Chapter 376: New Goal: You and I Will Meet Again

The guide’s response filled Ji Chen with immense excitement.

Although he knew the Monster World was a real world, he never believed the Long Yi would appear here.

After all, the void was boundless; the chance of meeting the Long Yi in the same world was nearly zero.

But as he gradually understood the Monster World through his player identity,

a bold hypothesis took root in his mind.

He discovered the Monster World was a super-world, vastly more expansive than the alien world he had once crossed into.

Whether in the quality and concentration of celestial energy elements or the output of spiritual resources, they were not on the same level.

Even many of the homelands of the Jianglin forces were more vast than the alien world he had once visited.

The Ni Chao Legion, the Ancient Gods Clan, the Hun Gui Clan, Shu Yan, the Ascension Clan, the Dungeon Tyrant, the Combat Insect Clan, the Ji Le Clan, the Mechanical Legion, the Virtual Rune Legion… players had only touched a corner of this boundless world.

This was a boundless world where countless races surged forth, competing to reach the peak.

Above the sky, colossal beasts spread their wings, their massive forms spanning the horizon—even appearing in the livestreams of tiny mages as lifeforms comparable in size to a small planet.

Beneath the abyss, evil lurked, weaving deadly traps in the darkness.

In the forests, plant-based lifeforms commanded natural forces; vines and ancient trees obeyed commands, forming endless barriers.

In the deserts, mechanical lifeforms rode steel torrents; engines roared, energy cannons tore through the heavens.

The Sea Clan controlled colossal waves, casually stirring storms, making entire seas hang upside down with tidal power.

Savage tribes raised battle flags, blood boiling, war cries shattering mountains.

The Undead Legion awoke from ancient tombs; bones and Ming Wu energy swept across the seas, whispers of death eroding living souls.

Rules, nature, elements, technology, magic, spellcraft, incantations, qi-blood… countless power systems vied for the stage.

Demons, evil influences, gods, pacts, deceit, cultivators, world breeders… their development models flourished like a hundred flowers; too many powerful forces had risen in this boundless world through their own means.

Together, they wrote an epic chapter of myriad races clashing, with strong ones standing like a forest.

Every inch of land here was soaked in blood and ancient histories of rise; every battle could rewrite the future fate of a race.

And this world had never known good or evil.

It was merely that many weak factions appeared “good” in the eyes of players.

For example, the Ling Xi Clan ruled by the tiny mage—many new players unfamiliar with the Ling Xi Clan saw it as a friendly faction.

They were timid in the Monster World, developing primarily through farming, breeding, and similar methods.

But behind this model lay the Ling Xi Clan’s inability to launch plundering wars lightly.

They also lacked the strength to plunder and grow freely in the Monster World.

Any player who had read the Ling Xi Clan’s background knew it was once a savage faction whose foundation was plunder.

Countless lifeforms from minor worlds had been turned into nourishment beneath their killing hooves.

They had even built blood pools within their territory, using the bodies of promising lifeforms as eternal substitutes.

Judged by human morality, the Ling Xi Clan was an utterly wicked force.

But within the Monster World, the Ling Xi Clan’s development model and survival methods appeared remarkably friendly.

This included the “Shi Tu Clan,” which players had once encountered—a faction that survived through farming but had once descended into the Monster World as a plunderer.

They devoured the weak, trampled civilizations, yet by the time players met them, they were already on the brink of extinction.

Their change was not due to “conscience,” but because they had lost.

They lost to stronger beings, to harsher rules.

In this world, plunderers would eventually be plundered; predators would eventually become prey.

The spiritual energy and resources of heaven and earth flowed like surging rivers, greedily absorbed and transformed by countless races into foundations for advancement.

The peak throne, wielding world authority, remained perpetually vacant, luring billions of lifeforms to rush forward, building the path to the summit with bone and blood.

Standing on this grand stage, Ji Chen recalled the words the Long Yi had once spoken in his memory.

Before parting, he had curiously asked the Long Yi what kind of world it was that it sought to pursue with all its life.

The Long Yi’s answer was:

“It is a world paved with corpses; the weak have no right even to look up.”

He had offered his blessings, believing it would one day stand atop that world’s peak.

But upon hearing his blessing, the Long Yi had turned with a smile, patted his shoulder, and said:

“Wrong. I am confident, yet I know the challenges of this path are immense—I will likely die fighting in that world. But I will spend my life building steps for my clan to climb upward, lifting one generation after another. I firmly believe my descendants will stand atop that world’s peak.”

The Long Yi’s words echoed the very structure of the Monster World.

This stirred a thought in his heart.

Could the Long Yi, right now, be fighting alongside its clan in the Monster World, climbing toward the world’s peak?

Clearly, the Emperor Tomb Village library held no answer.

So he asked the omnipotent guide—and received a confirmed reply.

He learned the Long Yi and its clan were now in the Black Domain of the Monster World, separated from the Pale Continent by countless mountains and rivers, their physical forms nearly incapable of crossing.

He had once believed their parting was forever.

Yet he never imagined they would cross the world’s barrier in this way, once again sharing the same sky.

He had thought his story had ended with the wars of the alien world, his broken body destined to become dust in his homeland, his obsession worn away by time.

But fate had given him a bizarre yet magnificent twist.

He had descended into this boundless Monster World.

Sharing the same heavens and earth once more with the Long Yi.

As a player, carrying an immortal life, he had restarted his journey in this super-world.

Meanwhile, the Long Yi and its clan were in the distant Black Domain, fulfilling their vow to climb the peak with flesh and blood.

Once separated by life and death, their two life paths now ran parallel within the same world.

He no longer needed to fear his lifespan ending; he only needed to grow stronger on this vast stage to possess everything.

Knowing the truth, Ji Chen felt a sense of destiny transcending reincarnation.

In the alien world, his wars had been for survival, for protection.

Now, in the Monster World, his path forward carried not only the drive to grow stronger, but also a clear goal.

To meet the elder brother “Long Yi,” who had once pulled him from the abyss of death and led him and his brothers to overthrow the invincible Bai Yao Dynasty.

Unlike his time in the alien world, he was now the true protagonist of this world.

Imagining the Long Yi’s stunned expression upon seeing him, Ji Chen felt immense anticipation.

Forum elders once said: “Wealth without returning home is like wearing brocade in the dark.”

Ji Chen deeply agreed.

Likewise, meeting an old friend in a foreign land—if you don’t show off, the reunion is wasted.

He could almost picture the shock on the Long Yi’s cold, proud Iron Face, even suspecting it was an illusion.

After all, in its mind, he should have long been a dead man, his lifespan exhausted, buried in the alien world.

At that moment, he would casually say:

“What, don’t you recognize an old friend?”

Then, before the Long Yi’s stunned gaze, reveal the rule-based abilities only a player could possess.

Showing off was a man’s romance.

Showing off before an old friend? That was the pinnacle of romance.

The plot was already set; he only needed to master spatial knowledge.

But he was already sick of studying.

Even with the Brain Overclocking Ming Hun embedded, his progress remained painfully slow.

Dimensional formulas, spatial node analysis, spatial coordinates… every time he studied the structure of a teleportation array, he felt his brain boiling.

Ji Chen rubbed his temples, his gaze sweeping over the floating spatial runes below.

At this rate, let alone crossing billions of mountains and rivers,

he couldn’t even pass the test of editing spatial coordinates.

But without taking a shortcut, attempting to cross the Black Domain with his physical body meant he’d never have the chance to see the Long Yi in this lifetime.

Physical crossing was not just a matter of distance.

He knew the truth of the game: players possessed infinite lifespans, so theoretically, every location was reachable.

But the greatest problem was death.

Although players could resurrect infinitely, each resurrection returned them to the starting point of their journey.

Between these billions of mountains and rivers lurked countless abysses capable of crushing life.

Exploratory players had the most authority on this.

After collecting data from exploratory players, a forum researcher compiled a table.

The data proved exploratory players rarely survived more than a week when exploring mist-covered (unmapped) regions.

The dangers encountered on the journey included not only ferocious monsters but also countless unknown traps.

The forum’s most notorious trap master was the Lord of Ji Le.

Marketed as an amusement city, it was in fact a hidden teleportation trap; any lifeform encountering it was teleported to the Ji Le Palace and corrupted to death.

Next, the You Lu Council’s game space was another hidden trap.

The Monster World harbored too many “ground hiders,” specializing in ambushing passing lifeforms and using them as cattle to generate rule-derived energy.

Including the Ancient Gods Clan, they belonged to this category of forces.

Explorers have proven through action and accumulated data that players have ten thousand bizarre ways to die during their journeys.

The most reliable method remains constructing a spatial teleportation array.

At the current stage, the Gold Coin Society possesses the strongest spatial technology, but what they’ve learned is only the basics of constructing spatial teleportation arrays.

It’s utterly impossible to give him any help.

This problem can only be solved by himself.

Standing high in the air, after observing the flow trajectory of the array, Ji Chen’s figure landed at its center and began reprogramming the array nodes.

Energy flowed through his fingertips; the spatial nodes appeared in his mind under the perception of the Eagle-Head Demon and the Lingmou trait.

Beads of sweat formed on Ji Chen’s forehead; his brain overclocking Nascent Soul operated at its absolute limit, his consciousness wildly calculating within an ocean of dimensional formulas.

“Again.”

He murmured softly, his fingers tracing the final energy trajectories through the air.

In an instant, the floating spatial rune shadows above the array shuddered violently.

The array’s center erupted with blinding light; Ji Chen’s pupils contracted sharply.

This time, it might actually work!

Yet the next second, the entire array twisted and deformed.

The spatial nodes, like dough squeezed by an invisible hand, cracked and tore with a rending sound; a pitch-black fissure appeared out of nowhere, spewing violent void turbulence.

“Done for!”

Ji Chen instantly leapt backward, using mental force to lift his body and create distance.

Helplessly watching his painstakingly constructed teleportation array being devoured by the void, the runes at its center dissolved one by one, dissolving into specks of starlight that vanished into the air.

This attempt ended once again in failure.

He also lost the spatial materials he had recently gathered.

He exhaled heavily, collapsing wearily onto the ground, staring at the large crater nearby, replaying the scene of the spatial nodes’ collapse in his mind.

A tiny calculation error triggered a chain reaction within a thousandth of a second.

“Still no good.”

Ji Chen rubbed his temples; the mental exhaustion from brain overclocking left him seeing black.

This level of spatial calculation has exceeded his capabilities.

Even though he’s lived over two hundred years.

But back then, all problems were solved by Long Yi; he only began learning spatial knowledge after becoming a player.

More accurately, he only began studying it after learning that Long Yi was also in the Monster World.

A pale gray hue spread across the distant sky; a new day was about to begin.

He gazed at the rising sun, a hint of helplessness appearing in his eyes.

Once, facing countless armies in the other world, he remained unmoved and risked his life—yet now he was stumped by a pile of spatial formulas.

For now, he must earn sacrificial power through hunting to first strengthen his power.

Then consider his next steps.

At the very least, he must raise his brain overclocking to level 100, which would dramatically accelerate his learning progress.

As for decomposing other Nascent Souls to pour all points into brain overclocking, it’s completely unnecessary.

Without combat-type Nascent Souls to bolster him, he’d be equally helpless in the Monster World.

He might be killed instantly by an unexpected external force the moment he teleports over.

Since this test failed again, Ji Chen decided his future development would focus primarily on strengthening his power, with spare time devoted to study and research.

He summoned the map and checked the locations of his society members.

The society’s name is “Reborn Again,” created by his own hands.

Since lifespan is no longer a chain, and his player identity grants him limitless growth potential, he no longer needs to scramble desperately for survival as he did in the other world.

So this time, he set himself a new goal: reach the pinnacle of the player faction’s pyramid.

To see the most expansive vistas.

This society is the starting point of his ambition.

The entire society currently has only 129 members.

Unlike the vast majority of player societies that pursue expansion, Reborn Again follows an elite path.

Every member is a powerful player personally selected by him, or a lone wolf with astonishing combat power.

Such players share one trait: they are indifferent to large societies with massive membership.