The force of the fingertips pinching Xiao Tian's neck slowly loosened; the smile on Ye Chuan's face remained gentle.
Before Xiao Tian could gasp and break free, he twisted his wrist. The spirit sword that was originally in Xiao Tian's hand was now precisely pressed against her right arm, its cold gleam reflecting on her deathly pale face.
"Don't be in such a hurry to escape," Ye Chuan said with a smile, yet his tone carried an irresistible, oppressive weight.
"Come, let's play a little game."
Before his voice even faded, the tip of the sword suddenly surged forward, piercing straight through Xiao Tian's arm.
Xiao Tian let out a shrill, miserable shriek. Her body struggled violently, but with her wrist held in Ye Chuan's death grip, she couldn't even take half a step back.
"It hurts... It hurts so much! Let me go!" Her voice trembled uncontrollably. Tears mixed with black rain and blood streamed down her face, her eyes filled with absolute terror.
Ye Chuan acted as if he didn't hear her, still looking at her with a beaming smile.
The black blood slid down the blade, gathered into drops at the tip of the sword, and fell to the ground.
"Let me ask you a simple question," he leaned down, bringing his face close to Xiao Tian's ear, his voice as gentle as a whisper.
"What is 1000 minus 7?"
Xiao Tian trembled all over from the pain. The wound on her arm was still bleeding incessantly, and every breath she took brought agonizing pain.
She raised her tear-stained face and looked at Ye Chuan's smiling expression, feeling that he was far more terrifying than any eerie monster.
"I... I don't know! Stop asking!" She shook her head desperately, her body twisting as she tried to break free, but Ye Chuan's hand was like an iron vise, holding her firmly in place.
"You don't know?" Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow, his smile unchanged, but in the next second, the spirit sword precisely pierced through Xiao Tian's other arm.
"Ah—!!!" Another heart-wrenching scream tore from her throat. Xiao Tian's vision went black from the pain, and her legs gave way, almost collapsing to the ground.
Ye Chuan reached out and grabbed her waist, forcefully holding her up. With the tip of the sword still embedded in her arm, he gave it a gentle twist.
"The answer is 993," his voice remained gentle, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness.
"Got it?"
Xiao Tian twitched all over from the pain. Tears blurred her vision as she nodded haphazardly:
"Got... Got it... 993..." Right now, she just wanted to live. Even if she had to endure such torment, she could only obediently comply.
Ye Chuan watched the wound on Xiao Tian's arm bleed endlessly, the smile on his face growing even gentler.
He once again pressed the tip of the sword against Xiao Tian's chest and asked in a brisk tone:
"Very good. Then let me ask you again, what is 1000 minus 7?"
Xiao Tian was so frightened that her heart almost stopped. She hurriedly blurted out, "993! It's 993!"
She was terrified that if she answered too slowly, she would have to endure that piercing pain again.
But as soon as her voice faded, the spirit sword was violently thrust forward. Although it didn't pierce her chest, it broke her skin, and dark red blood instantly seeped out.
Xiao Tian froze for a moment, then let out an even more despairing scream:
"Why?! Didn't you say the answer is 993?! I didn't say it wrong!"
Her emotions completely collapsed!
Ye Chuan looked down at her, the smile on his face remaining, but his eyes were as cold as ice.
He gently patted Xiao Tian's cheek. "If I say it's wrong, it's wrong."
He paused, his fingertips tracing the tear tracks on Xiao Tian's face, and enunciated every word,
"Don't you know what it means to have the right of final interpretation?"
Xiao Tian stared blankly at him, the blood completely draining from her face, leaving nothing but endless despair.
She finally understood that Ye Chuan wasn't testing her at all; he was purely torturing her, keeping her awake to endure this endless agony.
No matter if she answered correctly or not, she could not escape the fate of being harmed.
Ye Chuan looked at her devastated appearance, and the smile on his face gradually faded.
He pulled a pill from his backpack. Before Xiao Tian could react, he forcefully pinched her chin and shoved the pill into her mouth.
The pill melted instantly upon entering her mouth. A warm current immediately spread throughout Xiao Tian's body, and the wounds on her arms healed at a visible rate, the pain gradually subsiding.
Xiao Tian was stunned, a trace of confusion appearing on her face, which was then quickly replaced by wild joy—
Could it be that Ye Chuan was going to let her go?
But this wild joy didn't last long before she felt a sharp, intense pain coming from her chest.
Looking down, she saw that the sword in Ye Chuan's hand had already precisely pierced her heart.
"No..." Xiao Tian's voice was as weak as a mosquito's buzz, the wild joy in her eyes instantly replaced by ultimate agony!
She could clearly feel the excruciating pain of her heart being torn apart, but at the same time, the pill inside her body was still taking effect, continuously repairing her body and preventing her from dying.
That feeling of wanting to die but being unable to, the agonizing pain of a pierced heart constantly lingering in her chest, was a hundred times more painful than any previous torture.
"Damn you! Damn you!!!!"
Ye Chuan looked at her painfully contorted face, his eyes calm and unrippled.
He slowly pulled out the spirit sword. A massive amount of blood instantly gushed from the wound at her heart, but the power of the pill was rapidly repairing it, the wound healing at a visible rate.
Yet, because the trauma of her pierced heart could never fully heal, it was trapped in an endless cycle of mending and tearing, subjecting Xiao Tian to boundless agony.
Ye Chuan's voice was flat. Living is worse than dying, is it not?
He let go of his grip. Xiao Tian stumbled and fell into the mud, curling her body up as she let out whimpers of pain. Every breath tugged at the excruciating pain in her heart, yet she simply could not die, left only to struggle in this endless torment.
Ye Chuan delivered a casual kick, sending Xiao Tian flying backward along with the sword in her chest, ultimately pinning her to the wall of a distant clock tower!
Ye Chuan did not spare her another glance, turning around to walk toward the royal palace deep within the royal city.
The black rain continued to beat down densely, striking his body but failing to penetrate his protective aura, only sliding down the hem of his clothes.
The ruined walls and rubble along the way still looked ferocious in the curtain of rain. Occasionally, a few strange monsters that slipped through the net would rush out, only to be slain by a casual swing of his sword before they even had a chance to get close.
Tian Xiaotian becoming the source of the filth, Xiao Tian's betrayal—all of this seemed inextricably linked to the king sitting high upon the throne.
After all, it was the king who had guided Tian Xiaotian and her group to that filth-infected village in the first place.
The rain fell harder, the deathly stillness of the royal city grew heavier, and the stench of blood and rot in the air became increasingly thick.
Ye Chuan passed through a collapsed palace ruin, and a relatively intact building gradually emerged ahead—
That was the royal palace of the city.
The palace gates had long been broken. Two rotting corpses of guards stood at the entrance, their armor covered in rust.
Gripping his greatsword tightly, Ye Chuan slowly walked into the palace.
The interior of the palace was equally dilapidated. The floor was accumulated with black mud and debris, and the murals on the walls had long blurred, leaving only mottled traces.
A heavy stench of rot permeated the corridor, clearly indicating that many bizarre monsters were hiding inside.
At the end of the corridor was a massive main hall, its doors left ajar.
Ye Chuan slowly pushed open the hall doors, only to see a figure sitting high upon the throne—more accurately, it was a long-rotted corpse.
It was wearing a crown, with a dagger thrust into its chest.
The king is already dead?
Whether it was suicide or murder by someone else, none of it mattered anymore.
Meddling with power one cannot control will ultimately lead to being killed by that very power.
And as Ye Chuan finished analyzing all this, he could feel the suppression this bizarre instance dungeon had on him weakening.
My power can be used now. Ye Chuan reached out his hand, and spiritual energy surged from his palm.
He released his divine sense, and then the Myriad Soul Banner appeared in his hand.
It is time to end this.
Let the holy artifact in my hands purify your filthy kingdom.
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.
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)
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
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."
