Chapter 108: What a Fateful Encounter

"F*** me, I was just taking a normal nap—how did I almost wipe out my whole team?!"

The alarm clock by his bed was still ringing, but he hadn’t had time to turn it off.

Chen Huai’an stared at the game screen, his heart still pounding.

The first thing he did upon waking up was log into the game—only to be greeted by a blood-red warning pop-up:

[Alert! Li Qingran has provoked the Dao and is about to be executed by heavenly punishment!]

What the hell?!

He didn’t even have time to think—he instantly selected the game’s emergency override option to stop Li Qingran before she got herself obliterated.

As soon as the warning disappeared, he let out a long breath.

He had no idea what had transpired while he was asleep, but he could get a rough idea from Li Qingran and Yue Qianchi’s status screens.

[Status: Trapped in illusion, mind in turmoil]

[Cultivation Progress: 12/1000 (Foundation Establishment – Early Stage)]

[Affection Level: 99]

That was Li Qingran’s status.

For Yue Qianchi, he couldn’t see her affection level or cultivation progress, but there was an extra status effect: [Nightmare Corruption].

On the screen, Yue Qianchi was running around like a madwoman, her face twisted in terror as if she were trying to escape from something invisible.

Chen Huai’an cranked up the volume and finally heard what she was screaming about.

"Fire! So much fire! Get away—!"

"It’s burning! Somebody help! Put it out—!"

She tripped over something and tumbled into the mud, then crawled into a corner, curling up tightly.

Her whole body trembled as she pressed her chin against her knees, burying her face in her arms.

From beneath her arms came the muffled sound of sobbing.

[Your teammate ‘Yue Qianchi’ is being consumed by the illusion’s heart demon! Help her escape!]

"Yeah? And how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

Chen Huai’an was at a complete loss.

There wasn’t even a button to call out to her.

"Wait… don’t I have a dumb disciple for this?"

He smacked his forehead, then quickly sent a voice transmission to Li Qingran:

"Qingran, your senior sister is losing her mind! Slap her a couple of times or dump some cold water on her—whatever it takes to snap her out of it!"

At that moment, Li Qingran had been standing dazed in a corner of the illusion.

Hearing Chen Huai’an’s voice, she instantly snapped back to reality.

For a second, she was stunned.

Then, her eyes turned red, and tears came pouring down.

She was crying, yet her lips curved into a smile—a joy so overwhelming that it was almost suffocating.

"Master! Master, you’re alive!"

"Of course I am! What’s with all this ‘dead or alive’ nonsense? I told you, I won’t die! Now hurry up and help your senior sister!"

Hearing his voice again, Li Qingran finally snapped out of her trance completely.

She saw Yue Qianchi trembling in fear and immediately rushed over.

As she ran, she pinched her waist—

The pain was real.

This wasn’t a dream.

Her master was truly alive.

Everything she had just experienced was an illusion.

She had thought that extreme sorrow would suffocate her.

But she never expected that joy could make it just as hard to breathe.

"Senior Sister, wake up!"

She took a deep breath to steady herself, then waved a hand in front of Yue Qianchi’s face.

A second later, her hand was shoved away.

"Fire! The fire—it’s everywhere!"

"Put it out! Qingran, put it out! Can’t you see it?!"

"Senior Sister, there’s no fire—it’s just an illusion."

Li Qingran’s heart ached as she pulled Yue Qianchi into a tight embrace.

She had never seen her senior sister so terrified before.

It was the kind of fear that felt like being plunged into a bottomless abyss—

Where darkness stretched endlessly in every direction.

Where every breath was filled with suffocating cold.

Where despair consumed everything.

"Fire! There has to be fire—it’s burning me!"

"Qingran, hurry! There’s no time! If we don’t stop it, everyone will die!"

Yue Qianchi’s tear-streaked face was a mess of mud and desperation.

"Master, what should I do?"

Li Qingran looked toward the sky.

Chen Huai’an was too busy furiously tapping through his skill tree to notice her question.

He was working on maxing out his Meridian-Opening Acupuncture Technique—

One more upgrade, and it would reach perfection.

At that point, he could safely open all his meridians without any risk of crippling himself.

But for now, he had more important things to deal with.

A wooden basin filled with ice water appeared in front of Li Qingran.

Next to it—

A whip.

A cold voice echoed in the void: "Here. Choose."

"Master… do I really have to do this to Senior Sister?"

Li Qingran hesitated as she looked between the ice water and the whip.

"Isn’t this a bit too cruel…?"

Silence.

Meanwhile, Yue Qianchi’s condition was deteriorating.

Li Qingran bit her lip.

Finally, she made her choice—she dragged the basin of ice water over.

Then, she dipped the whip in the water.

After a deep breath, she turned to Yue Qianchi and bowed.

"Senior Sister, forgive me!"

With that, she grabbed Yue Qianchi, flipped her over, and—

Crack!

A single lash landed squarely on Yue Qianchi’s backside.

"Goddamn, this girl is a genius!"

Chen Huai’an blinked in surprise.

What was that saying again?

Ah, right—

"Kids make choices. Adults take both."

And Li Qingran?

She had just proven the wisdom of that phrase.

Ice water and a whip—why not both?

Ice-cold punishment. A brutal wake-up call.

Damn. That’s savage.

But that wasn’t even the biggest deal right now.

What really caught Chen Huai’an’s attention was the new pay-to-win options that had just appeared in his interface:

Spend ¥6,998 to summon a Purple Heaven Divine Lightning Talisman and blast open the illusion array.

Spend ¥19,998 to unleash the Blackscale Flying Sword and tear through the illusion array.

Spend ¥44,444 to temporarily ascend to Fusion Realm – Early Stage and execute the Green Lotus Sword Manual: Eleventh Form – Celestial River Slash.

All three choices would allow him to clear the illusion.

The only difference—

Was how flashy he wanted to be.

A normal clear.

A double-clear.

Or a super ultra VIP deluxe max clear.

Chen Huai’an narrowed his eyes.

Then, his gaze flicked to the amount he needed to finish upgrading his Meridian-Opening Acupuncture Technique.

After a long silence, he exhaled deeply.

And muttered—

"Boundless Heavenly Lord… This Lingxi Valley truly shares a fateful bond with me."

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