An earthquake struck Mount Tai, triggering a rockslide.
A massive boulder came crashing down right in front of the cable car ticket station, smashing one of the departing cars flat like a pancake.
Luckily, the main cable line itself remained untouched—
Otherwise, all the tourists on the cable line might have been doomed.
But what shocked people most was this:
The seven people inside the destroyed cable car were drug traffickers—
both the buyers and sellers were in that very car.
Even more incredible—
These seven weren't just small-time pushers,
they were kingpins from two separate organizations, each with multiple murders on their hands.
Soon, the incident was being hailed as a divine act of Mount Tai's guardian deity.
People began linking the rockslide to the mirage of the Emperor's Fengshan ritual earlier that day.
---
Chen Huaian only learned about all this much later.
His first action after coming down the mountain wasn't to call for an ambulance—
It was to find a convenience store and borrow a charging cable.
Once his phone was plugged in, he launched his favorite game:
Electronic Girlfriend.
He sat down calmly on a bench,
as if he weren't someone with a shattered leg and a brush with death.
Meanwhile, Zhang Rui was frantically calling 120 beside him, visibly shaken.
He felt like he was half responsible for Chen Huaian's fracture—
If only he hadn't taunted him so much the night before…
Maybe Chen wouldn't have pushed himself this far.
"Let's see what my electronic girlfriend is up to…"
As soon as the game loaded,
a flood of notifications hit the screen:
[You have 130 days of life remaining.]
[Your electronic girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is under attack by a minor beast tide!]
[Li Qingran is fighting fiercely...]
[Li Qingran has been injured.]
[Li Qingran is critically wounded!]
What the hell?!
Chen Huaian's heart skipped a beat.
How could she get hurt in just the time it took him to climb a mountain?!
It was early morning—how could there be a beast tide now?
Sure, beasts were nocturnal in lore,
but this was a game. Players don't need sleep, do they?
He quickly cleared the notifications—
only to be greeted by a gut-wrenching scene.
The house was nearly destroyed under the onslaught of monsters.
Li Qingran was surrounded by a horde of beasts,
their corpses strewn in twisted angles all around her.
She knelt in a pool of blood, her head bowed low.
Her long black hair veiled her face,
and in her hand was a broken sword plunged into the ground.
She still wore the top-up bonus outfit he'd bought her with a 30-yuan recharge—
now slashed to ribbons, soaked in blood.
No sensual glimpses beneath—only mangled, torn flesh.
[Your Electronic Girlfriend 'Li Qingran' is on the brink of death!]
"Shame... I still didn't get to see… senior… one last time…"
She lifted her head weakly,
staring through the hole in the ceiling at the morning sky.
Her cheeks were deathly pale,
her eyes hollow and losing focus.
Everything in her vision turned to gray.
She was only nineteen.
Looking back on her life…
There was only bitterness.
Her father had died on the battlefield.
Her mother—poisoned by assassins from a rival nation.
She thought that joining the Qingyun Sect would grant her the power to avenge them—
only to leap from one quagmire into another.
The cultivation world was full of rules:
cultivators were forbidden to interfere with mortal affairs.
But those rules?
They only existed to bind the weak.
So she trained diligently,
kept her head down,
hoping one day she could stand above the rules and bring peace to her parents' spirits.
And now—
expelled,
her spiritual root shattered,
her dantian broken,
she had nothing left.
A mountain sparrow flew past the hole in the roof.
A flicker of light returned to her eyes.
These past two days—
everything with "Senior" came flooding back.
Even though she had never seen his face,
he had given without asking.
Warmth, care, silent support…
"This life… I can no longer repay his kindness… cough, cough…"
Her body trembled,
and she coughed out a mixture of blood and tears.
The drops rolled down her face, glinting crimson in the morning light.
"If there's a next life…"
A nearby beast sensed she was no longer a threat—
and lunged, claws bared, teeth gleaming.
Just then—
Dozens… no, hundreds of lightning bolts rained from the sky.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Blinding arcs of divine lightning crashed down upon the monsters and the ruins of the house,
turning everything into white-hot brilliance.
Song Jiaojiao, who had just been preparing to leave,
watched in shock from her hidden formation.
She had just witnessed a massive barrage of thunderfire talismans falling from the heavens.
Who the hell had those?!
Li Qingran? Impossible.
Even the cheapest thunderfire talisman cost 500 low-grade spirit stones—
and that was just one.
This was at least tens of thousands' worth.
There could only be one explanation—
Someone was protecting her.
Someone powerful.
Someone rich.
Who the hell was backing Li Qingran?!
Song Jiaojiao's face turned pale as death.
The lightning continued to fall.
Wave after wave, talismans were hurled like garbage.
Over two hundred exploded around the area,
incinerating every beast down to ash and smoke,
not even bones remained.
When it finally stopped,
the house remained intact,
but the ground was pockmarked with scorched craters.
Inside, Li Qingran lay unconscious in a pool of blood,
surrounded by divine flames.
Yet a golden barrier shielded her completely from harm.
"This place is cursed..."
Song Jiaojiao muttered, a chill crawling down her spine.
Something was very, very wrong.
A moment later—
a single talisman appeared above her head.
It glowed gold,
its inscription crackling with heavenly thunder.
"A Celestial-grade talisman?!"
Her eyes widened in horror.
One of those—
aimed at her?
A mere Foundationless cultivator?
She no longer questioned how she had been detected.
To someone who could toss out celestial-grade talismans like confetti,
her concealment array was child's play.
"Hah… haha…"
She laughed bitterly.
BOOM—!
A golden lightning bolt as thick as a water tank crashed down.
Her array shattered.
So did she.
Not even ashes remained.
---
Back in the game, the red dots on the minimap vanished one by one.
Only then did Chen Huaian exhale in relief.
Not even when he broke his leg or dodged falling rocks did he feel this nervous.
"Seriously?! Can't this game have some kind of enemy alert system?
Leave for a few minutes and my base gets overrun?!"
He had just blown 500 pulls on the Koi Banner.
Got tons of loot: spirit stones, thunderfire talismans, messaging charms…
Statistically, spirit stones were a loss.
But the talismans and charms? Totally worth.
Even better—
He pulled a few high-grade, even supreme-grade talismans,
and two celestial-grade ones.
He had just used one to obliterate the hidden boss stalking Li Qingran.
Also—
he got a rare weapon: the Exquisite Spirit Sword (Su Xian Jian).
He had no idea how much that would sell for,
but it wasn't even in the Qi Refining store—
so it had to be a Core Foundation-tier weapon.
Big money.
But this wasn't the time for economics.
Chen Huaian frowned and tapped on Li Qingran's avatar.
[Status: Critical blood loss / Near death]
[Cultivation Progress: 1456/4999 (Level 5)]
[Remaining Lifespan: Moments left]
[Affection Level: 35 (Reverence)]
"Okay… standard game logic—injured character, give them a pill."
He opened her storage ring,
dragged over a celestial-grade Full Recovery Pill from his monthly card bonus,
and tried to feed it to her.
[Li Qingran is critically wounded and cannot swallow the pill on her own. Medication failed.]
…Seriously?
This much realism?
You trying to pass the civil service exam with this game design?!