The next day, before the break of dawn.
The sun had yet to rise, but the sky above the Holy City was already dyed an emerald green.
The vibrant green flames illuminated half the city, making it sparkle.
That was the light of the Green Lotus Heavenly Flame.
The Heavenly Flame Ceremony had begun.
In the courtyard, the dancers who had gone to bed early yesterday were already gathered. They had changed into brand-new feathered dresses, their hair neatly combed, and light makeup adorned their faces.
Xiao Qingli stood among them, stifling a yawn.
How strange.
Even though she had slept a bit late last night, she felt incredibly comfortable upon waking up. She wasn't sleepy at all, and her whole body felt warm.
It must be her mother watching over her from heaven.
She thought to herself.
Last night, she had seen her mother in her dreams. Her mother's hands were so soft, patting her back and humming a song just like when she was little.
Today, everyone had woken up very early.
Even Bingxuanzi, who had been as elusive as a phantom for the past two months, had returned to the courtyard in the middle of the night. At this moment, he stood beside Ye Shu, as solemn as a statue.
Ye Shu stood before the door, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Is everyone ready?"
His voice was a bit cold, carrying a rare seriousness.
Hearing his voice, the girls immediately lined up in neat rows, their eyes conveying that they were fully prepared.
Xiao Qingli stood in the crowd, her brows slightly furrowed.
She couldn't help but feel that... the Director was different today. He seemed so serious. Was it because he was afraid the performance would fail, angering those important figures and leading to his punishment?
Wait!
Xiao Qingli suddenly widened her eyes.
If the Director was punished—or even killed—for a failed performance, did that mean they would be free?
No, no, they would probably be killed too, right?
She nodded one moment and shook her head the next.
Just then, Ye Shu suddenly stepped forward and walked toward her. The surrounding dancers consciously made way for him.
Xiao Qingli looked up at Ye Shu as he approached. Thinking her secret thoughts had been discovered, she couldn't help but feel a little afraid.
"D-Director..."
Ye Shu's right hand twitched, but he forced himself to hold back.
"You will lead today's performance."
"...Perform well."
With that, he turned and left.
Leaving behind a bewildered Xiao Qingli and the other girls who were looking at each other in dismay.
"L-Lead? Me?"
Xiao Qingli stood frozen, her face full of confusion.
Qingyuan walked over and gently rubbed her little head. "Don't be afraid. Didn't you want to let everyone stay here? This is a great opportunity."
"Let everyone see how amazing our Qingli is!"
"Mhm!"
Having reached the door, Ye Shu turned back and said coldly, "Hurry up and follow. There's a performance during the day as well."
There were two performances today.
One was in the morning, held in the plaza for everyone to see. It was an impromptu addition decided by Queen Medusa herself.
The other was in the afternoon.
It would take place inside the Holy Temple of the Holy City, performed exclusively for the Snake Clan's elders, the royal guards, and Queen Medusa. At that time, all the core forces of the Snake Clan would be present.
The morning performance was more like a rehearsal, a warm-up.
Nevertheless.
Xiao Qingli was still very serious. Every turn, every tip-toe, and every glance back was executed meticulously, without the slightest error.
Thunderous applause erupted from the audience, but she couldn't hear it.
Her eyes were focused only on the tips of her toes, only on that seemingly real illusion.
Beside her, Qingyuan silently played the flute to accompany her.
"This little girl... is very earnest."
Bingxuanzi commented flatly, though he shook his head. "It's a pity. By pursuing perfection too much, she has lost her natural agility."
"It is like seeking the Dao."
"The more you try to chase it, the further the Dao strays from you. But when you finally stop in your tracks, it is right beside you."
Ye Shu didn't speak; he just watched.
After a long time, he finally spoke.
"It's beautiful. More beautiful than anyone or any dance I have ever seen."
Bingxuanzi was taken aback for a moment before he chuckled.
"Then you should protect her even better."
"I will."
Ye Shu looked at Xiao Qingli's little face, dripping with sweat, and enunciated each word seriously, "I will."
Meanwhile, offstage.
"It's so beautiful!"
Qin Ke'er, who was mingling among the Snake Clan, couldn't help but let out a gasp of admiration. "That girl is amazing. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to dance like that."
"And the one playing the flute sounds so good too."
"Idiot!"
Lu Qinghuan, who was beside her, knocked her on the head. "That's little sister Qingli, didn't you even recognize her?"
"Eh?" Qin Ke'er looked closer and was stunned.
"It really is! But shouldn't she have already been taken by that heartless scoundrel... How could she be performing here?"
"It doesn't matter, this is actually a good thing."
Zheng Yunshu waved her hand. "After we snatch the Heavenly Flame, we'll take her away with us. Is that alright, Master?"
She looked at another young woman standing nearby.
The woman had a cold and detached temperament, her gaze never leaving the high stage.
This was Mu Yunxi, the Peak Master of the Azure Profound Sect's Purple Cloud Peak, and also their master. With her Soul Formation cultivation base, there was no way anything would go wrong with this operation.
"Yes," Mu Yunxi replied calmly.
"During the Heavenly Flame Ceremony this afternoon, all the core members of the Snake Clan will go to the Queen's Holy Temple to observe. At that time, the guards at the Snake Clan's treasury will be empty, making it the best opportunity for us to strike and seize the Heavenly Flame."
"As for that little thief..."
"If we run into him, we'll just kill him in passing."
"Master is mighty!"
Qin Ke'er cheered in a low voice.
Not far from them, Su Xiao looked completely bewildered.
What were these girls whispering about? Why were they always keeping secrets from him?
...Time quietly slipped away.
Finally, noon had passed.
On the high stage, Ye Shu and Bingxuanzi quietly made their exit.
As the Director and the guard, the two of them naturally didn't need to participate in the afternoon performance. For one, they couldn't dance, so going would be meaningless and they'd just be eyesores standing there. Secondly, two nobodies like them had no right to step foot into the Holy Temple anyway.
"Are you afraid?"
Ye Shu astutely noticed that Bingxuanzi's body beside him was constantly trembling, his hands shaking as if he had Parkinson's.
"This is the martial artist's tremor," Bingxuanzi said with a calm gaze.
"A resonance that can only occur between powerhouses. This means that countless experts have already gathered in this Holy City, and they are all in an extremely excited state."
"If you're scared, it's not too late to back out now."
"Is that so?"
Ye Shu's eyes flickered. Going against the flow of the crowd, he took large strides toward the Snake Clan's treasury.
"Then let us step into this hell with our own two feet."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
