The bald man looked down at the elderly village guardian from his imposing height.
“Is that any way to speak to me?”
“Do you even know who I am?”
“I’ve been personally acknowledged by the Lord of Sin himself—”
Before he could finish, he prepared to flaunt the ‘blessing’ surging within him.
But then, the corner of his eye caught an unusual flicker of color.
Not the sacred golden light, nor the crimson hue of sin.
It was gray.
Lifeless, like the ashes of burnt firewood.
As if alive, it materialized on the ground not far from him—and then began to burn.
Though it bore no flame, the scorching heat it radiated was far more unsettling than any fire.
Where the ashes touched, whether soil or stone, everything instantly disintegrated into the same gray powder, vanishing without a sound.
The burly man’s triumphant grin froze.
No.
This wasn’t right.
This aura… it reeked of annihilation and finality!
He jerked his head up.
Everything in his line of sight was being silently devoured by an eerie ‘flame.’
…All of it rapidly turned to ash, without even a whisper of wind.
The speed was suffocating.
“No…”
This power… he’d heard of it somewhere before…
Why?!
Why would the power of the Lord of Ashes appear here?!
The great Lord of Sin had already declared his satisfaction!
The air thickened with the acrid stench of death.
He watched helplessly as his flesh withered into dust.
Then, only a skeleton remained.
And that skeleton, as if manipulated by an invisible hand, slowly turned.
It knelt abruptly in the direction where Su Qi and his group had departed.
Then it stood, took a step forward, and knelt again.
Within the hollow sockets of its skull, twin flames of soul burned eternally.
“I understand now…”
“This is the Lord’s will.”
“One step, one bow.”
“To cleanse the sins upon you.”
…
Meanwhile, the five who had reached the earthen house seemed to have found a new ‘clue.’
Su Muxue paused.
Though called a house, it was more like a sprawling compound.
She reached out to pull the copper ring handle on the wooden door.
A searing force shot through her fingertips, repelling her hand.
So, there was a barrier.
She took half a step back, considering leaping over.
But she sensed something watching her from the shadows.
If she dared jump, her head would roll the next second.
With no other options, she scanned her surroundings.
Around the house lay broken pottery shards, rotting wood, and… scattered bones.
Was the clue hidden among these?
At this point…
Her only hope was that the other side would play by the ‘rules.’
Su Muxue crouched and began meticulously examining the pottery fragments.
They varied in size, coated in dust, some edges bearing faint traces of patterns.
She patiently picked them up, brushing off the grime.
Then, on the inner side of a few larger pieces, she discovered shallow carvings.
Easy to miss unless scrutinized.
She pieced the marked shards together—they formed an incomplete design.
The shape… vaguely resembled a yin-yang symbol?
Next, she turned to the wood and bones.
The wood yielded nothing, but on a broken femur, she felt an uneven patch.
Scraping away the dirt revealed carvings similar to those on the pottery.
Mentally combining the bone’s markings with the pottery’s pattern…
A more complete yin-yang emerged.
But it still lacked the final piece.
Her gaze swept the area once more, landing on the door’s twin copper rings.
Su Muxue pressed the assembled design against the door, using the rings as the ‘eyes.’
She pushed again.
“Creak—”
This time, the door swung open.
A mustier, dust-laden draft rushed out.
Inside lay a desolate courtyard.
The central fish pond had long dried up, its bed caked in a sludgy black substance, interspersed with pale bone fragments—human finger bones, strangely covered in fish-scale-like keratin.
A dark purple tentacle, studded with suckers, coiled around a rockery, its severed end oozing pus.
Then, something shifted.
A skeletal arm shot from the ground, snatching the tentacle and dragging it underground.
As it retreated, it also scooped up the bony fingers from the pond, stuffing them all into the hole it had emerged from—regardless of whether they’d fit.
Finally, the bone hand patted the dirt flat.
Mission complete, it seemed to sigh before collapsing midair, shattering into inconspicuous fragments.
Su Muxue, witnessing this, wore a rare look of bewilderment.
What was that supposed to mean?
Outside, the middle-aged man, fearing she’d be left unsupported, quickly followed her in.
Liu Yuan, however, hesitated, her expression conflicted.
Su Qi ruffled her hair and bent down. “What’s wrong?”
Liu Yuan leaned in, whispering, “Brother, I don’t really want to play anymore…”
“Not fun?”
“Mhm. That sister… she’s probably played before. Always spoiling things…”
“Earlier, she just skipped past the old man who was obviously a clue-giver.”
“And now she solved this puzzle in seconds.”
“No sense of participation at all.”
With that, she blew a playful breath at him, her little fang grazing his ear.
“Let’s quit! Go buy bubble tea instead!”
…
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.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
