[Year 40, age 59.]

[Extracting trait tag…]

[Extraction successful!]

[“Never Go Home Empty-Handed” (Green, Rare): Your fishing skills are exceptionally proficient; every cast while fishing is guaranteed to yield something.]

[Adjust trait tags?]

[Yes/No]

[You replaced “Badminton Expert” with “Luckier with Age.”]

[You replaced “Irritable Constitution” with “Ginger Gets Spicier With Age.”]

[The sense of time in the gap became blurry.]

[But this Simulator will keep accurate time for you.]

[This time, you still flew for a year before getting out, but the arrival point was different from last time.]

[Last time, you fell onto the grasslands of the Northern Frontier in the Five Regions; this time, it was above a vast, endless ocean.]

[This is what happens with space passages that haven’t been properly maintained—the exit is unstable.]

[“Splash…”]

[The Nine Provinces Cauldron slammed onto the sea surface, churning up sky-high waves. After sinking underwater for a while, it slowly floated back up, bobbing on the ocean.]

[The Cauldron Realm’s exit opened, and you, along with Wu Yue, Long Yang, Baili Su, and six others, all stepped out together, standing on the cauldron’s rim.]

[“Is this the human world? Did we make it back? Huh?”]

[“Yes! It has to be! That familiar air! The blue sky! The clear water! This is definitely the human world!”]

[“Ahhh… I never thought the world I grew up in would feel this warm and welcoming!!”]

[“Almost ten years… we’ve been vegetarian for ten years!! Fish, there’s fish here! Hurry, hurry, I’m grabbing a few!!”]

[Your group had been stranded in a foreign realm.]

[And not just any realm—the Three-Headed Realm and the Demon World, worlds already destroyed by the Dragon-Man tribe.]

[For ten years, you hadn’t tasted meat, surviving entirely on crops grown inside the Cauldron Realm. You can imagine how hard life was.]

[At first, you all cared about appearances, keeping yourselves tidy and presentable every day.]

[But as time dragged on, that stopped mattering.]

[Now, every one of you looked almost like savages—messy hair, dirty skin, and the men’s beards were practically thicker than the hair on their heads.]

[You all displayed the formidable strength of human world prodigies, delivering a crushing blow to the local fish population.]

[You built a fire on the giant cauldron and roasted fish, finally enjoying a proper meat-filled meal.]

[After eating, you finally noticed your own disheveled appearances. You jumped into the sea to wash up, groomed yourselves, and changed into fresh clothes.]

[Now you looked presentable.]

[But you had to start considering a serious problem.]

[“Where is this?”]

[Looking around, there was nothing but sea in every direction—endless, with the horizon blending into the sky.]

[You were certain this was the human world, but exactly which sea area was anyone’s guess.]

[The seas of the human world were vast, far larger than the landmass.]

[If you were stranded far from land, wandering aimlessly could easily take you further away from the continent.]

[Wu Yue and the others all understood this, and they were stumped on how to proceed.]

[But for you…]

[It was a piece of cake.]

[You glanced at the blood mark on your left palm, then at the Free and Unfettered Token in your right hand.] 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

[“Should I call the Guardian to guide us, or have the Free and Unfettered Holy Land come pick us up…”]

[You figured Senior Hua, as a Guardian with no faction of her own, would have to make a long trip just for this, which seemed like a hassle.]

[The Holy Land had plenty of people—sending a few Martial Kings would be easy enough.]

[So, you used the Free and Unfettered Token to contact the Holy Land, explaining the situation.]

[Wu Yue looked at your token and said.]

[“Island Master Xie gave you that?”]

[“Yeah.”]

[“The seniors at Nine Palaces Island really think highly of you.”]

[“They’re a lovely bunch of people.”]

[“One year, they came to my master on Divine Sword Island, trying to betroth me to you.”]

[“Holy crap! No way, no way!”]

[“Of course, I refused. My goal in life is only one: to become the Saintess of the Free and Unfettered Holy Land and amplify its prestige!”]

[Wu Yue said this with unwavering determination in her eyes.]

[You had asked her before why she was so fixated on becoming the Saintess, but she seemed unwilling to say.]

[A few months later.]

[Xie Guihong arrived in person with over twenty Martial Kings from the Free and Unfettered Holy Land to pick you up and bring you back to the Holy Land.]

[The Martial Kings he brought were, in fact, the direct masters of you Saint and Saintess candidates.]

[However, half of them were destined to grieve—their beloved disciples weren’t coming back.]

[When you saw Xie Guihong, a long-missed warmth welled up in your heart.]

[“Island Master, we’re back. Sorry for worrying you.”]

[Seeing you still alive, just a bit older, Xie Guihong’s eyes welled up with old tears.]

[“As long as you’re alive, that’s all that matters! Come, quickly, let’s return to the Holy Land. The Free and Unfettered God is waiting for you!”]

[Hearing this, your eyes lit up.]

[“The Free and Unfettered God? He came out?”]

[“He came out the year you disappeared. He was supposed to oversee the new generation of Saints and Saintesses and help the two of you break through to the Martial King Realm. Who could have guessed that accident would happen…”]

[Along the way, Xie Guihong told you about what had happened at the Holy Land over the years.]

[Since coming out, the Free and Unfettered God hadn’t returned to the Time Room.]

[The Guardian Hua Wuyan and the Shen Family Founding Ancestor Shen Qingshan had come to visit, one after the other, and exchanged ideas with the Free and Unfettered God.]

[After that, the Free and Unfettered God led the Three Great Holy Lands in joining the human world’s grand plan to resist the enemy.]

[The Three Great Holy Lands had been pouring out resources in recent years, significantly boosting the armed forces of martial artists and ordinary people in the regions under their influence.]

[The key was spreading the unified understanding that a great enemy was approaching.]

[At this point, all forces across the entire human world had essentially united.]

[Everyone was striving to grow stronger and mobilize more people, hoping to defend their homeland when the Dragon-Man tribe arrived.]

[The Free and Unfettered God had also decided not to return to the Time Room until the Dragon-Man crisis was resolved.]

[When you returned to the Free and Unfettered Holy Land, it welcomed you with high honors.]

[Elders from various traditions rushed over to see what kind of aura you, who had traveled to a foreign realm and returned safely, now possessed.]

[“Since the human world sealed itself off, I’ve never heard of anyone managing to travel to another world. Not only did they go, but they also found their way back—that’s no small feat!”]

[“As expected of the Saint and Saintess candidates of our Free and Unfettered Holy Land—every single one of them is extraordinary!”]

[“Look, their aura has changed. In less than ten years, they seem reborn. They must have undergone unparalleled training!”]

[“Too bad… not all of them came back.”]

[The reason so many people gathered today was to witness two things.]

[The first was that everyone wanted to know which world you had gone to and what you had experienced.]

[This experience was too precious.]

[It was something no one in the current human world could claim, so everyone wanted to hear it.]

[Even Martial Kings and Martial Saints hoped that understanding it might give them new insights.]

—

I’ve received four versions of the dynamic comic adaptation, but none have been released yet. Ah… I, Liu Zi, am also very anxious—this is the first time my work has been officially adapted in all my years of writing (my previous silly comics don’t count; they didn’t even pay me royalties). I hope the production companies will urge their staff to speed up production and release it as soon as possible, without violating labor laws!