Pay attention, this young man is called Little Li, who just saved the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands with his wit.
The ice block (Ying Bing) sniffed around his neck but detected no unusual scent. The wariness in her lifted eyes faded, and her delicate brows gradually relaxed.
Just as she turned away in satisfaction, she felt two arms wrap around her slender waist.
"What are you doing?"
"Aren’t you supposed to recharge me?"
"...Hmm."
Seeing Little Li’s confident, earnest yet somewhat silly expression, Ying Bing pressed her lips together. She couldn’t outright say she was checking for the scent of other women’s makeup, so she let him have his way.
Li Mo was absolutely justified—this was his reward for saving the world!
People always joked about having "saved the world in a past life," but now it was literally true for him!
Holding her waist, he felt her cold, delicate body gradually melt like ice turning to water in his embrace. Mimicking her earlier action, he nuzzled and sniffed at her neck.
The icy fragrance of orchids in a secluded valley—elegant yet overwhelming.
Li Mo’s mood suddenly relaxed.
Dealing with those high-ranking officials, even with Uncle Zhong shielding him from their imposing aura, and given his own status and wealth that made them fawn over him with perfectly practiced smiles, he still felt uncomfortable deep down.
To be more precise, it was downright nauseating.
But now, holding the ice block, all those emotions vanished. Without even needing the Moonlit Soul-Calming Art, her presence alone cleared his mind.
"?"
Just as this thought crossed his mind, Li Mo felt her fingers curl slightly against his shoulder. The figure in his arms shivered faintly, and the blush that had lingered on her neck spread to where he had just nuzzled.
Her ears tinged pink.
"Found another weakness of the ice block?"
Little Li’s lips curled unconsciously, though he held back the urge to let out a sinister chuckle—his mouth had other uses.
Like sealing those ears with a kiss.
Squish—
A cold, slender hand pinched his nose.
Ying Bing seemed to have caught onto his intentions, her eyes flashing with warning:
"Keep fooling around, and I won’t let you hold me anymore."
She didn’t even realize how childish her "threat" sounded—like a kid’s "I won’t play with you anymore."
Was childishness contagious?
But her exasperated tone made it clear: the Frost Fairy was slowly getting used to humoring this immature fool.
In her past life, she only knew how to command the Great Dao and make others revere her like a deity.
She’d never imagined she’d learn tenderness and indulgence so quickly.
Perhaps it was because she, too, felt Li Mo’s subtle, nurturing influence...
Li Mo took her hand and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Your hair’s messy."
"Enough nonsense. If we delay any longer, the Moon’s essence won’t be optimal."
"Don’t worry, my pocket dimension has its own moon. Speaking of which, the moon there should be usable for meditation too."
His tone carried a hint of disappointment, but he was genuinely curious.
The moon in his pocket dimension was formed by the future version of the ice block. If she meditated on it herself, what would she perceive?
"We can try."
"Let’s go! Should we bring snacks?"
Li Mo opened the gateway to his pocket dimension and led her through the barrier between worlds.
The flow of time matched the outside world. Above the Ten Thousand Phenomena Immortal Sect hung the same serene, radiant moon, quietly illuminating all things.
To the untrained eye, it was no different from the outside world’s moon—unless one had an exceptionally sharp sensitivity to lunar essence.
"I’ve always wondered what made your pocket realm unique. Now I know."
Ying Bing stared at the sky for a long moment, her dark hair tinged silver under the moonlight.
"What?" Li Mo asked.
"Time."
She turned to him, her gaze piercingly serious.
Last time she entered, it had been daytime—this was her first glimpse of the moon in his world.
Li Mo froze.
Now that he thought about it, when his pocket realm was still a seed, did time even exist there?
It was only after the moon appeared that time began flowing... As the world’s master, he could sense this clearly.
"Then why can’t I project my pocket realm into the outside world yet?" He squeezed her hand.
Ying Bing withdrew her gaze and sighed. "Because it’s incomplete. Right now, your realm only balances the two polarities (Yin-Yang). To project it outward, you’d need at least..."
"The Four Symbols?"
"No, that’s the folk term. In truth, the heavens hold thirty-six principles, and the earth seventy-two."
She spoke with gravity, yet even she found the idea of refining a complete world as an inner realm utterly fantastical.
It meant Li Mo would need to master 108 divine intents just to reach the Inner Realm stage.
Ying Bing herself had mastered the Jade Phoenix Divine Intent, but in her eyes, Li Mo was different—he was starting from scratch.
"The earthly number... You do have a secret art that matches it."
"We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. We didn’t finish that anime last time."
"Instead of wasting time, you should study the revised Thousand Forms Scripture I prepared."
"Plenty of time for that tomorrow."
Li Mo projected Violet Evergarden into the night sky, cracking open a bag of chips. Strangely, his heart felt lighter now.
From the ice block’s tone, he realized he was walking a path no one had tread before.
But Brave Little Li feared no hardship!
What truly troubled him wasn’t difficulty—it was the uncertainty of not knowing the way forward.
---
The next day, in a carriage bound for the Eternal Spring Court.
Morning light filtered through the fluttering gauze curtains, illuminating the desk inside.
Time-management expert Little Li opened Ying Bing’s revised Thousand Forms Scripture alongside the original.
"The original version devours other divine intents, absorbing them into one’s soul, allowing the soul to break free from divine diagrams and forge its own unique intent..."
Reading this, Li Mo’s DNA twitched.
So it’s the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands Devouring Flame Tome?
Start with a low-tier divine intent, keep devouring others, and gradually evolve it into mid-tier, high-tier, and eventually a supreme divine form, huh?
Oh, Old Xiao’s surname is Xiao? That explains it.
People with surnames like Xiao, Ye, Chen, or Xu used to be his prime suspects.
But so far, only Old Xiao fit the bill.
After mentally roasting the trope, he flipped to Ying Bing’s version.
Compared to the original’s brute-force approach, her revision emphasized assimilation—either merging all into one unified intent or maintaining harmony between separate intents. It was exquisitely balanced: any more would be excess, any less would feel lacking.
Even divine arts had tiers.
After seeing her version, the original now reeked of shoddy craftsmanship...
"Did I waste a lot of my Heaven’s Script Seals before?"
Little Li fell into deep thought.
Now that he had the ice block, aside from the Gold and Silver Heaven’s Script Seals, were the others basically useless?
] 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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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)
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
