The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

The footsteps grew closer.

A silhouette emerged from the darkness of the cave entrance. Humanoid. Two legs, walking upright, height...

Approximately 1.75 meters tall.

The figure emerged from the darkness.

The sunlight shone on him.

All the expressions on Chen Siyao's face froze.

Yang Wanqing's mouth was open, and half of the "ah" sound was stuck in her throat.

The one who walked out...

He was a young man.

Around twenty years old. Her hair was messy, quite long, and reached her shoulders.

His face was dirty, his skin was tanned dark, and there was a scabbed abrasion on his cheekbone.

He was wearing a dark blue casual jacket.

The clothes were torn in several places... the cuffs were frayed, the hem was ripped, and the zipper was broken in half.

But Chen Siyao recognized the style of that dress. It was released this spring. She had seen the same style in a shopping mall.

The T-shirt underneath had an English logo printed on it; it belonged to a sportswear brand. The pants were khaki cargo pants, with two white patches worn off at the knees.

On his feet, he was wearing a pair of sneakers, the uppers of which were already coming unglued and the soles were almost worn flat.

This is a human from Earth.

and...

Chen Siyao knew him.

That tanned, dirty face... wipe off the grime, cut the hair short...

"Fu Zhaojie?"

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing shouted out their voices almost simultaneously.

Fu Zhaojie stood at the cave entrance, squinting to adjust to the sunlight. When he saw two people standing in front of him, his whole body trembled.

The mouth opened and closed, closed and opened again.

"The Goddess of Yaochi? Yang... Yang Wanqing?"

His lips were trembling.

Chen Siyao stared at him for three seconds to make sure she hadn't mistaken him for someone else.

Fu Zhaojie. She and Yang Wanqing were university classmates. Last semester... the boy who stopped her at the school gate, saying there were animals in his hometown that could cultivate.

Later, he went to Mount Shu with his brother and discovered Zhao Gongming's legacy and the secret art of the Chan Sect, the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts.

It's him.

"What are you doing here?" Chen Siyao asked.

Fu Zhaojie didn't answer. He stared at Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing for five or six seconds... as if confirming that the people in front of him weren't hallucinations.

Then his knees bent.

He squatted down.

She covered her face with both hands.

My shoulders are shaking.

Yang Wanqing was startled. "Hey...why are you crying?"

Fu Zhaojie squatted in front of the cave entrance, his hands covering his face, his shoulders trembling. After several seconds, he lowered his hands and wiped his face with his sleeve.

"I thought... I thought I could never go back..."

His voice was terribly hoarse, and he stopped speaking two or three times.

"A month... I've been here for a month..."

The viewers in the live chat only realized what was happening then.

"Wait, does this person know Chen Siyao??"

"Not aliens? They're Earthlings?"

"I recognize his clothes! They're from this year's spring collection!"

"Holy crap, how did he end up in another world?"

"Chen Siyao called him classmate...are they alumni?"

"So this isn't the first time you've encountered extraterrestrial civilizations, huh... You got all excited for nothing."

"No, no, the important thing is... how did a human from Earth end up in another world?!"

Chen Siyao said to the photo crystal, "Don't worry, everyone. This person is a college classmate of mine and Qingqing's, named Fu Zhaojie. As for how he ended up here... I was just about to ask him too."

She squatted down to be at eye level with Fu Zhaojie.

"Calm down and speak slowly."

Fu Zhaojie took two deep breaths and stood up. He wiped the tears from his face, looked up, and saw Chen Hao standing on Fuzhu, a dozen meters away.

His body trembled again.

"Supreme... Supreme God."

Chen Hao sat on the deer's back, looking at him. His expression was unremarkable.

Chen Siyao noticed something... her brother's reaction was too calm.

From the moment he saw the smoke rising from the chimney, to the moment he entered the area, to the moment Fu Zhaojie emerged from the cave... his brother showed no surprise whatsoever.

My brother must have found out long ago, right?

Chen Siyao suppressed the thought and turned to look at Fu Zhaojie.

How did you get here?

Fu Zhaojie swallowed hard. His hands were still trembling slightly... not from fear, but from the excitement of finally seeing someone after holding back for so long.

"When school starts... you know, the whole school is looking for a legacy to carry on."

Chen Siyao nodded. After the mysterious resurgence, ancient immortals and gods left behind their legacy in the famous mountains and rivers of Blue Star.

College students went on a crazy expedition, forming teams to explore famous mountains... Some did find them, but most returned empty-handed.

"My roommate dragged me along," Fu Zhaojie said. "I...you know I'm not really into crowds. But since all four of them are going, it wouldn't be right for me to be the only one not to go."

He rubbed his hands together, and his speech gradually became more measured.

We went to Huangshan.

"Huangshan?" Yang Wanqing interjected. "Hasn't Huangshan already been searched several times over?"

"Yes. The main roads have all been searched. We took a backstreet path," Fu Zhaojie said. "A guide led us into an unmarked gully. We climbed for more than a day, crossed two ridges... and arrived at the foot of a cliff that no one had ever been before."

He squatted down and drew a rough map of the location on the sand with his finger.

"There was a cave at the bottom of the cliff. It was very hidden, covered by a large patch of vines. We cut through the vines and crawled inside."

"And then?" Yang Wanqing urged.

"The cave is very deep. It took us almost an hour to walk through. There are murals inside."

Chen Siyao's eyebrows twitched. "What mural?"

"It's a beast," Fu Zhaojie gestured. "White head. Body shape...like a dog and a fox. Long legs. Big tail. There are many beasts depicted in the mural, but the one in the very center is the largest."

"White-headed?" Yang Wanqing tilted her head and thought for a moment. "What kind of beast has a white head..."

Fu Zhaojie shook his head. "I didn't know at the time either. But those murals... weren't painted by people. The paint was directly embedded in the stone wall, it grew together with the stone."

"Go on. What happened next?"

"Go further in. There's a skeleton in the deepest part."

Fu Zhaojie stopped.

"Animal bones. Very large. Lying there, head facing the cave wall. White bones... I don't know how long it's been dead, all the flesh is gone, but the skeleton is intact. Exactly the same as the one depicted in the murals."

"The remains of ancient mythical beasts," Chen Siyao said.

"Yes. It should be." Fu Zhaojie nodded. "There's a jade platform in front of the skeleton. On the jade platform is a bead..."

"Inheritance".

"Yeah. One of my roommates is really brave; he just went up and touched her."

"Then?"

Fu Zhaojie's expression changed.

"The bead shattered. The instant it shattered... a black hole appeared inside the cave... directly above the skeleton."

He poked a spot in the sand with his finger.

"It's huge. Two or three meters in diameter. It's black. But—there's something inside."

"What is it?"

"Sun and moon." Fu Zhaojie looked up. "There's a sun and moon alternating inside the black hole. One is bright, the other is dark, they flash in turn. Very fast. Not like a normal sunrise or sunset... it changes every second."

Yang Wanqing gasped.