Standing before the stone demon—crafted by Mo Fan through a blood pact and stone magic—I knew it was over.
My Healing Star Galaxy was empty. Shame I didn't break through to the Advanced tier in that element, but hey, too late now. My Light Cosmos? Also drained. The Spirit Cosmos still had about ten percent left, but what's that gonna do against a stone golem? I had just enough leftovers in Space and Time to take the bastard down, but what's the point? I can't lay a finger on Mo Fan. And backing him up are Mu Bai and Azalea—those damn crows. No. I'll burn what's left of my magic on this insane plan. What do I have to lose? Humanity's practically wiped out already. The cycle has begun again.
How did it come to this?
Looking back on my life, I first woke up in the body of a six-year-old orphan named Su Yutao in Bo City. Took me no time at all to realize I'd been reborn into the world of Full-Time Mage—some half-remembered Chinese webnovel I'd only read once and regretted not rereading a thousand times in this life.
I tried everything to summon a system—every chant, every cliché activation phrase. Nada. Either the cheats were late or I just didn't get any. Playing it safe, I decided to buddy up with the main character. In a world that's twenty-one years away from being overrun by sea monsters and the occasional undead—where China, the second most populous country in the world, gets reduced to just five cities constantly under siege—you don't take chances. Stick close to the MC, and even if I couldn't become a mage, maybe I'd survive long enough to find a relatively safe corner to hide in.
So I'd sneak out of the orphanage to hang out with Mo Fan, who turned out to be my age. Any time we weren't playing, I was in the library. By sixteen, I placed second in the Tian Lan Magic High entrance exams. Mu Bai was already showing signs of his "genius" then.
Everything followed canon. Mo Fan got his dragon amulet from the middle school security guard, failed the entrance test because of soul fusion, and his dad sold their house to get him in through the back door. During the awakening ceremony, he was second to go—and drew the Light element. Mu Bai and his lapdog roasted him immediately, even told me I might as well jump off the roof. Man, what a brat he was back then.
I cultivated hard for three years. Wasn't much in a fight—Light element and all. When Bo City got attacked, I carried Xin Xia to the safe zone. Mo Fan shared some of the Sacred Spring energy with me in return, letting me break through to the Intermediate tier. That's when I awakened the Spirit element and finally got my first real attack magic. Old Zhao gave me a Light Spirit Seed for helping out with the Scaled Demons.
I reached Advanced during the university tournament—started off in the defense squad. That's when I awakened my cheat code: the Time element.
Awakened Space after the Tomb of Khufu arc, hitting Super tier alongside Mu Bai. Reached Forbidden tier in Time, and later Space, after the battle for Shanghai. Then came Healing.
And after all the fights—against monsters, undead, demons, titans, archangels, mages, you name it—I finally thought I could breathe. That I could sit down and study my holy gifts in Time and Space.
That's when canon went off the rails.
Mo Fan got taken over by the Dark King.
And honestly? Makes sense. His body's a nest of dark elements and sub-dark essences. He's got the Demonization element, a blessing from the Dark King, soul ties with Azalea (that twelve-winged fallen angel), a contract with Alpas—a descendant of the Dark King's first cursed creature—and, cherry on top, one of the King's soul fragments sealed in the Shadow Dimension. Bingo blackout.
So yeah, Mo Fan became one of the four rulers of the Shadow Dimension. Except he's basically a puppet for the Dark King now. The King used him to seize 50% of the Shadow Realm and is about to power up even more by fully fusing with him—assuming the other rulers don't gang up on him first.
But before all that divine turf war nonsense plays out, the cycle began. You know, the cycle. The Harvest. Think Mass Effect—except instead of wiping out all advanced civilizations, they just target humanity. The monster empires lead the charge, with Mo Fan—now a demigod—chipping in.
Turns out this isn't the first time the cycle's repeated. Last time, humanity created the Totems—magical amalgamations of necromancy, spirit, summoning, and other elements—to help them recover faster in this era. Not sure what caused the apocalypse in previous cycles, but this time and last, it was fusion magic.
Back then, it was used to seal the Nasca Emperor, one of the strongest at the time. This time, it helped push back a major sea emperor—though not without help from the past cycle's Totems.
Oh. The stone demon's arm is coming down. Guess that's enough reminiscing for one death.
Time to roll the dice.
Magic fusion gloves lit up on my hands. I channeled the energies of Time, Space, and Spirit, burning my soul and unleashing every ounce of those half-mastered holy gifts.
A second after the spell completed, a massive stone fist crushed Su Yutao's body, ending his journey in this world.
...Or did it?