Open Up!!

In fact, those hundred-plus outcomes were all perfect, but the Ancient One still wasn't satisfied.

Because... he didn't want to work overtime. He just wanted to retire!!

So Lin Xu would have to suffer!

At that moment, Lin Xu was still wallowing in grief and indignation over whether he'd transmigrated into the wrong genre when he suddenly noticed the Ancient One's meaningful gaze.

Why's he looking at me like that? Don't tell me this old bastard is gay?

The Ancient One's smile flattened, and she went expressionless.

Shit, I forgot this old virgin can read minds!

The corners of the Ancient One's mouth turned down, imitating Miss Dong.

"Ahem, well, I've had a little too much tea. May I ask where the latrine is?"

The Ancient One began drawing circles.

"It's just a short walk. There's no need for a portal... holy shit." As he spoke, Lin Xu felt a bone-chilling wind sweep over him. He slowly turned his head and saw that the other end of the portal was no toilet, but a landscape blanketed in snow.

"M-m-master Ancient One, it can't be what I think it is, can it?"

"That's right. It's exactly what you think!"

"But I haven't learned how to use this thing yet! What's the spell? Do I use English or Chinese, Mandarin or a dialect? And if I pee on a snowy mountain, I'll get hypothermia!!"

Thump!

"Huh? Huh?"

Before Lin Xu could finish, the Ancient One kicked him through and casually tossed a Sling Ring after him.

"That suit of yours looks pretty thick. You should last half an hour. Of course, if you need to pee, you'd better hurry." With that, she immediately closed the portal.

Cold. Freezing cold!

Lin Xu cursed a few times, but his hands didn't stop moving. He tightened the bulletproof suit he'd had specially made to keep himself alive and started digging through the snow. It was deep enough to reach his knees, and the Sling Ring, weighing three or four liang, had vanished as soon as it was thrown over.

His eyes still hadn't adjusted to the expanse of white after being suddenly transported from the dim room.

After fumbling around for three or four minutes, he finally dug the Sling Ring out of the snow, his hands frozen stiff.

"Does this thing go on the left hand or the right? That old bastard Ancient One... didn't seem to be wearing one just now. That old thing is that strong!!"

After fiddling with it for a while, he finally slipped the two-holed Sling Ring onto the index and middle fingers of his left hand.

There was no incantation, he hadn't communicated with any dimension, and he didn't have a trace of sorcerer energy in his body. How was he supposed to use this thing?

"By the Supreme Old Lord's command, swiftly obey the law! Open!!"

Nothing happened.

"Abracadabra!"

Whoosh!

The cold wind blew past, and his hands trembled even harder.

"Fuck, does that old bastard Ancient One really want to kill me? When Strange went through this, he'd already spent some time at Kamar-Taj, and that chubby kid Ned had also broken some magical artifacts in the basement of the New York Sanctum. Maybe he came into contact with some energy then."

No, probably not. It would be easy for the old bastard to kill him; there was no need to go to all this trouble. He must have overlooked something crucial.

The cold wind blew past, forcing his frantic mind to calm down, and he began to think back on himself.

"The broken stool, the timeline that appeared, or..." Lin Xu slowly looked down at his stomach. After four cups of tea, his urge to pee was growing stronger. At first, he'd thought he was just bloated from drinking too much hot tea.

Those cups of tea probably contained energy that could activate the Sling Ring. Otherwise, that old bastard Ancient One would never joke about something like this.

But how was he supposed to use that energy? Nobody had taught him how to circulate it!

Suddenly, Lin Xu's mouth twitched. He looked at the Sling Ring, then slowly lowered his head... At that moment, he had a bold idea.

"Sorry, little Sling Ring. I don't mean to do this. Sorry for putting you through it." With that, Lin Xu took off the Sling Ring and placed it on a relatively flat patch of ground.

Although he knew there was nobody around, he still habitually looked left and right before unfastening his pants and slowly squatting down.

Meanwhile, the Ancient One had settled back into her chair and was leisurely continuing to sip her tea.

A figure slowly emerged from the shadows. His sparse long hair was tied in a bun, and his black-and-white beard was two or three inches long. A pair of vintage-style glasses rested on his nose. The mismatched look wasn't all that comical, though; instead, it gave him a somewhat mysterious air.

"Venerable One!"

"Master Hamir, would you like some tea?" Without turning around, the Ancient One put away all the tea bags on the table.

"..." Hamir's newly formed smile vanished. Looking at the glass jar that had reappeared on the table, its tea leaves showing faint signs of mold from improper storage, he shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm going back to Hong Kong later, so I'll buy a couple of milk teas."

"Oh? All right. Bring me two on your way down."

Hamir: "..."

"Phew... Never mind that. Venerable One, do you really think that highly of this young man?"

"Eternity once told me that people like him are best at creating miracles."

Hamir was momentarily at a loss for words. Kamar-Taj had always worshipped the Vishanti. Was it really all right for her to openly say she'd had dealings with Eternity?

He silently glanced back at the statue of the Vishanti, which showed no reaction, and felt reassured. If the three great gods didn't care, why should he worry?

"Venerable One, as for Hong Kong, I'm planning to retire. Wong has surpassed me in excellence, and I intend to have him take over the Hong Kong Sanctum."

At the word "retire," a sharp pain immediately pierced the Ancient One's previously tranquil heart.

No way. I've worked for hundreds of years without retiring, and you want to retire after only a few decades? Not a chance!

"Ahem, Wong's excellence is plain for all to see. The blood of Kan flows in his veins; he's a born sorcerer. His biological father sacrificed himself during a battle against a hell dimension, and you raised him."

"Indeed, Venerable One. That child has always regarded me as his father." At the mention of Wong, the expression on Hamir's face never stopped changing.

"So, I plan to have him guard the library!"

"Thank you... huh?"

Lin Xu crouched in the snow, his face flushed red with the effort of holding back.

In his previous life, he'd been to the Mount Everest base camp, but hadn't attempted the climb for health and financial reasons. The person in charge of the base camp had told them that on a cold, high-altitude snowy mountain, they should avoid peeing if possible. But if they absolutely couldn't hold it, they shouldn't stand; they should squat if they could. They also shouldn't let it all out at once, but go a little at a time.

Otherwise, they would rapidly lose body heat and develop hypothermia.

"Fuck, this method isn't something a human being should have to do. This is awful!"

A minute later, Lin Xu slowly got up. Even though he'd followed the proper method, he still couldn't help shivering after the whole ordeal.

Ignoring the already somewhat cold "unidentified liquid" on the Sling Ring, he slipped it on and began drawing circles.

"Mighty Heavenly Dragon, Great Luo Dharma spell..."

Sizzle...

At last, clusters of sparks flashed briefly through the empty air in front of his hands and vanished in an instant.

"Hahaha, I knew it! I, Lin Xu, am a fucking genius too! Forb... ahem, Mystic Gate, success!"

Now that he'd seen hope, Lin Xu concentrated even harder. Although his hand was shaking badly, the movement of his arm was as precise as a math teacher drawing a circle on a blackboard.

Finally, before his hands went completely numb, the sparks in the air joined into a complete circle and expanded in the blink of an eye into a portal two meters in diameter.