Chapter 121
Chapter 121: Three Flowers Crown the Summit
The Savage Realm, 8:30 AM.
Seattle Mercy Hospital, 10th Floor, Fate Casino.
Jiang Nan stood in the center of the grand hall, the Sovereign Lantern hovering at his side.
Behind him, Piano followed closely, still clutching Tiffany's face skin in her hands.
She jabbed it with a needle every now and then, muttering things like 'serves that bimbo right.'
Jiang Nan paid her no mind.
His gaze swept across the empty corridor.
No Ghost Doctors. No Supervisors. Not even a trace of blood.
This place was supposed to be the main stage of today's high-level showdown—the final arena where all factions would clash.
And yet it was now quieter than a no-man's-land.
Not even the shadow of a ghost.
Jiang Nan felt no surprise.
He glanced down at the timer in the upper-right corner of his vision.
【Word Spirit·Strong Luck Time Remaining: 02:29:17】
Two and a half hours left.
He cast his mind back over everything that had happened since he first stepped into this hospital.
In the 1st floor lobby, he had inexplicably walked straight into the Safe Passage.
Separated from Guo Shuai, then made it to the Card Room without encountering a single obstacle.
Then, in the same fashion, reached the 8th floor.
Then the Rigged Werewolf Game began—he couldn't access the 9th floor and was branded with the Hunter Mark.
Then came the Electrician Ghost that tried to attack him.
That was the first true enemy he had faced here. Grade B.
Then the 11th floor, where he began active hunting—the Supervisors he encountered there were neither strong nor numerous.
But once he activated the Dragon God Imperial Armor and his power surged, the monsters he met became correspondingly stronger.
Grade B+ Ghost Doctors. Even that Grade S Plague Ghost.
'The effect of Strong Luck…'
Jiang Nan murmured to himself.
The answer was already on the tip of his tongue.
The underlying logic of this Word Spirit was to steer him away from any danger that exceeded his current combat capacity.
When he first arrived with no protection at all, Strong Luck had ensured he encountered no monsters whatsoever.
Later, once he obtained the Hunter Mark and gained a baseline fighting capability, he began running into weaker enemies.
Then he activated the Dragon God Imperial Armor, his power skyrocketed, and the monsters he encountered became Grade S.
And now…
His strength was already considerable—yet Strong Luck was still working.
It was steering him away from the final Boss.
Because that Boss might be something that even the current him could not handle with ease.
And so, by some invisible force, he simply could not run into it.
Even if he actively went looking, he wouldn't find it.
'I see.'
Jiang Nan shook his head.
For the weak, this Word Spirit was practically a cheat code.
One would never die—always guaranteed to face only enemies squarely within crushing range.
But for someone who was already truly strong, it would actually work against them.
Especially him.
His power came primarily from his Word Spirits—those unreasonable, concept-level abilities that defied conventional logic.
And Strong Luck did not account for such factors beyond normal combat projections.
It operated purely on standard combat assessments, steering him away from anything that might cause him to stumble.
'It seems this Word Spirit can't be used thoughtlessly.'
Jiang Nan withdrew his gaze and glanced at Piano behind him.
At this moment, the woman was crouched on the floor, needling Tiffany's face skin with a dark grin.
"Hehehe… Big-chest girl, never thought you'd see this day, gaga-gaga-ga!"
Jiang Nan: "……"
This woman was truly one of a kind.
Still, this confirmed another suspicion of his.
Strong Luck did not draw from teammates' luck.
At least—not from teammates at his side.
As for Guo Shuai, whom he had left downstairs…
Jiang Nan sighed inwardly.
'Hope you'll be fine.'
The experiment was over.
Time to put an end to all of this.
He looked at the Sovereign Lantern one last time.
On the 9th floor, he had carved a path through a corridor packed with Ghost Doctors and nurses.
After absorbing countless souls, the Grand Love Points inside the lantern had now reached a staggering number.
Jiang Nan focused, and the panel materialized in his mind.
【Current Grand Love Points: 328,000!】
Three hundred and twenty-eight thousand.
As for why there were so many…
Jiang Nan's mouth twitched.
He had gone on a killing spree.
Just now on the 9th floor, he had come across a monster covered head to toe in festering blisters.
The thing had looked rather imposing.
So, he had offhandedly cut it down.
Offhandedly absorbed it.
Offhandedly converted it into Grand Love Points.
It was only afterward that he realized…
That had been the Grade S Plague Ghost.
He had been planning to use it as upgrade material for the next tier.
Jiang Nan glanced at the upgrade conditions, his eye twitching.
【Tier】: Grade A (Grand Love Points required for next tier: 50,000; plus imprisonment of 5 Grade S entities' souls)
He had 50,000 Grand Love Points—more than 300,000, in fact.
The problem was those 5 Grade S souls.
He had only imprisoned Charlotte so far. Still 4 short.
'Never mind, the mastermind behind all of this still hasn't been dealt with.'
'I'll see if they have any lackeys.'
Jiang Nan cleared his thoughts and turned his attention to the new function.
【Grand Love Upon the Future】
Before boosting his physical constitution, he decided to test this first.
Jiang Nan focused his will.
In the next instant, his entire body transformed into a streak of light—and was drawn into the Sovereign Lantern!
Piano felt a flicker before her eyes, and her master was gone.
She blinked, staring at the lantern hovering in midair, scratching her head.
"Master… went inside?"
She leaned in a little closer, eyes fixed on the lantern's surface, searching for something.
Though she saw nothing.
But she wasn't stupid!
This had to be a spatial divine artifact!
"Master is amazing—able to get a room anywhere at any time!"
"Next time I have to ask Master to bring me along, then I can hehehehe…"
At that moment, inside the Sovereign Lantern.
Jiang Nan stood on solid ground, scanning his surroundings.
It was a dim, grey expanse.
No sun. No moon.
Only the black light radiating from the lantern itself above illuminated everything.
The ground was a flat grey stretching to the horizon without end.
And at the very center, lying there, was a ghost woman with an explosive figure—Head Nurse Charlotte.
She lay still, the wounds on her body mostly healed.
But the ghost remained unconscious.
Not that he had any attention to spare for her at the moment.
He turned to face the entire Small World and activated【Grand Love Upon the Future】!
"First, try accelerating one day's passage!"
【Ding! 10,000 Grand Love Points consumed!】
The instant the words left his mouth, in the void above the Small World—
A countdown reading 【24:00:00】 materialized, and immediately began ticking down!
As the long wait for time to pass began, Jiang Nan was far from idle.
He immediately mobilized the massive reservoir of points and used 【Grand Love Upon the Body】 to begin frantically boosting his pitifully weak physical constitution.
Without the Hunter Mark's amplification, his true baseline physique was only Grade C+.
"100,000."
Jiang Nan spent with the confidence of a man flush with wealth.
【100,000 Grand Love Points consumed for host enhancement. Enhancement in progress……】
In an instant.
Jiang Nan felt every single bone in his body being crushed inch by inch!
Then, under a wave of nourishing energy, they reconstituted—only to be shattered again by an even more violent force!
This inhuman torment—like being flayed and deboned piece by piece—lasted a full hour inside the Small World!
Even someone with a will as unyielding as Jiang Nan could not stop his face from contorting in agony.
Only after an hour did that soul-rending pain slowly recede.
Jiang Nan opened his eyes and spat out a massive mouthful of black tainted blood!
Those were all the impurities being expelled from his body!
【Ding! Enhancement complete! Your baseline physical constitution has permanently risen from Grade C+ to Grade A+!】
‘Phew……’
Jiang Nan slowly rose to his feet and casually rolled his wrists and neck.
Right now, he felt as though he could kick a hundred versions of his former self to death with a single blow.
And more than that—the dramatic leap in baseline constitution meant the threshold at which he could endure Word Spirit Backlash had risen enormously.
Using the Dragon God Imperial Armor on his body would now be far more fluid and natural.
If he added the Hunter Mark's amplification on top of that, he could now absolutely recite all the way to the 7th line of the Dragon God Imperial Armor's Dragon Tongue in a single breath!
‘Not bad.’
Jiang Nan gave a quiet nod, then sat cross-legged on the ground and silently waited for the countdown to run out…
Finally.
From the moment 【Grand Love Upon the Future】 was activated, less than a minute had passed in the outside world.
But inside the Small World, fifteen and a half hours had quietly slipped by.
And in that very moment, a system chime rang out inside Jiang Nan's mind.
【Ding! Time has reached midnight 00:00】
【Daily settlement complete!】
【Word count quota refreshed: +1 (Current Balance: 6,088)】
【Current Location: ???】
【Check-in successful!】
【Congratulations, Host—you have received Word Spirit·Instant Eternity (Sequence 023)!】
Jiang Nan's pupils contracted!
He absorbed the information flooding into his mind.
【Word Spirit·Instant Eternity (Sequence 023)】
Effect: Activate the Word Spirit, pause time!
Each use generates a degree of Time Resistance.
Time Resistance: When enemies use abilities or equipment involving time against you, the full effect cannot be produced.
Can increase alongside resistance growth, up to the point of total nullification.
Trait: The higher the physical constitution, the longer time is paused; range is unlimited.
Cost: 6 characters.
Activation Method: Snap fingers. ‘In this instant…eternity.’
Jiang Nan opened his eyes.
And then…
He laughed.
Hahahaha!!
The laughter echoed through the vast empty Small World, carrying the madness of something suppressed far too long!
Not because this Word Spirit was so powerful!
Of course, pausing time—Sequence 023—that was indeed absurdly strong.
But what mattered even more was something else entirely.
The experiment had succeeded!
Exactly as he had predicted!
What the system referred to as 【refreshing upon reaching midnight 0:00】 did not mean midnight by the time of the Savage Realm at all!
The actual judgment mechanism was more like a standalone 【biological clock】 installed deep within Jiang Nan's soul!
As long as 24 hours passed within the time flow of the environment Jiang Nan was currently in, the system would register it as a new day and forcibly refresh the check-in!
What did that mean?
It meant that as long as the Sovereign Lantern held enough cursed souls and Grand Love Points—
He could skip through time inside the Small World an unlimited number of times!
Refresh the system's daily check-in rewards and word count quota an unlimited number of times!
He had finally…
Never again had to be the mute who hoarded every last character like gold dust!!!
Jiang Nan could no longer contain the madness.
As long as he absorbed enough souls to fill this lantern's oil to the brim—
He could speak freely without restraint, and use his Word Spirits to blast every last enemy into dust!
Of course!
Even so, it was extravagant—and tedious.
After all, 10,000 Grand Love Points only bought one day inside the Small World.
And he still had to wait—just sit and wait.
And one day only yielded 1 character and 1 check-in.
But right now he had Grand Love Points to spare!
Jiang Nan rose to his feet, gazing out at the grey expanse of the Small World, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Whoever made this lantern certainly never anticipated this.
Otherwise they would never have called it the 'Grand Love Alliance.'
Such a vast Small World surely existed for a reason.
And that answer…
Was very likely buried inside the Grade S Sovereign Lantern.
The smile at Jiang Nan's lips refused to be suppressed any longer.
‘Splendid…’
‘This lantern of yours…truly delights me.’
‘Then as repayment…’
‘Let every cursed thing in this hospital become nourishment for you.’
“Hahahahahaha!”