Order Era, Year 1137.
"And then? What happened to Ancestor Moke?" Mo Lini asked Liyana nervously, clearly fully immersed in the story.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Ancestor Moke! Didn’t he tell Xia Lun he wanted to leave the group…?" Mo Lini murmured timidly.
"Of course Xia Lun didn’t agree," Liyana said matter-of-factly.
Mo Lini: "Eh?"
"Since Xia Lun refused, Moke didn’t leave the group in the end." Liyana chuckled. "That guy even tried to slip away without saying goodbye, but Aina caught him, and we dragged him back."
Mo Lini: "Eh?!"
"I was surprised too. I never expected Aina to do something like that… Who knew she was already the ‘cold outside, warm inside’ type back then."
Now, she’s warm outside and even warmer inside… though only toward Xia Lun.
Liyana didn’t hesitate to gossip about Aina behind her back with Mo Lini.
No matter how powerful Aina was, she probably wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation right now.
Because Liyana knew Aina was far too busy at the moment—only Mo Lini would believe she was resting right now.
Besides, every time they arrived at a new place, those two shameless couples would… Well, Liyana had long figured it out. She just chose not to say anything—that was her wisdom.
"Liyana… where are you taking me now?"
Mo Lini followed behind Liyana as she led the way up the tree.
A spiraling path had been carved into the bark of the giant tree’s trunk… It would be a hassle for a carriage to ascend, but walking side by side was quite easy.
Mo Lini glanced down, but after just one look, she quickly pulled her head back and edged closer to the inner side. Unknowingly, they had already climbed very high.
"Liyana… are there any elves who are afraid of heights?"
Liyana walked ahead, whistling nonchalantly. "Of course there are. Elves are people too. In fact, most people nowadays are afraid of heights—those inhumane training methods from the past have been abolished. Why are you asking such a weird question?"
"Then… aren’t they scared living up here?" Mo Lini looked up at the city above.
"It’s not so bad. It’s actually very stable up there—no different from being on the ground. You’ll see when we get there…"
The city above was far from the ground, nearly 800 meters in vertical height. Climbing up was no easy feat.
If Mo Lini hadn’t been training in the carriage these past few days, she might have embarrassed herself halfway.
But for Liyana, an adventurer, this distance was naturally a breeze.
Finally, Mo Lini stepped onto solid ground, panting heavily.
"So… so tired."
The ground beneath her feet was rough and solid, the bark like a layer of concrete, making it hard to believe they were standing on a giant tree branch.
Elven houses were quite distinctive—their roofs seemed to be made of translucent resin woven with vines, a lush green that, from below, could easily be mistaken for the tree’s leaves.
"Is this the elven sky city?" Mo Lini murmured as she took in the sight before her.
"Welcome to the Elven Sky Capital—Calanris!" Liyana announced proudly.
The elven population paled in comparison to that of humans, and according to records, nearly 70% of the world’s elves gathered in Calanris.
Whoever had the time to compile such statistics was beyond her, but there was no doubt—this was the elves’ cherished home.
Mo Lini suddenly noticed a platform nearby, positioned close to the edge of the giant tree. On it stood a massive mooring post wrapped with thick iron chains.
"What’s that?" Mo Lini asked curiously.
"Ah… that? That’s… Mo Lini, you know, it’s just…" Liyana suddenly stammered, unable to get the words out.
Mo Lini: Staring—
"What is it?" Mo Lini pressed.
Liyana: "It’s… probably a magic-powered elevator."
Mo Lini: "What’s it for?"
Liyana looked a little guilty. "Uh… it’s used to pull people up from below."
Mo Lini: "Then why did you make me climb all the way up the trunk, exhausted?"
"Think of it as exercise, Mo Lini. I did it for your own good." Liyana’s gaze drifted away.
Mo Lini: "You just forgot about it, didn’t you?"
Liyana tapped her head and stuck out her tongue. "Ehehe…"
Mo Lini sighed but didn’t press further.
"It’s been so long since I last came back… Back in the day, we didn’t have this kind of luxury. Everyone climbed up that path, even carrying loads of stuff." Liyana shook her head with a sigh. "Kids these days just can’t handle hardship."
Thwack!
Mo Lini smacked Liyana hard on the back in frustration. Liyana didn’t dodge, letting out a comical yelp.
"Come on, Mo Lini, I’ll treat you to some elven delicacies!"
Mo Lini’s eyes lit up, seemingly having already forgiven Liyana.
A short while later, Mo Lini blinked at the green, jelly-like blob in her hand.
The blob was elastic, its shape eerily similar to a slime. Mo Lini poked two small holes in it, making them look like eyes…
Now, the only differences between it and Little Blue perched on her head were color and transparency.
Little Blue bounced on Mo Lini’s head, as if also thinking this thing resembled one of its kind.
"What is this?" Mo Lini asked. "It looks like a green slime."
"It’s called a ‘Green Dumpling.’ The outside is made from leaf extract and glutinous flour, with sweet bean paste inside," Liyana explained.
Before Liyana could finish, Mo Lini eagerly took a big bite, devouring nearly half of it in one go.
Little Blue seemed startled, tumbling off Mo Lini’s head and landing on the ground with a splat, motionless.
"It’s delicious! So chewy." Mo Lini mumbled with her mouth full, having taken such a big bite that it stuck to her lips.
She glanced at Little Blue on the ground and offered the remaining Green Dumpling. "Want to try some?"
Little Blue shook itself slightly, as if saying no.
Liyana gave her a strange look—Mo Lini’s obliviousness in certain aspects was still surprising.
Then again, slimes consuming their own kind wasn’t anything unusual. It even made them stronger.
Mo Lini quickly polished off the rest of the Green Dumpling, licking her fingers with satisfaction before glancing at Little Blue again.
Green slimes… tasty.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
