Chapter 355: Hotly Released, No Special Effects

Countless specks of light flickered and glimmered like a mirage, and dozens of different eternal lights ignited in the depths of the starry sky, swaying and refracting into the silhouettes of towering figures standing in darkness.

"Remarkable."

"Under the interference of fate, you still shattered your chains and fell in love once more; since the conditions have been met, then now."

Among them, a male figure with an indistinct face and a top hat stepped forward; He adjusted the single eyeglass carved from crystal over his right eye socket, then gracefully removed his hat and bowed.

"As a memorial, this is offered to you who have broken your destiny."

Sacred, boundless music echoed from the primordial age, and endless light swallowed the starry sky.

The path of salvation lies within.

Characters appeared and slowly faded; deep, dark luminescence traced twenty-two Tarot cards upon the space as white as paper, then—

"Awaken."

Flipped, in reverse position.

Like a curtain being torn open, or an explosion released after extreme suppression, an ancient, majestic sonata reverberated.

The reversed Tarot cards became void-like fissures, greedily devouring all light.

A black cross fell, yet remained sacred; a golden divine figure stood towering to heaven and earth; an emperor-robed figure held the stars of the entire cosmos; twin sala trees stood firm amid a sea of swords; in dazzling, radiant flames bloomed a lotus flower.

Symbolic patterns flashed continuously, the only commonality being their abstraction and the invisibility of faces.

The moment the music ceased, those flickering figures vanished, and the surroundings reverted to the Chaldea control room.

Tenzan Lixiang and the others stared blankly at the box in Da Vinci's hands, from which a miniature 3D image projected: before a twin sala tree, the battered Weigong Shilang and the vacant-eyed Dada Liya kissed beneath its branches, a long, pure white sword planted in the ground.

"'Zone: Seal Broken,'" she said, reading the glowing gold Chinese characters on the box, recalling the music she had just heard—it was the theme song from the TV drama she had watched:

"But what is this? Dada Liya and Senior Weigong…"

They didn't steal someone's private photos, did they?!

The Heroic Spirits glanced strangely at the red Archer—oh, he was still lying down—so they turned their gaze toward the little girl Dada Liya, who had already blushed into a faint.

"Like a holographic projection," Da Vinci lifted the box and examined it under the light: "Whoa, what's going on? There are too many arrays engraved on this thing?!"

Under the illumination of mana, countless circuits became visible, along with numerous visible-to-the-naked-eye spell loops and inscribed characters etched onto the surface.

"Let me see," Tai Gongwang's figure manifested and leaned closer.

"Some are spells—not based on magical foundations—probably for dustproofing, waterproofing…"

"Why are there countermeasures? Uh… this is quite dangerous…"

Da Vinci curiously pulled out a disc and said: "These aren't ordinary materials—extremely high mana conductivity, yet somehow crafted into discs?!"

"Senior, you say this is a TV drama?" Ma Xiu exclaimed: "I just saw images of Su Xiaoxiang and the Fool…"

"It's definitely a TV drama," Tenzan Lixiang stepped forward, frowning:

"But the protagonist is a malevolent Eastern cultivator named Seeing Qu Yanping—apparently about his journey to modern Earth."

As she spoke, Tenzan Lixiang felt something was off; she picked up the box and walked out. Everyone immediately followed her.

They hadn't noticed before, assuming it was a well-made TV drama—but the problem is—

In the lobby, Tenzan Lixiang took a disc from the box and inserted it into the player, which supported multiple decoding formats.

Under everyone's gaze, she fast-forwarded the timeline to around ninety minutes: there, on a modern street alley, the protagonist "Seeing Qu Yanping" was studying a smartphone.

"I knew something was wrong—TV dramas from 2004 couldn't have smartphones!"

Tenzan Lixiang skipped ahead several scenes: Eastern streets were filled with modern-style cars, buses with green license plates, people holding smartphones and tablets.

"This is completely modern."

On screen, the demonic cultivator protagonist quickly mastered QR code payment.

Tenzan Lixiang pondered for a few seconds, her right hand propping her chin:

"This was borrowed from Lin Xiao Jie, but the owner of this TV drama is Dada Liya of Dongwu City."

"Dada Liya said this was her and Senior Weigong's special memory."

Her eyes widened slightly, pupils dilating; a thunderclap flashed through her mind.

Parallel World travel, special memory, TV drama, reincarnation…

Then, the truth is only one!

"This is their journey through the Parallel World!" Tenzan Lixiang clapped her hands:

"Senior Weigong and Dada Liya from the 2004 Dongwu Holy Grail War starred in this TV drama filmed on a future timeline!"

Wait—why does the spine of the box say "Movie" before the title?

"This possibility seems very likely," Da Vinci said with interest: "This is getting interesting."

"Let's leave it here for now," Tenzan Lixiang grabbed Ma Xiu and pulled up the still-recovering Ermei Er Shi:

"We're going to train first. If you want to watch, start from Episode One—we'll be back for dinner around Episode Three."

Four days later.

Night fell; the forest was dark and lightless.

Yuancang Mountain, where Liudong Temple stood.

Golden wolves, winged dragons, stitched chimeras, giants—these mythic and fantastical beings now stood frozen in attack poses, their bodies turned to stone carved with golden patterns.

A figure in a cloak, with a delicate face and orange-red hair, gazed across these petrified sculptures, stepping over bloodline creatures nailed to the earth, advancing toward the region where mana concentration surpassed even the peak of the Divine Era.

Before exiting the dense forest, the scent of tea surged forward, evoking memories of fields after rain.

At the entrance of the great hollow, a tea table stood neatly arranged with various tea utensils; on the right, smoke curled upward from a square brazier.

"For me personally, I'd rather meet you face to face," Zhongli sat on a chair of golden stone, his eyes reflecting the solemn expression of the visitor; his right index finger lightly tapped the armrest, and another identical stone chair formed opposite him:

"To satisfy my personal curiosity about existence, names, and the coincidences between different worlds."

"The weather is growing cooler; autumn and winter dry out the body—this pot of tea suits travelers on long journeys."

"Please sit."

The King of Men, Gaitia, gazed at Zhongli for a moment, then stepped forward and sat in the seat the other had left for him.

"You, a being from another world, not present in the original future—who are you?"

He did not look at the hot tea pushed toward him, but fixed his eyes on Zhongli.

"A name? My current name is Zhongli," Zhongli replied, his expression unchanged as he looked at the other.

"In another world, my former name was"

"Morax."

"You should know that I have no interest in this planet itself or in human history."

"As a dangerous element in your eyes, neither I nor we are bound by your constraints—you are not the true owners of the Source."

"Whether you replicate my information to create Realm Record Tapes, or I leave an avatar upon the Throne of the Gods—I can certainly agree. And as for the enemy you fear, give us time, and we can resolve it."

"Magic? I have no need for such derivatives."

"I am genuinely curious—have you also gained something from the Source? After all,"

"As Star Souls, you are far too peculiar."

As if icy spring water poured over his head, Su Lin opened his eyes; multiple matrices rose around the Great Holy Grail ahead.

"Hey, you pathetic witch over there—what are you doing?" Su Lin asked.

"Didn't you, you pathetic human, tell me to relocate the Great Holy Grail and find a way to stabilize the ley line connections?!" Yi Leina's eyes were shadowed with heavy dark circles, her tone bordering on irritable:

"Why the hell am I being ordered around by you?!!"

"You dragged me here without even understanding this world's magical system to do grunt work—I haven't slept in days!"

"Do you even know how much sleep deprivation damages a girl's skin?!"

"First, your sleeplessness has nothing to do with me," Su Lin's expression remained unchanged: "Second, I recall this was a commissioned task—you were paid."

"." Yi Leina fell silent for two seconds. "I forgot."

You might as well go sleep. If you drop dead here, I'll have to waste a resurrection spell.

Su Lin's lips twitched slightly, then continued using a prop he had exchanged for to temporarily project his spirit into the formless, metaphysical realm to communicate with the two "machines."

If, in the end, they remain unmoved and insist on preventing systemic risk, there is nothing to be done.

From this period of contact, Su Lin had come to understand these two things better.

Fundamentally, they were machines that revered caution, possessing no true "personality," only so-called instincts.

Even when Su Lin reached their location and communicated with them, their responses, those dialogues that seemed like "games," were merely inevitable outcomes of their calculations.

Sending Yi Leina to relocate the Great Holy Grail was a contingency plan—not the first time attempting contact with the Source. When our actions and outcomes become inevitable, faced with defensive measures that prove useless, they would likely compromise and trade with Su Lin.

In truth, unless Su Lin demanded entry into the Source, even if he asked them to become lolis from some secondhand fanfic, they would probably accept gladly.

In plain terms—he offered too much.

The Lunar Crystal, that supercomputer on the Moon storing Earth's data.

During the last invasion by the Starborne Soldiers, though it and Earth's Suppressors won a pyrrhic victory, trapping the Soldiers' core within an unknown, unknowable region and sealing it, the Starborne's core itself still remains.

To prevent the Starborne's core from detecting its coordinates and hurtling here at faster-than-light speed, the Lunar Crystal launched an immensely powerful interference across the entire galaxy, sealing the routes and coordinates leading to the Solar System.

Thus, its developmental direction has always remained confined within the Solar System.

Not to mention Chaos, the transcendent deity fused with the gaps of cosmic spacetime—the Celestial Sphere Spacetime Fortress Chaos.

If caught by accident, one would be dragged off as fuel.

Against this backdrop, the promises Su Lin made were highly tempting; though due to information constraints, these two likely did not know how difficult it would be for Su Lin to fulfill them under "normal" circumstances.

But didn't you add a note earlier: "Give us time"?

If all else fails, wait until Weigong Shilang becomes an Emperor and returns—he can do it too.

"Zone: Seal Broken" is currently a blockbuster at Chaldea.

It was first screened in the cafeteria and common hall, and copies were uploaded to the database—Servants could even request playback in their own rooms.

Due to recent events, Weigong Shilang has drawn considerable attention; many are interested in the TV series he filmed in the Parallel World.

Though no one understands why the protagonist is a Daoist cultivator, the combat scenes are realistic, the special effects authentic, and it passes the time—plus, the reverse-transmigration theme makes it watchable.

"If that villain Seeing Qu Yanping appears before me, I will kill him!"

"What's wrong with that? Pure selfishness—I admire him. The techniques he obtained can even break temporal seals?"

"Heavenly Dao artifacts? Similar to treasures, but the fact that anyone can use them and their power to control cosmic laws is too extreme."

"Odin?! Who is the man fighting Odin on that overpass?! When they fought, time itself stopped across the entire world! He actually won?!!"

"Calm down—it's a TV drama."

"Can you lower your voice? This is a public area. Never mind—I'll go watch in my room."

Viewers, following Seeing Qu Yanping's perspective, were thrust into the modern world and immediately plunged into one after another time-stopping battles, then introduced to the transcendent realm—from the concept of Heavenly Dao artifacts to the world's lore—this entirely different magical system truly dazzled them.

And the battles within seemed…

"I don't think these are actors. The combat skills and killing methods—even through the screen—I can sense they are powerhouses."

"Why did they mix in One Piece? Is that barbecue joint from One Piece? A room equals a Heaven's Realm—hey, isn't that the Heaven's Realm we encountered at Weigong Shilang's house?"

"That Gao Sheng, and Li Feiyu, Master—aren't those faces we've seen among Weigong Shilang's group?"

"Besides Weigong Shilang, did others participate in filming this TV series?"

"Come to think of it, Odin looked exactly the same—could the Creator and Yuanshi Tianzun have joined too?"

"It's entirely possible!"

As soon as this rumor spread, the cafeteria and common hall were instantly converted into screening rooms—even Chaldea staff wanted to watch this series.

Except those on routine duty, everyone during their rest time huddled in their rooms watching.

The public screenings ran 24/7, continuously playing from Episode One; even Tenzan Lixiang and many others had not caught up with the public broadcast.

After all, only Servants don't need rest and can stare at the screen nonstop.

Xi Weng: "According to technical analysis, all scenes in this TV series so far contain zero special effects."

Tenzan Lixiang: "."

This was the third time Tenzan Lixiang had asked the other person this question in recent days.

Are you sure?

According to some spoilers, after entering the Penglai Ruins, combat power collapses to the point of destroying stars at will, and when divine artifacts of the Dao explode, scenes of primordial black holes appear—now you tell me there's not a single frame of special effects?

Isn't that a bit ridiculous?

Tenzan Lixiang walked silently to the cafeteria, picked up her work meal, sat at the seat reserved for her by Ai Lei, and watched the screen where the eccentric cultivator Kuang Dao Sanlang made everyone pregnant.

Even this has no special effects?

She fell into deep thought.

(End of Chapter)

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