Hello, New World

"Beep, beep!"

Traffic was backed up bumper to bumper on the bridge, horns blaring one after another.

"Are we moving or not?"

"Don't rush. Something seems to have happened up ahead!"

No one knew who had been the first to get out of their car, but word spread from one person to ten, then from ten to a hundred. More and more people climbed out, eager to see what was going on, and leaned against the railing to peer ahead.

Yet even so, no one saw when the woman in white appeared.

It was as if she had sprung out of thin air, suddenly standing there.

Click, click, click...

The crowd moved in perfect unison, all pulling out their phones and pointing their cameras at the woman in white.

Her image on the screens had an inexplicably cool aura. Her long sleeves fluttered in the breeze, and though she seemed delicate and alone, she stood on the narrow railing as steadily as a mountain. The traffic behind her and the shouts of the crowd around her seemed not to exist in her eyes.

If immortals existed in this world, they would surely look like her.

But Liu Shuyue was in an entirely different frame of mind.

For the first time, she had seen the city where Lu Mountain Hermit lived, and confirmed that it did not belong to any continent beyond the Abyssal Sea. There were so many things she had never seen before. People and objects alike all felt entirely new to her.

At the other end of the bridge, buildings rose and fell like mountain ranges. They were even more awe-inspiring than the Lotus Cloud Sect's magical treasures. After all, only a handful of disciples could wield those treasures, while these creations, which seemed to embody immense power, benefited countless ordinary people. If the Lotus Cloud Sect hoped that one day the world would be united as one, then perhaps this scene before her came closest to that vision.

Had it simply fallen from the sky?

The stories in Knowledge of Past and Present suddenly felt weighty and real. A generation's worth of change, step after step of innovation, until the world was united as one—the sacrifices this would take could never be offered by just one or two sect disciples.

Feeling the river breeze brush her face, she found her heart clearer than ever before.

Of course, Liu Shuyue didn't like putting herself on display, let alone putting on a mysterious act in front of a crowd. It went against the Lotus Cloud Sect's teachings.

Being stared at and pointed at by hundreds of strangers also made her uncomfortable.

But the one who had asked her was Chen Xuan.

And from what he'd said, this matter was very important and concerned the future of the Ability Store. So she had decided to make an exception and temporarily set aside the sect's dignity.

Hurry up. She gestured to Fu Jiaolu.

"Even if I die here, I'll die a glorious death in battle. My people will never forgive you, you evil, evil, evil... treacherous, cruel..." The leader of the "barbarians" suddenly began to stammer.

"What's going on? He doesn't seem as intimidating now."

"Did he forget his lines?"

The onlookers immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Not good," Lin Qing said in a low voice. "He's lost his nerve again."

Chen Xuan shook his head. Fu Jiaolu hadn't lost his nerve; his honest nature had gotten the better of him again. Even though he knew he was acting, he couldn't bring himself to curse at an immortal he genuinely respected.

This wasn't something the Heart Calming Incantation could fix. He immediately pulled out a precious Voice Transmission Talisman and sent a message to Liu Shuyue. "No time to wait. Move on to the next stage!"

Liu Shuyue took a step forward, expressionless, and leaped off the bridge in full view of the crowd.

"She's not wearing a safety harness!"

"That's high enough to kill her, or at least seriously injure her!"

The people on the bridge rushed to the railing and looked down. Then they witnessed a scene worthy of a special-effects shot. Liu Shuyue glided toward the water as lightly as a kite, then ran across its surface and charged toward the three men on the opposite side!

Fu Jiaolu no longer had to remember his lines. He swung the wooden club from his back and brought it down on Liu Shuyue.

The two sides clashed at once!

Of course, this was all arranged with them beforehand by Chen Xuan. Even if the three villagers gave it everything they had, they couldn't hurt an immortal, so they could treat it like a regular practice session. Liu Shuyue wouldn't use a weapon either. She would attack with her hands and feet infused with energy, making every blow feel like it landed solidly.

But to everyone else, it looked like something else entirely.

The woman in white moved with incredible precision, and nearly every strike sent a booming whoosh through the air. Her blows looked so powerful that they were terrifying even from a distance. Nothing about it resembled the stiff, choreographed fights in movies; when her attacks met their weapons, fragments flew everywhere.

The three barbarians were no pushovers either. Though they wielded wooden weapons, their momentum was terrifying, and their swings left nothing but afterimages. The onlookers could easily imagine that if one of those clubs hit them, they'd be left with far more going out than coming in.

Even more unbelievable, there wasn't a single wire attached to any of the four, and not a single platform beneath their feet. As they darted back and forth, they were truly standing on the water, each step kicking up splashes.

At first, the crowd's excited chatter was deafening. Gradually, everyone fell silent. They watched the battle on the river with bated breath, eyes wide, afraid they might miss some tiny detail.

After the woman in white was knocked back once more by the three men working together, she finally ran out of patience.

"You've improved, but not by much." She pointed one hand toward the sky, and her feet slowly lifted off the water. She hung above the Sha River. "This ends now."

The previously clear sky darkened in an instant. Dark clouds rolled over the bridge, and brilliant lightning raced through them like dragons about to leap out.

Every witness was left gaping in disbelief.

They could explain the fight on the water as some kind of stunt performance, but how could they explain the clear afternoon sky turning dark in the blink of an eye?

Liu Shuyue raised a hand and swept it aside.

It was the same technique she had used to drive off the Royal City's army outside Zhangwei City.

In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared!

Countless purple bolts shot down from the clouds, swallowing the three men in the blink of an eye. Steam burst from every part of the river's surface, as if the water were boiling. Worse still, several bolts struck the streetlights along the scenic walkway, sending sparks flying with a series of crackling explosions!

Now the crowd was truly panicking.

No one wanted to get struck by lightning just for watching the action!

Screams rang out as people covered their heads and ran in every direction, looking for somewhere safe to hide. But the clouds came and went just as quickly. In less than ten seconds, the afternoon sun poured down again, lighting up both banks of the Sha River. The fleeing crowd stopped in its tracks almost as one.

Only then did they realize that the woman in white had vanished.

The three men opposite her were gone too. All that remained on the steaming river was half a charred club and a few scraps of cloth.

"Was I dreaming just now?"

"It's on video! There's no way it's fake, right?"

"Who were they?"

"That was so cool! I want to learn how to float on water too!"

The crowd was completely stunned. Tourists along the scenic walkway and drivers on the bridge alike burst into excited chatter!

"Let's go," Chen Xuan said with satisfaction. "Time to pick them up."

Liu Shuyue had been sent directly to the Ability Store by the "Shopkeeper's Invitation." The others, including Fu Jiaolu, had plunged into the water the instant the illusory lightning struck and used breath-holding talismans to move downstream. They were waiting to come ashore at an unoccupied stretch of riverbank, so Chen Xuan still needed to pick them up.

Listening to the excited chatter behind him, Chen Xuan knew the curtain was finally about to rise.

"Astounding! Another bizarre sight in Jiangcheng, following the mysterious mirage!"

"Everyone, something huge happened! We haven't found aliens, but immortals have emerged from seclusion!"

"Here's the footage from the scene. Don't forget to hit like."

"I've always said superpowers must exist. Superhero movies are documentaries!"

The story spread at astonishing speed. That afternoon, discussions of all kinds sprang up across the major forums. By evening, it had already reached the top of the trending searches, and YouTube was full of related clips.

"Young man, do you know what happened on Shajiang Bridge One this afternoon?" Even the older man from the neighborhood who often came in to buy cigarettes was talking about the "big show" at noon.

"I do. Didn't the TV stations go there to interview people?" Chen Xuan expertly helped him scan the payment code. "Two packs of Furongwang. Forty yuan."

"Hey, that's nothing. The best part is that my daughter was on the bridge at the time, only a few meters away from the woman in white. She happened to have her camera with her, so she took a whole bunch of photos on the spot." The old man proudly announced, "I heard people are paying a fortune for high-definition photos from the scene. Several hundred yuan each!"

"Really? Your daughter was incredibly lucky. What does she think about it?"

"I don't know. If you're interested, why not go talk to her? I'll give you her WeChat."

Chen Xuan had never expected anyone to use this angle to set him up with a girl. He hurriedly pushed the cigarettes toward the man. "Ahaha... Maybe some other time."

"Tsk. Young people these days really don't know what's good for them." The old man shook his head, then left the store, quite displeased.

Just then, Lin Qing, who had been wiping down the counter nearby, walked over and whispered in Chen Xuan's ear, "The Dimensional Limit Organization is making a move."