Hearing Yi Feng's anxious inquiry, Lu Xinlan's eyes shimmered with emotion.
This gentleman had never shown much emotion before, always as distant and unfathomable as the bright moon.
But now,
Yi Feng had voiced his concern—an exceedingly rare occurrence—revealing just how much he cared for her. To receive such genuine regard from him made her feel her life was truly worthwhile.
Lu Xinlan nodded with a forced smile.
"Thank you for your concern, sir. Xinlan is deeply grateful."
"The results of the Eastern Sea Heavenly Sacrifice won't be known until tomorrow. I don’t know what will happen—whether it will be me or someone else."
"But this Eastern Sea Heavenly Sacrifice is like a blade hanging over our heads, ready to fall at any moment. Once chosen, there’s no escape or resistance against such absolute power. It’s an inescapable calamity for all female cultivators of our Eastern Isles."
As she spoke,
Lu Xinlan’s clear eyes reddened slightly, her restrained expression barely concealing grief and indignation.
Yi Feng couldn’t help but empathize.
No wonder the prodigies of the Eastern Sea harbored such hidden fears, dreading this century-spanning calamity. Faced with such a fate, no one could remain calm.
To lord over the islands with such arrogance, demanding the sacrifice of their finest talents every hundred years—
This was truly excessive!
Watching Lu Xinlan’s silent suffering, Yi Feng could hold back no longer.
"It’s true that you reside in the Eastern Sea, but can’t you negotiate terms? What makes these merfolk so formidable that they can act with such impunity?"
The question seemed to strike a nerve. Lu Xinlan’s eyes burned with greater fury.
Yet, within moments,
Even this usually composed beauty couldn’t hide her dread.
"Sir, you don’t understand."
"The Heavenly Dragon Merfolk possess bloodline power, said to descend from the lineage of true dragons—hence their self-proclaimed title as the Heavenly Dragon Clan. They’ve dwelled in the abyssal depths for countless ages, their bloodline power especially potent in the ocean. Even the great sects of the mainland fear them."
"For tens of thousands of years, whenever the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk surfaced, we human cultivators could only retreat. Even those with blood feuds who sought refuge in the Eastern Sea dared not pursue vengeance here. Only recently did several major sects unite to raid an outlying island for revenge—and that was only because the century’s deadline hadn’t yet arrived."
"That single act of defiance was already a rare miracle, unheard of for millennia."
"Over time, the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk have become like emperors of the Eastern Sea. We live here in submission, powerless to resist..."
That domineering?
A mere fish-man race could intimidate so many factions?
Yi Feng was stunned, finding it hard to believe.
"They’re that formidable?"
"I’ve heard the Black Isle’s lord is a formidable figure, and the island itself is filled with hidden talents. Has no one ever resisted? Just let these merfolk strut about unchecked?"
The question made Lu Xinlan’s expression darken further.
"Tens of thousands of years ago, the 34th Lord of Black Isle once spoke against this practice. That lord was a peerless genius, a dazzling prodigy of his era."
"Yet, before the Third Prince of the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk, he lasted barely a single move. The gap between them was like heaven and earth, a humiliation that cowed the isles for millennia."
"After that, terror gripped every island. With our meager strength, we could only bow to the Third Prince, trading submission for a century of peace."
"Forgive my shameful words, sir..."
The cruel reality was lamentable.
As Yi Feng watched Lu Xinlan’s bitter, self-mocking eyes, he fell into deep thought, saying no more—but the matter was firmly etched in his mind.
A day later.
In an elegant courtyard at the heart of Black Isle,
Several women clad in white robes stepped forward, their pristine demeanor commanding reverence, their auras extraordinary—yet their expressions were ice-cold.
"Lady Shuyao."
"By decree of the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk, you have been chosen as the Heavenly Maiden. We implore you to accept your fate."
Lu Shuyao clenched her jade-like fingers, refusing to rise.
After a tense silence,
Her lips parted, her usual composure gone, voice laced with icy fury.
"Nonsense!"
"How could I possibly be the Heavenly Maiden?!"
The sword-bearing women exchanged glances but remained silent.
The eldest among them produced a jade slip.
Instantly,
A faint glow emanated from the slip, coalescing like flowing sand into five shadowy figures seated in midair, their faces obscured by dark hoods.
Even as mere projections, their oppressive auras were terrifying!
Lu Shuyao paled, dread flooding her heart.
Reluctantly, she rose and bowed.
"Greetings to the five esteemed elders..."
The figures ignored her courtesy. The eldest spoke in a voice like frozen steel, brimming with irrefutable authority.
"Lu Shuyao."
"As a direct descendant of the Lu family, your talent and beauty are renowned across the isle. By decree of the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk, you are now the Heavenly Maiden. This is destiny!"
Lu Shuyao’s head snapped up, her face deathly white.
Why?
Why this outcome?
She had already lost the Tower Lord position to Lu Xinlan in the competition—fine, she could accept defeat. But now, even the Heavenly Sacrifice fell to her?
Why did all the good fortune go to Lu Xinlan?
Damn it!!
Tears welled in her eyes as she bit her lip hard.
But when she looked up again,
The five elders’ projections were resolute, their indifference now laced with unveiled killing intent.
In that instant,
Lu Shuyao’s pupils contracted violently—then dulled into lifeless calm, as if all light had drained from her soul.
She knew she had no choice.
Before she could react,
The elders who had once doted on her vanished without another word.
Only the sword-maidens remained, bowing respectfully.
"Young Mistress."
"As the Heavenly Maiden, you act under the elders’ orders. The matter is settled. Do not make this harder for us servants."
The words chilled her to the bone.
Swallowing her rage, Lu Shuyao closed her eyes, forcing back her tears.
"Fine... fine."
"What a glorious title—Heavenly Maiden."
"How utterly mocking..."
Escorted by the terrifyingly powerful maids,
The young mistress stepped out of the courtyard like a lost soul, her graceful steps now leaden.
She said nothing more as she boarded the palanquin, as if resigned to a fate beyond her control.
Meanwhile,
Deep within the Treasure Pavilion,
Yi Feng and Lu Xinlan sat in heavy silence, their expressions grim.
Upon learning of the "Heavenly Maiden’s" identity,
Even Yi Feng couldn’t suppress his sigh.
"Fate plays cruel tricks."
"To think Lu Shuyao would become the so-called Heavenly Maiden—struck by injustice at her lowest point."
Lu Xinlan nodded, her eyes still burning with quiet fury.
"You speak truth, sir."
"But it wasn’t the elders who chose her. The Third Prince of the Heavenly Dragon Merfolk decides each sacrifice. No one can oppose it."
"The humiliation she suffers today... may one day be my fate as well."
Her voice carried no gloating, only the sorrow of shared suffering.
As they reflected,
A palanquin glided through the sky, escorted by white-robed figures, drawing countless gazes as it vanished into the distance.
Yi Feng finally showed a flicker of curiosity in his eyes as he fixed his gaze on Lu Xinlan and asked,
"Is that Lu Shuyao inside the carriage?"
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
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.”
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
