In March, Shanghai's night breeze still carried a chill.
Lin Mo set down the magnifying glass in his hand and rubbed his aching eyes. On the workbench lay a Tang dynasty bronze mirror shaped like an eight-petaled diamond flower. He had just finished applying the final stroke of mineral pigment to a damaged patch of its surface. He picked up his strong tea, long since gone cold, took a sip, and looked at the mirror.
It was old. The edges of its diamond-flower shape were carved with curling vines, and four luan birds on the back held ribbons in their beaks. The craftsmanship was so exquisite that it seemed impossible for something made over a thousand years ago. The person who had brought it in for restoration said it was a family heirloom and wanted it repaired so it could be passed down.
Lin Mo reached out and touched the spot he had repaired. The pigment had dried, and the color was just right. He could hand it over tomorrow.
A ship's horn sounded from the Huangpu River outside. He turned to look. The Oriental Pearl Tower was still lit, and a few scattered windows glowed in the office buildings across the river. They were much like him—people still burning the midnight oil.
He was twenty-six and had worked in cultural relic restoration for seven years. He had chosen the field because it was peaceful. Relics didn't talk or make demands. As long as you cared for them patiently, they showed you what they had once been. Much simpler than people.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the bronze mirror on the workbench suddenly shuddered.
Lin Mo froze, thinking it had been his imagination. But the mirror shuddered again, more violently this time, and the freshly applied pigment flaked off its edges.
He instinctively reached out to steady it,
but the instant his fingertips touched the surface, the entire bronze mirror burst apart.
The fragments didn't fly in every direction. Instead, they hung suspended in midair, each one glowing with an eerie purple light. Before Lin Mo could react, they all shot toward him at once. He tried to dodge, but his body felt pinned in place.
Countless purple specks of light poured into his right eye.
Pain.
It felt as if his head were about to explode from the inside. Lin Mo dropped to one knee and clutched his right eye with both hands, digging his nails into his flesh. He could feel something writhing inside his eyeball, crawling up along his blood vessels and burrowing into his brain.
He had no idea how long it lasted—seconds, perhaps, or minutes—before the agony abruptly vanished.
A cold, emotionless voice sounded in his mind:
[Binding Boundary Eye... Host's vital signs stable... Binding success rate: 99.7%... Binding complete.]
Lin Mo gasped for breath, cold sweat soaking through his back.
He cautiously opened his right eye. Something new had appeared in his field of vision: a translucent purple screen floating in the air, its words flickering:
[Welcome to the Two Worlds Reconciliation System] [Host: Lin Mo] [Age: 26] [World Origin Point: 0] [Current Status: Healthy] [Main Quest: Delay the Dual World Collision (365 days remaining)] [Description: When the Dual World Collision countdown reaches zero, Blue Star and Douluo Continent will undergo an irreversible plane overlap, plunging the living beings of both worlds into misery. Please acquire World Origin Points as soon as possible to delay the collision.]
Lin Mo stared at the words for a long time, then slowly stood up.
His first thought was that someone was messing with him.
Anything was possible these days: hidden cameras, prank shows. What was there to film about a cultural relic restorer? But the words in his right eye were really there. They were still there when he blinked, and when he reached out to touch them, his hand passed through empty air.
He walked to the sink, turned on the light, and leaned close to the mirror to inspect his right eye.
His pupil was still black, but deep inside it, something seemed to be moving, like purple mist. He stared for a few seconds. The mist suddenly gathered together, and another line of text appeared:
[First Crisis Summon about to trigger] [Target: Shi Nian] [Identity: Owner of the Residual Dream Martial Soul, Spirit Saint-level Soul Master] [Soul Power Level: 76] [Arrival Time: In 47 hours and 58 minutes] [Arrival Location: An abandoned chemical plant in the outskirts of Shanghai] [Mission: Kill Shi Nian] [Reward: World Origin Points ×500, random Spirit Bone ×1] [Failure Penalty: The Dual World Collision will be accelerated by 30 days]
As Lin Mo read the words, his palms began to sweat.
Spirit Saint? Level 76? He had no idea what those terms meant, but he understood "kill" and "failure penalty." Either he killed the man called Shi Nian, or the countdown moved up by thirty days, bringing the "misery" of both worlds closer.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Just then, a sharp crack sounded behind him.
Lin Mo spun around and saw a vortex appear out of thin air in the middle of the studio. It was taller than a person, edged with flowing bands of every color, its center a bottomless darkness. As it spun, it gave off a deep humming sound. The paintings on the walls rattled in the current of air.
Before he could react, the vortex suddenly burst open,
and a pink figure tumbled out, slamming hard onto the floor.
Long hair spilled across the floor, hiding her face. Her pink top and pants were dust-covered, and one pale ankle showed beneath them. She lay motionless for two seconds, then slowly pushed herself up.
She raised her head.
Her face was as delicate as a porcelain doll's, though fear and anger had twisted it slightly. Her waist-length pink-and-blue hair was tied into twin tails, now in disarray and hanging loose around her. Her eyes were large and bright, wide with alarm, and tears from the passage through space still clung to her lashes.
Once she was steady on her feet, she instinctively straightened her clothes, then warily scanned her surroundings: paintings covering the walls, a chandelier overhead, bronze artifacts in a glass display case, and Lin Mo nearby, drenched in sweat, his right eye still glowing purple.
"Who are you?" she cried. Her voice was clear, but quivered slightly.
She held out her right hand, and seven-colored light suddenly shone in her palm.
The light gathered and formed an exquisite seven-story pagoda, floating above her palm.
Then four spirit rings—yellow, yellow, purple, and purple—rose from beneath her feet and began revolving slowly around her.
Lin Mo looked at her, at the four glowing rings and the seven-colored pagoda. There was only one thought in his mind:
Douluo Continent, the world the system had just mentioned, was real.
"Where is this?" The girl glared at him, her voice rising an octave. "Why did you bring me here? I'm warning you, I'm the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! My father is Ning Fengzhi! Grandpa Sword and Grandpa Bone will come looking for me any moment!"
She sounded forceful, but her trembling voice gave her away.
Lin Mo raised both hands, trying to keep his voice calm. "Don't panic. I mean you no harm."
"No harm?" The girl scoffed, though her smile wavered too. "If you mean me no harm, why am I here? What kind of place is this? Why are those paintings so strange? And what's that glowing box?"
She pointed at the television.
Before Lin Mo could explain, a shrill siren sounded outside. A fire engine roared past below, its red and blue lights flashing through the window.
The girl flinched, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda nearly slipped from her hand.
She bit her lip and tried to look composed, but her voice still betrayed her. "W-what kind of Soul Beast is making that sound outside?"
Watching her try so hard to hold it together, Lin Mo suddenly felt like laughing.
But he didn't.
He simply lowered his hands, slowly crouched until he was at her eye level, and said softly,
"That's a fire engine. This is another world. I don't know how you got here either."
The girl stared into his eyes, apparently trying to judge whether he was lying.
After a long while, she said quietly, "C-could you make those rings disappear first? They're making me nervous."
Lin Mo paused. "What rings?"
"The words in your eyes!" She pointed at his right eye. "They keep flashing. I can't make out what you're saying!"
Only then did Lin Mo realize she could probably see the projection from his Boundary Eye.
He thought, "Close," and the screen in his right eye disappeared.
Seeing this, the girl also put away her Martial Soul and spirit rings. The seven-colored light faded. She let out a breath, though she continued to watch Lin Mo warily.
The two of them stared at each other.
A few seconds later, her stomach suddenly growled.
Her face flushed. She clutched her stomach and stubbornly insisted, "I-I'm not hungry at all. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's cultivation techniques let you go three days without eating."
No sooner had she spoken than her stomach growled again.
This time, Lin Mo couldn't help it. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
The girl saw him smiling and flushed with embarrassment and irritation. "What are you laughing at?"
Lin Mo stood and turned toward the kitchen. "Wait here. I'll make you something to eat."
She seemed about to say something, but in the end she only muttered, "Who knows if you'll put poison in it..."
Lin Mo didn't look back, but his smile grew.
Behind him, the girl who claimed to be the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect cautiously studied this unfamiliar world. She reached out to touch one of the paintings on the wall, startled by the cold glass, and quickly pulled her hand back. Then she leaned toward the television and stared at its dark screen for a long time, trying to see if there was anyone inside.
In the kitchen, Lin Mo opened the fridge and took out eggs and greens.
He suddenly remembered what the system had said: summoning female characters and forming a "Life Bond" could delay the collision.
What was a Life Bond? He hadn't asked, and the system hadn't explained. But looking at the girl in the living room, studying the television and occasionally glancing warily toward the kitchen, he had a feeling the days ahead wouldn't be peaceful.
The water in the pot came to a boil.
Lin Mo put in the noodles, then poured oil into another pan, ready to fry an egg.
Outside, the lights across the Huangpu River gradually thinned. The city was sinking into the depths of night, and his life had just been swept into a completely unknown vortex.
The girl's voice came from the living room. "Hey, the glowing painting—how did those people get inside it?"
Lin Mo didn't turn around. "That's a television, not a painting. I'll explain later."
"Television?" the girl repeated. "What a strange name..."
The oil crackled in the pan as the egg set in the heat. Lin Mo watched it turn golden, suddenly remembering how long it had been since he'd cooked for anyone.
Living alone for a long time turned some habits into instincts. Eating alone, staying up late alone, facing everything alone. But now,
he glanced toward the living room. The girl was lying in front of the television, her face almost pressed against the screen as she tried to find some trace of the "people" inside. Her pink-and-blue hair slid over her shoulder, catching the light with a gentle sheen.
Lin Mo turned back and plated the fried egg.
Maybe it was time to change some of those habits.
[End-of-Chapter Hook]
Two bowls of yangchun noodles were set on the table. Clear broth, thin noodles, a few greens, a fried egg, and a sprinkle of bright green scallions.
The girl stared at her bowl, carefully lifted a noodle with her chopsticks, sniffed it, and put it in her mouth.
Her eyes lit up at once.
The second bite, the third... She couldn't stop.
Lin Mo sat across from her, watching her wolf down the food as he slowly ate his own noodles.
Halfway through, the girl suddenly stopped and looked up at him.
"By the way," she said, wiping the grease from the corner of her mouth and trying to maintain the poise of a young lady, "my name is Ning Rongrong. What's yours?"
"Lin Mo."
Ning Rongrong nodded and bent over her noodles again. She finished even the broth before putting down her bowl and licking her lips. Then she realized what she'd done and blushed again.
Just as she was about to say something, a sudden stab of pain shot through Lin Mo's right eye.
He instinctively covered it, and the purple screen appeared once more,
[Summoned character "Ning Rongrong" has arrived safely] [Current Favorability: 25 (Slightly Favorable)] [Side Quest Issued: Get the target to let down her guard within 24 hours. Reward: 100 Low-level World Origin Points.]
Ning Rongrong saw the glowing words and warily stood up. "What's that?"
Before Lin Mo could explain, a piercing howl came from outside.
They both turned to look out the window.
In the distance, in the direction of Shanghai's outskirts, a purple pillar of light shot into the sky, illuminating half the night. It lasted for three seconds, then abruptly vanished, leaving only a faint purple mist spreading through the night.
The system's voice sounded again:
[Warning] [Abnormal expansion detected in the Plane Rift.] [The arrival time of the target "Shi Nian" may be moved up.]
Lin Mo looked at the purple mist lingering outside, then at Ning Rongrong, wary beside him. He suddenly realized something:
The Spirit Saint called Shi Nian, that level-76 enemy, would arrive sooner than he'd thought.
And right now, aside from a little girl of twelve or thirteen, he had no one to help him.
Ning Rongrong went to the window and watched the vanished pillar of light. "Was that... an enemy?"
Lin Mo didn't answer.
The night breeze poured in through the window, carrying March's familiar chill. In the distance, the Oriental Pearl Tower still glittered, as if nothing had happened. But he knew that from this moment on, some things had changed forever.
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