“Oh my god, I was just sleeping normally—how did I almost get wiped out?!”
Chen Huaian stared at the alarm clock still ringing beside his bed, then glanced at his phone. The game screen had just flashed a blood-red prompt box when he opened it:
[Warning! Your disciple Li Qingran is about to be executed by the Heavenly Dao for attempting to defy fate!]
He hadn’t even had time to process the words—he just reflexively tapped the “Stop” option that came with the warning. Thank goodness the alert vanished immediately afterward.
He exhaled in relief.
“Damn… that pressure, like a python squeezing your heart. Let me see what the hell happened!”
He’d been asleep during it all, but judging from the status screens of Li Qingran and Yue Qianchi, things had gotten really bad.
[Li Qingran]
- Status: Trapped in an illusion, dazed
- Cultivation Progress: 12/1000 (Early Foundation Establishment)
- Favorability: 99
He couldn’t see Yue Qianchi’s exact favorability or progress, but there was a new line under her status:
<Nightmare Corrosion>
On the screen, Yue Qianchi was running in a frenzy through a foggy world. Her face twisted in terror, as if she were reliving some unbearable memory.
Chen Huaian turned his phone volume to max and listened carefully.
“Fire! So much fire! Stay away… stay away—!”
“Put it out! Someone help! It’s burning—AAAH!”
She tripped over something and fell hard into the mud, then scrambled into a corner, hugging her knees and burying her head in her arms. She trembled as soft sobs escaped her trembling frame.
A prompt appeared:
[Your teammate Yue Qianchi is being corroded by an Illusion Demon. Please assist her immediately!]
“There’s no option on how to help her!” Chen Huaian frantically swiped the screen. No call function, no manual override.
“Wait! Don’t I have a stupidly obedient disciple?!”
He smacked his forehead and quickly tapped into the voice transmission:
“Qingran, your Senior Sister is possessed by a demon! Slap her! Dump a bucket of cold water on her! Whatever it takes—wake her up!”
[Qingran, your sister is possessed by demons. Help her out!]
In the illusion, Li Qingran had been sitting silently, eyes vacant.
The moment Chen Huaian’s voice echoed in her ears, her eyes widened—then welled up with tears.
“Master! You’re… you’re not dead!”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, but amidst the sorrow bloomed joy so powerful it left her breathless.
[Master is alive and well! What do you mean dead? I said I wouldn’t die. Now go help your Senior Sister!]
Li Qingran’s mind snapped back into clarity.
She turned to see Yue Qianchi curled up and trembling, murmuring about fire and screaming.
Li Qingran ran over, but not before she quietly pinched her own side.
…It hurt.
It was real.
Which meant—
Master was still alive.
Everything before had been an illusion.
She had believed that overwhelming grief would be the most unbearable thing. But she hadn’t realized the opposite—that joy could also crush you, leaving you gasping for air.
“Senior Sister! Wake up!”
Li Qingran reached out and waved her hand in front of Yue Qianchi’s face.
But her hand was shoved away.
“Fire! So much fire!” Yue Qianchi shouted.
“Put it out! Can’t you see it, Qingran?! The fire—it’s burning everything!”
Li Qingran hugged her tight. She had never seen Yue Qianchi like this—so afraid, so broken. Her tough, teasing Senior Sister was curled up like a frightened child in a storm.
“Master…” she whispered.
—
Meanwhile, Chen Huaian was distracted, studying his Meridian-Opening Needle Technique, which was just one more upgrade away from Great Perfection.
Once that was complete, he’d be able to safely open all the meridians in his own body. But his earlier words to Li Qingran still echoed:
“Slap her. Ice water. Anything to wake her up.”
Suddenly, two objects materialized in front of Li Qingran:
- A wooden basin full of ice water
- A long whip
And a cold voice in the void said:
[Here. Choose.]
Li Qingran stared at the items, stunned.
“Master… you really want me to treat Senior Sister like this?” She looked distressed. “Isn’t this too cruel?”
The voice gave no reply.
She glanced at Yue Qianchi again, whose condition was worsening by the second.
Clenching her teeth, Li Qingran made a decision.
She pulled the whip from the icy basin and bowed toward Yue Qianchi:
“Senior Sister, forgive me.”
Then—
CRACK!
—
Chen Huaian blinked at the screen.
“…This girl’s a genius.”
Whip soaked in ice water, straight to the backside.
Cold AND painful. A wake-up call with style.
He gave a quiet thumbs up.
But just as he was about to praise her, a new set of krypton options appeared on the screen.
<Break the Illusion Array – Choose Your Method>
- Spend ¥6998 — Use a [Purple Sky Divine Thunder Talisman] to shatter the illusion.
- Spend ¥19998 — Sacrifice your flying sword “Blackscale” and pierce the formation.
- Spend ¥44444 — Temporarily upgrade your avatar to the Nascent Soul stage and unleash the Azure Lotus Sword Canon: Eleventh Form – Nine Heavens Galaxy Slash.
Normal clear, dual clear, super double clear.
Chen Huaian’s gaze shifted between the three.
Then he looked again at the required cost for perfecting his meridian-opening technique.
After a long silence, he let out a deep sigh and looked skyward with a pained expression.
“Wulian Tianzun… this Lingxi Valley and I… truly are fated.”
And with that—
He prepared to spend.
