First Half, Second Half

They were breaking down the door!

What should he do?

Xu Yuan suddenly snatched up the desiccated corpse and asked silently:

"Shop, will you buy this thing?"

A line of glowing text quietly appeared in the void:

"Items without value cannot be bought or sold."

Without value!

Xu Yuan turned toward the door, deflated.

They were about to come in!

The first thing they would see was him holding a desiccated corpse covered in blood-red spells.

One look, and they would take him for an evil cultivator!

The one thing human society could not tolerate was an evil cultivator fallen to the demonic path!

So was he as good as dead?

Xu Yuan fell silent, his mind racing.

The scene from not long ago surfaced before his eyes again.

"There isn't much time... you need to master... this... quickly."

"...Learn it... if you want to live..."

That was what the dark figure had said.

—It really had said that.

Xu Yuan fell silent.

There was nothing secret about the bronze figure's technique.

Its hand seals and the way wind flowed through the meridians and their points of light had appeared before him with perfect clarity, complete in every detail.

—Deeply engraved in his memory.

This was the situation he faced.

A high school student who had only just entered the Qi Refining Realm had no way to deal with it.

But—

If he used that technique—

What would happen?

Voices sounded outside the door again:

"Who'll do it? The formation on this door is fairly intricate. I'd guess the owner studied ancient formations."

"I'll do it. I'm decent with formations," someone replied.

"Count of three, two, one, then break down the door."

"Yes, sir."

Holding the desiccated corpse, Xu Yuan gradually calmed down.

The timing was too perfect.

He had only just returned.

The inspection had started immediately.

Police cars blocked the street below, leaving him no chance to escape.

A chance.

"...This is your only chance."

The dark figure's voice echoed through Xu Yuan's memory once more.

Xu Yuan looked down at his hands.

Somewhere beyond his understanding,

he could sense that a secret the original Xu Yuan had never noticed was about to reveal itself.

If only—

If only—

Xu Yuan took a deep breath, gently set down the desiccated corpse, and raised both hands, silently forming a hand seal.

In an instant,

the spiritual energy within him began to flow, swiftly passing through twenty-seven visible and hidden gates in the meridians throughout his body, like wind threading through holes.

One breath.

Two breaths.

The technique took shape—

The smell of plants and wood turning to ash spread through the air.

A foul stench followed.

Fire seemed to be burning, yet it gave off no warmth.

The fire was—

Xu Yuan sensed something and slowly raised his head toward his bedroom.

At some point,

his bedroom had filled with dark, icy mist.

That was another world!

Outside, a police officer began the countdown:

"Three,"

"Two,"

"One!"

Bang—

The front door burst open.

The police officers and investigators froze.

In the living room,

a teenage boy wearing headphones lay sprawled over the coffee table, doing homework.

He stared blankly at the broken door and the people filling the hallway.

"Who are you people!"

The boy hurriedly pressed the formation disk on the table.

Hum.

A soft sound rang out.

A glimmer of spiritual light appeared on the disk.

The Image-Recording Formation activated.

—It had begun recording everything that happened in the room.

The boy pulled off his headphones, ran to the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and held it nervously in front of himself.

The headphones lay on the coffee table, pumping out thumping, blaring pop music.

Even from the doorway, it was audible.

—He had the volume up far too high.

So the kid hadn't heard a thing just now?

"Hello. This is a routine inspection for illegal formation disks. Please cooperate,"

the police captain said.

"Th-then... come in..." Xu Yuan stammered.

"You broke my door,"

he added, his face crumpling.

"Don't worry. You'll be compensated," the captain said.

"Why didn't you call? If you'd called, we could've opened the door. My father made the formation disk on it himself years ago," Xu Yuan asked, baffled.

The captain said nothing more. He merely made a gesture.

The officers filed in and began inspecting the rooms.

Getting no answer, Xu Yuan shrugged and glanced over them.

Five police officers.

Two investigators.

Four carried guns.

—That meant they were ordinary people.

One investigator carried a formation disk on his back.

Another officer had a bundle of talismans tied at his waist.

The captain wore a sword.

—Those three were the truly formidable ones, at least at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Xu Yuan put his headphones back on, sat on the floor with his back against the sofa, picked up An Outline of Artifact Refining (Senior Year, First Semester), and began reading intently.

The police officers and investigators made a circuit of the apartment.

"Inspection complete."

"No signs of illegal use."

—Normally, an inspection like this only required a look in the kitchen.

This time, they had even checked the bedroom.

Three officers went straight out into the hallway.

The two investigators and the captain remained in the living room.

"There's still one place we haven't checked,"

one investigator said.

Xu Yuan did not even look up from his book.

—With his headphones on, he had heard nothing.

The investigator slowly stepped forward and lifted the sofa.

A large, furry teddy bear was tucked beneath it, holding up a sign with both paws.

The sign read:

"Am I cute?"

It was a toy!

The room fell silent.

At last, the captain spoke:

"I apologize. We'll pay double for any damage caused in the course of our duties."

"Let's go."

The officers left Xu Yuan's home.

Xu Yuan was left sitting alone in front of the sofa.

He stared into space for a while, then lowered his head and went back to his exercises.

—That was more in keeping with a high school senior.

Suddenly,

line after line of faintly glowing text flashed across his retinas:

"The Road to Survival and the Revival Match Forced by a Sword Getting Stuck During Transmigration, Preventing You from Coming Back to Life (First Half)."

"You have won the first half."

"Difficulty: Hard."

"Match evaluation:"

"Something happened during those three days that the original Xu Yuan overlooked. It determined Xu Yuan's fate."

"Congratulations."

"You uncovered the truth about how the original Xu Yuan was framed and, by turning your opponent's actions against them, cleared your name and made them afraid to act recklessly again for the time being."

"You won the first half."

"You have received the following rewards:"

"1. Blank Historical Branch;"

"Write down an event you wish had happened, and that branch will immediately become reality."

"2. Rare-Grade Merchandise Voucher;"

"Use it to make rare-grade merchandise appear at random in the shop and redeem it!"

"—Naturally, Hard Mode rewards are better than Easy Mode rewards."

"Halftime begins."

"The second half begins in twelve hours (Nightmare difficulty)!"

"Succeed, and you will receive another reward."

"Fail, and you die!"

Xu Yuan's pupils contracted sharply.

The second half was actually Nightmare difficulty!

In the last Nightmare-difficulty match, he had faced a six-armed monster hanging upside down from the gymnasium ceiling.

He had escaped with his life only by choosing the match.

And now Nightmare difficulty had appeared again!

Yes—

From simple to hard, he had jumped back three days and gained a chance to survive.

But now the competition's difficulty had risen again—to nightmare!

There was no chance to jump through time again.

—It would begin in just twelve hours!

Xu Yuan closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down.

Think. Quickly.

How could he possibly deal with this?

What else did he have at his disposal?

With a thought, Xu Yuan drew a blank slip of paper from the void.

The Blank Historical Branch!

What could it do?

It would not grant a wish divorced from reality.

What should he write?

He fell silent for a few breaths.

Xu Yuan wrote a line on the slip:

"Grant me three wishes."

The words vanished at once.

Another prompt quietly appeared before his eyes:

"Please write a wish grounded in reality within 30 seconds, or the slip will disappear."

Come on!

Were you angry again?

I cut a hundred wishes down to three, and that still wasn't enough?

Xu Yuan sighed.

He suddenly looked toward his bedroom.

—He had thrown that dried corpse into another world using the Bronze Man Technique.

The Bronze Man Technique.

"...Learn it... to survive..."

"...There's almost no time left..."

The shadow's voice seemed to echo in his ears once more.

This technique.

—Where on earth had it come from?

He had to know everything about it!

If it was reliable enough, perhaps he could use its power to seek good fortune and avoid disaster!

Xu Yuan paused for a breath, then wrote another line on the blank slip:

"At some point in the past, I encountered the Bronze Man Technique and learned everything about it."

This time,

the small words he had written did not disappear.

New lines of text rapidly appeared on the slip:

"A historical branch has been established."

"This historical branch was born of your will and has not affected anything that happened in the past."

"Congratulations."

"You have gained a piece of personal history unknown to anyone else."