Friday, the winter sun was warm, finally melting most of the snow on the ground.
On the rubber basketball court, Xia Yueshan was playing basketball with a few friends he had recently made. It was truly a scene of joyful camaraderie.
Of course—
That is, if you ignored Xia Yueshan’s occasional sneaky moves that startled others, and the friends’ irritated curses in response.
After playing for a while, the pre-class bell rang.
Everyone stopped their game, carrying their basketballs as they headed toward the teaching building.
Xia Yueshan walked over to the base of the basketball hoop, picked up his phone resting there, and started walking toward the building while trying to put the phone into his pants pocket.
Just as he was about to slide the phone into his pocket, his movement suddenly froze.
Which pocket was the torn one again?
As Xia Yueshan pondered this, the second pre-class bell rang.
His friends in front, upon hearing the bell, stopped strolling leisurely and started running, some even calling back as they ran:
“Xia Yueshan, hurry up!”
“Don’t be late!”
“This class is with the homeroom teacher!”
“Okay, okay.”
Xia Yueshan quickly responded.
Not having time to think further, he shoved the phone into his right pocket, feeling it get caught by something inside. Relieved, he thought to himself that this pocket was still good.
The torn one must be the other pocket.
Pulling his hand out of the right pocket, Xia Yueshan ran to catch up with his friends...
...
Leaning on the desk, Tang Qinqin looked utterly wilted, like a drooping flower.
What exactly did she say wrong?
Why did that guy suddenly backtrack?
He even claimed not to know Lin Yu?
Damn it! (〃＞﹏＜)
Tang Qinqin ground her teeth in frustration, feeling that this little seventh grader was just as baffling as Lin Yu!
Looks like this path was a dead end.
Pouting unhappily, Tang Qinqin was deeply downcast.
Did she really have to keep looking for Lin Yu?
But Lin Yu was even worse!
He didn’t just avoid her when he saw her—
He turned and ran away!
Was she really that scary-looking?
Tang Qinqin was fuming and very unhappy.
“Ring ring ring!!!”
The pre-class bell rang again.
Tang Qinqin sat up straight, took out her physics textbook for this class, and placed it on the desk, waiting for the teacher to arrive.
Looking at the physics book for the first semester of eighth grade, Tang Qinqin couldn’t help but feel disdainful.
She had already self-studied all this knowledge last year when she was hospitalized.
Her mom was really something—why didn’t she just let her skip directly to ninth grade?
That way, she could enter high school next year.
If she went to the same high school as her older sister, she could even help her sister who was preparing for college.
With a sigh full of regret, Tang Qinqin felt helpless against her mom’s decision.
As she was lost in thought, her deskmate came back, panting heavily.
The girl was clearly lively and talkative. Before catching her breath, she turned to Tang Qinqin excitedly and said:
“Guess what I found?”
Tang Qinqin turned her head to look at her deskmate. The girl tilted her head slightly, letting her smooth hair fall naturally, and asked aloud:
“Did you find some money?”
“No.”
The girl shook her head, then pulled a phone out of her pocket.
“I found a wild phone!”
“A phone?”
“Whose is it?”
Tang Qinqin leaned in, blinking as she asked.
“I have no idea.”
The girl unlocked the phone screen. On it was a photo of a gentle-looking young woman smiling warmly as she patted the head of a boy about half her size.
The boy, however, seemed almost blind to her affection. He rolled his eyes disdainfully, clearly unimpressed by the beautiful woman beside him.
The girl looked at the photo on the screen and speculated to herself:
“The phone’s owner should be this boy in the picture, right?”
“I found the phone while going upstairs.”
“I’ve never seen the woman in the photo at school.”
“So the phone probably belongs to him.”
“What do you think?”
She didn’t seem very confident in her guess and looked up at Tang Qinqin for confirmation.
Seeing her deskmate’s stunned, blank expression and lack of response, the girl waved her hand in front of her face and softly called out:
“Qinqin?”
“Oh, right.”
“It’s his.”
Tang Qinqin snapped back to reality, hiding the surprise on her face and forcing a calm expression.
“I know him.”
“Give me the phone.”
“I’ll return it to him.”
“Okay.”
“Then you should give it to him.”
Without suspicion, the girl handed over the phone and sighed.
“What a coincidence, huh.”
“Yeah.”
Tang Qinqin nodded, tucked the phone inside her desk, and quietly agreed:
“Definitely a coincidence.”
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.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
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.”
