"Lingling." Zi Ning'er brought Ye Chuan to a cave dwelling on the Divine Pill Peak. After calling inside, a woman soon emerged, yawning, her robes loosely draped over her shoulders as she rubbed her sleepy eyes.
"Huh? Oh, it's Senior Sister Ning'er. What brings you to my cave today?"
As she spoke, she noticed Ye Chuan standing beside Zi Ning'er and gave him a once-over. "You are…?"
"My junior brother, Huang Haotian," Zi Ning'er introduced. "This is Yao Lingling, a direct disciple of the Divine Pill Peak."
"Greetings, Senior Sister Yao."
"Here to commission a pill?" Yao Lingling asked Zi Ning'er.
"No, I was hoping you could teach Junior Brother Huang how to refine pills." Zi Ning'er explained the situation. Upon hearing she was being asked to teach someone, Yao Lingling immediately lost interest.
"Pfft, no way. I don’t have time."
"Come on, Lingling, please?" Zi Ning'er even tugged at Yao Lingling’s sleeve, as if pleading like a child.
Yao Lingling seemed reluctant but eventually sighed. "Fine, but you owe me some rare herbs as payment."
"Deal." Zi Ning'er smiled, then turned to Ye Chuan. "Junior Brother, from now on, you’ll be learning pill refinement under Senior Sister Yao."
Ye Chuan nodded. "Thank you, Senior Sister."
"I have standards for taking on disciples. If you want to learn pill refinement from me, I’ll need to test your talent first." Yao Lingling pulled out a meter-tall cauldron from her storage pouch, its surface engraved with intricate metallic patterns, and set it down with a clang.
"This is a Spirit Cauldron. If you can ignite the immortal firewood inside, you’ll be qualified to learn from me."
"Just light it?"
"Yep. If the flames reach two fingers high, I’ll acknowledge your talent." Yao Lingling crossed her arms, not particularly optimistic. If this guy had any real talent for pill refinement, the Divine Pill Peak would’ve snatched him up during recruitment.
Most likely, he was just mediocre.
Hearing this, Ye Chuan directly converted his chaotic energy into spiritual flames. Before he could even release them, Yao Lingling gasped. "That’s spiritual fire?"
"Yeah." Ye Chuan toyed with the flickering flames in his palm.
"Why is it spewing black smoke?"
"Oh, probably ate too much soy sauce."
"……"
Seeing the unusual color of Ye Chuan’s flames, Yao Lingling guessed he might have a mutated fire spirit root—if so, he could actually be a decent candidate for pill refinement.
Though "decent" needed air quotes.
Pills refined with mutated fire spirit roots often had unique effects. For example, the Nine Suns Pill Sovereign’s flames had a pink hue, making every pill he refined possess aphrodisiac properties. His pills were so sought after that they were nearly impossible to buy.
Who knew what effects these black flames would bring.
"I’ve changed my mind. Even if the flames don’t reach two fingers—" Before she could finish, the black fire suddenly roared to life inside the cauldron, soaring several meters high!
"Ah…"
Ignoring Yao Lingling’s stunned expression, Ye Chuan calmly withdrew the flames. "Passable?"
"Pretty talented, right?" Zi Ning'er asked Yao Lingling.
"……" Yao Lingling couldn’t deny it—this guy was at least qualified, no… far beyond expectations when it came to flame intensity.
"Fine, you can learn pill refinement from me."
"Thank you, Senior Sister."
Yao Lingling didn’t hold back, pulling out a small manual from her storage pouch. "This contains some of my personal insights on pill refinement, along with basic medicinal and pill recipes."
Ye Chuan took it and casually stored it away.
"Alright, you two can leave now. Come back when you have time."
"Thanks, Lingling."
"Don’t mention it. I need to rest."
After bidding farewell to Yao Lingling, Ye Chuan followed Zi Ning'er out of her cave. On the way back, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Yao Lingling’s gift was actually quite useful.
He already had the basic pill recipes, but the insights were a rare treasure.
[Yao Lingling’s Insights: +10% success rate for basic pill refinement.]
Not bad—something actually practical.
"Junior Brother, make sure to learn well from Yao Lingling. She’s the most talented alchemist on Divine Pill Peak, capable of refining high-grade pills despite being less than a hundred years old."
"Understood."
"I should head back too. I have trials at the sacred grounds tomorrow." Zi Ning'er sighed.
"Senior Sister, are your injuries alright? I heard remnants of the Jade Void Sect were behind the attack?" Ye Chuan feigned concern.
"Yeah, but they’re just desperate stragglers. The Sect Master plans to use the Heavenly Water Mirror soon—it won’t take long to track them down."
Heavenly Water Mirror?
"It’s a treasure of the Qingyun Sect, capable of reviewing past events," Zi Ning'er continued. "Aside from those rats, the Sect Master also intends to use it to find the thieves who raided the Scripture Pavilion and herb garden."
Ye Chuan: "……"
That powerful? It can see the past?
Doesn’t that mean everything I’ve done will be exposed soon?
Ye Chuan pondered silently. If that’s the case, he’d have to speed things up.
Once he secured the pill recipes and treasures from the sacred grounds, he’d leave the Qingyun Sect immediately.
It’d be great if he could get his hands on that Heavenly Water Mirror, but he doubted he stood a chance against the sect’s top experts.
Qian Shuang had mentioned the Qingyun Sect Master was at the peak of the Enlightenment Realm, just a step away from the Ascension Realm.
Against that level of power, no amount of tricks would help.
After all, Ye Chuan was only at the peak of the Crystalization Realm.
"Something wrong, Junior Brother?" Zi Ning'er asked, noticing his distraction.
"Nothing, Senior Sister. I just wanted to thank you again for being so kind to me."
"Enough with the sweet talk." Zi Ning'er chuckled. "Alright, I’m heading back. You should rest early too."
"Got it."
Back in his cave, Jiu'er had already returned to her own quarters. Ye Chuan sat in contemplation, planning his next steps—he never intended to stay in the Qingyun Sect forever.
Where should he go next to grow stronger?
Unnoticed, night had fallen.
The darkness spread like thick ink, moonlight seeping through gaps in the clouds, casting scattered fragments of silver amidst the swaying trees.
"Time to hunt." Inside the cave, Ye Chuan merged with his shadowy avatar, his form turning pitch-black once more, save for his gleaming white teeth.
Time to "borrow" some pill recipes from the Pill Tower.
Using spatial jumps, his figure flickered through the night, blending seamlessly into the darkness.
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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.
