"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.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
