Zhang Hanxiang didn't want to be left behind by the other members of Team Zenith.
Zhang Lie sighed. "If you insist, I can't say anything against it."
"Thank you, Brother!" After Zhang Lie wearily agreed, Zhang Hanxiang leapt toward him like a little girl and gave him a tight hug.
Zhang Lie asked, "Don't be too happy just yet. If you go, what are we going to do with Qianlin? Leave her behind?"
Zhang Hanxiang proposed, "What if we bring her with us?"
Nightdemon shrugged. "I don't mind."
Zhang Lie resolutely shook his head. "It's far too dangerous."
Nightdmon grumbled, "It's not like it's a tiger's den!"
"Perhaps we can hand her to Yun Bing?" Zhang Hanxiang suggested.
"Let's do that." That was the only reasonable choice. "Go find Hong Xi. I'll let Qianlin know," Zhang Lie instructed, then shattered space and vanished from sight.
Everyone turned to Sun Mengmeng.
Sun Mengmeng asked, "What are all of you doing?"
Li Feng replied, "We're interested in your response, of course."
Sun Mengmeng laughed. "What sort of response are you hoping to see?"
Zhou Ying cocked her head. "According to dramas, by this point, the female lead should be feeling despondent and dejected..."
Sun Mengmeng wanted to make a stern expression, but it dissolved into laughter instead. "You've watched far too many of those shows. I'm not a petty woman like in those dramas—why should I feel dejected?"
Sun Xiaowu glanced at his sister doubtfully. "You don't mind sharing, sis?"
Sun Mengmeng shrugged. "I don't."
"That's impressive." Her brother gave her a thumbs up.
Zhou Ying asked, "Mengmeng, how do you maintain your sanity? I'd be very upset if I were in your shoes."
Sun Mengmeng spread her arms. "It's not all that impressive. I simply know that I can always stand beside Zhang Lie and assist him in what he does. As for her, how would she make it into the fourth realm with us?"
Sun Mengmeng emphasized, "Don't forget that our captain won't remain in this realm in stagnancy."
To Sun Mengmeng, Li Qianlin was no threat at all—she was just a vase who would be discarded past her prime. Once Zhang Lie ascended into the fourth realm, she doubted Li Qianlin could follow suit. Even if she did, Zhang Lie would always be an eagle, wings outspread, seeking the skies farther and farther into the distance.
A bird of golden thread, petite and exquisite, would never be his match.
When Zhang Lie's wings filled out, he would ascend to glorious heights—and the only one who could accompany him would be Sun Mengmeng and Sun Mengmeng alone.
Rather than appear directly before Li Qianlin, Zhang Lie teleported to a nearby location, then slowly walked over as he mentally rehearsed for the conversation.
When Li Qianlin saw him approach, her expression turned joyous. "You're back!"
"Yes, I'm back."
Noticing some strange trace of an expression on Zhang Lie's face, she suddenly frowned. "Did something happen?"
Zhang Lie hesitated. "The king of chaos has invited me to attend his banquet."
"Go, then."
Zhang Lie seemed rather surprised. "You aren't going to stop me?"
"Why should I?" contemporary romance
Zhang Lie widened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then laughed. "I thought you'd tell me something like, 'You brought me here just to leave without me? Do you really love me? What am I to you? Are you tired of me, tired of my body—"
Li Qianlin glanced at Zhang Lie, her brows furrowing as he continued to speak. "Hold on, hold on, what nonsense is this?"
Zhang Lie laughed. "I thought you'd have prepared a whole litany of complaints waiting to unleash on me once I returned."
Li Qianlin nodded. "I did do that."
"And they all vanished when you saw me?"
Li Qianlin snorted. "I was going to make you listen to me complain once you came back."
Zhang Lie hesitated.
Li Qianlin stepped forward and placed a palm over Zhang Lie's chest, feeling his heart beat.
"I won't stop you from doing what you want, but you have to promise to return." To return to my side.
Zhang Lie reached out and caressed Li Qianlin's petite hand, a warm smile on his face. "Meeting you was the most fortunate thing that has ever happened to me." He pressed his lips gently to her palm, then zipped away.
Li Qianlin clutched her hand, a blush creeping up her face, a blissful smile warming it.
Zhang Lie returned with a radiant smile on his face. "Let's set off."
.
Nightdemon requested, "Extend your invitations."
The members of Team Zenith retrieved their invitations, which had turned completely different. The invitations were now pitch-black, without any trace of a different shade of color. Primordial chaos seemed to roil from its center, dissolving all else in its wake, dragging it deep into the abyss.
Tendrils of abyssal matter poked out of the invitations and surrounded them all, bringing them through a transitory kaleidoscopic space into a world without order. There was no 'up' or 'down'; everything seemed topsy-turvy one moment, and right-side up the next. All seemed mutable, as though natural law had been discarded by the wayside.
The world was so large as to be frightening in extent. It was larger than even the universe to which the king of keys was host, larger than even the three thousand worlds combined.
Sun Xiaowu cried out, "It was a trap!"
Nightdemon had, at some point, appeared beside them. "It's not a trap. You can only enter this place with my ability."
Zhang Lie looked all around him. "Where is this? It doesn't look as though we're within the three thousand worlds."
Nightdemon shrugged. "We are, on a technicality, but we're also not."
Sun Mengmeng frowned. "What are you trying to say?"
Nightdemon replied, "I mean that we're among the three thousand worlds and also far from them."
The members of Team Zenith: ...
Nightdemon hadn't clarified anything.
He bowed deeply. "Welcome, honored guests, to the world of primordial chaos."
Everyone looked around them. "So this is the legendary world of the king of chaos?"
Zhang Lie frowned. "No wonder no one knows where the world of primordial chaos is. This is a pocket space outside of the purview of the third realm, isn't it?"
Nightdemon shook his head. "Not fully."
"What do you mean?" Zhang Lie asked.
Nightdemon replied, "As I said, we're actually still within the three thousand worlds."
Zhang Lie marveled, "Impressive, impressive indeed. I wouldn't have expected such a place to exist in the third realm, but the king of chaos has taught me a valuable lesson. There's still much more I have to learn about the area."
Nightdemon smiled. "You overexaggerate."
Sun Mengmeng still seemed baffled. "Do you mean to say that the world of primordial chaos is hidden within the midst of the three thousand worlds?"
Fang Yi asked, "But how can such a massive space remain hidden?"
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