When they heard that Lin Mo could take them out of this hellhole, Luo Ruiyu and Fang Jun both breathed a sigh of relief.
Lin Mo’s tone suddenly turned more serious. Looking at the two of them, he raised one finger.
“Before that, though, I want to ask you something.”
Fang Jun instinctively swallowed. Seeing how serious Lin Mo looked, he grew tense as well.
“Do you want to keep the memories from today?”
The air fell silent for a moment.
“Yes! Of course!” Fang Jun blurted out. “I could brag about this stuff for a hundred years! Getting chased, those black-smoke-covered warriors, the Otherworld… I, Fang Jun, actually experienced all of it firsthand!”
As he spoke, he excitedly waved his hands around.
But Lin Mo turned to look at him. His expression remained completely serious. He neither smiled nor agreed, and the calm in his eyes gradually made Fang Jun’s grin disappear.
“Normal people will just think you’re an idiot.”
Lin Mo’s voice was calm, as if he were merely stating a fact. “If you keep these memories, you might encounter more situations like this in the future. Once you’ve experienced something like this, you’ll subconsciously start approaching similar incidents on your own, as if you’re being drawn to them.”
Fang Jun was a student at a prestigious school, so he wasn’t slow-witted.
He quickly understood what Lin Mo meant, and his expression grew solemn.
“You mean ‘with great power comes great responsibility’? Am I actually the Chosen One?”
“Go to hell, Spider-Man.” Lin Mo rolled his eyes. “I’m saying that if you keep these memories, the chances of encountering this kind of thing again will increase dramatically. But you’re both ordinary people with no way to deal with any of it. Do you understand?”
His words were blunt, and cruelly honest.
Fang Jun fell silent. He remembered the feeling of that samurai sword hovering above his head—the despair and helplessness.
If Lin Mo hadn’t appeared, the two of them would already be corpses.
Luo Ruiyu pressed her lips together. She glanced at Fang Jun, then lowered her head and looked at her hands, which were still trembling slightly.
The silence continued for quite some time.
In the end, Luo Ruiyu still shook her head.
“I want to keep them.” She raised her head, her gaze firm. “I promise I won’t go looking for that kind of thing, but I don’t want to forget what happened today.”
She paused, then added, “Fang Jun… charged out to protect me just now. I don’t want to forget that.”
Fang Jun froze. Then the tips of his ears turned slightly red, and he turned his face away, pretending not to care.
“I’ll keep them too.”
He cleared his throat and returned to his usual carefree attitude. “Besides, I trust you, Old Mo. If we run into trouble again, you’ll come save us, right?”
Lin Mo looked at the two of them and remained silent for a moment. In the end, he sighed.
“Suit yourselves.”
In truth, Lin Mo hadn’t deliberately brought them into the Otherworld. He simply hadn’t expected the thing sealed here to act so recklessly.
“Then I’ll take you back to the real world.”
Lin Mo placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
A flash of white light passed before their eyes.
When Fang Jun and Luo Ruiyu opened their eyes again, they found themselves standing inside the elevator.
But Lin Mo was nowhere beside them.
The elevator lights had returned to normal, seeming almost painfully bright. The humming of the machinery was especially clear.
Fang Jun instinctively reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The time displayed was nearly the same as when they had entered, but the signal was at full strength.
That helped him calm down a little.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened.
Luo Ruiyu was so startled that she grabbed Fang Jun’s clothes.
Her fingers clenched tightly around the hem of his shirt, and her breathing remained labored.
Outside the elevator, however, there were several people waiting to get in. It was hardly a crowded scene, but everything appeared completely normal. A middle-aged woman stood there with shopping bags, while a young couple beside her were both looking down at their phones.
It was all so ordinary and mundane, forming a stark contrast with everything they had just experienced.
Seeing Fang Jun and Luo Ruiyu standing there without moving, someone couldn’t help asking, “Aren’t you two getting out?”
Fang Jun immediately snapped back to reality and hurriedly replied, “Oh, yes. We are.”
He then pulled the extremely nervous Luo Ruiyu out of the elevator.
Only when his feet touched the shopping mall’s tiled floor did Fang Jun truly feel grounded.
The floor was solid beneath him. The air carried the scent of the mall’s fragrances, and pop music drifted over from the shops in the distance.
The stench of decay and bloody rust had finally left them behind.
Unlike before, when the elevator had returned to the first floor and not a single person had been outside, there were now plenty of shoppers passing by.
This meant they had really come back.
The two of them walked out, but Luo Ruiyu was still gripping Fang Jun’s clothes.
Her gaze was unfocused, as if she hadn’t fully recovered from what they had just experienced.
It was obvious that she was truly frightened.
Fang Jun didn’t shake her off. He wasn’t exactly calm himself.
The bizarre scenes of ruin that had filled his vision still made his scalp prickle whenever he thought about them.
Fang Jun looked up at his surroundings, focusing especially on the elevators.
Sure enough, he saw the others coming down from the third floor on the escalator.
“It’s them!”
Fang Jun raised his hand and pointed at the people on the escalator.
When he saw Lin Mo, Fang Jun also breathed a sigh of relief.
Lin Mo still wore that calm, unruffled expression, as if nothing had happened at all.
An Yuexin followed beside him, wearing a somewhat unnatural smile.
Xie Yuling walked quietly at the very back, her expression so calm that it seemed almost excessive.
Still, Fang Jun noticed something strange. They had clearly been running for a long time—at least an hour.
Yet after riding the elevator down, Lin Mo and the others had only just come down from the third floor.
What exactly was going on with the difference in time?
Fang Jun frowned and repeatedly checked the time on his phone. From the moment they entered the elevator until now, only a few dozen seconds had passed.
But he clearly remembered spending at least an hour in that space—possibly even two.
Perhaps the flow of time had been different in the two worlds. Lin Mo should be able to explain it.
After seeing Lin Mo and the others, Luo Ruiyu’s anxious heart finally relaxed. Then she glanced back at the elevator.
The doors had already closed, and her pale face was reflected in the metal.
She couldn’t help taking a step backward, as if the doors might open again at any moment and swallow her whole.
A fresh wave of fear washed over her.
Fang Jun immediately noticed the terror in her heart.
As the saying went, once bitten by a snake, one fears a coiled rope for ten years. The old saying certainly held some truth.
“It’s all right now. We can talk to Lin Mo later. If it really comes to that, you can always choose to forget these memories.”
Luo Ruiyu reacted strongly and immediately said, “No! I don’t want to forget what happened today!”
With that, she released Fang Jun’s clothes and headed toward the escalator.
Fang Jun shook his head helplessly.
“A woman’s heart is as unfathomable as the sea.”
But Fang Jun quickly followed after all. What if this place was an illusion too?
He was now wary of any environment that seemed normal. That was probably a lingering aftereffect of what he had been through.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
