Chapter 269: Director, the Script

After numerous trials, with the support of the Yuzhe Sect's resources, the protagonist finally reached the Nascent Soul realm; on the day his Nascent Soul coalesced, there was not the slightest anomaly, no special signs—everything was utterly ordinary.

The Yuzhe Sect's discovery of the Bronze Gate was eventually leaked; Qu Yanping knew well the Yuzhe Sect's methods, but he trusted even more the power and connections of the ancient divine being, the Purple Gold Dragon.

Surprisingly, the main reason the Bronze Gate incident was leaked was due to an extraordinary phenomenon—the Yuzhe Sect's movements were merely uncovered through tracing clues.

The gods died. The demons perished.

Qu Yanping shook his head, trying to shake the horrifying vision from his mind; after witnessing the scene where celestial and divine blood drenched the world and all life perished, he often saw shattered immortal corpses and divine bones whenever he closed his eyes.

Ordinary humans and many cultivators on Earth might not know, but he knew clearly—this massacre originated from the legendary Penglai Ruins!

It was not because he used his Heavenly Eye to peer; in truth, unless he had truly gone mad, he would never dare attempt to use his spiritual power to observe such a scene.

That night, time in Eden synchronized with the outside world; the bright moon dripped shimmering, radiant blood from its curved rim, and overwhelming malevolence and hatred rode with those drops, one by one falling onto Eden's soil.

He faintly sensed something beneath Eden's earth had awakened.

Without reservation, he relayed everything he knew to the Purple Gold Dragon, hoping for help—perhaps to be taken away from here.

"Investigate further. Report again," the Purple Gold Dragon told Qu Yanping over the phone: "Don't worry—we've already settled things with the Yuzhe Sect's higher-ups. Someone else is taking the blame. Stay put as our inside agent. I've sent you ten different resurrection methods."

Qu Yanping sighed deeply; he had originally hoped the other would extract him from this eerie Yuzhe Sect—the longer he stayed, the more he sensed something inexplicably strange about Eden and the Yuzhe Sect.

All personnel, whether in the transcendental gathering places, the black markets, or human-world restaurants, must issue receipts and account for every expense, and their preferences were nearly identical.

The only difference was that some wore monocles and some did not.

These people seemed protected; glimpses of their past lives could be seen, but much critical information was blocked. Many had never worn monocles before, yet after joining the Yuzhe Sect, they suddenly began wearing them.

Forget it. I can't think about this any further.

Qu Yanping began packing his belongings. Minutes later.

"Miss Tracy, I'm sorry—I've always been just a passerby," Qu Yanping said coldly but politely. "I must leave Eden. Thank you for your care and help during this time."

During their daily interactions, she had shown him affection; Miss Tracy was indeed a top-tier beauty, wild yet pure—but he could never entertain thoughts toward a cursed being. Beneath the skin lay a grotesque mass of malformed flesh, and the Yuzhe Sect turned these monsters into humans—or was the Yuzhe itself the source of the curse?

"Is that so?" Miss Tracy lowered her head dejectedly; unlike her usual spirited self, she now desperately tried to hide her emotions from her "beloved." She pulled out a box and said:

"This is for you. May you have good fortune on your journey."

Boom—

The wooden door snapped shut, leaving Qu Yanping standing outside. He looked at the Eden-exclusive sacred fruits in his hand, smiled, then turned away without a trace of hesitation.

【Dusk gradually faded. Another Christmas in Eden's calendar—but tonight, no flesh monsters appeared. When the moon rose, a cold mech fired a cannon blast toward the heavens.】

"The protagonist enters the Penglai Ruins' demonic territory—why is the Great Saint Subduing Demons attacking again?! Has he been lying in wait there for over a year?!"

"Bad! Come back and edit the video later—Sanlang's head is mine!"

"The Dust Song Vessel can be taken out of the simulation universe! I'm coming!!!"

On Shuijing Peak, technical and logistical cultivators each displayed their unique abilities, diving headfirst into the portal to the Penglai world like high divers.

"Reverse Great Heaven," Su Lin sipped tea, raised his right hand, and gazed at a cicada in his palm. "Why do humans always have to fight and kill? Don't you think so, Chunqiu Cicada?"

The cicada resembled a finely crafted artifact made of brown wood and leaves, yet it radiated a thick aura of grim death and stillness—withered, like an autumn ginkgo leaf.

"Fine, call me a fragment of the God of Time—whatever makes you happy." The cicada dissolved into a hazy light and drifted into the Penglai world.

Su Lin shook his head and turned his attention to the chat group.

Xiao Yan: "Is Huowang online?"

Xiao Yan: "Well, not online today either."

Weigong Shilang: "If it were me, I wouldn't believe this was real either. Just not going mad is already good enough."

Lu Mingfei: "Could it be he's already gone mad? By the way, Lang Brother, aren't you supposed to be on duty?"

Weigong Shilang: "My orders are cleared. I'm on vacation now. And my name is Weigong Shilang."

Lu Mingfei: "What? Efficiency this high lately?"

Yi Leina: "@Ye Fan, payment received. Weigong Shilang sent the money."

Ye Fan: "Pleasure doing business."

Su Lin: "???"

Xiao Yan: "Huowang, we're all real. You've got to believe us. If you don't, come to this world—I'll take you to play League of Legends."

Xiao Yan: "My Udyr is insane."

Su Lin: "You who went to the internet cafe last night after hotpot to play bots—shut up."

Whether due to role immersion or because seeing Huowang made him tear up, Xiao Yan was especially invested in Li Huowang's affairs.

But there was nothing to be done—this guy hadn't logged on in days. Maybe in a few days, when he can't find a way to delete the chat group, he'll start probing again.

Su Lin was genuinely curious: if Li Huowang used the Cross-World Talisman, would the past person travel to the modern-world projection—or to the broken world?

Maybe we'll find out when the time comes.

Su Lin: "@Xing, test the simulation universe."

Xing: "I'm already testing. I think I picked the wrong Path. It's over."

Xing: "Also, your side isn't even a simulation universe—I suggest renaming it the 'Life-or-Death Universe.'"

Su Lin: "Forget it. Hurry over. I'm patching in a few Star Deities."

【Private Chat Interface:】

Su Lin: I have a complete set of urban public facilities—whatever a real city has, this place has: sanitation, logistics, all of it.

Xing: You've got a serious misunderstanding about me.

Song Shuhang: "Master Tanyun and Gao Moumou are about to cry. Seriously."

Su Lin: "Behind the mountain—my spirit-fruit garden is self-service for ten minutes. No taking any away."

After a while, Master Tanyun passed by not far from Su Lin, carrying a wriggling, struggling sack, heading toward the big white house on Shuijing Peak.

Su Lin and the man exchanged a thumbs-up. As for the muffled sounds from inside the sack—

Isn't it normal for a monk to release some wild, curly-haired baboons?

Su Lin set down his teacup, planning to join the hunt after finishing this cup of enlightenment tea—no, correction, to join the filming.

He wondered whether the viewers on the other side of the screen could provide a substantial wave of point harvesting; from the current situation, Klean's Eden project might yield some, but not much.

As for Lu Mingfei, just try treating his blood as a heavenly treasure and have the other party authenticate it—after all, you can't expect this cowardly fool who blurted out "Mishi mishi, my tummy hurts" even when meeting his girlfriend's parents to suddenly unleash royal aura and intimidate the opponent.

Relying on him is less promising than hoping your own world consciousness can understand human speech and quickly activate nitrogen boost to escape the encirclement of A Heap of Worlds.

"Mr. Su Lin," came the other's voice, soft, melodious, and like a cold moon reflected in a mirror-like lake, offering an illusory, unreal beauty.

Su Lin turned and saw Hōrai-san Kaguya, dressed in modern attire; her clothes had been given to her by Yi Leina, and since their builds were similar, they fit perfectly.

"There's absolutely no signal here," Hōrai-san Kaguya complained, pointing at her phone's signal bars: "I haven't even finished downloading my offline mobile game meant for Gensokyo."

"." Su Lin pulled out his phone, glanced at it, and sighed: "Though it was temporarily opened, it's already another world entirely—no signal is normal. Why not use F?"

No cell towers, but a network cable had been pulled through spatial technology.

"Mr. Klean said your internet bill is overdue and asked you to pay it," Hōrai-san Kaguya instinctively raised one hand to cover her face, then remembered today she wasn't dressed as usual; she lowered her hand and smiled sweetly:

"By the way, when I first searched online, I was shocked—I never imagined so many works related to Gensokyo existed, and the character designs are remarkably complete."

"Those nicknames are interesting too, and fitting—like Eight Hundred Million Yuyin and Old Lady Zi."

"Ah, sorry, I went off-topic. So, you should know my character design, right?"

Su Lin's eyelid twitched, but he still nodded.

Hōrai-san Kaguya stretched lazily, sat down on another chair, leaned one arm on the backrest, slouching as she gazed listlessly at the live broadcast above:

"Alright, I'll drop the act—I haven't seen anyone in ages, and maintaining proper manners while speaking is exhausting, especially since Yuyin isn't here."

"Ah~ well, neet is neet, whatever."

"Su Lin, do you usually like watching anime and playing games?"

"Eh, a little, just a bit—I'm pretty single-minded in my hobbies," Su Lin felt the other's gaze kept flickering toward him.

Normally, a normal person in this situation would experience the three great illusions of life, with accelerated heartbeat and involuntary hormone secretion.

"Have you ever seen my doujin?"

"." Knew it would come to this.

If the other weren't also capable of time stop and possessed the power of Eternity and Moment, he'd have used time stop to leave right now.

Would a normal person have this kind of thought process?

"Any lewd art? Share some with me."

"."

He truly wished to check if the omnipotent System Store sold personality correction devices.

Su Lin remained silent, his cheek muscles twitching spasmodically, toes gripping the ground, one hand rubbing half his face.

Could it be that because he used "Hōrai Ruins" as his name, the chat group picked someone with "Hōrai" in their name? Or is Klean's filthy mouth really this powerful?

"Ssshh—" A girl with gray hair, wearing a black coat over a white inner garment, drew in a sharp breath:

"The atmosphere here seems pretty open?!"

"Sorry, I came at a bad time—carry on?"

"You came at the perfect time. Nice to meet you," Su Lin opened his eyes slightly; at this point, even he was struggling to cope, gritting his teeth: "Let me be clear—I've never seen that kind of thing, and I don't have any on my phone."

"You're being perfectly clear," Hōrai-san Kaguya laughed: "I've seen some—it's terrifying, human **."

Su Lin stood, altered his appearance into an ordinary one: black hair, black eyes, his ink-like gaze like a dry well: "Merely weaklings drowned in sensual pleasures."

True powerhouses never let ** shatter their will—Gu Tianwang, activate!

Hōrai-san Kaguya froze; she was skilled enough to discern the hidden emotions behind someone's tone and expression—even if she couldn't read minds, she could sense his slight embarrassment.

She'd originally intended to tease him a little while also seeking to obtain this world's works and resource channels from this fellow enthusiast—but now he'd transformed as if into a different person, his demeanor and tone suddenly distant from the mundane.

"You could treat this place as a real MMORPG, but everything is random—no fixed scripts. Aside from the main storyline, I don't even know what will happen inside," Su Lin conjured a map of the Hōrai world in empty air: "Yao, Immortal, God, Human, Demon, Outer Path…"

Better redirect their attention to this.

In just this short while, countless weeks had passed in the dungeon world below, since the God of Time and Space had scrambled its spacetime as requested.

After a while, intrigued, Hōrai-san Kaguya and Xing decided to accompany Su Lin into the dungeon world he described.

"By the way," Su Lin deactivated Gu Tianwang and turned to Xing behind him: "Can you jump?"

"Huh?" Before Xing could react, Su Lin leapt straight into a swirling portal.

She was baffled, exchanged a glance with Hōrai-san Kaguya, and together they stepped into the vortex.

Su Lin entered the Hōrai world, appearing atop a snow-capped peak; he planned to copy Xing's memories of the Star God and then drop both of them into the dungeon city below.

The beings enjoying their revived lives had grown familiar with the rules and built this into a complete city; since Chen Nan's Divine Tomb contained creatures from different eras, the city's style was a fusion of many.

"The scenery's quite nice," Xing stepped out from behind, surveying the surroundings—the sky held sunlight, so the snow-covered peak wasn't too cold.

Hōrai-san Kaguya turned, her eyes flickering, pointing toward the southwest sky: "Is that also an NPC?"

Su Lin followed her finger and saw a faint, ordinary-looking Confucian scholar seated upon the clouds; though his face was plain, his posture radiated the aura of a master.

"What is love?"

Su Lin's eyes widened in shock, as if he'd heard something utterly unbelievable.

Where's the director?! The script's wrong?!

(End of Chapter)