Due to the backlash of the Pure Maiden's Essence Art, an evil fire surged within her body, while her exterior was battered by the freezing rain.
This extreme torment of internal heat and external cold brought two patches of morbid, flushed red to her otherwise pale, paper-like cheeks.
Unable to bear the discomfort, she arched her slender neck. Sweat dampened the stray hairs at her temples, leaving them sticking messily to the sides of her face.
Her teeth bit down hard on her lower lip.
"Damn it..."
Her whereabouts had been leaked.
Along the way, she had killed three waves of rogue cultivators trying to intercept her, and was already at the end of her rope.
Just then.
Rustle, rustle...
Besides the sound of the rain, extremely light footsteps came from the withered grass outside the temple.
Not just one, but a group.
Su Wanyin's pupils violently shrank. She forced herself to try and stand, but her vision went black, and she fell heavily back down.
"Saintess Su, I trust you have been well since we last met."
A sinister voice pierced through the curtain of rain.
Immediately after, five figures filed in, completely blocking the ruined temple's only exit.
Leading them was a one-eyed brute at the early Foundation Establishment realm, holding a ghost-head broadsword that was still dripping with blood.
"Tsk, tsk, so this is the Saintess of the Joyous Union Sect? How did you end up looking like a drowned rat?"
The one-eyed brute greedily licked his lips, his gaze wantonly roaming over Su Wanyin's exquisite curves.
"Brothers, this is a top-tier beauty we normally couldn't even dream of touching. Although she's injured, this figure, this face..."
"Boss, I heard she's a top-grade cauldron. If we..."
The surrounding rogue cultivators all revealed lewd smiles, taking steps forward.
Su Wanyin closed her eyes in despair.
If she were at her peak, she could crush this kind of trash with a single finger.
But now...
Was she truly going to suffer such humiliation here today?
"Stop! In broad daylight, under the clear sky, how dare you commit such despicable acts!"
In this critical moment.
A loud shout rang out, full of righteous awe.
A sword light pierced through like a rainbow crossing the sun, instantly cleaving the curtain of rain.
Pfft!
The closest rogue cultivator hadn't even reacted before his head was sent flying into the sky.
"Who is it?!"
The one-eyed brute turned pale with fright.
At the temple entrance, a young man wearing blue and white Daoist robes stepped through the rain.
With sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, holding a longsword, his body was wreathed in spiritual light. He looked exceptionally dashing.
A True Disciple of the Mountain and River Sect, Wang Teng.
"Wang Teng of the Mountain and River Sect is here! You evil cultivators, prepare to die!"
Wang Teng flicked his longsword, striking an incredibly elegant opening stance. But deep within those seemingly righteous eyes, he wasn't looking at the enemy; instead, he was staring fixedly at the patch of snowy white at Su Wanyin's chest, his Adam's apple bobbing imperceptibly.
He had actually arrived a long time ago.
Not only had he arrived, but he had even been hiding in the dark, using a Recording Stone to capture Su Wanyin's disheveled and desperate state as she was cornered by these rogue cultivators.
He had been waiting. He wasn't waiting for the right moment to save her, but for Su Wanyin's psychological defenses to completely collapse, waiting until she was humiliated to her very last breath before making his move.
Only by completely shattering her dignity would this thorny rose of the Demonic Path become a plaything for him to mold as he pleased.
"Wang... Wang Teng?"
Su Wanyin opened her eyes, a glimmer of hope flashing through them, but it quickly turned into wariness.
A True Disciple of the Righteous Path wasn't necessarily any better than these rogue cultivators.
"Damn it! Mind your own business! Brothers, let's get him! Kill him!"
The one-eyed brute's vicious nature flared up, and he swung his sword to hack at him.
Wang Teng sneered: "A bunch of ants."
After a series of teeth-aching metallic clashes, the ruined temple returned to a deathly silence.
Those five rogue cultivators didn't even manage to let out a proper scream before they became a few corpses on the ground.
Wang Teng didn't immediately sheathe his sword. Instead, he looked at the one-eyed brute's corpse in disgust, stepping heavily on the hand that had pointed at Su Wanyin earlier, grinding it down forcefully until the sound of shattering bones echoed. "Filthy trash, is this kind of top-tier beauty something the likes of you are fit to touch?"
He cursed in a low voice, his tone vicious and ruthless, completely different from his earlier righteous appearance.
Blood gathered along the depressions in the ground, meandering toward Su Wanyin's feet and dyeing her soaked embroidered shoes red.
"Saintess Su, you've been frightened."
Wang Teng sheathed his sword with smooth, flowing movements.
He took a snow-white silk handkerchief from his chest, gently wiping away a non-existent drop of blood from his hand, and then casually tossed it into the dirty, muddy water.
This entire sequence of actions was elegant and noble, completely out of place in this dilapidated, blood-scented mountain god temple.
He turned around, wearing a perfectly measured look of concern and gentleness, and walked step by step toward Su Wanyin, who was huddled in the corner.
"I was late to the rescue, causing the Saintess to suffer."
Wang Teng's voice was magnetic, carrying a reassuring sense of righteousness.
But in Su Wanyin's eyes, this man slowly approaching her was a hundred times more dangerous than those five rogue cultivators with their menacing faces.
She was too familiar with this kind of look.
Seemingly clear and open, but in the deepest depths of his pupils hid a greed that wanted to swallow her whole, skin and bones alike.
Moreover, his arrival was too coincidental.
So coincidental that she had just exhausted her last trace of spiritual energy, so coincidental that the backlash of her Pure Maiden's Essence Art had reached its peak, leaving her without even the strength to lift a finger.
"So it's... an esteemed disciple of the Mountain and River Sect."
Su Wanyin forced herself to try and sit up straight, maintaining the final shred of dignity belonging to a Demonic Path Saintess.
But as soon as her body moved, the erratic evil fire darting around inside her caused her waist to go soft, and an extremely inappropriate, sweet moan escaped her throat.
"Mmm..."
This sound was like some kind of switch.
Wang Teng stopped in his tracks, looking down from above at this usually unapproachable demonic temptress.
The rain had soaked her red dress, clinging tightly to her body and outlining the undulating curves that were enough to drive any man mad.
Especially those eyes, brimming with spring water, seemingly angry yet shy, making Wang Teng's lower abdomen flare with heat.
"The Saintess seems... heavily injured?"
Wang Teng crouched down, reaching out his hand, his fingertips slowly moving toward that section of Su Wanyin's dazzlingly white wrist exposed to the air.
In the name of checking her pulse, he was actually flirting.
Tsk, this skin is even smoother than that Jade Maiden Sect head disciple I played with last time.
Wang Teng praised inwardly. His fingers slid up her wrist wantonly, his fingertips carrying a sticky sense of aggression.
"I have a Pure Heart Pill gifted by my master here, perhaps it can relieve the Saintess's urgent need."
His other hand went to untie the storage bag at his waist, but he used the momentum to lean forward, the hot breath of a man blowing directly onto Su Wanyin's sensitive earlobe.
A pink pill appeared in Wang Teng's palm, emitting an extremely sweet and cloying exotic fragrance.
"This pill is called the Ultimate Bliss Powder. Although it cannot cure the poison, it can make the Saintess... experience a pleasure like death, forgetting all pain."
The smile at the corners of his mouth was finally no longer concealed. He completely tore off his disguise, revealing a mouth full of ghastly white teeth, like a vicious wolf ready to devour a person.
"Su Wanyin, you only have two choices now."
"Either be played to death by me right here, and then be refined into a corpse puppet to serve me forever."
"Either obediently swallow this pill and serve this young master well. I happen to have a top-grade Recording Stone on me. If you can put on a seductive enough performance for it, perhaps when I grow tired of playing with you, I will spare your worthless life and sell you back to the Joyous Sect for a massive profit."
Wang Teng reached out and roughly grabbed Su Wanyin's chin, forcing her to look up at him.
"Well? Holy Maiden, should we record a little preview first, or just get right to it?"
Su Wanyin bit her lower lip fiercely, her fingernails digging deeply into the flesh of her palms.
A tiger fallen in the plains is bullied by mere dogs.
Just as she was about to risk shattering her meridians inch by inch to self-destruct, determined to drag this hypocrite down to hell with her...
Suddenly.
"Are you asking someone to offer their body to you?"
An indifferent, hoarse voice echoed extremely abruptly from right above their heads.
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
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.
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!
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?!
