Chapter 72: Time to Go Home

Chapter 72: Time to Go Home

“Senior Brother!”

Yu Xiang hurriedly asked with concern, “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

“No, not at all,” Chen Yin blinked in confusion. “Xiang’er, what’s wrong?”

“Did something happen just now?”

Yu Xiang was at a loss for words and froze.

She tried calling out to the system in her mind again, but this time, no matter how much she called, there was no response.

Everything—points, the shop, and whatever else—had disappeared entirely, as if the so-called system had been nothing more than a dream.

For a moment, Yu Xiang stood there dazed and unsure of what to do.

Chen Yin was about to ask more when Shen Shuanglian softly spoke:

“—Let’s discuss this somewhere else.”

<+>

In a small inn on the eastern side of Xianyun Prefecture.

With a loud bang, Chen Yin kicked open the door to his room. Stretching with a relieved expression, he exclaimed, “Ah~ It’s finally over. I can finally get a good night’s sleep.”

He flopped onto the bed, adjusted into a comfortable position, and muttered to himself:

“I’m so exhausted. After all that effort, I finally got Xiang’er back.”

“Now, when we return to the mountain, Master shouldn’t scold me anymore, right?”

The thought of this brightened Chen Yin’s mood, and he couldn’t help but hum a little tune.

Yu Xiang, on the other hand, looked troubled, as if she had something she wanted to say but couldn’t.

“Alright, it’s finally quiet now.”

Chen Yin sat up slowly and asked softly, “What exactly happened before we left?”

“I…”

Yu Xiang hesitated, unsure of how to begin, but was interrupted by Shen Shuanglian.

“No rush. You’ve been busy for your little junior sister for so long; now that it’s all over, get some rest first.”

“There’s no pressing matter now. Once you’ve rested, we’ll talk about it.”

Yu Xiang turned to look at her and silently nodded in agreement.

Seeing the two of them acting secretive, Chen Yin feigned a jealous pout.

“Fine, I’ll take a nap first. Whatever it is, we’ll talk after I wake up.”

With that, Chen Yin buried his head in the pillows and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Shen Shuanglian gave Yu Xiang a meaningful look, and the latter understood, following her into the adjacent room.

Once inside, Shen Shuanglian straightforwardly asked:

“Your system disappeared too, didn’t it?”

Yu Xiang was momentarily stunned before slowly nodding.

“Yours too?”

“It seems so.”

Shen Shuanglian sighed softly and sat at the table, pouring herself a cup of water.

“From now on, we are no longer a Chosen.” Her clear eyes drooped slightly.

Yu Xiang was a little bewildered and asked blankly, “What exactly happened?”

“Tell me about yours first,” Shen Shuanglian said after taking a sip of water. “Why did your system suddenly attack Chen Yin?”

Hearing this, Yu Xiang’s expression darkened.

“Because… I still chose not to follow the storyline records and decided to go home with Senior Brother.”

“I knew it would kill it…”

“…and myself,” she murmured.

Shen Shuanglian glanced at her and set down her cup. “It seems your system had quite the temper.”

“Huh? Yours didn’t?” Yu Xiang asked in surprise.

“My system… well, how should I put it?” Shen Shuanglian pondered for a moment.

“It always felt guilty about attaching itself to me and never insisted on me following the storyline records.”

“Even after enduring multiple backlashes, knowing it wouldn’t live long, it still held to its principles.”

“Even at the end, it chose to sacrifice itself to take your system down with it.”

“That…” Yu Xiang lowered her head in frustration. “So there are good and bad systems.”

“No wonder mine is a villain’s system. From start to finish, all it cared about was completing the storyline records and ensuring its own survival, with no regard for anyone else’s life.”

Shen Shuanglian gave a bitter smile. “Being possessed by a system was never a fortunate thing.”

“It’s like knowing you’re heading for a predetermined ending, even if it’s a tragic one, and being forced to walk that path.”

“With no room to resist.”

Yu Xiang and Shen Shuanglian exchanged glances, seeing the shared helplessness in each other’s eyes.

Indeed, some things could only be understood between those who bore the same burden.

“Then…” Yu Xiang hesitated before saying, “Should we tell Senior Brother about this?”

This time, Shen Shuanglian fell silent.

After a long while, she propped her head up on her hand, her hair spilling over her arm.

“…I don’t know.”

“For those with systems, revealing their existence to others is akin to directly breaking the storyline records. That would lead to a lose-lose situation.”

“Even though we no longer have systems, and theoretically aren’t bound by that rule anymore…”

“But,” she said uncertainly, “if Chen Yin encounters other Chosen in the future, knowing about systems might make him a target for elimination.”

“I’d rather believe that most systems are like yours, not mine.”

Yu Xiang nodded in agreement.

“Then… let’s keep this from Senior Brother for now,” she said softly. “Not knowing is much happier than knowing.”

And so, the two of them agreed to keep it from Chen Yin for the time being.

Meanwhile, in the other room, Chen Yin slowly opened his eyes.

He stared blankly at the ceiling for a long time before murmuring to himself:

“Chosen… systems…”

So, there was this layer of existence.

It sounded a lot like those system novels he used to write in his previous life on Earth.

No wonder he had always felt that Xiang’er’s behavior was strange but couldn’t pinpoint why.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly pulled out two rusty fragments from his sleeve, holding them above his head and gently fiddling with them.

The two iron fragments were incredibly peculiar. Though they appeared thin and brittle, as if they would shatter at a touch, they were unexpectedly durable. Chen Yin tried with all his might but couldn’t leave even the faintest mark on them.

They were neither celestial artifacts nor mundane items, and their design was unlike anything from this world.

At the moment, however, the two fragments were lifeless, seemingly nothing more than ordinary scrap metal.

Chen Yin examined them carefully for a while. Just as he was about to put the fragments back into his robe, another object in his pocket suddenly emitted a faint glow.

Startled, Chen Yin realized that the glowing object was something that hadn’t lit up in a long time—a scroll.

He took it out and noticed that the softly glowing scroll seemed to long for the iron fragments.

After hesitating briefly, he brought the fragments closer to the scroll. As expected, with a flash of light, the fragments disappeared, as if the scroll had absorbed them.

Intrigued, Chen Yin hurriedly entered the scroll’s inner space.

<+>

Inside the scroll, the statue he had found in the bamboo forest of Tiantu Abyss was now hovering in the center of the space. It exuded a majestic and solemn aura.

The two fragments lay trembling at the feet of the statue, like cowering mice.

The statue had been in the scroll’s space for a long time without any activity, so Chen Yin had stopped paying attention to it. But seeing it finally react, his curiosity was piqued. He reached out toward the statue.

The next moment, a strange vision appeared before his eyes.

“What… what is this?”

“System store… points?”

His gaze wandered over the dazzling array of images and text, and gradually, he became completely engrossed.

“Okay, pills and cultivation techniques, I get those.”

“—But perfume? Why is that in a system store?”

“Beauty magazines? Game discs? Wait, why are there manga in here too?!”

The vast store had so much to offer that Chen Yin spent nearly two hours just flipping through the catalog.

It had everything imaginable—items from this cultivation world and even many things he remembered from Earth.

There were also plenty of items he had never heard of, things he couldn’t imagine which world they might belong to.

Lost in this sea of options, Chen Yin spent the entire afternoon exploring.

<+>

As dusk fell, a crisp knock came at the door.

“Hey, lazy Senior Brother! You’re sleeping like a dead pig. Time to wake up!”

After a moment, Chen Yin slowly opened the door, looking exhausted.

“Xiang’er… how long was I asleep?”

“Four hours!” Yu Xiang pouted in disapproval. “If you sleep any longer, you’ll really turn into a pig.”

But as she glanced at him, she noticed the heavy bags under his eyes and his overall weariness, as if he were utterly drained.

“Senior Brother… you’ve worked so hard.”

Biting her lip, her eyes filled with concern, she said, “It’s all my fault you’ve ended up like this… You must’ve been overexerting yourself lately.”

“If you’re still tired, you should rest more.”

Chen Yin didn’t know how to explain and could only chuckle awkwardly.

“No, no, I’m fine, by the way, where’s Senior Sister?”

“She went downstairs to get food.”

“Let’s go down too,” Yu Xiang said cheerfully, grabbing his hand to lead him.

But Chen Yin hesitated and spoke softly.

“…Xiang’er, I want to ask you something.”

Yu Xiang stopped and turned around gracefully.

“Do you miss home?”

Chen Yin looked at her earnestly. “I mean Yushan Mountain. The little home that belongs to you, me, and Master.”

Yu Xiang’s ink-black eyes grew blank for a moment before she lowered her head and replied softly,

“Of course I do.”

“I dream every moment of going back to those days on Yushan Mountain, where the three of us lived together.”

Carefree and untroubled, a small mountain that contained their whole world.

“The fragrance of Yushan Flower, the warmth of the pool behind the wooden house, even your stinky bedding, Senior Brother.”

As she spoke, a pure and radiant smile blossomed on her face.

“That, to me, was the best home I could ever have.”

Chen Yin’s eyes softened as he gently pulled her into an embrace. Taking advantage of her stunned expression, he placed a light kiss on her forehead.

“I feel the same.”

“To me, you are the best family I could ever have.”

This time, it was truly time to go home.

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