Astounding and Transcendent

In the clean and tidy room, the wall-mounted mechanical clock ticked rhythmically, filling the air with a constant clicking sound.

On the computer screen, a silent, almost mimed yoga lesson played.

The actress, dressed in a white leotard, kept changing poses, her supple waist extending and contracting, performing all sorts of jaw-dropping moves.

“Hoo…”

Gu Yanxi slowly lowered her right leg from over her head and massaged her aching waist and hips.

Her black hair was gathered at the back of her head into a long, high ponytail. Fine beads of sweat appeared on the girl’s smooth forehead.

With cram school and gaming recently, her flexibility had noticeably declined.

Getting up to turn off the video and rolling up the yoga mat on the floor, Gu Yanxi glanced at her phone and sighed softly.

Half an hour had passed, but Chen Zixuan still hadn’t replied.

For some reason, she felt an emptiness in her heart, finding it hard to muster up any energy for anything.

Because her father was long gone and it was just her mother at home, she didn’t have to worry about taboos or propriety.

As if no one else was around, Gu Yanxi stripped off her cool tank top and ultra-short shorts. The midsummer morning was muggy, and she felt sticky all over after exercising, so she decided to take a shower.

She took out clean underwear from the closet, opened her door, and walked out into the living room.

Ling!@Dream#$First%^release&* On the sofa, Yao Qian sat clutching her phone, video chatting with friends from all over the country. After all, she didn’t have to work; the life of a landlady was just that monotonous and bland.

Seeing her daughter like this, the young mother frowned and scolded, displeased, “How old are you? Aren’t you ashamed, walking around dressed like that?”

“Bleh bleh bleh.”

Tired of her mother’s nagging, Gu Yanxi only stuck out her tongue, then turned to close the glass door of the bathroom behind her.

Soon, the sound of running water came from inside.

A dozen minutes later, Gu Yanxi, with her long hair draped wet over her shoulders, returned to her room.

She had originally wanted to preview her senior year classes in advance, but just couldn’t bring herself to focus. Chen Zixuan still hadn’t messaged her back.

She idly toyed with her phone. At that moment, Gu Yanxi’s gaze happened to drift to a cardboard box under her desk.

Inside was a toy worth tens of thousands, played only once. Because it took up too much space, she had packed it away and hadn’t touched it since.

Since she no longer needed to attend cram school, and had finished all her summer homework in the first week of break, she had plenty of time.

Her hard-saved pocket money couldn’t just go to waste like this.

So—should she continue to give it a try?

Actually, Gu Yanxi didn’t much like these excessively gory, violent games. Sure, they were a novelty, but that feeling only lasted so long.

A clueless, motivationless novice player who couldn’t even understand equipment stats would find it hard to appreciate the enjoyment these online games supposedly offered.

“If only there were more outfits to change into, like in those dress-up games…”

Sitting by the bed, swinging her pair of fair bare feet, the girl let out a little sigh.

But at that moment, an image suddenly flashed through Gu Yanxi’s mind—a short figure’s back, strangely reassuring.

“Cecilia… why is she being so nice to me? Who is she really?”

Moreover, judging by everyone else’s reactions, she seemed pretty famous in the game.

The question nagged at her mind, lingering and unsolved.

Almost as if compelled by fate, Gu Yanxi picked up her phone and downloaded the Legend of Kaloran forum. Following the instructions, she logged in to her game account step by step.

A few seconds later, staring at the frozen screen along with the 999+ unread messages in the upper right red dot, the girl fell into a deep silence.

What on earth was going on?

……

Deep within the Nightshade Forest.

Sidestepping quickly to avoid a whipping, vine-like wolf tail, the girl’s right hand flashed in a dazzling pattern behind her, the grip on her dagger suddenly shifting to a reverse hold. Then her waist twisted powerfully, and she slashed straight at the forest wolf’s teeth.

The blade collided with the sharp fangs, bursting with faint sparks for an instant. The forest wolf’s rigid body flew backward, red numbers slowly rising over its head.

-268!

“System notification: You’ve slain a [Corrupted Forest Wolf] and gained 29 experience points.”

As the last forest wolf’s corpse hit the ground, her stamina gauge also dipped to its limit. The petite silver-haired girl let out a long breath but didn’t lower her dagger.

As for the other players nearby, they had all been stunned by this near-massacre solo performance. Mouths agape, they wondered if they’d eaten too many poisonous mushrooms and started hallucinating.

“Uuu, we’re saved!”

Looking at the lifeless wolf corpses just a few meters ahead, the team’s sole short-haired priestess was first to wail with a faint sob.

“So strong… Is she a human faction NPC? Or maybe a pro player?”

The bloodied Holy Knight murmured to himself.

“Wait, isn’t that… Cecilia?!”

Shock and astonishment began to subside, and the party’s female leader finally recognized the girl’s identity.

As soon as she spoke, the rest of the party exploded in amazement.

No one had expected that a mythical, god-tier player—one who should only exist in legends—would actually appear before their eyes and singlehandedly reverse a completely lopsided battle.

“……”

Chen Zixuan turned his head and glanced at the players, saying nothing.

He hated his current voice—it was laced with a girlish delicacy. While not exactly unpleasant, after more than a decade of being used to his original, masculine timbre, it sounded inexplicably odd.

Though he had dispatched the enemies before him and smoothly leveled up to 10, Chen Zixuan’s expression remained serious, his grip on the dagger tight.

Even dismissing the worst-case scenario, there was still at least one Corrupted Wolf King lurking in the nearby Mutant Jungle. Compared to the small fry just killed, that was the real threat.

With his current perception skills, he still couldn’t locate where the Wolf King was hiding. As he suspected, he would have to use his bat radar for a scan after all.

The bat radar really was an incredibly useful tool, massively speeding up Chen Zixuan’s mapping progress and saving time and effort. But it wasn’t suitable to use in crowded places.

After all, having a pet that was a world-class flying boss—and such an overpowered ability—would attract too much envy and attention, which didn’t suit his low-profile nature.

“There might still be two monsters. Don’t go wandering off—stay right here and wait for me.”

With a cool sentence tossed over his shoulder, Chen Zixuan strode off toward the depths of the Mutant Jungle.

If he could get the quest item from the Wolf King, that would save a lot of unnecessary trouble. Chen Zixuan was busy and had no time to play free bodyguard for others.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep