Outside the small courtyard, between the two armies.
A bull-headed man covered in black fur, with two horns growing from his head and an ugly face, slowly sauntered into the middle of the road while picking his nose. He raised his eyelids and looked at the allied forces of the three races with undisguised disdain.
“You old geezers are pretty impressive.”
“You got your hands on some lousy cultivation manual and started thinking you’re invincible. Once you break through, are you even planning to take me on?”
“Who are you?!”
Seeing the man’s attitude, the elders of the three races narrowed their eyes.
There was no one like him in their memories. Yet judging from the way he spoke, he was clearly an expert.
“Old Ox?”
Ye Shu stood before the courtyard, staring blankly at him. Wasn’t this the bull-headed man who had sat beside him watching the election? How had he suddenly appeared here to show off?
But judging by his appearance...
Could he actually be an expert?
Ye Shu rapidly searched through his memories, but he had absolutely no impression of this fellow.
“Who am I?”
The bull-headed man smiled calmly. He raised his head slightly and lifted his eyelids, revealing a pair of pale golden pupils.
“How about opening your eyes and taking another look?”
“What?!”
The elders of the three races were instantly horrified.
Those eyes... There was no mistaking them!
It was him. It really was him—the legendary figure who had been missing for so long, the Dragon Emperor who had ruled the beast race for countless years!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
Without the slightest hesitation, the three elders dropped to their knees at the same time. Their movements were perfectly synchronized. The men who had been so arrogant moments ago lowered their heads, raised both hands high, and shouted in unison:
“We welcome the Dragon Emperor back to his throne!”
“Huh?”
Ye Shu and the others looked at one another, completely dumbfounded.
What was going on?
Had the situation really turned around that quickly?
“Hmph!”
The bull-headed man snorted coldly and slowly advanced until he stood before the elders. Looking down at them, he said, “Now you know to call me the Dragon Emperor? Weren’t you being very arrogant and overbearing just now? You even dared bully my daughter.”
“Hehe... Dragon Emperor, you misunderstand...”
The elders kept their heads lowered, not daring even to breathe too loudly. They gave an awkward laugh.
“We merely received word in advance that the Dragon Emperor had appeared, so we brought our people here to welcome you ahead of time.”
The Nine-Tailed Fox chose a more tactful way of putting it.
“Oh? Is that so?”
The bull-headed man bent down. His golden, vertical pupils fixed themselves on the elders. He extended a golden right claw covered in scales and grabbed the Heaven-Swallowing Python by the head.
His voice dropped into a low growl.
“Is that what he said? Hmm?”
The Heaven-Swallowing Python felt bitter inside.
Damn it, if you’d found the old Dragon Emperor, you should have said so earlier! Why were you baiting us into incriminating ourselves? Did you get a kick out of this?
But now that things had reached this point, he could only brace himself and nod.
“Yes... yes, that’s how it is...”
“You welcome the Dragon Emperor?”
The corners of the bull-headed man’s lips curled upward. He extended one dragon claw.
“Then where is your loyalty?”
“Loyalty... loyalty...”
The elders exchanged glances, their faces filled with bitterness.
But when they thought of the old Dragon Emperor’s terrifying strength, they chose life over freedom.
With extreme difficulty, the elders stiffly raised their hands. A drop of dark golden blood appeared in each of their palms and hovered above them.
“We have awaited the Dragon Emperor’s return for a long time.”
The bull-headed man casually beckoned, and the drops of blood drifted into his palm. He slowly turned around and looked at the still-dazed Ao Xue before flicking his right hand.
The three drops of blood shot toward her.
With a soft plop, they vanished into Ao Xue’s brow, transforming into three thin golden markings that disappeared in the blink of an eye. Ao Xue froze for a moment, then instinctively raised a hand to touch her forehead.
A strange connection had been established between them.
It was as though she could control the life and death of those three men at any time.
The bull-headed man turned back to the elders and swept his sleeve through the air.
“Consider yourselves lucky that you knew your place. Now get lost!”
“Yes! Yes!”
“Thank you for sparing us, Dragon Emperor!”
The elders were instantly relieved as if they had just received a royal pardon. They nodded like chickens pecking at grain, then fled with their people, tumbling and scrambling away. Their figures quickly disappeared at the end of the alley.
“That’s... it?”
Ye Shu and the others stared at the scene in astonishment.
It was all so inexplicable. They had expected some earth-shaking battle, but the whole thing had ended in such an anticlimactic fashion.
“What else would you expect?”
The bull-headed man turned around and smiled faintly.
The black fur covering his body receded completely, revealing dark golden scales. His figure grew noticeably taller, and the slovenly bull-headed man vanished without a trace. In his place stood a dignified middle-aged man dressed in a dark golden robe.
“You—you!”
Ao Xue pointed at the middle-aged man, so shocked that she could barely get the words out.
“How are you here?”
“What?” Ao Kun smiled. “After finally meeting the father you’ve dreamed of reuniting with, you’re so excited that you can’t speak?”
Even Ye Shu clicked his tongue in amazement.
Mo Yu had said that the Dragon Emperor was sealed within the Immortal Ruins. Apparently, even the system’s intelligence wasn’t always reliable.
“You... you...”
Ao Xue stared blankly at the father who had abandoned her. Tears streamed down her face. All the grievances she had endured over the years clogged her throat, and it took a long while before she finally spoke in a small, aggrieved voice.
“If you’ve been here all along, why did you leave me alone out there?”
There was a hint of resentment in her questioning voice.
“Silly child.”
Ao Kun shook his head helplessly.
“If I had really left you all alone, how could someone with your intelligence have survived out there until now?”
“Then why did you only show up now?”
Ao Xue’s eyes were brimming with tears as she questioned him indignantly.
“That, naturally, is because...” Ao Kun clasped his hands behind his back and gazed gloomily toward the heavens beyond. “The one standing before you now is merely a false body. My true body is still sealed inside those ruins.”
At that, everyone froze.
So this body before them wasn’t the Dragon Emperor’s true form.
No wonder he had chosen to let the three races go instead of slaughtering them all. It turned out he was all bark and no bite—a flashy facade with no real substance.
The moment the subject came up, Ao Kun grew furious.
After shaking his head, he pointed at Ao Xue’s nose and scolded her, clearly disappointed.
“And you have the nerve to complain about your father? At the election, you kept saying you were going to search for traces of me. Did you ever actually look? You didn’t do a damn thing!”
He glanced at Ye Shu, then scolded her even more harshly.
“All you do is spend every day hanging around this boy. Did you ever think about your father while I was out there freezing in the northwest wind? Now that you’re in trouble, you remember to look for your father!”
“How did I end up with a daughter who forgets her father the moment she sees a handsome man?”
“I didn’t have any clues, so how was I supposed to find you...?” Ao Xue retorted, though her voice lacked confidence.
“Enough, enough. I can’t be bothered to argue with you.”
Ao Kun waved his hand dismissively. Then he took two steps forward and stopped in front of Ye Shu, smiling broadly.
“Little brother, do you still remember me?”
“I-I do.”
Ye Shu nodded stiffly.
It wasn’t because he was intimidated by the man’s strength. It was because he had slept with the man’s daughter—and was the handsome man who had made her forget her father. It was rather awkward.
“Good. As long as you remember.”
Ao Kun nodded with a smile, then added, “I was only asking.”
“When are you going to marry my daughter?”
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
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!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
