[Mending Heaven Station · The Lonely Isle on the Ink Sea]
"You're here. Rested enough?"
Elder Mo set down his teacup and regarded the two figures before him with an unhurried gaze.
Yin Wuwang stood upon the Ink Sea in his crimson robes, Xie Qingyan right beside him. The purple-gold python robe had vanished, replaced once more by the Sword Sovereign's white attire. The exhaustion from the previous world had faded—that dynasty steeped in machinations, that court rife with scheming and deception, had become nothing more than a faded page in their memories. Yin Wuwang stole a glance at Xie Qingyan. The man remained as cold and distant as ever, like the eternal ice atop Canopy Peak that never thawed.
But our relationship should have improved, right? After all, we fought side by side... Yin Wuwang couldn't help thinking.
Xie Qingyan sensed the gaze beside him but didn't turn his head. Yin Wuwang was watching him again. This man was always like this, thinking he concealed it well when in truth every glance landed clear as day. But Xie Qingyan didn't call him out on it. After cooperating through an entire world, he had grown accustomed to this man's lingering attention.
Elder Mo leisurely produced an abacus and clicked through several beads with a clack-clack-clack.
"A-rank evaluation. Six million points." His fingers danced nimbly across the beads. "Minus the ten thousand you still owe from the ABO world..." He revealed a benevolent smile. "Congratulations. Current total: five million, nine hundred and ninety thousand points."
"Five million nine hundred ninety thousand?" Yin Wuwang's heart stirred. "How many points does it take to save this sovereign's world?"
Elder Mo's fingers paused on the abacus. He lifted his eyelids to look at him, a benevolent smile spreading across his face as he slowly raised his hand and spread all five fingers: "Fifty million."
"Fifty million?!"
"Points," Elder Mo added helpfully. "Cannot be exchanged with spirit stones."
Yin Wuwang sucked in a sharp breath. The spirit stones he carried were utterly useless for this matter.
Xie Qingyan also furrowed his brow. When he'd faced Yin Wuwang in their final battle, he had brought only his bonded sword, intending to leave all his assets to the sect should he fall... How could he have anticipated this situation? He was even poorer than Yin Wuwang. Fortunately, points could be earned by completing missions.
"Nine worlds' worth of missions." Elder Mo put away the abacus. "Get an A-rank in each world, and you'll have just enough."
His eyes narrowed. "But if any world drops below B-rank... tsk tsk, that would be unfortunate."
Xie Qingyan asked: "What's the next world?"
Elder Mo waved his sleeve. A curtain of light slowly unfurled before them, revealing lines of ink-brush characters. Faint images of towering buildings flickered within.
"A modern crime investigation world. The Night Wanderer."
Yin Wuwang frowned. Modern? Crime investigation? He'd never heard either term. Xie Qingyan was also studying the light screen. The buildings in the images soared into the clouds. This was an entirely unfamiliar world.
Elder Mo continued: "This world has no spiritual energy, no magic, no cultivation system you're familiar with. You'll need to solve a mortal's case using mortal methods. Same rules as before—your demonic energy and spiritual power will be sealed to prevent accidentally destabilizing the world."
"Another mortal's case?" Yin Wuwang scoffed. "Mere mortals—what kind of unsolvable case could they possibly have?"
Elder Mo glanced at him, his tone laden with meaning: "Don't underestimate mortals."
Yin Wuwang paid no heed to Elder Mo's warning. He had lived for three thousand years—what scheme or conspiracy hadn't he witnessed? Mortals lived barely a century. How deep could their machinations possibly run? Hadn't he handled things perfectly well in the world of Power Over All?
Xie Qingyan said nothing, but he committed Elder Mo's words to memory. This old man had no reason to deceive them. If he said as much, this world was certainly not as simple as it appeared.
"Your mission objective is to repair the collapsed storyline." Elder Mo pointed at the flickering glitches on the light screen. "The author of this book lost control of the plot halfway through. The cause of death doesn't match up, the motive for murder doesn't hold, character personalities contradict each other... If this continues, the entire world will collapse."
"So we're cleaning up some incompetent author's mess again?" Yin Wuwang sneered.
"You could put it that way." Elder Mo smiled, and there was something distinctly amused in that smile. "Solve the case correctly, guide the plot toward a logical conclusion, and the world will stabilize."
He swept his hand through the air, and the ground beneath their feet began to crack.
"Off you go. Remember—no OOC behavior, no revealing your identities as cultivators. Otherwise—"
"Lightning punishment. This sovereign knows." Yin Wuwang cut him off impatiently.
Elder Mo's smile deepened: "Then I wish you luck, wage slaves."
BOOM.
The familiar chaos of temporal currents swallowed them whole.
[Cloud City · Downtown Luxury Apartment]
The light faded. The moment Yin Wuwang opened his eyes, he startled backward a step. He blinked several times before realizing what had startled him—a painting. A chaotic mess of a painting, featuring a massive human face twisted into something hideous and grotesque, splashed with garish colors. It was uglier than the most repulsive demon beast in the demon realm.
Yin Wuwang turned away in disgust and surveyed his surroundings with an impassive expression. The place was so small it felt almost suffocating. His gaze quickly settled on Xie Qingyan. Xie Qingyan stood by the window, apparently observing the world outside. His attire today differed from usual—strange black garments that hugged his frame, making him appear even more tall and slender. His hair was also cut short like in the ABO world, the flowing long hair nowhere to be seen.
Yin Wuwang touched his own hair, then looked down at himself. Similar attire: a black outer layer, a white inner shirt tucked into strange trousers. The clothing in this world is truly bizarre. Is this something the author imagined, or is this so-called modern world actually like this?
Xie Qingyan gazed out the window, his mind working. The buildings in this world were indeed like what Elder Mo had shown them, but up close he noticed the structures were packed so densely together there was hardly any space between them. No spiritual energy here, no immortal mountains, nothing familiar. He withdrew his gaze and began examining the room's furnishings. Those oddly-shaped objects probably weren't "magical artifacts"—they were items used by mortals, but seemed quite different from the ancient world of Power Over All.
[End of V2_Chapter 01]
Next: Character profiles downloaded. The Demon Sovereign is now a "combat specialist"—whatever that means.