pertwk Chapter 1: Having just become the Heavenly Emperor, let's revisit Blue Star!
Chapter 1: Having just become the Heavenly Emperor, let's revisit Blue Star!
In the live stream, the comments were still scrolling rapidly.
"Xiao Yu is awesome! She's exposed another scammer!"
"Be careful, streamer. These people might really retaliate if they get angry."
"Support cracking down on counterfeits! Purify the online environment!"
"Who are you going to expose next? How about that 'telekinesis master' next door?"
Jiang Yu, her face still slightly flushed from exercising, faced the phone camera and, after catching her breath, clasped her hands in a fist salute to the lens: "Thank you all for your support today! The road to fighting counterfeits is long and arduous."
She rubbed her ankle, which was a little sore from kicking the person, walked over, picked up a bottle of mineral water, and gulped down a few mouthfuls.
This is an abandoned small factory on the outskirts of the city, which she temporarily rented as today's anti-counterfeiting site.
Scattered on the ground were the peach wood sword and yellow talisman paper that the Thunder Master had left behind when he fled, as well as several small electric shock devices and smoke devices that he hadn't had time to take with him, which were disguised as heavenly lightning effects.
There was still a slight burnt smell in the air.
Jiang Yu kicked the broken pieces on the ground and pursed her lips.
With such meager tricks, they dare to swindle and deceive people online, and they even charge exorbitant tuition fees.
She bent down, picked up the small props that were still usable and could be sold for some money, and put them into a backpack.
His movements were practiced, clearly indicating that this wasn't his first time doing this job.
She's a live streamer, but she doesn't follow the common route of singing, dancing, playing games, or chatting.
She does live streams to expose fake news, specifically targeting those extraordinary people active online—qigong masters, martial arts experts, people with special abilities, especially various self-proclaimed Taoist priests or celestial masters with lineages.
Today's guest is Master Yun Leizi, who claims to be an outer disciple of Longhu Mountain, possesses the ability to use palm thunder, and can exorcise evil spirits and cure diseases.
He performed with great seriousness during the live stream, but Jiang Yu's professional questions and demands for a live inspection of the props made him panic. In the end, he tried to scare her by hitting her, but she kicked him in the stomach instead, making him wince in pain. The props were exposed, and the live stream crashed. The man lost face, said a few harsh words, and ran away in a sorry state.
Despite her short stature and slender build, Jiang Yu is surprisingly efficient and skillful in combat, with impressive strength and precision.
This is thanks to her practicing martial arts with her older brother Jiang Feng since she was a child.
My brother always says that girls also need to have the ability to protect themselves.
Thinking of her brother, Jiang Yu slowed down her packing.
Her brother, Jiang Feng, has been missing for three years.
Three years ago, my brother had just graduated from university and was having trouble finding a job.
My family has always been of modest means; both my parents are ordinary workers.
My brother is ambitious and always felt that there was no future in the small town. He heard from someone that there were construction projects in Africa that were hiring with high salaries, and he started thinking about it.
My parents were against it, of course. It's so chaotic over there, and we don't know anyone there.
But my brother is stubborn; once he's made up his mind, nothing can change it.
He secretly completed the formalities, bought a plane ticket, and left only a short message.
After that, there was no further news of him.
The phone call went unanswered, and when contacted, the company he mentioned gave vague and evasive answers.
The family reported the incident to the police, who opened a case and said that the flight had indeed crashed in international waters. They had conducted a search and rescue operation and some bodies had been recovered and identified, but many people were still missing, including Jiang Feng.
They were never seen alive, nor were their bodies ever found.
For the first few months, it felt like the sky was falling for our family.
My mother cried all day long, and my father aged a lot overnight, with most of his hair turning white.
She was stunned. The person who always ruffled her hair, protected her from behind, and said, "I'm here for you," was just gone?
Later, as time went by, the wound scabbed over, but it never truly healed.
My brother is rarely mentioned at home, for fear of touching on painful memories.
Until last year, my mother suddenly fell ill and was diagnosed with a serious illness that required a large sum of money for surgery and follow-up treatment.
This family is now facing even greater hardship.
Dad's salary barely covered daily expenses and Mom's regular medication costs; the surgery fee seemed like a bottomless pit.
Jiang Yu has an ordinary educational background, having only graduated from a second-tier university, and cannot find a high-paying job in the small town.
She tried several jobs, but she didn't earn much, far from enough.
Out of desperation, she started doing live streaming.
She tried singing and chatting at first, but she didn't have any special talents and wasn't particularly outgoing, so her live stream was quiet.
Until one day, she happened to see a so-called qigong master in the local area swindling money from elderly people in the park, using clumsy methods.
She remembered how her brother used to laugh at these scammers, and a surge of anger rose within her. So she started a live stream and went straight up to expose them.
Unexpectedly, the live stream went exceptionally well, with viewership and donations far exceeding usual levels.
She suddenly saw a way out.
Exposing fake news through live streaming is controversial, involves conflict, and attracts attention.
Although it's dangerous and easy to get into trouble, like the venomous look in "Yun Leizi's" eyes when he ran away today, the traffic and tips are indeed considerable.
She was willing to do anything to pay for her mother's medical expenses.
Before each live stream, she would do her homework to understand the general principles of those scams. With a bit of courage and the martial arts skills she had learned from her brother, she actually managed to do it step by step and gained a few regular viewers.
After calculating the tips and platform revenue share from today's live stream, I should be able to earn 3,000 yuan.
Jiang Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief as she looked at the notification on her phone that the money had just arrived.
We've managed to scrape together a little more.
We seem to be a little closer to that target number.
She zipped up her backpack and weighed it in her hand.
Selling these props can earn us some money.
"Come on, Jiang Yu," she whispered to herself, blinking hard at her slightly sore eyes to suppress her weak emotions.
No crying, no time to cry, Mom is waiting for the money for surgery.
She slung her backpack over her shoulder, ready to leave the chaotic makeshift live-streaming room.
Just then, she casually glanced at the comments in the live stream!
Jiang Yu's heart tightened suddenly.
"Behind the anchor!"
"There's someone behind you! Watch out!"
"Holy crap, when did they get here?"
Jiang Yu's heart skipped a beat.
She was tidying up the broken props left behind by Yun Leizi with her back to the factory entrance, and she really didn't notice the movement behind her.
Was it that the swindler who was unwilling to give up and called people back to cause trouble?
A chill mixed with anger surged to the top of his head in an instant.
She hates those who can't accept defeat and resort to dirty tricks!
Jiang Yu didn't have time to read the comments carefully; her entire body was tense.
The martial arts skills she learned from her older brother Jiang Feng since childhood have now become her greatest reliance.
Run? Where to run? This factory only has one gate, and the other party is blocking the entrance.
Moreover, it's even more dangerous to turn around and expose your back to others.
Get started first!
This is something my brother taught me half-jokingly and half-seriously before: when dealing with malicious people, sometimes it's important to have a strong presence and take the initiative.
Taking advantage of the momentum of putting down her backpack and turning around, she twisted her waist and her right leg sprang up like a taut bowstring, delivering a fast and fierce side kick that whistled through the air, heading straight for the head and temple of the figure behind her!
At this moment, under the influence of adrenaline, this kick was delivered with almost all its strength.
She could almost feel her toes about to touch the solid object, and even imagined the other person groaning and falling to the ground after being kicked.
However, in the next instant, the expected impact and the other party's scream did not come.
Her foot stopped abruptly about ten centimeters from the man's temple.
It wasn't that I was grabbed by any hand, nor did the other party dodge away.
It just stopped there, suspended in mid-air.
It felt as if I had kicked into a ball of extremely dense, elastic, transparent rubber.
No, it's even stranger than that.
The air seemed to freeze, forming an invisible but real wall, soft yet impenetrable.
She used all her strength, her toes even trembling slightly from the effort, but she could not move forward an inch, not even by the slightest movement.
The force that blocked her attack was gentle yet absolute, as vast as the deep sea and as stable as a mountain, gently supporting her full-force strike and dissipating it into nothingness.
Jiang Yu felt a chill run down her spine.
What... what is this? Magic? High technology? Or... is it really like those con artists' boasts about—internal energy or a protective barrier?
The immense shock instantly soaked her back in cold sweat.
If the other party has such means, then my provocation just now was simply a joke!
She tried desperately to pull her leg back, but found that she couldn't even do that; her entire right leg seemed to be fixed in that frozen air.
it's over...
Her face turned pale, and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.
I forced myself to lift my head, my gaze following my stiff legs to the person standing in the shadows by the door.
The first thing that catches the eye is a set of clothes.
It was an ancient costume she had never seen before, with an extremely simple and ancient style. Its color was a deep, dark black, but under the dim light coming in from the window, it shimmered with a very faint and noble purple halo, as if a piece of starry sky had been cut into a robe.
The person wearing this outfit stood tall and straight like a pine tree, quietly standing there. Although he didn't deliberately exude any aura, Jiang Yu felt a strange sense of suffocation, as if he were facing an insurmountable mountain or a bottomless ocean.
It was a sense of existence that transcended her comprehension.
Her gaze trembled as she looked up, finally landing on the man's face.
Then, she froze completely, as if struck by lightning.
Time seemed to freeze, stretch, and then shatter at this moment.
That face...
Although three years had passed since they last met, and the person before her was completely different from the brother she remembered—the brother in her memory was sunny, spirited, and had a warm smile.
The person before me stood there quietly, as if he had lived through countless years, his eyes holding unfathomable depths of vicissitude and loneliness—yet the contours of his features, the bone structure, were clearly…
"elder brother……?"
Jiang Yu's lips trembled as she uttered a single word with great difficulty and tentative intent.
His voice was dry and hoarse, so soft it was almost inaudible.
Her right leg was still comically frozen in mid-air, but she couldn't care less about it anymore.
Her eyes were wide open, staring intently at the face, as if afraid that the illusion would vanish in the blink of an eye.
Is it a dream? Or a hallucination caused by missing someone so much? Or... is it the work of that conman, using some sophisticated hallucinogenic techniques?
Just as her mind was in turmoil, and her shock, doubt, and fear reached their peak, the invisible force that had been binding her right leg vanished without a trace.
Her legs went weak, and she almost lost her balance, staggering before grabbing the old table next to her for support.
The person at the door slowly raised their eyelids, their gaze falling on her face.
At first, that gaze was like an ancient, icy expanse, deep and distant. But the moment it touched Jiang Yu's face, something deep within the ice seemed to be touched, melting away slightly and revealing a barely perceptible fluctuation of human emotion.
He looked at her for several seconds, as if trying to confirm something.
Then, he nodded very slightly, his lips moved, and a deep, steady voice, carrying a strange rhythm that seemed to strike directly at the soul, rang out:
"it's me."
"I'm back."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Feng felt extremely happy!
Three years ago, his plane crashed. He thought he was going to die, but when he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a wild, bloody, and dog-eat-dog fantasy world—the legendary Burial Emperor Star!
Fortunately, he awakened a stealing system.
Every month, the system can randomly steal the panel of a character in any timeline of that world—including their talents, cultivation level, skills, insights, and even parts of their destiny.
Jiang Feng stole the data panels of countless people who had achieved the status of Emperor through great fortune, from the Immortal Kings in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths to the peerless talents of the young Supreme... the Ancient Sacred Body of the Dharma-ending Era!
After ten thousand years, he attained the status of a Great Emperor, rebuilt the Heavenly Court, and was revered by all the heavens and races as the Heavenly Emperor.
Just as he reached the summit, the system suddenly prompted him to upgrade, unlocking a new function: time travel.
[The host can briefly teleport back to Earth, with each stay lasting ten minutes. The stay time increases as the host's strength improves.]
He can go home now.
Come back home.
This thought stirred up the still waters of his heart, which had been dormant for millennia.
But after ten thousand years, will Earth still exist? My parents and sister are probably long gone.
With an almost tragic feeling, he activated the time travel, only to be shocked to find upon his return that the flow of time in this world was vastly different from that of the other world. Ten thousand years had passed in the fantasy world, but here... only three years had passed!
The system explained that the timeline is actually the same; it's just that the time travel occurred three years in the future!
But Jiang Feng clearly didn't have time to deal with these things right now!
Relying on the connection in his blood, he instantly traversed thousands of miles and found this place, just in time to see his sister's vicious kick coming towards him.
"Brother! Say something!"
Jiang Yu's cries pulled Jiang Feng back from his brief reverie.
Jiang Feng didn't know where to begin.
Seeing his younger sister Mo Yang's tearful eyes, he said sternly, "Calm down, listen to me, and don't yell!"
Jiang Yu was also taken aback by his seriousness and nodded earnestly.
"I'm actually... already dead!"