Right now, everyone in the Astral Plaza rushed between portals like ants in a storm, driving out strays. No one had a spare breath.

Xi longed to go with Ouyang, heart tugging like tide, but she had to steady the helm at the Astral Plaza.

As an early Tiered Being of the Other Shore and a Crowned one, she held danger maps like constellations under her eyelids.

She knew the safe paths better than Dongze and Agas, like a hunter reading wind.

No. 7 only obeyed Ouyang, like a blade keyed to one hand.

Xi’s override rights could steer No. 7, but Dongze and Agas had no such key.

So Xi had to stay, like an anchor in rough seas.

Everyone else dashed between portals like swallows in rain, busy with the clean-up.

Even Loyin, usually a mascot, joined the sweep like a broom come alive.

Count it up, and only Ouyang and Mapleleaf had free hands, like two chess pieces off the board.

Remember to stay safe...

Xi brushed a kiss on Ouyang’s cheek like a falling petal.

Go, or if Loyin hears, that girl will cling like ivy.

While Ouyang lingered in the softness like warm silk, Mapleleaf ruined the mood like a cold bucket.

He yanked Ouyang and dove after the Void Smuggler Beast into the void, like fish into black water.

Damn it, Mapleleaf, you idiot. That’s naked jealousy, like smoke in a jar.

I hadn’t even had my heart-to-heart with my girlfriend, and you drag me off.

May you be a monk for ten thousand years!

In a blink, Xi vanished like mist. The forest of portals at the Astral Plaza was gone.

Ouyang and Mapleleaf rode the Void Smuggler Beast, fur like night tide, through an azure-glowing tunnel.

A rain of particles streamed head-on like silver gnats.

Ahaha... you heretics still dare show off love before me? Hahaha...

Mapleleaf cackled like a cracked bell. Ouyang finally remembered, like a slap.

This guy was First Cult. The First Cult that scams others and itself, like a snake eating its tail.

You just wait. I’ll pay this back, Ouyang hissed, teeth chattering like hail.

Cherish life, stay away from cults. Turns out that old line was true as iron.

No wonder, in the First Epoch, every force on the continent united against the cult alliance like rivers joining a flood.

What the hell is that? Ouyang muttered, head down plotting revenge like a fox counting chickens.

Mapleleaf suddenly yelled like a siren.

Ouyang looked up. Ahead, a mesh woven of red lines barred the way like a bloody net.

Who’s the bastard who cast a barrier even out here? Are you sick in the head?

Ouyang’s heart jumped like a drum. Laying a ward in a void tunnel took a Primordial Deity’s reach.

Punch through, he barked, like a rider spurring a horse.

Left, left, we’re gonna clip it on the left, damn it!

Right side, inch left, the right’s about to hit!

Right, now!

Left, now!

To the right, you maniac!

...

Somehow, their dialogue devolved like paint washing into mud.

Past the red mesh, the azure tunnel opened into a sea of thunder, rolling like steel surf.

Ahead, crimson lightning packed the way like a thorn forest.

Who laid all this? That idiot’s a lunatic, Ouyang snapped, scalp prickling like ants.

One look at the red thunder sea made his whole body tingle like needles.

He pictured himself after crossing, and laughed hollow as wind.

Roast suckling pig. I’ll become roast suckling pig.

Turn back. We retreat and rethink, he barked, regret biting like frost.

Why did I insist on coming in person, not by projection? That was begging for death.

Xi said that world was wrapped in countless forces, like cocoons. Smuggling in wouldn’t be easy.

The Void Smuggler Beast acted deaf, muscles bunching like bows.

It charged straight into the thunder sea like a comet.

F—! Damn it, damn it!

Ouyang’s howl tore like cloth as the beast carried them into the lightning surf.

Ah—damn—ah—

Their screams rose and fell in the thunder sea like gulls over breakers.

Rumble, rumble. The sound crawled like distant thunder.

Ouyang opened his eyes into pitch black, thick as ink.

A stench knifed into his nose like rot.

Damn... ugh... what is that... ugh...

The smell carried the weight of a thousand heaps of trash, wave after wave.

He rolled, hands sweeping like blind fish.

Beneath him lay a jumble of things, sharp and soft, a chaotic reef.

The reek rose from the pile under him like swamp gas.

Ugh... don’t tell me... ugh... a trash heap... ugh...

His hand found an edge, cold as winter.

The cramped space wasn’t big. At the rim, his knuckles rapped a big iron sheet.

The sound rang like steel. A steel cage full of garbage?

And that rumble, that sway, like a boat?

After they blasted through the thunder sea, he and Mapleleaf were split like seeds.

Ouyang fell into this stink-soaked place.

Mapleleaf and the Void Smuggler Beast vanished like stones into water.

At least they’d reached the First Continent, like a needle through fabric.

But he and Mapleleaf were scattered. Who knew which corner held Mapleleaf?

He snapped his fingers. A fist-sized light orb bloomed like a firefly and lit the space.

His power was crushed flat, like mountains on his back.

It was so bad that a god like him felt hunger gnaw like mice.

Pinching his nose, he looked around. Bottles and cans sprawled like rubble.

All kinds of trash, piled like a midden.

What’s this, soft and wet?

He lifted what he’d grabbed like a reluctant crab.

Holy— That’s a... sanitary pad?

He flinched like a cat in rain. It was soaked crimson, glistening like a wounded leaf.

In this choking stench, he couldn’t tell legend from odor anymore.

Staring at the high-tech bits in the garbage, a guess rose like steam.

A garbage truck, right?

He thought it through, tallying his state like an accountant.

Say I have a hundred points of divine power.

That little illumination just ate ten more, like moths to a flame.

Keep it running, and the drain climbs.

A forbidden spell needs a thousand. I can’t even touch it.

That’s the ugly truth.

The phase-through spell costs fifty. Use it, and I’ll have forty left, like coins in a thin purse.

I can’t take this. Stay in this garbage truck and I’ll suffocate.

Teeth clenched like a trap, Ouyang cast the long-abandoned phase-through spell.

Thump. He slipped through the iron plate and dropped like a sack.

Momentum flung him across the ground like a rag doll.

A flash of headlights hit him like sun on ice.

Tailpipe fumes burned like pepper.

Under him, hard asphalt pressed like stone.

Damn, it really is a garbage truck.

Jumping off at speed would’ve killed me if not for this divine body.

Clutching his almost-concussed head, he stared at the sky like a lost pilgrim.

In the night hung two round moons, one violet, one green, like twin lanterns.

A long river of stars draped the sky like silk.

Looks like I didn’t foolishly cross back to Earth.

This is still the First Continent.

In his memory, the First Epoch was a time of wild sorcery, like weeds after rain.

Arcanes and summons bloomed everywhere like mushrooms.

Then the Night King culled the land, nine out of ten lives gone, like frost on fields.

Millions of years passed. Life returned like spring.

A new civilization evolved, strange and bright.

First Continent, your lord has arrived!

Ouyang shouted at the sky like a rooster at dawn.

He had spawned inside a garbage truck at midnight, like a bad joke.

Garbage trucks roll to the outskirts to dump, like beetles to dung.

So he was in the wild. City lights flickered on the horizon like fireflies.

No houses nearby. He’d need a walk to reach people.

Gurgle.

Gurgle.

He clutched his belly. Hunger drummed like a hollow gourd.

With power suppressed here, an empty stomach complained first, like a child.

Am I about to eat grass? he wondered, a grim grin like a knife.

He could manifest food with imagination-to-form.

But one roast duck would cost twenty divine power, like gold for a snack.

Do that, and forty becomes twenty.

As he wrestled inside, a meow tugged his ears like a bell.

A white cat popped from the roadside grass like a ghost of frost.

It rubbed his pants and meowed, soft as snow.

You... are you that White Cat?

Ouyang hesitated, heart lifting like a kite.

Hearing him, the cat nodded hard, human as a mime.

It tapped its chest with a paw, like saying, Yes, me.

He rolled his eyes at the pantomime, fond as an older brother.

In the end, he spent twenty divine power to link their souls, like threads tied.

Now they could speak mind to mind.

Meow. You’re finally here. Your Cat Lord has suffered, the voice spilled like rain.

Once the soul link snapped tight, the White Cat poured out its days like beans.

First, something yanked us into a passage, like a hook in dark water.

The pullers’ plan shattered when power exploded from Kanofia, like a sunburst.

In the passage, they called their stronger ally, like wolves for a pack.

They wanted a bigger hand to drag Kanofia and the others away.

Kanofia’s power formed a barrier that sheltered the White Cat and Yiyue Qianliu, like a shell.

Kanofia herself sank into sleep for no clear reason, like winter.

A giant hand grabbed the barrier, trying to haul them to the tunnel’s end, like a fisherman.

Then, a pair of enormous eyes opened in the passage like twin moons.

The passage collapsed. Everyone fell into this strange world like leaves in a whirl.

In this world, humans split into two camps, two empires like twin peaks.

The Eastern Empire is where we stand, a tech tree gone crooked like a vine.

The Western Empire took a wrong turn on the path of cultivation, like a pilgrim lost.

The Eastern Empire’s tech matches the trash we saw, like pieces of a puzzle.

But the “crooked tree” has reasons.

In the East, people implant odd parts into bodies like toys into clay.

On the street, you meet a guy with a metal arm, shining like chrome.

Or legs turned into built-in roller skates, humming like bees.

Or a booster bolted to a back, spitting blue fire like a tail.

The Western Empire is a realm where the extraordinary runs wild, like rivers in flood.

Mages, arcanists, summoners, a whole bestiary of titles, like banners on wind.

For a comparison, their living level is like the Middle Ages in Ouyang’s memory.

A huge empire above, and below it nobles and their lands, cities like stones in a wall.

The war between East and West started who knows when, like a spark in dry grass.

Today the East fires a missile west, a steel spear across clouds.

Tomorrow the West drops a forbidden spell east, a black sun over roofs.

It’s technology versus mystery, head-to-head like blades.

After all that, how did you just happen to meet me here?

Ouyang narrowed his eyes at the White Cat, suspicion curling like smoke.

He’d just smuggled in, and the cat appeared. Was luck really that neat?

Meow. Not a coincidence.

In the Western Empire, someone called the Moon Sage told me.

She said I’d find the one I waited for here, like tide finding shore.

At first, Kanofia and the others landed inside Western Empire, like seeds on foreign soil.

Kanofia kept sleeping. The barrier around her lost its master’s hand like a kite cut free.

It evolved into a blood-red castle, walls breathing like a heart.

The vast barrier wrapped the castle, and Kanofia slept within, like a princess in glass.

Not just Kanofia’s group. Even the enemies who tried to carry them off fell into this world, like dice tossed.

But in this world of suppressed power, no one could crack Kanofia’s barrier, like teeth on iron.

The White Cat and Yiyue Qianliu talked it over, voices low as grass.

Yiyue Qianliu would stay in the castle to guard, like a stone by a gate.

The White Cat, small and plain, wouldn’t draw eyes, like a shadow.

So it slipped out to scout the outer world, paws quick as rain.

By chance, it met a woman called the Moon Sage, pale as night.

She sent the White Cat here, to this spot, like an archer’s mark.

“The Moon Sage? The Three Sun‑Star Sages?” Ouyang hissed, the names sparking like flint in a dry wind.

Shock hit first, cold as a blade. A ragged aura scraped across his senses. “Who?” he barked, his voice snapping the night like a whip.

Moonlight pooled like frost on stone. A lone shadow knifed across it and sprinted into the distance.

“Dammit, White Cat, you idiot—you didn’t even notice a shadow stuck to our heels!”