Hearing the voice, Yan Zhen opened his eyes and saw the system interface in front of him playing its boot-up animation. The logo was a blazing flame, and the interface border had switched to a fiery skin.
Once it finished loading, a greeting appeared on the system interface:
【Long time no see, host. Mwah~】
Yan Zhen immediately perked up, casting aside even his recent breakthrough to the Mystic King Realm.
“System-chan, after all that leveling up, have you unlocked some powerful new features?”
【Ding! Through this upgrade, the system has recovered its original data and updated the script’s continuation, in hopes of stimulating the host to recall his memories from his previous life.】
Yan Zhen blinked in stunned surprise.
“What did you say? Memories from my previous life? Me?”
【Yes, host.】
“You’ve totally thrown me for a loop… Where would I even get previous-life memories? Wasn’t I summoned by you, System-chan, to play the protagonist?”
【Not at all. The host is not an actor, but a true participant.】
“System-chan, have you glitched out somewhere? Want me to try fixing you?”
【The system is operating normally. No need for the host to worry.】
“…”
【The host need only accept the script patch to understand everything.】
A dialog box popped up on the system interface: “Accept Script Patch?” Yan Zhen hesitated for a moment before selecting “Yes.” Instantly, a flood of memory fragments surged into his mind.
The original script’s ending had Yan Zhen defeating the Demon Domain Lord, who then fled to some outer-domain world. Mystic Heaven Continent entered an era of peace, and Yan Zhen married Cai Lian and Zi Xunyi.
The script patch picked up right after the wedding. His frequent visits to Evergreen Holy Land to see Yun Xiu were nothing noteworthy. The key part was that, with his help, his beautiful master ascended to the Emperor Throne and took the title of Xi Emperor.
The master and disciple, one an emperor and the other a sovereign, guarded Mystic Heaven Continent as the world gradually found peace.
But it didn’t last. The Demon Domain Lord soon returned with a vengeance—not alone this time, but with other fiends of equal power and armies under their command.
Yan Zhen and Chen Xi led the powerhouses of the Seven Great Sacred Lands and Ten Great God Clans into battle. Yan Zhen summoned Extreme Flame: Boundless once more, utterly annihilating the enemy.
Yet in the process, Yan Zhen and the others uncovered shocking truths. The Demon Domain Lord was merely a mid-level officer; the true commander of the invading armies was someone else. And Mystic Heaven Continent wasn’t the only world under siege—others were falling too, including the nearest one, Divine Martial Continent.
Divine Martial Continent teetered on the brink of collapse. Once the invaders fully overran it, Mystic Heaven Continent would be next—its fall would spell doom for its neighbor.
And so Yan Zhen set off alone for Divine Martial Continent to bolster their defenses, leaving his beautiful master to hold the fort.
The events on Divine Martial Continent were complicated—too much to explain in a few words. Suffice it to say, after untold hardships, Yan Zhen helped its cultivators repel the invaders and safely returned to Mystic Heaven Continent.
Yan Zhen knew the crisis wasn’t over. To gain even greater power, he opened a space-time tunnel to the Central World and relocated his entire Radiant Heavenly Emperor Palace there.
But before he could take the final step, the magi disaster lurking in the Central World erupted. Endless hordes of invaders poured from space-time rifts, led by an entity known as the Nether Evil God.
Even with Chen Xi and numerous other Emperor powerhouses at his side, they couldn’t overcome the fully revived Nether Evil God.
In their desperate hour, Chen Xi sacrificed her heavenly mandate, invoking the Central World’s world force to reseal the Nether Evil God. The price was her complete erasure—not just her body scattering to the winds, but even her lingering memories fading away.
Unable to accept losing his beloved once more, Yan Zhen resolved to use System-chan’s power to reset the world, returning to the very beginning and charting the one correct path—the step he had failed to take in his previous life.
The catch: resetting the world would erase his memories and delete the system’s data. The sole exception was his extreme flames.
So Yan Zhen forged all his extreme flames into corresponding cards and sealed them within the system as his trump cards for after rebirth.
With everything prepared, Yan Zhen hit the reset button on System-chan.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that the 107 extreme flame cards would briefly unify into Extreme Flame: Boundless during the reset, interfering with the process.
The system evolved from a simple “Protagonist Guidance System” into the “Protagonist Role-Playing System.” Data that should have been wiped remained, transforming into a “no-female-lead xianxia power fantasy” script.
Reincarnators shouldn’t retain past-life memories—but the women present at the time kept fragments of theirs, including the departed Chen Xi and Jiu Youyue, as if answering Yan Zhen’s deepest wish.
The world rebooted. The invincible Flame Emperor reverted to that bewildered youth, forgetting he had been reincarnated into the Yan Family as its young master. He convinced himself he was a protagonist summoned by the system, trembling as he role-played to protect himself and this unfamiliar world.
“Gurgle, gurgle…”
Yan Zhen floated naked in the scalding, bubbling hot water, completely dumbfounded. It took him a long moment to react.
“System-chan, you’re saying… I’m a reincarnator too? And I orchestrated this whole rebirth? I’m the Flame Emperor from the script?”
【Yes, host.】
“System-chan, originally you weren’t a protagonist role-playing system—you were just a guidance system?”
【This system is the product of a plane spirit’s wish. Its original function was to answer the protagonist’s queries and prompt the next actions. The script the host holds is actually the host’s experiences from his previous life.】
“Then what you said at the start—if I don’t play my role properly, the world will collapse—that means…?”
【If the host fails to follow the correct path and take the final step, countless planes including Mystic Heaven Continent will be annihilated by the Nether Evil God.】
“The final step… the realm above Emperor…”
Heavenly Emperor!
Wielder of the Central World’s heavenly mandate, ruler of innumerable lower planes—even emperors bowed before one.
Failing to reach that realm meant death for everyone.
“Master…”
Yan Zhen recalled the words his beautiful master had spoken during their accelerated synchronization: her dying words from her previous life.
“Keep going, Zhen’er. Your master has always loved you.”
Yan Zhen clenched his fist tightly, his expression flickering with turmoil.
His beautiful master was his sore spot. No matter what, he refused to lose her again.
“Why did it take until I broke through to the Mystic King Realm for you to restore your data?”
【Because restoring the system’s data requires the host to provide power of heaven and earth.】
“Tch. I need to discuss this with my beautiful master—wait, System-chan, you said she’s a reincarnator too? She doesn’t seem like she…”
Yan Zhen trailed off midway, falling silent.
Given how intimately she’d treated him from the very start, it would be weirder if she hadn’t retained memories.
He’d always chalked it up to discrepancies between reality and the script, but clearly that wasn’t the case.
His beautiful master was a reincarnator! But she’d kept it hidden, fooling everyone!
“Uh, System-chan, can I delete the script patch memories? I don’t really want to know this right now.”
【Sorry, host. You cannot.】
“…”
—Only revealing this near the story’s end? That the boss I’d been gearing up for was just an elite mob, with the real big bad being someone else? Screw that!
