.14 – What was he doing, standing there foolishly

translator: xiin

editors: alamerysl & BlueBug

Knowing that Xue Ling had woken up, everyone in the Duke’s Palace took turns to visit. Yan Qingjun and the Duchess stayed in his room for the longest time, and both of them had a long talk with Xue Ling, telling him that although the deep-sea merfolk and natural merfolk were different, and he could transform a pair of legs, he still should not go out and run around wildly. He was so naïve - everyone would be worried if something happened to him.

Xue Ling appeased them one after another, and began to feel that his plan of pretending to be silly and sweet might not be such a good idea.

After seeing Yan Qingjun off, Yan Chuhuan entered his room, having just come back from work.

was dinner time, and Yan Chuhuan did not have any intention of talking to him for a long time. He just looked at him for a good while before saying, "Sure enough, you’ve grown up."

Xue Ling’s face showed how speechless he was. "Eldest brother...”

Yan Chuhuan’s face was full of smiles. "Enough, I know that you’ve been admonished several times today. Your elder brother won’t bother you much. Only, I wanted to let you know that His Highness the Prince wants so see you."

Xue Ling had also guessed that this would happen. Although Lan had not mentioned it, many strong powerhouses had arrived in the capital during this period, and it was enough to make His Highness suspicious of his identity. Once he became suspicious, it would not be difficult to guess his importance to the deep-sea merfolk. "Did His Highness the Prince and Lan meet?"

“Yes.”

“All right.” Xue Ling shrugged his shoulders and said, “Since His Highness has made an appointment, I don’t have any reason to refuse. Could I trouble eldest brother to arrange it?"

Yan Chuhuan rubbed his head and said softly, “No matter who you are, you will still be the youngest son of the Yan family. As long as you are willing to come back, father and I will protect you.”

It was rare for him to be in a world where he was not alone, so Xue Ling cherished this seemingly warm family relationship. “What is eldest brother saying? I never said I planned to leave."

“That’s even better.” Yan Chuhuan’s gaze was gentle as he stroked his head again. "Come downstairs for dinner. Although you don’t intend to leave, there are still people who insist on wanting to take you away."

“Then eldest brother should try and make people stay~ won’t it be fine if they all become part of our family?" Thanks to Lou Cen’s suggestion, Xue Ling didn’t mind matching Yan Chuhuan with Lan.

Yan Chuhuan just smiled and did not reply.

This world made Xue Ling feel more warm and happy than the previous worlds. Although the malignant tumour that was the research laboratory existed, after Xue Ling and the Prince had a long talk, with the help of His Highness’, the Duke’s, and Lou Cen’s forces alongside the deep-sea merfolk, they cleaned up the traditional aristocratic faction and thoroughly destroyed the institution several years earlier than in the original plot. A large number of people were also able to escape the fate of being transformed against their will. The great turbulence caused by the destruction of the research laboratory shook the entire Empire.

Many people could clearly see the new era that the Empire was about to usher in, and began to fall in line one after another out of fear that they would also be thoroughly cleaned up before it was all over.

Fortunately, the Prince was not a murderer. He had only wanted to clean up the imperial Empire that had been turned rotten and was about to collapse from within. His actions proved to be both timely and effective. The Emperor was very satisfied with the Prince’s actions, and gradually began to hand things over to the Prince for him to deal with.

Very soon, His Highness the Prince became engaged to the young master of the Duke’s Palace.

On the evening when their ’real’ young master was introduced to the public at the Duke’s Palace, His Highness the Prince proposed on the spot, and the gentle young master also agreed immediately. The engagement ceremony was grand and spectacular, and became a hot topic of discussion amongst the people of the Empire.

The wedding was scheduled to be held after the Prince ascended the throne, as he wanted to marry Yan Qingjun and give him the position of Empress. He seemed to be deeply in love with Yan Qingjun.

General Lou was a little desolate. Compared to the quick conclusion of His Highness the Prince’s engagement, he and Xue Ling had clearly been together for longer, but Xue Ling absolutely refused to get engaged.

Lou Cen had been promoted to Marshal because of his role in helping the Prince in clearing up the aristocratic faction. He was now in charge of a large army, and had less time to see Xue Ling, which caused the entire army to have to shiver through the chill their superior gave off. The entire group of people lived their lives tip toeing on eggshells.

As the emperor of the deep-sea merfolk, Xue Ling also could not spend his days ignorant and naïve. In order to improve the living environment of the deep-sea merfolk, he worked with Lan to encourage peace between humans and the deep-sea merfolk so that more deep-sea merfolk would put down their prejudices and come to land to live.

They would have more choices here, which would also be conducive to the continuation of the deep-sea merfolk population.

Because of the scarcity of their clan, there had not been any new members born for many years. Xue Ling was the youngest, and the rest were infertile. Xue Ling was committed to helping them find breeders, because there was a certain probability that deep-sea merfolk and breeders coming together would be able to create new deep-sea merfolk.

This was an important matter that was inherited from the clan, so Xue Ling had constantly been urging Lan to marry his eldest brother so they could test it out.

He has been already been chased out of his home by Lan because of this topic.

Really! Even if he was their emperor, he couldn’t urge him to have babies all day long!

He and Yan Chuhuan haven’t even gotten together yet! Why did their emperor keep calling him sister-in-law?!

Two years later, on the day of the new Emperor’s accession to the throne, he married his Empress. Together, they ascended the position symbolizing the highest glory of the Empire. At the same time, a decree for marriage also fell into the Duke’s Palace.

Marshal Lou finally renewed his previous engagement two years later. Madame Lou was finally able to let out a sigh of relief that she had not completely ruined her son’s happiness.

Another year after that, the Empress gave birth to a pair of dragons and phoenixes. One was a cute breeder, and the other was a merperson egg; the whole country celebrated.

Because many deep-sea merfolk had come ashore, the entire empire was now trapped in a sweet ocean of love. The streets were full of couples, and the sour smell of romance and love permeated every corner of the empire, making Yan Zhaiyan who had just come back from the borders have no way to avoid feeling pain...

He had only left for three years, but coming back to the capital, he felt that the whole place had changed greatly, and it was simply a place that did not allow a single person to continue living.

The second month after Yan Zhaiyan’s return, Lou Cen and Xue Ling’s big marriage was held. They did not entertain too many people. Since it was their ’emperor’s wedding, all the deep-sea merfolk attended, and they brought along many young breeders. The wedding banquet was filled with couples, and Yan Zhaiyan’s heart was hurt again.

The world was full of malice towards single people. Both of his younger brothers were married, and his elder brother was going to get married in a few months. As for him, he didn’t even have a partner...

Oh, he only had one psycho breeder who had followed him back from the border!!!

Why couldn’t he have a merperson!!!

In this world, Xue Ling experienced the rare feeling of family warmth. He had always maintained a good relationship with Yan Qingjun, and it was good to the point where, because him and Lou Cen had no children, Yan Qingjun wanted him to adopt one of his children.

It was not that he did not love his children, but rather that he and the Emperor were terrifyingly compatible. As long as they carelessly did anything without protection, he would get pregnant. Now, they already had four or five young princes, and three merchildren...

It was not just a dream to be able to create their own football team. Letting Xue Ling bring one up was absolutely not a problem.

But both Xue Ling and Lou Cen refused, because they didn’t want a child to come between them at all.

In this world, Lou Cen left one step ahead of Xue Ling for once. Because of his identity, by the time Lou Cen had become old, Xue Ling still looked as young as ever. It was the first time that he experienced watching Lou Cen close his eyes in front of him, and then he quietly reached out to hold his hand.

He left the empire with Lou Cen’s body and went deep into the ocean.

The deep ocean was where one of his tails was suppressed. Back then, the ancestors of the deep-sea merfolk had obtained the ability to control the ocean due to the influence of his tail and its power. Now that he took the tail back, the ’emperor’ of the deep-sea merfolk would lose the ability to control the ocean, and his death would not cause the ocean to have an intense reaction and thus cause the collapse of the world.

In any case, he was the last of the deep-sea merfolk royal lineage. When he died, the line of inheritance would be broken.

Xue Ling left without a backward glance. After he was gone, the protagonists’ luck was drawn out and evenly distributed to every corner of the world.

The originally rigid world seemed to suddenly truly come to life in this instant. From now on, the world would develop at its own pace, and would no longer mechanically repeat the same process over and over again because of the plot.

These plots and the protagonists locked the world into a fixed routine. If they did not break it apart and thoroughly change the protagonists’ life, the world would remain fixed.

Xue Ling took back his third tail and had just fused together his strength when the system reminded him that the next world would be more dangerous. Other than changing the fate of the protagonist, he would also be working against some other people.

“Others?” It was the first time Xue Ling has come across this concept after going through so many worlds.

“Well, as the host knows, the Ten Directions World has always been dedicated to giving each world its own vitality, and taking back the energy that was left in the world in order to enrich itself."

“Actually, I always thought that this was like the law of the jungle, and the Ten Directions World was just robbing the worlds’ luck."

The system coughed. "Although you can say it that way, and it is what you’re doing, but you can’t just say that we’re the villains." The system wagged its tail as it explained for Xue Ling, "If those worlds were not broken down so that they can be built anew, they will be trapped in an endless cycle of death, and eventually become completely rotten, going in a fixed pattern and never getting out."

“Uh huh.”

“We are destroying the plot, but there are others in opposition to us that are working to maintain the existence of the plot."

Xue Ling thought about the garbage plots and found it strange. "There are people who would try to protect those incompetent, messed up plots?"

“They are actually on the same road as us, but they do not have the power to rob the protagonists of their luck. So they can only choose to maintain the plot, and become long-term parasites, letting the world go through its cycle over and over again, ensuring that the plot is on the right track and staying by the protagonists’ side to take a share of their luck and strengthen themselves. But, host, don’t worry, those are all losers who aren’t as strong as the Ten Directions World, and can only rely on these tiny portions of luck to strengthen themselves. Host would definitely be able to kill them if we come across them."

Xue Ling felt that there was no difference between the system explaining or not explaining; the things he had to do were still the same as before.

“If host has no questions or concerns, then we will enter the next world immediately. Friendly reminder, there might be a battle as soon as host goes online. It would be best if host was more prepared."

With this, Xue Ling finally perked up.

After retrieving three tails, his strength recovered a little, and he could more or less use a bit of his own powers in the story worlds. If it was not a simple world, but rather a chaotic world without order, it would be a perfect opportunity for him to practice and regain his familiarity with his powers.

“By the way... Host’s identity this time is rather peculiar. There might be some disgusting things, but I hope that host can work hard and get into character like the last world, and not go out of character." It was rare for the system to prompt him twice, which made Xue Ling become more interested in the world that he would come into contact with next.

This interest reached its peak after he opened his eyes again.

The him that had just opened his eyes was currently standing on a camouflaged SUV. From his point of view, he could see a ruined city, the houses still giving off smoke, moving corpses, and bloodstains all over the ground.

Xue Ling immediately understood what the system meant by fighting.

He had just pulled his wits together and was about to see exactly what was going on when shouts came from under the vehicle and distracted him.

Someone was shouting hoarsely, "Brother Han!!! Are you ready yet!!! We can’t hold on!!!"

Xue Ling did not know what was going on. His memories had not been transferred over yet, and he also did not know what he was doing just standing here foolishly.

Although the situation was somewhat tense, Xue Ling still calmly took a look around. More and more zombies were surrounding him, and if nothing was done, their group would probably come to an end here.

Um... He was probably standing up here in order to make a big move, and take them all down, right?

He’d take them down, then.

He wasn’t clear about what abilities the original character had, but he could imitate things like abilities with his own power.

Xue Ling curved his lips, bowed his head, and spread out a large area of ice as though wanting to freeze the entire city. It was strong and chilling!

thanks for all the happy comments on the 100 chapter milestone! i kinda got overly excited and forgot to say that we were about to start a new arc... zombies :3 enjoy!

also, meli’s been awesome and CG now has a new layout (and some new projects, feel free to check out )~ please do let me/us know if there are any problems navigating the site or anything is broken!