ISMW Chapter 113

Yun Xunlan couldn’t open his eyes. He felt he should already be dead.

He asked: “Why do I still have to do tasks even after dying?”

Isn’t this too much?

“What death? Didn’t I tell you long ago that as long as you listen to me and complete tasks every day, we’re invincible? A mere heavenly thunder—is it worthy of taking your life?” Tasks were the system’s lifeblood. As long as Yun Xunlan had a trace of consciousness, it would urge him. “So hurry up and find a way to do the task, or you’ll die suddenly.”

Having a chance to live, Yun Xunlan naturally wouldn’t give up hope for life.

He indeed felt his body was soaked in a warm place. He could hear strong heartbeats—his own, and another gentle and peaceful one.

This heartbeat and warm liquid wrapped around him together. Even in darkness, it gave Yun Xunlan an unprecedented sense of security.

It also made Yun Xunlan realize: “…I don’t think I’ve been born yet?”

“That’s right.” The system said. “But this doesn’t prevent you from doing tasks.”

“…It doesn’t prevent me?”

Yun Xunlan was speechless, his tone helpless: “Little Enemy, can you please use your brain and think properly?”

“Please call me ‘Invincible Scholar.’ Also, I don’t have a brain, but I think there’s no impediment.” The system was serious. “And I need to remind you that your brain hasn’t fully developed yet either.”

Yun Xunlan: “…”

Yun Xunlan: “I haven’t even been born yet. How am I supposed to do tasks?”

System: “Kill…”

“As far as I know, I don’t have a twin brother.” Yun Xunlan interrupted it. “Strangle myself with the umbilical cord?”

The system sighed in a tone uncharacteristic of a system: “No, no, that would create a bug for you.”

“B…bug?” Yun Xunlan didn’t understand. “What does that mean?”

“Ah, this is vocabulary I learned while you were sleeping.” The system’s explanation was perfunctory. “Don’t worry about that for now. You should continue being cursed by people.”

Just as Yun Xunlan was about to say that he was currently just an embryo with an underdeveloped brain, that it was unknown whether the body carrying him was even aware of his existence, that he couldn’t sense any spiritual energy, and that although his vast Tribulation Transcendence consciousness sea remained, all his past spells were unusable and he couldn’t do tasks at all, a hoarse, muffled roar reached both the system’s and Yun Xunlan’s ears—

“This little bastard is only three months old, just a lump of flesh! He has no thoughts at all!”

Then came low sobbing: “Brother, you can’t leave me for him…”

Another gentle voice comforted: “He is your child.”

The crying voice asked again: “Why don’t you say he’s ‘our’ child anymore?”

The gentle voice was very calm: “Because you called him a little bastard.”

“…”

“Wow, you have a good father!” The system was very delighted. “See, I told you that not being born doesn’t prevent you from doing tasks.”

Yun Xunlan: “………..”

In this world, for some people, only death and taxes are unavoidable in their lifetime.

But for Yun Xunlan, in his remaining life and new life after leaving the Demon Refining Pot, only the system and tasks were unavoidable.

The system tried both soft and hard approaches, even willing to compromise and give Yun Xunlan a simpler task, but he refused to do any of them. This made the system very sad. It changed to the voice of that one-armed boy and let out pitiful sobs from the blue wine vessel in front of Yun Xunlan: “You were doing tasks properly even before you were born. Why won’t you do them now?”

Yun Xunlan squatted down and gently touched the vessel’s body like he had once stroked the boy’s hair: “Little Ju, because if I keep relying on you, I might not be able to meet Imperial Sister’s requirements and get the qualification to participate in the third forced landing.”

The system asked him: “So you’re planning to rely only on Yu Chen now?”

“Yes.” Yun Xunlan said. “You heard it too. From now on, he’ll accompany me. Like you, through the boundless world and vast universe, he’ll go with me.”

The system cried a few more times, then changed to Yun Xunlan’s voice and cursed fiercely: “Damn Yu Chen! I thought he was just joining this family, but he broke us up!”

“But you don’t have to worry anymore about this long journey with no one to accompany me.”

As Yun Xunlan spoke, he grasped the wine vessel’s spout and opened it.

But the spout, along with the vessel body, cracked into fragments under his fingers, gradually turning to dust and finally dissipating in the bright light streaming through the window into the room, very much like the scene he had witnessed in the broken temple years ago.

“Little Ju?”

Yun Xunlan called out to the system, but the room was silent. Apart from himself, there were no other sounds.

He opened his light brain and turned to the e-book collection of “Bedtime Reading”: “I’m ready to do tasks?”

The system remained silent, as if it had never existed at all.

Yun Xunlan lowered his eyes to look at those e-books. With this one “look,” he kept looking until evening.

Yu Chen had finished training and returned to the bedroom, but Yun Xunlan was still concentrating intently on his light brain.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, he didn’t look up: “Baby, you’re back?”

When Yu Chen entered, his fingers were at his collar, preparing to take off the training uniform he’d worn all day.

The uniform was black. When the zipper was undone, it would reveal the muscular, robust torso underneath. Its lines were smooth and full, displaying the most primitive strength and flesh without clothing coverage, like a sculpted work of art. But it didn’t attract Yun Xunlan’s attention.

This was very wrong.

And Yu Chen always felt this scene was familiar.

So he moved from in front of Yun Xunlan to behind the young man, also lowering his gaze to look at Yun Xunlan’s light brain: “Lanlan, what are you looking at?”

“I’m…”

“Oh~ So His Highness is reading ‘Bedtime Reading Material.'” Yu Chen took over Yun Xunlan’s words, a smile on his face but with some gritted teeth in his voice. “No wonder you’re reading so seriously. I thought you were looking at a hunting list.”

Yun Xunlan’s defense seemed very unconvincing in the face of hard evidence: “…Actually, I wasn’t reading it.”

Yu Chen instantly stopped smiling: “So you admit it’s your hunting list?”

“…No, it really was my bedtime reading material before, but I won’t need it anymore in the future.” Yun Xunlan leaned back into the man’s embrace and continued doing what he had just been doing under Yu Chen’s gaze—deleting these “Bedtime Reading Materials.”

It’s just that there were quite a lot of them.

Yu Chen had initially relaxed when he saw Yun Xunlan deleting the books, his arms naturally encircling the young man’s waist. But then he watched Yun Xunlan finish deleting “Bedtime Reading Material Collection 295” and start deleting “Bedtime Reading Material Collection 296,” and his teeth clenched again, a smile reappearing on his lips: “Your Highness, your insomnia is quite severe. I also often have insomnia. Why don’t you not delete these books and copy a few hundred for me to treat my insomnia too?”

Yun Xunlan: “…Baby, this thing can’t cure insomnia, and I don’t have insomnia symptoms.”

Yun Xunlan didn’t have insomnia at all. His so-called “insomnia” was actually staying up late to do tasks. Yu Chen was the one who really had insomnia—Yun Xunlan had encountered him posting melancholic updates in the middle of the night several times.

Besides, how could he not hear that Yu Chen was being sarcastic?

But Yun Xunlan had no choice. He was already trying very hard to delete—these collection books had once been his “life-saving” necessities. To prevent accidental loss, Yun Xunlan had set them with anti-deletion protection. Deleting each one required his iris recognition plus fingerprint dual authorization, so he hadn’t finished deleting them after a whole day.

He had to delete them, or Yu Chen would definitely misunderstand again when he discovered them.

Thinking that the innocent would be cleared and that he had always been pure and self-disciplined, Yun Xunlan didn’t hide when Yu Chen approached.

Who knew that deleting these collection books in front of Yu Chen also seemed problematic. The blue-eyed alpha could always find special angles to start his sarcasm: “That’s right. After all, I think these things can’t help with sleep, only with arousal. Since Your Highness no longer has insomnia, of course you don’t need them anymore.”

Yun Xunlan: “…”

Feeling like he was making things worse, Yun Xunlan decided to put the book deletion aside for now.

He turned around, his slender fingers resting on the man’s shoulders: “Baby, tomorrow I need to…”

“Your Highness, what do you want to do tomorrow?” Yu Chen spoke while gripping Yun Xunlan’s wrist, moving the young man’s hand from his shoulder back to the light brain, almost explicitly indicating for Yun Xunlan to continue deleting books.

Yun Xunlan had to continue deleting while talking to Yu Chen: “Tomorrow I’m having lunch with Imperial Sister. Do you want to join us?”

Yu Chen said: “If possible.”

“There’s nothing impossible about it.” Yun Xunlan also hinted to him, “We’ll have a family reunion dinner together tomorrow. Let’s sleep early tonight.”

“It probably won’t be early.” Yu Chen learned from Yun Xunlan, staring at the light brain without looking up. “My insomnia is very severe.”

“…”

They didn’t sleep early that night after all.

Because Yun Xunlan didn’t finish deleting all the “Bedtime Reading Materials” until 1 AM.

Actually, Yu Chen hadn’t hinted for Yun Xunlan to delete books later on, but Yun Xunlan was afraid he really had insomnia.

Fortunately, when Yun Xunlan woke up the next day and checked the star network, he didn’t see Yu Chen posting any new melancholic updates—this proved they had both fallen asleep at the same time last night.

At noon, Yun Xunlan received the dining location from Yun Xunguang. It wasn’t far, just in the East Palace where she lived. However, after Yun Xunlan and Yu Chen went there together, they felt this didn’t seem like an ordinary family reunion dinner.

The reason was that Yun Xunguang had set up a completely transparent protective shelter in her palace garden. Inside was a plastic table that looked very fragile and two plastic stools. Yun Xunguang sat upright in one of the chairs, wearing a pheromone-blocking mask on her face.

Seeing Yu Chen following behind Yun Xunlan, she seemed even more nervous and asked: “Is Yu Chen having lunch with us?”

“Yes.” Yun Xunlan looked at the setup Yun Xunguang had created, his steps pausing, full of suspicion. “Imperial Sister, we are having lunch together, right?”

“Of course. Didn’t you say you had something to discuss with me? Come in quickly.” After saying this, Yun Xunguang waved to the attendants of the protective shelter. “Add a chair for Major Yu Chen.”

Yun Xunlan and Yu Chen exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other’s eyes.

But then something even more confusing happened—

“Major Yu Chen, please temporarily remove your sidearm.” An attendant raised his hand to block Yu Chen. “Handcuffs, daggers, and other auxiliary equipment also cannot be carried.”

**

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