It wasn't until much later that Fang Lingji finally understood why Yang Qi had dragged the two of them through the jungle, and why he'd decided to leave so suddenly without bringing anything along. For now, though, she was sleeping soundly, completely carefree. Rachel Luo, on the other hand, wasn't so optimistic. Late at night, when everything was quiet, she quietly approached Yang Qi.
"Master," Rachel glanced at the sleeping Fang Lingji and decided to speak up, ready for a conversation only Earth folks could have: "Don’t you think the name 'Wedding Dress Divine Skill' sounds familiar? Like we’ve heard it somewhere before."
"Yeah." Yang Qi nodded. "Earth element skill, boosts strength and damage, learned from Yan Nantian."
"Uh..." Yang Qi’s answer clearly caught Rachel off guard. She had no idea what he was talking about. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"It’s from New Peerless Twins 3." Yang Qi replied matter-of-factly. "You never played that game? The one called Bright Moon Lonely Star."
"No... Oh, wait, I remember now." Rachel’s eyes lit up. "Speaking of Peerless Twins, that’s a novel, right? My college roommate read it and kept talking about it—something about Wedding Dress Divine Skill, Yan Nantian, Mistress of the Flower Palace, and all that. We—" She paused, then voiced her wild guess: "We didn’t accidentally transmigrate into the world of Peerless Twins, did we?"
"It’s possible." Yang Qi nodded, then shrugged. "But personally, I’d prefer if this was the game version."
"Why?"
"Easy—because I never read the original novel, I only played the game. Who knows what the book is actually about? These days, people learn character relationships from TV dramas and plot settings from movies! Like Prince Duan looking for true love, Ouyang Feng chasing after the Third Princess, Central Divine being stabbed by some random woman, and the freaky Three Flowers Gathering on Top skill—stuff that makes die-hard fans lose their minds!"
And that’s not even the worst of it. At least Master Jin’s adaptations still sort of make sense—at worst you get some random sister character, but people seem to like that. But Old Gu’s stuff? Total chaos. The changes are so wild, it’s almost criminal. The amount of nonsense is just painful to watch. Compared to TV dramas, or wild settings like Jiang Yuyan, at least the games stick closer to the source.
"I heard the first two New Peerless Twins games are pretty close to the original, but I never played them. I started with Bright Moon Lonely Star." Yang Qi mused. "If we’re really in the world of Bright Moon Lonely Star, it should be more fantasy, with gods and monsters running around everywhere. But so far, it’s just a regular martial arts world, so I doubt it’s the game version. Which means, apart from rumors and hearsay, I know absolutely nothing about this place."
Why no Lianxing and Yaoyue, no Flower Transfer Jade, and not even a hint of the Flower Palace? To Yang, these weren’t even real questions—who knows what the original novel says? Besides iconic names like Little Fish and Flower Wuque, everything else is just background noise. And even for the famous skills, the only one he really knows is the Soul-Losing Technique, not this Wedding Dress Divine Skill.
"If I’d known reading novels would come in handy like this, if I’d known I’d end up here..." Rachel looked utterly defeated. Because she never read those books, she missed her chance to be a prophet—the only real advantage she could have had in this world.
"Don’t think like that." Yang Qi looked at her, his tone both comforting and a little stern. "Life is supposed to be new and unfamiliar. In games, you can look up guides or reload saves, but if you can’t play without a walkthrough or can’t handle not being able to reload, that’s just being a noob. The world is huge and unpredictable—no one will hand you a guide. You have to watch, listen, think, and judge for yourself. The real pros are the ones who write the guides."
Yang Qi’s tone was really starting to sound like a proper master.
"The real pros are the ones who write the guides..." Rachel was stunned, turning the words over in her mind for a while, then finally broke into a smile. "Lesson learned, Master!" Once her mind cleared, her thoughts flowed faster. Rachel picked up on some new info in Yang Qi’s words and whispered, "Can we... ever go back?" It was the question she dreaded most, but couldn’t help asking. This world really wasn’t her friend.
Yang Qi gave the most direct answer: "Of course." As fragments of memory flooded in, he decided to add, "From what I remember, people like us are called Chosen Ones." He recalled a secret technique, and his eyes flashed faintly gold, but after scanning Rachel from head to toe, he didn’t see any glowing marks—who knows why.
Rachel let out a long sigh, pressing her hand to her chest. Her full chest heaved up and down, and it took her a while to calm down again.
"If you want to quit, I won’t stop you," Yang Qi said calmly. "Find a place to hide out for a few months, or maybe a year or two, and you’ll make it back eventually."
"No, I’m not hiding—I’m moving forward." Her tone was firm, even more than before. "Back in my world, I was in business. Business is war, and I know on the battlefield, if you don’t advance, you die. Giving up on progress is suicide. The world’s big, but there’s nowhere to hide. Otherwise, why would you have rushed us out of there in the first place?" She finished with a smile at Yang Qi.