"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?
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
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.
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
