Offline Charging

"You may leave."

"Understood, please get some rest." Su Rui left.

Ye Chuan waved his hand, his eyes already fixed on the terminal in his hand, and said no more.

Lin Xi was the only one left in the living room, sitting to the side, curiously looking around, and taking various videos to send to her family.

She looked exactly like someone from a small town visiting a big city for the first time.

"Kalen."

Ye Chuan lifted his chin. Kalen, who had been standing in the shadows of the corner, immediately stepped forward with a stiff gait and bowed slightly.

"Lord Demon King."

"You are of no use for now." Ye Chuan casually raised his hand, and the phantom of the World-Suppressing Banner flashed behind him.

An invisible suction force instantly enveloped Kalen. His body began to turn transparent, transforming into a stream of pale blue light that flew toward the palm of Ye Chuan's hand.

A second before being completely sucked into the banner, a hint of instinctive fear flashed in Kalen's hollow eyes. His lips moved, but he could not make a sound.

Lin Xi glanced up and silently told herself.

Get used to it, get used to it.

Anyway, Mr. Ye probably wouldn't put her inside that flag.

Ye Chuan retracted his hand, leaned back against the soft leather sofa, and began to check the terminal.

Ye Chuan ignored the homepage recommendations like "Top Ten Most Peculiar Alien Civilizations," "Universe Girls Tasting Guide," and "Outer God Invasion Survival Guide." He directly typed two words into the search bar:

"Cultivation" and "Immortal."

[Searching the Federation Central Database... Search complete. Found 173 valid related records.]

Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow.

The Federation had been established for so many years and controlled several galaxy clusters, yet there were only 173 records about cultivation in their intelligence?

This number was pitifully small.

Ye Chuan then searched for keywords like "Magic Continent" and "Extraordinary." Those all started at a hundred thousand entries at least.

It was as if cultivation civilization had been completely severed from history.

Ye Chuan began to read:

"The cultivation system originated in an unknown ancient era. It is a primitive method of energy utilization with extremely low efficiency and a very low upper limit."

"Compared to the magic system, the entry threshold for cultivation is higher, the progress is slower, and it cannot be mass-reproduced or enhanced through technological means."

"The highest combat power of all known cultivators does not exceed level ten, which is far inferior to mecha warriors and magicians of the same level."

"This system has basically been eliminated, with only sporadic remnants on a few low-level, remote planets."

"So that's how it is." Ye Chuan leaned against the sofa, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.

Empress Jiuhua was right. The Immortal Realm was truly gone.

That battle not only shattered all the higher planes of the Immortal Realm, Divine Realm, and Demon Realm, but it also severed the ascension channels connecting to the mortal realm and almost completely wiped out the legacy of cultivation.

Those immortals who could once move mountains, fill seas, and roam the universe either died in that great war or, like Empress Jiuhua, were left with only a wisp of a remnant soul, drifting in the boundless darkness for billions of years.

"The Immortal Realm is gone..."

"No wonder the spark was given to me."

"To reforge the glory of cultivation is my inescapable duty." As Ye Chuan thought this, in reality, his power wasn't limited to just one type.

His magic was equally powerful.

But cultivation seemed to truly be considered bottom-tier.

It was no wonder the Federation treated cultivation as an unrated, bottom-tier extraordinary system. In this era where mechas could shatter planets and magic could freeze time and space, a system that couldn't even reach level ten indeed had no competitiveness.

Unwilling to give up, Ye Chuan typed the keywords "Ancient," "Immortal Realm," "Jiuhua," and "Empress" into the search bar.

[Searching... No related results found.]

The cold notification sound rang out time and time again.

Sure enough, not a single trace was left behind.

"Headache." Ye Chuan rubbed his throbbing temples and casually turned off the screen.

There was no point in reading any further.

Besides, there were too many words. It felt like there were quadrillions of them. He felt that even if the author of that "School Beauty's Personal Expert" novel from his own world tried to pad the word count, they couldn't possibly write this much.

"I'm tired." Ye Chuan tossed the terminal to Lin Xi. She caught it in a flurry, almost dropping the tablet in her own hands.

"Help me put this away."

"Ah? Okay, okay!" Lin Xi quickly and carefully placed the terminal into her spatial backpack, even making sure to zip it up, terrified of breaking it.

"Mr. Ye, are you really not going to read anymore?"

"No more." Ye Chuan let out a big yawn. "With so much stuff, I wouldn't finish reading it even if I read until next year."

He stood up and walked over to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window, the night view of Planet Apocalypse was as dazzling as a dream. Countless glowing aerial tracks wove together into a giant web, and the lights of the floating city merged into a sea of stars.

I should log off and rest for a bit.

I'll explore the areas ahead later.

New Century, log off!

...

After a slight wave of dizziness, Ye Chuan snapped his eyes open.

Ah, the familiar ceiling, the familiar bed.

Ye Chuan sat up and noticed that the bedsheets had been changed. It was normal, after all—it had been quite humid lately, and they got dirty every day, in large patches.

"I'll take a break, then maybe play a game or something." Ye Chuan opened his bedroom door and walked out.

Stepping through the portal of the Myriad Realms Apartment, he was teleported to the living room area.

There were a lot of people in the living room today. Whether it was Xi Xi, Keke, Shuangshuang, Yueyue, or Sisi... they were all here, leisurely sitting on the sofas doing their own things.

"Oh?" Lan Xiaoke was the first to see Ye Chuan return. She immediately raised her hand, "You're baaack."

Lan Xiaoke's words prompted the other girls in the living room to look up one after another. "Chuan Chuan, you're back~"

"Boss, you're back~"

"Brother, you're back~"

"Hmph, looking so exhausted."

"Ye Chuan, you're back..."

"Ye Chuan!"

The chattering atmosphere actually gave Ye Chuan an inexplicable sense of peace. He looked around; it seemed this place was his true final sanctuary. It made sense, though. It had slowly expanded from a tiny rented room to reach this scale.

"Where's Ke Ning?"

"She hasn't come out."

Ye Chuan wasn't in a hurry. He sat right down on the sofa, tilted his head, and lay down on Lan Xiaoke's pillow.

Charging...

"Do you want to plug in the cable?" Lan Xiaoke asked, seeing Ye Chuan's "recharging" posture.

"No need, this is fine for now," Ye Chuan muttered in reply. His mind was a bit fatigued; he would plug in the charging cable later.

"Brother~ let me give you a massage," Ye Yue leaned over and said with a smile, seeing Ye Chuan's exhausted expression.

As she spoke, Ye Yue patted her slender thighs. "Brother, want to sleep here?"

Seeing this, Ye Chuan didn't stand on ceremony. He rolled off Lan Xiaoke's pillow, landed on Ye Yue's lap, and naturally wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Phew."

"Brother~" Ye Yue stroked Ye Chuan's hair. "You've worked hard~"

As she spoke, Ye Chuan felt something like tentacles extending from Ye Yue's fingers, gently wrapping around his hair.

Forget it, what does it matter anyway?