“By the way, could I have the diary and the photographs?”
Chen Guan handed her the black hardcover diary and the old photographs.
Su Yuehe took them, her fingertips brushing over the two characters Lu Ming embossed on the cover. Her expression was complicated.
She carefully put the items away, then said solemnly to Chen Guan, “Thank you.”
Chen Guan said nothing. He merely nodded before turning and walking through the door.
The moment he stepped through, the dry, frigid air of the Northern Frontier flooded his lungs.
The scene before him shifted from the stillness of the camp back into a crystal-strewn wasteland. That ominous blue rift still hung in the night sky.
Behind him, after the last person passed through, the ghostly blue circular entrance quietly closed and vanished without a trace.
Twelve people. Not one missing.
The relief of having survived the ordeal did not linger long on anyone’s face.
“How are we supposed to write the report for this mission?” An Changqing’s voice broke the silence.
The question instantly made the atmosphere delicate.
“Report it truthfully.”
Wang Shuo answered almost without thinking, but the moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
He glanced at Su Yuehe’s calm face, then at Chen Guan, who appeared to have nothing to do with the matter. For some reason, his confidence weakened.
Chen Guan looked at Wang Shuo and spoke.
“Just say that we encountered an unforeseen temporal disturbance during the survey, causing all the soul beacons to fail.”
“We were trapped in the chaotic gap between dimensions and barely survived. In the end, we relied on Starswapping to forcibly tear open a stable node and escape.”
Chen Guan looked toward An Changqing. Mythic abilities were practically cheats; they could be used to pin any explanation on them.
Didn’t believe him? Then awaken a mythic ability and see for yourself.
The story was perfectly reasonable and explained why they had lost contact.
In any case, it was only for outsiders. As long as it sounded plausible, that was enough. The bigwigs certainly wouldn’t undermine their own daughter.
“I agree.”
Su Yuehe was the first to voice her support. Her gaze swept over Wang Shuo and the other three students from Yanjing Academy.
“What about you?”
“We… have no objections.”
Who would dare object? Wang Shuo had only just remembered the identities of the people standing before him.
That little act of defiance had been nothing more than putting on a show.
And so, an unspoken pact of silence quietly formed among the twelve.
“Let’s go. Captain Li is probably getting anxious waiting for us.”
An Changqing glanced at his watch and led everyone back in the direction they had come from.
They had not gone far when the hulking outlines of armored personnel carriers appeared in the darkness. There was more than one; a whole line of them followed behind.
A man was leaning against the front of one vehicle.
It was Li Ce.
When he saw them return, he straightened.
Twelve figures emerged from the darkness. Not one was missing.
He turned and waved a hand toward the people behind him.
“Mission terminated.”
His voice remained cold and hard.
“Everyone, get in the vehicles immediately. We’re returning to camp.”
The order left everyone stunned.
There would be no questioning? No on-site investigation? It was simply over?
Wang Shuo even wondered whether the trauma had driven him to hallucinate.
“What are you standing around for?”
Li Ce turned back and frowned.
“Get in.”
Only then did everyone come to their senses. In silence, they walked toward the armored vehicles.
As Chen Guan passed Li Ce, the other man’s gaze lingered on him for a moment. He said nothing.
But Chen Guan understood what Li Ce meant. If he was asking no questions, then someone must have given him instructions.
Who could it be? That was a tough one to guess.
Lady Speaker really was watching them.
…
The vehicles came to a stop. The rear doors opened with a hydraulic hiss, and bright light and the din of voices flooded the cabin.
“We’re here.”
Li Ce’s voice rang out.
“Everyone out. Wang Shuo, you and the others from Yanjing Academy will give a separate report at Tent Seven.”
His orders were clear and decisive, sending the group off in different directions.
Wang Shuo and the others looked as if they had just been pardoned. They scrambled out of the vehicle, desperate not to stay a moment longer.
An Changqing rose and looked toward Su Yuehe, his lips parting as if to speak.
“Captain An.”
Li Ce’s voice carried unmistakable pressure.
“Your task is to submit the report. Now, everyone else, dismissed.”
An Changqing stopped. He glanced at Li Ce, then finally gave Su Yuehe a worried look before turning and heading the other way.
Li Ce’s gaze settled on Su Yuehe.
“Su, stay behind. The Chairwoman is waiting for you.”
Su Yuehe’s body trembled, but she quickly regained her composure.
She nodded and stepped out of the vehicle.
Su Yuehe walked straight toward the Chairwoman’s command tent at the very center of the camp. The area was heavily guarded. Personnel hurried in and out, their expressions solemn.
She stopped at the tent entrance. A guard saluted her.
“Please wait a moment. Madam Chair is receiving a guest.”
Su Yuehe nodded and stood waiting outside. After some time had passed, despite no one entering or leaving, the guard seemed to receive some kind of signal. He gestured for her to enter and lifted the heavy curtain.
The tent was warm from the heating, but it could not dispel the chill inside.
Su Yuehe saw her mother, Su Jin, standing before a massive holographic star map with her back to the entrance. She wore a crisp white uniform. Her figure looked slender, yet she radiated the authority of someone who held everything together.
“I’ve already heard your report.”
Su Jin did not turn around. Her voice echoed through the spacious tent.
Su Yuehe stood several meters behind her and said nothing.
“Using Starswapping to forcibly tear open a temporal node is beyond An Changqing’s current spiritual reserves.”
Su Jin turned around, her face expressionless.
Su Yuehe looked into those eyes, so similar to her own. They held the weight of years and power, deep and unfathomable.
Su Yuehe met her gaze. For the first time, she did not look away beneath her mother’s scrutiny.
“It was all of us together.”
“I used the power of Words of Command to temporarily stabilize the node’s outer structure. That was how An Changqing was able to find its weakest point.”
The explanation placed the most crucial—and most dangerous—step squarely on her shoulders, while also making the operation’s success sound plausible.
Su Jin did not press her. She walked to the table and picked up a data tablet.
“Your mental strength is considerably greater than it was the last time we met. Even your Words of Command are showing signs of restructuring.”
She swiped across the screen, and lines of data flowed past. Only then did Su Yuehe realize that during the brief time she had been waiting outside, her mother had already obtained a complete set of her current physical data.
“Your body cannot withstand restructuring of this intensity. The rejection reaction could recur at any time.”
Su Yuehe listened quietly. Clearly, Su Jin had no intention of continuing to pretend she did not know what was happening.
“I’ve already notified Doctor Zhou.”
Su Jin set down the tablet and looked at her again.
“First thing tomorrow morning, he’ll give you a full physical examination and mental counseling session.”
It was not a suggestion. It was a notification.
Just like before.
Silence fell over the tent.
Su Yuehe clenched the diary in her arms tighter. Then, suddenly, she broke the silence.
“I saw Father’s diary in the ruins.”
Su Jin was not surprised in the slightest. She looked at her daughter and gestured for her to continue.
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!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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.
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.
