When the smell of medicine lingered for too long, it turned into a heavy, suffocating bitterness. Before the liquid even touched the tongue, the tip was already numb. Heavy curtains blocked out the candlelight, and the dim environment brewed a sinister atmosphere. The excessive quiet made the flow of air seem sluggish and heavy, breeding frustration in one’s heart.
Beneath the brocade quilt, a porcelain-white, frail hand trembled imperceptibly. Immediately following that, the person who had been unconscious for who knows how long slowly opened his eyes.
His eye sockets were excessively dry. Cen Xianyun blinked, and physiological tears moistened his eyes, bringing a faint flush of red to their corners.
He tried to move, but the muscles throughout his body refused to obey. Like a terracotta figurine formed by pouring liquid mud into a mold, he was locked in a single posture, unable to budge even after expending all his strength.
The hollow emptiness in his chest expanded as his consciousness awakened. Cen Xianyun pressed his lips tightly together, tasting a bitter, metallic tang.
This was not a good feeling.
“System?”
He called out softly in his mind as a test, but received no response for a long time.
The sea of consciousness was completely empty. The System, which had never left him once throughout his entire career, had vanished without a trace at this moment.
Cen Xianyun could not describe his current mood. He felt like a young elephant chained by the neck for so long that it had lost the ability to run toward freedom. Even when the chain disappeared, it merely stood in place, at a complete loss.
“Master.”
A tender, lingering voice sounded. Cen Xianyun was startled, for he had not noticed a second person breathing at all.
A plain white, slender hand pulled aside the airtight curtains, and a long sleeve as black as ink passed before his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, that person was already at the bedside.
“Ah…” Cen Xianyun opened his mouth, but only a vague murmur squeezed out of his throat. His throat felt as if it had been scorched by fire, hurting so much that he could barely articulate a coherent syllable.
“Don’t rush.”
The person sat on a low stool beside the bed. His peerlessly handsome face enlarged before Cen Xianyun’s eyes, a countenance that ought to make people swoon.
However, such breathtaking beauty was ruined by the dark circles beneath his eyes and the sinister gloom hidden between his brows. His pitch-black pupils were bottomless, resembling an abyss using a calm facade to conceal danger, instilling instinctive dread.
Having traveled through countless mini-worlds and resolved endless crises, Cen Xianyun felt little fear even though the System was out of contact and he himself was immobile. He calmly and carefully scrutinized the person before him.
Even though the man before him was like night and day compared to the ignorant, silly little cat, Cen Xianyun still managed to spot a faint resemblance in his features.
The little cat grown up had actually turned out like this.
An indescribable emotion rolled across his heart like a round drop of water, making him feel inexplicably restless.
“Master.” Noticing that Cen Xianyun’s mind was wandering, the man’s deep voice carried an underlying warning, “What are you thinking about again?”
What was he thinking about?
Cen Xianyun lowered his eyes, avoiding Xie Lingyou’s threatening gaze.
He was thinking about how a cat that was a bit full of bad ideas, but still reasonably bright and sunny, had grown so twisted. He was also wondering if his current immobility was because he had already been sliced into pieces, with only his head remaining.
Finally, he wondered whether, if he really were down to just a head right now, it meant he had virtually completed the task. The primary rule for a quick-transmigration task-taker was that the process did not matter as long as there was a result.
Seeing that Cen Xianyun not only failed to restrain himself, but was actually wandering off even more brazenly, the man was so enraged that he could no longer maintain his polite facade. He let out a low, furious bark: “Ling Heng!”
Cen Xianyun blinked, saying nothing.
He had already experienced the pain of opening his mouth moments ago. Since only a brief moment had passed, he naturally would not look for trouble.
However, to prevent the twisted Xie Lingyou from committing a crime of passion, he still blinked and cast a glance as a response.
“Xie Lingyou” suddenly seemed to deflate. He leaned down, resting his cheek against the back of Cen Xianyun’s hand outside the quilt. The words he breathed out were filled with lingering affection: “I missed you so much.”
?
Cen Xianyun froze for a moment, his pupils shrinking without disguise before returning to composure a moment later.
He understood. He understood completely. When it came to a deeply hated enemy, one would naturally think of them day and night.
He did not know how long his current state could last. It would be best if he died instantly the moment “Xie Lingyou” made a move. Although it was a bit embarrassing to admit, he was actually quite afraid of pain.
“Zzz!”
A harsh, long screech exploded in his ears like a bomb. Cen Xianyun instinctively knitted his brows, wanting to raise his hands to cover his ears, but his body refused to obey.
Immediately after, a surge of warmth spread from his chest, and his limbs, which he could not feel earlier, suddenly regained a faint sense of presence.
Along with the intrusion of electrical currents, the scene before his eyes gradually crumbled, exposing a blue background. Dense rows of numbers packed closely together, resembling countless flies flapping their wings in a chaotic dance.
The crackling noise of leaking electrical currents grew louder and louder. The entire world seemed to fall into chaos and collapse. Right at this moment, Cen Xianyun’s vision brightened. An oval, golden egg-shaped avatar appeared out of thin air, with a halo of white light falling around its shell like holy light, bright yet not glaring.
The egg avatar let out a joyful shout, looking like a deity descending: 【Host, I’ve come to save you!】
Cen Xianyun pressed his lips together with a complex expression. Looking at the egg avatar’s ludicrous face, all his doubts about the current situation were thrown out of his mind, turning into genuine confusion: “Is this the new skin you’ve been looking forward to for so long?”
The halo expanded like an enlarging wormhole. The body illuminated by it returned to normal. Cen Xianyun propped himself up to sit, instinctively touching his intact wrist.
【Is it not good-looking?】
Rarely able to come outside the sea of consciousness, the System was like a pet dog that had been cooped up for years, unable to resist running around Cen Xianyun two or three times, displaying itself thoroughly top to bottom: 【This is the Supreme VIP Super Deluxe Package!】
“It cost one hundred and eighty thousand points,” Cen Xianyun interrupted the System with his chin propped on his hand, feeling emotional, “The System’s money sure is easy to earn.”
Although he was bantering with the System, his attention remained focused not far ahead. From the moment the System appeared, “Xie Lingyou” had frozen in place as if under a binding spell.
Yet those eyes…
Cen Xianyun inexplicably felt that the man could still see him.
Logically, the System’s shielding should have taken effect. Even if Xie Lingyou was the Child of Fortune of the mini-world, he should not have been able to break through a force from beyond this world.
The System was still showing off the expensive new skin it bought, completely forgetting their previous disagreement and eagerly wanting to demonstrate its uniqueness to the host:
【Host, look…】
“Master.”
Two voices sounded simultaneously. The System’s cheerful expression froze instantly, and the egg avatar’s virtually non-existent neck turned with difficulty, crashing unprepared into Xie Lingyou’s deep, pitch-black eyes.
It shuddered, its fingers trembling like a short-circuiting wire, shaking nonstop.
In contrast, Cen Xianyun was much calmer. He even leisurely pressed down the System’s trembling hand, his voice calm to the point of indifference: “How much longer?”
In some mini-worlds featuring immortal cultivation or supernatural elements, brief spatiotemporal turbulence causing the previous cycle’s story to overlap with the current timeline was a normal occurrence. With the System’s power, spending a bit of time to return to the normal timeline was not difficult.
Of course, that was assuming nobody blocked them.
The young Long Aotian was wretched and down on his luck, easily stepped on by anyone. But the Long Aotian after his comeback…
As the Child of Fortune who had attained the Grand Dao, trapping an outsider like him and the System was no difficult task.
【Ten seconds!】
The System dove headfirst into the sea of consciousness, throwing itself onto the control panel. However, the egg avatar’s tiny hands and feet doubled its trouble, forcing it to waste time cursing while adjusting the panel’s height and size.
【Fifteen seconds!】
This was the first time Cen Xianyun had heard a countdown that increased.
He let out a sigh, looking at “Xie Lingyou” sitting on the low stool. The black robe wrapped him tightly, making the small exposed section of his neck look piercingly white.
The halo brought by the System fell on his sharp-featured face, making his defined angles look even sharper, adding a touch of harshness and cruelty out of nowhere.
Coupled with the gloom between his brows, “Xie Lingyou” did not look like a Child of Fortune destined for ascension, but rather a ruthless, venomous villain.
“Xie Lingyou” allowed Cen Xianyun to examine him, even curling his lips slightly into a smile to cover up his ugly, dark side. However, in the eyes of the System and Cen Xianyun, such a smile was no different from a provocation.
“Master.”
A pale hand reached out from the wide black sleeve. The moment it touched the light screen, it brought a burning pain, accompanied by the continuous sizzling sound of scorched flesh.
As if unable to feel the pain, he resolutely reached through the light screen and loosely grasped Cen Xianyun’s wrist.
Cen Xianyun did not resist; or rather, he could not resist.
That suffocating feeling of being unable to move swept over his entire body once again. The System was operating data with sweat dripping down its face, unable to spare a hand to rescue its helpless host.
“Have you ever thought of me?” The bright red lips opened and closed, uttering words that sounded like a young lover softly acting spoiled to an elder, asking for more endearments, “Just once would be enough, even if only once.”
Cen Xianyun’s expression turned exceedingly strange. He endured the icy sensation on his wrist that felt like a venomous snake coiling around it, suppressing the urge to question the System in his mind. The top priority was to leave this place quickly; everything else could wait for later.
【Three seconds!】 The System’s tiny chicken claws moved with difficulty across the control panel. As the progress bar reached the end, it shouted to remind Cen Xianyun to prepare.
Just as Cen Xianyun was thinking about how to catch “Xie Lingyou” off guard and shake off his hand, “Xie Lingyou” released him on his own initiative. Large patches of red marks appeared on his hand where the light screen had burned it, with severe spots even bleeding deep red like red plum blossoms blooming on his wrist.
His eyes, whose expressions had been obscured, finally revealed human emotion, showing profound sorrow. He asked, “Are you leaving?”
【We are off, Host!】
Hearing the System’s answer, Cen Xianyun fell backward without hesitation, for the System had placed the exit portal on the bed.
The distortion of time and space swallowed all sound, but just before leaving, Cen Xianyun caught “Xie Lingyou’s” lip movement clearly. He said:
“I will wait for you.”