"How did the Origin Realm get connected to the outside internet?"
At the time, Su Qi had been preoccupied with analyzing other details and hadn't noticed this anomaly.
But now, seeing it again sent a chill down his spine.
"Has this Origin Realm descended?"
Guardian Jiang nodded grimly. "It descended without a sound..."
Su Qi's pupils constricted sharply.
Descended without a sound...
The weight of those words struck harder than the possibility of Descendants attacking the martial exam.
Origin Realms—special spaces existing independently of the real world—were dangerous but at least controllable and observable.
Their emergence, stabilization, expansion, and eventual "descent" (complete fusion with reality) were always accompanied by violent energy fluctuations and spatial distortions.
They were predictable, preventable, and stoppable.
There had never been a precedent for a "silent" descent.
Su Qi grasped the severity immediately. "The monitoring network detected no spatial disturbances? What about energy signatures?"
"Nothing." Guardian Jiang's expression darkened. "It's as if... it had always been part of Jiangxia."
"Or perhaps its method of descent surpassed our current understanding and detection capabilities."
He rubbed his temples, exhaustion evident. "Ironically, we only noticed this because of that post while evaluating your stance."
It sounded absurd.
But it was the truth.
Like how everyone assumes water must boil at 100°C—no one would ever put it in a freezer to "heat" it.
Few had visited that Origin Realm recently—mostly veterans or students under supervision.
With only a few hundred people, the odds of outliers were slim.
Su Qi was literally the only one who'd tried contacting the outside world directly via the internet.
"By the time we reacted and sent scouts, the Origin Realm... had already fully merged with real-world coordinates."
"The entrance vanished—or rather, the entire area became the entrance."
Su Qi steadied himself, focusing on the critical question. "Impact assessment?"
"Initial surveys show it covers about 15 square kilometers of Jiangxia's western outskirts," Guardian Jiang replied. "Luckily, it's sparsely populated. No reports of mass casualties yet."
"Thankfully, we caught it early. If Origin creatures had spread, containment would've been a nightmare."
"But this is temporary. No one knows what changes might follow."
Guardian Jiang's gaze sharpened as he locked eyes with Su Qi. "What if they replicate this? Make the martial exam's Origin Realm descend next?"
"Or worse—plotting to drop a high-tier Origin Realm?"
Su Qi didn't answer immediately.
He connected the dots in his mind:
Descendants reducing activity, possibly internal selection.
An Origin Realm descending undetected.
"You know this—Great Xia is our territory, but Origin Realms? They're half the Descendants' domain."
Agitated, Su Qi absentmindedly swiped Guardian Jiang's phone screen.
The image changed—now showing a white-stockinged anime loli.
Guardian Jiang snatched his phone back in 0.1 seconds: "Human nature. Basic instincts."
"Focus on business. No snooping."
...
Meanwhile, at Su Qi's home, a different scene unfolded.
Liu Yuan had just seen off two assistants.
The door clicked shut.
She turned back to the kitchen, eyeing the plate of barely-passable scrambled eggs with tomatoes—her "masterpiece" under the assistants' guidance.
The more complex chicken soup and steamed fish? Wisely abandoned.
The chaotic cooking session had confirmed her lack of culinary talent.
Picking up chopsticks, she tentatively tasted a bite.
Hmm.
Surprisingly... decent?
Wait, why "surprisingly"?
Never mind!
At least it wasn't the "dark cuisine" she'd feared.
Balanced sweet-sour tang, eggs reasonably tender.
A tiny spark of pride warmed her chest.
Should be enough for Su Qi to devour tonight!
And she could improve.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Her lips curved slightly.
If Brother sees me trying so hard, improving bit by bit... wouldn't that itself be happiness?
But the fleeting joy faded as she remembered her original mission—
The card evolution task!
Wiping her hands, she headed to Su Qi's room.
What exactly are Brother's preferences?
The question looped in her mind.
Power on.
Familiar boot screen, then the password prompt.
'xbllzj'
("Xian bu liao le zai jian"—"Can't chat now, bye.")
Easy to remember.
Enter.
The desktop loaded.
But Liu Yuan suspected Su Qi hadn't meant it literally.
What then...?
So hard to guess...
Then she recalled someone saying boys panic most when their cloud drives or D/E disks are checked.
So... Brother's secrets are hidden there?
Clicking into the D drive, she spotted a folder named "Study Materials" inside "BaiduNetdiskDownload."
Her pulse quickened. Important notes must be here!
She double-clicked.
Ready to witness Su Qi's hard work and dedication.
...The folder was empty.
Frowning, her brain raced.
No problem—ask the internet!
Netizens might suck at making money, but they knew everything.
Soon, advice poured in:
[View → Show hidden items]
Liu Yuan tried it.
Submenus exploded on-screen. Her eyes darted until—
Show hidden items?
Check.
Instantly, dozens of folders materialized.
Their names were bizarre: random alphanumerics, some resembling script from a defunct island nation, and very few in Great Xia's language.
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
