Above the heavens, the bronze ancient tree's vines rooted in the Taiyin (Lunar Essence) were rapidly withering. As a vessel of celestial fortune, this was merely a seed of the bronze ancient tree—ultimately incapable of rivaling the Rivers and Mountains Scroll.
Once the decline began, there was no turning back.
The delicate balance of Heavenly City between destruction and rebirth was instantly overturned.
The crowd below could not see what was happening in the skies, only witnessing nine ferocious dragons soaring majestically from the blazing sun, exuding an aura of indomitable authority.
"Has the imperial court finally intervened?"
Many faces lit up with hope.
Yet they did not know that this manifestation of the nation's fortune was, in truth, the root of calamity.
......
Ying Bing stood alone before the Taiyin, the three soul-essences of the Primordial Phoenix flickering at her brow—the Blood Phoenix Essence, the Radiant Phoenix Aura, and the Jade Phoenix Spirit—all gleaming brilliantly, pulling the incomplete Heavenly Phoenix Domain toward wholeness. For others, this would be a matter of life and death, but for her, it should have been effortless.
Yet at this critical moment, she also had to face an external foe.
The Lunar Yin in Ying Bing’s palm tilted slightly, its sword tip rising to carve a flawless full moon. The blade moved like time reversing, intercepting the nine dragon shadows.
Time flowed like water, yet the nation’s fortune was ceaseless—ebbing and flowing, vanishing only to gather anew.
The dragon shadows continued their descent.
Crack—
They pulled at the firmament itself.
"Heaven and earth unite, all things return to one. The immortals pity mortals, and the far shore descends..."
The voice seemed to issue from hundreds of millions of souls, a thunderous murmur incomprehensible to mortal minds.
As the voices grew louder, more chaotic, the stars within the Rivers and Mountains Scroll blazed with radiant light!
The unfolding scene stirred a ripple in Ying Bing’s tranquil heart.
That ripple came from familiarity.
As if, long ago, she had witnessed this very moment.
"Are you trying to repeat this again?" Her tone was calm, but inwardly, she searched for the source of that déjà vu.
Strange—she had no memory of such an event in her past life.
"Heh..."
Empress Chuge’s voice dripped with vindication, as if her suspicions had been confirmed. "It seems you remembered your true self long ago. No wonder... no wonder you not only possess exceptional talent but also know things far beyond your realm."
"No wonder you went to the Southern Border in advance, took the Jade Phoenix Spirit, and thwarted Han Zhen."
"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all beings as straw dogs. The Great Dao is impartial. You claim to have truly died—you lie! You are the most hypocritical deceiver in all existence! Because of you, I must now wear this human skin with utmost caution..."
Ying Bing remained aloof, as if unmoved by Empress Chuge’s outburst.
A deceiver?
What had she deceived her about?
Was this the reason Empress Chuge was so determined to destroy the Heavenly Phoenix Domain and keep her here?
No...
Ying Bing recalled a figure she had glimpsed in the Jade Phoenix Spirit and her dreams—one long vanished.
Ying Huang?
What had the First of the Nine Immortals meant by "Those who learn from her live, those who imitate her die"?
Her thoughts grew tangled.
"Oh, and that pawn of yours is nearly spent. Surely you’re not still counting on him to aid you?"
Empress Chuge’s voice rang out once more.
"Him..."
"Hm?"
Empress Chuge paused, sensing a shift in Ying Bing.
Flecks of phoenix feathers materialized, then ignited—an unquenchable True Phoenix will, her aura growing ever more terrifying.
"He is no pawn."
A jade-white hand lifted, pointing toward the portion of the Heavenly Phoenix Domain now occupied by the Rivers and Mountains Scroll—the blazing sun in the sky.
The Heavenly Phoenix Domain now resembled a taut rope in a tug-of-war.
Both sides strained with equal might, locked in stalemate.
But the Heavenly City’s realm could endure no more.
Before either force prevailed, nothing might remain.
"If all else fails, you may surrender your body to me... or rather, the other you."
A thought not her own surfaced in Ying Bing’s mind.
She knew whose voice this was.
Ying Huang.
The Heavenly Phoenix Domain had always belonged to the Nine-Colored Primordial Phoenix. No one could wield it better than Ying Huang.
But...
At what cost?
Would she cease to be herself thereafter?
......
At the edge of the Heavenly City’s realm.
A tempest raged, a swirling vortex of ten-thousand-zhang winds.
The storm annihilated all in its path—even granite vanished without a trace beneath its fury.
"So... it has cycled countless times already..."
Feng Zhi stood alone at the storm-lashed border of the human city, her gaze deepening with realization.
These cycles had not begun with the Heavenly Trial. They stretched back to a far older past—one she now remembered.
The Great Shang.
Standing here, facing this choice, had happened innumerable times before.
"But this is the first time I’ve had a sister... and a brother-in-law."
She glanced back.
In the ruins of the Heavenly City, a crimson giant stood unyielding. None knew why he still resisted, but all knew he was once the Son of the Wilderness.
The Taiyin still hung in that sky, long stripped of freedom.
Even from this distance, it was as if she could still see them by the hearth in the King’s Village, just by turning her head.
"Let this be the last time."
Folding her red-flowered cotton-padded coat neatly on the ground, Feng Zhi vanished.
The next instant, she reappeared within the eye of the storm—dissolving into the wind itself.
She had found her home.
And she would guide the storm to its final rest.
......
"I cannot escape... and neither can you."
Amid the ruins, Li Mo’s vision blurred. The Blood God’s words still echoed in his ears.
The power of the masses still flowed into him from the outside world—the only reason his blood-soaked, immobilized form could maintain his Heaven-Earth Manifestation.
He lacked the strength to ponder the words’ deeper meaning.
Through the dissipating blood clouds, his wavering gaze first took in the shattered remnants of the Heavenly and Earthly Cities.
Crumbled walls, scattered wreckage, countless corpses.
He stood so high now that the sounds below were inaudible, yet he could see the devastation unfolding afar.
As heaven and earth converged, calamities erupted everywhere.
Volcanoes spewed crimson debris, their ash-choked skies plunging lands into eternal night.
The withered earth cracked like rotting biscuits, torn apart by writhing leviathans before colliding and compacting anew.
A ten-thousand-zhang storm rampaged like a shredder, grinding all into its whirling maw.
Soon, even silence would cease to exist here—only void would remain.
The proud Celestials were returning themselves to the abyssal embrace of heaven and earth.
How reminiscent it was of the moths plunging into flames that Li Mo had once witnessed in the Heavenly Phoenix Domain.
That gentle gaze, transcending time, met his once more.
Silently waiting.
Waiting for him to make his choice.
Waiting for him to awaken to his inner truth.
"Looks like we might not make it to the wedding after all..."
Li Mo murmured, gripping the Ruyi Golden Staff embedded in his dantian—and wrenching it free.
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.”
] 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.
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?"
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.
