At the same time.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The commotion from the battle had drawn the attention of the Elders from the Taichu Holy Land, who now flew over from afar.
Qin Luo sensed something and seemed to recall an idea in his mind.
"Young Mistress."
"Hmm?"
"I’ve figured out a way to return."
Su Muwan froze for a second—then—
Whoosh!
The Elders of the Taichu Holy Land descended.
"What happened here?"
"Gasp! That demoness beside the Holy Son! Doesn’t she look exactly like the Frostfiend?!"
"Impossible! The Sect Master is supposed to be suppressing that fiend!"
"Could it be...?"
"The fiend has broken free!"
"Demoness! Release our Holy Son at once!"
A barrage of accusations flew their way.
Su Muwan rolled her eyes so hard she might’ve strained them.
These people were beyond hopeless.
Instead of responding, Qin Luo simply wrapped an arm around Su Muwan’s shoulder in full view of everyone.
Then—
BOOM!!!
A surge of shadowy energy erupted from his body, causing everyone’s pupils to shrink in shock.
This—! Such overwhelming demonic energy!!
Qin Luo, still holding Su Muwan, slowly levitated into the air. His gaze swept over the crowd as he spoke calmly, "Since you’ve all discovered the truth, I’ll drop the act."
"Su Muwan, the so-called ‘demoness’ in your eyes..."
"...is my Dao Companion."
BOOM—!!
In an instant, everyone’s minds went blank.
Mu Xueyi collapsed to her knees with a thud.
Her lips trembled, her face pale, as she stared in disbelief at Qin Luo holding Su Muwan mid-air.
How... could this be?!
"Demoness!! You’ve bewitched our Holy Son!!"
"Disaster! The demoness has corrupted our sect’s treasure!!"
"Qin Luo, the Holy Son, has fallen to the demoness’ corruption!!"
Su Muwan: ??? What kind of nonsense are they spouting?
The next moment—
As if some condition for their return had been triggered—
A radiant white light enveloped Qin Luo and Su Muwan.
In the blink of an eye, the two vanished into the sky.
The demoness had taken Qin Luo and fled!
Mu Xueyi finally snapped. Clenching her fists—
BANG!
She smashed them into the ground, tears streaming as she sobbed, "Waaah!!"
"What’s the use of all this cultivation power?!"
"My senior brother has become another’s plaything!"
"And I—I couldn’t do anything to stop it!"
"Pure love? What good is pure love?!"
"If I’d confessed sooner, if I hadn’t clung to my pride, he never would’ve been seduced by that demoness!"
"This is all my fault... for letting her take him away."
"That’s right..."
Before the Elders, Mu Xueyi picked up the Demon-Slaying Sword from the ground and pressed it against her throat, declaring with finality:
"Su Muwan! I hate you!!"
"If I can’t defeat you... I’ll make sure to disgust you to death!!"
"If there’s a next life... I’ll become that ‘Su Bailian’ you always talked about!!"
"I’ll steal everything you hold dear!!"
Splat!!
Mu Xueyi reincarnated.
That day, the Taichu Holy Land lost two of its greatest treasures.
Oh, and the Sect Master was gone too.
......
......
9:00 AM.
"Mmm..."
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the curtains, casting a soft glow over the bed.
Su Muwan slowly opened her eyes, greeted by the achingly familiar ceiling above her.
Tears welled up instantly, spilling down her cheeks as she choked out, "Finally... we’re back."
Uwaaaah!!
Can you believe it, folks?!
Finally back from that godforsaken ancient era with no phones, no internet, and no potato chips!!
Hallelujah! Time to indulge in all the entertainment I’ve missed for nearly a month!
"Young Mistress, you’re awake?"
Qin Luo’s voice came from beside her, laced with amusement.
Su Muwan turned her head to see Qin Luo sitting by the bed, holding out a glass of water with a gentle smile. His expression was as calm and warm as ever.
She nodded, accepting the glass while rubbing her eyes and sitting up. After blinking a few times to confirm she was truly back in the real world, she let out a long sigh of relief.
"Luo Luo, how did we get back?" she murmured, puzzled. "How did you figure out the return condition?"
"Simple," Qin Luo replied with a chuckle, brushing a stray lock of hair from her forehead. "Remember the first two times we entered the dream?"
"Once, when you were a child and Jiang Xueqi tried to steal your doll—we fulfilled the return condition after I protected it for you."
"The other time, you became a calamity in the Profound Heaven Realm—we returned after wiping out the pursuers."
"Both instances had one thing in common."
He pinched Su Muwan’s clueless, chubby cheek playfully.
"We advanced the plot."
"This time, by openly declaring our relationship, we triggered the next phase of the story."
"So we returned."
Su Muwan nodded slowly. "Oh! Got it."
"Wait, how much time passed in the real world? Did people notice we were gone?"
Qin Luo raised an eyebrow. "Oh, just one night."
"???"
Su Muwan’s eyes widened. "What?! One night?! That’s impossible! We were there for days!"
"Young Mistress, you still don’t fully grasp the mechanics of this crossing," Qin Luo said, amused.
"Ten years in the Fate Dream Cauldron equals one day in reality."
"Different timeflow rates are a pretty common trope, you know."
"Hey! Don’t say it so casually like it’s no big deal!" Su Muwan grumbled.
"Then how should I say it, Young Mistress... Here, wipe your face."
"Hmph, figure it out yourself... Mmmph—!"
......
......
Meanwhile.
Taichu Holy Land.
Beast Spirit Mountain, back hills.
Su Bailian stared blankly at the ice-blue sword embedded in the rock before her.
[After ten thousand years, Mu Xueyi, I’ve finally found your reincarnation... Draw me forth, and inherit the memories and cultivation of your past life... Hey! Where are you going?!]
"Tch! Who has time for fighting? Sounds like a hassle. Right, Boqi?"
"Woof!"
Su Bailian rolled her eyes and walked off without a second glance.
Just taking Boqi for a post-meal stroll, and she runs into this nonsense?
Expecting her to fight?
Please, did they think she was some battle junkie like Su Muwan?
[Hey! HEY!]
The Demon-Slaying Sword was utterly baffled.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
