Lingxi quickly concealed that tiny bit of a guilty conscience. Her cold gaze, like ten-thousand-year-old ice, slowly turned once again toward the only remaining person on the field, the pale-faced Murong Qiu.
Lingxi's cold gaze, like ice that would not melt for ten thousand years, slowly turned toward the only remaining person on the field, the pale-faced Murong Qiu.
This gaze was sharper than any divine weapon. It instantly pierced through Murong Qiu's final madness and paranoia, as if illuminating his decaying soul.
"When the Dao heart is covered in dust, lifespan is nothing but an excuse. Greed for life and fear of death—that is the true demon."
Lingxi's voice was not loud, yet every word was like a crack of thunder, exploding within Murong Qiu's sea of consciousness!
There was no reprimand, no disdain. It was as if she was not judging him, but rather stating the most fundamental truth of the universe.
Greed for life and fear of death... that is the true demon...
These few short words were like the sharpest sword of the Heavenly Dao, instantly cleaving through all his disguises, justifications, and self-deception!
They laid bare his most wretched heart—the heart he dared not look at—exposing it nakedly to the light of day!
Yes... for these past few centuries, had he truly been pursuing the Great Dao?
Under the seemingly justified excuse of "extending his lifespan," he had merely been indulging his fear of death and nurturing the greedy demonic nature within his heart!
His Dao heart had long been swallowed by this true demon of the "fear of death"!
All his obsessions and madness appeared so ridiculous, so pitiful before those words!
As if struck by lightning, Murong Qiu's entire body trembled violently. He jerked his head up, looking in disbelief at the woman in green who had spoken those words.
Her gaze was calm and rippleless, yet profound as a sea of stars. That look... that look did not belong to a young cultivator at all, but rather to a supreme being... overlooking the mortal realm and commanding the cycle of reincarnation!
At this moment, all his flukes and paranoia were completely crushed. An immense shame and a sense of despair at being completely seen through, with nowhere to hide, extinguished his last trace of madness like ice water.
The blood-red madness in his eyes completely faded, replaced by extreme shock, bewilderment, and an uncontrollable shame and enlightenment rising from the depths of his soul.
He stumbled back a step. The Autumn Water Sword in his hand let out a mournful cry, its radiance dimming, as if it too felt the drastic change in its master's state of mind.
"I... have lost..."
His voice was dry and hoarse, as if it took all his strength to spit out those words. But this defeat seemed to refer to more than just today's battle.
He looked around at these overly young yet incredibly powerful faces, feeling the vigorous, high-spirited, and indomitable Dao intent radiating from them. Those eyes, that aura... how familiar it all was...
Once upon a time, he, Murong Qiu, had been just like that!
The floodgates of memory crashed open, and the past rushed into his mind like a tide.
He remembered his youth, leaving his sect with a sword in hand, full of vigor and spirit, desiring to measure heaven and earth with his blade and right all the injustices of the world!
Back then, his sword heart was clear and bright, his sharpness unstoppable. The cold light of his single sword strike had made him famous across the Eastern Region. He was the idol of countless young swordsmen, hailed as the genius with the greatest hope of reaching the realm of the Sword Saint.
"The long Autumn Water Sword shakes the stars; a youth travels with an aura that towers over a thousand mountains..."
He muttered to himself, a distant gleam flashing in his cloudy eyes—a reminiscence of his lost youth.
But time... is the most ruthless blade.
He didn't know when it started, but his former sharpness had been ground away, and his past ideals had been drowned by reality.
Watching his peers and friends turn to yellow earth one by one, feeling his own vitality declining day by day, and touching the barrier to the Saint Realm that seemed so close yet so impossibly far... he became afraid.
He began to scheme desperately for life-extending pills, calculating resources. For that illusory glimmer of survival, he did not hesitate to lay down his dignity, joining forces with other old monsters to besiege the younger generation and snatch the legendary Seven Stars Secret Token and the Undying Divine Elixir.
"Heh heh... Haha..."
Murong Qiu suddenly began to chuckle, his laughter filled with endless self-deprecation and desolation.
"To think that I, Murong Qiu, fancied myself a grandmaster of the sword, having cultivated for over a thousand years... only to become, in the end, the very type of person I despised and loathed the most in my youth...
Trapped by lifespan, blinded by greed, my Dao heart covered in dust without me even realizing it... How ridiculous! How pathetic!"
His gaze fell once again upon Fang Hanyu's pure and powerful primal chaos sword intent. His look was no longer one of jealousy and madness, but an almost pious envy, along with deep... regret.
"I once thought that the sword in my hand could slay demons and sever evil, that I could freely exact gratitude and revenge... Only now do I know that even the sharpest sword in this world cannot sever the flow of time, nor can it break the shackles of lifespan... Time is ruthless, exclusively striking down the chosen geniuses..."
He took a deep breath, as if to inhale centuries of degradation and remorse into his lungs, and then slowly exhaled.
His eyes became unusually calm, even carrying a liberating clarity.
"Today... witnessing the brilliance of you all, I finally understand the vastness of heaven and earth, and the immensity of the Dao of the Sword... It has also allowed this lost soul to catch a glimpse, before death, of a long-forgotten... original heart of the sword."
He looked at Fang Hanyu, no longer bearing any resentment in his eyes, only complete candor and an almost grateful sense of release.
"To see such pure sword intent before I die, to witness the infinite possibilities of the sword's future... perhaps this is the final mercy... that time has bestowed upon this lost old man."
Before his voice had even faded, a look of absolute resolve flashed in his eyes, and he abruptly reversed all the remaining spiritual energy and sword essence within his body!
"Buzz—!"
The Autumn Water Sword let out an unprecedented, mournful wail that sounded like weeping blood. The light on the blade surged, no longer the cold gleam meant for killing enemies, but a dazzling brilliance born of burning one's life force and returning to the origin! This radiance faintly reflected the spirited and vigorous shadow of his youth.
"I, Murong Qiu... use this broken body to thank you all... for allowing me... to bid farewell... with dignity..."
In the next moment, the sword aura around his body erupted explosively, yet it did not attack anyone. Instead, it all collapsed inward, condensing at the center of his brow!
"Pfft—!"
A soft sound echoed, like the snuffing out of a candle.
An illusory sword shadow, formed purely from his lifelong cultivation in the Dao of the Sword and his final divine soul, flashed and vanished at his brow, instantly obliterating all his life force.
His body slowly fell backward. His face bore a trace of liberating peace, and even faintly held the serenity of returning to his original heart.
The Autumn Water Sword, which had accompanied him for nearly a thousand years, let out a final sorrowful cry. The blade shattered inch by inch, turning into specks of flowing light that lingered by his side, like a loyal companion escorting its master on his final journey.
A once all-powerful sovereign of the sword, whose name had shaken the Eastern Region, used this tragic yet resolute method to draw a period on his misguided path—a conclusion filled with regret, yet retaining his final dignity and original heart.
The field fell into a deathly silence, with only the wind sobbing, as if weeping and complaining.
Xiao Ruobai put away his smile, looking with a complex expression at Murong Qiu's fallen figure. Ultimately, it turned into a soft sigh: "Alas... the blade of time is indeed ruthless."
Fang Hanyu watched in silence as the sword phantom dissipated and the Autumn Water Sword broke. The chaotic sword qi flowing around his body rippled slightly, as if paying tribute to a fallen swordsman.
Ling Xi's gaze remained aloof and cold, but deep within her eyes, a faint ripple seemed to flash by, a subtle sigh at the unpredictability of fate.
Within the cocoon of light, Fatty Wang stared blankly at the scene, a complex mixture of emotions churning in his heart.
Three chapters today!
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."
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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.”
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
