Chapter 110: Convergence

A snowy night, by a small alley, a streetlamp.
Someone stood atop the streetlamp.
"Hmph, mongrel! To dare look directly upon this King!"
Wang Aojia stood with his arms crossed, projecting an air of arrogant, cool, and rebellious grandeur in the face of Juno’s mockery. Amidst the biting wind, dressed only in a tank top and cape, he exuded the aura of a true powerhouse—even Lan Yi’s overcoat looked less stylish and less formidable by comparison.

"Eh? What are you saying? Was that Eastern Sun dialect just now? Why are you mixing half Mandarin and half Eastern Sun?" Juno asked, feigning confusion.

"..." Wang Aojia’s face flushed visibly red.

"So, why is that? You’re a Star Han person, aren't you? You must be twenty-eight or twenty-nine by now, right? Why do you still insist on mimicking anime characters? Why on earth? Is it because you think speaking like that makes you look more like a 'powerhouse'?"

Pressing her advantage, the smiling, illegal-sister-archetype continued to twist the knife into Wang Aojia’s most shameful nerves.

"You... you bastard! I’ll kill you!"
Wang Aojia, the Streetlamp King, was enraged.

"Alright, enough, Juno. Everyone goes through that phase at some age." Lan Yi stepped forward and tapped the streetlamp with a casual punch.

High-voltage electricity instantly surged up the pole.
A current strong enough to drop an elephant in its tracks surged into Wang Aojia. His stylish, flowing hair instantly puffed into an afro. After being successfully ambushed by Lan Yi without any killing intent, his body went slightly numb, and he slid down the pole.

A mere elephant-killing voltage.
It could naturally do no real damage to Wang Aojia, but the conversation between Lan Yi and Juno that followed was a mental crit—a blade plunged into his most vulnerable spot, delivered by peers, or perhaps even superiors.

"Eh~~? What kind of age? Why don’t I recall having one?"
"That kind of age. You know, when you talk to yourself, thinking you’re unique and special, and you suddenly start shouting or laughing manically."
"Isn’t that just being self-absorbed—commonly known as 'Chuunibyou' syndrome? Did you have a phase like that too, Lan Yi?"
"...Yes." Lan Yi nodded seriously. A victory of a thousand, but a self-inflicted wound of eight hundred.

"Are you two done yet! The King shall not be insulted!" Wang Aojia, furious, aimed his fist at the ground, preparing to unleash a street-shattering blow to vent his rage.
However, Lan Yi shot him a cold, piercing glance.
Wang Aojia retracted his fist, his inability to vent his frustration making one wonder if he might suffer internal injuries from holding it all in.

"I seem to have arrived at an inopportune time."
A seemingly unremarkable young man wearing black-rimmed glasses emerged from the shadows. He wore a playful smile; his most striking feature was his eyes—gentle, captivating, and seemingly luminous.

"Lin Cheng!" Wang Aojia roared the newcomer's name in grief and fury.
Then, he unleashed a heavy strike!
The Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!

The moment Lin Cheng appeared, Juno retreated two steps in deep wariness.
A top-three regular on the River Civilization’s Most Wanted list.
As a reincarnator, he was the type who didn't want to actively oppose Lan Yi but refused to follow his summons. This man, who looked like a psychologist, often wreaked havoc not in the Prime World, but in the Artificial Divine Realm. Even so, his perverse behavior made the Prime World view him as a viper.

"I am a lover of peace; I have no desire to fight with you, Aojia."
Facing Aojia’s violent, air-shattering killing fist, Lin Cheng merely smiled.
The next moment, it was as if time had reversed.
Wang Aojia blinked, stunned, only to find himself back exactly where he had started.

He immediately flew into a rage.
"If you dare use those disgusting tricks to mess with my memory again, I will kill you with an indiscriminate bombardment!"

It looked like time reversal, but it was actually memory manipulation—a form of Taoist art bordering on causality laws. Lin Cheng’s abilities might lack raw lethality, but their effects were nauseating enough to plague anyone in the early stages; this only changed with the advent of quantum organs. This was why no one wanted to cooperate with this freak.
His rap sheet was endless.
Heaven knows how many people’s memories he had toyed with.
He was truly a nightmare to all.

"Fine, fine, I won't use it on you, Wang Aojia. After all, this is a rare collaborative trial; I cherish the precious memories of this Artificial Divine Realm." Lin Cheng bowed with a smile. His arts were indeed unsuited for direct combat in the early stages.
It was only because Lan Yi was there to hold the line that he dared to tease Wang Aojia.

Lan Yi was actually quite unlucky this time.
Juno was a cultivator from the Ocean Civilization, so that was already a given. The other three teammates were not on his side at all. Wang Aojia, the Chuunibyou, constantly claimed he only fought on a whim and took sides randomly, yet when Lan Yi (the "Demon Lord") went on his world-ending rampages, he was always the first to rush to the front lines.
Lin Cheng was an even worse teammate; with his compulsive need to alter memories, it wouldn't be surprising if he were one day beaten to death by angry psychic cultivators on the side of the road.

There was still one more.
"Hm? Where is Li Yang? We’ve passed the agreed-upon meeting time, hasn't he arrived yet?"
Lin Cheng raised an eyebrow, his eyes brightening.
If someone hadn't arrived, it meant trouble. For this group, trouble was better than nothing at all.

Lan Yi looked at Juno.
Due to her abilities, Juno served as the communication hub for this temporary team. Her "Starry Sky" ability, combined with other life-scripts, allowed her to plant consciousness into ordinary people, operate through them, and hop across the city’s vast population to locate and contact other psychic cultivators.
While the method seemed primitive, it was highly effective, allowing for communication across the Artificial Divine Realm.

Juno pressed her hand to her temple. The next moment, her emerald eyes underwent a mysterious transformation; the green hue dissolved into points of light, as if an entire galaxy were flowing deep within her eyes, sinking into her brain and soul!
"Li Yang is..."
Lan Yi and the others waited for good news.
"...He got caught in a staged traffic accident scam and is currently arguing at the police station."

Damn it!
The other three cursed in their hearts.
A psychic cultivator getting scammed by a bumpkin in the Artificial Divine Realm, and this cultivator being too soft-hearted to use his power to blow those ants away? It sounded absurd, but given his abilities, Li Yang was exactly that kind of psychic—he always seemed to react several beats too slow, as if living in a slow-motion, peaceful world.

What a bunch of "talents" they were!
Those were all of Lan Yi’s teammates for this trial.
Despite their various flaws, one thing was undeniable: their strength was real, and any one of them could go toe-to-toe with Lan Yi.
In other words...
Any one of them possessed the firepower to destroy the powerful military of this planet within twenty-four hours!