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With his feet firmly on the ground once more, Qin Zhou had arrived at the Red Cloud Sea.

The Red Cloud Sea is vast, featuring mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers. It contains a lake that is the largest in the Spirit Mountain Realm, hence it is referred to as a “sea.” The sight of the evening glow reflecting on the waters is one of the most spectacular sights in the Spirit Mountain Realm, hence the name “Red Cloud Sea.”

The Red Cloud Sea is one of the major powers within the Spirit Mountain Realm and also the region with the densest spiritual energy in the entire realm. It nurtures countless spirit beasts, making it a true “Kingdom of Spirit Beasts.”

The moment Qin Zhou entered the territory of the Red Cloud Sea, he could sense many pairs of eyes turning toward him.

The Red Cloud Sea is home to formidable spirit beasts, as well as newborn spirit beast cubs.

The young spirit beasts did not recognize Qin Zhou, but they harbored no suspicion toward him.

Perhaps it was due to the 20-point affinity bonus granted by the Creator God; rather than being wary, the little creatures were more curious as to why this person made them feel so at ease.

Qin Zhou stood at the entrance of the Red Cloud Sea Sect for a moment, and soon he was surrounded by young spirit beasts.

A little bird perched on Qin Zhou’s shoulder, chirping away merrily.

His legs were clung to by the little creatures; a tiny squirrel darted straight from his feet into his arms, narrowly avoiding a fall as Qin Zhou caught it with his hand.

He couldn’t take a single step.

“……” A 20-point favorability rating—I really gave them too much.

But this scene reminded him of when the villagers were children: back when they found out he was leaving to train, a crowd of kids would surround him, refusing to let him go.

Not even his promise to bring them gifts when he returned would work.

In the end, Lu Yi had to carry the children away one by one, then boldly led him out the door, muttering all the while—

“If you spoil them like this, you’ll ruin them!”

“And bringing gifts? With so many kids, can you even carry them all?”

Lu Yi walked on, scolding him all the way.

“I can handle it. Lu Yi is coming too.”

The scolding stopped instantly, and he whispered instead, “I just want a string of candied hawthorn…”

“But I’m not doing this for free—I’m going out with you to fight monsters.”

Yeah, compared to getting injured while fighting monsters, a string of candied hawthorn really is a bargain.

Even now, as he recalled the scene, Qin Zhou couldn’t help but smile. He reached down and took the little squirrel off his back.

Then he fished a few low-grade pills out of his Cosmos Bag, crushed them into small pieces, and placed them in front of the young spirit beast.

Sure enough, the greedy little beasts immediately stopped paying attention to Qin Zhou and, with sparkling eyes, rushed toward the pill fragments.

Qin Zhou took the opportunity to break free from the crowd.

The place Qin Zhou was teleported to was in front of a pavilion by the water. If he wasn’t mistaken, this was the residence of Shen Yun, the Ruler of the Red Cloud Sea.

Qin Zhou walked a few steps inward. Before he even got close, he heard voices.

“Sea Lord, the Red Cloud Sea is in such turmoil—could it be that thing is about to emerge?”

“It’s the first time in a thousand years there’s been such a commotion.”

“If you listen closely, it seems you can still hear a massive rumbling coming from deep beneath the sea. That sound… it fills one’s heart with an inexplicable dread.”

Immediately after, Shen Yun’s voice rang out—

“Issue an order: no disciples are to approach the Red Cloud Sea. Ancient texts record that the sea monsters dwell beneath the waves—smooth-tongued and cunning, capable of peering into one’s mind and devouring one’s sanity. Our disciples’ minds are still unstable; they must not be allowed near the sea.”

“As for the tremors in the Red Cloud Sea…” Shen Yun’s voice grew slightly somber, “Is there still no news of the divine artifact, the Golden Dragon Cauldron?”

“…Not yet.”

Shen Yun sighed, “I see. I will go into the sea myself to investigate. We must not slacken our efforts in the search for the Golden Dragon Cauldron.”

“Yes.”

After the disciples finished their reports, they all withdrew. Seeing this, Qin Zhou slipped away to a corner of the room.

From the corner, through the half-open window, he could see Shen Yun’s worried expression.

No one knew better than Qin Zhou what lay beneath the Red Cloud Sea.

The main storyline’s boss—the demon beast that once ravaged the entire Spirit Mountain Realm in the backstory—the Solitary Nightmare.

The beast excels at corrupting minds; in its youth, it lurked among the common folk, feeding on human souls.

Once it grew powerful, almost no cultivator could withstand it.

Where there is darkness in a cultivator’s heart, Duyan finds an opening.

When Duyan was wreaking havoc in the Spirit Mountain Realm, the first Sea Lord of the Red Cloud Sea emerged from seclusion and sealed it beneath the Red Cloud Sea.

To completely destroy Duyan, one must gather all Ten Divine Artifacts.

And the hardest of these Ten Divine Artifacts to find—the Golden Dragon Cauldron—is actually the “protagonist” himself.

Of course, the plot hasn’t reached that point yet. It had only been two years since the protagonist, ‘Golden Dragon Cauldron,’ left Wanling Village. At this point… the Solitary Nightmare shouldn’t be causing any trouble.

Unless…

“Who’s out there?” Shen Yun’s voice snapped sharply.

He’d been discovered.

Qin Zhou decided not to hide; he stepped up to the window and greeted Shen Yun: “Shen Yun.”

Shen Yun: ?

Who is that?

Qin Zhou suddenly realized that Shen Yun probably hadn’t seen him looking like this before. Just as he was about to introduce himself, a fuzzy little head suddenly poked out from the collar of Shen Yun’s shirt—

“Cheep, cheep, cheep!” Uncle Sugar Bean!

Little Wind Sparrow flapped its tiny wings and flew straight into Qin Zhou’s arms.

Qin Zhou looked down, locking eyes with the little sparrow.

“Little Sparrow…” Shen Yun was completely taken aback. The little sparrow wasn’t usually very friendly; even after being in the Spirit Mountain Realm for quite some time, no disciple had managed to win its favor.

But this stranger who had suddenly appeared…

The little sparrow clearly recognized him.

Then, he saw Qin Zhou pull a pill from his Cosmos Bag and feed it to the little sparrow.

The little sparrow swallowed it whole, flapping its wings with delight.

Seeing this familiar scene, Shen Yun also realized Qin Zhou’s identity and asked tentatively, “Could it be Senior Qin Zhou?”

Qin Zhou nodded. “I am Qin Zhou.”

“Senior?! How did you end up here?” Shen Yun was utterly astonished.

As soon as Shen Yun thought about it, he realized something was terribly wrong.

Qin Zhou was the Ruler of Zhutian Realm and the creator god of their Spirit Mountain Realm.

But the Qin Zhou before him was the same Qin Zhou he had known in Zhutian Realm—and at this point in time, Qin Zhou shouldn’t have created the Spirit Mountain Realm yet! Yet here he was, right in the Spirit Mountain Realm!

This… this just doesn’t make any sense!

Qin Zhou watched as Shen Yun’s expression shifted from surprise to panic; his flustered demeanor suggested that Qin Zhou shouldn’t even be here.

“Shouldn’t I be here?” Qin Zhou asked.

Shen Yun stammered, “N-no, probably not.”

Qin Zhou: “Then I’ll be going.”

Shen Yun hurried forward, flustered. “No, that’s not what I meant, Senior Qin Zhou!”

Shen Yun, with no time to spare, began explaining the whole situation to Qin Zhou.

“Before I knew your identity, I told everyone that the Lord of Zhutian Realm is the creator god of our Spirit Mountain Realm. My panic just now was simply because I didn’t understand how you could appear here… This place should belong to the future world of the Realm of Zhutian Realm…” Shen Yun’s mind went blank, and he could only explain haltingly.

Qin Zhou simply replied, “It’s not the future.”

“Huh?”

“You can think of it as a parallel world, but this isn’t the future of the Zhutian Realm. The creation of the Spirit Mountain Realm wasn’t a future event either; it happened earlier.”

That single sentence left Shen Yun’s mind reeling.

Qin Zhou had originally believed the two worlds would merge, but that was not the case. The “Treatise on Ten Thousand Spirits” had added many spirit beast species not found in the Zhutian Realm; that was likely because Lu Yi had shattered the heavens, connecting the two realms.

Both he and Lu Yi existed in both the Zhutian Realm and the Spirit Mountain Realm. To fix this glitch, the timeline automatically filled in some details, creating the illusion for Shen Yun that “Zhutian Realm is the predecessor of the Spirit Mountain Realm, and Zhutian Realm is a world from thousands of years ago.”

In reality, there is no temporal or spatial overlap between the two realms.

This can be seen from the fact that Xiao Lu was able to reliably transport them to the Spirit Mountain Realm.

The two worlds are more akin to being ‘parallel.’

It’s just that he and Lu Yi have different identities on each side.

“Then…” Shen Yun gradually came to his senses—no, regaining his composure only made him more nervous. “You really are the creator god of our Spirit Mountain Realm!”

Qin Zhou: “…Mm.”

Having received a definitive answer, Shen Yun’s heart skipped a beat. He then tiptoed from the inner room to the window and tucked away the half-written manuscript lying on the desk.

Qin Zhou noticed his movement and glanced over.

It mentioned something about the “Creator God,” “Senior Lu Yi,” and some “sodomy”…

Qin Zhou: “…”

He’d seen far too much with that single glance.

Shen Yun hastily shoved the manuscript into his sleeve, lowering his head, too guilty to even dare look up.

Qin Zhou showed no sign of holding it against him. “Let’s get down to business first.”

But before he could finish speaking, the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to shake.

Shen Yun staggered, and Qin Zhou barely managed to steady himself against the window frame.

An earthquake?

No.

The tremors hadn’t stopped yet.

The two steadied themselves and looked in the direction of the Red Cloud Sea.

“How could this demon beast be so agitated!” Shen Yun’s expression darkened instantly. “Could it really be breaking through the formation?”

“Senior Qin Zhou, I’ll go check out the strange phenomenon in the sea first.”

With that, Shen Yun tucked the Little Wind Sparrow into his sleeve and hurried out the door.

“I’m coming too.” Qin Zhou followed quickly.

Arriving at the lakeshore, the vast expanse of water before them was the legendary Red Cloud Sea. The sun still hung high in the sky; the Red Cloud Sea had not yet been dyed red by the setting sun’s glow. The deep blue waters gave the illusion that one might sink into them if one stared too long.

The tremors surrounding the Red Cloud Sea were indeed related to the demon beast sealed within.

Standing at the water’s edge, he didn’t even need to strain his ears to hear the sharp, piercing cries of the demon beast.

But what exactly it was crying out remained unclear; he couldn’t make out the words.

Shen Yun’s face was as somber as the water.

This is bad. Very bad. If the demon beast were to burst out of the water right now, there would likely be nothing to stop it.

As he thought this, Shen Yun suddenly turned his head to look at Qin Zhou, who had followed him.

Wait a minute—maybe it wasn’t all that bad after all.

Their Creator God was here!

“Senior Creator God…”

“Just call me Qin Zhou,” Qin Zhou replied.

“Senior Qin Zhou, do you have a way to deal with this thing?”

Qin Zhou furrowed his brow. “I might not have a solution.” According to the game’s mechanics, this monster could only be defeated by gathering all the divine artifacts; tampering with the mechanics could potentially cause bugs.

“That’s a bit strange.”

“Hm?”

“Listen to its cry—it doesn’t sound like it’s attacking the formation. It sounds more like it’s calling for help?”

Shen Yun: ?

Shen Yun listened for a moment; the sound was truly shrill and piercing.

Shen Yun looked at Qin Zhou innocently. He hadn’t picked up on any distress signal; to him, it just sounded awful.

“Senior Qin Zhou, do you think it’s calling for help? But why would it need to call for help?” Shen Yun was utterly baffled.

Qin Zhou glanced at the water below; the reason for the cry for help must lie there.

According to the backstory, the first Lord of the Red Cloud Sea who sealed that solitary nightmare was none other than Lu Yi.

If Lu Yi were to return and take possession of that body…

Qin Zhou crouched down and pressed his hand against the water’s surface.

A streak of spiritual light surged into the water, sending ripples across the lake’s surface and carrying Qin Zhou’s voice downward—

“Wen Jue.”

He called out Wen Jue’s name, not Lu Yi’s.

“Hmm?” Through the water, a familiar voice came from below.

Qin Zhou let out a sigh of relief.

He was here after all.

“You came to find me? I have no idea where the Dao has teleported me to. There’s some kind of formation here that’s sealed me in—I can’t get out. And down here, there’s a cloud of disgusting black mist that just looks revolting; I can’t seem to kill it no matter how hard I try.”

Hearing Wen Jue’s grumbling, Qin Zhou smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure out a way to get you out.”

“Oh, I’m not in a rush. Take your time. This black mist is very strange—it won’t die no matter how much I attack it. I’m still trying to figure out its weak point.”

Qin Zhou: “……”

In a sense, Lu Yi also has the traits of a battle maniac.

Shen Yun watched eagerly as Qin Zhou withdrew his finger and stood up.

“Senior Qin Zhou… I think I just heard Senior Lu Yi’s voice?”

“Mm.” Qin Zhou nodded. “With Lu Yi here, we don’t need to worry about the demon beast causing trouble.”

The real concern is whether this demon beast can hold out.

Oh, I forgot to remind Lu Yi to spare the Solitary Nightmare’s life.