Yan Zhen had naturally returned to complete the system task.
There were only two role-playing requirements: save Yun Xiu and repel the Infant Spirit.
However, Yun Xiu had teleported him a full hundred li away—twice the fifty li described in the script. It was utterly absurd.
Fortunately, he had just obtained the Special Trump Card: Paired Wings Flight. After activating it, he flapped those wings and shot back in a flash; otherwise, he truly would not have made it in time.
The system interface displayed “Completion: 50%.” Yan Zhen instructed Yun Xiu to wait there temporarily before heading out alone to confront the Infant Spirit.
Yun Xiu jumped in alarm and grabbed him at once.
“Are you insane? That little girl is a Mystic Ancestor expert!”
In her previous life, Yun Xiu had succumbed to the corrosive poison of the blood bullet rain and fallen unconscious almost immediately, so she had no idea that Yan Zhen had already clashed with the Infant Spirit outside. Was the plan not simply to hide quietly here until she left on her own?
Truth be told, Yan Zhen had not understood it at first himself. Why risk going outside to posture instead of staying safely in the Fire Refining Starry Sky? But he quickly realized the truth: if you had the chance to flex and didn’t take it, were you even a protagonist in a power fantasy novel?
Besides, he had lost a ton of persona points lately and desperately needed to rack up some showy feats to make up for it.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
Yan Zhen gave a faint smile, then activated the Star Shifting Fire Seal and departed, reappearing at the spot where Yun Xiu had stood moments before.
The Infant Spirit watched as her blood tide crashed into empty air. In Yun Xiu’s place appeared a youth of merely the Mystic Master Realm, a pair of wings sprouting from his back.
Her senses could no longer detect Yun Xiu’s aura anywhere within ten li. There was only this boy.
“Who are you? Where is that woman?”
Yan Zhen hovered silently in midair, hands clasped behind his back. Indifferently, he declared,
“This Seat has already relocated Yun Xiu elsewhere. For Jiuyou’s sake, This Seat will spare your life this once—begone.”
A glint of killing intent flashed in the Infant Spirit’s eyes. A mere Mystic Master whelp daring to posture before her?
She flicked her finger. A streak of crimson blood-light lanced straight toward Yan Zhen, passing cleanly through his body.
It did not pierce him. It simply passed through.
There was no hole in Yan Zhen’s body, nor any blood.
The Infant Spirit’s pupils contracted. In that instant, she had distinctly sensed a ripple of spatial power:
“Spatial power… A Mystic Venerable?”
Indifference deepened in Yan Zhen’s gaze:
“Depart swiftly, before This Seat reconsiders.”
The Infant Spirit’s face remained impassive, but wariness crept into her hollow eyes.
She could still fight a low-star Mystic Venerable. But this one had spirited Yun Xiu away without a sound and rendered her attack futile. At the very least, he was a five-star powerhouse.
Against a five-star Mystic Venerable, she stood no chance.
With that, the Infant Spirit wheeled about without hesitation and fled, vanishing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Yan Zhen held his hands-behind-back pose and activated the Star Shifting Fire Seal once more, vanishing back into the Fire Refining Starry Sky.
“Chen Zhen! Are you all right?”
Yun Xiu rushed forward. Yan Zhen waved her off.
“I’m fine. That zombie-faced little loli got scared off by me. We’re safe now.”
Seeing that he bore no injuries, Yun Xiu breathed a sigh of Mystic relief.
Yan Zhen relaxed as well, bit by bit.
Facing a Mystic Ancestor expert without a trace of nerves? That would be a lie. Fortunately, his acting chops were rock-solid. He had perfectly impersonated a Mystic Venerable powerhouse, sending that Mystic Ancestor little loli scampering away scared shitless. Heh heh heh~
He awarded himself 82 points for that flex. The rest? Straight epic wins to himself.
Lately, as a reader, Yan Zhen had grown weary of these posturing-and-slapping tropes. But now that he was the one doing the flexing in person, he finally understood just how exhilarating it was.
“‘Scared off’? What do you mean?” Yun Xiu asked, puzzled. “What did you do to her?”
Yan Zhen gave a simple recap of his expert-posturing act from moments ago.
Yun Xiu listened, then pursed her lips in amusement.
“You’re really daring. What if she’d seen through you?”
Yan Zhen shrugged.
“If she had, I’d have just bolted back here.”
No one below the Mystic Venerable Realm could interrupt his recall.
Yun Xiu gazed at Yan Zhen’s handsome young face, her eyes brimming with affection.
“Thank you, Chen Zhen. You’ve saved me again.”
“No need for thanks between us,” Yan Zhen replied shyly. “By the way, are you injured? I’ve got some pills here.”
He recalled how, in the script, Yun Xiu had been grievously wounded, teetering on the brink of death. Only by begging the beautiful master to intervene had her life been saved. But things seemed different now—no such necessity.
“I’m fine,” Yun Xiu said, shaking her head. She hesitated briefly before asking, “What is this place?”
Yan Zhen blinked.
“This… this is the inner space of one of my secret treasures—”
“—Zhen’er.”
The beautiful master’s voice cut Yan Zhen off, filling him with a sudden sense of dread.
The moment the words faded, Yan Zhen and Yun Xiu were transported from the altar’s edge to its center. The beautiful master’s figure stepped forth from the void. Her translucent silhouette gradually took on color, solidifying into flesh and blood.
Silver-white locks cascaded down her back, her eyes gleamed like flawless glass, and she wore a flowing black dress with wide sleeves—accentuated by G-cup breasts ample enough to encompass the world itself. Yan Zhen thought she looked even more breathtaking than usual, as if she had taken special care with her appearance.
A rare sight indeed—the beautiful master had actually dolled herself up. Yan Zhen marveled to himself.
“Greetings, Master,” Yan Zhen said with a salute. He quickly added by way of explanation, “We were being pursued, so we ducked in here to hide. Sorry for disturbing you, Master.”
Yun Xiu lowered her head as well. In her previous life, Master Chen Xi had never cared much for her, so this time she resolved to make a better impression.
“This junior, Yun Xiu, greets… greets Master.”
Only after the words left her mouth did she realize her error. Addressing the master so directly made it sound as though she were close to Yan Zhen. Her lovely cheeks flushed crimson, and she hastily corrected herself.
“No, this junior spoke rashly—there’s no such implication… What this junior meant was ‘greetings, Senior.'”
Yan Zhen glanced at Yun Xiu in surprise, baffled by her sudden nervousness. She was acting like a girl meeting her boyfriend’s parents.
Chen Xi regarded Yun Xiu with icy detachment—this “vicious woman” who had inflicted the deepest wounds on Yan Zhen in her previous life.
“No introductions needed. This Seat knows who you are.”
Eh? Yun Xiu froze. Yan Zhen’s expression shifted dramatically!
—Master, no, please don’t—don’t say it!
Alas, Chen Xi could not hear the frantic pleas of her precious disciple. She pressed on.
“You are the Great Palace Lord of Cloud Heaven Palace, the National Advisor of the Garo Kingdom, one of the Kingdom’s Top Ten Powerhouses and Top Ten Beauties—and most crucially, you are the master of that Huangfu family girl, Zhen’er’s fiancée. Correct?”
Yun Xiu’s breath caught. Her eyes widened slowly, and a faint tremor ran through her delicate frame. She denied it on instinct.
“This junior is not—”
“At this point, is there any need to hide?” Chen Xi smiled faintly, her expression softening with gentle warmth. “Zhen’er recognized you ages ago but was too bashful to say so outright. The boy is awfully shy.”
“!!!”
Struck as if by lightning, Yun Xiu whipped her head toward Yan Zhen, desperately hoping it was untrue. But the youth averted his gaze in embarrassment, tacitly confirming every word.
