Rescue and Support

"Fall."

The White-Gold Horned Lizard swiped a claw at Yan's head, but at that moment, three illusory arrows—one cyan, one purple, one gold—suddenly materialized behind its skull and pierced into its brain with lightning speed.

The horned lizard's lively black eyes went blank for an instant, then it clutched its head with both claws and let out a agonized roar.

"ROAR!"

The moment the White-Gold Lizard was struck, Yan finally broke free from that frozen state.

"Die!"

Though he had no idea who launched the surprise attack, he wasn't about to waste such a golden opportunity.

Clapping his hands together, veins bulging on his forehead, a massive spatial rift dozens of meters wide abruptly tore open around the White-Gold Horned Lizard, its terrifying power madly shredding everything within the fissure. Even Yan himself was caught in the rift's edge from being too close.

At the critical moment, Yan barely managed to escape using Teleportation.

But the pain-wracked White-Gold Horned Lizard couldn't activate its illusory movement technique in time and was directly swallowed by the spatial rift.

"Shrrr..."

The rift sealed shut.

"Huff! Huff! Huff..."

Covered in blood, Yan appeared a hundred meters away, his chest heaving like a bellows as he collapsed to the ground. His left leg and left arm were gone—the price of being caught in the spatial rift.

"Young friend!"

Several voices called out from afar, but severely wounded and exhausted, Yan's vision blurred. Before he could think further, he lost consciousness.

After an unknown span of time, in a boundless, surging expanse of pitch-black void, Yan slowly opened his eyes.

"Where... is this?"

As his awareness gradually returned, he instinctively tried to look at himself, only to find he had no body. He existed purely as consciousness in this void world—even the act of "seeing" wasn't through eyes.

"Whoosh... whoosh..."

Howling winds raged and swept through the world, and Yan felt his newly-recovered consciousness growing sluggish, blurring.

"A body. I need a body."

A primal instinct from the depths of his soul spread through his awareness like wild weeds.

The next moment, following that instinct, Yan flew toward a certain direction.

The journey was nothing but empty black void, with only the tireless, biting wind roaring and howling.

After what felt like an eternity, just as Yan felt his consciousness about to flicker out, a blurry patch of white-gold light appeared within his perception range.

Then, like two magnets with opposite poles, his consciousness and that white-gold light instinctively attracted each other. Yan felt his awareness surge like a tide into the white-gold radiance.

"Ugh..."

A ray of light struck his eyelids, and Yan instinctively opened his eyes.

He found himself lying in an antique, elegant bedroom. Gentle sunlight streamed through the window, casting shadows of various exquisite bird carvings on the panes.

The room's lighting was perfectly balanced, making one feel comfortable and at ease.

"Where is this now?" Yan sat up from the bed and instinctively stretched his arm, only to find his severed left arm and leg had grown back. His clothes had also changed to a Celestial Master Palace robe similar to Master Sun's.

Looking around, Yan was baffled. His memories still lingered in that boundless black void.

He remembered his consciousness finally entering a white-gold phantom...

Hmm? White-gold phantom?

Yan suddenly recalled the White-Gold Horned Lizard he'd fought earlier. But the moment that image appeared in his mind, he felt his body start to transform toward the lizard's form, panicking him into immediately banishing the thought.

As his intention shifted, the transformation stopped, but Yan remained deeply shaken.

"What was that? Why can I turn into that White-Gold Horned Lizard?"

The numbness of just waking faded, and the questions from before his collapse flooded back. Eventually, his thoughts settled on his relationship with the White-Gold Horned Lizard.

"Could it be... that it and I were originally one?" A ridiculous notion surfaced in Yan's mind, but after thinking it over, he couldn't find any other plausible explanation.

Just then, the door slid open. A half-grown youth in a peculiar Daoist robe entered carrying a basin of water, a clean towel draped over its edge.

Seeing Yan already up, the youth paused, then said, "Senior, you're awake? Please wait—I'll go tell Master and the others."

With that, he set down the basin and ran off in a fluster, leaving Yan, who hadn't even had a chance to speak, reaching out with an outstretched hand.

"..."

Yan sighed helplessly. But judging by the youth's clothes and his own, he guessed that the ones who'd ambushed the White-Gold Horned Lizard at the critical moment and saved him were likely experts from the Celestial Master Palace in the Jing capital.

Probably survivors who'd escaped the battle in the capital.

Given how massive the commotion from his fight with the White-Gold Horned Lizard had been, those people must have been drawn by the disturbance and happened to rescue him.

Thinking this over, Yan got out of bed and stepped outside, just in time to see the half-grown youth leading three white-haired elders hurrying toward him.

"Young friend, you're awake. How do you feel?"

The old man in the middle, wearing a green Celestial Master robe, spoke first.

Yan gave a slight bow in response. "I've recovered well enough, thanks to the aid of you esteemed seniors. However, I'm still quite in the dark. Might I trouble you to enlighten me?"

"Hahaha, of course, young friend. Let's go inside and talk slowly." Yan then followed the three back into the house.

After a while, under the explanations of the three old Celestial Masters, Yan finally had a rough understanding of the situation.

According to them, about three years ago, various monsters began appearing across the nations, but at first they were only ordinary ones like those Yan had encountered along the way.

The Celestial Master Palace worked together with the nations, and though they were stretched thin, the threat of those ordinary monsters remained within manageable limits.

But roughly two months ago, eight super monsters suddenly appeared, each leading a horde of ordinary monsters in assaults on the national capitals of various countries.

Those super monsters were incredibly powerful, far stronger than the Grand Celestial Masters stationed in the capitals by the Celestial Master Palace. Caught off guard, every capital was breached. Many Grand Celestial Masters fell in battle, and the remnants of the Celestial Master Palace barely managed to escape with the survivors.

"The main goal of those super monsters seemed to be raising those strange pillars of light in the capitals. If not for that, we probably wouldn't have had a chance to flee," sighed one Celestial Master surnamed Ji.

"I see. But you say these monsters all appeared suddenly three years ago?" Yan confirmed once more.

"That's correct," said the lead old Celestial Master, surnamed Zhang. "We've searched for the source of these monsters before, but have found nothing."

"..."

Yan thought back, but found that three years ago, nothing particularly unusual had happened around him either.

So he set those thoughts aside for now and continued asking, "What's the current situation on the continent then? Besides Jing here, what about the other nations?"

"Basically, everything is out of control."

Another Celestial Master, surnamed Lu, gave a bitter smile. "Take Jing for example. The royal family suffered heavy casualties in that battle. Those who weren't in the capital have mostly died at the hands of the monsters these past days. You could say Jing has already fallen. As for the other nations, communication is cut off everywhere, so we're not clear on their state, but I doubt they're much better off than Jing. If not for the Celestial Master Palace still holding on by a thread, who knows what the world would look like now."

"I see." Yan nodded. Thinking of the vague words that had appeared in his mind—"become the ruler of this world"—he began to form a plan.

He spoke slowly, "Since the situation is what it is, what do you three Celestial Masters need me to do?"

The three Celestial Masters exchanged glances, then the lead one, Zhang, said, "Young friend, I can see you're not a member of the Celestial Master Palace, but may I ask—how many rounds of the Rhino Emperor Game have you solved?"

"I've solved 2000 rounds?" Yan revealed to them.

"2000 rounds?"

"Truly?"

"Such talent."

The three exclaimed in astonishment. After a long moment, Zhang calmed himself and looked at Yan with a beaming smile. "Don't mind us, young friend. We're simply stunned. We may be considered masters of the Rhino Emperor Game within the Celestial Master Palace, but in a lifetime of solving, we've only reached 1902 rounds—the highest count among current Celestial Masters. For someone your age, studying alone, to achieve this... it's truly remarkable."

Ji added, "When we saw you fight that monster Zhou the other day, we suspected your solving count might surpass us three brothers. With the danger now, having a prodigy like you emerge is a blessing for humanity."

Lu picked up the thread. "So we brothers discussed it over these past days and would like you to take charge of the Celestial Master Palace—at least the Jing branch. In this situation, it may be our only hope."

"Just as I thought." Yan's mind settled. He knew that given humanity's current plight, the Celestial Master Palace was likely nearing despair, and his appearance was nothing short of a lifeline.

After organizing his words, Yan spoke slowly, "Since you three Celestial Masters are willing, I won't refuse. But as you saw that day, I'm no match for those super monsters. So... does the Celestial Master Palace have anything that could help with solving the game? I need to improve my strength as quickly as possible."