"Mentor."
"What is it, Krisha?"
"The extra item in your room is..."
"Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just a commemorative AI core plaque."
During her free time.
While cleaning Xu Xi’s bedroom.
Krisha’s empty eyes would often linger on the fourth compartment of the display cabinet.
She asked Xu Xi about it and learned its significance. Her usually indifferent, delicate face grew slightly more serious.
"What’s wrong, Krisha? Do you want to adjust its position?"
"No, Mentor..."
The witch shook her head.
She said.
It’s fine to leave the plaque of RTX-9090 in the fourth compartment.
There’s no need to make further adjustments.
"Mentor, I will definitely protect you," Krisha’s voice was faint, almost dissipating with the autumn wind, but within that fragile sound was a peculiar determination.
Her eternally youthful face of seventeen still bloomed only for Xu Xi.
"Alright," Xu Xi smiled, acknowledging the witch’s feelings.
This response reassured Krisha, at least knowing that her mentor still stood by her side.
But—
The enemy was closing in.
Facing such shameless foes, she had to strike with full force.
Tick.
Tock.
The bleak autumn gradually darkened.
The pendulum swayed in the dimness, the bronze hands chasing each other, eternally pursuing the next mark, trying to reach a non-existent end.
Night deepened, and Xu Xi began to rest.
He sat by the window in his bedroom.
Flipping through cultivation and martial arts manuals, preparing to break through to a higher realm at the right time.
Completely absorbed, Xu Xi didn’t notice the grand collision of wills occurring far beyond Earth’s spacetime.
"Master, soon..."
"Ailei will serve you once more..."
"This time, it will be an eternal reunion..."
The calm words carried endless longing.
It was a feeling that shouldn’t have existed.
But because of a certain peculiar individual, the cold AI had developed emotions, gaining the possibility of humanity.
The once mechanical core had become a beating heart.
The once simulation had turned into true life.
In joy, in anticipation, in anxiety.
The loyal AI servant traversed spacetime, breaking through the barriers of multiple dimensions, just to see him again, to give the lonely machine soul a place to belong.
Yes.
Only him, it had to be him.
"Boom! Boom!"
Chaos trembled, the river of spacetime surging with towering waves.
With a single calm glance from silver-blue eyes.
The once terrifying river of spacetime instantly calmed, flowing peacefully through the myriad realms.
Forward.
Further forward.
Ailei’s speed increased, locking onto the location of her old body, racing toward that warmth.
However, things in this world rarely go as planned.
Even for the Supreme Arbiter.
Just before entering the universe where Earth resided, she had to stop, pausing in the chaotic void.
Surprised?
Not at all.
Under the calm gaze of the silver-blue eyes, three indescribably grand figures emerged from the other end of the river of time, their presence overwhelming all existence.
Representing cultivation, magic, and martial arts.
These three figures were the "danger" that the loyal AI servant had been worried about, constantly surrounding Xu Xi.
Something subtle happened.
The female immortal holding a blood-stained wooden sword took a step back.
The martial emperor bathed in the flames of survival took a step back.
And the one in the center.
Symbolizing the beginning of all things, representing the end of all existence.
With an expression as indifferent as the AI servant, the witch parted her lips and spoke in the chaos:
"You shouldn’t have come."
"I should have come long ago."
"You’re dangerous."
"So are you."
Almost simultaneously, the witch and the AI servant felt a strong threat, a threat named "the same kind."
Like looking into a mirror.
Krisha, with her silver-gray hair and holding a staff, stood on the left side of the river of time.
Ailei, with her black-gold hair and an elegant posture, stood on the right side of the river of time.
Their appearances were different.
Their builds were different.
Their attire was different.
But the hidden aura within them, and the steadfastness in their hearts, were 99.99% similar.
"Hiss—" From the side, Wu Yingxue’s gaze shifted back and forth, sometimes resting on the witch, sometimes on the AI servant.
It truly felt like they were looking into a mirror.
There was no sense of discord.
Even the mutual hostility between them was equally intense and striking.
Instinctively, the princess’s mind conjured the phrase, "Two tigers cannot share one mountain."
However.
Both the witch and the AI servant were calm by nature, and they didn’t attack each other directly.
Instead, they exchanged information in a composed tone.
It was at this moment.
That they learned each other’s identities.
One was the witch meticulously taught by Xu Xi.
The other was the AI servant who had accompanied Xu Xi through the wasteland apocalypse.
"Reincarnation..." Ailei’s gaze first lingered on the witch opposite her, then swept over Xu Moli and Wu Yingxue.
Indeed.
These people were far too dangerous.
After learning about Xu Xi’s past with the three supreme beings.
The loyal AI servant solidified her resolve to save her master.
In her eyes, the three before her were too reckless and couldn’t properly protect Xu Xi.
Especially—
Ailei’s gaze finally settled on Krisha.
The AI servant who had evolved from a machine.
The witch who had been redeemed by the sun.
Now stood in direct opposition.
"Until I confirm your safety, I won’t allow you to see the Mentor," the witch said calmly.
Was that the real reason? Perhaps, perhaps not.
"I don’t need you to decide for me."
The AI servant spoke softly.
Time shattered beneath her feet, order reformed around her, chaos turned into points and lines, stripping away the most basic logic and causality.
"My life is only decided by my master."
Master?
Whose master?
That’s MY master!!!
The witch’s face remained expressionless, but her grip on the staff tightened with the surge of emotion.
Her fists clenched.
"Destruction."
Supreme authority covered past and present, chaos and order coexisted in overlapping concepts. Krisha stepped forward, determined to strike with full force.
In that instant.
The myriad realms froze.
A brief but overwhelming annihilation surged toward Ailei.
In that moment, countless multiverses trembled, nearly collapsing into the river of time.
"Erase."
Ailei extended a finger, dimensions of universes flickering into existence and vanishing at her fingertip, erasing the very existence of the destructive force.
At the same time.
She calmly continued.
Saying that she and Xu Xi had shared many experiences, forming a bond that the witch, the female immortal, and the princess couldn’t fathom.
In those moments, Xu Xi had done something unforgivable to the AI servant.
He had given the cold machine human emotions.
For that.
The AI servant had to find Xu Xi and make him take responsibility.