Creak—
The courtyard door was gently pushed open.
Following that, a jade-like leg stepped inside.
The hem of the skirt fluttered lightly, revealing a section of fair calf. The lines were slender and well-proportioned, emitting a faint glow in the twilight.
On her feet was a pair of plain embroidered shoes. A few orchids were stitched on the surface with fine needlework, clearly showing they were handmade.
Lin Yan had been swaying in his recliner. The moment he saw her, his eyes couldn't help but light up.
Zhao Feng really wasn't bragging.
This daughter's looks were truly impeccable, no worse than the top courtesan of the Hehuan Pavilion.
Though not a beauty that could topple cities and kingdoms, she was very pleasant to look at.
She had willow eyebrows and almond eyes, a straight and elegant nose, and full lips. The corners of her mouth naturally carried a slight curve, making her look as if she was smiling, yet not quite.
Moreover, she lacked any worldly, vulgar air. Her whole person was clean and neat, like a daffodil just plucked from the water, fresh and crisp.
Zhao Xiangru walked to the center of the courtyard and stopped. She crossed her hands in front of her, bent her knees slightly, and curtsied.
The movement was neither fast nor slow, her posture graceful and dignified, absolutely faultless.
It was as if this movement had been practiced thousands of times and etched into her very bones.
Your servant Zhao Xiangru greets the Master. May the Master be well!
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was very clear.
It sounded like a stream in a mountain ravine, tinkling and unhurried.
Obviously, this phrase had also been practiced thousands of times.
Lin Yan's mouth twitched.
Zhao Xiangru, this name...
He didn't waste words and asked directly, Zhao Xiangru, are you willing to join my Tianyan Sect?
Your servant is willing!
Zhao Xiangru immediately raised her head, her eyes extremely firm. To be able to join the Tianyan Sect and serve the Master is my greatest fortune.
[Ding! Target Zhao Xiangru detected, initial loyalty 60%, can be accepted as a disciple/outer disciple.]
Lin Yan raised his eyebrows, a bit surprised.
He didn't expect her initial loyalty to be quite high.
He thought for a moment and decided not to take Zhao Xiangru as an inner sect disciple.
Anyway, inner and outer sects were the same to him. Every day yielded one year of cultivation, there was no difference.
With a thought, he said to the system, Accept as an outer disciple.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully taking in one outer disciple. Reward: Outer disciple trait extraction chance x1, Sect Points +100]
Zhao Xiangru maintained her bowing posture, unaware that in that brief moment, her fate had been sealed.
Lin Yan leaned back in the recliner and said pointedly, I assume your father has told you everything he should and shouldn't have.
Zhao Xiangru's small face flushed slightly, and she gave a soft Mm.
From now on, you will live in the gatehouse.
Lin Yan pointed to the small room next to the courtyard gate. Tidy it up yourself, bedding and daily supplies are all there.
The gatehouse wasn't large; it was originally meant for maids and servants.
Lin Yan didn't plan to pretend to be a saint.
His values were very straightforward: above himself, everyone is equal; below himself, the hierarchy is strict.
A maid must act like a maid, that was the rule.
Zhao Xiangru did not hesitate and softly replied, Yes, Master.
Lin Yan waved his hand.
Go tidy up first. Don't be nervous, treat it like your own home.
He could tell that Zhao Xiangru was very tense right now.
He wanted to let her relax a bit first.
Zhao Xiangru bowed again and turned to walk towards the gatehouse.
The moment she closed the door, she secretly glanced again at the white-clad figure under the old locust tree.
The afterglow of the setting sun fell on him, plating him in a layer of golden light.
He was leaning on the recliner, legs crossed, holding a slice of green tangerine and bringing it to his mouth.
Zhao Xiangru withdrew her gaze and then closed the door.
Right at this moment, the door to the east wing opened.
Liu Ruyan walked out.
The little girl was wearing a moon-white ruqun, her hair loosely pinned with a jade hairpin, and her face still bore the flush of cultivation.
She glanced in the direction of the gatehouse, then at Lin Yan, her small mouth pouting so high you could hang an oil bottle on it.
Lin Yan was amused.
What's wrong? Hit a bottleneck in your cultivation?
Liu Ruyan didn't speak. She walked to the stone table, picked up a green tangerine, and began to peel it.
She peeled it very slowly and carefully, stripping away the pith strings one by one. Then she broke off a slice, walked up to Lin Yan, and stuffed it into his mouth without a word.
Mmph—
Lin Yan chewed twice and squinted from the sourness.
Sour, sour! Yan'er, stop feeding me!
Liu Ruyan still didn't speak.
She picked up another green tangerine, peeled it, broke off a slice, and stuffed it into Lin Yan's mouth.
Her movements repeated, expressionless, her eyes as focused as if she were completing a sacred mission.
Lin Yan chewed a few slices and really couldn't take it anymore.
His tongue was numb, his cheeks felt tight, and even the roots of his teeth began to ache from the sourness.
He coughed and stood up from the recliner.
Well... Master has something to do, I need to go out for a bit.
As soon as his voice fell, he had disappeared.
Liu Ruyan pouted, standing under the old locust tree, still holding a slice of green tangerine in her hand.
She looked down at the tangerine slice, put it in her own mouth, and chewed twice.
Hiss—
So sour!
...
Heavenly Sword Mountain.
Heavenly Sword Sect.
A white figure appeared out of thin air in front of the mountain gate.
There were no footsteps, no sound of fluttering robes, no warning whatsoever.
Lin Yan stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the plaque of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
The gilded characters, with their vigorous and forceful strokes, showed that the person who wrote this plaque back then had truly put their heart into it.
He only took one glance, then withdrew his gaze and stepped through the mountain gate.
The mountain-guarding disciple suddenly jolted awake. Seeing a man in white walking in, he instinctively drew his sword.
Halt! What are you—
Before he could finish, Lin Yan had already walked right past him.
The guarding disciple stood frozen in place, his sword raised halfway, forgetting to lower it, wondering if he had just been dreaming.
Lin Yan walked on the stone steps of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
On both sides were majestic halls with upturned eaves, their glazed tiles gleaming coldly in the moonlight.
In the distance, disciples were practicing swordsmanship, the sound of their swords whistling. Further away, an instructor was preaching, his voice deep.
No one saw him.
It wasn't that he was invisible, but his pace was simply too fast. With a single step, he was already a hundred zhang away.
He walked to the back mountain of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
That was the foundation of the sect, where their spirit vein was located.
Lin Yan extended his right hand, spread his five fingers, and aimed at the spirit vein.
Rise.
The [Mountain Moving] trait was instantly activated.
Rumble—!!
The entire Heavenly Sword Mountain violently trembled. The earth cracked apart, and rocks tumbled down. In the center of the valley, a small mountain spanning a hundred zhang slowly pulled itself from the ground. Faint cyan spiritual light flowed across the mountain's surface; it was exactly the small low-grade spirit vein that the Heavenly Sword Sect relied on for survival.
Countless Heavenly Sword Sect disciples ran out in panic, looking at the spirit vein mountain suspended in mid-air, their faces ashen.
What's going on? Is it an earthquake?
That's... our spirit vein! Someone is stealing our spirit vein!
Who is it? Who dares to touch the foundation of my Heavenly Sword Sect!
They looked up, only to see a blurry white-clad figure from behind, holding the entire spirit vein mountain with one hand as if supporting a feather.
Before they could even react, the [Shrinking the Earth into an Inch] trait under Lin Yan's feet activated. With a flash of his figure, only a faint afterimage remained in place.
In the span of a few breaths, he had already returned to Azure Cloud Mountain with the spirit vein.
The crowd watching the spectacle at the foot of the mountain hadn't even recovered from the great battle just now when they suddenly saw a massive mountain hurtling toward them from the horizon. It blotted out the sky and the sun, scaring them out of their wits.
"My god! What is that?"
"A mountain! A mountain is flying over!"
"Run! The mountain is going to crush us!"
But before they could run far, the massive mountain slowly descended, perfectly merging into the body of Qingyun Mountain.
A soft azure spiritual light rippled outward from the depths of Qingyun Mountain, and the concentration of spiritual energy in the air instantly skyrocketed.
Everyone froze in place, staring dumbfounded at Qingyun Mountain.
What just happened?
No one knew. Only a few individuals with profound cultivation seemed to sense that the spiritual energy had suddenly grown much richer.
Lin Yan clapped his hands and didn't linger, once again activating the Shrinking Earth to an Inch technique.
In just the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he did the exact same thing to the Earth Blade Sect's spiritual vein, moving it back to Qingyun Mountain.
The two small, low-grade spiritual veins connected end-to-end and completely integrated into the earth veins of Qingyun Mountain.
A layer of mist slowly rose across the entirety of Qingyun Mountain. Shrouded in dense spiritual energy, it finally carried the air of a true immortal sanctuary.
Returning to his small courtyard, Lin Yan willed it, placing the previously unlocked Cultivation Pavilion right next to the Hall of Techniques.
[Ding! Detected two small, low-grade spiritual veins. Cultivation Pavilion can be placed. Cultivation speed +20%]
Lin Yan nodded in satisfaction. Just as he was about to go back and lie on his rocking chair for a while, a series of system prompts exploded in his ears.
[Ding! Detected that the host has displayed immense divine might, annihilating the two major sects, the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Earth Blade Sect. Sect Prestige has greatly increased! Sect Points +1000!]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for unlocking a special building: Heart-Testing Pavilion!]
[Heart-Testing Pavilion: A total of 100 floors, with each floor representing 1% loyalty!]
Heh!
Lin Yan was amused.
This is good!
With this Heart-Testing Pavilion, taking in disciples in the future would save him a lot of trouble.
If anyone wanted to join the sect, they would have to clear the Heart-Testing Pavilion first.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
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!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
