Gold

"Hey! Huo Yuanjia! Huo Yuanjia! Hehe, when did you become the number one in Jinmen?"

"What do you think?"

"Hehe! Today! Today!!"

Dead memories attacked Huo Yuanjia.

He found it unbelievably absurd, yet it also felt like a lifetime ago, as though time had begun to run backward. Scene after scene from the past unfolded before his eyes. He returned to the day he had defeated every opponent in Jinmen and stood undefeated. He returned to the day he had attained enlightenment and departed. He returned to the day he had come back to Jinmen.

At these important points in time,

there was always one person.

Someone whose name did not even exist in Huo Yuanjia's memories would ask him, laughing happily, when he had become the number one in Jinmen.

And now...

That person and the scenes from his memories began to overlap, eventually becoming the wild, cackling face of a beggar. He was pointing at Huo Yuanjia and laughing uproariously. Reality and absurdity folded together, only to reveal that there was actually nothing but a hair's breadth between them. The sensation made Huo Yuanjia's entire body break out in gooseflesh!

"You're... Jin Buhuan?"

"What a vulgar name. But I like it. I'll go by Jin Buhuan. Hehe, long time no see, Huo Yuanjia. I didn't come looking for you today. Hurry and take me inside!" Jin Buhuan craned his neck out as far as it would go, straining to peer inside.

He was still dressed as a beggar.

Without the slightest air of an expert.

But clearly, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary beggar to travel all the way from Jinmen to Puhai on foot by begging along the road. There were far too many things along the way that could take the life of a frail beggar as thin as a stalk of straw.

"You really are Jin Buhuan?" Huo Yuanjia still found it unbelievable.

"I already told you I'm Jin Buhuan. It's just like you being the number one in Jinmen. If you don't believe me, go ask Lan yourself." Jin Buhuan vigorously scratched at his head, dug out a louse, and crushed it between his fingers.

Huo Yuanjia's eyelids twitched twice.

He did not believe it.

But he believed Immortal Master Lan Yi.

Thus, the Qi Cultivation Practitioners on patrol witnessed a bizarre sight. Martial Heavenly General Huo Yuanjia was leading a beggar who looked crazy and kept grinning foolishly to pay his respects to Immortal Master. The beggar was exceptionally bold too, touching and examining everything throughout the power plant like a deranged monkey, utterly unafraid of electrocuting himself to death.

Beggar, Immortal Master.

These were words that could only be connected in novels.

Yet at this moment, they had been connected in reality.

Feeling as though he were dreaming and having countless questions he did not know how to begin asking, Huo Yuanjia brought Jin Buhuan before Lan Yi in a daze.

The two met in the power plant's rest hall.

When Lan Yi saw Jin Buhuan, he showed neither surprise nor disgust. Instead, he waved for Huo Yuanjia and the others to leave first, intending to have a private chat with the beggar.

"You're really stingy. I come all this way, and you don't prepare a grand feast for me—that's fine—but you didn't even prepare a bowl of tea. What kind of host are you?"

Jin Buhuan dropped onto a seat and immediately began chattering away, complaining about Lan Yi's lack of attention to detail.

Forget Huo Yuanjia.

Even most of the psionic cultivators before their reincarnation had never imagined that, in Artificial Divine Realm 1909, this seemingly inconspicuous fellow who looked like an ordinary beggar would be one of Artificial Divine Realm's fortuitous encounters. If one was lucky enough to meet him, a single Artificial Divine Realm expedition could yield more than ten ordinary expeditions!

But Lan Yi was even more astonished.

"You remember me?"

Lan Yi was a reincarnator.

But when he brought about the apocalypse, he had never had any dealings with this mysterious Jin Buhuan.

At the time, Lan Yi had sealed every passage to the Artificial Divine Realm to bring about the apocalypse, engaging in frenzied mutual slaughter with the psionic cultivators of the two great civilizations within the Milky Way. Logically speaking, Jin Buhuan should not have been among those who reincarnated.

Yet Jin Buhuan was now exceptionally familiar with Lan Yi.

He clearly possessed memories of the past.

"Lan, restarting time is indeed a remarkable feat, but don't forget my identity." Jin Buhuan had a habit: whenever he faced Lan Yi, he liked to address him only by his surname.

Jin Buhuan's identity was the omniscient merchant of the Artificial Divine Realm.

No matter which Artificial Divine Realm it was, or what secrets it concealed or opportunities it contained, Jin Buhuan could sell all of it to psionic cultivators. He himself seemed to share some profound connection with the War Zone. Some even speculated that Jin Buhuan might be the incarnation of the War Zone itself.

Although it had never been stated outright, Jin Buhuan's stance clearly favored the psionic cultivators who had escaped from the main world.

Moreover, he seemed to possess abilities related to time.

Thus, his retaining his memories was within the realm of reason. Lan Yi knew very well that his reversal of time was a true reversal in every sense of the word, severing the possibility of all other timelines. That Jin Buhuan could retain his memories still surprised him.

Since they were old acquaintances, things would be easier.

"I need control over this Artificial Divine Realm." Lan Yi made his demand directly.

"You're dreaming. Have you reached the Void Refinement realm? Have you created a star river? And you still want to control an Artificial Divine Realm? They'll melt you down and cast you into a higher-dimensional computer." Jin Buhuan understood Lan Yi's methods. He blasted him first, then changed his tone. "But it's not as if there's not a shred of hope. It depends on exactly how you want to control it."

This omniscient merchant, Jin Buhuan, had one particularly terrible flaw.

He liked doing two things.

One was giving people despair when they were full of hope. The other was releasing a sliver of hope when people were in despair. Thus, although he was one of the Artificial Divine Realm's fortuitous encounters, psionic cultivators had mixed opinions of him, and most of them did not want to meet him.

Except Lan Yi.

That was because, during Lan Yi's previous visits to the Artificial Divine Realm, he had usually been at the end of his rope. After becoming a psionic cultivator, he had slaughtered far too ruthlessly in the main world while taking revenge. Anyone who came to mediate, he killed; anyone who came as a moral guardian, he killed. Before the concept of nations collapsed, he had spent most of his time among the top three names on wanted lists.

So when he saw Jin Buhuan, he could not have been happier.

"A passage capable of exchanging matter and energy with the main world. This passage must avoid temporal dislocation, and preferably be able to open and close at will. If possible, help conceal the traces of the spiritual energy revival."

Lan Yi had always played on a grand scale.

After realizing that he, this demonic tyrant, might be besieged by the reincarnated psionic cultivators of the main world and targeted and hunted down as a world-class boss, he had wanted to turn Artificial Divine Realm 1909 into his logistics base and source of troops, directly relying on control of a world with a respectable level of martial development to confront the main world.

When the time came, anyone who refused to submit would be crushed!

That was also why Lan Yi had gone to such lengths to develop martial arts, revive spiritual energy, and establish his rule.

Peace was not negotiated—it was fought for.

Only by punching a path open could one prevent a hundred fists from descending.

If a powerful psionic cultivator stood alone, then no matter how strong he was, he still had only himself. But if he had an entire world under his control backing him, then even the resources he could mobilize in the early stages for a world-scale war would be enough to make anyone seriously consider his proposal of peace.