Chapter 18

When Ruoyu sat up from the game pod, the first thing she saw was Jue-ge on the sofa.

At this moment, Feng Bujue's brow was slightly furrowed, his eyes were deep, and he seemed to be lost in thought… he looked just like a theoretical physicist on the job.

"What are you doing?" Ruoyu asked before she even stepped out of the pod.

"Thinking…" Feng Bujue replied without turning his head.

"Thinking about what?" Ruoyu continued.

"About what happened just now… and what's happening now…" Feng Bujue's answer was a bit cryptic, "...those things that have already happened and are happening."

"I was just about to ask you…" Ruoyu replied, "What exactly was going on earlier? Even without using Spiritual Sense Gathering Technique, you should have been able to dodge that kind of probing attack."

"I don't quite understand either…" Jue-ge pondered, "If I recall correctly… at the time, I seemed to vaguely feel a surge of energy entering my body from behind. From that moment on, I couldn't move." He stroked his chin thoughtfully, "What's strange is that before the contact… I didn't notice that energy approaching at all."

"Hmm…" Ruoyu muttered as she climbed out of the game pod, "Speaking of which… I didn't see any energy fluctuations around you at the time either…"

"Oh?" Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly, "So, you're saying…" Countless hypotheses flashed through his mind in an instant, and from the remaining deductions, he singled out a more probable conclusion, "Heh… I think I understand." He suddenly laughed, "No wonder…"

"No wonder what?" Ruoyu asked as she walked over to Feng Bujue.

"No wonder I felt like something was wrong with me after leaving the game pod," Feng Bujue replied.

Ruoyu looked suspicious and continued, "Are you saying… the energy you came into contact with in the game is causing you discomfort in the real world?"

"Exactly." Feng Bujue said with a straight face, "In fact, after leaving the game pod, the effects of that energy on me became clearer." He smiled, "Heh… at first, I thought I had a reactive mental disorder that triggered mental automatism syndrome, then I deduced that I might have eaten too much for breakfast and was suffering from indigestion… but after what you said, I understand… in the Yanwu Arena, I was probably ambushed by some beings from 'beyond the game dimension'. And so, I am now…"

As Jue-ge spoke, he took a deep breath, a look of delight on his face, before saying, "...enjoying myself to the fullest…"

Ruoyu looked at Jue-ge's changing expression, stunned for two seconds, "Are you really sure you're not having a mental breakdown?"

"No." Before Jue-ge could answer, Asathoth, who was sleeping on the other end of the sofa, interjected, "What he's saying is the truth, nya." She yawned and said to Ruoyu, "Just observe him with your Spirit Sight and you'll understand."

Hearing this, Ruoyu did as she was told with some suspicion. As a result, she saw…

"How could this be…" After a few seconds, Ruoyu's face had turned quite ugly.

"What's wrong with me?" Feng Bujue read worry and surprise from her face, "This doesn't feel good…"

Ruoyu replied, "I heard from Great-Grandfather (Gu Chen) that… your roots are not righteous. Even if you have a remarkable talent, your cultivation speed won't be much faster than those with mediocre aptitude. Moreover, you're very prone to going into Qi Deviation…" As she spoke, she continued to scan Feng Bujue up and down with a monstrous gaze, "One of the reasons I moved here was to prevent that from happening. But now…"

"You've already entered the Demonic Path, nya," Asathoth interjected, stealing a line again.

"Huh?" Feng Bujue asked strangely, "I've succeeded in embarking on the Demonic Path already?" He looked down at his hands, "Then my power level and cultivation should have improved by leaps and bounds, right?"

"Not at all…" Ruoyu immediately replied, "On the contrary… all the spiritual energy you accumulated in the previous half-month has disappeared without a trace. Although your spiritual sense still exists, your cultivation has basically vanished."

"Hey, hey… isn't that a scam… are those theories about 'becoming a demon in a single thought surpasses thousands of years of cultivation' all fake!" Feng Bujue exclaimed in a speechless tone, rolling his dead fish eyes.

"I also find it very strange…" Ruoyu said, "It shouldn't be like this logically…" She subconsciously raised a hand and gently stroked her lower lip with her index finger, "To regress to the level of an ordinary person after entering the Demonic Path… is indeed unheard of."

"No, no, no…" Feng Bujue shook his head, "I can guarantee…" He raised his hands, making quotation marks, "I definitely haven't returned to the 'level of an ordinary person'."

"Oh?" Ruoyu responded, "What's your basis for saying that?"

"At this very moment…" A constipated seriousness appeared on Feng Bujue's face, "I can feel… the Earth rotating."

"What the f***?" Even Asathoth was shocked to hear this, "Are you really sure you're not suffering from indigestion?"

In fact, Asathoth didn't fully understand Jue-ge's condition either, but she could roughly tell… that some "extremely high-ranking being" had exerted some influence on Feng Bujue.

The problem was… what the specific effect of this influence was, only the influencer themselves probably knew.

"Is this what you mean by 'enjoying yourself to the fullest'?" Ruoyu squinted, looking at Jue-ge with a strange gaze.

Feng Bujue continued, "I can also clearly feel the operation of all my internal organs… the flow of bodily fluids, the circulation of gases, and even some semi-solid…"

"Okay, I know what you're going to say, can you skip this part…" Ruoyu interrupted.

"Also…" Feng Bujue skipped the part about the digestive system, "If I highly concentrate and stare at a certain area, I can see through the 'physical laws of operation' in that area."

"Can you give an example?" Ruoyu didn't fully understand the other person's symptoms.

"It's like I can see the data stream in the game world…" Feng Bujue replied, "But there's no such binary image in the real world, what I see is more concrete…" As he spoke, he stood up and walked towards the TV. Thirty seconds later, he brought over the TV box from his house (in 2055, the TV box was already a streaming media hub with n functions, and its mechanical structure was very complex), "Take this thing for example…" Before he finished speaking, he picked up the TV box and smashed it hard on the ground, smashing it to pieces with a few bangs. The parts inside were scattered all over the place (high-tech gadgets mostly have a fragile side), "...although I've never studied any high-end knowledge in science or engineering, I can fix it now."

"Hmm… I believe you." Ruoyu replied almost without thinking.

"Eh?" Feng Bujue said, "I haven't started fixing it yet…"

"This kind of damage that is obviously outside the warranty terms is very expensive to repair, and it's even more expensive to buy a new one…" Ruoyu continued, "Judging from your financial situation and consistent behavior, you must be 100% sure that you can fix it before you smashed it…"

"Uh…" Feng Bujue was speechless.

"Anyway… you can fix it here first…" Ruoyu said, already turning and walking towards her room, "I'm going to call Great-Grandfather and ask… what's the best way to deal with your situation."

"Oh…" Feng Bujue responded, then thought of something, "Eh~ By the way, what happened to the Slaughter Game later? Who won?"

"I won." Ruoyu replied, "Not long after you died, I went to Guzhi City. At that time… the two forces in the city had reached an agreement with Qitian Emperor. The former handed over the Hōgyoku and stopped resisting, and the latter gave them a way out and used the power of the Hōgyoku to restore all spacetime." She turned her head and said, "This development was undoubtedly very unfavorable to Qinqin… After the NPCs left, she had no power to rely on. So, she launched a siege against me with several NPCs without sufficient preparation. Relying on my strength advantage, I took her head directly in the midst of the chaos and ended the game."

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue nodded, "You really are heartless… just like that, you put your girlfriend…"

Bang—

Before his trash talk was completely out of his mouth, Ruoyu had entered the bedroom and closed the door.

"Teasing failed, nya~" In the next second, Asathoth meowed with a smile.

"Aside from mocking and making fun of me, do you have anything else to do every day?" Feng Bujue turned his head and glared at her.

"Then I'll say something else…" Asathoth changed the subject, and her tone also became solemn, "Although I don't know exactly what happened to you, from my point of view, I think it's a good thing."

"Ha… my cultivation is gone, and it's still a good thing?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Do you know what 'establish after destruction' means, nya?" Asathoth said.

Feng Bujue's heart stirred: "Ho~ you mean…"

"If you compare the previous you to a bowl, then the current you is like a lake," Asathoth continued, "The spiritual power you accumulated in the previous half month is at most a few drops of water at the bottom of the bowl. When the bowl becomes a lake, that little bit of water… naturally can't be found."

"Sounds very impressive…" Feng Bujue replied, "So the changes in me are also the result of 'establish after destruction'?"

"It should be…" Asathoth replied, "I don't know exactly what kind of power you have obtained, anyway… from the perspective of a demon like me, although I don't want to admit it, but the current you, in terms of realm alone… is already a higher-ranking being than me."

"Then shouldn't you show your true form, kneel in front of me, and call me Lord Feng Bujue?" Feng Bujue said with a smile.

Then, their conversation ended with a man being slapped to the ground with a claw…