Crystal-to-win? Crystal-to-win?

Accidents always catch you off guard.

Fang Zheng could swear he never imagined he would discover a brand-new way to spend money—ah, no, Crystal-to-win—in this place, in this manner. Thinking back, it made sense. After arriving in this world, he had basically given up on spending. The reason was simple: when he built the game framework, he had naturally left a spending endpoint, but it used Alipay to directly deduct money. After all, a mobile game was a mobile game; you could innovate in other areas, but the easier the payment, the better. Which mobile game deliberately made its payment function complicated? They all wished players could tap once and have money deducted without even entering a password!

But in this world, Fang Zheng had been reborn, not transmigrated. He hadn't even brought his phone, so how could he spend? Thus, he had basically stopped caring about payment-related matters. Yet, what he hadn't expected was that while he sought flowers, they wouldn't bloom; when he planted willows carelessly, they would grow into shade. By casually grabbing a Soul Crystal Core, he had actually stirred up his own spending system.

If he had known such a good thing was possible, why would he have risked sneaking into the Holy Kingdom!

At this moment, Fang Zheng felt a bit of regret. If he had truly known that Soul Crystal Cores could be used for spending, then why fear the Holy Kingdom's pursuit? He could have found a desolate wilderness, plunged in, killed a few hundred Demon Beasts, grabbed the cores, spent wildly, and drawn a huge pile of Soul Stones. Then he wouldn't have feared anyone, directly clashing with the Holy Kingdom and becoming a big demon lord... Well, maybe not.

Unfortunately, this thought only circled in Fang Zheng's mind before retreating. The Holy Kingdom's power was vast, and facing them head-on wasn't a good idea. Besides, Fang Zheng himself had no grudge against the Holy Kingdom. Although they had killed the parents of this body, so what? According to Williams's memories, the master of this house had done plenty of heinous things with Living Sacrifices. In Fang Zheng's opinion, the evil deeds those two had committed meant being cut down by a Holy Knight's sword was a mercy; they should have been tied to a stake and burned properly.

Thus, regarding the Holy Kingdom's act of killing this body's parents, Fang Zheng felt no emotional stir and even found it a bit amusing. Sacrifice himself for a bunch of mad Cultists? He wasn't willing to make such a losing deal.

Thinking this way, it was safer to maintain good relations with the Holy Kingdom for now.

"Thank you."

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Fang Zheng's expression remained unchanged. He simply smiled at Malte, thanked him, and put away the Spirit Crystals. Watching Fang Zheng's behavior, Malte inwardly nodded. As a Grand Knight, he naturally had an eye for people. In his view, it was already impressive for someone of this age to have such high skill and understanding of swordsmanship. In fact, when Malte first found Fang Zheng, he had mentally prepared himself for the possibility that the other party might be difficult to deal with. After all, nothing in this world was perfect, and those with extraordinary talent often had personality flaws. Malte had seen many such examples before, so before approaching Fang Zheng, he had specifically sought out Knight Conan for inquiries before coming to negotiate.

What surprised Malte, however, was that this young man was not only highly skilled but also exceptionally calm and steady in his dealings—neither humble nor arrogant, a rare combination. A person's great strength could be attributed to natural talent; even a farmer in the countryside could, by chance, gain power comparable to a dragon. But a person's behavior, speech, and actions were not so simple. They required sufficient poise, manners, etiquette, and cultivation—these were ultimately the most important markers of a person's identity and class. While Malte inwardly praised this, he also felt some confusion. As a Grand Knight directly under the Bishop Council, he was very familiar with most of the nobility in the Holy Kingdom, yet he had never heard of such an outstanding figure among the younger generation. If a noble family had produced such a powerful and composed descendant, they would have long been the talk of banquets and soirées.

And his name... was also quite strange.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, are you a subject of the Holy Kingdom? I don't recall ever seeing you before..."

"I'm from the Silver Duchy."

Fang Zheng naturally knew he would be questioned about his origins. Ever since he realized he had triggered a "Law Resonance," he had been trying to find a way to resolve his identity issue. As luck would have it, he eventually unearthed something from the memories of this body, Williams—Williams's father had once lived in the Silver Duchy for a time. This man was naturally lecherous and had seduced many women there. As a Cultist, he was audacious to the point of openly organizing group parties.

Since many of the participants were noble offspring from the Silver Duchy, the scandal eventually broke, enraging many nobles. Williams's father naturally fled, leaving the women he had deceived to suffer. Many were imprisoned or exiled by their families, and some simply "disappeared."

After returning, Williams's father was quite proud of this and often boasted to his son. Besides saying, "Look how impressive your father is, so many noble women fell into my hands," he also taught by example, "As a Cultist, corrupting civilization and breaking ethics is so thrilling."

This showed just how twisted the values of these Cultists were.

For Fang Zheng, however, this was an unexpected blessing.

After being reborn into this world and acquiring this troublesome body and identity, he had been pondering one question: how to separate himself from Williams.

Now, he had finally thought of a good solution.

Choosing the Silver Duchy had initially been a vague idea, but as days passed, his plan grew clearer. For Fang Zheng, there were two problems he had to solve in this world. First, why did he look so much like Williams? It was almost a cruel joke of fate—Williams's face was seventy to eighty percent similar to Fang Zheng's own, so looking at it didn't feel strange.

Of course, maybe it was because they looked so alike that he had transmigrated into this disaster.

The second problem was the bloodline of this body. Through Williams's memories, Fang Zheng knew that this world's magical civilization was highly advanced, even capable of determining relationships through bloodlines. If anyone became suspicious of Fang Zheng's appearance, he would inevitably face scrutiny, needing to explain his origins and his connection to the Williams family.

Thus, using Williams's father's past, Fang Zheng crafted a version.

In this version's backstory, Fang Zheng came from the Silver Duchy, the child of a noble lady who had been exiled because of Williams's father. He knew nothing of his origins, having grown up alone with his mother. Not long ago, his mother had died of illness, and Fang Zheng had brought the remaining property to the Holy Kingdom.

This backstory perfectly addressed the two biggest questions. He and Williams shared the same father, so looking alike was natural. Since they were half-brothers, a blood relation was unsurprising.

Of course, this identity might upset some people, but Fang Zheng didn't care. His biggest problem in this world was being identified as a Cultist. What he needed to do was completely sever himself from Williams. Even if he and Williams were half-brothers, as long as he wasn't a Cultist and wasn't on the Holy Kingdom's wanted list, that was enough.

As for the rest, it didn't matter.

Naturally, Fang Zheng didn't explain all this to Malte. In his "setting," Fang Zheng himself didn't know his origins, so he only exchanged a few brief words according to his crafted background. Upon learning that Fang Zheng was from the Silver Duchy, Malte nodded knowingly and said nothing more, instead turning to discuss their next move.

This left Fang Zheng feeling helpless. According to the original plan, he and Stone were supposed to find Miss M and these Holy Knights, then lead them away. Now, they had found the Holy Knights, but Stone and Miss M were missing. Without Miss M's Starpath, in the sealed space of Shadow Canyon, they had nowhere to go.

Only two paths lay before them: either find Stone and Miss M and use the Starpath to teleport away, or escape on foot—after all, that was how they had entered.

To Fang Zheng's surprise, Malte proposed a third path.

"Continue forward?"

Hearing Malte's suggestion, Fang Zheng frowned.

"Isn't that very dangerous?"

"It is dangerous, Mr. Fang Zheng, but we cannot simply leave."

Facing Fang Zheng's question, Malte nodded seriously and began to explain.

"In fact, although we were ambushed by the Lich in Shadow Canyon, we didn't come away empty-handed. We're not sure if this Lich is the one we're looking for, but we've discovered one thing... this Lich is hiding in Shadow Canyon with a purpose! It seems to be performing some evil and blasphemous Dark Ritual within the canyon!"

"What?"

Hearing this, Fang Zheng was slightly startled.

"A Dark Ritual?"

"That's right. It set an ambush for us because it wants to use the blood and souls of Holy Knights for its ritual! We've lost many companions already; it may have gathered enough souls and blood. We must stop its evil plan before the ritual is complete!"