Inside the cave dwelling, a deathly silence reigned.
Gu Yang sat cross-legged, sensing the Foundation Establishment spiritual power surging like rivers within his body.
The faint, lingering scent of snow lotus served as a reminder that last night was not merely an illusion.
[The Daily Intelligence System is refreshing...]
[Ding! Detected that the host possesses sufficient Destiny Points. Consume 300 Destiny Points to upgrade the system to Lv3?]
[Lv3: Slightly increases the probability of high-quality intelligence appearing. Unlocks the Intelligence Critical Hit function.]
"Upgrade."
With a mere thought, Gu Yang spent the Destiny Points he had painstakingly accumulated, feeling no regret.
[Upgrade successful! Current level: Lv2 -> Lv3.]
[Current Destiny Points: 0]
[Ding! Today's intelligence has been refreshed.]
[Blue Intelligence: After the illusion formation failed, Shen Qingyue stubbornly insisted that it was the "Primordial Supreme Yang Essence Blood" that had clouded her judgment, not any transgressive feelings towards her disciple.
To prove her innocence, she plans to summon you again some time later under the pretext of "testing your progress." She intends to light the high-grade bewitching incense, "Drunken Immortal's Lure," within the hall to make you fall asleep, attempting to prove she can face you normally without crossing the line, free from interference.
However, fate plays cruel tricks. At that moment, Shen Qingyue's cold poison happened to flare up. Struggling alone between shame and the agony of the cold poison, her sanity finally snapped. Sitting astride, biting her lip with tears in her eyes, she engaged in a mechanical act of self-treatment.
...
Master, oh master, you truly are...
Suddenly, Gu Yang had a thought.
What if... what if I take the antidote for the Drunken Immortal's Lure in advance... and "just happen to" wake up while master is performing her automatic treatment...
I wonder what kind of scene that would be.
Would she be overcome with shame and anger, immediately get up and leave...
Or would she continue the motion, fly into a humiliated rage, and slice me with her sword...
Or, in her shame and fury, physically knock me unconscious...
Or perhaps, she would force herself to remain calm, only to make her pretense more obvious...
I truly wish to know what expression would appear on that peerlessly beautiful, ice-cold face.
...
Gu Yang continued reading.
[Use the Critical Hit function on the highest quality intelligence of the day? First use is free.]
"Use it."
Gu Yang's gaze remained fixed on the void, his breathing rhythm utterly undisturbed.
[Critical Hit in progress... Critical Hit successful! Intelligence quality upgraded from 'Gold' to 'Red'!]
[Red Intelligence: The Nightfall Empress, Tantai Jin, who swept across the Eastern Domain and unified the demonic path three thousand years ago, suffered damage to her true spirit after failing in her attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. She is currently in a deep slumber within the "Immortal Burial Forbidden Grounds" near the Sacred Heaven City in the Eastern Domain. [Click to view coordinates]
The Empress's true body is sealed within the "Ten-Thousand-Year Immortal-Nurturing Coffin," using a secret art to steal the spiritual energy of the earth's veins to heal her wounds.
To prevent disturbance from the living, she set a "Reversed Servant Contract" within the coffin's formation.
According to the original plan, the first living being the formation senses upon awakening would be forcibly branded with a "Servant Seal," transforming into a corpse slave guarding her coffin.
Due to the erosion of time, the Immortal Burial Forbidden Grounds once experienced earth-vein tremors, causing the formation's focal point of the "Two Forms Soul-Exchange Formation" on the Immortal-Nurturing Coffin to shift.
If one holds the "Supreme Yang Blood" and drips it into a crack three inches to the left of the coffin, the original master-servant contract will undergo an irreversible causal replacement.
When that happens, the tyrannical, supremely arrogant Nightfall Empress will, at the moment of her awakening, reversely become a "Blood Contract Servant."]
Gu Yang looked at the lines of text on the light screen, crimson as fresh blood, his pupils constricting to pinpoints.
Red Intelligence.
This was the first time a red-level intelligence had appeared since the system awakened.
Those 300 Destiny Points were spent incredibly well.
The Nightfall Empress... Tantai Jin!
Gu Yang whispered this name, one that was enough to silence crying children across the Eastern Domain three millennia ago.
According to the sect's ancient records, this Empress once bathed ten thousand miles in blood, refining several arrogant sacred lands into ghost domains.
Her personality epitomized coldness and a domineering nature.
And now, this most terrifying nightmare in the history of the Eastern Domain was to become his slave?
However, Sacred Heaven City is located at the very center of the Eastern Domain, a true hub of prosperity, while Falling Cloud Sect is merely a minor sect tucked away in a remote corner.
At his current sword-flight speed, it would take several months of traveling at full speed to reach it.
"Tantai Jin..."
Gu Yang savored the name, a cold curve forming at the corner of his mouth.
The intelligence did not mention anyone else intercepting this opportunity, which meant this three-thousand-year-old goddess of slaughter was currently lying in her coffin, waiting for him to "stamp his seal."
Suppressing the agitation in his heart, Gu Yang continued reading.
[White Intelligence: Within the Cold Moon Palace, Shen Qingyue has regained the composure of a Golden Core-stage cultivator. Whenever she is alone, the absurd scenes from that night in the great hall inevitably flash before her eyes. Shame, anger, and regret intertwine, giving rise to an intense sense of "ill-fated entanglement" toward you. She has decided that after emerging from seclusion, she will find a pretext to send you on an external mission, completely severing this entanglement that troubles her Dao-heart.]
Gu Yang felt somewhat speechless in his heart.
Be it in his past life or this one, this was the first time he had encountered a woman who would deny everything after pulling up her pants.
...
White Intelligence: The Falling Cloud Sect's Sect Master, Liu Yunzi, is pondering the celestial phenomenon record of the "Golden Crow Carrying the Sun" that you triggered. Outwardly dignified and virtuous, he is actually the greatest hypocrite within the sect. While ostensibly searching for a "passing mighty expert," he is secretly perusing the secret arts left by the founding patriarch. He suspects that someone blessed with such fortune, if their cultivation is still shallow, would just serve as a perfect flesh vessel for his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage.
...
[White Intelligence: After returning to her sect, Ji Shuanghua, the Sacred Maiden of the Supreme Sword Sect, has been unable to forget you. She keeps replaying in her mind the moment you threw her into the mud. That extreme humiliation has actually accelerated the fusion of the "Shattered Jade Sword Bone" within her body. She has now developed a morbid adoration for your behavior of "treating a sacred maiden like a rag," vowing to make you look at her again the next time you meet.]
...
Green Intelligence: Blazing Sun Sacred Land. On the night you awakened the 'Golden Crow Primordial Flame,' the 'Sun God Mirror' deep within the sacred land sensed a disturbance in the primordial flame seed. The sacred land believes this to be either a lost royal bloodline or the divine flame itself. They have dispatched three disciples, who are moving from west to east, investigating gifted disciples with fire-aligned constitutions one by one.
...
So, Sect Master Liu Yunzi is no good either.
On the path of immortal cultivation, it's all filled with self-serving individuals.
The waters of Falling Cloud Sect are getting murkier by the day.
Gu Yang retrieved a yellowed parchment map from his storage pouch, tracing a red line on it with his finger.
[Gold Intelligence: The Sacred Maiden of the Joyous Union Sect, Su Wanyin... possesses the treasure "Innocent Maiden's Exquisite Heart"...]
Falling Cloud Sect is in the east, Sacred Heaven City in the center.
The Joyous Union Sect happens to lie between Sacred Heaven City and Falling Cloud Sect.
It's on the way.
Gu Yang put away the map, a gleam of sharp light flashing in his eyes.
Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment is merely the foundation. The Foundation Establishment stage allows for the construction of 9 Dao Platforms in total. These 9 platforms form a cultivator's Dao foundation.
To build a towering edifice from the ground up, to form a Golden Core, attain Nascent Soul, or even, in the future, reach the Nascent Soul stage, every single brick of these nine Dao Platforms must be of the finest quality in the world.
The construction of each Dao Platform requires a rare heaven-and-earth spiritual object to serve as the "ballast stone."
The higher the quality of the spiritual object, the more solid the constructed Dao Platform will be, and the more immense the magical power it can contain.
If one were to forge a nine-layered Dao Platform using nine types of spiritual materials of Earth rank or higher... that would be the fabled preparatory stage for the "Flawless Golden Core."
The Pure Maiden's Exquisite Heart ranks seventy-eighth on the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Materials List.
It is more than qualified to forge the first layer of the Dao Platform.
Wang Teng...
I'll be borrowing your opportunity. I trust you won't mind.
Two days later.
Three hundred miles north of the Falling Cloud Sect, in an ancient temple within the desolate mountains.
Outside the dilapidated mountain god temple, the rain poured down in sheets, yet its roar could not drown out the stifled, desperate gasps emanating from within—sounds that seemed wrenched from the very depths of someone's throat.
Su Wanyin lay collapsed in the shadow of the deity statue's broken pedestal.
The crimson, smoke-gauze dress that symbolized her status as the Holy Maiden of the Harmony Joy Sect was now utterly soaked through by the icy rain.
The sodden fabric clung to her as if alive, suctioned tightly to every inch of her skin.
The taut material left nothing to the imagination, mercilessly outlining the breathtaking curve of her waist and hips, once veiled in mist. Rainwater traced a path down her trembling spine, rendering the thin layer of red gauze semi-transparent, faintly revealing the fine, mutton-fat jade-like flesh beneath.
"Cough..."
She clutched her chest. What seeped between her fingers was not bright red blood, but the inky black of poison.
The dark blood snaked down her slender, deathly pale fingers, over the delicate collarbones that seemed they might snap with a touch, and finally vanished into the deep, snow-white valley that heaved violently with her ragged breaths.
Black blood, red robes, flesh of a blinding white.
These three extreme colors wove together a bewitching yet tragic tableau within the dim confines of the temple.
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
