The Magical Beast Mountain Range was an extremely vast terrain. Even if the villain knew Ye Shu was in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, it would be impossible to pinpoint his exact location.
After all, no novel could be that detailed.
Of course, if the villain really did know.
Then Ye Shu would have no other choice.
He would just have to hand it over.
Splash.
Outside the dilapidated little wooden cabin was a crystal-clear stream. Ye Shu took off his clothes, leaving only his undergarments, revealing his lean, muscular body, and slowly waded into the river.
The freezing river water cleared his mind considerably.
He had just broken a sweat inside the cabin, and the sticky feeling all over his body was quite unpleasant.
Soaking in the water now felt truly refreshing.
The place he had chosen had beautiful scenery and very few high-level magical beasts. Aside from the occasional distant roar of a beast, if his cultivation base wasn't so low right now, and if he didn't have the ticking time bomb that was Danxia, living in seclusion here wouldn't be a bad idea.
Phew.
Ye Shu sat cross-legged in the water, keeping his head above the surface. He rested his arms on his knees, slowly entered a state of meditation, and began his breathing exercises.
At this moment, Xiaobai followed him out.
Seeing Ye Shu wearing only his underpants, her little face flushed red. She spread her fingers to cover her eyes, peering curiously through the gaps at Ye Shu sitting in the stream.
"Are you... cultivating?"
"What else would I be doing?" Ye Shu replied calmly.
"At least you have some ambition."
Xiaobai snorted softly. She had thought her hubby, uh, no, her Child of Destiny was really going to slack off and give up entirely.
But after watching for a while, she suddenly noticed something was wrong.
"You, you, you! You're not cultivating the Fen Jue?"
She jumped up abruptly, her eyes wide as she stared at Ye Shu in absolute disbelief.
"You mean the one Danxia taught me?"
Ye Shu frowned.
"Right!" Xiaobai nodded. "You should be cultivating the Fen Jue, slowly devouring Heavenly Flames to evolve it, eventually reaching a Heaven-tier cultivation method, and becoming an immortal after devouring exactly nineteen Heavenly Flames."
"But you... you actually didn't choose the Fen Jue?"
Xiaobai's eyes were wide, and she said with bitter heartache, "You actually chose the Profound-tier cultivation method she gave you and missed out on a growth-type immortal cultivation method! You... you're so foolish!"
Ye Shu, however, didn't even bat an eyelid.
"You're saying I should have chosen a cultivation method that requires me to gather nineteen Heavenly Flames to become an immortal, where lacking even one means failure, and without Heavenly Flames the cultivation speed is agonizingly slow?"
"Do you think there is something wrong with my brain?"
Xiaobai was taken aback by his words, then asked angrily, "Then, then what cultivation method are you practicing?"
"My self-created Universal Stars."
Ye Shu said calmly.
Even though it was a self-created method, his expression was as calm as if he had just eaten thirty small bread rolls.
"Self, self-created??"
"A cultivation method????"
Hearing this, Xiaobai's eyes went perfectly round, countless times more shocked than when she heard he hadn't chosen the Fen Jue.
"That's right."
Ye Shu nodded.
"You didn't think that when my cultivation was completely crippled, I just stood there like an idiot getting scolded, occasionally flirting with my childhood sweetheart, and waiting to die while leeching off my family, did you?"
"Since my dantian is broken, I will use my acupoints to contain spiritual energy. There are 361 acupoints in the human body. I will open them one by one, link them together to form a complete cycle, and simulate the movement of the universal stars."
"Then... what tier is your cultivation method?"
Xiaobai was utterly dumbfounded by what she was hearing and asked subconsciously.
"Uncertain."
Ye Shu replied.
"My spiritual energy reserves are over three hundred times higher than an ordinary person's. At the same time, because my spiritual sea is much broader, there is no such thing as a bottleneck when I break through... It is at least higher than the Immortal tier."
"I have tentatively classified it as Emperor tier."
"Huh?"
Xiaobai was completely dumbfounded, wearing an expression that clearly said, are you freaking kidding me? "No, wait. You are a Qi Condensation Third Realm cultivator who isn't even twenty years old, and you're telling me you created a cultivation method far surpassing the Immortal tier. Do you think that makes any sense?"
"Does it not make sense?"
Ye Shu asked in return.
"I am the protagonist. It is perfectly normal for me to be extraordinarily gifted, right?"
"Back in the day, Russell from the world of mathematics wrote the Principia Mathematica in his twenties, shocking the world. I, Ye Shu, began creating my own cultivation method at the age of fifteen. After five years of minor success, I created the prototype of an Emperor tier method. That is very reasonable, isn't it?"
This...
Somehow, it actually sounded a bit reasonable.
But this was just too weird!
Xiaobai racked her brains but still could not figure it out. She felt that her protagonist should not be this smart.
The transmigrator effect. It definitely had to be the transmigrator effect.
Choosing a transmigrator to deal with the system back then was indeed the most correct decision!
It was well worth the price of her shrinking in size.
"Hehehe..."
Seeing her hubby—uh, no, her Child of Destiny—being so amazing, Xiaobai could not help but squat by the river and giggle foolishly.
She could already envision a beautiful future where her protagonist punched the villain, kicked the Daughter of Destiny, reclaimed the destiny, suppressed the system, and then took her, the Heavenly Dao, to the absolute pinnacle.
She had even thought of the title for the autobiography.
It would be called—
Destined Villain? Then What Does That Make Me, the Child of Destiny!
Just as she was indulging in her fantasies, Ye Shu suddenly spoke up, "What was my original plotline? Or rather, do I have any fortuitous encounters that the villains cannot steal away, something that only I can obtain?"
Hearing this, Xiaobai snapped out of her daydream.
"A fortuitous encounter that only you can obtain..."
She frowned and began to ponder.
After a moment, she raised her hand and said loudly, "There is, there is! You have a sword named the Azure Mystic Sword. It is the defining treasure of the Azure Mystic Sect. Passed down since ancient times, it has never acknowledged a master. It will only acknowledge you as its one and only master."
"The Azure Mystic Sword?"
Ye Shu was taken aback.
Wait, wait, wait, this isn't right, is it?
According to the usual Xiao Huohuo tropes, he should be going to some academy, not a sect, right?
"Then how do I get this sword?"
Ye Shu asked again.
"Oh, that is actually very simple. You were tempering yourself in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, and as a result, you met a female disciple from the Azure Mystic Sect. You adventured together here, went through various life-and-death situations, saw true feelings in times of adversity, and eventually developed mutual affection."
Xiaobai recalled the plot, speaking at a rapid pace. "To protect her, you exposed part of your strength and potential, and she recommended you to join the Azure Mystic Sect. After entering the sect, during a sect tournament or a secret realm trial, you performed exceptionally well, causing the Azure Mystic Sword to resonate with you, and ultimately successfully gained the approval of this ancient divine sword."
"How about it? This plotline is amazing, right?"
Xiaobai hummed proudly, her large eyes filled with smugness. This was a god-tier plotline she had written back then after reading countless reference materials.
However, contrary to her expectations.
Ye Shu suddenly opened his eyes, gritting his teeth with an ugly expression on his face.
This made Xiaobai's heart skip a beat, because the last time Ye Shu showed this expression, Dan Xia was about to kill him.
"Are you saying..."
Ye Shu gritted his teeth, enunciating every single word.
"There is a female lead in the Demonic Beast Mountain Range right now, and she most likely knows exactly where I am?"
Almost the very moment the words left his mouth.
A dazzling sword light slashed across from the horizon, accompanied by a feminine shout filled with heaven-piercing rage.
"Ye, you scoundrel! Pay with your life!"

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."

rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!

and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!

tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...