Meanwhile, as Qi Yuan communicated with Great Venerable Shenlei, a guest arrived outside the graveyard.
This guest wore white robes with a jade belt cinched at his waist. Tall and upright with extraordinary features, he carried an air of refined elegance.
In the mortal world, he would undoubtedly be a one-in-ten-thousand handsome man.
Yet compared to Qi Yuan, he looked like a toad.
"Young Master Kongming, that Qi Yuan stubbornly refuses to leave. Should we... kill him!" Wang Niang gritted her teeth, a murderous glint flashing in her eyes.
For the common people of the realm, for the sake of the world, she was willing to go against her conscience and murder innocent people.
To her, as long as it saved the world, no amount of sacrifice was too great.
Tu Kongming looked scholarly and refined, a sigh flickering in his gaze. "That is not the conduct of a gentleman. I would not stoop to such things!"
"Young Master Kongming, for the common people, compromising a bit of personal virtue is nothing!" the old woman Wang Niang urged.
Tu Kongming shook his head, his expression resolute. "Since I could win Yuanyu's heart in my past life, I believe I can do it this time as well!"
"There are less than two months left. It's too late." Anxiety covered old woman Wang Niang's face. Remembering something, she continued, "Should I... drug the Young Miss and cook the raw rice to seal the deal?"
As long as the rice was cooked, things would get back on track.
Their mission from the Heaven Mending Pavilion would be considered complete.
The Heaven Mending Pavilion was a faction subordinate to the Eastern Alliance that traveled through all the Mountains and Seas Picture Scrolls to complete missions.
These people had been groomed from birth, indoctrinated with righteousness, and dedicated their lives to saving all living beings.
"Out of the question! We cannot treat Yuanyu like that. We must respect what she wants in her heart!" Tu Kongming quickly refused, his attitude unyielding.
"If we don't... the world will be destroyed!" Wang Niang's voice sank low.
To her surprise, upon hearing this, Tu Kongming wore an expression of complete indifference. "What does it matter if the world is destroyed? In my heart, Yuanyu is more important than the entire world."
Hearing this, Wang Niang fell silent.
This Tu Kongming was simply too devoted, too much of a gentleman.
Of course, in the past that was called deep devotion. On Blue Star, such behavior was called being a simp or a Boiling Yangyang.
Mhm, Boiling Yangyang ranked even behind a dog.
Anyone was fine, just not Ah Fei.
"Sigh." Seeing that she could not convince Tu Kongming, Wang Niang slowly walked away without another word.
Watching Wang Niang's dark silhouette, Tu Kongming looked melancholic. "It is not as if I never wished to possess Yuanyu and make her mine, but true love is not like that..."
Not far away, Wang Yuanyu, who had concealed her presence and overheard everything, remained expressionless. Her brows furrowed, lost in thought.
...
"Dammit! Why are there so many variables in this mission? That Tu Kongming is utterly pedantic and inflexible!" A black-robed man gritted his teeth, his expression fierce.
"Time is running out. It seems... we can't afford to be so gentle anymore." Wang Niang gritted her teeth, a vicious glint in her eyes, clearly consumed by murderous intent.
"You're right. They may be unwilling, but weighed against all living beings, the choice is not theirs to make. I have some Hehuan Powder here. Slip it to Tu Kongming and Wang Yuanyu respectively. As for that bloodline practitioner, since he refuses to leave, I'll just have to send him on his way myself." The black-robed man's face carried killing intent, but even more so, fanaticism. "All for the world."
Wang Niang's eyes also turned fanatical. "All for the world!"
Even if misunderstood by the world, even if bearing endless infamy, she would still forge ahead without turning back. For the sake of saving the world, Wang Niang thought to herself, her shadow under the sun seemed to grow tall and heroic.
Yet right at that moment, a calm voice drifted over.
"Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention: my formal name is Qi Yuan, but my nickname is The World. Could you two... commit suicide for me?"
As the words fell, a figure abruptly appeared not far from the black-robed man.
He wore a green robe, his expression languid. Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves and fell across him in sharp contrasts of light and shadow, looking exceptionally handsome.
Catching sight of Qi Yuan, both the black-robed man and Wang Niang were startled.
"How are you here?"
They had been plotting in secret outside the graveyard. How could Qi Yuan have known?
Most importantly, Qi Yuan had appeared completely silently—something even a peak Martial King would struggle to achieve.
"You were plotting behind my back. I accidentally overheard, so I came over."
Because the Divine Infants within his body had awakened, Qi Yuan's immortal cultivation had risen steadily with the tide, already reaching the Yin God Realm.
Although the Yin God Realm could not illuminate the heavens like a Yang God, it possessed divine consciousness heavenly audition. If someone nearby spoke ill of him, he could easily perceive it. If someone spoke ill of Xiao Jia, Canary, Jin Li, or the others, he could hear that too.
Looking at Qi Yuan, the black-robed man's initial shock vanished, replaced by calm. "Since you came here on your own, it saves me a trip. For the sake of the world, please die, sir!"
The black-robed man's expression turned solemn and sacred.
A stone stained with blood appeared.
This stone was smeared with the blood of a Martial Lord.
A Martial Lord was matchlessly powerful; a single punch could dissolve an entire kingdom. Even a dried drop of their blood could effortlessly obliterate a peak Martial King.
Martial Kings and Martial Lords were simply not on the same level of existence.
Possessing the blood of a Martial Lord, the black-robed man was brimming with confidence. Even if Qi Yuan had appeared suddenly with astonishing strength, so what?
Anyone beneath a Martial Lord was mere insect.
"After you die, I will remember you and erect a monument in your honor. Saving the world will include your contribution! Posterity will remember and sing your praises!"
The stone in the black-robed man's hand expanded.
A powerful murderous aura swept outward. The black-robed man felt immensely potent, like a deity capable of holding the life and death of everyone in the world in his palms at will.
"How kind of you. Unfortunately, I'm very petty. After you die, I won't erect a monument for you, and no one will remember your name. You see, I don't even know what your name is right now."
Qi Yuan looked calm.
Having traversed through so many worlds, he had seen all sorts of people. He had seen people as "obsessive" as this black-robed man before.
For example, the Mountain of Destiny in the Canglan Realm.
Because Qi Yuan wanted to resist the Great Tribulation, that faction feared he would anger the Great Tribulation and bring retribution down upon the Canglan Realm, so they had attempted to curse him to death.
That had amused Qi Yuan quite a bit.
When the butcher raised his cleaver, rather than thinking of fighting back, they worried about angering the butcher so he wouldn't hack down even harder—how comical was that?
In Qi Yuan's eyes, this Heaven Mending Pavilion bore a strong resemblance to the Mountain of Destiny.
"I get it now. You must be the Court Master of the Demon Suppressing Court, aren't you? No wonder you have such immense confidence. However, this is a Mountains and Seas Picture Scroll, and the Heaven Mending Pavilion reigns supreme!"
The blood of the Martial Lord shone with dazzling radiance.
Across all the Mountains and Seas Picture Scrolls, there was no combat power capable of resisting a Martial Lord.
"The world will remember your sacrifice!" the black-robed man roared, his expression majestic.
Qi Yuan stretched lazily. "I came to play a game, not to listen to you preach moral lessons. Sigh, this game developer of yours is really too boring."
Indeed, that was how Qi Yuan felt.
Every mission in this game came with a little story.
And in these stories, there were always varying degrees of regret, helplessness, and sorrow.
It felt like these stories were meant to leave a deep impression on players and move them emotionally.
In Qi Yuan's view, the devs had gone all pretentious and sentimental, trying to inject deep artistic meaning.
"Does anyone have the game dev's phone number? Call him up and tell him I came to play a game, not listen to bedtime stories—I came to kill, kill, kill!"
"Oh wait, it's a free-to-play game, and I'm a free-rider freeloader? Fine, the dev can do whatever he wants; I'll just keep killing, killing, killing."
Saying so, Qi Yuan looked at the black-robed man.
"Kill!"
Explosive Bird-Killing Fist was unleashed at this instant. Qi Yuan's devastating punch seemed capable of annihilating the world.
Boom!
The stone stained with the blood of a Martial Lord shattered in an instant.
The expression on the black-robed man's face froze. "A Mar... Martial Lord."
The blow Qi Yuan unleashed had shockingly reached the realm of a Martial Lord.
This irresistible, matchless might could belong to none other than a Martial Lord.
In the depths of the black-robed man's pupils, utter disbelief flashed before his body disintegrated into countless fragments at that very moment.
Even if he was a peak Martial King, even if he possessed the blood of a Martial Lord, before Qi Yuan, he was still completely outmatched—far too weak.
Such was the chasm between a god and a mortal.
"Shattered so thoroughly you can't even see a trace. Truly no grave for you," Qi Yuan said casually after finishing off the black-robed man.
Beside him, Wang Niang trembled all over, her expression overflowing with incomprehension and disbelief.
"How could there be a Martial Lord inside a Mountains and Seas Picture Scroll? Impossible! Impossible!"
Without ancestral blood, how could a peak Martial King break through to Martial Lord?
And the Martial Lords of the Origin Land could not leave the Origin Land at all; leaving meant death.
That was precisely why their group of Martial Kings from the Heaven Mending Pavilion roamed through the Mountains and Seas Picture Scrolls, correcting worldlines and reenacting the worlds to save the world before Dawn's Toll sounded!
"Nothing in this world is impossible." Qi Yuan looked at Wang Niang. "Any interest in having your taxidermied corpse marry Han Xianyun?"
Wang Niang stared at Qi Yuan, her mind in disarray, unable to comprehend anything.
Even so, she forced herself to calm down.
"Mr. Qi, please stop. This old woman does not know how you broke through to Martial Lord. You may possess astronomical fortune and an extraordinary destiny, and a Martial Lord is indeed a true sovereign within a Mountains and Seas Picture Scroll. But... before the grand trend, even a Martial Lord is as humble as a speck of dust. Less than four thousand years remain until Dawn's Toll! We of the Heaven Mending Pavilion must correct the worldlines. Only in this way will the world reset without error!"
"I'm not interested in that. Speak human," Qi Yuan said placidly.
He had heard plenty of such talk from that old codger Shenlei.
Besides, why should he care if the game rebooted?
Furthermore, the affairs of the world were full of confusion; who knew what was real and what was false? Even if Wang Niang spoke with genuine sincerity and his nose didn't grow longer, information that had undergone historical revisionism was something Qi Yuan would only take with a grain of salt.
"I beg Mr. Qi to prioritize the greater good, bring the Young Miss and Tu Kongming together, and tread the worldline anew. This old woman... thanks Mr. Qi!"
With that, Wang Niang raised her palm and decisively struck her own head.
In an instant, her skull shattered, blood flowing everywhere. She was dead as dead could be.
Evidently, she wanted to use her own death to move and reform Qi Yuan.
Of course, if Qi Yuan hadn't been powerful, the one dead right now would probably have been him.
Seeing this, Qi Yuan's expression didn't change at all, nor was he moved in the slightest.
"What a pity. Han Xianyun just missed out on such a stunner of a wife."
"Wait, driving such a noble person to death, doesn't that make me the villain?"
"Should I... jie-jie-jie!"
Qi Yuan let out a villain's trademark laugh.
...
Three months quickly passed.
During this period, many things occurred.
Well, quite a few people from the Heaven Mending Pavilion arrived wanting to execute Qi Yuan, only to be effortlessly wiped out by him.
In the end, Tu Kongming never won the beauty's hand, remaining just like Boiling Yangyang.
Wang Yuanyu never fell for Tu Kongming, and toward Qi Yuan, she treated him merely as a friend.
The two protagonists of the story did not follow the script.
The "villain" Ma Longhun was very dedicated to his craft, focusing solely on his career and ambushing Wang Yuanyu according to the "original trajectory."
Mhm... this time, Tu Kongming still stepped forward to take the blow for Wang Yuanyu, ultimately dying—a devoted simp like Boiling Yangyang to the bitter end.
Differing from what Wang Niang had described, Wang Yuanyu did not commit suicide to join him in death.
Qi Yuan finally met Ma Longhun and casually dispatched him.
If you were to ask why Qi Yuan didn't save Tu Kongming: first, they weren't close; second, he didn't want to; third, the mission never told him to protect the guy anyway.
"The mission is complete. It's time for me to leave. I stayed a bit long this time, missing several Martial Arts Tournaments. What a huge loss."
Qi Yuan dusted off his hands, feeling a bit stung.
To become a Human Dao Martial Master, one needed to win the Martial Arts Tournament a hundred consecutive times.
Entering a Mountains and Seas Picture Scroll made it impossible to participate in the Martial Arts Tournament, which risked breaking the win streak.
So during this time, Canary on the outside would help Qi Yuan by putting the Martial Arts Tournament on hold.
Mhm, only a Martial Arts Tournament with Qi Yuan in it counted as a Martial Arts Tournament.
Pretty much tailored just for him.
Wang Yuanyu glanced at Qi Yuan, her gaze falling upon Tu Kongming, her expression somewhat downcast. "He still died saving me, just like Wang Niang said. But I... feel no sadness, nor any touch of grief. Am I... naturally heartless?"
"I noticed. In the words of an overly confident average Joe like me, spending this much time with me without your heart fluttering even once proves... you really are a bit cold-hearted," Qi Yuan chuckled.
"Is that... a bad thing?" Wang Yuanyu hesitated.
"What is good? What is bad?" Qi Yuan's figure became ethereal. "Living in this world, sometimes it's better to be a little selfish. Of course, if someone crosses me, sorry, no matter how good you are, that's bad."
Hearing this, Wang Yuanyu smiled faintly. "Are you leaving?"
"Yes, heading back. Haven't seen my wives in many years; I miss them quite a bit."
"I hope we'll have a chance to meet again," Wang Yuanyu said earnestly.
This ethereal world was vast as smoke; meeting someone she could actually talk to had not been easy.
"As long as you live long enough, there will be a chance." Qi Yuan looked at Wang Yuanyu. Suddenly, as if struck by inspiration, he remarked out of the blue, "You can watch plenty of TV dramas and immerse yourself in them, but don't take them seriously. It's just like doomscrolling videos and browsing trending hashtags—sometimes, what we see is merely what others want us to see."
Wang Yuanyu tilted her head and nodded. "I have no idea what that means, but it sounds impressive. You really look like a cultured scholar."
The two flattered each other.
"You're not bad either. You're a fine actor, quite suited for playing a kidnapper," Qi Yuan said, glancing at the black burlap sack over Wang Yuanyu's head.
If it were swapped for black pantyhose, it would probably be even more fitting.
"Next time we meet, I'll give you a pair of stockings," Qi Yuan offered. "You wear them over your head for me to see!"
Wang Yuanyu laughed softly. "All right. By the way, what is a TV drama?"
Evidently, calling Qi Yuan a cultured scholar had been complete nonsense flattery. She hadn't understood Qi Yuan's words in the slightest.
"Well, you are the TV drama, and I am the audience."
With that, Qi Yuan's figure vanished on the spot.
In the vast expanse of heaven and earth, only Wang Yuanyu remained, standing all alone.
Chapter 356