Coming For You

While Ling Yan was still thinking, he heard the general opposite him command: "Take off your helmet and let me see."

"...Yes."

Ling Yan followed Mu Yuan's instructions and removed his helmet.

He had specifically asked Mei to change his hair color. In this era where everyone had long, black hair, if Mu Yuan saw his short, light gray hair, he might very well consider him a monster and try to kill him.

Mu Yuan couldn't help but glance at Ling Yan's black-haired appearance a few more times, but then felt that staring at him didn't fit his current status. So, Mu Yuan forced himself to look away and asked knowingly: "What's your name?"

Ling Yan blurted out, "Ling..."

[Cough cough! Boss! You're a soldier in the Mu family army now!]

"Mu Ling..."

Mu Yuan couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips, continuing to ask: "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

The kiss from last night on the bed unexpectedly flashed into Ling Yan's mind.

But his expression remained unchanged as he returned Mu Yuan's gaze with a profound smile: "This lowly one lives with the General in the military camp, so naturally we have met. However, my abilities are not very good, and I've been feeding horses in the fodder shed, so I haven't had much contact with the General."

Abilities not very good?

Mu Yuan stared at Ling Yan's unbelievably handsome face, quietly listening to his blatant lie.

Then, Mu Yuan raised his hand and patted Ling Yan's broad shoulder: "Alright, no more feeding horses from now on. Just follow me."

The direction this plot was taking caught Ling Yan off guard. He was mentally calculating his next move, how to respond to Mu Yuan's words.

Suddenly, Mei's somewhat surprised voice drifted into his consciousness: [Boss! The system is making a move!]

Hearing Mei's words, Ling Yan smiled slightly at Mu Yuan: "Thank you for your promotion, General. It is my greatest honor to follow you."

Mu Yuan waved his hand dismissively, putting on an impatient expression.

Indeed, as the Guardian General, he had heard such words countless times.

Mu Yuan turned around, gritting his teeth and enduring the pain as he retied the straps of his damaged armor.

Bending down, he picked up the sword that had fallen nearby, turned back to Ling Yan with a look, and motioned for him to follow.

Then, the two of them headed deeper into the pine forest.

As a "horse-feeding soldier with limited abilities," Ling Yan was unfamiliar with their current surroundings.

Seeing Mu Yuan confidently heading deeper into the pine forest, Ling Yan asked: "General, where is this place?"

Mu Yuan, relying on the memories of the original owner of his body, gave Ling Yan some information, not forgetting to throw in a bit of mockery.

"It seems you really are useless, truly only good for feeding horses."

Ling Yan coughed lightly, avoiding Mu Yuan's captivating gaze.

Mu Yuan stopped teasing him and continued to explain, "This is Qing Pine Ridge in the east of our Mu family army's territory. Going west will lead us to the camp."

"Oh."

Ling Yan didn't ask any more questions, and Mu Yuan remained silent as well.

Ling Yan watched Mu Yuan's back, then turned his attention to Mei: [Mei, what's the situation with the system?]

[Boss! One good news, one bad news, which do you want to hear first?]

Mei knew Ling Yan wouldn't pay attention to his low-level jokes and continued on his own: [The good news is that the system has finally deigned to acknowledge us. The bad news is the reason why it's acknowledging us.]

According to Mei, because the plot had changed and General Mu Yuan hadn't died, the book they were currently in had changed from [Completed] to [Ongoing]. Therefore, the obsessive-compulsive system was furious. Contacting Mei was its final ultimatum.

This intelligent reading system had given them fifteen chapters to kill Mu Yuan. To make "To the Realm of Flesh" return to its completed state.

[The system also threatened us, saying that if Mu Yuan doesn't die within fifteen chapters, it will definitely make us pay the price.]

Ling Yan's thumb brushed across his lower lip, and he chuckled softly.

[Pay the price? Even if we follow the plot and Mu Yuan dies, we're definitely still an existence it doesn't allow. Who knows what it will do to us then? Don't listen to its nonsense, ignore it.]

[Yes... Connection with the intelligent reading system closed.]

Hearing Ling Yan's soft chuckle, Mu Yuan turned his head to look at him, his long eyelashes fluttering twice. His beautiful eyes shifted, and he asked: "Ling, you're not from the mainland of the Xingling Kingdom, are you?"

The thing he feared most was a sudden show of concern from his "leader."

Ling Yan took a breath, his expression unchanged, and a lie readily rolled off his tongue: "Yes, my hometown is the furthest from the Violet Gold Continent, in the Silver Continent."

During that brief inhale, his mind quickly reviewed the plot points he had seen in the book earlier.

He had selectively read through the first thirty-odd chapters of "To the Realm of Flesh" and had a general understanding of the story's background.

The Xingling Kingdom was a large nation composed of the mainland and surrounding affiliated continents, with the Violet Gold mainland being the most prosperous.

However, the original author had abandoned the story without specifying the exact number of surrounding continents outside Xingling, so the subsequent plot was unknown.

The part Ling Yan did know was that King Qi Lin had been extremely troubled by the issue of the Silver Continent, the furthest from Xingling, and had eventually sent Mu Yuan to resolve it.

Now it seemed that, due to the author's abandonment of the story, Qi Lin had already developed a murderous intent towards Mu Yuan.

And there was also a crazy obsessive-compulsive system that wholeheartedly trying to get the plot back on track.

Mu Yuan's situation was extremely dangerous.

This was something that Mu Yuan, as a general, must have already sensed through the Imperial Advisor's drugging incident.

That was why Ling Yan had said his home was the Silver Continent, the troublesome continent that had once given Qi Lin a headache.

His aim was to increase Mu Yuan's trust in him.