"Don't move. Release the princess and that big oaf." Ye Chuan tightened his grip on the sword pressed against the earl's neck.
"Do you really think you can hurt me, boy?" Kaiaolen scoffed at the threat. His muscles bulged as black scales began spreading across his neck, his aura erupting violently.
"!"
His eyes burned crimson as sparks flew from the friction between his neck and the blade. Unfazed, Kaiaolen turned and swiped with his claw!
Ye Chuan reacted swiftly, raising his sword to block. A crisp clang echoed—his flying sword shattered instantly. He leaped back with a spatial dash, putting distance between them.
Clatter. The broken fragments of his weapon hit the ground.
"A dragon?" Ye Chuan stared at Kaiaolen, whose hand had fully transformed into a draconic claw, his neck now armored in scales protecting his vitals.
No way.
He glanced at the hilt in his hand—only half remained.
"This guy's strength…" Ye Chuan couldn’t gauge it, but one thing was clear: he was outmatched. Should I go all out and risk a mutual strike?
But could he even pierce that defense? The guy was practically a walking fortress—high armor, high HP.
With a shrug, Ye Chuan tossed the broken sword aside and drew a fresh one.
He’d swiped plenty of flying swords from Qin Tianya—losing a weapon or two didn’t faze him.
But as he eyed the earl, the butler, and the guards closing in, he realized the odds were hopeless.
One swipe had shattered his enchanted blade.
How is this a fair fight?
Just as Ye Chuan debated summoning all his avatars for a desperate last stand, Irena’s voice rang out from nearby. "Lord Xixi, run!"
"Run?" Before he could react, darkness filled his vision—Kaiaolen had already closed the distance, his draconic claw descending like a hammer!
Ye Chuan parried with another sword, but the blade shattered in an instant. He barely managed another spatial leap, reappearing outside the building.
BOOM! A figure burst through the window—Kaiaolen, now with massive black wings unfurled, his fist wreathed in flames as he lunged at Ye Chuan.
Ye Chuan thrust out a hand. "Mana Beam!"
A searing blast of magic erupted, but Kaiaolen’s wings snapped forward, shielding him effortlessly.
KABOOM! Light scattered like dust.
When the beam faded, Kaiaolen stood unharmed on the rooftop, his wings stirring embers into the air.
"Dragons in movies and novels always have insane magic resistance," Ye Chuan muttered, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
The gap between them was too vast.
This guy was at least three major realms above him.
"Give up," Kaiaolen said coldly.
"How about we talk this over?" Ye Chuan grinned.
A derisive snort answered him. "If not for the princess’s sake, you’d already be dead."
The princess’s sake?
The words struck Ye Chuan as odd, but before he could dwell on it, Kaiaolen was upon him again—his fiery fist distorting space, heat searing the air as it hurtled toward him.
Ye Chuan had no choice but to teleport away.
A tanky, magic-resistant brawler like this was his worst nightmare.
He wanted to go all-out, but his weapons couldn’t scratch Kaiaolen’s scales, magic was useless, and no buff could bridge such a colossal power gap.
As Ye Chuan reappeared in the distance, Kaiaolen’s eyes flickered with surprise.
"Spamming spatial magic?"
But Kaiaolen was faster. With a sonic boom, he closed the gap instantly.
"Tch. Fine." Seeing the dragon-clawed brute closing in, Ye Chuan stopped holding back—he burned through four or five teleports in rapid succession.
The distance between them yawned wide.
Then wider.
Until Ye Chuan vanished entirely.
"…What?" Kaiaolen stared, baffled. Spatial magic was supposed to be complex, requiring long incantations and hefty mana costs.
"Does that brat have instant casting?" His wings twitched. Realizing pursuit was futile, he returned to the estate.
"My lord! The princess—she’s gone!" A guard rushed up as Kaiaolen landed.
"Gone? Wasn’t she bound?" Kaiaolen frowned.
The guard knelt. "A door appeared out of nowhere in the meeting room! The man you were chasing stepped out and snatched her!"
"A door? That man…" Kaiaolen’s eyes narrowed.
The one he’d been chasing had looped back with spatial magic to rescue the princess?
Impossible.
How much mana did he even have?
"And the other one?"
"Torres was already being taken to the dungeon, so he wasn’t grabbed." The guard explained they’d been transporting them separately when the ambush happened.
"…" Kaiaolen’s scales receded as he returned to human form. "Clean this up."
"Yes, my lord!"
———
Meanwhile, outside Milal City’s mountain ranges…
Ye Chuan touched down, one arm cradling a dazed girl.
"Now that’s how you execute a plan." He rubbed his chin smugly.
After putting distance between himself and Kaiaolen, he’d simply warped back to the estate and yoinked the princess.
"Lord Xixi… Ugh… I feel sick…" Irena clutched her stomach, swaying. Unlike Ye Chuan, she had no resistance to spatial displacement’s nausea.
"You’ll live." Ye Chuan dropped her unceremoniously. "Too bad about Torres, though. That old monster was too fast—just whoosh and pow."
"Lord Kaiaolen is a seventh-tier half-dragon warrior," Irena groaned, fighting the dizziness. "The fact he could transform like that means he’s not one of the skin-stealers."
"Yet he didn’t seem too friendly toward you?"
"…" Irena had no answer.
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)
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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."
