Even amidst the infinite mysteries of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain, His presence remained unmistakably vivid.
Ying Bing now felt as if the lunar energy within her was erupting for the first time. The boundless, frigid cold seemed to surge from the depths of her soul, spreading through her entire body, rendering her unable to move even a finger. It was as though she were trapped in an icy abyss, endlessly falling deeper...
And she had become a mere bystander to herself, powerless to act.
"You've come."
Was it the wind that carried that voice?
It was identical to the one she had heard in the underground palace.
So.
The one calling to her within the Yunmeng Palace was never the Yunmeng Ancestral God...
It was Him!
The moment this thought arose, Ying Bing felt her consciousness plunge into chaos.
Buzz—
Buzz—
As if the heart of the heavens was beating, the call suddenly became deafening, as though whispering something to her. The murmurs seemed unlike any human language—perhaps mortals weren’t even qualified to comprehend their meaning.
"He... wants to seize my consciousness?"
"Even if it means mutual destruction..."
Ying Bing clung to her fading awareness. Facing a being as vast as the heavens, she was but an insignificant ant.
Yet she refused to do nothing.
Time seemed to lose all meaning.
Then, her vision abruptly cleared. In the void, she saw the familiar Moon Palace—but the woman seated within was not her.
The Nine-Colored Primordial Phoenix.
Her face was indistinct, but her aura—serene yet profound, compassionate and sorrowful—was irreplaceable.
"You... want to replace me?"
Ying Bing instinctively reached out but couldn’t grasp her sword.
"The present me does not, but the future me... perhaps." The gentle woman's voice flowed like a murmuring stream.
Ying Bing’s voice turned icy. "Who are you?"
"My name... my name..."
The gentle woman paused, as if lost in memory. The void around them trembled violently, mirroring the turbulence of her thoughts.
After a long silence, her voice returned:
"I am Ying Huang."
"This is a fragment of my consciousness, left behind in the Heavenly Phoenix Domain while I divined the future of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths."
Ying Huang’s gaze softened.
Using the Heavenly Phoenix Domain to divine the future of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths?
In her past life, Ying Bing had controlled half of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain from the Celestial City Realm. Only now did she learn of its origins.
The Nine-Colored Primordial Phoenix—Ying Huang.
After leading the Nine Immortals to save the world, she feared the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths might collapse again for other reasons, so she tirelessly divined its future...
What unfathomable power had she gained after returning from the Celestial Realm?
Ying Bing fell silent.
Unless she ascended the path of immortality, such a feat would be impossible.
Ying Huang brewed a cup of tea and gently pushed it toward her:
"Do you know of the chess game at Rotten Ke Mountain?"
"Yes."
Ying Bing nodded.
"That game’s layout reflects my divination of the future of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, expressed through chess—but it is incomplete."
"If you can see me, you possess the qualifications to break the game."
"Then I ask you to retrieve the other half of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain."
The gentle woman who called herself Ying Huang spoke earnestly.
"..."
Ying Bing pondered silently, like a jade sculpture amidst frost and snow.
In her past life, with only half the Heavenly Phoenix Domain, her inner realm had already been peerless—let alone with the complete artifact.
But she didn’t know what this ancestor of the Ying family, savior of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, truly intended.
Friend or foe?
Or something else entirely?
Ying Huang sighed faintly:
"I cannot answer your doubts, for I am incomplete as well."
"Then why me? Just because... I am of Ying blood?"
Ying Bing was certain this was their first meeting.
"You and I... are the same," Ying Huang said.
"How?"
Ying Huang lowered her eyes, as though the center of this world:
"My heart says so, but I do not know the reason."
"I will retrieve the other half of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain."
After a moment of silence, Ying Bing added firmly: "But I refuse to become you—or anyone else. I... will only be myself."
"Otherwise, I would rather perish."
Her tone was like shattering ice.
The ice block was deadly serious.
"Then you must surpass the future me—surpass yourself."
The gentle Ying Huang seemed to smile faintly:
"Those who learn from me, live."
"Those who imitate me... die."
The instant these words were spoken, all color faded from the world. Everything receded rapidly, and reality descended.
Ying Bing slowly opened her eyes.
Everything remained unchanged. The steam from the hotpot downstairs still rose, blurring the outlines of the Qingyuan Sect.
Were it not for the incomplete Heavenly Phoenix Domain now wholly hers, the encounter might have been nothing but a dream...
She walked to the bronze mirror by her bed. Her reflection was coldly beautiful, like an exiled immortal—yet tinged with a sickly pallor.
Perhaps the exchange had drained her spirit.
"Surpass Him, surpass myself..."
"I will!"
Ying Bing rubbed the head of the plush doll at her waist and whispered to herself.
As if sensing her resolve, the system’s text reappeared:
[Host, initiate a new ranking...]
Before it could finish, Ying Bing’s answer was immediate.
Yes.
[If only the host were always this eager...]
[Initiating current ranking of peerless talents.]
[Scope: Imperial Capital.]
[Penalty for defeat: Plant forty-nine strawberries for the victor.]
"Imperial Capital..."
Ying Bing had anticipated this, yet she still pondered.
By the timeline, the next ranking would coincide with the gathering of hidden dragons and talents in the Imperial Capital.
To claim the top spot, she would have to outshine all geniuses of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
And.
She couldn’t afford any distractions.
"Perhaps there are other ways to prevent the awakening of other consciousnesses within me..."
"I’ll ask Qin Yuzhi later."
......
After dinner, Li Mo returned to his room.
Now wasn’t the time for dual cultivation—but for...
The prize draw!
Little Li rubbed his hands, barely containing his excitement.
Upon leaving Rotten Ke Mountain, a flood of investment feedback notifications had chimed—from the escaped factions, wandering warriors...
And, of course!
The ice block’s!
"As usual, start with the ordinary fates."
Li Mo began collecting his rewards with ceremonial flair.
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?!
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?"
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.”
