The two agreed and took the bewildered child, who had no idea what was happening. Only when Zhu Yan turned to leave did he react, reaching out for her.
"Waa... wu wu..."
He thrashed in Nan Bei's arms, reaching for Zhu Yan, his crying echoing through the heavens. Chong Yan, who had walked out only two steps, turned back and looked at him without a word.
Zhu Yan also stopped.
Chong Yan had initially found the little cub rather annoying, but after so long, who could refuse a soft, cute human infant?
He certainly couldn't.
"Not leaving?"
Chong Yan subconsciously shook his head.
He didn't want to stay in this place at all. He wanted to see the world outside; he wanted freedom.
But…
"Can he come with us?"
Seeing how heartbroken he was, Chong Yan felt a pang of sympathy.
Zhu Yan glanced at the crying cub and said coldly, "No."
They were going for a world for two, and coincidentally, to help him clear his negative karma. With the cub around, how could it be a world for two? It would be more like a family vacation.
Besides, those two were the protagonists of this world. Their being together would benefit the world's stability and allow them to protect each other, especially since the crisis wasn't entirely resolved.
The cub was making a huge fuss, and Nan Bei had already walked up with him. He extended his arms for a hug, tear tracks on his soft face, his large, watery eyes blinking at Zhu Yan. The sight was enough to make anyone unable to refuse.
Zhu Yan was not human.
She was a god, and therefore, capable of refusing.
"Be quiet. We'll come back to see you when we have time. If you fuss again, I won't come back anymore."
The cub froze for a moment, then stopped crying, staring at her with wide eyes. His wronged expression was even more heart-wrenching than before.
"Let's go."
Chong Yan looked back three times as he left.
…
In the time that followed, they did return a few times. But as the cub grew older and became more aloof, his soft, cute demeanor vanished. Chong Yan no longer felt compelled to visit frequently out of soft-heartedness.
When the cub was six years old, people from other countries and regions finally confirmed that the "adult" had truly disappeared. Thus, they agreed to dismantle the quarantine walls.
This action infringed upon the rights of certain capitalists, leading to disagreements and struggles, and the resulting turmoil caused the accumulation of resentment to swell considerably.
They returned with someone they had never imagined.
In the game, Nan Bei's clone had never appeared. They had thought Zhu Yan had killed it when she destroyed the game world.
To their surprise, it had escaped to another game instance, used cloning technology to create a duplicate of itself, and then used the clone to enter the real world.
However, by the time it emerged, the "god" had already been killed by Zhu Yan. The Heavenly Dao was also constantly eroding the power of this outsider. It hadn't appeared then.
It barely survived using its clone until the "god" returned and found it. The two… beings colluded and caused quite a stir.
If it hadn't pretended to be Nan Bei to lure Jiang Feng, only to be recognized and killed by Jiang Feng at a glance, the position of the Heavenly Dao might have been usurped again.
It believed it was identical to Nan Bei, and since Jiang Feng hadn't personally experienced the clone incident, he wouldn't recognize it.
But it forgot that a person's temperament would surely change over five to six years. If Jiang Feng couldn't even recognize the behavior and mannerisms of his pillow companion, he wouldn't be worthy of being the male protagonist.
Following the trail of the clone, they found the "fake" that had re-coalesced. The Heavenly Dao ruthlessly ground it into resentment once more. Su Dan Novel Network.
Hmm… The side effect was that it reverted from its five to six-year-old appearance to that of a three to four-year-old.
For this reason, Zhu Yan and Chong Yan returned specifically.
With more experiences, the Heavenly Dao slowly began to bear its responsibilities. Its body became smaller, but its mind did not revert to a child's. Chong Yan, seeing its cute but cold appearance, didn't like it much.
So, they left again.
They met many people and experienced many things in the outside world. Zhu Yan also gradually became accustomed to life in a completely different world.
They encountered the friends and family who had betrayed Chong Yan. Seeing those people struggling in the dust, his negative karma decreased significantly.
They heard many unfortunate stories and witnessed the happy lives of others. Traveling over mountains and rivers, observing the myriad forms of life, with that person always by his side, Chong Yan experienced his own happiness.
But he remained frugal and cautious, saving the last bit of his negative karma for the moment of his death.
He grasped Zhu Yan's hand, just as Zhu Yan had grasped his in the game years ago.
"Will we meet again?"
Zhu Yan's voice, as calm as ever, uttered in silence: "I will take you to our next life."
[Mission objective negative karma -1, current negative karma 0, congratulations to the host, mission complete.]