107. This man is truly fast.

She closed her fingers, and pale golden blood flowed from the cracks on the back of her hand. Stimulated by a touch of Yang energy, the hand returned to its original state—a delicate, fair, and snowy little girl’s hand.

Staring at her hand, she truly hadn't expected that the Mist of Oblivion could cross worlds and trigger a warning for her.

"No wonder even the Guillotine was lost within it and couldn't return."

Muttering this to herself, Yu Youxin began to answer Chen Sheng’s questions. In her telling, the Mist of Oblivion naturally transformed from a great ominous force in that world into a cataclysm for the game world; every time it appeared, it would wipe the data of an entire region.

Chen Sheng found this quite novel. Such a trope, usually seen only in fantasy television dramas, could actually manifest in this healing game. Finding it interesting, Chen Sheng quickly asked, "If the NPCs in Shangsanjiang City find out in advance, can they run away?"

"Of course they can!" Yu Youxin replied without hesitation. After all, they were truly real.

"Then how long until the Mist of Oblivion reaches Shangsanjiang City?" Chen Sheng asked.

"Do you still have things to do there?"

"I still have a quest to upgrade to an intermediate officer that I haven't finished, and there are two NPCs I'm quite familiar with," Chen Sheng said. The two familiar NPCs he referred to were, naturally, the guillotine-girl Qian Shaoshao and his master—the little ghost girl.

"Then if you hurry, you should make it in time."

Chen Sheng immediately grabbed the gold-rimmed glasses. Yu Youxin watched as he vanished the moment he put them on, and she disappeared right after him. She was prepared: if Chen Sheng couldn't escape in time, she would personally grab him and carry him away. Although this would mean Chen Sheng could no longer treat that world as a game, it wasn't her original intention anyway, so it didn't matter.

After arriving in that world, the first thing Yu Youxin saw was Chen Sheng turning into a blur, rushing toward the Police Department.

"Old Chen is so fast!" Shielding her eyes with her small hand, Yu Youxin’s face was filled with wonder. Although she had long known that Chen Sheng, having mastered the first level of the inscriptions on the stone, was fast, this was her first time seeing it with her own eyes.

That speed was faster than a ghost!

She decided to wait where she was. Before long, she saw Chen Sheng dash out of the Police Department and head off somewhere else.

"Old Chen is truly fast!"

Watching the afterimage flicker and vanish, her little mouth let out an exclamation of wonder. Well, it wasn't really that Chen Sheng’s speed truly amazed her—after all, her ghost arts allowed her to traverse the void of the underworld—but seeing Chen Sheng running back and forth alone seemed quite exhausting. So, she acted as his "little fan" to help build the atmosphere and keep things from feeling too bleak.

After all, even street performers need an audience to cheer them on!

"Old Chen is not just fast!" This was when she saw Chen Sheng bringing back a ghost to claim his reward.

"Old Chen is too fast!" This was when she saw him sprinting off into the distance.

...

When she saw Chen Sheng preparing to head back, Yu Youxin, having finished her role as the atmosphere builder, hurried back as well. Her figure faded, moving even faster than Chen Sheng.

...

Chen Sheng took off his gold-rimmed glasses. Ever since that one time he "logged into the game" on his own, he had developed the habit of taking them off as soon as he "logged out."

He looked at Yu Youxin, who was still sprawled on the sofa, seemingly reading a novel, and couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you say you could do it too? Why haven't I seen you writing a novel lately?"

"Old Chen, didn't you say you were going to work out? Why haven't I seen you working out?" Yu Youxin, who was just about to climb up, immediately pouted and turned her face away in annoyance.

"I have been working out, you just haven't seen it."

"Oh?" Yu Youxin deliberately drew out the syllable.

"Watch closely!" Chen Sheng said, immediately beginning the follow-up movements of that strange exercise routine in the living room. After finishing, Chen Sheng endured the soreness throughout his body and said, "See? Isn't that working out? Otherwise, how would I be so proficient? I'm going to take a shower."

With that, Chen Sheng walked into the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but sigh.

The soreness after finishing meant he had failed again. Otherwise, it would be like opening the Ren and Du meridians in a martial arts drama, resulting in an earth-shattering transformation. The prerequisites for this exercise were simply too difficult! Chen Sheng didn't know how he had managed to master it in the first place; now he could only mimic the movements, hoping to replicate the success.

"Come to think of it, I wonder if there are more follow-up movements to this routine in that river?" Chen Sheng felt a flicker of curiosity, but he immediately suppressed the thought.

Let everything be as it may.

Whether he could get them didn't matter. Whether he could master them mattered even less. After all, he had possessed this superhuman speed and physique for several years now, yet he still lived his life just like someone without these supernatural powers.

Even if he mastered them, it wouldn't necessarily grant him immortality!

If he could achieve immortality, Chen Sheng would naturally be moved, but if he was still destined to be burned like trash after a hundred years, what difference did it make? If he practiced and showed off his powers before others, it would only bring him some material benefits.

As for the pursuit of material wealth, even Chen Sheng himself couldn't understand why he remained so indifferent. He had only bought a car because his electric scooter couldn't carry passengers and it was more convenient to take his younger sister, Chen Youyou, to school.

Chen Sheng turned on the shower. As the warm water poured over him, he suddenly began practicing that strange exercise routine again in the bathroom.

After finishing, he prepared to practice the follow-up he had recently acquired, but suddenly, he realized that a passage of text had appeared in his mind for no reason.

It was like a scripture, yet also like an exercise manual.

Chen Sheng couldn't help but "examine" it carefully, and as he did, his body began to move of its own accord.

This was a brand-new set of exercises. The movements were completely different from the ones he had acquired initially or recently.

"Desirelessness leads to strength."

"Selflessness leads to the perfect man."

"Grieving for partings, suffering from desire, wounded by greed and hatred..."

"Sitting in oblivion, becoming selfless."

When Chen Sheng finished the final movement, his entire body suddenly stiffened and went rigid, then he collapsed straight to the floor.

But eerily, while Chen Sheng had clearly fallen, another Chen Sheng remained standing in place.

Chen Sheng opened his eyes, stunned, not understanding what had happened, his mind a blank slate. As his gaze shifted, he saw the other "him" on the floor and was instantly startled.

"Did I die?"

"No, I'm still alive." Feeling his pulse and his heart, Chen Sheng fell into confusion.

He was clearly alive and well, so why was there a corpse of himself on the floor?

...

At that moment, the girl on the sofa, who had still been pouting, suddenly froze. She felt a very strange aura emanating from the bathroom.

Her eyes widened. In an instant, the scene in the bathroom was laid bare before her.

*Gulp!*

She reflexively swallowed, then, realizing this wasn't the time to admire his physique, she exclaimed in surprise and confusion: "The fourth level of the stone inscriptions?"

"That's not right! Didn't Old Chen only master the first level? How did he skip the second and third levels and jump straight to the fourth?"