“Bond Card?”
“Rare equipment?”
Just seeing the rare equipment appear was enough to make Li Ran feel like his heart was blooming with joy.
But what the hell was a bond card?
---
[Back: Phantom Cloak (Rare)]
[Requirement: Eerie Power 400]
[Attributes: +50 Eerie Power, +50 Strength, +50 Agility, +50 Constitution]
[Effect: When the player takes lethal damage, a phantom will automatically activate to block the damage. Cooldown: One day.]
---
[Bond Card: Phoenix in Flight]
[Once a spouse is designated, it cannot be changed.]
[When used in battle, if both husband and wife are present, all attributes of the player increase by 50% for 10 minutes. Cooldown: One day.]
---
“What the hell?!”
When he saw the effect of the bond card, Li Ran was completely dumbfounded.
Trigger the bond card, have your spouse present, and all your attributes increase by 50%?
What kind of god-tier bond was this?
It was absolutely terrifying.
But then, Li Ran quickly thought of a problem.
As long as he was with Su Bingyao in the eerie world, this bond card could be incredibly useful.
But what about back in the real world? Alone, how would he trigger a spouse bond?
“That makes the bond card basically useless.”
Thinking of this, Li Ran clenched his teeth in frustration. If used wisely, the bond card could be a trump card—a killer weapon.
Unless he could bring Su Bingyao into the real world.
But that was obviously unlikely.
Fortunately, he did get a piece of rare equipment.
After completing the mission "Repair the Broken Family", Li Ran's Eerie Power increased from 380 to 430.
He now met the requirement to equip the Phantom Cloak.
At this moment, donning the rare gear, Li Ran was the flashiest guy around.
His attributes received another massive boost:
[Eerie Power: 480]
[Agility: 120]
[Strength: 120]
[Constitution: 100]
[Points: 1800]
[Active Skills: (Shadowstep), (Shadow Assault), (Blood Scythe Blade)]
[Passive Skills: Phantom, Thunder Scar, Focus Mind]
You could say, this round of gains had upgraded Li Ran across the board.
He even felt like he could go solo the serial killer Wang Qian.
But he wasn’t that reckless.
Without absolute certainty, he wouldn’t take such a huge risk.
After all, the serial killer Wang Qian was an A-class monster with an Eerie Power of 500.
What he wasn’t sure of, was whether his current gear could withstand Wang Qian.
To be absolutely safe, Li Ran believed he’d need at least 700 Eerie Power to be confident in taking on Wang Qian.
“1800 points… seems like a good time to splurge in the points shop.”
However, the rewards from the parent-child event hadn’t been fully distributed yet, so now wasn’t the best time to redeem anything.
Su Bingyao was crying her heart out. Li Ran comforted her for quite a while before she finally stopped blaming herself.
Just then, the teaching assistant came running back with a huge gift box.
“I announce, the winner of this campus parent-child activity is…”
“The Li Ziyang family!”
Li Ziyang excitedly rushed forward and hugged Li Ran, “Dad, we did it. We’re first place!”
“Yay~ We’re number one!”
Li Ran pulled his son into his arms too, basking in the joy of a mended family.
[Mission Completed: Win First Place in the Parent-Child Activity]
[Reward: +100 Eerie Power, +1000 Points]
As another cold voice rang out, Li Ran—immersed in happiness—almost lost his senses.
This brought his Eerie Power to 580 and his points to 2800.
“Damn, today’s a jackpot.”
He won the parent-child activity, and completed the long-standing Repair the Broken Family mission.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Plus, tonight he could finally sleep with Su Bingyao!
The thought made Li Ran's lips curl into a wide grin.
“Li Ziyang, bring your mom and dad up to claim your prize,” the assistant called out.
Maybe it was because Mr. Zhang was gone, but the assistant—normally timid—seemed full of confidence now. His entire aura had changed, as if he was the one in charge.
The trio walked up to the assistant and each received a beautifully wrapped gift box.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Li Ran opened the elegant box to find a card inside. It was the size of a poker card, pitch black with golden trim. The back featured a strange symbol like a magic circle, and the front depicted an abstract image of a family of three. Despite the style, it was clearly a father, mother, and child.
[Family Summoning Card: When you miss someone, simply whisper their name and kiss the card to summon them to your side. Duration: one hour. Not limited by plane of existence.]
When the golden finger gave this explanation, Li Ran’s jaw dropped—wide enough to fit a soccer ball!
Just a moment ago, he was lamenting the unusable bond card.
And now, here came a family summoning card—not limited by any plane.
This meant, even back in the real world, Li Ran could summon Su Bingyao to his side for an hour.
An hour… you could do a lot in an hour.
If things went smoothly, two or three times wasn’t impossible either.
Conversely, Su Bingyao could summon Li Ran from the real world to the eerie world.
If Li Ziyang ran into danger or trouble, he could summon his dad with this card too.
Family Summon Card + Bond Card.
Go into battle, summon the wife, trigger the Phoenix in Flight bond, and boom—attributes up 50%!
Holy crap!
Who would’ve thought the bond card could be activated this way?
Even Li Ran himself couldn’t believe it.
Was he just super lucky, or was someone behind this, pulling strings?
Thinking of this, Li Ran couldn’t help but kiss Su Bingyao on the cheek out of sheer joy.
Su Bingyao froze, blushed, and whispered, “What are you doing? Everyone’s watching.”
Li Ran didn’t care about any of that. He picked Su Bingyao up and spun her around with excitement.
“Ah! Put me down!” Su Bingyao cried out.
“Ew, Dad and Mom are being mushy,” Li Ziyang said, giving Li Ran a weird look.
“Put me down—do that at home!”
Su Bingyao pounded Li Ran’s chest with her little fists, her cheeks red like apples.
As an adult, if you couldn’t understand what she meant by that, you might as well commit ritual suicide.
Li Ran smirked and said, “What do you mean at home? I like being on the bottom.”
“You perv~!”
---
Time flew.
A whole day passed in the blink of an eye.
That evening, Su Bingyao cooked while Li Ran helped, preparing a sumptuous dinner.
After dinner, they played with their son for a while… then came the tense and exciting moment.
To be honest, Li Ran was so nervous his throat felt like it was on fire.
He rushed through his shower, threw on some shorts, and slipped into the master bedroom.
Tonight, he was going to be Xu Xian.
But then…
“Not tonight.”
Just as he got into bed, Su Bingyao dropped the bombshell.
Looking at the gorgeous wife within reach but unable to touch, Li Ran was bewildered.
“Why not?”
“What do you think,” Su Bingyao replied with a meaningful smile.
And then, that damned cold system voice chimed in again.
[New Mission: Find the marriage certificate your wife hid.]
[Reward: +50 Eerie Power, +500 Points]
“What the actual fuck? I’ve already taken my pants off and you’re pulling this?!”
Su Bingyao looked at her deflated husband and smiled mischievously. “If you can find the marriage certificate I hid, I’ll listen to you from now on.”
As soon as Li Ran heard that, it was like he’d been injected with adrenaline—he leapt up, eyes glowing.
He began ransacking the bedroom, turning everything upside down looking for the marriage certificate.
Before, Li Ran had always thought they were already divorced.
Turns out it was just nominal—they never officially filed.
Which meant, legally, they were still husband and wife.
All he had to do was find that damned certificate.
Unfortunately, he searched the entire room and found nothing.
“Can I at least cuddle…”
“No!”
Su Bingyao clearly wasn’t falling for his tricks, mercilessly rejecting him.
“Take your time looking. I’m going to sleep.”
With a smile playing on her lips, Su Bingyao drifted off.
Helpless, Li Ran had to sleep on the tatami again.
Nearing midnight, Li Ran gave up searching.
His life was more important—time to sleep.
---
Day Five
“Brother Ran, why do you look so drained?”
At the neighborhood assembly point, Lu Zhaohui asked.
Last night, after forcing himself to sleep, Li Ran had gotten up and turned the house upside down again—still no sign of the marriage certificate.
The golden finger finally hinted: The certificate is not in the house.
At that point, Li Ran just deflated.
If it wasn’t in the house, it had to be somewhere in this massive neighborhood.
How the hell was he supposed to find it?
“It’s nothing.”
Li Ran glanced at Lu Zhaohui and was surprised to see the guy’s Eerie Power had reached 50.
This coward actually managed to complete a mission?
“Oh right, Brother Ran, here’s the 10 points I borrowed from you.”
“Keep it.”
Li Ran didn’t take the 10 points—not because he didn’t care about the amount, but because he felt Lu Zhaohui was a decent guy. Those 10 points were well spent.
“Well, I won’t hold back then.” Lu Zhaohui grinned shamelessly.
But soon, he sighed.
“Brother Ran, I’ve got a mission I can’t complete.”
Lu Zhaohui looked at Li Ran pleadingly.
“What mission?”
“It’s…”
Before he could finish, three people walked over from a distance.
Xiao Yi, Chen Jiabin, and a man Li Ran didn’t recognize.
The man’s Eerie Power was 180—just 20 less than Xiao Yi.
Aside from Song Linjia, everyone else had arrived.
Of course, that didn’t mean there weren’t more survivors out there.
As for Chen Jiabin…
Li Ran looked at him and frowned. For some reason, something about him seemed… off.
Just then, Xiao Yi stepped forward, blocking Li Ran’s gaze. He reached out and said, “Li Ran, let’s team up.”
Li Ran looked back at him, surprised.
From what he knew, Xiao Yi was an arrogant guy with a strong desire to control everything. Anyone more capable than him annoyed him to no end.
He remembered what Xiao Yi said at the bar a few days ago—
That he would prove he was stronger than Li Ran?
Yet now, just a day later, he was backing down and extending an olive branch?
Was this really reasonable?
(End of Chapter)
[For those unfamiliar with the legend, Xu Xian is the hapless yet fortunate man from Chinese mythology who married Bai Suzhen, a white snake spirit who took human form.]