Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Thus, before meeting Chen San, Qin Zhou first encountered Shen Yun—

Shen Yun, who was tied up with ropes and thrown on the ground.

Although Qin Zhou had previously assessed that Shen Yun’s strength likely surpassed the Golden Core realm, it was of no use.

Shen Yun excelled in beast-controlling arts.

But the beast-controlling arts were utterly powerless against the Divine Myriadspirit…

Not even a shred.

If Qin Zhou, due to his game-granted title, naturally gained 20 points of favorability from spirit beasts across the realms, then Fourteen’s natural physique likely granted him around 30 points.

With this 30-point base favorability, combined with his ability to communicate with spirit beasts…

Unless it was a mortal enmity, no spirit beast would easily attack Fourteen.

In fact, if the will of a beast-tamer’s contracted spirit beast was weak, it might even turn traitor for the Divine Myriadspirit.

"Chief, this guy is from that so-called Spirit Mountain Realm!" Fourteen shouted loudly.

"This guy wandered into my territory, so I caught him!" Fourteen boasted.

Shen Yun lay on the ground, while the Wind Sparrow frantically pecked at Fourteen’s shoes in distress. But Fourteen paid no attention—completely heartless.

"Senior, please listen to my explanation… Though I am from the Spirit Mountain Realm, I have never harmed anyone. This body was already a dying vessel—I did not murder anyone to take it…"

When he claimed he had never harmed anyone, Fourteen felt a bit guilty. "If you haven’t harmed anyone, then all I did was tie you up… Anyway, as long as you cooperate, the Chief will let you go once he says so!"

Only then did Shen Yun painfully raise his head and look at the so-called "Chief."

At this sight, Shen Yun froze.

This was...

He had met this senior once before! Shen Yun quickly called out, "Senior, do you remember me? Last time at the spirit beast frontier, you even fed my Wind Sparrow a pill!"

The Wind Sparrow twisted its head, staring at Qin Zhou, cheeping excitedly.

Candy Uncle!

Hearing the Wind Sparrow’s address, Fourteen was stunned—the Chief knows him?

Qin Zhou: "Untie him. He’s not a bad person."

Foureen: "You know him?"

Wen Jue, who had been silently watching from the side, kept uncharacteristically silent.

Someone from the Spirit Mountain Realm again…

…

Finally freed, Shen Yun let out a relieved breath and stood up from the ground.

"Thank you, Senior," he added, mopping his brow, before addressing Fourteen. "Honored Senior, though I am from the Spirit Mountain Realm, I harbor no malice toward any of you."

"Those not of our kin can't be trusted," the youth named Fourteen said suspiciously. "That person from the Spirit Mountain Realm last time was involved in the Demon-Slaying Plan."

Shen Yun felt he was at a loss to defend himself.

It was true that he had possessed someone else's corpse first and traveled around in it, but he truly had no intention of harming anyone.

Fortunately, Qin Zhou cut in to defuse the situation, "Since you belong to the Spirit Mountain Realm, how did you end up here?"

Shen Yun said with a helpless sigh, "*Senior*, I was actually chasing someone."

This answer caught everyone off guard.

He wasn't dragged here forcibly through that broken rift due to the Will of the Heavens?

"Explain in detail."

The youth named Fourteen brought over two stools, one for Lu Yi and one for himself.

Wen Jue patted his head approvingly—such a thoughtful child.

The youth named Fourteen swatted his hand away—get lost!

Standing between the three of them like an interrogated prisoner, Shen Yun said, "I came here because I was chasing someone. When the dimensional rift opened, I was in the middle of rooting out a traitor from my sect. To escape me, that person desperately leapt into the rift."

Qin Zhou didn't doubt him. A dimensional rift? He was surely describing the hole Lu Yi created when he struck at heaven. When the Will of the Heavens pulled his soul here, it must have also opened an entrance to the Spirit Mountain Realm.

This caused the same rift to appear there as well.

The rift couldn't have remained open long, and few souls likely fell through—otherwise, the Will of the Heavens would've taken action by now.

After this thought, he continued listening.

"...In the Spirit Mountain Realm, I belong to a sect. That person was a traitor who killed several fellow disciples and stole their bonded spirit beasts. No matter what, I had to take his life to make an example of him. So, I also jumped into the rift."

"Passing through the rift, I arrived here," Shen Yun recalled. "But since I'm not of this world, I came without a physical body—only my soul crossed over. To search for him, I borrowed this corpse of a Lingqi Mountain disciple to reanimate. But then..."

Shen Yun looked ashamed. "I got so caught up in the history of this era, thousands of years before my time, that I completely forgot about my mission."

The youth named Fourteen was completely lost. "What history from thousands of years ago?"

Shen Yun bowed respectfully. "If I'm not mistaken, all of you would be my ancestors. To you, I should be someone from thousands of years in the future."

The youth named Fourteen: ?

This made even less sense now.

Seeing the youth named Fourteen's confusion, Shen Yun tried to explain more plainly. "Take the supreme treasure in the Boundary City's secret realm, for example... that illustrated compendium documenting ten thousand spirit beasts—I've even seen it. In fact, that compendium currently belongs to me and is a sacred relic of my sect."

"When I first learned this world also had the 'Compendium of Ten Thousand Beasts,' I was shocked. I initially thought the traitor had stolen our sect's treasure and chased him all the way to Boundary City. But after hearing local accounts, I realized that in this world, the Compendium of Ten Thousand Beasts doesn't belong to my sect. In fact... none of the upper realm sects here are mine."

"Later, after journeying across this world, I came to understand—this must be the Spirit Mountain Realm thousands of years in the past."

Qin Zhou didn't remember ever setting the "Myriad Heavens Realm" as the predecessor of the "Spirit Mountain Realm."

From a game design perspective, that wouldn't have been possible.

The Myriad Heavens Realm was the save file for the "Immortal Cultivation Village" game, while the Spirit Mountain Realm was an entirely separate game. There might have been some personal references in the worldbuilding, but beyond that, the two shouldn't have overlapping elements.

After all, copyright issues were troublesome. If there were too many similarities, he wouldn't be Qin Zhou—he'd be in court.

The creature compendium Shen Yun possessed in the Spirit Mountain Realm couldn't possibly be the same as the one from the Heavens Realm.

But why was Shen Yun so certain?

"How can you tell?" Qin Zhou asked.

Shen Yun gave a knowing smile. "Do you all know of the Lord of the Heavens?"

Qin Zhou: "..."

Wen Jue, however, chuckled. "We do. So what?"

"The Lord of the Heavens is the Creator God of our Spirit Mountain Realm," Shen Yun sighed. "In the Heavens Realm, legends say the Lord of the Heavens has ascended beyond, while in the Spirit Mountain Realm, there are also tales of the Creator God."

Qin Zhou: "..."

Perfect. Now he had two cringeworthy titles.

"Of course, we don’t know where the Creator God is now. The Spirit Mountain Realm is currently overrun by spirit beasts, and we too await the Creator God’s return." Shen Yun sighed again. "As for why I’m so certain the Lord of the Heavens and the Creator God are the same person... it’s because..."

"The Creator God has a descendant, an ascended elder—his name is Lu Yi."

The moment those last two words were spoken, Fourteen’s eyes nearly popped out. "You’re sure his name is Lu Yi? An ascended elder?" Fourteen glanced between Shen Yun and the man beside him.

Wen Jue, meanwhile, simply looked at a certain man trying to keep a straight face. Hm? An ascended elder?

"Absolutely certain. In the annals of the Spirit Mountain Realm, Elder Lu Yi single-handedly quelled countless spirit beasts, bringing peace to our realm. After that, he peacefully ascended." Shen Yun’s tone grew increasingly somber. "If Elder Lu Yi were still present, the Spirit Mountain Realm wouldn’t be overrun by those creatures now."

Wen Jue coughed, fidgeting slightly.

Qin Zhou really had given him quite the backstory.

"When I first arrived and learned that Elder Lu Yi was from this world, I was just as shocked. But I later heard that after his disappearance as a disciple of the Cangyun Sword Sect, he never reappeared."

"Moreover, that creature compendium was originally the possession of the Creator God."

The existence of Elder Lu Yi, the compendium pointing to the Creator God—

In the end, Shen Yun reached a conclusion.

The black hole that suddenly appeared over the Spirit Mountain Realm had to be a time rift, leading to this world from an unknown number of years ago—the world where Elder Lu Yi and the Creator God resided.

Qin Zhou furrowed his brow. "Wen Jue, do me a favor."

Wen Jue raised a brow. "Go on."

"Go back and retrieve that book from the warehouse." If Wen Jue went, he could just astral project back—it’d be instant.

He needed to verify a theory.

If this compendium was the same as the one Shen Yun had in the Spirit Mountain Realm...

Then the two worlds were likely merging.

And the reason was probably Lu Yi’s existence. The same Lu Yi existed in both worlds, and to rectify the timeline, the realm's natural laws were auto-correcting to patch the timeline.

As for the cause of the merging... it was likely because he, in human form, had appeared in the Heavens Realm.

"Hold tight." Wen Jue knew exactly what he meant. With those two words, he blinked out of existence.

Lu Shisi was still hung up on the story Shen Yun had shared. Wait—the Creator God and the ascended senior? If Lu Yi was the ascended senior, then didn’t that mean the Creator God was the village chief?

“In that world of yours, is there no one named Lu Shisi?” Shisi’s wide eyes brimmed with hope.

Shen Yun shook his head apologetically. “No.”

Shisi frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”

There was a village chief, there was Lu Yi—how could there not be a Shisi?!

“What about Lu Er or Lu San?” Shisi doggedly pressed further.

Shen Yun’s face clouded over as he listened, his brows furrowing with displeasure. “Senior, do you think I’m lying? Even if I’m nobody special, I wouldn’t fabricate a story to deceive anyone. Senior Lu Yi is called Lu Yi—there’s no Lu Er, no Lu San, and certainly no Shisi.”

Shisi flinched at his glare. “…I didn’t mean it like that.”

“In this world, Lu Yi has ninety-nine siblings,” Qin Zhou interjected, casually patting Shisi’s head. “The one named Shisi is Senior Lu Yi’s favorite little brother.”

Shisi’s face lit up with a grin. “Yes, that’s exactly what I meant.”

Shen Yun’s cheeks burned as he finally understood. “I thought… the senior was mocking Senior Lu Yi’s name.” It slipped his mind—this was Senior Lu Yi’s world, so having siblings was only natural.

But…

Ninety-nine… that’s excessive, isn’t it?

Wait.

Now that he thought about it, “You are…?”

Shen Yun suddenly realized he had explained so much to them, yet he still didn’t know who they were.

Especially Qin Zhou, who sat directly in front of him.

Last time they’d met, the guy had been a Golden Core cultivator, just like now. He had assumed that was all there was to it, but clearly, Qin Zhou was more than just a Golden Core cultivator.

After all, the senior who’d hauled him in like a stray pup was now acting downright submissive in front of this man.

“I’m Qin Zhou.”

Shisi squared his shoulders. “I’m Shisi, Lu Shisi.” Nobody asked, but he declared it anyway, chest puffed out.

—The one named Shisi is your Senior Lu Yi’s favorite little brother.

The words hit Shen Yun like a brick, freezing him in place.

This guy was the little brother of his most revered senior?!

Shen Yun’s eyes widened a fraction.

No, even this Senior Shisi himself was extraordinary.

He could straight-up talk to spirit beasts.

Back in the Lingshan Realm, that’d be seen as a once-in-a-lifetime talent.

Shen Yun dragged a hand down his face before bowing deeply. “My earlier disrespect was out of line. I beg your pardon, seniors.”

Shisi brushed it aside. “No big deal.”

"...Elder Fourteen, do you know where Elder Lu Yi is?" Shen Yun asked cautiously.

Was it possible that entering this void could lead him to meet the elder he longed to see?

What was Elder Lu Yi like now? Did he already possess the legendary sword strike that would later slay demons?

Hearing this, Fourteen gestured toward the empty spot beside him.

Shen Yun blinked.

Fourteen cracked a grin. "That was Lu Yi standing here a second ago."

Shen Yun: "..."

Just now?

So that means...

He had already met Elder Lu Yi back at the border! Shen Yun, you fool, how could you not realize?!

Just as Shen Yun took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself down... someone knocked on the village gate—

"Young master, you in there? It's Chen San."

Qin Zhou's gaze sharpened.

Chen San was here.

"Fourteen, take Shen Yun and hide."

Baffled but obedient, Fourteen ushered Shen Yun and Wind Sparrow into hiding.

"Know how to mask your presence?"

Shen Yun gave a quick nod.

Wind Sparrow bobbed its tiny head. "Peep!"