Great Qi Star Shaken — A Name Heard Across White Cloud Continent

Real world. Red Maple Empire Talent Camp, Dormitory Building 112.

A pulse of white light flashed through Lu Yuan's room, and his body materialized.

The moment he appeared, his eyes were unfocused. He looked around, confirmed he was back in his own room, then let himself fall backward onto the bed with a long exhale, exhaustion carved into every feature.

Twelve days in the Aier Mechanical Ruins — twelve days of nothing but combat, nerve-strung and relentless, without a single real rest. Even with his current Mental Power, that kind of strain left its mark.

Now that he was home and his guard had finally come down, weariness surged through him in waves.

He showered, lay back on the bed, and closed his eyes. He was asleep before he knew it.

When he opened them again, it was the next day.

A full night's rest. He felt sharp, his mind clear.

He reached for his phone and found several missed calls — from Li Qinghe, Xue Wang, Wang Xiangxiang, Zhuo Ming, and, somewhat unexpectedly, from Si Tingyu as well.

His Guangxin had a backlog of unread messages too. The first chain was from Li Qinghe.

*"Little Yuan, have you made it out of the Land of Origin yet?"*

*"Little Yuan, is everything okay? How was the haul?"*

*"Little Yuan?? If you don't reply, your sister is going to get mad?!"*

*"LU YUAN!! I'm coming to the Talent Camp to smack you!"*

*"Are you seriously asleep?! Message me the second you're up!"*

Lu Yuan stared at the messages, forehead twitching. He could practically see Li Qinghe's steadily mounting irritation.

He called her back immediately.

The call connected quickly. Li Qinghe's voice came through, languid and a little groggy.

"Hello?!"

Lu Yuan cleared his throat. "Qinghe-jie, I fell asleep yesterday. Twelve days in the Aier Mechanical Ruins without a real break — I crashed the moment I got back."

He did feel a little guilty. He'd been so drained last night that it hadn't even crossed his mind she might be worried. He'd just passed out.

"Little Yuan?"

She seemed to come more awake. A soft snort followed.

"I knew you'd be sleeping."

Then, shifting gears entirely:

"So? How did it go? The Aier Mechanical Ruins has some of the best resources on the White Cloud Continent, especially for First-rank and Second-rank cultivators. Come back with a decent haul and you won't have to worry about early-stage resources for a long time."

Lu Yuan smiled. "The haul was pretty decent."

"Oh? How decent?" Her voice brightened. "Tell your sister. With your strength, even if you couldn't reach the central Floating City, you should've been able to clear a few hundred-meter towers at least."

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched. "Qinghe-jie, you're underestimating me. I made it to the central Floating City. I'm Second-rank now."

Li Qinghe paused. When she spoke again, genuine surprise had crept into her voice.

"Already Second-rank? Weren't you not quite at First-rank peak before?"

"Got my hands on some Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid."

"Hmm? You were even able to get Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid?" A note of real appreciation entered her tone. "The haul really was something, then."

She obviously knew what Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid could do — it dramatically accelerated cultivation by being almost trivially easy for the body to absorb.

Lu Yuan's smile widened. "Of everyone who entered the Aier Mechanical Ruins this time, my haul was probably the largest."

Even setting aside his future expeditions, this single run alone had been unmatched. Amy and Yeye had consistently ceded a significant share of resources to him throughout, and whenever resources couldn't be split evenly, the larger portion defaulted to Lu Yuan — unless one of them had a specific, pressing need for it.

Li Qinghe burst out laughing. "My, my — Little Yuan, a few days apart and you're already telling jokes to cheer your sister up? Have you developed a crush?"

She clearly didn't take him seriously.

She knew he was talented — by Red Maple Empire standards, certainly. But across all of Great Qi Star, he was impressive, not exceptional. And the Aier Mechanical Ruins was no provincial testing ground.

It sat within the White Cloud Continent. In reality, it was a battlefield where geniuses from dozens of races across the entire White Cloud Star Domain converged to clash.

In Li Qinghe's assessment, accounting for cultivation aptitude, Lu Yuan ranked in the upper tier. But calling him top-tier was a stretch. The White Cloud Star Domain had no shortage of monstrous prodigies — there were even innate King Grade geniuses among them.

Largest haul overall? He had to be joking.

Lu Yuan rolled his eyes at the phone.

*I mention having the biggest haul and she already doesn't believe me. If I told her the entire Aier Mechanical Ruins belongs to me now, she'd probably think I was having a fever dream.*

*Sometimes the truth just gets you nowhere.*

He pressed on, expression deadpan.

"Qinghe-jie, I'm serious. This time, my haul really was the largest."

"Please~" Amusement threaded through her voice. "Your sister knows exactly what the situation is. Three innate King Grade geniuses went into the Aier Mechanical Ruins from the White Cloud Continent this time. Don't tell me none of them outpaced you."

Lu Yuan kept his tone completely even. "Two of those King Grade geniuses are dead. I killed them. They walked away with nothing. The third is my ally — and even with what I gave her, her haul still came in below mine."

Silence fell on the other end.

Li Qinghe had gone completely still.

She could hear the seriousness in his voice. She blinked, uncertain.

"Little Yuan… say that again? You killed *two* innate King Grade geniuses?! Are you out of your mind?!"

Lu Yuan, seeing she still wasn't convinced, let out a mild sigh.

"This isn't small news — the Battle Net should already have reports on it. If you don't believe me, go check later. And when I'm back on the weekend, I'll show you the haul in person."

"...???"

Li Qinghe stared at nothing. He sounded completely serious.

Was her adorable little Yuan actually telling the truth?

Surely not.

Though she held Lu Yuan in high regard — believed he had the talent to one day reach Battle Emperor — that outcome required continued, sustained effort. His starting point had been low. At least in the early stages, he shouldn't have been able to hold his own against geniuses who had inherited superior gene legacies from their predecessors.

And now he was telling her he'd killed two King Grade geniuses in the Aier Mechanical Ruins?

It felt like a dream.

After a long pause, her voice turned serious.

"You're actually telling the truth?"

"Of course."

A sharp intake of breath. When she spoke again, her curiosity had taken full control.

"How?"

Lu Yuan smiled and walked her through everything that had happened.

He left out two things, of course: his ability to evolve genes, and the fact that he'd bonded with the Aier Mechanical Ruins as its master. Both were tied to the Evolution Cube — his deepest secret. No matter how warmly Li Qinghe cared for him, he wouldn't breathe a word of it.

The Evolution Cube was something he intended to carry to his grave — unless he became truly untouchable. At that point, it wouldn't matter anymore.

Li Qinghe listened to the account, surprise flashing through her again and again. When he mentioned that Amy and Yeye were both his allies, the corners of her mouth pulled slightly.

"Little Yuan's something, isn't he? You've allied with a descendant of Tianrao Battle Emperor and an innate King Grade princess of the Tianming Empire. Quite impressive."

Lu Yuan caught something in her tone. "Qinghe-jie… you sound a little off. Is everything okay?"

Li Qinghe blinked, then shook her head. "No, I'm completely normal. I'm just proud of my Little Yuan, that's all."

That did sound perfectly normal. Lu Yuan felt a flicker of smugness.

"Of course. Who do you think I am?"

Li Qinghe laughed. "Once word gets out that you eliminated two King Grade geniuses, the shock is going to spread everywhere. All of Great Qi Star will be talking. Even on the White Cloud Continent, your name will start making the rounds."

Lu Yuan paused.

"Really? That sounds like a stretch."

"You don't understand," she said. "The Aier Mechanical Ruins has always been where the new generation of geniuses clash. It isn't a complete cross-section of all talent, but it carries real weight. Eliminating two King Grade prodigies is genuinely staggering. Hehehe~" Pride slipped into her laughter. "That's my Little Yuan. Even your sister never managed to eliminate two King Grade prodigies back in the day."

There was unmistakable satisfaction in her voice.

Lu Yuan's mouth twitched.

So he was about to become famous.

Honestly, he wasn't sure that was a good thing. Fame didn't come with resources — it just brought more eyes on you.

He gave a small shake of his head and let it go.

"Since Little Yuan is this capable," Li Qinghe continued, "your sister had better step up her own training. I'm going to go cultivate now — oh, one more thing. Now that your name is out there, people will come looking to recruit you into their clans or conglomerates. If you ever want to join one, join the Li family. If you don't, ignore them — I'll handle it. And that artifact of yours that controls mechanical lifeforms — it's not much of a concern to powerful cultivators, but weaker ones will still covet it. It's particularly effective against the mechanical races and mechanical lifeform variants in the Land of Origin. Some people will set their sights on you for it. I'll send a warning to the more dangerous ones. The weaker threats you should be able to handle yourself."

Warmth moved through Lu Yuan.

*Qinghe-jie really does go out of her way for me. This is one very comfortable pair of legs to have in my corner.*

The image of Li Qinghe's long, straight legs surfaced, unbidden, in his mind.

He cleared his throat and buried the thought, nodding to himself. "Got it. Thank you, Qinghe-jie."

"Alright — I'm going to train now!"

The call ended with a series of soft tones.

Lu Yuan smiled quietly to himself.

Next in the queue were Si Tingyu's messages. Unlike Li Qinghe's rapid-fire chain, Si Tingyu had sent only one — last night.

*"How did things go in the Aier Mechanical Ruins?"*

He smiled. Even in a single line, her concern came through. His mentor was a forthright person by nature; one message was her way of caring.

He typed back:

*"Thank you for checking in, Mentor. The Aier Mechanical Ruins went smoothly — strong haul."*

Si Tingyu didn't reply. She was probably busy.

He didn't wait, and moved on.

Wang Xiangxiang had written asking whether he'd gone into the Aier Mechanical Ruins to explore. She'd kept a low profile for all twelve days alongside classmates from her school, and somehow they'd all made it out alive — with over a hundred bottles of Spirit Power Gene Fluid to show for it. The message practically radiated excitement.

Lu Yuan was genuinely surprised. Wang Xiangxiang wasn't at a high cultivation level — she'd only just entered First-rank. He hadn't expected her to survive.

Her excitement made complete sense. A single bottle of Spirit Power Gene Fluid was worth a hundred First-rank Spirit Crystals. A hundred-plus bottles was over ten thousand Spirit Crystals' worth of resources. That was nothing to him, but for Wang Xiangxiang it was a massive windfall.

He replied with a message of congratulations.

As for Zhuo Ming and the others, they'd been asking in the War God group chat how he and Wang Xiangxiang had done. The rest of the group hadn't broken through to First-rank yet — they'd only been at the academy for a month — so only Lu Yuan and Wang Xiangxiang had been eligible to enter.

Cao Yan was visibly disappointed. He'd been right on the edge of a breakthrough, missed the window by a hair, and was lamenting it in the group. The others were doing their best to console him.

Lu Yuan joined the chat for a while and gave a brief account of his own haul — kept it vague, just said it had gone well. He didn't mention that he'd come out with the largest cache in the entire Aier Mechanical Ruins. If even Li Qinghe had initially taken it as a joke, this group definitely would too.

After that, he and Xue Wang traded a round of friendly boasting.

Xue Wang had recently joined the Night Watchmen and was living comfortably — excellent benefits, abundant resources. He'd been assigned an Aberration Event containment mission this month. A simple one, given that he was new, and he'd finished it with ease. He'd been gleefully rubbing it in Lu Yuan's face ever since.

They were both in the capital, and had even gotten together just last weekend.

After cycling through all his messages, Lu Yuan put the phone away.

He washed up and headed out.

Yang Ping's door across the hall was shut tight. Lu Yuan glanced at it, briefly curious how his neighbor had fared, then headed downstairs.

In the common area, the smart housekeeper Beji had already set out breakfast on the table. Maige was eating. Si Tingfeng was nowhere to be seen.

When Maige spotted Lu Yuan, his eyes lit up. With a steamed bun stuffed in one cheek, he waved broadly.

"A-Yuan! You're up early. You just got back from the Aier Mechanical Ruins — shouldn't you be sleeping in?"

Lu Yuan smiled. "Slept enough."

He sat down and picked up a pork bun, taking a bite. The savory aroma was rich; it was good.

Maige leaned in, anticipation gleaming in his eyes.

"A-Yuan — how was it? Did you come back with anything I could use? I'll buy with credits. Though, given our relationship, you'd better give your senior a fair price."

Lu Yuan blinked.

His haul was enormous. If Maige genuinely wanted to buy with credits…

*How many credits would I even pull in? If I sell off what I don't need while keeping my own cultivation resources intact — a hundred thousand credits, easy. Maybe more.*

*And if I keep going back to the Aier Mechanical Ruins…*

His pulse quickened.

*The Flicker Combat Technique. A spatial Transcendent Gene.*

*If I engrave it, my combat power takes a massive leap.*

He looked at Maige's eager expression and smiled.

"The haul was great, actually. I've definitely got things you can use, Senior."

Maige was in his third year, cultivation sitting at the peak of Second-Rank Battle Master — one step from the pinnacle, after which he'd be pushing for Battle General. Second-rank treasures? Lu Yuan had plenty of those.

He could almost see a torrent of credits flowing toward him.