Cangyun Continent, Eastern Region.
Falling Cloud Sect, Cold Moon Peak.
The bleakness of late autumn hung in the air. Withered, yellowing leaves rotted in the cold, damp mud, emitting a nauseating, musty stench.
"Martial Uncle Gu, the one-month deadline has arrived."
A disciple of the Law Enforcement Hall, dressed in cyan robes, stood before the cave dwelling. He clasped his hands in a respectful greeting, his etiquette impeccable, yet his tone was as hard and cold as extinguished charcoal.
"According to sect regulations, if a core disciple suffers a drop in cultivation realm and sustains damage to their origin source, their cave dwelling shall be reclaimed, and they shall be demoted to a handyman."
That title of "Martial Uncle" sounded utterly sarcastic.
Gu Yang stood at the entrance of his cave dwelling, his face as pale as paper. His dull gray cloth robes fluttered wildly in the cold wind.
He coughed twice, a trace of dark red blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. It was essence blood from his heart, carrying a withered, deathly aura.
"I... understand."
Gu Yang's voice was hoarse, his expression calm.
In the cultivation world, the strong prey on the weak. This was the iron law.
A month ago, he was still an aloof core disciple, a sect genius at the half-step Foundation Establishment realm.
A failed attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment caused his spiritual energy to flow backward, shattering his meridians inch by inch.
Not only did his cultivation fail to advance, but it also plummeted crazily from the peak of Qi Condensation all the way down to the seventh level of Qi Condensation.
The most fatal part was the shattering of his origin source.
His body was like a sieve leaking air from everywhere, his life force constantly slipping away.
Not only was his path to immortality severed, but his remaining lifespan was also less than a year.
That was the most despairing moment in the twenty years since he had transmigrated to this world.
When a tree falls, the monkeys scatter; when a person leaves, the tea grows cold.
Seeing Gu Yang being so tactful, the hint of disdain the law enforcement disciple had prepared in his eyes faded slightly, leaving only the indifference reserved for a dying man.
"Martial Uncle Gu, please pack your belongings. I will return in two days to reclaim the cave dwelling's array token."
After dropping those cold words, the law enforcement disciple quickly walked away.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
A severe pain in his chest pierced his lungs like steel needles.
Gu Yang was not afraid of death.
As a transmigrator, living an extra twenty years was already a profit.
But he was unwilling to accept this fate.
Lifting his head, he looked toward the distant Cold Moon Palace.
The person in secluded cultivation there was his master, Shen Qingyue.
Images from his memory uncontrollably exploded in his mind.
She was incredibly beautiful, always wearing a snow-white palace dress adorned with golden patterns. The intricate cloud-patterned collar was buttoned extremely high, concealing her slender neck. Only her jawline, gleaming like cold jade, outlined an ascetic silhouette under the flickering candlelight.
The ink-black silk ribbon around her waist was tied tightly, cinching a breathtaking curve. It was a swell like rolling distant mountains, tightly wrapped beneath the cold fabric.
With every slight breath, the fabric would rustle faintly as it rose and fell.
She was barefoot, her perfect feet like meticulously carved mutton-fat jade. Her insteps tightened into a fragile and elegant curve, her ankles slender. Against the ink-black profound ice floor, their whiteness was breathtaking.
She was the famous iceberg beauty of the Falling Cloud Sect—unattainable and as cold as frost.
But only Gu Yang knew what kind of tenderness was hidden beneath that aloof exterior.
When Gu Yang was severely injured after his failed Foundation Establishment breakthrough, Shen Qingyue ignored the risk of injury to herself and forcefully exited her secluded cultivation to sustain his life.
Without hesitation, she stuffed two incredibly precious Life-Transforming Pills into his mouth.
Unfortunately, even so, he still became a cripple.
Right at this moment.
[Ding! Detecting that the host is on the brink of a desperate situation, and the will to survive has broken through the critical point...]
[Daily Intelligence System successfully activated!]
He coughed violently, every tremor tugging at his shattered origin source. The pain, like ten thousand ants gnawing at his marrow, blurred his vision.
However, above the distorted void, lines of text emitting a faint blue light shone with incomparable brilliance.
"System..."
Gu Yang's fingertips turned slightly pale from gripping too tightly.
He did not feel wild ecstasy, nor did he roar.
In his profound eyes, deep as a freezing pool, there was only extreme calmness and a greedy desire for life.
He took a deep breath. The cold air, mixed with the stench of mold and blood, rushed straight into his lungs, making him almost cruelly clear-headed.
[Loading Complete]
[Daily Intelligence System]
[Function 1: Daily Intelligence]
[Every day at the Zi hour, the system will automatically refresh several pieces of random intelligence. Grades: White < Green < Blue < Purple < Gold < Red < Seven-Color.]
[Function 2: Interception Rewards]
[If the host successfully intercepts another person's fortuitous encounter, they will receive corresponding rewards and Destiny Points.]
[Destiny Points can be used to upgrade the system, increase the appearance rate of high-grade intelligence, and actively acquire intelligence on specific targets.]
Gu Yang exhaled heavily.
Good, good, good.
A system that arrived a full twenty years late?
It arrived at his most desperate moment.
[Ding! Detecting that the host meets the conditions for issuing the Novice Gift Pack.]
[Issuing Novice Gift Pack...]
[1 White Intelligence, 1 Purple Intelligence, 1 Gold Intelligence. Issuance complete.]
[Do you wish to open it?]
He did not hesitate at all, not even changing his breathing rhythm by a fraction. His mind acted like a blade, fiercely striking the word [Open] on the light screen.
[Loading intelligence for the host...]
[White Intelligence: One month ago, the Foundation Establishment spiritual item "Profound Ice Spiritual Marrow" used by the host to break through to Foundation Establishment contained a trace of "Bone-Eroding Spirit-Melting Powder."
This poison is extremely sinister. It remains dormant normally and only erupts at the exact moment the Foundation Establishment spiritual liquid condenses into a core. It not only dissolves one's Dao Foundation but also irreversibly corrodes the origin source.]
...
"Bone-Eroding Spirit-Melting Powder..."
Gu Yang chewed on these words, his expression freezing cold.
Just a moment ago, he still thought it was his bad luck and the unfairness of the Heavenly Dao.
It turned out it wasn't a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity.
The bottle of Profound Ice Spiritual Marrow issued by the sect had been tampered with.
Who exactly was trying to harm me?
Gu Yang shifted his gaze downward.
[Purple Intelligence: The founding patriarch of the Falling Cloud Sect once suppressed the remnant soul of a Three-Legged Golden Crow at the bottom of the Sword Washing Pool. After a thousand years, the seal has loosened. Tonight at the Yin hour, a wisp of "Golden Crow Origin Fire" will leak out. Outer sect disciple Xiao Yan will happen to pass by this place and accidentally fall into the extreme cold spring at the center of the pool.
Fortunately, he will use the power of extreme cold to neutralize and devour this fire, reforging his shattered Dao Foundation and fully recovering his cultivation. He will awaken the one-in-a-million—Desolate Ancient Supreme Yang Physique. [Click to view coordinates]]
...
Seeing this, Gu Yang's breathing instantly stopped for half a beat.
Thump, thump, thump.
His current body was a ruin, his origin source dried up, and his meridians completely shattered.
If using conventional methods, even if a Great Luo Golden Immortal came, it would be hard to save him.
But the "Desolate Ancient Supreme Yang Physique" was different.
That was a legendary physique, unparalleled in its tyranny, sufficient to incinerate all impurities and deep-rooted ailments within the body, achieving destruction before reconstruction.
No wonder the Falling Cloud Sect's Sword Washing Pool was shrouded in freezing mist all year round, and ordinary disciples would suffer frostbite to their meridians if they approached even half a step.
It turned out that the so-called extreme cold was actually meant to suppress the supreme yang Golden Crow origin.
If this intelligence was true...
Then he wouldn't have to wait for death anymore.
Gu Yang took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the fanaticism surging in his heart, and cast his gaze upon the final piece of intelligence.
[Gold Intelligence: Tomorrow night, during the full moon at the Zi hour, in the Falling Cloud Sect's Cold Moon Palace. Shen Qingyue, a Golden Core Elder of the Falling Cloud Sect who possesses the 'Nine Yin Physique', suffers a backlash of freezing energy every full moon night. Her strength plummets, and she endures pain worse than death.
Great Elder Zhao Wuji has coveted her for a long time, vainly attempting to break through the bottleneck of the Nascent Soul realm through dual cultivation. He has secretly bribed Shen Qingyue's personal maidservant, Hongxiu, and learned that the willow tree in the southwest is the core of the pavilion's grand protective formation, the "Cloud and Smoke Sun-Obscuring Array".
Late tomorrow night, he intends to take advantage of the moment Shen Qingyue's cold poison flares up and leaves her powerless to resist. He plans to use a secret technique to refine her into a cultivation cauldron and force her to become his Dao companion. [Click to view coordinates]]
...

'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.

ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.

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.”

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."