This is a chronically unlucky fellow.

The reason why she was addressed by such an ancient title rather than the name Chen Xiaoyi was quite simple.

After Chen Sheng concluded his first temporal loop and became an immortal who walked both among mortals and beyond the realm of humanity, he was quite surprised to find that his former "daughter," Chen Xiaoyi—whom Cthulhu had manufactured through artificial synthesis—had not returned to the realm that truly belonged to her, the Spirit Realm, with the resetting of the timeline.

Instead, she had become a special kind of wandering ghost drifting aimlessly through the timelines!

Such ghosts were extremely unique; they clung to the timeline and drifted along with it until the day they accidentally fell off the edge.

However, if the place and time where they fell happened to be unfavorable, the direct consequence was the absolute scattering of their soul and consciousness.

Fortunately, she was discovered by Chen Sheng.

Chen Sheng awakened her.

Yet, upon being awakened by Chen Sheng, the little female ghost appeared utterly bewildered, fiercely feral, and highly aggressive. This was because she had forgotten all memories related to her and Chen Sheng, reverting entirely to the state she had been in when she first met him.

Fierce and vicious, yet utterly cowardly at heart.

Consequently, Chen Sheng used his old methods to instantly make the little female ghost obedient.

Originally, the little female ghost would never dare to show such a menacing expression toward Chen Sheng—not until the day she heard him say that he would never let her perish. No matter how much she angered him, the worst she would ever suffer was a beating from him. Hearing this, she immediately became active again.

Although she would not actively provoke Chen Sheng, putting up such a show of defiance had become the norm whenever she met him.

It could also be called her final stubbornness... and dignity, as a ghost.

"I know, but I just can't stand the look of him, is that a crime?" The little female ghost deliberately put on a fierce expression and let out a light snort. At worst, she would just get beaten up; she wasn't afraid!

Because after being beaten up so many times, she clearly noticed that she had grown much more resilient to beatings!

"Why?" Hearing this, Chen Sheng asked casually.

He didn't care what her reasons were, but since they were currently conversing, offering a perfunctory response was only appropriate.

"This..."

The little female ghost paused for a moment, then scratched the back of her head, her small face looking perplexed as she said, "Actually, I don't know why myself. The moment I laid eyes on him, I just found him extremely irritating. Especially after I found out his past identity, I found him even more unbearable."

Regarding this, she actually found it quite strange herself.

Clearly, they had no prior grievances, and it was their very first time meeting, yet she inexplicably hated such a person, harboring even a baseless sense of resentment.

Thinking of this, the little female ghost couldn't help casting a peculiar glance at Chen Sheng.

Compared to that, Chen Sheng actually gave her an even stranger feeling.

Although Chen Sheng always threatened her, forbidding her from doing this or that under the threat of a beating—and had indeed acted on it many times, even reducing her to tears on several occasions—the most baffling thing was that she simply couldn't bring herself to hate this hateful fellow!

Furthermore, sometimes if this guy didn't appear for a long time, she would subconsciously find herself missing him.

This filled the little female ghost with inexplicable feelings and profound puzzlement.

"I don't have my past memories. Can you tell me about the past? I think I must have been very close to you..." the little female ghost asked.

This was the first time she had ever asked Chen Sheng this question.

Yet it was not the first time she had thought about it.

She had entertained this thought for a long time, because if not for this reason, she simply couldn't understand why this immensely mysterious and powerful fellow, faced with all her past provocations and troubles, would merely wear a wry, helpless expression and give her a beating rather than kill her.

Although people in this world did not truly die when killed, ghosts certainly did! This was a world that appeared absurdly bizarre on the surface, yet was essentially filled with people who had activation cheats enabled.

"We were indeed very close," Chen Sheng nodded.

"Then can you tell me about my past?" Hearing Chen Sheng's admission, the little female ghost immediately pressed on with eager anticipation.

"If you had asked me this question in the past, I certainly would have told you everything, because you have the right to know. But now..." Chen Sheng paused mid-sentence, "I choose to respect your past wishes and will not tell you those things."

"Respect my past wishes?" The little female ghost stared blankly for a moment. "You mean, it was my own decision to forget everything?"

"Mhm." Chen Sheng responded with a nod.

At first, upon discovering the little female ghost, Chen Sheng immediately sought out the reason why she had failed to return to her rightful world and time period. Naturally, it was easily discovered by him since it was within his own timeline.

Following that, Chen Sheng was left somewhat speechless.

The reason the little female ghost was unwilling to return was because when she was still alive in the Spirit Realm, she suffered betrayal and deception from the person closest to her. Afterward, she was murdered by a ghost, and her fate ended with her soul shattered—she could be described as utterly unfortunate to the extreme.

Originally, when the fragments of her shattered soul entered the real-virtual Ghost Spirit Realm of that era, she could actually have transformed into a living being within it, or even a demigod under the will of the great universe.

However, she was simply too unfortunate!

She happened to be swallowed right into a newly formed illusory world, thereby becoming a living entity within an illusory world inside a fake world.

And within that illusory world, she remained as unfortunate as ever...

It was as if she had spent all her luck just to encounter Chen Sheng!

Therefore, at that time, the little female ghost who had recovered all her memories utterly repelled the idea of returning to the Spirit Realm and that particular point in time. Ordinarily, her resistance would have been useless, as the timeline cared nothing for her wishes; yet she was so extraordinarily unfortunate that the timeline actually forgot about her...

Yes, because of her overwhelming misfortune, she even managed to encounter the phenomenon of being left behind by the timeline itself.

If one had to use a single sentence to describe her, it would be this: she was a disaster-magnet whose bad luck was so boundless that even time itself forgot her!

To put it harshly, even the God of Misfortune had better luck than her!

Chen Sheng was not withholding the truth out of respect for her so-called wishes; rather, he felt she was simply too unlucky, and it was better for her not to know about that chapter of her history.

That way, she could continue to live carelessly and happily. Even if she remained this unlucky, she would only believe that her current bad luck was temporary, rather than realizing she had been enduring it for a prolonged period.

Misfortune blew like the wind, constantly accompanying her.

"Was my past experience something that made me very unhappy?" the little female ghost suddenly asked again.

"More or less!" Chen Sheng gave an ambiguous reply. Anyone who encountered such a string of misfortunes would naturally be unhappy, but when the volume exceeded a certain point... it ceased to be a simple matter of happiness or unhappiness!

From this perspective, the little female ghost possessed exceptional psychological resilience.

After all, thinking about it from another perspective, if it were Chen Sheng who had encountered so many consecutive misfortunes, his very first thought in his mind would undoubtedly be to curse this damn timeline to hell!

And then he would flee straight back to his first temporal loop.

This was not because Chen Sheng was cowardly, but because once Chen Sheng completed this second temporal loop—only to find himself plagued by such endless misfortune within it—it meant he would be doomed to infinitely cycle through these wretched events.

When completing the first temporal loop, Chen Sheng had no choice, but as for this second temporal loop... Chen Sheng still had plenty of options.

Anyway, as long as he remained within the first temporal loop, his time belonged solely to himself and would not intersect with any person or any world.

He could easily select another period to serve as his second temporal loop.

Hearing this, the little female ghost suddenly wore a thoughtful expression.

Then, Chen Sheng heard her say, "In that case, the reason I find him so irritating must be because I was bullied by someone just like him in the past. But not through physical violence; rather, it was through another method that left me helpless yet forced me to accept it. That's why I subconsciously feel irritated the moment I see him now!"

The "him" in the little female ghost's words naturally referred to the former wealthy tycoon who had degenerated into a beggar after dying of old age.

And these words of hers inevitably brought a trace of surprise to Chen Sheng's eyes. Weren't all the things the little female ghost had "struggled" with in the past aimed at resisting people just like this former tycoon?

He hadn't expected that after forgetting those memories, the little female ghost had become so sharp-witted as to hit the nail right on the head regarding the root cause.

Yet why had he always felt that she wasn't very smart in the past?

Could it be that she had lost her spiritual clarity because she had encountered too many misfortunes in the past?

Pondering this, Chen Sheng felt that this possibility was quite high.

Because people who fell into hopeless predicaments would lose their spirit and drive, and once that spirit was lost, the entire person would become decadent.

Even if they didn't become decadent, their very first reaction to anything would invariably lean toward pessimism.

Under such circumstances, his decision not to tell the little female ghost about her past misfortunes could be considered a very sound choice.

"Why did you come here this time?" the little female ghost suddenly asked.

"Someone just like you—who has forgotten all past memories and retained only her initial personality," Chen Sheng said with a smile.

"Did she come to this world recently?"

"Mhm." Chen Sheng nodded. Once the little female ghost recovered her spiritual clarity, she indeed became smart. To be precise, she had reverted to her true self rather than remaining in her previously dust-covered state.

"Is this person a newborn? If so, she really hasn't had any bad luck. Things are far from peaceful around here lately; people are being killed every day, and some ghosts have already broken through the seal of that power and been born. If her luck is bad, she might find herself reincarnating very soon!" the little female ghost remarked.

"Have ghosts broken through the seal again?" Chen Sheng couldn't help but care, because that was a power he had personally established. Although it wasn't absolute suppression and left a possibility for ghosts to break through the seals, achieving it was far from easy.

In view of this, he couldn't help sighing, "It seems their resentment is simply too deep. Once they become ghosts, the moment they are destroyed, their souls and consciousness are truly scattered into nothingness."

This was the warning he had left behind within the breakthrough of the seal, serving as his final piece of advice.

As long as one agreed never to mention the full memories of their life before resurrection to anyone, the people here could live on indefinitely. Whether they died of old age, were murdered, or succumbed to illness, they could swap to a stranger's place after death and live on under an unfamiliar identity.

However, if they stubbornly chose to break through the seal and become ghosts, they would forfeit this privilege. Moreover, in this world, ghosts were not invincible or immune to being killed!

Even an ordinary person, as long as they gathered the necessary conditions required to slay a particular ghost, could easily dispatch it.

Naturally, Chen Sheng's reply left the little female ghost stunned, prompting her to ask in disbelief, "Aren't you worried about this person?"

"She can leave this world, and she can return at will. Furthermore, she is a cultivation practitioner with formidable combat capabilities. Aside from the few ghosts sealed away in this world, none of the other wandering ghosts are a match for her," Chen Sheng explained.

Yet it would have been better if Chen Sheng had kept quiet; upon hearing this, the little female ghost immediately lost her composure. She widened her eyes, her small face filled with utter astonishment.

"She can leave this place? She isn't a person from this world? And there are other worlds besides this one?" the little female ghost eagerly pressed.

"Indeed," Chen Sheng nodded.

"Then can you leave this world and go to the world where this person is?" the little female ghost asked again.

"Whenever I wish," Chen Sheng answered truthfully. However, once he went to the Spirit Realm, he would lose the ability to do whatever he pleased within his own timeline. Although the Spirit Realm, out of gratitude for his past salvation of the world, had actively established a connection with him through the temporal loop and declared that upon entering the Spirit Realm he would enjoy protection from all spells and the foundational ability of immortality, Chen Sheng still remained unwilling to go.

For him, that place would always remain an unfamiliar world.

He was merely a consciousness that had been brought into existence out of nothing, or perhaps born in response to a calamity. He could also be understood as an unauthorized yet successful experiment conducted by the taboo immortal artifact known as the temporal loop over countless long years.

The little female ghost instantly grew excited. "I want to go to that world!"

This world was not friendly to ghosts at all. Although ghosts possessed transcendent abilities here, which of these ghosts could truly kill a person permanently?

Whenever someone was killed by a ghost, that person could simply revive under safe conditions, discover the necessary conditions to slay that particular ghost, gather them, and easily send that ghost on its way.

Therefore, she was deeply worried that one day she might just inexplicably vanish.

To kill a ghost in this world, mortals only needed to gather the requisite conditions; once satisfied, the corresponding ghost would immediately vanish without requiring anyone to face it personally—it was just like playing a video game!

"That is a world of cultivation practitioners," Chen Sheng cautioned.

"Cultivation practitioners? What are those?" The little female ghost was puzzled, as her world had no such concept.

Chen Sheng had no choice but to explain it to her in detail.

Upon learning what a cultivation practitioner was, the little female ghost's pale face turned several shades paler.

"Are you a cultivation practitioner, then?" the little female ghost asked with eyes full of hope.

"I am not."

The little female ghost instantly slumped, shoulders dropping in dejection.

"I am an immortal," Chen Sheng continued.