A gray mist suddenly enveloped Ning Yu and Shen Yiyue.
Outside the mist, the attacks from Chen Xing's greatsword and the blood-red sun in the sky were blocked by the fog.
Chen Xing's face was expressionless, but she did not stop her assault. The blood-red sun continued to pour down spheres of destruction onto the ground.
But inside the gray mist...
Despite knowing that "one must not gaze directly at a divine being," Shen Yiyue inexplicably felt the urge to look into Ning Yu's eyes, those eyes filled with divinity.
Those eyes belonged to the person she loved, and now they were filled with profound tenderness.
That tenderness enveloped her like warm, clear water.
Just by glancing at Ning Yu's eyes, Shen Yiyue felt countless images flash through her mind.
The fleeting memories of Ning Yu's past, encompassing all senses—sight, touch, taste, and hearing—gave Shen Yiyue a strange, ethereal sensation.
At that moment, it felt as though she had sunk to the bottom of a lake, a place where the origin and essence of all life were nurtured. She could almost hear the joyful sounds of all living things coming into existence.
This wondrous feeling intoxicated Shen Yiyue, and for a brief moment, all her worries and sorrows seemed to vanish.
She felt as though she had returned to her infancy.
From Ning Yu's perspective, Shen Yiyue gently closed her eyes.
The key formed from gray mist in her hand was the result of activating the [Mysterious Feminine Gate].
"Something existed in chaos, born before heaven and earth. Silent and formless, it stands alone and unchanging, moving in cycles without end..."
Ning Yu softly recited the words from the skill description.
It described something that existed even before heaven and earth, before everything was born.
It had never been altered by any will and continued to operate endlessly.
Was it the origin?
Ning Yu had no answer in her heart. She vaguely understood that she could never fully comprehend such an existence through language alone—it was a limitation of language as a tool.
But precisely because she was a finite being, she could feel happiness.
So if it couldn't be understood, perhaps it was better not to try.
Suddenly, a lock appeared on Shen Yiyue's chest, composed of black and white colors, each occupying half of the lock.
The black and white were not evenly divided but intertwined in a harmonious blend.
Her hands cradled the lock in midair, as if protecting something of great importance.
The keyhole in the center of the lock matched the gray mist key in Ning Yu's hand.
It felt like fate. Ning Yu already knew what to do. She inserted the key into the keyhole near Shen Yiyue's chest.
*Click.*
With a gentle twist, the circular lock opened.
A burst of gray mist erupted from Shen Yiyue's chest, seemingly creating a brand-new space filled with dazzling, star-like points of light.
Through the mist, Ning Yu saw a silver orb spinning within, like a small planet orbiting in the universe that was Shen Yiyue.
Ning Yu understood that this represented Shen Yiyue's origin—[Time].
This power did not belong to Shen Yiyue but was channeled through her, combined with Ning Yu's own abilities, allowing Ning Yu to find it in this mystical way.
Ning Yu reached into the gray mist at Shen Yiyue's chest, her hand sinking in as if merging with her body. Within the mist, she grasped the silver orb representing [Time].
The moment Ning Yu took hold of the orb, Shen Yiyue's brow furrowed slightly, as if she felt a pang of pain.
This was the burden placed on her body by something that did not originally belong to this world, now directly and starkly manifesting in reality.
Perhaps this was the cost mentioned in the skill description—the significant degradation of the user's abilities.
When Ning Yu removed the orb from Shen Yiyue's body, the silver orb instantly transformed into an hourglass floating in Ning Yu's hand.
It seemed that a tangible concept was necessary to contain it, as it did not belong to any classification of things in this world.
Ning Yu, of course, could not use the hourglass to strike down Chen Xing, so under her conscious control, the hourglass began to change shape.
Shen Yiyue had already lost consciousness, lying limply in Ning Yu's arms, her black hair spilling over Ning Yu's arm.
Ning Yu cradled Shen Yiyue with one hand while the hourglass in her other hand transformed into a slender silver sword.
On the hilt of the sword was engraved an intricate clock, and the air around it rippled with waves, as if time itself was speeding up, slowing down, stopping, and resuming.
[Host has acquired: Chrono Blade - Kronos]
A system notification echoed in Ning Yu's mind, revealing the name of the weapon.
But this was not its original form; it was merely the shape it took to manifest in this world.
The gray mist around them began to thin, and Ning Yu's golden eyes slowly became visible. Shen Yiyue, still unconscious, remained in her arms.
The mist did not completely dissipate. Ning Yu gently laid Shen Yiyue within the mist, as if placing her on a bed of clouds.
Holding Kronos, Ning Yu stepped forward, once again facing the blood-red "sun."
The weapon came with no instructions or system-based skills.
Instead, it granted Ning Yu unprecedented knowledge—something indescribable in words, a profound understanding of time itself.
With this knowledge, Ning Yu now understood time better than all the wisdom in the world combined.
She needed no techniques or skills; she simply had to feel the changes this knowledge could bring.
The blood-red halo above Chen Xing's head had soaked her hooded robe completely crimson, and the blood dripping onto the ground steamed with intense heat.
The moment Chen Xing saw Ning Yu, her blood-red greatsword and the "sun" above seemed to find a more suitable target.
But Ning Yu stood still, her golden eyes fixed on Chen Xing, whose face remained hidden beneath her hood.
Chen Xing, unable to speak, seemed to feel a soul-deep fear. She trembled for a moment before suppressing it.
The attacks from her greatsword and the blood-red sun struck Ning Yu, but they passed through her like special effects, leaving her unharmed.
"I exist in the present, the past, and the future. They are all on the sand table, and I can draw them as I please," Ning Yu murmured words that Chen Xing could not understand.
But from Chen Xing's perspective, under the blood-red sky and on the desolate, decaying land, countless versions of Ning Yu suddenly appeared.
Each held a slender silver sword, silently watching Chen Xing.
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers NOW!
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
