The three didn't delay. Gathering their spirits, they covered each other and cleared out the remaining rock beetles in the cave that were either putting up a desperate fight or fleeing. With their leader gone, the threat of these bugs was greatly reduced.
About half an hour later, the rock beetles in the cave were completely cleared out, leaving only the floor covered in bug corpses and a pungent smell.
"Mission accomplished." An Changqing let out a long breath as he looked at the messy bug nest and corpses. He walked up to the corpse of the swarm leader, carefully cut off a few of the most valuable pieces of carapace, bone spurs, and gland samples, and securely sealed them.
Chen Guan and Su Yuehe also collected some ordinary bug shell samples.
"We shouldn't stay here long. The smell of blood and energy fluctuations might attract other things. I have already contacted the Superpowered Association to clean up."
An Changqing put away the samples and looked at Chen Guan and Su Yuehe. "How are you guys? Can you still move out?"
"No problem." Chen Guan stretched his somewhat sore arms. [Toughness] was taking effect, making his recovery speed much faster than ordinary people.
"I... I'm okay, just a little tired." Su Yuehe rubbed her temples, her voice a bit weak.
"Then let's head back immediately. Yuehe, get some good rest when we return." An Changqing's tone was gentle.
The three packed up properly. With An Changqing leading the way, Chen Guan bringing up the rear, and Su Yuehe in the middle, they quickly evacuated the mine along the path they came.
They didn't encounter any more hiccups on the return trip. When the three walked out of the mine and bathed once again in the slightly glaring afternoon sunlight, they all felt as if a lifetime had passed.
"Let's submit the mission." An Changqing activated his personal terminal and began to upload the proof of mission completion.
Soon, the mission status updated to "Completed, pending review."
"The basic reward of 50 points has already been distributed to our respective accounts. The extra rewards will be settled separately after the academy reviews the samples and evaluates our performance," An Changqing said to Chen Guan and Su Yuehe as he looked at the message.
Chen Guan nodded and opened his own terminal. Sure enough, he saw 50 more points in his point account.
Although it wasn't much, this was his first time earning points through a mission, so the significance was different. More importantly...
He glanced at the corner of his vision.
[Popularity Value: 5421]
An intense team battle, wonderful counter-kills, and excellent cooperation made his Popularity Value experience another leaping growth, breaking through the five thousand mark.
Chen Guan felt uplifted. This income was far more generous than those 50 academy points.
"Thanks for the hard work today, everyone." An Changqing showed a gentle smile. "We cooperated very well, especially you, Chen Guan. Your defense and responses at critical moments were crucial."
He paused and said, "Next time... you don't have to worry too much about my safety. My superpower makes me fearless against opponents under the fifth tier."
"You flatter me. I just did what I should," Chen Guan said politely. As for An Changqing's superpower, he wasn't really curious. The live stream bullet comments would expose An Changqing's secrets sooner or later anyway.
Su Yuehe also smiled. "Yeah, Chen Guan is amazing. With you tanking in the front, I felt much safer."
As someone who also hadn't used her superpower, Su Yuehe, like An Changqing, had held back. Su Yuehe's superpower was called [Spirit Speech], which gave her the ability to make her words become reality, though limited to her own cognition.
The three looked at each other and smiled. The fatigue brought by their first team mission seemed to dissipate quite a bit, replaced by a faint trust born from fighting side by side.
"Go back and rest up well. There might be a new mission next week," An Changqing said. "Also, Chen Guan, regarding your fighting style... perhaps you can seek advice from Instructor Li Yan on how to better leverage your strength advantage, and... well, techniques to protect the person in the coffin."
He glanced at the coffin on Chen Guan's back. Given Chen Guan's combat style, the person in the coffin had suffered a lot.
It was only because the Black Iron Coffin was sturdy; otherwise, the person inside would probably be in danger.
After learning there was a person in the coffin, An Changqing had specifically gone to investigate Chen Guan's background.
The results looked as ordinary as could be. No Black Iron Coffin, no person in the coffin, just an incredibly ordinary student who passed the college entrance exam and entered Huaqing.
Everything was too ordinary, which paradoxically made it hard for An Changqing to believe.
Chen Guan's heart stirred, and he nodded. "Thanks for the reminder. I will."
The three didn't say much more. They took a car out of a spatial ring, drove to the nearest teleportation array, and then stepped onto the return portal. Amidst flashing lights, they returned to Huaqing.
By the time they returned to the academy, it was already evening. The three parted ways and returned to their respective dormitories.
Chen Guan pushed open the door to Room 304, and a comforting sense of security washed over him. He took off his combat suit, which was covered in dust and a little bug blood, and carefully leaned the Black Iron Coffin against the wall.
As usual, he invited Old Me out of seclusion. Then, he walked to the bed, looked at his still-sleeping main body, and gently exhaled.
"Today... we won," he said softly, as if sharing his joy. "Although, you probably don't know and can't witness it for now."
He reached out, his fingertips brushing across the slightly cool cheek of his main body, his movements gentle.
"But it's okay. I will continue to grow stronger, strong enough... to let you wake up and see this world with your own eyes."
After his habitual acting, he turned and walked to the bathroom, preparing to wash away his fatigue.
The warm water washed over his body, taking away the dust, bug blood, and exhaustion from the mine.
Chen Guan closed his eyes, letting the water glide over his skin, but his mind couldn't help replaying the combat scenes from the afternoon.
The surging of the bug swarm, the corrosion of the acid, the heavy impacts, An Changqing's stunning sword strike, Su Yuehe's precise support... every detail was incredibly clear.
This was his first true practical combat since coming to this world, and it was a team battle. It felt... not bad. Those monsters that once seemed unbeatable weren't so terrifying in his eyes anymore.
Although the process was thrilling and the energy consumption was huge, the feeling of fighting side by side with companions, entrusting his back to them, and ultimately defeating the enemy together was an unfamiliar but not unpleasant experience for this stranger in a strange land.
More importantly, the harvest was massive.
5421 Popularity Value points! Enough to take his strength to another level.
After showering and changing into clean clothes, Chen Guan felt his spirit mostly restored.
[Toughness] continued to work, and his muscle soreness was quickly fading.
He walked to the desk and sat down. He didn't process the Popularity Value immediately, but first opened his personal terminal to check the details of the mission rewards.
Besides the 50 basic points that had already arrived, the mission evaluation was out, happily scoring an A-rank.
The extra reward was 100 points per person, as well as a D-rank resource exchange privilege, allowing them to exchange for a D-rank item or equivalent material at the academy.
An A-rank evaluation, an extra 100 points, and an exchange privilege. This reward far exceeded expectations. It seemed the academy highly recognized the completion quality of this mission.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
