The group of black-clad men, upon hearing Gu Qingfeng's question, broke into a cold sweat, their survival instincts kicking in as they nodded frantically. "Yes, yes! Absolutely!"
"Kekeke..." Gu Qingfeng's eerie laughter echoed across the desolate mountain, sending chills down everyone's spines.
A single thought flashed through their minds: A demon! He’s definitely a demon!
Even those who had been protecting Gu Qingfeng earlier trembled in fear. There was no relief in being saved—only terror.
Terror that Gu Qingfeng might, on a whim, decide to kill them too.
"You see... if you’d just been more reasonable earlier, you wouldn’t have had to die. What a shame. You realized too late. Better luck next life."
The moment Gu Qingfeng finished speaking, his figure vanished from sight.
In an instant, over twenty afterimages flickered across the scene.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of skulls exploding seemed to ring out simultaneously, as if a dozen bloody fireworks had silently bloomed.
Once it was done, Gu Qingfeng withdrew his soul pressure.
Over twenty corpses collapsed at once, blood pooling beneath them, staining the earth crimson.
Yet the remaining dozen guards stood frozen as if under a paralysis spell, staring in horror as Gu Qingfeng strode toward the palanquin—and climbed inside.
The guards exchanged uneasy glances, fear and confusion written on their faces.
The man they were supposed to escort had turned out to be an unfathomably powerful entity. How could they not be terrified?
That oppressive aura just now... it was even more terrifying than Qin Rusong’s. Who the hell is he?
Wasn’t it said that no one above the True Qi Realm could enter the Jade Dragon Secret Realm?
As they stood there in stunned silence, Gu Qingfeng’s voice drifted lazily from inside the palanquin:
"Go collect the valuables from the corpses."
It took them a moment to process the order, but then they scrambled to loot the bodies.
After the time it took to burn an incense stick, a guard approached, holding over twenty spatial rings, which he presented to Gu Qingfeng with trembling hands.
Gu Qingfeng took the rings and inspected them one by one—only to fly into a rage.
"Why is there so little?!"
Thud.
The guard immediately dropped to his knees, stammering in panic, "M-M-My Lord! It must be... these assassins feared casualties and didn’t want their identities traced through their belongings, so they didn’t bring much with them!"
Gu Qingfeng’s anger subsided slightly. "Fine. Get out. Resume the journey."
"Yes, my Lord!"
The guard nearly wept in relief, quickly shutting the palanquin door before signaling the procession to move again.
Meanwhile, Gu Qingfeng pulled out more dishes from his dimensional storage and resumed eating.
After all, he hadn’t finished his meal earlier.
No one was overly concerned about Qin Rusong, the Golden-Armored General. A powerhouse of his caliber could easily escape even if outmatched.
That was why he’d told them to go ahead—without burdens, he could flee whenever necessary.
As Gu Qingfeng ate, he poured himself a cup of wine—only to grimace in disgust after a single sip.
His stock of Purple Sun Wine was gone. All that remained was ordinary swill, utterly lacking in richness.
"Tch. Whatever. I’ll make do for now. Once I catch that Shadow Demon, I’ll make it buy me more."
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rocked the outside of the palanquin.
The earth trembled violently, as if a dragon had upheaved the land.
Gu Qingfeng’s palanquin was instantly overturned.
Inside, he stared blankly at the mess of spilled food, his wine cup trembling ever so slightly in his grip.
CRACK!
The cup shattered into dust in his clenched fist.
"WHO?! Who the hell is it this time?!"
With a furious roar, the palanquin exploded outward.
"Kekeke... Long time no see, heir of the Ageless Pill."
The speaker was none other than the Fire Crow Taoist.
And the dozen or so elite guards? Already reduced to charred corpses.
"YOU AGAIN?!" Gu Qingfeng’s fury reached new heights. Two meals ruined—by the same damn demon! Never since obtaining his System had he suffered such humiliation at the hands of a fiend!
"Kekeke... Qin Rusong is dead. Your guards are dead. Now, if you kneel and beg—"
BOOM!
An unfathomable soul pressure erupted from Gu Qingfeng.
The Fire Crow Taoist’s smirk froze, his mind reeling in shock. This pressure... impossible!
The next instant, a fist the size of a cooking pot came crashing toward his skull like a tidal wave.
The Fire Crow Taoist barely managed to resist the soul pressure enough to move—but his speed was crippled. Dodging was impossible. He could only block.
A sphere of flame, so deep red it bordered on black, formed in his palm, radiating blistering heat—like a miniature sun.
He thrust his palm forward.
The fireball detonated, engulfing everything in a blazing inferno.
Gu Qingfeng disappeared into the flames.
Ding!
[Host attacked by Fire Crow Taoist.]
[Fire Affinity +10,000... +10,000... +10,000...]
[Fire Affinity maxed. Congratulations, host—innate skill Flame Control has evolved into Fire Spirit Body.]
Gu Qingfeng barely registered the System’s notifications. He was beyond pissed.
The Fire Spirit Body activated instantly.
The flames that had once devoured him now recoiled as if bowing to their sovereign, peeling away from his body to gather around his fist—transforming it into a blazing weapon.
The fire condensed into near-solid form, radiating such intense heat that the air around it distorted.
The sight horrified the Fire Crow Taoist.
Impossible! He had never lost control of his flames before!
But there was no time to dwell on it.
Gu Qingfeng’s fiery fist smashed into the demon’s face.
CRUNCH!
The Fire Crow Taoist’s features caved in under the impact, his flesh sizzling and blackening from the heat.
WHOOSH!
He was sent flying—only for a pair of massive black wings to snap open mid-air, halting his momentum after several hundred meters.
The Fire Crow Taoist had shed his human form entirely.
His arms had become vast, obsidian wings spanning several zhang. His feet were now talons, his head that of a crow. Yet he still stood upright, his torso humanoid but covered in black feathers—each wreathed in dark flames.
The once crimson-black fire had turned utterly black.
His avian eyes locked onto Gu Qingfeng, gleaming with malice.
"A mere Gathering Qi Eighth Layer cultivator... yet your soul rivals the Transcendent Realm, your body matches a Dragon Transformation First Heaven, and now you steal control of my flames? Who are you?"
Gu Qingfeng cracked his knuckles.
"I’m your damn father."
A glint of murder flashed in Fire Crow Taoist’s eyes: “You insolent fool. Do you truly believe these meager tricks are enough to defeat me? Though your soul pressure can suppress a fraction of my power, I am a Great Demon of the Sixth Transformation of the Dragon! Even weakened, you are no match for me. Let’s see what you have to resist me!”
“Sixth Transformation of the Dragon? Heh. A dog like you better not flee later,” Gu Qingfeng sneered.
Fire Crow Taoist’s fury deepened. “Enough of your sharp tongue! Though you’ve reminded me—I can’t let you escape prematurely.”
With a sudden beat of his wings, countless black feathers shot out like arrows in all directions, scattering and faintly forming an array that sealed the surrounding space.
“Kekeke... This area is now under my domain. Unless you defeat me, there’s no escape.” Fire Crow Taoist chuckled darkly, eyeing Gu Qingfeng like a predator beholding trapped prey.
At this sight, Gu Qingfeng instantly understood how Qin Rusong had met his end—his retreat had been cut off, leaving him no path to flee.
Yet Fire Crow Taoist’s actions inadvertently gave him an idea.
Gu Qingfeng casually drew out the Heavenly-Top Grade Spirit Weapon—Fox’s Eye—and activated its power. In an instant, a black light barrier expanded from the artifact, enveloping the area.
From the outside, it looked as though an enormous black cauldron had been overturned upon the ground, sealing both Gu Qingfeng and Fire Crow Taoist within.
This was another function of Fox’s Eye—spatial imprisonment.
“Kekeke... This area is now under my domain. Unless you defeat me, there’s no escape.” Gu Qingfeng echoed mockingly, his gaze upon Fire Crow Taoist mirroring that of a hunter eyeing caged prey.
Fire Crow Taoist: “......”
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?!
【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.)
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.”
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
