which should have disintegrated and been reclaimed by the system upon its owner's "death" or "complete detachment,"

remained perfectly intact and quietly parked, as if merely temporarily shut down, awaiting its next start at any moment.

What was even more chilling was that on the detection console, the system interface was still running smoothly, the map refreshed, the mission list suspended,

but there was absolutely no broadcast or notification about "Survivor No. XXXX Ye Liangchen detached/dead/abnormal."

The system maintained absolute silence, as if Ye Liangchen and his train had merely temporarily vanished from its "current monitoring screen," rather than being erased or judged as terminated at a rule level.

"No dissipation... and no broadcast." Yu Nian's finger traced the cold control panel, her voice very low,

"It's like the system... didn't react? Or, it defaults that he's just 'temporarily offline'?

Bai Cheng's gaze swept over every corner of the carriage, finally resting on the passage leading to the cockpit, where Ye Liangchen's final resolute words still seemed to echo.

She slowly said, "Perhaps it's not that it didn't react, but that Ye Liangchen's 'entry method' indeed bypassed the system's preset 'detachment rules.'

That vortex was an accidental product of terrain energy and broken laws, not a system-certified transmission channel.

The system... might temporarily be unable to define this 'disappearance.'" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

This meant that Ye Liangchen might have truly torn a small, unnoticed gap in the system's rule network.

Just then, Huang Yu, who was responsible for guarding Bai Cheng's own train, and was unaware of what exactly had happened deep in the valley, only seeing everyone return and head straight for Ye Liangchen's train, came over with questions.

He happened to overhear fragments of Yu Nian and Leng Ningxue's low-voiced discussion.

"Lvdou, what happened? Ye Liangchen, he..." Huang Yu, at the back of the crowd, quietly nudged Lvdou beside him.

Lvdou immediately and concisely informed Huang Yu about the man's revelation in the valley, Ye Liangchen's choice, and the speculation about the mysterious vortex.

As Huang Yu listened, his initial surprise gradually gave way to a strange glint in his eyes.

He thoughtfully rubbed a faint, tattoo-like demonic pattern on the inside of his wrist, which resembled both a contract and a racial mark, and suddenly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible excitement:

"Miss, everyone, perhaps... we can confirm Ye Liangchen's current status."

Everyone's gaze immediately focused on him.

"One of Ye Liangchen's core Employees is a Majin Clan member, just like me," Huang Yu explained, his eyes shining even brighter.

"We Majin Clan have a not-so-secret talent:

Once we have formally confirmed a fellow clan member's 'existence imprint' through their aura or blood at close range, we can vaguely sense whether the other party has 'completely perished.'

This sensing is based on a resonance at the racial soul level, and is unrelated to system rules."