Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1216: An Unexpectedly Aligned Path

There was class early Monday morning—the very first period of the day.

Because of the gloomy, rainy weather, the classroom lights were on. Though it wasn’t as dark or cold as it was outside, the droning voice of the elderly professor made the atmosphere feel heavy and drowsy.

I wonder what my sister’s doing at home.

Because of the rain, Zhang Xiaoqin decided to rest at home today. Even rehabilitation needed balance between exertion and rest for proper recovery.

Sitting in class, Zhao Le couldn’t help thinking about his sister. A sense of helplessness crept over him—the limitation of being human: perspective.

You could never know what the people you care about were experiencing elsewhere at the same moment. That uncertainty always made you uneasy… and misfortune often struck during such times.

Yes, the world keeps turning every minute. Every moment, people connected—or unconnected—to you are moving through their own stories. But where do their eyes fall?

Maybe they’re even watching the same TV drama as you.

Perhaps that’s why those hidden anxieties in the heart subside—because you can see the whole story, because you aren’t trapped within a single character’s view… because you see from a god’s perspective.

And also because—nothing happens beyond your control.Without realizing it, Zhao Le had already drifted off into thought, his mind wandering aimlessly. The dreary classroom on a rainy day truly was the perfect incubator for daydreams.

—You’ve been to the scene, haven’t you?

Chen Mingming’s words suddenly echoed in Zhao Le’s head, snapping him out of his daze and dragging him back to the silent classroom.

A cold sweat broke out on his back. He looked around instinctively—but Chen Mingming was nowhere to be seen.

He really wasn’t coming back to school, was he?

Zhao Le propped up his textbook and lowered his head to glance at his phone. On his social app, there was an account saved—a special one. Its profile picture was blank.

That person had once said, unless something serious happened, it was best not to contact each other—and especially not to try to meet again. To keep living his own life, he should act as if nothing had ever happened.

Zhao Le had followed that rule faithfully. For months, he hadn’t reached out—except once, when he’d inexplicably received a silver handgun in the mail.

He had asked about it, and the reply was only two words: Not me.

Zhao Le instinctively didn’t believe that answer. His life was completely ordinary, calm, structured. Only that person intersected with him—at one very specific time, under very specific circumstances.

That person was the only one who knew about his other self.

He still couldn’t calm down after last night’s talk with Chen Mingming. Once again, he’d broken his own promise.

—I heard the police found the store that sold the freezer. They might already have a lead.

That was the message Zhao Le typed—but he didn’t send it. After hesitating for a while, he quickly deleted it and wrote something else.

He regretted sending that message about the silver handgun before. What if those words had left traces online?

So this time, he was much more cautious.

—How have you been lately?

After a short wait, a reply came. But when Zhao Le saw it, he froze.

—Who are you?

For a moment, Zhao Le was startled. Then he realized—the other party must be being extra careful. Maybe they were under surveillance?

“Who are you?” looked like a simple question, but perhaps it was a signal: Don’t contact me again.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Le copied one of the junk spam messages from his phone and sent it over.

—Saturday prediction success: ‘Tiger’ (33). Betting plans / PK10 + contact WeChat: 3413***

He waited again. No response.

He sent the same spam message again—only to see a notification: Message failed to send. You are not on this user’s friends list.

Had something really happened to him?

A wave of unease washed over Zhao Le. Because of perspective—he couldn’t see what was happening to the people connected to him.

He began to worry.

—You’ve been to the scene, haven’t you?

Once again, that sentence echoed in his head—the one Chen Mingming had said under the streetlamp, like a ghost.

Would he tell anyone about last night?

His father was surely investigating the case too… What should he do?

Zhao Le’s mind filled with chaotic thoughts. In the damp, cold air, sweat formed at his temples. The bell rang for the end of class, students and teachers left, but Zhao Le didn’t even notice.

Not until the classroom manager came in to lock up and patted his shoulder did he snap out of it—his face pale.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Y-yeah… just thinking. Sorry, I’ll go.”

Zhao Le hurriedly gathered his things and rushed out.

——

——

“Really!! Do I sound like I’m joking?!”

It was rare for Luo Qiu to receive a phone call from Ren Ziling early in the morning—but today, he did.

On the other end, the newly promoted Editor-in-Chief was ranting nonstop. Instead of someone delivering good news, she sounded more like a victim on a prank show.

Probably Song Ying’s handiwork behind the scenes…

Luo Qiu thought, with Ren Ziling’s work habits, it was already a miracle she’d kept her job—let alone gotten a promotion.

Considering the Song family’s recent investments in the area, Luo Qiu quickly understood the connection. It wasn’t even worth spending intelligence credits to confirm.

Still, giving Ren Ziling more freedom to do what she wanted wasn’t interfering with her life—it was helping her live it more fully.

He smiled faintly. They really put thought into this one.

“You brat! Are you even listening? I said I got promoted!”

“Congratulations.”

“That’s it??!”

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Dinner? What do you mean ‘what’? We’re eating out, of course! Call You Ye! Tonight, Mama Ren’s treating you both to something good! That’s settled!”

And just like that, the call ended abruptly.

Luo Qiu shook his head, set the phone down, and—like turning off a TV—closed the light-screen in front of him. The last image on it showed police officers in a conference room discussing the case.

Boss Luo went upstairs to the room serving as the Lord God Plan server hub.

Miss Maid—who always enjoyed dressing the part—was now wearing a gray-black business suit with a white blouse, sheer stockings hugging her perfect legs, sitting elegantly with her knees together. Her golden hair was pinned up, and her frameless glasses reflected the data flickering across the screen as her fingers danced over the keyboard.

Just like how she would wear a white lab coat whenever she entered the lab.

“How’s the progress?”

Luo Qiu came up beside her, casually sat on the edge of the desk, and smiled. The humanoid machine Adam nearby stood up, but Luo Qiu gestured for him to sit back down.

“Still designing the new world map—about ten percent done.” You Ye adjusted her glasses slightly.

“No rush.” Luo Qiu turned the screen toward himself and looked at the design with genuine admiration. They were building a complete world, many parts with a fantasy aesthetic.

The next stage of the Lord God Plan would be a true upgrade—no longer tied to a single game, but an independent world built around the World Fragment core. Everything inside would no longer be mere data.

An idea suddenly came to him. “For the new game world’s NPCs, I don’t want to generate them by program.”

OL You Ye raised her brows. “Master means… letting guests reincarnate as story NPCs?”

Luo Qiu smiled. “No. Story NPCs are too limited—they’re bound to certain maps or plots. I want to use false souls.”

“False souls?”

Luo Qiu nodded and said, “World Fragments are self-evolving worlds anyway, created from segments of history. This particular World Fragment I bought was taken from the late stage of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France—it already contained the figures of that era. Rather than weaving these characters into a storyline, I might as well select a few as individual storyline NPCs… I also want to see whether any of these false souls can successfully ascend into true souls.”

“I see…” OL You Ye thought for a while before getting an idea. “It would be strange to suddenly shift the main theme of the game world. How about transferring players who have cleared the first area of Demon King’s Castle into this place as they enter the second zone?”

“Turning the second zone into a new story? That works too.” Luo Qiu nodded.

He suddenly recalled a cartoon he’d watched as a child—the protagonist piloted a divine dragon mecha, climbing level after level of Creation Mountain, where each level was a small, self-contained world with its own setting and background.

“Mm, we can keep adding new regions later,” OL You Ye continued. “That way, whether it’s for you, Master, to experience different styles of worlds, or for improving gameplay variety, it’s beneficial all around.”

“You’re working too hard,” Luo Qiu said softly.

OL You Ye replied gently, “This is your most important revenue project going forward, Master.”

“Use this for the calculations, then. It’s not much use to me otherwise.”

Luo Qiu opened his palm and released a golden sphere of light.

It was none other than a fragment of the Book of Alaya he’d obtained from the Penglai Treasure Vault—though incomplete, it still possessed the terrifying power to directly rewrite the memories of beings in a sub-world and distort its history, as well as tremendous computational ability.

The thirty-year reincarnation given to Mo Mo back then had used the Book of Alaya’s predictive power.

Since this fragment of the Book of Alaya wasn’t a payment from any customer transaction, Luo Qiu wasn’t bound by the three-day rule to store or sacrifice it, so he had kept it—and now it could finally serve in the creation of a new world.

OL You Ye weighed the fragment in her hand and said, “Why not use it as the world’s core directly? That way it’ll perform at maximum capacity. It’s a pity it’s incomplete. If it were whole, it might even be able to create a complete sub-world on its own.”

The World Fragment Luo Qiu provided was only a piece taken from a sub-world—merely one historical era’s setting. Its spatial scale was limited, not enough to evolve into an Earth-sized plane. Just like the old Voidless Moon World—it only had the Japanese islands as landmass, surrounded by ocean with a boundary at the edges. The sun still rose and set, but its essence resembled the ancient divine land’s cosmology of “round heaven and square earth.”

A complete Book of Alaya could indeed upgrade a World Fragment into a fully developed sub-world. Thinking about this, Luo Qiu realized something.

Clearly, there wasn’t just one Book of Alaya. Every sub-world likely had its own version, each with its own Alaya number.

Many sub-worlds served as nurseries for cultivating a “perfect world.”

Those countless sub-worlds were probably all born from Books of Alaya, carved out of fragments of the original world and then elevated into independent sub-worlds.

Hmm… it seemed that without realizing it, he was doing something quite similar to the Alaya system itself.

“Master?”

Miss Maid’s voice broke his thoughts. Luo Qiu smiled lightly, unconcerned, and reached to remove her glasses. “Come have dinner with me tonight. A bit of rest and leisure will do you good.”

“Miss Ren’s invitation?” Miss Maid’s eyes brightened slightly, her voice soft. “Then I must prepare properly…”

Ever since her mysterious ascension, the holy soul sealed within her body had begun to stir faintly again.

“Just come as you usually do,” Luo Qiu smiled. “Too formal, and you’ll end up scaring her.”

“Mm.” Miss Maid nodded lightly—though her movement suddenly grew stiff, even making a faint sound like grinding gears.

“Looks like you need oiling,” Luo Qiu murmured. “I’ll help you.”

…

…

“How do you feel now, any better?”

In the bathroom, white steam slowly overflowed from the bathtub, settling onto the tiled floor. Inside the tub, the little butterfly demon—completely unclothed—was sitting cross-legged as Long Xiruo instructed, actively channeling her demonic energy.

Since spiritual energy had begun surging from the Mount Tai's ley lines, the divine land was once again filled with dense aura. The concentration of spiritual energy was steadily increasing and would eventually return to the ancient era’s level—when Daoists and Demons both flourished.

Now, whether cultivating demonic energy or Daoist power, all practitioners were benefiting immensely.

It was said even the usually lively Elysium Bar had grown quiet lately. Sun Xiaosheng, the wild monkey who used to live in debauchery, was now in closed cultivation—he even planned to return to the place of his awakening to attempt a breakthrough to the Demon King realm.

Of course, Long Xiruo couldn’t care less about any of that. What she did care about was whether Luo Pianxian could suppress her instinctive mating desire.

“No… my body’s still too hot…”

The little butterfly demon looked pitiful, as the dry ice in the tub evaporated rapidly and her body only grew hotter.

“Tch… You look so innocent normally, but your desires are this strong? Closet pervert, maybe?” Long Xiruo clicked her tongue.

“Sister Dragon, how can you say that about me…” Luo Pianxian whimpered even more miserably.

Long Xiruo sighed. “Just bear with it for now. Your body’s been altered by that brat Su Zijun and mutated. Even I’m not sure how long your heat will last. It’s your first time, so it’s natural to panic—but don’t worry, I won’t let you do anything stupid.”

Luo Pianxian nodded meekly.

“Alright then,” Long Xiruo said, “I’ll go fetch some liquid nitrogen. If that doesn’t work, I’ll head to the Xuanyuan Palace’s secret realm and get some Nine Heavens Cold Pool water. Try to calm yourself and cultivate. I know it’s uncomfortable, but if you can resist your instincts and focus, your demonic energy will grow by leaps and bounds.”

But I want to study for my college entrance exams… the little butterfly demon thought helplessly.

Seeing her pitiful expression, Long Xiruo quickly looked away, afraid she’d lose her resolve. Still, what if even the Nine Heavens Cold Pool water couldn’t cool her heat?

Should she just knock her out and wait for it to pass naturally?

Or… follow nature’s course and find her a mate?

But since Luo Pianxian’s species was nearly extinct, where would she even find another butterfly demon—let alone a male one?

And knowing Luo Pianxian’s personality, she’d never agree anyway.

The True Dragon of Divine Land was starting to get irritated.

Fighting? No problem—see an enemy, smash them flat!

Scheming? No problem—see a plotter, smash them flat too!

But handling a heat cycle?

“Why the hell do I have to deal with this kind of thing?!”

Clearly, even after returning from her trip to the snow peaks, the True Dragon was still in a bad mood.

Long Xiruo exhaled, tugged at her collar, and started fanning herself. Strangely enough, despite being the True Dragon—invincible and immune to heat or cold, capable of swimming in molten magma without discomfort—she felt inexplicably hot.

Long Xiruo suddenly felt herself growing a little hot too, a restless heat rising from deep within her abdomen.

“What’s going on—why am I feeling this too…?”

She froze, utterly stunned. She wasn’t some naive butterfly like Luo Pianxian going through her first heat—she immediately realized something was off with her own body.

A chill ran down her spine as she noticed something glimmering faintly on parts of the bathroom wall. Walking closer, she reached out and touched it—her fingertips instantly picked up a dusting of sparkling powder.

Tracing the source, Long Xiruo was shocked to discover that the faintly glowing dust was falling from the colorful wings on Luo Pianxian’s back.

“Luo Pianxian, and you still claim you’re not a closet pervert!!!”

The bathroom instantly echoed with the furious roar of the True Dragon of Divine Land!

(End of Chapter)

“OL You Ye” refers to You Ye in her “Office Lady” (OL) persona.

“OL” is a common East Asian abbreviation (especially in Japan and China) for Office Lady—a woman who works in an office, typically wearing professional attire like a suit or skirt.

So “OL You Ye” means You Ye dressed and acting in an office-professional manner, reflecting her current appearance and demeanor (wearing a gray-black suit, white blouse, glasses, etc.) while assisting Luo Qiu in a corporate-like environment.