Esports Player Lu Mingfei

"I'd almost forgotten. You've always been this good at fooling girls since you were little."

Her long black hair swayed slightly in the scorching heat waves. Dressed in white, she carried herself with cool indifference, like a pure lotus blooming in the mortal world, her slender waist as delicate as a willow leaf.

"Xun'er, you know me."

Within the Endless Fire Domain, Xiao Yan stretched out an arm and drew his beloved into his embrace.

"I've been quite honest since I was little."

The mistress of the Fire Domain, Gu Xun'er, leaned against Xiao Yan's shoulder and said unhappily:

"One big liar and one little liar."

Xiao Yan lovingly stroked the beautiful hair of the woman in his arms. He owed Xun'er far too much.

If possible, he truly wished he could have spent more time with Xun'er in those days long past.

There was rarely a way to have it all in this world. If he had not cultivated diligently, how could he have been worthy of Xun'er, or protected his beloved family and friends amid the great tide?

"Have you figured it out?" Gu Xun'er asked softly. "That unknown thing which appeared on your past self?"

"Perhaps it is an opportunity." Xiao Yan pondered for a moment before speaking. "I once thought the Great Ruler was the peak of the Great Thousand World. Mu Chen, Lin Dong, and I spent countless years searching, yet never found a path forward."

"Can that thing help you break through?"

"I don't know." Xiao Yan denied it. A tool for communicating across worlds did not possess that kind of ability.

"Could there be some scheme behind it?"

"I can't be certain... but I saw a trace and a patch of nothingness."

As Great Rulers, blessed and favored by the consciousness of the Great Thousand World, they could trace the time of the Great Thousand World and Small Thousand Worlds backward, observe past spacetime, and make subtle changes to the past, creating different branches.

The names of the three of them had already been recorded upon the Firmament Board. So long as a possibility existed within the Great Thousand World and its connected Small Thousand Worlds, it would ultimately converge from the worlds of the past upon their present selves.

"Among those people with my past self, there was a past incarnation above the Dominion Realm." Xiao Yan recalled how, when he had just used himself as a medium to deduce those people's origins, a gaze had crossed the layers of endless spacetime and settled upon him.

"It does not govern the past, present, and future, but drifts beyond time itself... No, that is not right. It cannot be understood."

With just that single glance, Xiao Yan understood. So long as that existence wished it, he could return to life at any point in time in his peak state.

Yet "life" was not quite the right word. He was the concept of existence itself. At any point in time, in any world where any possibility existed, every version of him was the same existence, with no distinction between them.

He was both Spectator and actor upon the stage. The only difference was whether he wished to awaken and take part in the current story.

"There is another person I cannot see through either. There seems to be something on him."

That person named Su Lin seemed to exist, yet also seemed not to exist. His state was rather strange. Many matters were likely entangled within it, perhaps involving the schemes of certain existences.

There was one more existence as well. Xiao Yan had detected a few traces, but the other party seemed to be deliberately avoiding him, so he could not investigate too deeply.

They were being a little too cautious. They were all group friends; would it not be nice to meet and have a chat?

Beyond the Great Thousand World, there were countless other worlds. Risks and opportunities coexisted.

"No matter what, we have learned at least one thing." Xiao Yan smiled. "The road ahead is still very long."

"What road is still very long?" Cai Lin toyed with an Aether bottle in her hand. She had originally come to ask Xiao Yan to refine some pills. "Did I interrupt you two?"

"No, Cai Lin, you came at just the right time." Xiao Yan spread open his other arm.

Water Mirror Peak

Ye Fan found it rather absurd. Parallel worlds truly contained every conceivable oddity.

Someone had actually crossed starfields to collect a parking fee debt, chasing someone from Earth all the way to the Big Dipper.

What kind of bizarre timeline was that...

Forget it.

His future self had not even shown his face. How boring.

After the novelty wore off, Ye Fan handed the Dayan Pearl to Lu Mingfei.

"..."

Lu Mingfei actually no longer wanted to use this thing. What if his parallel-world self did something embarrassing? He, Lu Mingfei, would truly suffer a social death across worlds.

Maybe he should just forget it...

Yeah, forget it.

Whatever his parallel-world selves were like, that was their business. He was a cultivator now. A cultivator! Could Lu Mingfei from a parallel spacetime do that?

With the chat group in one hand and cultivation arts in the other, while his other selves were still playing games, he had already begun cultivating. Had they ever seen Kassel at three in the morning? Actually, neither had he.

"You're not chickening out, are you?" Su Lin's voice was not loud, but everyone present could hear him. "To fulfill your wish, I even brought out one of my most treasured items."

Lu Mingfei felt a shackle called guilt bind the hand that wanted to put down the Dayan Pearl.

"Xiao Yan openly displayed his own romantic history. Surely no one is chickening out now, right?"

Don't compare yourself to others, Lu Mingfei. Comparing yourself to others was bad.

"No way, no way, surely someone isn't really..."

Before he could finish, dazzling light appeared in Lu Mingfei's palm.

Lu Mingfei's face turned ashen. Now he could only pray that his counterparts in other worlds would make him proud and not be too outrageous. As long as there was no scene of him holding an older martial sister's photo album and getting a nosebleed, that would be fine.

"How can you lose with a fed Dragon right in your face?!"

"Lift the trophy, Lu Mingfei!"

Inside an arena, several computers stood arranged on the stage, while the audience below cheered wildly for Lu Mingfei.

The youthful innocence had yet to fade from his face. Wearing an excited, proud smile, the young man raised a trophy high and roared amid the cheers of his teammates and coach.

Bang—

Bang—

Streamers from the celebratory cannons fluttered through the air. Before the interview cameras, Lu Mingfei clutched the championship trophy and shed tears.

"An esports player?!"

Right, he could have taken this path too. He would not have needed to attend Kassel Academy at all; he could have become a professional esports player or streamer and made money.

He was jealous...

Looking at himself in the image, Lu Mingfei felt that this version of himself must have been living quite well. At least he had not gotten involved with anything like Dragon-slaying.

Compared with the parallel worlds of the previous two, the timeline reflected by Lu Mingfei was much simpler. There was no cultivation or conflict, only an ordinary life.

Perhaps ordinary was the only answer.

Switch.

With a thought from Lu Mingfei, the image changed.

He would just show them two more timelines to keep them occupied, Lu Mingfei silently thought.

He cast a hungry glance at the food cooking in the pot, then swept his gaze over everyone else present.

These people were all waiting to watch something amusing while they ate.

"Please, other me! Make me proud!"

The Aether was golden. It had not originally been golden, but something had dyed it with a layer of gold.

The canopy of the Golden Tree covered the heavens and obscured the sun, its golden leaves slowly falling in the breeze.

What an enormous golden trunk it was. A medieval Western-style city appeared especially tiny before this towering tree.

Upon the throne at the summit, someone sat quietly above, neither sorrow nor joy visible on his face as he silently gazed ahead.

Klein looked at this scene, wanting to speak yet holding back. His gaze shifted repeatedly between Lu Mingfei and the image reflected by the Dayan Pearl.

(End of Chapter)