In another room.
Wang Tongwen was helping Lou Mengling pack up her painting supplies.
For over two years now, he had found various excuses to stay in Gedo.
His art exhibitions had been held one after another.
Successfully bringing contemporary Xia art into the mainstream of J Country's society.
And just as successfully, ensuring he remained by Lou Mengling's side all this time.
He had never asked for anything.
Only appearing quietly whenever she needed him.
Chatting with her, or simply watching her paint in silence.
"Are all these paintings coming with us?" Wang Tongwen carefully rolled up a canvas.
"Yes." Lou Mengling nodded.
She studied the refined man before her.
He was a few years older than Lu Mingye.
Without Lu Mingye's family background or status.
Yet there was a warmth and steadiness about him that made Lou Mengling feel at ease.
These past two years, she had seen clearly.
How much this man had given—for her, for their family.
Lou Mengling's heart wasn't made of stone.
"Mr. Wang." She gathered her courage to speak.
"Yes?"
"Tomorrow... let's take the flight back together."
Wang Tongwen's hands stilled.
He looked up at Lou Mengling.
Her expression was calm, though her eyes betrayed a hint of nervousness.
His heart instantly swelled with overwhelming joy.
He had waited far too long for these words.
He smiled—like a child.
"Of course." He nodded solemnly.
"It would be my honor."
...
Night deepened.
The suite grew quiet.
Everyone had retreated to their rooms, even the energetic Lu Shi'an now peacefully asleep in his crib, breathing evenly.
But Lu Chenyuan felt no drowsiness.
He rose, moving through the familiar suite without turning on lights, guided only by the city's glow through the windows.
He passed the living room sofa—their battlefield during countless late-night strategizing sessions.
He passed the open kitchen—where he'd learned to prepare formula for his son and herbal tonics for his wife.
He paused before the floor-to-ceiling window.
For three years, he had stood here countless times, overlooking the city that had been their prison, calculating every move in their long game.
The sea of lights outside had once felt like an oppressive cage, cold spectators to their ordeal.
Now, they were merely scenery soon to be left behind.
A glass of warm water appeared silently at his side.
He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
"Can't sleep?" Mo Qingli's voice was soft, carrying a sleepy huskiness.
She was awake too—or perhaps she'd known he would be.
Lu Chenyuan took the glass, warmth spreading through his fingertips.
"Saying goodbye to this place," he replied.
Mo Qingli followed his gaze out the window, then scanned the suite—filled with luxury items yet also holding countless memories of their days and nights.
"I thought I'd hate this place with every fiber of my being," she murmured, almost to herself.
After all, this was where her freedom had been taken.
"But here," she paused, turning toward the nursery, her eyes softening instantly,
"is also where Shi'an was born. Where our family truly began."
This place held the humiliation of captivity, the exhaustion of relentless battles.
But also the joy of first-time motherhood, the tender clumsiness of a husband's midnight care.
Every day they had truly leaned on each other for survival.
Lu Chenyuan set down the glass and drew her into his arms.
His chin rested gently against her forehead.
"So we're taking the best parts with us," his deep voice resonated clearly in the quiet night.
They settled onto the window seat.
Mo Qingli nestled against him, finding a comfortable position as she closed her eyes.
For the first time in three years, every tense nerve finally relaxed completely.
"The rest," Lu Chenyuan continued,
"we leave in the past."
No more words of comfort were needed—just his steady embrace.
Time passed unnoticed until the eastern horizon began to pale.
The first morning light pierced the darkness, illuminating the city and the two figures by the window.
And lighting the path of their journey home.
"Dawn's here," Mo Qingli whispered against his chest.
"Yes." Lu Chenyuan kissed the crown of her hair.
"Let's go home."
...
The next morning.
A Gulfstream G700 private jet waited quietly on the dedicated runway at Gedo International Airport.
Lu Chenyuan's family, accompanied by Ambassador Li Wenbo and embassy staff, arrived at the tarmac through VIP channels.
No reporters, no crowds to see them off.
Just the rising sun casting their elongated shadows behind them.
Before boarding,
Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli turned simultaneously for one last look.
At the city that had been their home for three years.
Where they'd endured their hardest times.
And created their happiest memories.
They exchanged a smile, then ascended the airstairs.
The jet soared upward,
Piercing the clouds into clear blue skies.
Inside the cabin, warmth and quiet prevailed.
Lu Shi'an slept soundly in his custom bassinet.
Lou Mengling, Lin Shuhan and Wang Tongwen conversed softly in the rear lounge area.
The spacious main cabin held only Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli.
Seated side by side, they gazed through the large windows at the shrinking land below.
"Chenyuan." Mo Qingli rested her head lightly on his shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"This feels... almost like a dream." Her voice carried the weariness of released tension.
"It's real." Lu Chenyuan took her hand, intertwining their fingers, his warmth enveloping hers.
"We're going home."
Mo Qingli closed her eyes.
Feeling the steady pulse of his palm, the smooth hum of the aircraft.
Yes.
Home.
With their victories, their love, and their future.
Going home.
...
Over ten hours later.
The plane touched down smoothly at Jingzhou International Airport.
When the cabin door opened, the familiar, beloved air of their homeland made everyone's eyes glisten slightly.
No grand welcome ceremony awaited at the foot of the stairs.
Only a handful of people had come to greet them.
Lin Yuan, Ren Qian, Zhang Qi, Su Yang, and Lu Chenyuan's three younger brothers.
And Lu Ruoxi—holding sunflowers, elegant and poised with her distinctive aura of intellectual calm.
Seeing her brother and Mo Qingli descend, Lu Ruoxi stepped forward quickly.
"Brother, Qingli, welcome home."
Her expression maintained the composed restraint of a lifelong researcher.
Yet when her eyes met Lu Chenyuan and Lou Mengling, even she couldn't suppress her emotion.
Lu Chenyuan looked at the family and friends before him.
At the genuine smiles on their faces.
The storm that had engulfed them all for three years had finally subsided completely.
And their new chapter—
Had only just begun.
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
