Chen Miemie brought Chen Miaomiao to his home in the South District Tower.
Chen Miaomiao was intensely curious and wandered all around Room 1803.
She was incredibly outgoing. When she first met the oddities, she wasn’t frightened in the slightest.
She stared wide-eyed at Water Gaze, hopped onto Red’s spiderweb bed, bit into a huge chicken leg, and even tried to stuff her little stuffed toys into Qinghua’s porcelain vase.
Chen Miemie hurriedly stopped her.
Those weren’t stuffed toys at all. They were bombs disguised as dolls.
“Okay, then this is my room.” Chen Miaomiao moved all her “stuffed toys” into her room.
“Chen Miaomiao, I heard you travel all over the continent. What are you busy with every day?”
“I’m very busy. I help witches everywhere deal with problems they can’t handle themselves.”
“Such as?”
“Hmph. Take the Bang Ruins this time. They discovered some ruins, but the villains from the Yao clan didn’t want the witches to join the expedition. It was absolutely outrageous! I went over and had an argument with them. Hehe, and I won.”
“You get involved in matters concerning witches from the Yao clan too?” Chen Miemie didn’t believe that all she had done was argue with them.
“Of course. All witches are one family. Besides, I was the one who proposed that witches integrate into the Hundred-City Continent. Naturally, I bear some responsibility for what happened afterward.”
Chen Miemie immediately fell silent. Back then, Chen Miaomiao’s determination to integrate the witches into the Hundred-City Continent had been greatly aided by this confidant of hers.
“You know, I’m not the same Chen Miemie I used to be.”
Chen Miaomiao blinked her large red eyes. “Then which Chen Miemie are you?”
“What I mean is, I lost my memory before the graduation exam. The original Chen Miemie disappeared, and someone else took his place.”
“Oh. Then why do you still call yourself Chen Miemie?”
The question caught Chen Miemie completely off guard.
That was right. He clearly had no memories of the past, so how had he known his name was Chen Miemie the instant he woke up?
Chen Miemie couldn’t figure it out. “Could you possibly know what’s going on?”
Chen Miaomiao shook her head. “I wasn’t even in Six-Elephant City at the time. How would I know?”
“Then why aren’t you surprised after hearing me say all that?”
“Surprised? I hardly ever experience that emotion. As long as a life-form exists, there are countless possibilities. Situations that seem perfectly ordinary to us may actually be the result of odds as low as one in a billion.”
Chen Miemie stared at Chen Miaomiao and realized that this woman’s thought process really was abnormal.
She hadn’t been surprised when she learned that he had become the representative of a new species. She hadn’t been surprised when she saw all the oddities filling his home. And now that she knew he himself was abnormal, she still wasn’t surprised.
“I’ve thought of one possibility.” Chen Miaomiao suddenly raised her voice.
“What possibility?”
Chen Miaomiao began her performance with a mysterious air.
“I once read a mysterious novel. It contained a story.
“The book said that after living creatures died, their souls would go on to be reincarnated. Before reincarnation, they had to forget everything that had happened to them before.
“The one responsible for making souls forget was an incredibly powerful witch named ‘Meng Po.’
“Before each soul was reincarnated, she would give it a bowl of magical medicine called ‘Meng Po’s Soup.’ After drinking it, the soul would forget everything from its previous life.
“Year after year, day after day.
“Meng Po eventually grew tired of her work, so she decided to reincarnate herself. Before leaving, she followed the usual procedure and drank her own ‘Meng Po’s Soup,’ forgetting everything that had come before.
“But after drinking it, she turned back into the original Meng Po and began doing the same work as before.
“And so the cycle continued forever, without end.
“Chen Miemie, tell me—did you secretly drink ‘Meng Po’s Soup’ behind my back?”
Chen Miemie knew Chen Miaomiao was talking nonsense before she had even finished.
“I didn’t drink it. Besides, there’s no such thing as ‘Meng Po’s Soup.’ Don’t believe everything you read in strange novels.”
“How do you know it doesn’t exist?”
“If it doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t exist. You’re the one claiming that it does, so the burden of proof is on you.”
“But it exists in the story in the book!” Chen Miaomiao protested.
“You know it’s a story. It was made up. Understand?”
“I know it’s a story, but stories have power too. If you don’t believe me, one day we can go into a book and look for persimmons.”
Chen Miaomiao’s thoughts leaped all over the place and never followed conventional logic. What she said sounded utterly absurd. Chen Miemie had been on solid ground, but that sudden remark knocked him flat.
Indeed, how could he not know the power of stories? They could even tear open a tiny breach in the dimensional barrier between worlds, one that existed for only an instant. Was a bowl of “Meng Po’s Soup” really impossible?
Chen Miemie snorted. “Anyway, I’ve told you about this. Don’t go saying later that I kept it from you.”
Chen Miaomiao had traveled far and wide, leaving her footprints across the entire Hundred-City Continent. Every casual remark from her brought up some new and interesting tale.
The two of them talked late into the night.
After discussing so many things openly, many of the doubts in Chen Miemie’s heart were finally answered.
Although the school records listed Chen Miaomiao as his adoptive parent, in practice, the way she got along with Chen Miemie was more like that of an older sister—an older sister who was often spectacularly unreliable.
Toward the end of their conversation, Chen Miemie asked, “What are you planning to do next?”
“Six-Elephant City isn’t one of the cities under my management, and no one here has asked me for help. I won’t stay long—three days at most. I only came to see you this time. Now that I’ve seen you’re healthy and well-fed, I can relax. Next, I’ll continue traveling and exploring all over the continent.”
“You can say I’m healthy, but I’m not fat,” Chen Miemie immediately corrected her. “I’m getting a little bored staying in the city. Are there any interesting places I could visit? I’d like to take a trip too.”
Chen Miaomiao looked Chen Miemie up and down.
“Your Mystery is at level 5, and you have plenty of companions by your side. Traveling around shouldn’t be a problem.
“But you haven’t gone out much. Even if you aren’t lacking in power, you still need to build up some experience. For your first tourist destination, I recommend choosing a human city. The culture and worldview won’t be too overwhelming a departure from what you’re used to.
“If you want somewhere interesting, I recommend Wavefoam Harbor.”
“Wavefoam Harbor?”
“Yes. Wavefoam Harbor is the human territories’ easternmost coastal city. It lies next to the undersea city of the Bang Ruins, which I just visited. They make their living from the sea, and they’ve developed a pretty impressive tourism industry. The scenery beneath the waves is extremely unusual.”
“Impressive. A city actually managed to develop tourism.”
“Everything impressive we see is built on sweat and blood. As a frontier city of humanity, Wavefoam Harbor borders the Yao territories. Marine resources are essential to its survival. If it didn’t become strong, it would be bullied.”
“Okay. I’ll think about it.”
The two of them talked until after three in the morning before returning to their rooms to sleep.
Early the next day, Chen Miemie’s door was knocked on.
He and Chen Miaomiao came into the living room wearing lamb and cat pajamas.
The pajamas had been prepared by Chen Miaomiao. They were made of fluffy material, and the hoods had cat ears and lamb ears on top. Two drawstrings hung from the collars; when gently pulled, the ears on the hoods would stand straight up.
The two of them moved in perfect unison. Both were squinting sleepily as they stared at the visitor.
Chen Miaomiao had completely forgotten what had happened the night before. She said indignantly, “Little Sun, what time is it? You’re disturbing our sleep!”
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.
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
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...
