Just as Ye Guyi's Bibi Dong was about to strike and finish off Qin Chuan, she froze. Her raised right hand hung motionless in midair, and her brows drew together. "What did you just call me?"
Qin Chuan knew that simply spinning a story wouldn't make the Bibi Dong before him believe him. He reached behind himself and gripped something. A purple glow appeared.
The instant Qin Chuan grasped the Rakshasa Demon Scythe, Bibi Dong's pupils visibly contracted.
"Nana, go outside. No one is to enter without my permission," Bibi Dong said in a low voice.
"...Yes." Hu Liena didn't dare defy her teacher. She glanced curiously at the six-year-old boy holding the purple scythe, then left, still full of questions.
As soon as the door closed, Bibi Dong fixed her gaze on Qin Chuan.
"Tell me, who are you really? Why do you have this weapon, and why did you call me..." Bibi Dong's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
From the moment Qin Chuan had appeared and called her "Mom," to the instant he produced the Rakshasa Demon Scythe, Bibi Dong had sensed that things were not as simple as they seemed.
Qin Chuan said nothing. He circulated his Soul Power to his brow, drawing out a fragment of memory that appeared before Bibi Dong as a curtain of light.
The scene showed Bibi Dong killing and devouring Qian Xunji. It also revealed how the protagonist, Qian Hanchuan, had been frightened to death.
Bibi Dong's expression shifted through a range of emotions. After a long pause, she finally managed to say, "You... are my son? But I don't have a son."
"I come from another time and space. I was born to another version of you."
As he spoke, a Yellow Soul Ring lit up beneath Qin Chuan's feet, and his Death Spider Emperor and Soul Devouring Spider Emperor Martial Souls appeared one after another.
Bibi Dong's breathing grew noticeably heavier. Her chest rose and fell as she stared intently at Qin Chuan.
There was no mistaking them. Those were her Death Spider Emperor and Soul Devouring Spider Emperor Martial Souls. And with the Rakshasa Demon Scythe, a divine weapon of the Rakshasa God, Bibi Dong was nearly certain that the child before her had been born to another version of herself.
"Then how did you get to our time and space?" Bibi Dong asked urgently.
Qin Chuan pointed to the scene projected overhead and said calmly, "Don't rush. Keep watching."
Bibi Dong looked up, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly.
In the scene, the version of herself who had become the Rakshasa God killed Sea God Tang San. Just when she thought she had won—
Who could have guessed that Tang San would cheat and come back to life on the spot, becoming the Asura God? In the end, the Sea God and Asura God coexisted within him.
The Asura Demon Sword pierced Bibi Dong's chest, and her daughter, Qian Renxue, lost her divine position as well.
Qian Renxue held her dying mother and collapsed against her chest, crying out, "Mom—"
Bibi Dong's delicate body trembled. Her eyes grew damp, and the heart forged by ten thousand years of ice showed the faintest sign of thawing.
"Tang San! I'll never allow something like this to happen!"
Killing intent, resentment, and other emotions spread through her heart.
At that moment, Bibi Dong clenched her fists, murder in her eyes. Qin Chuan felt the air around him grow several degrees colder.
Qin Chuan huddled in the warm bath, and only then did his body begin to feel better.
Afterward, Qian Renxue took the dead Bibi Dong and Qin Chuan, sealed in ten-thousand-year ice, across the ocean to the Sun Moon Empire.
When she was nearing the end of her life, Qian Renxue left the Angel Holy Sword and the Rakshasa Demon Scythe in a cave, then took one last look at her frozen younger brother.
Not long afterward, Qian Renxue passed away.
The scene fast-forwarded, and ten thousand years flashed by in an instant.
The ice melted, and Qin Chuan awoke after being frozen for ten thousand years. Once the Rakshasa Demon Scythe and Angel Holy Sword merged with him, a descendant of the Angel Lineage happened upon the cave and opened it. The two of them then vanished from the cave together.
The scene ended there...
"That's what happened. This girl is Ye Guyi, your descendant from ten thousand years in the future. After I woke up, the Rakshasa Demon Scythe and Angel Holy Sword brought me to the world you're in now."
Qin Chuan didn't mention the system, using the Rakshasa Demon Scythe and Angel Holy Sword to explain the "truth" of his journey across time and space.
Bibi Dong tilted her head back, holding back her tears, then stepped toward Qin Chuan and pulled him into a tight embrace without a word.
The press of her ample chest left Qin Chuan struggling to breathe. Her skin was soft and smooth, her body full of warmth and softness.
"Mom, your clothes..."
Only then did Bibi Dong realize she was bathing. Feeling the strange sensation against her chest, she shot Qin Chuan a displeased look. "Are you really that disgusted by your own mother?"
"If I were, I wouldn't have called you that the moment we met." Qin Chuan's voice came out muffled as he struggled against her embrace.
"That's more like it."
"You've been frozen for ten thousand years, so you must be filthy. Hurry and take off your clothes and wash yourself."
In the end, Qin Chuan couldn't resist Bibi Dong's overflowing maternal affection. He took off his clothes and sank into the warm bath.
"By the way, Ye Guyi is still unconscious."
Bibi Dong raised a hand. A mysterious force lifted Ye Guyi from above the bath and carried her to the doorway.
"Nana, take her away and get her cleaned up. Whatever she asks, don't answer her until I come to see her."
"Yes."
Hu Liena, who had been waiting outside, carried Ye Guyi away.
Only Bibi Dong and Qin Chuan remained in the room.
"Child, you've suffered so much." Bibi Dong washed Qin Chuan's hair herself, speaking gently.
If Qian Renxue had been there to witness the scene, she would have been astonished. Her mother, who had always been cold toward her, was now looking at someone with such tenderness.
"System, how long can I stay in a parallel time and space?" Qin Chuan asked silently.
"You can stay as long as you like."
After hearing the system's answer, Qin Chuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Crossing between worlds required Snow Hatred Value, which could only be earned by killing Shrek Academy students or people connected to them.
To change the future of Spirit Hall in a parallel time and space, traveling back and forth between the two worlds was essential. Qin Chuan would need to cross over many times.
Qin Chuan was just about to say something when Bibi Dong stopped him.
"Whatever it is, tell me tomorrow. Let me fulfill my duty as your mother for once, all right?"
Qin Chuan had been an orphan in his previous life. Reborn in this life, he had discovered that his mother, father, grandfather, and older sister were all already dead.
Although the mother before him was from a parallel time and space, her blood flowed through his veins. This time, he didn't refuse.
The next morning, the sun rose in the east, and warm rays streamed through the window into the room.
They fell across Ye Guyi's pretty face and her smooth golden hair.
Ye Guyi slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling for a few seconds before suddenly sitting up.
She was completely bewildered. She looked down at the blanket covering her, then out the window at the many Spirit Hall disciples, and finally at the furnishings in the room.
Everything seemed utterly unfamiliar. This wasn't the world she knew—or even the same era.
"Have I... crossed over?"
Before you continue