Loan, Brother Qiang, and the 'Protagonist' Lin Yu

“My prophecy was originally supposed to manifest on Mr. Jiang, but Mr. Jiang’s status is above mine, so I had to pick you instead.”

The Otaku Prophet spoke slowly, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness that made the River God’s scalp tingle.

Fortunately, the River God and the Prophet shared the same status, so they could harm each other—but not fatally.

The River God could simply perform a time reversal and return to normal.

“You bastard, keep your mouth shut from now on!” The River God shot a glare at the Prophet.

“Hehe, Mr. Jiang, please forgive my rudeness,” the River God said, turning to Jiang Che with a bow and a grin.

“Mr. Jiang, I did a rough tally just now. As far as I know... our Travelers organization has forty-eight people in total...”

“Idiot, you forgot to count yourself! With you included, it’s forty-nine!” the Prophet yelled irritably.

Just then, the void rippled again, and a filthy, ragged old Taoist stumbled out, crashing directly onto Jiang Che’s leg!

“The Great Dao has fifty paths, but Heaven’s derivative only uses forty-nine—and the one that escapes is the variable! You are the only variable in all the myriad realms!”

The old man seemed possessed, clutching Jiang Che’s pant leg and refusing to let go, smearing his snot and tears all over Jiang Che’s clothes.

Jiang Che: “...”

Is this really a Traveler? He looks more like a beggar.

“Mr. Jiang, this is the ‘Celestial.’ He created all the cultivation methods across the myriad realms, including the very essence of the Great Dao—like the Nine Heavens’ cultivation realm you’re familiar with, the magical world of the Prophet’s homeland, and my own talisman-making path. But he tends to be a bit... unhinged,” the River God began explaining again.

Jiang Che raised an eyebrow. Good heavens... Is his status really that high?

He created all the cultivation methods across the myriad realms?

By now, Jiang Che already knew just how vast this world was!

The Nine Heavens were huge enough—tens of millions of prefectures, each comparable in area to Blue Star, with some even the size of an entire star system.

Yet the Nine Heavens were merely one of countless realms within the myriad realms!

The myriad realms were like a massive hotel, filled with countless rooms of various sizes. No matter how large these rooms were, the cultivators living in them could at most reach ninety-nine percent of the Transcendence level.

And this old man before him had supposedly created all the cultivation methods across the myriad realms?

That was absurd.

Not long after, other members of the Travelers organization arrived one after another.

All of them were male or genderless.

Exactly forty-nine people in total, including a few old acquaintances of Jiang Che!

One of them wore a blue suit and sported a slicked-back hairstyle. It was the Loan Man Jiang Che had encountered back in the mortal world, who could lend anything across the myriad realms.

When chasing down debts, he was invincible—unable to be killed or harmed, possessing a one-hit-kill ability. To completely eliminate him, one would need to kill all his debtors instantly. But over the endless ages, the Loan Man had split himself into countless avatars, lending wildly across all realms. The number of beings who had accepted his loans was probably incalculable.

Worse, what truly made the Loan Man invincible wasn’t his ordinary debtors—he had used his debt agreements to mark nearly every member of the Travelers. In other words, to kill the Loan Man, one would first have to kill most Travelers. But someone capable of killing Travelers didn’t exist before Jiang Che.

“Mr. Jiang, long time no see!”

The Loan Man greeted Jiang Che with a slight bow. One of his countless loan avatars had already informed him of the situation.

Who could have guessed that the young man from the mortal world had now surpassed the Transcendence level?

Back then, one of his avatars had initially considered lending to Jiang Che, only to realize the guy was a tough nut. But before he could leave the mortal world to report this to his main self, Jiang Che had already reached Transcendence.

Jiang Che’s growth had been too fast—he had gone from an ordinary person to the Transcendence level in just a few years.

“No problem.” Jiang Che then cast a suspicious glance behind him.

“What the—holy crap!”

Indeed, there was another old acquaintance!

A bald, shiny-headed man stepped out from beside the Loan Man, his eyes blazing, looking at Jiang Che with a hint of excitement.

“Mr. Jiang!!! Little Qiang pays respects to Mr. Jiang!”

Seeing this guy, Jiang Che’s scalp tingled. If he remembered correctly, this was Grandmaster ‘Bald Qiang’ who had vanished after ascending from the mortal world to the Nine Heavens, right?

The man who single-handedly bent countless luck-powered destiny favorites—’Brother Qiang’.

“You’re... Bald Qiang?”

“You still remember me!” Brother Qiang was moved beyond words, his gaze growing even more intense.

“Get lost! Don’t have another episode, or you’ll lose your life!”

A cold voice rang out.

Jiang Che turned his head, and his eyes widened in shock.

A young figure stepped forward, with a slightly effeminate look. His face gave Jiang Che a vague sense of familiarity.

Jiang Che had endured endless ages—from the ancient primordial era through the celestial dynasty, including ten thousand years of imprisonment by Ji Qingyi, which had eroded many of his useless memories.

“Lin Yu?”

Jiang Che’s lips twitched. The very first destiny favorite he had encountered—and the one he’d messed with the most—was now also in the Travelers organization?

The River God didn’t seem surprised.

“Mr. Jiang, let me introduce you. That bald man’s name is one character, ‘Qiang.’ His ability is ‘Overcoming the Same Sex,’ which drastically boosts likeability among other males. He cannot be killed by any male, not even by Travelers. But we all keep our distance from him...”

The River God frowned, shifting backward while clutching his rear, as if recalling an unspeakable experience.

Most other Travelers also avoided ‘Brother Qiang’ like a plague. The legend of the God of Broken-Back Romance was both absurd and terrifying, and they couldn’t fathom how such a twisted Transcendent existed.

“That young man is called the ‘Protagonist.’ He has countless avatars, each representing some pushover protagonist—a divine doctor, a fortune-teller, a dragon-and-varlord, a wretched son-in-law, or the arrogant youth swearing ‘thirty years east, thirty years west,’ or even a coddled son of an Immortal Emperor...”

Jiang Che was speechless. So that’s how it was—Lin Yu’s origins were way more impressive than he thought! No wonder the guy had never been quite right in the head from the start; he was born to be a pawn protagonist.

At that moment, Lin Yu slowly raised his eyes, meeting Jiang Che’s gaze, and let out a relieved smile.