[March 29, 00:30 AM]

The night is deep, and the solitary moon hangs high.

Cedar logs are long, streams murmur, and the night wind sweeps through the lush greenery, stirring the sound of pine and bamboo.

The gatekeeper of the Ancient Martial Families holds a lantern, yawns, and lazily leans against the stone lion.

The Main God World forbids players from harming each other, even if swords and knives strike, it only causes pain, not death. Standing guard seems to have lost its meaning—no one would act in the Main God World. Moreover, this is the domain of the Ancient Martial Families, who would come here to take on a steel plate?

"Quickly finish this guard duty, then go back to sleep..." The gatekeeper looks at the empty outside of the gate, drowsy. He has never seen anyone challenge the Ancient Martial Families, unless they had the courage of a bear and the heart of a leopard.

Suddenly.

A slender and tall white shadow appears outside the gate, with a long knife held diagonally, like a ghost.

The night wind sweeps through the pine and bamboo, the rustling sound sways, mottled tree shadows cast on his white hair, accumulating in the slightly dark eyes.

The grand mansion stands before him, with layers of ancient buildings rising high and low, the sound of murmuring streams faintly heard. Silhouettes overlap in the tallest building, illuminated bright.

...Years ago, on such a night. Silhouettes overlapped under Taihua Mountain, candle flames flickered, just a tiny spark fell, igniting like wildfire.

In his youth, he escaped to life, turned back, only to see a hell aflame. Since then, life descended into an abyss, past happiness seemed like a dream not belonging to him.

He remembers Su Ming'an saying "let's go together," so he's already sent a team invitation to Su Ming'an, as soon as Su Ming'an accepts, he can teleport here.

"You are..." The gatekeeper sees Lv Shu's face and instantly turns pale, remembering the elders' instructions to treat Lv Shu with utmost courtesy if encountered.

"Are they all inside?" Lv Shu looks toward the brightly lit building complex, assuming the elders are waiting inside.

Once, he demanded this group give the Lv Family an explanation after the Tenth World concluded, to clarify the truth of the Lv Family's extermination.

If they dared to hide or blame a scapegoat to fool him...

The deeply buried shadows slowly surface in his eyes, the familiar obsession returns. At this moment, his expression mirrors that when he learned of Su Ming'an's death in the Fourth World, filled with mud-like gloom and hatred.

He's walked in the sunlight with Su Ming'an and others for too long, but never forgot his past, darkness only buried deep in his heart, never vanished.

Once the seawater surges, the mud stirs, eyes instantly clouded.

"Lead the way." Lv Shu points forward with the long knife, the gatekeeper immediately turns and walks inside.

...

When Lv Shu's team invitation arrives, Su Ming'an is reviewing Lv Shu's Memory Fragments, temporarily unseen.

Upon touching the Memory Fragments, Su Ming'an sees lush trees, morning mist floating in the fragmented sunlight, filled with a rain-soaked natural scent. His feet touch ground, making a slight crunching sound on the fallen leaves.

This is Taihua Mountain.

"—Who are you?"

A slightly hoarse boy's voice comes from behind.

Su Ming'an didn't expect to be discovered just upon landing. He turns, a black-haired boy about twelve or thirteen stands leaning against a tree, with slanting long eyebrows, clear bright pupils, a slightly narrow face, appearing somewhat thin.

A red butterfly rests on the boy's fingertip, like a drop of cinnabar amidst black and white. The boy gazes intently at Su Ming'an, as silent as an ink painting.

His eyebrows are not gloomy, his eyes black and white, washed like clean water, full of a calm opposite to his youthful spirit, like a flowing spring.

—A gentle and urbane young lord, as if walked out of an ancient painting.

This is Su Ming'an's first direct encounter with young Lv Shu. Though he anticipated a great disparity with the present, he didn't expect it to be so vast.

But in fact, the core hasn't changed. He can still see the future Lv Shu through the boy now. He can foresee... what a tragic growth process reshaped the child who ought to grow happily.

"I'm..." Su Ming'an hesitates. He doesn't know what impact changing the past might have.

Before he can say anything, the boy cupped his hands.

"No need to explain your identity, grandpa taught me to recognize people, you seem like a good man." The boy gently says, "Outsider, since you are here, you must have something to ask of the Ancient Martial Families? My home is not far, would you like to rest at my house? I can brew you a pot of the Biluochun I recently learned."

Then, the boy slowly shows a smile. It is neither awkward nor forced, without a trace of gloom, sunny and bright.

Sunlight falls through bamboo leaves, into his tea-like green eyes, filled with smile. The boy cups his hands, manners impeccably done, like a refined young lord from ancient Dragon Country, wrapped in an ethereal mist disconnected from the mundane world.

Su Ming'an can only nod.

They tread on rustling leaves, walking step by step down the mountain, sparse sunlight like revolving stars, falls on their shoulders. The boy chats casually, his words polite and restrained.

"This is Little Hong, my first insect." The boy's fingers touch the butterfly's wing, "My family is a newly arisen family, having mastered the technique of insect rearing, becoming one of the Ancient Martial Families. Most Ancient Martial Families are lineage descendants, holding almost lost Dragon Country ancient heritage since the Tang Dynasty, such as divination, water-floating technique, qigong technique, etc. My family specializes in Insect Control Technique."

"I've never heard of these things." Su Ming'an brushes aside overhead branches. He always thought the modern world lacked these things, everything seemed scientific.

"Never heard of, doesn't mean nonexistent. Your outside world only sees what's under cameras, never truly enters deep mountains for exploration, if we intend to hide the news, ordinary people cannot know. You assume everything beyond science is superstitious, but some aren't like that." The boy shakes his head, "A grand nation for over five thousand years, how many techniques and histories you cannot touch exist. These hidden heritages only occur within families, naturally you wouldn't know."

"Information cocoon." Su Ming'an understands.

"Hmm? What cocoon? My family does have an insect cocoon." The boy shows a little surprise, obviously unfamiliar with internet buzzwords, truly like someone out of an ancient painting, isolated from the world.

If not for the World Game, perhaps, ordinary Su Ming'an living in a modern city, and such a cultivated young lord from Ancient Martial Families, would never meet in a lifetime. Their worlds are completely parallel lines, Su Ming'an wouldn't leave the bustling city, and Lv Shu wouldn't step out of the deep mountains.

Yet, by chance... they met.

The disaster of a family's extermination, the pain of illness, the determination for revenge, made Lv Shu decide from the first sight of Su Ming'an... he couldn't let go. Otherwise, his hatred might never be avenged even in death.

Countless coincidences and accidents led two completely unrelated individuals to become True Friends.

"Wait, something's not right." The boy suddenly realizes, "You've never heard of these things, so why are you at Taihua Mountain?"

Su Ming'an was speechless. This reaction speed... it really runs in the family. It must be him.

"In your eyes, I'm not a bad person, right?" Su Ming'an said.

The young man looked at him seriously for a while, then slowly nodded.

"That's good. Let's go." Su Ming'an asked indirectly, "Is your family a newly risen family?"

"Yes." The young man seemed truly unfamiliar with outsiders. Once Su Ming'an asked, he spilled everything like pouring beans: "We are not a noble family passed down through several dynasties, but an independent family always on the outside. Recently, we've learned about this big organization of Ancient Martial Families. Grandpa thought for a long time and decided to join to seek protection and also wants better insect manuals."

"Seeking protection? Do you have any enemies?" Su Ming'an said.

The young man truly didn't treat him as an outsider and continued to spill: "Grandpa did have some enemies when he was young, that era was very chaotic, but grandpa did nothing wrong."

"I see, thank you for the answer, Young Master Lu." Su Ming'an said.

The young man's relaxed demeanor instantly changed, clearly a little overwhelmed: "Don't call me that... our family hasn't reached that status, and I can't afford any young master title..."

"Young Master Lv?" Su Ming'an said.

The young man walked ahead, his steps paused, but he didn't look back. Su Ming'an didn't know if Lv Shu was satisfied with this title, and he was already pondering whether to tell Lv Shu about the extermination incident. If he said it, would anything change?

The bamboo forest swayed, and one large and one small figure walked down the mountain, their silhouettes gradually sinking into the sunset evening.

...

[12:42 AM]

The hall door opened wide, one person, one sword, came walking from the cold wind.

Inside the grand hall of ancient martial arts, the lanterns flickered, casting light on six rows of middle-aged and young people. The forties were in the front, the twenties in the back, clearly divided in order. They wore ancient and simple clothing, as if walking out of distant history, arrayed and seated here.

The pillars of the hall stood majestically, with dragons and serpents coiling, a phoenix spreading its wings, engraved with the history of noble families from ancient times to the present. Heroes and legends, all inscribed in these eternal carvings, filled with the vicissitudes of historical records.

However, for Lv Shu, this place was like a nightmare. Years ago, it was here that he was judged and exiled from the Ancient Martial Families, leaving alone, unable to take anything with him.

"I am back." Facing all gazes, Lv Shu said lightly, "Give me your answer."

On the top seat was a woman with black pigtails.

"I will give you an answer without any concealment, Lv Shu." Mizushima Kawa Sora spoke. She is now the most powerful authority of the Ancient Martial Families, and no one dares to defy her orders: "Chi Liu, bring the scroll."

A white-haired middle-aged man stepped forward, leaning on a mahogany carved cane, presenting a scroll to Lv Shu: "Master Lv, this is the truth of that year."

The people lowered their brows, feeling humiliated. Despite hundreds of them, they were intimidated into silence by a single young man. Who could have imagined that the wanderer expelled from the family back then could now intimidate everyone with just one sword.

"Don't call me Master Lv, I don't need your manner of address." Lv Shu's eyes were tinged with gloom. As soon as he returned here, his calmness disappeared, leaving only long-suppressed hatred. He took the scroll and lowered his head to read it.

The hall was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

In fact, they had been somewhat afraid of Lv Shu for a long time.

In their eyes, this white-haired young man was always like a wolf cub going mad with nothing to lose, having done many things in the past to bite off a piece of his enemy's flesh at all costs. During Lv Shu's terminal illness in the last period, they even feared whether Lv Shu would launch a suicide attack, dragging some down with him. But fortunately, Lv Shu was too sick to even stand.

Even so, why was it that only Lv Shu, a junior, survived that year?

The enemies could not have possibly failed to kill a junior. Their idea was probably to let Lv Shu live alone, forever enduring the torment of extermination. If the World Game hadn't descended, Lv Shu's ultimate fate would have been to die as a poor wanderer, sick and homeless, with no exceptions.

Who could have imagined that by not cutting the grass at the root, it would evolve into today's situation.

People waited for Lv Shu to finish reading, as if awaiting an unknown judgment.

...

[12:53 AM]

Su Ming'an did not succeed in having tea with young Lv Shu.

They had only walked a few steps before Su Ming'an felt himself becoming translucent. In the next instant, he was no longer on Taihua Mountain.

What unfolded before him was a family gathering.

A young man about sixteen stood silently, a mantis perched on his shoulder. He wore a pitch-black Hanfu, having already grown quite tall.

In the hall, the people of the Ancient Martial Families warmly blessed the young man and his parents, offering auspicious words, respectfully addressing the young man as "Young Master Lv."

Those were the days of prosperity, vivid and blazing.

The newly risen family was illustrious for a time, awing others with envy. Everyone wanted to build connections, countless gifts flooded into the Lv family's doorstep, and the doorstep was nearly broken through by matchmakers.

Su Ming'an was unsure whether to approach, the crowd was overwhelming. Yet, surrounded by everyone, the young master of the Lv family saw him at a glance.

"It's you." Lv Shu called to him, "Why did you suddenly disappear before?"

Before he could get closer, Lv Shu left the crowd's embrace, taking him outside.

On the rooftop, the smell of alcohol dissipated. Stretching before him was a continuous range of mountains, greeted by peach blossoms and the spring breeze.

The extraordinary abilities of the Ancient Martial Families, Noel's eternal life information... It seemed that before the World Game began, many unsolved mysteries already existed in this world.

"Run away." Upon meeting the now taller Lv Shu, Su Ming'an's first words were to escape.

If not now, then it will be too late. The day of life's turning point... is approaching soon.

"Where do you want me to run to?" Lv Shu said, "I know you are a magical person, capable of appearing and disappearing suddenly, also holding magical information. But the Ancient Martial Families are so vast, if someone really wants to harm me, can I escape?"

"There will always be places, there will always be places illuminated by light." Su Ming'an suddenly thought: "Why don't you go to h city and find me."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.