Chapter 375 – Identity Verification
With the mecha gifted by the Haenden star system, Tu Ran embarked on her journey back to the Ruler’s World.
As the blue light of the door faded, Tu Ran’s foot sank into the dry grass that was as high as her waist. Looking around, the yellow grassland stretched endlessly in all directions.
Where was this? It looked somewhat familiar, the Beast World?
Tu Ran tentatively took a few steps forward, and the dry grass crackled crisply underfoot. In an instant, a chill ran down her back, as if countless eyes were watching her.
She looked up and quickly noticed, hidden beneath the grass, pairs of hungry eyes of wild beasts staring at her.
Tu Ran took a step back, but the sound of snapping dry branches grew louder behind her. She immediately turned around.
A “human,” draped in animal skins and holding two sharpened branches, was silently approaching her. The hunger in their eyes was even more intense than that of the wild beasts.
Tu Ran reached for the gun at her waist: …Primitive world, identification complete, goodbye.
She fired a shot into the sky. The loud sound caused both the primitive people and the beasts to take a few steps back, eyeing the seemingly fragile human who had created such a noise.
Taking advantage of the moment, Tu Ran didn’t hesitate to activate her control over space-time. A blue ripple door appeared quickly. She didn’t wait for it to fully open and jumped in, disappearing from the spot.
Finding the way back to the Ruler’s World was a bit challenging.
In the second world, Tu Ran arrived at Wuma Star.
How did she know it was Wuma Star? Because she immediately saw a very familiar high-rise building.
The entire building was shaped like a Hundred-Eyed Elf that had flung itself against a wall, a flattened lump of dough standing upright, with the same color as the Hundred-Eyed Elf. It was a bit dark outside, and the building emitted a soft glow, almost like a giant version of the Hundred-Eyed Elf.
Looking around, there were countless buildings of this shape.
This was the treatment of a sacred object.
Tu Ran sighed and, before the city’s order-maintenance personnel arrived, she waved her hand to create a door and left.
The next world… the Underwater World.
Caught off guard by a few mouthfuls of water, Tu Ran struggled to swim upwards for several meters, only to realize she couldn’t reach the surface.
No light was visible at all. The entire world seemed to have only her as a living being, with not a single fish around.
The immense water pressure made her heart feel as if it were being torn apart, and her breathing became severely labored. She had no choice but to give up and quickly escape from this world.
After experiencing five more bizarre worlds, Tu Ran waited eagerly and finally arrived back at the Ruler’s World.
Looking at the familiar demonic structures before her, Tu Ran was seeing them in a way she never had before—she actually found these sharp, menacing buildings to be quite endearing and familiar.
She quickly found a hidden corner, changed into the black robe produced by the Haenden Star System, and once again appeared on the streets, seamlessly blending in with the others.
After traveling through so many worlds and losing track of time, Tu Ran couldn’t tell what time it was now or how long until the tribute ceremony.
But from the frequent patrol teams passing by, it was clear that Border City was much more heavily guarded than before.
The tribute ceremony for over a hundred worlds was likely about to begin.
Tu Ran skillfully climbed up to the window of Wuma Fenghua’s residence and knocked.
Wuma Fenghua looked at the tightly shut window. The lights were on in the opposite demonic structure, and if anything outside were knocking on the window, its shadow would surely be reflected.
But now, all she could hear was a series of knocks, yet no figure could be seen.
It was a bit eerie.
But she knew—Tu Ran had returned.
She walked to the window and opened it with her own hands.
A breeze rushed past her, and her wrist brushed against the soft fabric of her clothing.
“Close the window quickly.”
A voice suddenly urged from the empty room.
Wuma Fenghua lowered her gaze and smiled slightly, closing the window and turning around. As expected, she saw Tu Ran sitting on the sofa, with her legs casually crossed.
“I thought you weren’t coming back,” she said, touching the large, bright ruby necklace around her neck as she walked over to Tu Ran. “I was almost ready to report Blue Star’s location to the Ruler.”
Tu Ran didn’t bother responding to her threat. Instead, she picked up the delicate teacup on the table and took a sip of water. “When does the tribute start?”
“Tomorrow.”
Tu Ran paused in mid-air, hand still holding the cup. “Tomorrow? So soon?” Had she spent so much time in other worlds without realizing it?! She hadn’t felt any time pass at all.
“What did you expect?” Wuma Fenghua glanced at her, raised her hand, and a light curtain appeared in the room. “This is the map of the City Lord’s mansion for tomorrow’s tribute, along with the list of participants. You need to familiarize yourself with it quickly. There are still many details we haven’t discussed, so we need to hurry.”
Tu Ran nodded and became serious.
After going over all the procedures, it was already 3 AM. The tribute ceremony would officially begin at 10 AM today, and Wuma Fenghua, as the City Lord, had to appear at the City Lord’s mansion by 6 AM. Tu Ran, posing as Wuma Fenghua’s bodyguard, would accompany her into the mansion.
Tu Ran managed to get two hours of shallow sleep before donning the bodyguard uniform, blending in as Wuma Fenghua’s bodyguard, and boarding the City Lord’s exclusive flying vehicle with her.
The flying vehicle landed on the vast lawn of the City Lord’s mansion.
A security team composed of the Green-Eyed Tribe and the Red Crown Tribe surrounded the vehicle to conduct identity verification for those getting off.
Despite being the City Lord of Border City, Wuma Fenghua had to go through a layered security check upon returning to her own mansion, as if she were a guest at someone else’s house.
The first step was the facial recognition scan. Since Wuma Fenghua had already registered Tu Ran as her bodyguard when she decided to help her, Tu Ran’s identity was indisputable, and they passed this step smoothly.
The second step was the verification by the “god” of the Green-Eyed Tribe.
The long-missed green eyes squeezed out from the gap in space, slowly lifting the heavy eyelids to gaze at Wuma Fenghua and then at Tu Ran, who stood behind her.
The Hundred-Eyed Elf had once said that the god of the Green-Eyed Tribe could see through all advanced disguises in the universe—whether it be invisibility, illusions, mirages, stealth, or shapeshifting… none of these advanced transformation methods could escape its eyes. So, one shouldn’t even think about trying to deceive it.
As a final step, Wuma Fenghua took matters into her own hands. She spent half an hour applying makeup to Tu Ran’s face, sculpting a sharp, chiseled appearance.
It was a low-level disguise technique, yet it fooled the green-eyed god, who was said to be able to identify all forms of disguise.
When the green eyes vanished into the air, Tu Ran’s tense heart finally relaxed.
The last step was the verification by the Hundred-Eyed Elf.
The curse of the Hundred-Eyed Elves was still in place, and they would never expose the unloyal heart of the Wuma tribe.
If Tu Ran’s true identity were revealed, both Wuma Fenghua and the entire Wuma Star would face certain death.
“She is Wuma Fenghua, and she is Wuma Fei,” the Hundred-Eyed Elf said to the green-eyed god standing before Wuma Fenghua and Tu Ran.
Wuma Fei was the name Tu Ran had assumed for this identity.
She was a child from a side branch of the fallen Wuma family, raised as the bodyguard of the Wuma family’s patriarch. Now an adult, she was assigned to Wuma Fenghua for her safety.
With the identity verification completed, they were free to move about within the City Lord’s mansion.
