Great Zhou World
"Long time no see! Wait." Ning Yangyang had spent countless sleepless nights trying to guess whether the immortal-looking Sect Master Qi could still use his extraordinary magical skills after being thrown into this ancient world surrounded by garbled data.
However, when the familiar scenes around her—the smoke of war, the desolate wilderness, the comings and goings of people—distorted and shattered like water after a stone was dropped, and finally replaced by the jagged rocks before her, the howling wind, and the cold gravel under her feet, she truly felt the brutality and invincibility of this so-called "system bug" in her bones. A cold, inescapable sense of fate gripped her.
"Master Qi, let's talk this over," Ning Yangyang's voice trembled slightly. She had already been "teleported" to this desolate and desolate place, with the cold, hard rock behind her, leaving no room for retreat. She could only futilely shrink back, trying to cling to what little support she had. She looked up at the approaching figure, her posture a plea for mercy and a sign of weakness, while deep down she was rapidly calculating a plan to escape. "Back then...back then, it wasn't me who killed you." She spoke quickly, anxious to distance herself from the situation.
"I'm not here for revenge," Qi Yiwen's voice was steady, even strangely gentle, a stark contrast to the menacing aura he exuded. Each step he took smacked the damp, cold gravel of the desolate mountain, producing a distinct, sticky "thump...thump..." sound, like water dripping into a deep pool. This sound should have been subtle, but now it felt like a heavy hammer, hammering repeatedly and with uncanny precision against Ning Yangyang's taut, taut heartstrings, numbing her fingertips. The closer he got, the heavier the invisible pressure grew; the air seemed to stagnate, a suffocating sensation of impending storm.
"But I shouldn't be someone I'm used to." Ning Yangyang's heart was beating wildly in her chest, almost breaking her ribs. She knew too well that this face of hers might deceive others, but it would never be the bright and flawless white moonlight in his heart. Instead of acting poorly, it would be better to go all out and show her cards, perhaps there would still be a chance of survival. The will to survive overwhelmed her fear, and she took a deep breath of the cold air with a fishy smell, mustered all her strength, and stood up suddenly against the cold stone wall. Although her legs were still slightly weak, she forced herself to straighten her back, trying to make her voice sound less vague, "I'm Ning Yangyang, not the person you know."
"I've recently acquired a secret technique," Qi Yiwen said, his lips curling up in a strange, almost unnatural arc. His smile held no warmth, only a chilling enthusiasm. His facial muscles twitched unnaturally, as if countless tiny electric currents were coursing beneath his skin. His once handsome features became sinister and eerie in the twisted smile. His voice shifted, no longer the steady rhythm of earlier, but now laced with a hoarse, metallic excitement. "You can bring the dead back to life. You're perfect for this role." Every word was like a poisoned ice spike, piercing Ning Yangyang's eardrums.
"System, system! Help! Take your bug away quickly! He seems to have gone crazy!" Alarm bells rang in Ning Yangyang's mind, and fear instantly overwhelmed all her rationality. Almost relying on instinct, she turned around and ran desperately in the opposite direction of Qi Yiwen like a frightened rabbit! The gravel under her feet flew under her panicked footsteps. She didn't dare to look back, her heart pounding wildly in her throat, and every breath was filled with the smell of rust and blood. Knowing that the other party could catch up with her in a blink, her only thought at this moment was: run! Every second she could delay was a second! Even if she lived a second longer, it was good!
"Wait, host!" The cold and familiar mechanical voice finally sounded in his mind, with a rare, rapid electrical noise. "I think I've found a solution! The scan results are in, he... he really is the host! But because he failed missions too many times, the system deemed him 'redundant data' and completely forgotten in the first mission world! That's why he was swept up in the fluctuations of our world's jump and was transmitted to this ancient world! He is a 'stranded person' abandoned by the system!"
"So?!" Ning Yangyang screamed desperately in her heart as she ran, her lungs on fire. "Get to the point! How do we get rid of him?! Quick!" However, her desperate steps were suddenly stopped! A bone-chilling chill came not from the cold wind, but from a hand that suddenly grasped her left wrist like an iron clamp! The force was astonishing, instantly crushing her wrist bones. The excruciating pain made her vision black out, and her body was nailed to the spot!
"Ugh!" A shrill scream hadn't yet fully escaped her throat. Qi Yiwen's movements were as swift as a ghost. In his other hand, a dagger, simple in style yet radiating a cold light, appeared. The cold blade pressed against the delicate skin on the inside of her left hand. Without a moment's hesitation, with chilling precision and cruelty, he sliced along the palm of her hand, all the way up, slicing through the flesh and reaching her upper arm! Pain like magma instantly swept through Ning Yangyang's nerves. She could clearly feel the horrific sensation of skin being torn and muscle fibers being severed. Warm blood gushed out like an uncontrolled stream from the horrific wound, deep enough to reveal the bone and torn apart by the flesh!
The scalding blood, carrying the temperature of her life, did not spill onto the ground. Instead, it was strangely attracted to a fist-sized, faintly fluorescent stone held in Qi Yiwen's hand! The blood dripped onto the gray stone surface like water dripping into boiling oil.
Swish!
With a soft ring, the once dim fluorescent stone seemed to be infused with a violent vitality, suddenly bursting with an unimaginable, tangible, dazzling light! The light was as blazing as the midday sun, yet tinged with an unnatural, cold blue. It instantly cast a pale white on the surrounding jagged rocks and Qi Yiwen's face, twisted by her frenzy! In the center of the light, countless mysterious and complex runes flickered, swirled, and intertwined like living things!
That's right! In this ancient world governed by the laws of a secular dynasty, Qi Yiwen, the forgotten "redundant data," was using her blood to forcibly summon a profoundly dangerous magic circle, emanating a strong aura of immortal chivalry! The ground began to tremble slightly, and the air was filled with a strong smell of blood and a strange, scorched, metallic aroma. Ning Yangyang convulsed in pain, her entire body engulfed by overwhelming fear and despair like an icy tide. She watched helplessly as her life gushed out with her blood, becoming the unholy fuel that activated this forbidden technique.
"Qi Yiwen, it's useless!" Ning Yangyang endured the excruciating pain in her left arm, her voice hoarse but sharp, piercing the truth as she tried to pierce the other person's mad obsession. "The Chen Ye in your heart... is completely dead! Not even a trace of his soul remains! This resurrection... is all lies! Your obsession... is completely useless!" She practically shouted, a desperate accusation, a last-ditch effort, hoping to awaken a shred of reason in the other person.
"It's alright," Qi Yiwen said, standing in the center of the magic circle, bathed in Ning Yangyang's blood and radiating an increasingly dazzling light. His expression was one of near-reverent fervor, deaf to Ning Yangyang's screams. He raised his chin slightly, a twisted yet resolute smile playing on his lips, as if performing a sacred ritual. "Try it... it's free." His tone was chillingly casual, as if discussing a trivial matter. The indifference of someone who felt comfortable committing such evil was even more chilling than the brute murderous intent. Before he finished speaking, he quickly formed an ancient and complex hand seal with his hands before his chest, and began to speak with conviction. His eyes were tightly closed, his long lashes casting a dark shadow in the bright light. His entire being was immersed in that forbidden call, as if he had already seen the figure of his beloved returning from the other side.
"System! System!" Ning Yangyang felt her body grow colder and colder, as if she were in an ice cellar. The wound on her left arm ached to the point of numbness, and a more terrifying feeling of detachment, deep within her soul, overcame her. She felt like a toy being disassembled, something invisible being forcibly ripped from her body by the light and the spell. In this desolate mountain wilderness, she cried out desperately to the emptiness around her: "Help! Someone save me!" The voice echoed in the empty valley, seeming incredibly desperate and insignificant.
Just when she felt that her consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by the dazzling light, and her soul seemed to be about to leave her body in the next second -
“Buzz!”
"Alright, alright!" The familiar, heavenly mechanical voice echoed with a murmur of relief. "Host! Critical data repair complete! Redundant data streams successfully cleared, fixing system vulnerabilities! Thank you, host, for risking your life and using your flesh and blood to buy the system crucial time! The system hereby rewards you—one hundred thousand gold coins! Deposited to your account!"
Qi Yiwen was concentrating on activating the magic circle, his incantations rising faster and faster. He could clearly sense the circle drawing on sufficient power, its light reaching an unprecedented peak, so intense that even with his eyes closed he could "see" a blinding white. The obsession within him, pent up for countless days and nights, threatening to consume him, swelled to its peak at this moment—almost! Almost there! In the light, he could already see the vague yet haunting figure coalescing, those familiar features, the gentle smile... Chen Ye! His Chen Ye was coming back!
However, just as the light was about to reach its climax and the ecstasy of victory was about to burst through his chest—hum! An invisible, overwhelming force did not come from within the magic circle, but seemed to suddenly descend from the sky, from the lowest level of the rules!
"Huh?!" Qi Yiwen's spell abruptly stopped, as if an invisible hand had gripped his throat. He snapped his eyes open, the enthusiasm and anticipation on his face barely fading before it was replaced by a look of disbelief and astonishment. He stared intently at the center of the magic circle—where his beloved's form should have been, now empty! And the once blazing energy, like the sun, was extinguished at a speed visible to the naked eye! Like a popped balloon, all its energy instantly dissipated!
"No... Impossible!" Qi Yiwen screamed, his voice filled with panic and despair. He subconsciously tried to form seals again, trying to forcefully hold back the fading light, but his fingers were too stiff to move. He stumbled forward, trying to grasp the fading fragments of light and shadow.
What was faster than the completely disappearing light was the surging real memory that was "unlocked" after being forcibly corrected by the system!
Countless broken images, forgotten voices, and distorted emotions rushed into his mind violently like a flood that broke through a dam!
He saw himself standing in the cold mission settlement space again and again, with the glaring red word "failure" on the screen;
He saw the system's cold and ruthless prompt: "The host's mission failure count has reached the upper limit, starting the cleanup process...";
He saw how he was stripped away, compressed, and discarded like garbage by the invisible data stream in that forgotten fairy world belonging to Chen Ye;
He saw... the so-called "Chen Ye"... the "white moonlight" that had sustained him through his long years as a prisoner... That face gradually became clearer, distorted, and finally shattered amidst the fragments of memory—that face was not the person he had deeply loved! It was merely a false obsession program implanted deep within his consciousness by the system to punish losers, to torture him! A carefully crafted illusion destined for eternal damnation!
The person he truly loved, the one he had given everything for... his name, his appearance... had long since become blurred by the countless failures and the system's forced intervention, leaving only an empty symbol...
Qi Yiwen—no, rather, the last vestiges of consciousness left by the being known as "Qi Qiqian"—flickered like a candle in the wind before fading completely. Those forgotten fragments of her "host" memory clashed and tore apart with Qi Yiwen's deeply held obsession, ultimately failing to merge, leaving behind only a distorted truth: he was originally just a tasker under System 01, codenamed Qi Qiqian. Three years ago, his mission was to rescue Chen Ye, the vicious female supporting character from the Wuhua world, and give her a "perfect ending." His infatuation with Chen Ye, his madness, his obsession to grasp her, even across the barriers of the world... all stemmed from the cold, cold instructions of this mission! From beginning to end, the so-called "white moonlight" was nothing more than a carefully choreographed role-play.
"Mission? Everything is a mission?" Qi Qiqian's mind silently hissed in the chaos, carrying with it the absurdity and sadness of being completely fooled, almost like self-mockery. "Then Ye Ye... I wish you... mission success too..." These words, like a dreamlike mumbling, were his final, ironic "last words" to Ning Yangyang, a garbled mess of data on the verge of collapse.
Some people are destined to go back.
The powerful, soul-tearing gravity that enveloped Ning Yangyang suddenly vanished! Like a puppet with its strings cut, she instantly fell from mid-air, landing heavily on the cold, hard gravel ground.
"Ah!" She groaned in pain, curling up into a ball. Almost without thinking, her right arm pressed down hard against the horrific wound on her left arm, where the flesh had been torn apart and the bone was visible. Warm blood continued to flow from between her fingers, quickly staining her sleeve red and spreading a small, glaring dark red on the cold ground. She could feel her strength rapidly draining away with the blood, her vision blackening. Every breath rippled with pain, and cold sweat soaked her back, sticky and cold. Cover it? It couldn't! It felt like trying in vain to stop a flood with your palm.
"Host, how did you get Qi Yiwen...or Qi Qiqian...to find you?" In his mind, the mechanical voice of the system sounded inopportunely, with a hint of purely technical curiosity.
"Can you please not worry about my life or death first?!" Ning Yangyang screamed inwardly, her voice weakened by the excruciating pain and blood loss. She barely had the energy to curse the system anymore, only intense despair and a trembling tremor. Was she going to die in this desolate wilderness from blood loss, having just escaped a madman's sacrificial array?
Just then—
"Someone is here to care about your life or death." The system's voice sounded again, this time with an almost joking, onlooker tone.
Ning Yangyang forced herself to lift her heavy eyelids. In her blurry vision, she saw a slender figure running towards her at an extremely fast speed against the dim light of the barren mountain!
It’s Xiao Ziyi!
Ning Yangyang's heart sank, colder than it had been when she'd lost all her blood. How had he ended up here? At this time, in this place? How had he found this desolate, deserted place? Countless questions pierced her mind like icicles. She strained to focus, trying to discern the expression on his face.
Xiao Ziyi's brows were furrowed, his thin lips pressed into a tight line. His peach-shaped eyes, usually indifferent and distant, were now filled with obvious shock and pain. He ran at an extremely fast speed, his clothes rustling in the cold wind, and in a few steps he was at Ning Yangyang's side.
"Yangyang!" His voice was filled with rapid gasps, and the worry in his voice sounded genuine. He knelt on one knee without hesitation, and with astonishing speed, he reached out to check her bloody left arm.
However, just before his fingertips were about to touch the hideous wound, Ning Yangyang used up her last bit of strength and suddenly shuddered! Her eyes, somewhat blurred by blood loss, stared intently at Xiao Ziyi's, filled with undisguised vigilance and suspicion.
Is this concern...real? Or is it just another elaborate performance?
"Don't move! You've lost too much blood!" As he spoke, he didn't hesitate and, with a "swish," forcefully tore off the clean corner of his brocade robe's lining. His movements were crisp and decisive, with the decisiveness of a martial artist.
He reached out again, this time with irresistible force, carefully avoiding the deepest part of the wound and using the torn strips of cloth to apply simple pressure to stop the bleeding. His movements were steady, his fingers long and powerful, pressing just the right amount of pressure around the wound, revealing his familiarity with treating trauma. His gaze was fixed on Ning Yangyang's pale face, the concentration and concern on her face almost making one believe he was sincere.
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