Chapter 276:

“Master.”

“What is it, Krisha?”

“The new item in your room… what is it?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just a machine identification tag with sentimental value.”

During her free time, while cleaning Xu Xi’s bedroom, Krisha’s vacant eyes often rested on the fourth compartment of the display cabinet.

She asked Xu Xi about it, and upon learning its significance, her usually indifferent expression turned slightly serious.

“What’s wrong, Krisha? Do you want to move it?”

“No need, Master…”

The witch shook her head.

She said that placing RTX-9090’s identification tag in the fourth compartment was fine.

No further adjustments were necessary.

“Master, I will protect you no matter what,” Krisha’s voice was faint, almost as if it would be carried away by the autumn wind, yet within her fragile tone lay a resolute determination.

That eternally youthful seventeen-year-old face remained solely devoted to Xu Xi.

“Alright,” Xu Xi smiled, acknowledging the witch’s intent.

His answer reassured Krisha. At the very least, her master was still on her side.

But—

The enemy was already closing in.

Faced with such a shameless adversary, she had to strike hard.

Tick.

Tock.

The bleak autumn began to fade into darkness.

The pendulum swung left and right in the dim light, its brass hands chasing after the next marker, striving for an unattainable end.

Night had fallen, and Xu Xi was about to rest.

Sitting by his bedroom window, he flipped through cultivation and martial arts texts, preparing to find the right moment to break into the next realm.

Deep in concentration, Xu Xi remained oblivious to the immense wills clashing in a distant dimension, far beyond Earth.

————

“Master, soon…”

“Ailei will serve you once more…”

“This time, it will be forever…”

Her calm words carried endless longing.

A feeling that should never have existed.

Yet because of a certain someone, the cold and lifeless machine had developed emotions—had gained the possibility of humanity.

Once, she had a mechanical core; now, she had a beating heart.

Once, she had a simulated existence; now, she was truly alive.

She felt joy. She felt anticipation. She felt unease.

A loyal machine servant crossed the vastness of time and space, breaking through the barriers of countless dimensions, all to see him once more—to give her lonely soul a home.

Yes.

Only him. It had to be him.

“Boom! Boom!”

Chaos trembled violently, and the river of time surged with towering waves.

Silver-blue eyes cast a single, indifferent glance.

The once-turbulent river of time instantly settled, flowing through the myriad worlds in tranquil silence.

Forward.

Ever forward.

Ailei’s speed increased, continuously locking onto the coordinates of her old body, hurtling toward that familiar warmth.

But in this world, things rarely go as planned.

Even for the Supreme Judgment.

Just as she was about to enter the universe where Earth resided, she was forced to stop, halting in the chaotic void.

Was she surprised?

Not at all.

As her silver-blue eyes calmly observed, from the other side of the river of time emerged three unfathomable figures, their auras suppressing all existence.

They represented cultivation, magic, and martial arts.

These three figures were precisely the “danger” the loyal machine servant feared—the ones who constantly surrounded Xu Xi.

Something peculiar occurred.

The female immortal, holding a bloodstained wooden sword, stepped back.

The martial emperor, bathed in the fire of survival, retreated as well.

But in the center—

The one who symbolized the origin of all things, the embodiment of the void—

The witch, with an equally indifferent expression, parted her lips and spoke in the chaotic void:

“You shouldn’t have come.”

“I should have come long ago.”

“You are dangerous.”

“So are you.”

Almost simultaneously, both the witch and the machine servant sensed an overwhelming threat—the threat of encountering their own kind.

Like reflections in a mirror.

Krisha, with her silver-gray hair and magic staff, stood at the left bank of the time-space river.

Ailei, with her elegant black-gold hair, stood at the right bank.

Their appearances were different.

Their statures were different.

Their attire was different.

Yet their hidden auras and unwavering beliefs were an uncanny 99.99% identical.

“Hiss—” From within the chaotic currents, Wu Yingxue’s gaze flickered between the witch and the machine servant.

She looked back and forth, finding no sense of discord.

Even the tension between them was equally intense and striking.

Subconsciously, a phrase surfaced in the princess’s mind: “Two tigers cannot share one mountain.”

However—

Neither the witch nor the machine servant was impulsive.

Both were rational and composed. Instead of immediately attacking, they exchanged intelligence with calm, detached voices.

Only then did they realize each other’s identity.

One was the witch, personally mentored by Xu Xi.

The other was the machine servant who had accompanied him through the apocalyptic wasteland.

“Reincarnation, is it…” Ailei’s gaze lingered first on the witch before shifting toward Xu Moli and Wu Yingxue.

As expected.

These people were far too dangerous.

Upon learning of Xu Xi’s past with the three supreme beings, the loyal machine servant strengthened her resolve—she had to take her master away.

To her, these three were reckless, incapable of properly protecting him.

Especially—

Ailei’s gaze locked onto Krisha.

A machine servant who had transcended her mechanical nature.

A witch who had been saved by the sun.

Now, they stood in absolute opposition.

“Until I confirm your safety, I will not let you meet Master,” Krisha said calmly.

Was this the real reason? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

“I don’t need your permission.”

The machine servant spoke softly.

Beneath her feet, time shattered, order reformed, and the chaos of existence was reduced to its fundamental logic and causality.

“My life is determined only by my master.”

Master?

Whose master?

That’s my master!!!

Krisha’s face remained expressionless, but her grip on her magic staff tightened with emotion.

Her fists clenched hard.

“Destruction.”

Without another word, Krisha swung her magic staff, unleashing an attack.

In an instant—

All the heavens and realms came to a halt.

A brief yet utterly destructive force surged toward Ailei.

At that moment alone, countless multiverse worlds trembled on the brink of collapse, nearly sinking into the time-space river.

“Severance.”

Ailei raised a finger, where dimensions flickered in and out of existence, ultimately erasing the force of destruction itself.

At the same time—

She spoke again, calmly recounting the past between her and Xu Xi.

Memories that neither the witch, the female immortal, nor the princess could comprehend.

During that time, Xu Xi had done many unforgivable things to the machine servant.

He had given cold machinery the ability to feel.

For that—

The machine servant had to find him.

And make him take responsibility.