After that, Liu Bufan stayed at the hospital in Jiangzhou City.
During this time, Jiang Wan'er found herself captivated by this witty, cheerful, and knowledgeable young man, despite the injuries he had sustained in a car accident.
Furthermore, she—a master's degree holder who had graduated from Huaxia's top university at the age of twenty—felt as though her intelligence was being ruthlessly crushed.
More than once, Jiang Wan'er suspected that Liu Bufan was none other than the genius senior whom she had never met but always idolized. Yet every time, Liu Bufan would smuggly pull out that fake ID card issued by the police station—one that looked as fake as it could possibly be...
Over the next year, the doctors issued a total of twenty-seven discharge notices before finally managing to evict this permanent resident of the hospital bed, muttering angrily under their breath: "To pick up a girl, he spent a whole year in the hospital for a mild concussion. Absolutely shameless."
Still, the relationship between the two did indeed make rapid progress during this period.
As a traditional person from Huaxia, a relationship without the blessing of family is never truly complete. Liu Bufan told Jiang Wan'er that he needed to make a trip home, adding a mysterious twist by cheekily promising her a surprise upon his return. Yet, this departure lasted for a full two years.
Throughout those two years, Jiang Wan'er made countless phone calls and used every connection her family had to search for him based on the address on his ID card, only to be told that no such person existed.
This news came like a bolt from the blue. Just as she believed she had been deceived and fell into utter despair, an anonymous letter revealed Liu Bufan's true identity and current address.
Filled with anger and a deep sense of grievance, Jiang Wan'er traveled to a remote, uninhabited mountain village to confront him about why he had deceived her. Instead, she found Liu Bufan—his face disfigured and his legs broken—crouching in a small alleyway, the biting cold having long since frozen the nearly naked man stiff.
At that moment, all her grievances and anger vanished entirely. Fighting back her tears, Jiang Wan'er used all her strength to carry Liu Bufan down the mountain on her back and drove him to the hospital.
The examination results were shocking: his vocal cords were completely destroyed, his right leg suffered a comminuted fracture, and the knife wounds on his face reached almost to the bone.
Jiang Wan'er held Liu Bufan and wept for an entire night. Afterward, knowing full well that it might bring trouble upon herself, she defied her family's objections and married him in order to better care for him.
Love knows no reason, but elite families value interests. Upon learning that Jiang Wan'er had brought home a crippled husband, Elder Jiang flew into a rage and severed all ties with her family.
At the time, Jiang Wan'er had just graduated with her doctorate. By day, she managed a small company; by night, she stayed by Liu Bufan's side, encouraging and caring for him for two whole years.
Yet during those two years of marriage, crushed by the heavy blow, Liu Bufan became disheartened. Although active treatment allowed him to move around normally, he believed he could give her no future and thus drowned his sorrows in alcohol day after day.
Until one day when Jiang Wan'er entered the room, slipped on a wine bottle on the floor, and injured her arm.
Seeing the bruises, Jiang Wan'er's parents assumed Liu Bufan was abusing her. No matter how she explained, they adamantly demanded that she get a divorce.
*My heart already belongs to you, yet you know nothing of my love.*
*Unattainable love, accompanied only by the dim lamps for the rest of my life.*
With no other choice, Jiang Wan'er resolved never to marry again for the rest of her days.
On the day of their divorce, as the two of them stepped out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, an unmarked car sent Liu Bufan flying through the air.
Before losing consciousness, as he looked at Jiang Wan'er's flustered, petite figure instinctively trying to shield him from the car, Liu Bufan suddenly felt a pang of heartache. Only then did he realize how ridiculously wrong he had been—how deeply the girl beside him cared for him, and how bitterly he had failed her.
After being rushed to the First People's Hospital of Jiangzhou City at top speed, the doctors declared that, compounded by his previous old injuries, he would not last past tonight at the latest.
At death's door, in his fading consciousness, Liu Bufan felt someone pressed against his chest, their tears streaming down his chest and straight into his heart.
His consciousness grew increasingly blurred amidst the ache in his heart. When he woke up again, he was in another world.
There was no starting cheat or various fortuitous encounters. In the beginning, just to survive as an ordinary mortal, Liu Bufan had snatched chickens, stolen dogs, set up street stalls, and told fortunes. With no other way out, he eventually turned to banditry, taking up that very promising career as a mountain brigand for a few years!
Only then did he get the opportunity to enter the cultivation world, where he heard that if a cultivator's power reached its peak, they could use the "Space-Time Technique" of the Demon Sect to shatter the barriers of time and space.
Even though not a single person had succeeded in cultivating it across hundreds of millions of years, and no one knew where the legend originated, Liu Bufan clung to the resolve that he must return for Wan'er, refusing to let go of even the slimest chance.
After more than 7,000 years of hardship, he finally perfected the Wuji Sacred Body and attained the realm of Immortal Emperor.
At last, he defeated the Demon Emperor of the Demon Sect and seized the "Space-Time Technique."
Backed by his supreme talent, it still took him a full thousand years to master it, and in the process, he passed down portions of the technique to his subordinates.
To ensure success, before taking the final step, Liu Bufan split himself into seven avatars: his memories, his sacred body, his divine sense, formations, talismans, magical artifacts, and spells.
He set the first avatar to awaken its consciousness immediately upon arriving on Earth, guiding the other avatars through the Void to converge on Earth.
This would guarantee the highest success rate, knowing that the greatest difficulty in traversing the barriers of time and space was getting lost in the endless sea of space-time.
Finally, amidst the gaze of countless powerful figures, Liu Bufan tore through the void and departed.
What he did not know, however, was that his ten death guards defied his orders for the first time; the moment his figure vanished, they too stepped into the boundless void.
"Wan'er, I'm coming," became the final words this legendary Immortal Emperor left behind in this realm.
……
Back in the hospital, the first to arrive on Earth was precisely Liu Bufan's memory avatar.
An instinctive premonition told Liu Bufan that his physical avatar was about to arrive—and this was the Wuji Sacred Body.
Without magical suppression, even though there would be no rejection reaction upon merging with his original body, the sheer power radiating from it could obliterate this entire city.
Fortunately, Liu Bufan had prepared in advance, imbuing each avatar with a strand of magical power that could be used to control the might unleashed during the fusion.
The other avatars were manageable, but when it came to merging this Wuji Sacred Body, Liu Bufan truly could not guarantee that this hospital would remain standing.
Therefore, suppressing his yearning for Wan'er's safety, he wanted to head first to the mountain forests outside Jiangzhou City to complete the fusion before coming back to meet her properly.
To tell Wan'er of his bizarre experiences and speak of his longing for her.
Yet just as he was about to get up, the young woman pressed against his chest suddenly moved.