He has been reincarnated through countless worlds, adorned with billions of mythological terms!

Yun Nian lay on his back, breathing very softly.

She sensed the atmosphere too, and without saying a word, she buried her face in Yun Yi's neck, occasionally nuzzling him.

"Brother, is Dad inside?"

"have no idea."

"How do we get in?"

Yun Yi looked around.

The road was blocked, and the buildings on both sides had been demolished, leaving no place to even step.

The only way is to cross that road.

He was about to speak when he suddenly heard another sound.

There are people to the west.

It wasn't one person, it was a group.

The footsteps were very orderly and rhythmic, like a well-trained team.

The heartbeats of all 100 people were very steady, around 65 beats per minute—this is the heart rate during combat.

It wasn't fear, it was focus.

But Yunyi knew that there were more than a hundred people.

The footsteps were too dense and the intervals were too even, like someone walking to a metronome while everyone else was just echoing.

He turned his head and turned his ear to the west.

The sound of a person's footsteps.

The rest are all fake.

Good tactic.

There are people to the west.

Yun Yi said in a low voice.

Lu Ming hadn't left yet—he'd been squatting on the air conditioner unit ten meters away, like a crow perched on a tree branch, neither too close nor too far, impossible to shoo away.

Upon hearing this, he glanced westward but saw nothing. However, his expression changed because he hadn't seen anything at all.

"How many people?"

"one."

Yunyi said, "But it's better than all three of them combined."

Lu Ming's lips twitched, and the smile finally disappeared completely.

He stood up, jumped off the air conditioner unit, and landed next to Yun Yi.

This time, instead of maintaining a ten-meter distance, he stood within five meters.

Are you sure?

Yun Yi did not answer.

His attention was on the west.

The footsteps stopped 500 meters away, behind a half-collapsed shopping mall.

My heartbeat is still steady at 65 beats per minute.

But breathing has changed—it has changed from nasal breathing to oral breathing, inhalation has become shorter, and exhalation has become longer.

This is breathing adjustment before battle.

He knew he had been exposed.

Four hundred meters.

The footsteps sounded again.

This time, there was no pretense. He strode forward, each step firm and solid, crushing broken glass into powder beneath his feet.

My heart rate is still 65, it hasn't changed at all.

Three hundred meters.

Yunyi saw it.

A person emerged from the shadows of the shopping mall, their figure casting a long shadow in the moonlight.

He was very tall, at least 1.9 meters, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His gait didn't seem like he was walking through ruins, but rather like he was strolling in his own hallway.

The hem of the trench coat fluttered in the wind, revealing a long, narrow wrap at the side of the waist.

Two hundred meters.

Yun Yi saw his face clearly.

The eleven or twelve-year-old boy had features that could even be described as delicate, but his face was distorted by his bone structure.

High cheekbones, a sharp jawline, and prominent brow bones cast a heavy shadow, hiding the eyes within, revealing only two points of cold light.

One hundred meters.

He stopped.

Standing amidst the corpses of those headless zombies, he glanced down at the severed neck at his feet and then looked up at Yun Yi on the rooftop.

"Tianying, Pei Yuan."

His voice was low, like a cello string being plucked, echoing through the empty street.

This isn't a self-introduction; it's a registration.

The hunter informs his prey not out of politeness, but because he doesn't need to ambush them.

Yun Yi looked at him.

Pei Yuan was also looking at him.

Their eyes met briefly in the air—no sparks, no sound, just a mutual confirmation: you are the one who needs to be taken seriously.

"You killed my men."

Pei Yuan spoke calmly, showing no anger at the loss of his men.

"Um."

"Since you knew that, why did you still come to your death?"

Yunyi said.

Pei Yuan's lips twitched slightly, it was hard to tell if it was a smile or something else.

He took a step forward.

Give her to me, and I won't kill you.

Yun Yi looked down at him.

His amber eyes were expressionless in the moonlight, but Pei Yuan stopped in his tracks—not out of fright, but out of instinct.

It's like walking on the edge of a cliff, knowing full well that the path is still beneath your feet, but your body has already sounded the alarm.

"I want to know, why are you all staring at my sister?"

Yun Yi asked.

Pei Yuan looked at him and remained silent for two seconds.

"you do not know?"

Yun Yi didn't speak.

Pei Yuan's gaze shifted from him to Yun Nian, and then back again.

For the first time, something that could be called an "emotion" emerged in those eyes hidden in the shadow of their brow bones—not pity, but scrutiny.

Like someone judging whether or not to say the next thing.

"She is the chosen one."

Those five words, falling amidst the ruins, weighed more heavily than any bullet.

Yun Yi felt Yun Nian on his back move slightly.

She lifted her face from his neck, glanced in Pei Yuan's direction, and then buried it back in his neck.

She didn't understand, but she sensed that those five words were important.

"so what?"

"so what?"

Pei Yuan repeated the three words, staring at Yun Yi's face, seemingly trying to determine whether he was genuinely indifferent or just pretending.

The final conclusion was that the other party was very likely genuinely indifferent, and even knowing that Yun Nian was the chosen one, they had no intention of killing her.

Upon reaching this conclusion, Pei Yuan smiled.

A laugh tinged with pity, yet mixed with some other emotion.

"You must have only gone through the beginner's trial."

"Is there a problem?"

Yunyi said.

Pei Yuan's smile deepened slightly.

It wasn't laughter, but a sense of relief after confirmation.

"In the first cycle, ten people enter, and one person leaves."

His voice echoed through the ruins, unhurried, as if telling a story he had heard long ago: "It is the fairest, and it is also the most unfair."

"Because it really is true—birth determines everything."

"The world chosen in the first cycle of reincarnation is incomplete."

"In that kind of world, no matter how powerful you were in your past life, you will eventually find it all useless."

"When the big shots of the cultivation world went there, they couldn't cultivate without spiritual power; when the demonic cultivators went there, eating people was just eating people, and they couldn't increase their cultivation level at all; when the big shots of the technological world went there, the laws of physics were completely different, and the upper limit of technology was locked."

He stepped on the chest of a headless zombie, the sole of his boot making a cracking sound as it pressed down.

"In the beginner trials, no matter how powerful you are, you can only start as a commoner."

"To survive, luck is everything."

"The hardest thing is not killing, but becoming the strongest in the world—because before you become the strongest, you won't see any other reincarnators."

"When you finally stand at the top, you'll find that you're the last one."

He looked up at Yun Yi.

"And you, now you're actually willing to give up a chance to become the chosen one with at least a thousand points because of family ties."

"That only shows that you haven't truly experienced hardship."

"Judging from your current background, in your previous reincarnation, you were probably not much different from royalty."

"Only someone like you, who has never truly suffered or experienced despair, can still retain a trace of emotion in their heart."

"Are you done talking?"

Yun Yi's tone was very flat, as flat as if he were talking to a dead person.

Pei Yuan looked at him, and the slight smile on his lips disappeared.

It's not about being provoked, it's about reassessing.

If someone else had heard what he just said, they would either have been furious or fallen silent, as if their sore spot had been hit.

The person in front of me showed nothing—not pretending, but genuinely not caring.

"That's all."

"Then you can do it."

Yun Yi put Yun Nian down from his back and placed her next to the ventilation duct, doing the same thing as before—putting her down, squatting down, and looking up at her.

"Count to three hundred."

Yun Nian, holding the ugly rabbit, glanced at him and then at Pei Yuan.

"Brother, he's so tall."

"Um."

"If... if that doesn't work, then hand me over."

Yun Nian was trembling when she finished speaking.

Yun Yi remained silent for a second.

"Need not."

Yun Nian nodded, buried her face in the ugly rabbit, and said in a muffled voice:

"Good luck, brother."

"it is good."