Lin Xi’s eyes went wide. She never imagined her wish would actually come true.
Before she could think much further, the group chat exploded.
The group had always been dominated by women. Including Ming Shu, whose avatar had already faded to gray, there were seven people in the group before—only Lin Duxi was the sole male member.
During chats, Lin Duxi often felt he couldn’t keep up with the topics and pace of the women, so he mostly stayed silent.
Every time he saw himself unable to join the conversation, Lin Duxi would silently pray for a couple more guys to join the group.
But today, a real male member had arrived—and Lin Duxi fell silent. The four words “Killing Wife to Ascend” alone were enough to make anyone’s blood boil.
Could a normal person really do something like that?
Lin Duxi felt uneasy, but the other women in the group were even more outraged.
Xiang Qianlan had the worst temper of all. She no longer wanted to go tie up the village chief; right now, she just wanted to beat Chu Qianmo up immediately.
【1960s Boxer Xiang Qianlan: Hmph, what kind of character is this new member? Step forward and fight me, sister.】
True to her reputation, Xiang Qianlan’s words were dripping with domineering confidence.
【Primitive World Ah Huahua: Exactly. You step forward and fight me, and you talk about killing your wife to prove yourself? Why don’t you just kill yourself to show the heavens how awesome you are?】
【Ancient World Xu Huanhuan: @Earth Girl Lin Xi, Lin Xi, can you private message group members? I have a gift for the new companion, could you help deliver it?】
All these women were modern and progressive, absolutely intolerant of any man who oppressed women to achieve his goals.
Lin Xi was momentarily stunned and a bit slow to respond, but when Xu Huanhuan tagged her, she immediately replied: 【Earth Girl Lin Xi: Sure, no problem.】
Xu Huanhuan followed through right away, sending Lin Xi a package of medicinal herbs—still with a puncture wound on the bag. She told Lin Xi to wrap herself up completely before receiving it.
Then, Ah Huahua and Xiang Qianlan also sent Lin Xi items. Ah Huahua’s package contained a fiercely spicy plant with strong offensive power.
Xiang Qianlan sent a carefully crafted slingshot. She had made it herself during her free time these past few days, adding springs to ensure that once unleashed, it could deal a fatal blow to Chu Qianmo.
Ye Bingbing was busy and hadn’t seen the messages in the group chat yet.
Lin Duxi stayed as quiet as a mouse, pretending to be offline, afraid that if he said anything, he might provoke trouble.
Having grown up in an orphanage where girls outnumbered boys two to one, Lin Duxi knew all too well how vengeful girls could be.
Lin Xi was busy gathering the items when Chu Qianmo, who had just joined the group but hadn’t had a chance to say a word, grew anxious.
【Killing Wife to Ascend Chu Qianmo: Sisters, please don’t be angry, don’t be angry. Let me explain myself first.】
In the cultivation world, a bedraggled Chu Qianmo sat in a cave overgrown with weeds. Every movement caused fresh blood to flow from his mouth.
In fact, he had been stuck in this miserable place for three days—painful, hungry, exhausted, and sleepy, with all his cultivation power severed.
If it weren’t for the last bit of stubborn will to stay alive, Chu Qianmo would have already made several trips to the underworld by now.
Just moments ago, feeling dizzy and disoriented, Chu Qianmo’s head had slammed into a spirit stone he always carried with him. Suddenly, his mind cleared and his vision sharpened, revealing a chat screen right before his eyes.
Having read a few novels, Chu Qianmo immediately realized he had just received his golden ticket—his “cheat code.” But before he could even celebrate, he noticed something was terribly wrong.
Because of the automatically generated nickname, he had become the prime target of a group attack.
Chu Qianmo knew that if he didn’t speak up now, he wouldn’t die in this damn cultivation world—he’d die by the very golden ticket he’d so painstakingly obtained.
As a fellow transmigrator, Xiang Qianlan felt it was only fair to give her compatriot a chance to prove himself.
She considered herself a reasonable person. Even murderers get a final statement in court, after all. Though from the nickname alone, Chu Qianmo seemed utterly unforgivable, the proper procedures had to be followed.
【1960s Boxer Xiang Qianlan: Since our names both share the character "Qian," I say we grant you a little more time before you die. Sisters, what do you think? Let’s vote. If even one person objects, it’s a no-go.】
【Ancient World Xu Huanhuan: Speak.】
【Primitive World Ah Huahua: Speak.】
【Earth Girl Lin Xi: Speak.】
【Star Wanderer Yao Xiran: Speak.】
Lin Duxi still dared not say a word.
Chu Qianmo coughed up another mouthful of blood, feeling pretty amazing about himself. It had already been two or three days, and he was still coughing up blood nonstop.
He typed: 【Wife-Killing Daoist Chu Qianmo: Here’s the deal. Three days ago, I was crossing the street when I saw a kid about to dash into traffic. My inner “Learn from Lei Feng” spirit kicked in immediately.】
【I grabbed the kid, but that little brat was stubborn and kicked me right in the shin. I instinctively dodged, just as a speeding car came barreling toward me. And that’s how I ended up dead.】
【Before I died, I vaguely heard a voice asking if I wanted to transmigrate. I don’t even know how I answered. The next thing I knew, I was in this damn cultivation world.】
【Speaking of the cultivation world, that brings me to the identity of this body I’m currently in. This body shares my exact name—he’s an elder of the Liuyun Sect.】
【Two hundred years ago, he was a renowned prodigy in the cultivation world. Everyone believed that with his extraordinary talent, he was destined to successfully ascend to immortality.】
【But a century and a half ago, his cultivation stalled at the half-step to the Divine Transformation stage, unable to progress any further. Worse still, his cultivation seemed to be regressing over time.】
【One day, he entered a secret realm and obtained what was called a secret inheritance. After leaving the realm, he raised his sword and killed his own Dao partner.】
【His declining cultivation finally stopped regressing, and there were even faint signs of progress. He was overjoyed, convinced he had finally found the path to enlightenment.】
[So this scumbag began his scheming. He faked the death of his soulmate, making it look like she was killed by the demon clan. Then, pretending to be furious, he slaughtered a city belonging to the demon clan.]
[Next, under the pretense of wanting to revive his wife, he arrived in the mortal world. He disguised himself as a wealthy merchant and settled in the capital. Through his competence, he made many acquaintances and even rose to become a high-ranking minister in the court, successfully marrying the emperor’s most favored princess.]
[After a few years of blissful love with the princess, he killed her as well. His cultivation advanced a bit further, partly because the princess’s death in the mortal realm was even more tragic.]
[The original owner’s cultivation weakened considerably. Afterwards, he wandered through the mortal world, taking on different identities, marrying three more wives—each of whom died a violent and miserable death.]
[His cultivation kept improving, and he was finally about to ascend. Just as he was undergoing the Thunder Tribulation, the five wives he had married appeared.]
[They had died but were reborn. After being reborn, they shared one goal: to kill that scumbag, the original owner.]
[The four mortal wives, after dying once, each experienced miraculous encounters and became cultivators themselves. They chose the perfect timing, and the original owner was directly killed by them.]
[His soul was shattered by the lightning. I’m just a poor unlucky soul who transmigrated after his death. Now I look like neither human nor ghost. I probably won’t survive tonight.]
Chu Qianmo truly felt this way. He’d always had bad luck since childhood, and to improve his fortune, he had tried to do good deeds ever since he could understand right from wrong—just hoping to change his luck.
Who could have guessed? The more he tried, the worse his luck became. Now, not only was he the scapegoat, but he was also about to meet his end.
Thinking about the five enormous burdens weighing on him, Chu Qianmo wished he could just die right now.
The original owner was truly a scumbag. Except for the first wife, each subsequent wife’s fate was worse than the last—truly unspeakable.
Even if by some miracle they survived, he estimated they wouldn’t live much longer.
After all, he was already a crippled wreck.
Chu Qianmo’s words caused a wave of silence in the chat group.
Lin Xi was the first to respond: [Earth Girl Lin Xi: Is everything you said true?]
[1960s Boxer Xiang Qianlan: That’s right. How can you prove it’s true?]
It wasn’t that Lin Xi and the others didn’t believe Chu Qianmo; it was just that the whole situation was too hard to argue against. What if Chu Qianmo was lying? What if he was actually the so-called original owner?
People scam each other online even across the same time and space—how could they trust someone who’s communicating across dimensions?
Of course, a big reason Lin Xi and the others doubted this story was because of Chu Qianmo’s username.
Just looking at it annoyed people.
Chu Qianmo felt utterly hopeless. The original owner’s soul was already shattered—how could he possibly prove who he really was?
He suddenly thought of a self-verification trap he’d read about before transmigrating. Could it be that he had to cut open his belly and see if there was a bowl of noodles inside?
[System Message: New paid lie detector feature added to the group chat. When members can’t be sure if someone is lying, they can pay to test it out~]
At this moment, the chat group was interrupted by a rare cutesy tone, leaving everyone in the group silent.
Having been in this group for so long, the members had somewhat figured out that this chat group was a bit... money-hungry.
Ye Bingbing had even complained here before—every month, the moment the salary hit their hands, a portion would instantly be deducted. The deduction speed was definitely under ten seconds.
But most members never got to witness just how ruthless this chat group was about money. The system messages were elusive and rarely appeared, and a tone like this had never been seen before.
Despite their grumbling, now including Lin Xi, none of them were short on cash. Everyone in the group brought out their valuable items at hand.
In the end, everyone unanimously confirmed that every word Chu Qianmo said was true.
Chu Qianmo was nearly moved to tears upon receiving the proof.
Being someone who took responsibility for his actions, Xiang Qianlan immediately apologized to Chu Qianmo right there in the group.
Lin Xi and the others quickly followed suit. At this moment, Lin Duxi finally dared to show up and welcome the newcomer.
As a fellow group member, he generously offered Chu Qianmo half a bottle of gene repair serum.
Lin Xi quietly set aside the deadly weapons that Xu Huanhuan and the others had just sent over, then handed the gene repair serum to Chu Qianmo.
Under normal circumstances, Chu Qianmo should have been suspicious of the gene repair serum. But he was on the brink of death. Even if the serum was poison, he had no other choice.
After all, he could feel himself dying. Whether he died sooner or later was just a matter of time.
Might as well take the gamble.
Chu Qianmo downed the pale green liquid in one gulp. Boom—a warm current spread throughout his body. Before he could fully react, his eyes closed, and he fainted.
Only then did Lin Xi’s message arrive, reminding him that just one drop would have sufficed.
Chu Qianmo didn’t reply for a long time, nor did he speak again in the group. Lin Xi and the others didn’t pay much attention.
The main reason was that his nickname was a bit off-putting to everyone.
Xu Huanhuan and the others started tagging Yao Xiran, the “Interstellar Wanderer.” Since joining the group, Yao Xiran had just quietly chimed in behind Lin Xi and the others.
She had been watching the whole time and had already roughly understood the group’s nature from the chat.
After formally greeting everyone, she introduced herself in the group.
[Interstellar Wanderer Yao Xiran: Hello everyone, my name is Yao Xiran. Before I crossed over, I was a mechanical engineering student at Dian University.]
[I died because of an unfortunate incident. In our dorm, there was a girl who was dating two people at the same time. When things went south, one of them couldn’t take it and held a grudge. On a Saturday morning, she stormed into our dorm with a knife.]
“Let’s just wipe out everyone in our entire dormitory. I figure there won’t be any survivors.”
“After I died, I somehow crossed over to the future—an interstellar era—and became a drifter on a garbage planet. It’s already been five years since I arrived.”
“Are everyone’s nicknames based on the era they crossed over from? Do you find life inconvenient? Are you uncomfortable without air conditioning?”
“If anyone feels out of place, feel free to come to me to buy supplies~”
For someone like Yao Xiran, who had struggled to survive on the garbage planet for years, selling things had become an inseparable part of her life.
It was really a tough situation. The planet she lived on was nothing but trash; outside the designated dumping zones, there was nothing but barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass could grow.
The people on the garbage planet survived each month solely on nutrient solutions distributed by the local government.
Yao Xiran was only ten years old when she crossed over, and now she was just fifteen.
The original inhabitant had starved to death after their nutrient solution was stolen. After Yao Xiran arrived, she found a handy tool and took out everyone who had robbed the original owner’s nutrient supply.
Because of her reckless fighting style, those who lived by stealing from others grew afraid of her. Some weaker kids even started following her.
Once she was well-fed, Yao Xiran settled into a life of scavenging trash.
But the garbage planet was so impoverished that even after years of collecting scraps, she still couldn’t afford a ticket off the planet.
She hadn’t lost the theoretical knowledge from her previous life either. Using the items she scavenged, combined with the knowledge she secretly learned in this era, she managed to build quite a few robots.
On other planets, such robots might not even be worth a glance, but on the garbage planet, her electronics were quite popular among the locals.
This year, with the support of a few friends, she opened a mechanical repair shop. While fixing machines, she also ran a scrap collection business.
The piece of black, grimy, unidentifiable metal in her hand was one of the items she had just purchased.
Now, on this scrap metal, a chat group had appeared. The way she activated the chat group was nothing short of mystical.
Because her blood had dripped onto the metal.
Out of habit developed over many years, Yao Xiran didn’t speak rashly. She observed the chat group carefully before finally sending a message.
There was no denying it—Yao Xiran’s advertisements were incredibly tempting.
Especially for Xu Huanhuan, who was already feeling the heat of summer. People from ancient times wore many layers; even though she had already stripped down to minimal clothing indoors and had an ice basin set up, she still felt unbearably hot.
At times like this, Xu Huanhuan longed deeply for a modern air conditioner.
*
Hua Hua’s situation was similar. She was from the primitive era, during an extremely hot period. Every day felt like being roasted by fire. She also wanted an air conditioner.
*
Xiang Qianlan was different. She wanted a portable air conditioner. It was already autumn in the 1960s, and she was in the northern region. Autumn there was already chilly.
After a while, it would start snowing. As a southerner, Xiang Qianlan was looking forward to the snow, but she definitely didn’t want to freeze to death. At the same time, she didn’t want Qin Aiguo and his mother to benefit from the things she’d worked hard to obtain. So, she wanted something portable—something she could carry with her.
Although she hadn’t managed to create a portable air conditioner before her time travel, maybe in the interstellar era, such a thing existed?
*
Meanwhile, the weather was getting colder and colder where Lin Duxi was. This morning, he woke up to snowflakes gently falling.
In this post-apocalyptic wasteland era, resources were depleted. Their lives were barely different from those of primitive societies. Water and electricity outages were common.
Recently, the base was able to provide a small amount of electricity at set times each day. But to them, that little bit of power was just a drop in the bucket.
They all replied in the group chat to Yao Xiran, asking about trading items, learning that both the interstellar era and Lin Duxi’s time suffered from a shortage of plants and food.
Xu Huanhuan and Ah Huahua each decided to trade with Yao Xiran.
After a moment of silence, Lin Duxi went outside and started taking photos of the post-apocalyptic wasteland with his wooden camera. Since the apocalypse, many black stones had appeared in their area.
These stones seemed to have appeared out of thin air. The largest was about the size of a basketball, while the smallest was barely bigger than a child’s pinky finger.
Despite years of research by various bases, no one had figured out what these stones were good for.
Later, as the bases needed building materials, these stones were simply collected and used to construct houses.
Lin Duxi thought, if they couldn’t figure out what these things were for, maybe the interstellar era could.
Yao Xiran, seeing the items offered for trade in the group, grinned from ear to ear.
What did the interstellar era—and the garbage planet—lack the most? Food, of course! The items Xu Huanhuan, Ah Huahua, and Xiang Qianlan were trading with her were so valuable that just selling a few batches would fill her little treasury to the brim.
She didn’t overlook the photos of the stones Lin Duxi took either. She asked him to send her copies, which she would have analyzed.
She would give him what he needed first. These air conditioners were easy to make for Yao Xiran now—just a few scraps of junk mechanical parts, and she could build as many as she wanted, whenever she wanted. It was no trouble at all.
So even if the stones Lin Duxi sent her were useless, she wouldn’t lose anything. Though she had been a shrewd merchant for years, Yao Xiran still felt she had a sense of kinship.
Ye Bingbing was still busy, and Chu Qianmo remained unconscious—both were temporarily out of this large-scale trade.
Lin Xi, acting as the middleman, began summarizing the trades in the group chat. Then she spotted the item she had been longing to send out.
She tagged Yao Xiran in the group.
