"Just to clarify, I actually have no combat abilities at all," Ke Ning suddenly spoke up as they walked toward the rift.
"Don’t we need any protection?"
"Oh?" Ye Chuan seemed slightly surprised. "From the way you talk, it sounds like you’ve traveled across dimensions before. Don’t you have any means of self-defense?"
"Carrying weapons violates Article 13 of the Dimensional Travel Regulations—no individual or organization is permitted to transport any form of weaponry across dimensions…" Ke Ning adjusted her glasses as she explained.
"Then what if you encounter danger?"
"The Magic Cube V3 can expend all its energy to rewind time once, allowing me to avoid the threat." She pointed at the glowing blue cube floating beside her.
"Rewind time?" Ye Chuan blinked, as if struggling to process it. "That’s ridiculously overpowered. But what if you run out of energy and immediately face danger again?"
Ke Ning calmly pushed her glasses up and replied,
"If time is rewound, then the energy of my Magic Cube V3 is naturally restored as well."
Ye Chuan: "…"
Damn.
Ye Chuan suddenly realized just how broken Ke Ning was. This science-minded girl was even more formidable than he’d imagined.
No wonder she was an S-tier tenant—she always had some absurdly overpowered ability up her sleeve.
Just then, Wang Yanran, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped. Her amber eyes flickered. "There it is—the rift."
Following her gaze, Ye Chuan saw it—a jagged, five-meter-tall tear in the fabric of reality, nestled deep within a tangled web of thorns and vines. An eerie blue glow pulsed within the rift, twisting like a living thing.
The air around the rift shimmered like disturbed water, and the nearby trees were charred black, their bark cracked like spiderwebs. Amber-colored liquid oozed from the branches, likely left behind by the creatures lurking within.
"Ye Chuan, the monsters seem to be gone?" Wang Yanran pulled out a talisman, her eyes scanning the trampled bushes warily. Her spectral companion flickered behind her, its inky tendrils writhing uneasily.
But Ye Chuan’s spiritual sense detected something. A faint smirk tugged at his lips as his fingers brushed the hilt of his Crimson Peak Sword. "They’re not gone."
"They’re just waiting for the perfect moment to strike—like apex predators in the wild."
No sooner had he spoken than the rotting leaves at Wang Yanran’s feet stirred without wind.
The air rippled like a pond struck by a stone—and then, a two-meter-tall mantis materialized from thin air. Its metallic compound eyes gleamed with cold malice as its scythe-like forelimbs slashed toward her throat with a deadly whistle!
"Perfect timing!" Wang Yanran, a high-tier superhuman warrior, reacted instantly. Her pupils ignited with emerald flames as her spectral companion transformed into dark green chains, coiling around the mantis’s joints with uncanny precision.
A sharp crack echoed as the creature’s exoskeleton shattered. The spectral entity’s shriek sent dead leaves raining down, and the mantis’s scythe snapped inches from Wang Yanran’s throat.
"These things can turn invisible?!" She wiped the sticky fluid from her cheek and took a half-step back.
"No, it’s mimicry," Ke Ning adjusted her glasses, the lenses flashing coldly. "Just as orchid mantises disguise themselves as flowers and dead-leaf butterflies blend into foliage—these creatures have evolved their camouflage to perfection."
Before she could finish, the trees within a thirty-meter radius suddenly twisted grotesquely. Bark peeled away, revealing bluish-gray exoskeletons, while the canopies morphed into waving scythes. Nearly a hundred mantis monsters surged forth like nightmares given form!
"This many?!" Wang Yanran was taken aback.
Ke Ning, seeing the overwhelming numbers, was about to suggest retreat—but then she noticed Wang Yanran’s brief surprise quickly giving way to calm confidence, as if she had a trump card up her sleeve.
"I’ll handle it." Ye Chuan’s voice cut through the chaos, followed by the piercing shriek of his Crimson Peak Sword tearing through the air.
With effortless mastery, he unleashed a flurry of sword techniques, his movements leaving behind fiery afterimages. Each swing carved burning arcs into the air, sending waves of scorching sword energy crashing into the swarm.
The supposedly indestructible mantis exoskeletons shattered like glass upon contact, their black blood boiling away into acrid smoke.
Ke Ning watched in astonishment—Ye Chuan’s flames weren’t ordinary fire. Where his blade passed, the dismembered monster corpses didn’t just burn—they disintegrated into motes of light, as if completely vaporized.
Then, a guttural roar erupted from the rift’s depths. More creatures poured out, this time abandoning stealth. Their metallic carapaces bore sinister markings, and their multifaceted eyes gleamed with crimson bloodlust.
Leading them was a colossal mantis, standing four meters tall. Its scythes dripped with lake-blue corrosive slime, the very air sizzling where it passed.
"Is this the boss?" Ye Chuan assessed it briefly. "Still just Qi Condensation level."
"Pathetic."
The mantis leader shrieked in fury, its segmented legs propelling it forward at blinding speed—its scythes aimed straight for Ye Chuan’s neck!
"Hum—"
A fiery arc flashed. The mantis leader’s scythe melted instantly upon contact with Ye Chuan’s blade. Before the creature could react, another searing slash severed its remaining weapon.
"Can we capture it?" Ye Chuan asked Ke Ning.
Still processing the sheer unscientific nature of his abilities, she nodded reflexively. "Y-yes, that’s fine."
"Good." Ye Chuan knocked the mantis leader unconscious with a single strike, then proceeded to annihilate the remaining monsters.
The entire battle lasted less than thirty seconds. By the time the flames dissipated, the rift’s horrors had been reduced to nothingness.
"Truly unbelievable… Cultivators, monsters, ghosts…" Ke Ning murmured, her scientific curiosity burning brighter than ever. After all, science was a cycle of deconstruction and reconstruction.
"Good work." She approached the unconscious mantis leader, her Magic Cube floating beside her. It projected a scanning beam over the creature’s body.
"Data collection complete." She tapped a semi-transparent blue interface in front of her.
"Alright." Ye Chuan crushed the mantis leader’s body without hesitation.
Hm?
Ke Ning noticed something—a blue crystal lying where the creature had been.
"This is…"
"An entirely unknown material," she said.
Ye Chuan took the crystal and checked its information through his inventory system.
[Item: Core
A crystallized nucleus containing energy. Can be used to unlock Tech Tree points.]
Oh, so cores drop from monsters?