Before long, an utterly bizarre and eye-catching scene unfolded deep within the Imperial Tomb.
Up ahead, a burly, disheveled man was sprinting for his life, a spiked club slung over his shoulder, his head lowered as he fled!
His eyes darted nervously, as if he had done something shameful.
Far behind him, an old man—nearly naked, clad only in a tattered pair of briefs, his body covered in black-and-blue bruises—was chasing after him with eyes wide as if they would split, teeth clenched, stumbling and tottering in desperate pursuit.
He made guttural, rasping sounds from his throat, as if trying to shout something, but no words came out.
One ahead, one behind—though the gap between them was widening, the sheer shock of the sight was undeniable.
The few cultivators scattered along the way saw it and stood dumbfounded, instinctively pausing to point and whisper among themselves:
"Whoa—what did that big guy in front do to that old man behind?"
"With that posture... could it be—?"
"In broad daylight, in a holy place like an emperor's tomb, to have something so scandalous and outrageous happen?!"
"That old man looks pretty advanced in years, and he's been beaten this badly—how pitiful!"
"The one in front runs fast! Clearly a repeat offender!"
Hearing the murmurs drifting from behind and feeling that piercing, hateful glare on his back, Shi Wanshan only ran faster. His heart was bleeding; he wished he could dig a hole and crawl straight into the ground.
"What in the hell did I do to deserve this?!"
Shi Wanshan roared inwardly, tears of frustration welling in his eyes.
His spotless reputation was completely destroyed in this damned Imperial Tomb!
He swore, on his very name, that he would dig the ground three feet deep if he had to—just to find and drag out that rotten, no-good bastard who had done this to him!!
Meanwhile, Xuanyangzi, who had been strolling leisurely with Gu Changge, paused for a moment. His powerful divine sense swept across the distance. At first, his brow furrowed in confusion, then his face broke into a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
"Changge," he said, turning to the young man beside him. "I just swept my divine sense over that kid Wanshan! Good heavens, the state he's in—disheveled, clothes in disarray, running for dear life with that big club of his!"
Gu Changge seemed to have known all along. He chuckled: "Ha, it seems Senior Brother Shi had quite the adventure during his time in the Imperial Tomb."
Xuanyangzi shook his head with a sigh. "That boy has a short fuse and cares too much about face. He got the short end of the stick this time, and that could drive him out of his mind. Changge, you go ahead and wander as you please. I need to get over there and check on him."
Gu Changge gave a slight nod, his tone casual. "Go on ahead, Senior Brother. I'll take a walk around."
Xuanyangzi vanished in a flicker, turning into a gentle breeze that disappeared into the maze of winding passages, hurrying off to soothe Shi Wanshan's wounded pride.
After Xuanyangzi left, Gu Changge did not set off immediately.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze sweeping casually across the entire Imperial Tomb, when suddenly a faint, intriguing glint passed through his eyes—as if he had noticed something fascinating.
"That direction... the energy over there is rather interesting."
He lingered no longer. With a leisurely pace that somehow moved as swiftly as lightning, he took a single step and vanished from sight.
In the hidden corner of a great hall.
The Fourth Patriarch sat with his eyes closed, meditating.
Suddenly, he sensed something. His eyes snapped open.
Ahead, the void rippled faintly, and two figures materialized soundlessly: none other than the Second Ancestor and the Third Patriarch.
Both were still clad in black robes with masked faces, but their eyes betrayed a barely concealed look of peculiarity.
"Back already?"
The Fourth Patriarch's voice carried a note of expectation.
"So? That purple-robed brat looked like he was in a hurry earlier — must have gotten his hands on something big. Well? Did you get it?"
The Second Ancestor's expression turned slightly awkward as he quietly elbowed the Third Patriarch and sent a voice transmission: "Old Third, you'd better do the talking."
The Third Patriarch shot him a glare and transmitted back: "Why me? You're the one who knocked him out! And you came up with most of the damn plan!"
The Fourth Patriarch watched the two of them exchanging glances and furrowed his brow. "What's wrong? Didn't it go smoothly? You didn't get it?"
The Second Ancestor coughed lightly. "How could that be? With me on the job, is there ever a time I fail? We got plenty — that purple-robed kid had a Saint King grade battle armor, clearly something extraordinary. Plus, he had quite a collection of his own. It's just... well..."
At this point, the Second Ancestor's face flushed slightly, and he said with a hint of guilt, "There's... a bit of extra gain."
"Extra gain?"
The Fourth Patriarch was taken aback. "Extra gain is a good thing — why are you being all shy about it? That's not like you."
The Third Patriarch glanced at Xue Wuhen, who was watching like a curious little kid with big innocent eyes, hanging on every word. He smacked him unconscious with a single palm.
"It's, uh... well, you see, the two of us accidentally robbed that kid Shi Wanshan too."
"So what if you robbed him? How much loot did you get?"
The Fourth Patriarch stared at the two of them, not fully registering at first, and instinctively asked about the spoils.
"What?! You robbed Shi Wanshan?!"
The next second, he shot up from the ground like a spring, his voice climbing eight pitches higher, eyes bulging wide with utter disbelief.
"Am I crazy, or are you two crazy, or is that brat Shi the one who's lost his mind?!"
He thrust a finger out, pointing back and forth between the Second and Third Ancestors.
"You two went out masked in broad daylight to jump a purple-robed Saint, and along the way, you ended up robbing your own Peak Master?! What the hell kind of move is that?!"
The Second Ancestor quickly waved his hands, trying to explain. "Old Fourth, calm down! Listen to me! It was an accident!"
"An accident?!"
The Fourth Patriarch was so furious his beard curled up.
The Third Patriarch coughed dryly, trying to back him up with a tone that screamed "we're victims here too."
"Ugh, this really isn't on us. We just finished cleaning up that purple-robed brat in the cave, and were about to count the loot. Then we sensed some little mouse outside sneaking around, all shifty and suspicious — clearly up to no good, trying to pull a mantis-stalks-the-cicada and be the ambusher."
"Right!"
The Second Ancestor jumped in, his voice now carrying a bit more righteous indignation.
"That brat even dressed up for the part — carrying a big club, hiding in the shadows, looking like he was about to spring out and rob us blind! How could we let that slide? No way! The Emperor's Tomb is a deadly place, full of dangers at every corner. When you've got someone lurking with bad intentions, you strike first!"
The Third Patriarch nodded vigorously and added, "Exactly! We were just being proactive, clearing out a potential threat! Who knew that when we peeled off the disguise, it would be our own little Shi! What a mess!"
The two of them tag-teamed in their explanation, somehow turning friendly fire into a decisive act of eliminating hidden danger, complete with a tone of "we expected better from him."
The Fourth Patriarch's forehead vein was practically throbbing. He pointed at the two of them, and only after a long pause did he squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth:
"S—o—y—o—u—l—o—o—t—e—d—h—i—m—c—l—e—a—n—?!"
"What else were we supposed to do?"
The Second Ancestor spread his hands, wearing a face that screamed "we had no choice either."
"Everyone's been knocked unconscious. Are we supposed to wake him up and say, 'Sorry, Little Shi. We're your clan's ancestors. It was just a misunderstanding. Here's your ring back'?
Wouldn't that be a huge blow to our pride? How could we still maintain our dignity as ancestors in front of him in the future?"
The Third Patriarch deeply agreed, saying, "The Second Ancestor is right. Since things have come to this, it's best to just go along with the mistake.
Anyway, he doesn't know who did it. Let him think he was robbed by other villains in the Emperor's Tomb. It's a lesson for him!
It's good for young people to experience some harsh realities in life."
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)
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.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
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?!
