"Brother Li, if you don’t want it, just give it to me. Throwing it away is such a waste."
Murong Xiao quickly bent down to pick up the illustrated book, dusting it off carefully. When he looked up, he was met with Li Mo’s suspicious gaze.
"Brother Murong, you’ve become a stranger to me."
"So, you came here specifically to buy this thing from the start?"
Murong Xiao chuckled awkwardly.
"I’ve been studying Buddhist martial arts recently."
"And then?"
Li Mo was confused.
The Golden Bell Shield was indeed a Buddhist martial art, requiring the study of Buddhist principles to master.
But is that why you came to buy this... adult material?
Murong Xiao straightened his expression and explained solemnly:
"The Buddhist scriptures say, 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.' With a pure heart, even a beauty is but a withered skeleton."
"How can one resist temptation without first facing it? If I don’t descend into hell, who will?"
"Therefore, I’ve decided to challenge my weaknesses head-on!"
"......"
Li Mo fell into deep thought.
Is that how "form is emptiness" is supposed to be interpreted?
Is this how one purifies the six senses?
Yet, it somehow made sense, and he couldn’t find a rebuttal.
Unable to argue further, Li Mo nodded.
"Fine. Just remember to return it after you’re done."
"Got it! Farewell, Brother Li."
Murong Xiao happily tucked the book away.
Just as he was about to leave and "challenge his weaknesses," Li Mo called out again:
"Oh, and Brother Murong, your interpretation of Buddhist teachings… keep it to yourself. Don’t go spreading it around."
"Huh? Why?"
"I’m afraid if word reaches the Buddhist monks, they might challenge you—on the subject of breaking the precept against killing."
......
Main Peak Ancestral Hall.
The ancestral hall stood at the heart of the mountain, heavily guarded. Ying Bing followed a few elders, traversing a long path before finally arriving.
Along the way, she sensed several waves of spiritual perception sweeping over her.
The Qingyuan Sect’s strength was far greater than just its visible elders.
Soon, they reached a massive gate, where an elderly man sat dozing.
"Martial Uncle."
Shangguan Wencang bowed respectfully.
"Oh, Wenyuan! It’s been so long. Finally come to visit this old man, have you?"
The elder blinked awake, his cloudy eyes flickering.
"Martial Uncle, I’m Wencang."
Shangguan Wencang smiled wryly.
"Ah, Wencang… my memory isn’t what it used to be."
The elder patted the back of his head.
"And you’re here for…?"
"To bring our true disciple, Ying Bing, to pay respects to our ancestors."
Shangguan Wencang produced the sect leader’s token.
"True disciple…"
The elder’s gaze swept past the elders, landing on Ying Bing, who stood quietly. A glimmer of light flashed in his aged eyes.
"Good… very good…"
He praised repeatedly before accepting the token, fitting it together with his own.
The combined tokens were inserted into the center of the gate. With a deep rumble, the ancient door—adorned with mystical bird patterns—slowly creaked open.
Ying Bing’s eyes narrowed as she looked inside.
Even in her past life, she had never set foot here.
Before her, bronze pillars supported a domed ceiling, its design eerily similar to what she had seen in the Blood Phoenix Secret Realm. Enshrined within were avian statues, each exuding an aura of ancient grandeur.
They all perched upon a shattered bronze divine tree.
So lifelike were they that, for a moment, it seemed as if they might take flight at any second.
Whoosh—
Candles ignited spontaneously, illuminating the divine tree.
"This is the Great Shang’s Heavenly Fate Artifact…"
"Or rather, a fragment of it."
Shangguan Wencang clasped his hands behind his back, gazing at the radiant bronze tree.
"You are destined to inherit my position one day. It’s time you learned the truth."
"These avian forms are the martial intents left behind by the Great Shang’s imperial experts—their wills imprinted upon the tree."
"You must be wondering why this relic is here."
Shangguan Wencang’s eyes gleamed.
After a pause, he continued:
"Our Qingyuan Sect’s founder was both a meritorious subject of the Great Yu’s Martial Emperor… and the last surviving royalty of the Great Shang."
"After aiding the Martial Emperor in unifying the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, she refused all rewards and returned to the Purple Sun Prefecture—the former capital of the Great Shang—to guard the ancestral spirits."
"Beneath the Qingyuan Sect lies…"
"The Great Shang Imperial Mausoleum."
As Shangguan Wencang spoke, Ying Bing’s brows furrowed slightly.
Many of the Qingyuan Sect’s nine peaks were descendants of the Great Shang’s fallen nobility.
Her gaze returned to the divine tree.
It was a paradox—decay and splendor, ruin and perfection—all coexisting in one artifact.
She noticed an empty space at the top of the tree, where a hundred birds should have gathered in reverence.
Shangguan Wencang anticipated her question.
"That was meant for our founder’s imprint. But she left for the imperial city and never returned."
"Thus, the Golden Crow’s form remains absent."
"These imprints are profound and esoteric. Your path is long, but take your time to comprehend them."
In his entire life, Shangguan Wencang had only mastered one—the Mangque Devours the Dragon form.
To gather the forms of a hundred avians and condense the Phoenix Divinity—this was the founder’s path.
He had once thought it an impossible dream.
Until Ying Bing appeared.
After paying respects to the divine tree, Ying Bing stepped forward alone.
"Little Bing, the tree’s majesty is overwhelming. You shouldn’t approach it directly—"
Xue Jing’s warning was cut short by Shangguan Wencang’s sharp glance.
"Sect Leader, these imprints bear the wills of the Great Shang’s imperial experts. Their pride is unyielding!"
Xue Jing fretted.
Each will belonged to a supreme expert, their arrogance untouchable.
If Ying Bing approached so recklessly, she might suffer backlash—
"Wait and observe."
Shangguan Wencang remained composed.
Ying Bing stood before the tree, her black hair and robes fluttering like a snow lotus in the wind.
Yet her cold, unwavering gaze seemed to tower above the divine tree itself.
Thump—thump—
A heartbeat-like resonance pulsed from the shattered tree.
A cyan luan perched atop the branches suddenly stirred.
With a graceful sweep of its wings, it descended, leaving an arc of profound mystery in its wake—as if transcending time itself.
It landed before Ying Bing and bowed.
"The Cyan Luan…"
Ying Bing immersed herself in comprehension, refining her martial intent.
One by one, the avian imprints awakened, descending to pay homage.
Hum—
An overwhelming aura enveloped her, as if she were a true phoenix receiving tribute.
Ethereal melodies echoed, lingering like an immortal’s chant.
Xue Jing’s eyes widened in disbelief.
The other elders wore similar expressions.
They were… stunned.
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
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.
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.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
