"What...?"
"What did you say?!"
Ao Budong was so shocked he couldn't speak for a long moment. When he finally did, his voice trembled with urgency.
"Emperor Sturgeon Dragon, why would he help humans? As a dragon general of our clan, how dare you slander and defame a senior of the sea tribe?!"
Never had the Dragon Emperor been so visibly shaken.
The fury in his urgent tone alone made the surroundings tense beyond measure. Tens of thousands of Celestial Dragon Merfolk silently descended onto the sea's surface, not daring to move without permission.
The three dragon generals trembled and lowered themselves further, stammering out their defense.
"Your Majesty, please see the truth!"
"This matter is absolutely true! Ao Bei was sent flying by Emperor Sturgeon Dragon with a single strike and still hasn't returned. We all witnessed the might of the Imprisoned Dragon Overturning Claw!"
"It really was Emperor Sturgeon Dragon!"
Whoosh!
Ao Budong's face turned deathly pale.
He seemed to lose all strength in his body, unable to stand steadily any longer. Slumping onto his war chariot, his pupils trembled as he muttered their words repeatedly.
"Imprisoned Dragon Overturning Claw... Imprisoned Dragon Overturning Claw..."
"So it really was Emperor Sturgeon Dragon!"
"Why would he help humans? Why?!"
Before he could finish his bewildered muttering, the disheveled dragon generals spoke again, their voices shaking.
"Your Majesty..."
"We don’t know the reason either, but besides Emperor Sturgeon Dragon, the North Sea Emperor is also aiding the humans!"
Swoosh!
Ao Budong jolted as if struck by lightning, a cold chill running down his spine.
His eyes snapped open, the shock in them growing even more pronounced.
"The North Sea Emperor?"
"He’s involved too?!"
Ao Budong was now so agitated he couldn’t sit still, his throat dry with dread.
He had never imagined.
That things would escalate so absurdly, completely beyond his expectations.
He had thought.
That if the humans had somehow managed to defeat the four dragon generals, it must have been with the help of ancient clans from the mainland. He had even planned to personally intervene, both to crush the ignorant humans and to assert his dominance over the world.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined...
That the ones aiding the humans would be those two!
What the hell?!
Facing those two, he was nothing!
Ao Budong felt trapped, his fighting spirit utterly extinguished. He was now consumed by shock and confusion, his face flickering between emotions.
"Why...?"
"Why would our own sea tribe elders help humans? Such betrayal is beyond my power to oppose. I might have to swallow my pride and ask Lord Crab Emperor to intervene!"
Just as his muttering faded, another dragon general’s report echoed through the air.
"Y-Your Majesty."
"Lord Crab Emperor... also aided the humans today!"
Thud!
Ao Budong’s heart clenched violently at these words, his face draining of all color.
"What?!"
"Even Lord Crab Emperor is helping the humans?!"
"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!!!"
Despair and disbelief unlike anything he had ever felt overwhelmed him.
Ao Budong let out a hoarse roar, completely losing his composure in front of tens of thousands of his clansmen.
He refused to believe that the revered elders of the sea tribe would one after another side with humans—his enemies! Even the most ancient and respected Lord Crab Emperor was aiding outsiders!
Such a thing, even if reported by his own generals, was unacceptable.
For anyone.
Who could believe that their own clan’s legendary figures would help their sworn enemies? What a heart-wrenching truth!
Yet.
No matter how much the Dragon Emperor raged and roared, the bowing generals never wavered in their account. The tens of thousands of merfolk around them only stared in shock and terror, as if still reeling from the earlier horrors.
Seeing the sea of defeated figures before him, the Dragon Emperor suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon, his spirit utterly crushed.
He seemed to age millennia in an instant, sitting dazed and hollow-eyed on his throne.
When he spoke again, his voice was weak and lifeless.
"Is... is this all true?"
The dragon generals raised their heads with great difficulty, practically gritting their teeth as they answered.
"Absolutely true..."
"Your Majesty, what should we do now? How do we proceed with conquering the Seventy-Two Islands...?"
Ao Budong fell silent at the question, his face a mix of humiliation and terror. He had no answers left. Frantically, he waved his hand and ordered his chariot to retreat into the depths.
"Conquer what?!"
"Back to the palace! Back to the palace!"
"All warriors, return to our territory immediately! Without my direct order, no one is to step foot outside! Violators will be executed without mercy!"
As the chariot hastily vanished into the abyss, the tens of thousands of Celestial Dragon Merfolk scrambled after it in disarray, their earlier majesty gone, fleeing like frightened birds into the sea.
The entire Celestial Dragon Merfolk clan had been utterly terrified.
A long while later.
Ao Budong, now back in his palace, slumped onto his throne, his face haggard and defeated.
His hair hung over his brows like an old man’s, his eyes vacant with lingering horror.
No matter how much he replayed the events in his mind, he couldn’t calm the terror in his heart.
"How is this possible...?"
"Those three are the great powers of our sea tribe! Even I couldn’t guarantee summoning them at will. How could they suddenly side with the humans of the Seventy-Two Islands? What could those humans possibly have offered them?!"
Images of three colossal figures loomed in his mind, making the situation even more unfathomable.
The North Sea Emperor had always been indifferent to worldly affairs.
He was the kind of man who could abandon an imperial throne without hesitation.
Ao Budong couldn’t fathom what could possibly move such a being.
Emperor Sturgeon Dragon was even harder to persuade.
As the emperor of the Sturgeon Dragon Fish Clan, there was no treasure he hadn’t seen. What could the humans possibly possess to make him intervene personally?
And Lord Crab Emperor...
Hah.
Ao Budong let out a deranged, bitter laugh, his face twisting into something almost manic.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t comprehend why these three terrifying figures would stoop so low as to act as mere enforcers for humans!
What kind of fight was this?!
Even if it was the truth, thinking about it felt like a bad joke!
Ao Budong’s entire worldview had shattered!
He had thought some fool had dared to challenge the Celestial Dragon Merfolk, overestimating themselves, and he had been ready to teach them a lesson.
Now, it turned out the fool was him all along!
The more he thought, the more shocked and bewildered he became.
Unconsciously.
His mind became a tangled mess, and strange memories from the past resurfaced.
Back then, the three elders had rejected his audiences one after another. In hindsight, their behavior had been suspicious, almost as if they feared something. Yet now, they had turned around and served humans, their attitudes completely reversed.
This whole situation was getting more and more bizarre!
After a long time lost in thought, Ao Budong pieced together the clues, his expression growing increasingly grim.
"First, they coldly watched as I was humiliated, then they turned around and became human lackeys. Such two-faced behavior is despicable! Have they no shame?!"
"Given their status and power, what could possibly make them act so recklessly? If this is true, then the situation is far more complicated than it seems!"
"Such influence can’t be matched by any treasure, nor could mere humans possess it!"
"There must be an unimaginably terrifying presence within the Seventy-Two Islands..."
"Gasp..."
Ao Budong suddenly jolted as if struck by lightning, his entire body freezing in place.
A premonition of impending doom seized him. Trembling, he pulled out a jade slip to send urgent messages, his hands shaking uncontrollably. After sending several humble pleas, he finally received a single indifferent reply after what felt like an eternity.
Yet Ao Budong didn’t mind in the slightest. Instead, his eyes brimmed with grateful tears as he hastily departed the depths alone.
+ Slow Paced + Main Character Thrives Together with His Disciples】 Transmigrated into a cultivation world, Chu Xingchen awakens a discipleship system that reveals the tags of his disciples! Starting from scratch, he builds the strongest sect. Disciple One: Li Yingling 【Gold Tag: Genius Cultivator】【Purple Tag: Extremely Lucky】【Blue Tag: Bewitchingly Beautiful】 Disciple Two: Li Hangtian 【Gold Tag: Reincarnated】【Purple Tag: Ruthless and Decisive】【Blue Tag: Loyal and Noble】 Disciple Three: ??? 【Orange Tag: Alluring Demoness】【???】【???】 Thus, in the cultivation world, an unremarkable little sect appears out of nowhere, but little do others know that each member of this sect is a powerhouse in their own right. The book is also known as: Cultivation? It's Exactly Like This!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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.
