Edible Protagonist Halo, Great Thunderclap Monastery

Netizens from all over the world suddenly noticed that the camera lens was gradually moving closer to Ye Fan.

"Huh? What's the photographer up to?"

"Superman will finally show his face? We still don't know what he looks like..."

"Is the photographer a girl?"

"My Yezi is so handsome! He's flawless from any angle! I love him!"

As photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye gradually approached him, Ye Fan felt somewhat strange.

The thought of your future self and your present self standing together and having a conversation definitely creates a sense of disorientation...

"I have a question."

Ye Fan sensed that Heavenly Emperor Ye seemed to want to speak, and asked in his mind first, "Aren't you afraid that by appearing in my life like this, you will change the present and make you disappear? I don't believe that you went through these things back then."

The "these" naturally refer to Ye Fan's experiences as a streamer during this period.

This was the only time he could ask a question.

No matter how he asked, the other party would usually ignore him and rarely give a positive response.

Photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye seemed to have seen through Ye Fan's thoughts, and at this moment he just smiled calmly, "There are no two flowers in the world that are the same. Even the same flower is different from one moment to the next."

"You cannot comprehend Senior Yan's methods right now. If I say too much, it will create a barrier to your understanding and will not do you any good."

Ye Fan seemed to understand but not quite, so he stopped asking questions and just stared intently at him.

"The mission of Treading on Mount Tai in Spring has been successfully completed."

Photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye Tiandi smiled gently, "Senior Yan asked me to pass on the reward to you."

"Award?"

Ye Fan repeated the word.

As a military major, it was only natural for him to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors; he never expected this turn of events.

"Yes, the reward is the [Protagonist Halo]."

Heavenly Emperor Ye didn't seem to have the habit of keeping people in suspense and gave a direct response.

The phrase "Protagonist Halo" left Ye Fan in a daze once again.

According to his understanding, this should only be a conceptual thing, and it is rather general and vague, usually used to describe the incredible luck of the protagonist in novels, comics, and movies.

Jumping off a cliff grants one a legacy from their ancestors; casually giving a beggar a bowl of water on the street can lead to receiving secret martial arts from a reclusive master; one will not die in most Extremis...

Can something so conceptual be given?

Seeing Ye Fan's confusion, Heavenly Emperor Ye simply smiled and said nothing more.

Suddenly, Ye Fan felt a weight in his hand, and a light, warm fragrance filled his body.

He lowered his head and stared intently...

In his palm appeared a delicate little figure made of dough.

It has no facial features, but it has four limbs, which are white and thin. It is obviously steamed and is emitting heat, making people want to swallow it whole.

Ye Fan discovered that two words were written on the little steamed bun figure's "body"—protagonist.

"Just eat it."

Photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye's voice rang out again. "You already have a certain degree of Protagonist Halo. Eating this will raise your aura level to another level."

Ye Fan didn't stand on ceremony and readily accepted the "Protagonist Halo" by eating it in two bites.

Strangely enough, even though it smelled, looked, and felt just like a steamed bun, it melted in his mouth. Ye Fan felt that it didn't even go through his gastrointestinal digestive system and was directly absorbed by his body.

No...

Not the body!

"Food that directly affects the soul?"

Ye Fan thought this way, but his future self denied it.

"It's not the soul, but the True Spirit Imprint."

As soon as photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye uttered those words, he realized his mistake, shook his head slightly, and gradually disappeared into the air.

Ye Fan silently memorized the term "True Spirit Imprint".

Since the audience can't see Heavenly Emperor Ye, there's a lot of speculation going on.

"Is the streamer having hysteria? He's been staring blankly at the camera for ages, I'm speechless..."

Was Ye Zi flirting with me just now?

"I guess the photographer just spoke to him."

"Waaaaah! I want to go to Mars too!"

"That's not scientific! Mars has extremely low atmospheric pressure, less than 1% of Earth's, and carbon dioxide makes up the vast majority of it. Except for the equatorial region where daytime temperatures exceed 20 degrees Celsius, the temperature in other parts is too low for human survival. Because there is no ocean or greenhouse effect from the atmosphere, the nighttime temperature can even drop to minus 80 degrees Celsius... How did the anchors survive?"

"Science is dead; burn paper money if you need anything."

"It was probably one of the time travelers from the Mount Tai travel group who made the move, right? The Red Hair? The artist? Or someone else?"

"I think it should be Loki Odinson, he looks pretty strong..."

Ye Fan smiled slightly as he watched the barrage of comments flying across the live stream.

He was already confident, but now he seemed even more self-assured, and his eyes appeared to have become even brighter.

After exchanging a few words with his ten travel companions, he began to explore the way ahead while explaining some information to everyone.

"Look, everyone, there's a huge rock here, and it seems to have writing on it."

Ye Fan spoke, he walked around to the side of the boulder facing the light source.

Viewers in the live stream could clearly see two huge ancient characters carved on the stone.

Each ancient character is five or six meters tall, with iron hooks and silver strokes.

The characters are vigorous and powerful, grand and majestic, like two angry dragons coiling together.

"These characters are much more complex than modern fonts; they must have been carved in ancient times, and we don't know how many years they've existed..."

Ye Fan and his group gathered in front of the stone wall, gazing at the two powerful ancient characters.

"Zhong Dingwen, the first character is 'ying'."

Zhou Yi, who had always been a burden and a slacker in the team, stepped up at this moment.

Although he himself was not sure, he still showed a confident look. "The second word should be 'confusion'!"

Zhou Yi is very smart.

He knew that he was only able to join the team and embark on this magical adventure because of luck.

His relationship with Ye Fan was not as close as Ye Fan's relationships with Liu Yiyi Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

In this situation, Zhou Yi had to demonstrate his value to some extent.

"The flickering Kakkō is confusing and disorienting."

Zhou Yi paused for a moment before continuing to explain, "This place is probably no longer Earth... It glows like fire, and in ancient times it was called Mars, an ominous sign. In ancient times... people called Mars Mars."

After saying this, he glanced at Ye Fan out of the corner of his eye, a feigned shy smile on his face.

In this team full of strong individuals, he must demonstrate his value, but he cannot be too assertive—that would only annoy people.

Upon discovering that the other party also seemed to have some knowledge of ancient documents, Zhou Yi remained silent and smiled, gesturing for Ye Fan to explain.

"That's right, those two characters are indeed Mars."

Ye Fan saw right through Zhou Yi's little scheme, but didn't expose him. He just smiled and said, "We're standing on Mars. Experts in the live stream have already figured that out through astrological analysis."

"Here I'll just share some things that I understand."

"Countless ages ago, the ancients had already noticed that Mars was red and its brightness changed frequently, glowing like fire."

"Moreover, they move in the sky, sometimes from west to east, and sometimes from east to west, which is complicated and confusing."

"Therefore it is called ' Mars)."

"In ancient times, emperors were superstitious and feared this ominous star, believing it to be a harbinger of misfortune."

"Whenever this happens, either the prime minister is dismissed or a member of the imperial family dies."

"In fact, what they saw as 'Mars' was Mars just a few tens of seconds or even minutes earlier."

As Ye Fan walked and talked, he suddenly felt his foot step on something.

It was a rusty bronze plaque with four ancient characters engraved on it, coiled like dragons and snakes, exuding endless Zen-like meaning.

It remains a complex and difficult-to-decipher inscription on bronze vessels.

Many hands make light work; Ye Fan and Zhou Yi filled in the gaps in each other's understanding and quickly grasped its meaning.

"Great Thunderclap Monastery!"

Photographer Heavenly Emperor Ye looked at the plaque with a complicated expression, remaining silent.

Some details that we experienced in the past have changed from this moment on.

(I found the storylines involving interaction with humans more interesting, so I'll just briefly mention the Crocodile God and Mars in a few sentences. In the next chapter, the Phantom Troupe heads straight for the Big Dipper Star Domain.)