"Ah—! Help! My spiritual energy... my hand!"
The shrill, agonizing scream instantly pierced the sweltering heat above the Chiyan Floating Terrace.
The yellow-robed rogue cultivator's right hand seemed glued to the bronze sphere. His originally plump and ruddy skin shriveled and turned an ashen grey at a visible rate.
It looked like an aged orange peel that had been baked in the sun for half a month.
"Pfft."
A soft sound echoed. It was the sound of bones shattering, having lost their support after the flesh and blood were completely drained.
The yellow-robed rogue cultivator collapsed limply to the ground like a deflated skin bag.
Not even a single drop of blood spilled out.
Because all the essence within his body—spiritual energy, vitality, and even the beast fire he used to show off—had been greedily devoured through those bizarre bronze tentacles.
But this was only the beginning.
"Disconnect! Quickly sever the spiritual energy connection!"
Someone roared in terror, wanting to chop off their own arm to survive.
But it was too late.
How did the Nine Nether Soul-Locking Flame inside the bronze sphere look anything like a "test" now?
It had transformed into a Taotie beast that had starved for millions of years, ruthlessly surging upstream along the twenty connecting pillars of spiritual light.
"No! I haven't even found a Dao companion yet! I refuse to accept this..."
A young cultivator's eyes bulged as he watched his Dantian rapidly collapse, his head of black hair instantly turning into withered white snow.
In less than three breaths.
Five more "mummies" in various postures appeared on the floating terrace.
The dozen or so people who were still alive were struggling bitterly. Their faces twisted and deformed from extreme agony, their protective spiritual lights flickering like candles in the wind.
"Hehehe..."
Up on the high platform, Patriarch Lin Zhennan, who usually appeared public-spirited and spouted morality and justice, finally tore off his disguise.
He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the living hell below. His originally refined eyes now held nothing but sickening greed and fanaticism.
"What a delicious flavor."
He took a deep breath, as if the air was filled not with the stench of death, but with the mellow aroma of peerless fine wine.
"Fellow Daoists, stop struggling."
"To become the nourishment for my Lin family's 'Holy Fetus' and help me, Lin Zhennan, ascend to the Golden Core Great Dao is a blessing you've cultivated over several lifetimes!"
Behind him.
Lin Qingwan still sat upright in that wide red sandalwood chair.
She seemed terrified out of her wits by this scene, or perhaps the intense pain in her body had made her lose perception of the outside world.
She just stared blankly ahead, her hollow eyes reflecting the twisted faces of the cultivators struggling in despair before death.
That wedding dress, as bright red as fire, now looked like a burial shroud dyed red by the blood of countless people below the stage.
In a corner of the chaotic crowd.
Gu Yang's figure swayed slightly.
His face was deathly pale, seemingly enduring the massive suction force as well.
"Pfft!"
He suddenly bit the tip of his tongue, spat out a mouthful of blood, and staggered backward.
His acting was absolutely flawless.
The moment he fell to the ground, under the cover of his fluttering sleeves, his left hand hidden inside flicked a finger.
The movement was as fast as lightning and as light as a feather.
A strand of golden flame, only as thick as a hair, wrapped in obscure spiritual energy fluctuations, silently shot toward the high platform under the cover of the chaotic air currents.
That was a wisp of Golden Crow Origin Fire that Gu Yang had stripped away.
Its target was not Lin Zhennan's vitals.
But rather his thick-soled boots embroidered with gold patterns, stepping on the red carpet.
That wisp of Golden Crow Fire acted like a maggot in the bone, silently drilling into the sole of Lin Zhennan's shoe, and then—lay dormant.
Having done all this, Gu Yang took the opportunity to collapse next to the corpse of a dead cultivator.
He concealed all his aura, leaving only a heartbeat as faint as a gossamer thread.
The Withered Wood Breath Concealment Art was pushed to its absolute limit.
To outsiders, this rogue cultivator named Li Feiyu had already had his spiritual energy drained by the first wave due to his low cultivation base, and had breathed his last.
To make it even more realistic, Gu Yang specifically controlled his facial muscles to form a terrified expression of dying with unclosed eyes.
...
Meanwhile.
Zhu Lie, the True Disciple of the Blazing Sun Holy Land, who had been watching from the periphery without making a move, frowned deeply.
He looked at the massacre before him with no trace of pity in his eyes; instead, there was only the impatience of having his mood ruined.
"Hmph, demonic methods, as expected."
Zhu Lie snorted coldly in disdain, holding the crimson Sun-Seeking Compass in his palm, and was about to turn and leave.
He had no interest in meddling with the scheming of such a small countryside family.
He only wanted to find the Golden Crow Fire.
However.
Just as he turned around.
Buzz—!
The Sun-Seeking Compass in his hand, which had been silent for half the day, suddenly began to vibrate violently as if it had gone mad.
The needle, which had been spinning aimlessly, seemed to receive some supreme calling at this moment.
"Click!"
The needle suddenly locked into place, pointing rigidly in one direction.
Because it spun so fast, it even scraped a trail of sparks across the compass's surface!
The guiding fluctuation was unprecedentedly strong!
"This..."
Zhu Lie's pupils shrank sharply, and his heart skipped a beat.
He looked in the direction the needle was pointing.
At the end of his line of sight.
Was none other than Lin Zhennan, who was laughing wildly and acting incredibly arrogant on the high platform!
"Found it!!!"
A rush of wild joy shot straight to his head, instantly flushing Zhu Lie's originally arrogant face bright red.
"Excellent! What a Lin family!"
Zhu Lie fiercely crushed the railing in his hand. His crimson hair danced without any wind, and blazing flames as hot as magma instantly erupted around his body.
"No wonder the compass's reaction was faint before; it turns out you, old dog, have been using a demonic array to cover it up!"
"To dare steal the supreme treasure of my Blazing Sun Holy Land, and even dare to play tricks right under my nose!"
"Zhao Fen! Attack!"
Zhu Lie let out an explosive shout, and his entire body shot toward the high platform with a boom, like a fiery cannonball fired from its barrel.
"Old dog! Hand over the Golden Crow Fire, and I'll leave your corpse intact!"
Boom!
While still in mid-air, Zhu Lie had already struck out with a palm.
The violent spiritual energy of the Late Foundation Establishment stage poured out without reservation, transforming into a giant flaming palm the size of a millstone. With the momentum to burn mountains and boil seas, it smashed fiercely toward Lin Zhennan's face.
On the high platform.
Lin Zhennan, who was immersed in the joy of his harvest, had his smile freeze slightly.
Golden Crow Fire? What Golden Crow Fire?
And who were these two people?
But the giant flaming palm was already right in front of him, and the terrifying high temperature rushing at his face singed his hair and beard.
"Arrogant brat!"
Lin Zhennan was, after all, a veteran Peak Foundation Establishment expert, and his reaction was extremely fast.
He roared in anger and thrust his hands upward.
"Blood Fiend Shield!"
Whoosh!
The blood-colored tentacles originally connected to those mummies instantly retracted, intertwining in front of him to form a thick, dark red blood shield.
Bang—!
The flames and the blood shield clashed fiercely.
"Bang—!"
Air waves rolled, and crushed stones rained down.
Although a crack was smashed into the Blood Fiend Shield in front of Lin Zhennan, his entire body remained completely motionless. Instead, Zhu Lie in mid-air was forced back by the rebound force, shattering several bluestones when he landed.
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?!
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!
agon king storylines. At the start, I obtained the "Ultimate Lackey System" - the more I act as a lackey, the stronger I become. What else could I do? I chose to become the personal henchman of the ultimate villain, Su Muwan. I provoke all sorts of chosen ones, snatch away their opportunities, and commit every evil deed imaginable. You ask who's behind me? Hmph! You're not worthy of knowing my lady's name! ...... ....... I am Su Muwan, the eldest daughter of the Su family. Since childhood, I've possessed extraordinary talent in martial arts, which led to my arrogant and domineering personality in my past life. I was even foolish enough to repeatedly challenge those favored by heaven, ultimately resulting in a tragic death. In this life, I must behave and absolutely cannot walk the same path again!! However... SLAP!! "So you're the Dragon King, huh?!" When I saw my little lackey swagger over and viciously slap the Dragon King who was hiding his identity, I felt my heart sink. Su Muwan's suspended heart finally died as she watched Qin Luo, her utterly loyal lackey, standing before her. She fainted on the spot from shock. Heaven is determined to destroy me!! (Pure love 1v1, light-hearted, no angst, single female lead, villain, reincarnation, lackey)
