The vast Sword City stretched between two mountain ranges.
The towering Sword Pagoda pierced the sky like a colossal divine blade. At this moment, the rising sun cast its rays upon the pagoda, etching its enormous shadow across the mountain gate.
Beneath this shadow lay ten dueling platforms.
After the Sword City elder finished speaking, the arena fell silent.
"Which hero will step up first to set an example for us?"
"Where are all those valiant warriors from earlier?"
...
To take the stage now meant holding it for three consecutive days—a daunting challenge.
Only those with unshakable confidence in their own strength would dare ascend at this moment.
"This one shall make the first attempt."
Suddenly, a voice rang out from the crowd.
Li Mo, who had just put away his brush, turned toward the sound.
The speaker wore beast-patterned armor, his features stern, a long spear gripped in his hand. Dozens of personal guards flanked him, exuding an air of solemn authority.
The "Hengyun Sword Mark" was not solely for comprehending sword techniques.
Though swordsmen dominated the scene, it was simply because martial artists across Yunzhou—and indeed the world—revered the sword.
"It's Young Marquis Zhong!"
"The young marquis is mighty! A true general's bearing!"
The crowd erupted in flattery, each trying to outdo the other.
Li Mo couldn't resist using his Heavenly Destiny Eye to observe him.
Hm?
His brow twitched slightly.
[Name: Zhong Zhenyue]
[Age: 22]
[Constitution: Iron Horse Golden Spear Body]
[Cultivation: Observing Divinity, Five Apertures]
[Destiny: Blue tinged with Purple]
[Evaluation: Son of the Southern Suppressing King. A hardened soldier since youth, straightforward to a fault.]
[Recent Misfortune: On his way to Yunzhou, he was deceived by the Misty Rain Pavilion's Holy Maiden, Yin Mianmian—who didn't even need to use her Bewitching Heart Art before he swore to marry her... Unwittingly aided Misty Rain Pavilion in seizing the Hengyun Sword Mark, later punished severely by his father.]
Li Mo: "..."
An inexperienced, iron-willed rich kid meets a top-tier seductress, huh?
This was troublesome.
The guy wasn't poisoned, wasn't ensnared by some bewitching technique, and wasn't even affiliated with Misty Rain Pavilion.
Sword City wasn't the Qingyuan Sect—its elders wouldn't just take Li Mo's word for it.
"One step at a time."
Li Mo shook his head.
He had two priorities now:
First, refine his "Nine Swords of Dugu" to a higher level through these duels.
Second, help the "ice block" (Ying Bing) and Princess Jiang Chulong study the Hengyun Sword Mark.
Misty Rain Pavilion clearly had designs on the Sword Mark, but his Heavenly Destiny Eye hadn't revealed any of their assassins yet.
Still, as long as the martial summit continued, they'd make their move eventually.
"Ice block—"
Li Mo turned to speak, only to find Ying Bing already standing on a platform.
The crowd erupted in gasps.
"Isn't that the Domineering Empress? Liu Wuyan?"
"It's her! They look identical!"
"Wait, bro, you've read 'The Domineering Empress Falls for Me' too?"
"So the comic actually based its characters on real people?"
"Ugh... I wanna be Empress Wuyan's loyal dog!"
"Empress Wuyan, invincible under heaven!"
"I'll raise her banner high—who dares oppose her?!"
...
The arena grew even livelier than when Zhong Zhenyue had stepped up, nearly devolving into a fan meetup.
Ying Bing's delicate brows furrowed.
She hadn't expected the comic to be this popular.
First of all, her name wasn't Liu Wuyan...
Yet her frown only amplified the cheers.
Li Mo: "...So Senior Brother Ouyang, you modeled Liu Wuyan after Ying Bing?"
"What could I do? She's the standard. You know how unfairly perfect our junior sister looks—I racked my brains but couldn't imagine a more empress-like figure."
Ouyang shrugged, then added:
"Oh, and Jiang Chen is based on you, Junior Brother Li. Art draws from life, after all. You taught me well."
Watching the frenzied crowd, Li Mo never imagined—
He'd one day be hit by his own ricochet.
Nor that he'd become a celebrity heartthrob...
"Wow, is that Jiang Chen?"
"He looks so gentle and handsome—a true gentleman!"
"Wait, so 'The Domineering Empress Falls for Me' is about them?"
"Eeeek! I wanna have Jiang Chen's babies!"
...
The spectators weren't just martial artists—commoners, nobles, and curious onlookers from across Yunzhou had gathered.
The solemn atmosphere of the sword trials had utterly evaporated.
On the Sword City's high platform:
"What is your External Affairs Hall doing?!"
Elder Zeng slammed the table, sending fruits bouncing into the air.
"Elder, we're helpless here!"
"We hired a hundred storytellers to promote our three core disciples, working in shifts until we've driven up the price of loquat syrup!"
The hall's steward wore a pained expression.
Even if the storytellers wore their throats raw, how could they compete with a hit comic?
"You've no idea—bookstores have queues daily, with people offering hundreds of taels just to read the latest chapter!"
"Our promotional methods... are outdated!"
"Outdated?!"
Elder Zeng snorted, eyeing the three disciples—Wu, Cao, and Bai Jinghong.
"These are just cheap tricks. True skill is proven on the battlefield!"
"You three must showcase your might and spirit later!"
"Yes!"
They bowed in unison, though Bai Jinghong sighed inwardly.
As they descended, Elder Zeng narrowed his eyes at the steward:
"Wait—how do you know about the bookstore queues?"
"Uh, just... strolling around..."
"A Sword City steward should feel ashamed! Hand it over!"
"But I haven't finished reading..."
Reluctantly, the steward surrendered the comic.
Once alone, Elder Zeng eagerly flipped through it like a man finding an antidote.
"Heh... the latest chapter... hehehe..."
Elder Zeng was a good elder.
He kept work and personal interests strictly separate.
...
On the platforms:
All ten were finally occupied.
The rules were simple:
Each participant could only ascend twice. Those exceeding a major realm must suppress their cultivation—this was a martial exchange, not a contest of raw power.
Of the ten current occupants, nine were in the Observing Divinity Realm.
Only Princess Jiang Chulong remained in the Inner Breath Realm.
Naturally, many seeking fame set their sights on her.
"Whose child is this?"
"Looks like a little beggar—I saw her feeding stray cats last night."
"Hey kid, scram! Don't cry when things get scary."
A swordmaster at the Mystic Core Realm leapt up, issuing a challenge.
Jiang Chulong stood clutching her jade sword and peach blossom branch, timid and lost.
She bit her lip, glancing at the adjacent platform—
Where Li Mo smiled faintly, giving her a covert thumbs-up beneath his sleeve.
Suddenly emboldened, she whispered:
"Has it... started?"
"Yes. It has."
Swish—
The peach blossom branch moved.
None saw its beginning, nor its end.
But once resolved, its path never turned back—unstoppable as the spring breeze.
And just like that—
It was over.
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
Heart] Chen Yi traversed the cultivation world for eight hundred years, charging his way to the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Just as he was outwitting his 81st Heavenly Tribulation to ascend to immortality, he was suddenly pulled into a chat group called the "Multiverse Transmigrators Support Group." To his surprise, the group was filled with nothing but fresh-faced newbies who had just transmigrated. [Help! I transmigrated into a disgraced concubine in the cold palace, and the tyrant emperor is about to execute me!] [I ended up as a cannon-fodder villain, and the protagonist is still chasing me—WTF!] [I woke up as the protagonist’s father, but I’m about to be sacrificed in a ritual! What do I do? Urgent!!!] Chen Yi stared at the chaotic flood of desperate pleas in the group and fell into deep thought. "Seriously? You drag me into a newbie transmigrator chat group… only after I’m one step away from becoming an immortal?"
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
