When Elder Qian arrived, he was cautious, carrying the modest possessions of the Qingyuan Sect and his unremarkable fourth-realm Inner Landscape cultivation.
But when he left, he strode with the confidence of a dragon and tiger—though only five feet tall, his aura loomed over eight.
"So this is the boredom Xiao Li mentioned," he mused.
As soon as Li Mo stepped ashore, he saw Elder Qian standing with his hands behind his back, his silhouette exuding a hint of solitude.
Noticing his demeanor, Li Mo first offered congratulations before asking, "Elder Qian, you seem in high spirits today?"
"How did you know I’ve broken through to the first layer of the Outer Scenery realm?" Qian Bufan feigned 'astonishment.'
"Uh..." Li Mo was momentarily speechless, but he knew how to humor an old man. He promptly put on an exaggerated look of shock. "You broke through last night? Ah, what a pity! I was training underwater and missed it. Otherwise, I could’ve gained so many insights. This was so sudden!"
"Indeed, the process was like treading on thin ice, full of unexpected twists. But thanks to my perseverance, I successfully reached the other shore—my strength has soared."
Elder Qian recalled his sudden windfall with a calm expression.
Perhaps years later, when interviewed by the Yantian Sect, he would still describe it this way.
The reason for his fortune? A lifetime of diligence and persistence...
Until finally, a junior of his rose to prominence and passed down a fraction of their wealth...
Ahem. But in any case, the current Qian Bufan was brimming with excitement.
"Now that I’ve reached the Outer Scenery realm, I finally feel like a proper elder. At last, I can protect my juniors properly. By the way, Xiao Mo, how deep did you go into the abyss yesterday?"
The abyssal depths exerted immense pressure, subjecting the body to crushing gravity—so intense that even one’s Inner World couldn’t be summoned.
"Not too deep," Li Mo replied with a modest smile.
"The ocean is wondrous, but also perilous," Qian Bufan nodded, about to share his hard-earned wisdom on diving. "When you feel it’s too deep, when you’re beyond your limits, you must retreat immediately—"
"Just around thirty thousand feet, give or take."
"...?"
Qian Bufan leaned back slightly.
He remembered that beyond thirty thousand feet, the water was considered "Heavy Water."
"I could’ve gone deeper, but dawn was approaching. Maybe next time."
Li Mo sighed, his tone tinged with regret.
His dive wasn’t just for tempering his physique—he’d also brought the "Guixu Tome" to search for traces of the mythical Guixu Abyss.
Unfortunately, even at thirty thousand feet, the tome showed no reaction.
"By the way, Elder Qian, have you ever ventured that deep?"
"Ah, yes, I have... heh heh..."
Qian Bufan’s laughter was strained, his previously proud posture now slightly hunched.
Damn it...
Is Li Mo even human?
Even as an Outer Scenery cultivator, thirty thousand feet would be his absolute limit—his body would collapse before his cultivation faltered.
And for Li Mo, that was just where the pressure started?
Add to that his towering Inner World...
Qian Bufan suddenly realized something.
Breaking through to the fifth realm didn’t mean he could actually protect this junior. In fact, now that he’d advanced, he could sense even more clearly the terrifying, abyssal aura coiled within Li Mo’s body.
So... had he merely gained the privilege of understanding just how monstrous his junior was?
"Elder Qian? Elder Qian? Why are you drooling?"
Li Mo noticed Qian Bufan’s vacant, 'wise' stare, a glistening strand of saliva trailing from his lips.
"Xiao Mo, Shang Wu may be your master, and respect is due..."
Qian Bufan’s gaze suddenly sharpened, his tone grave. "But you must never follow in her footsteps!"
Shang Wu alone was enough to make children across the Eastern Wasteland Domain cry at the mention of her name.
A stronger version of Shang Wu?
He didn’t even dare imagine it!
"To be honest, I don’t respect her that much..."
Li Mo coughed lightly, then smoothly changed the subject. "Who wants to spend their whole life in a rebellious phase like her? I’m about to get married, with a son and a daughter on the way. Elder Qian, you really don’t trust me, do you?"
"That’s true, that’s true... you have Little Bing'er."
Qian Bufan smiled warmly—then paused.
"How do you know it’s both a son and daughter? Wait... did Old Xue tell you something...?"
"Let’s talk on the cloud, up we go!"
"Wait, I feel like there’s something I forgot..."
"My wedding robes are already made. What else could there be?"
Li Mo summoned his Somersault Cloud, carrying them both into the sky.
The cloud moved leisurely—after all, Elder Qian had just broken through and needed to stabilize his realm. And with a passenger, Li Mo couldn’t just teleport through the void.
---
In a giant seashell cottage in the backyard of the Eastern Pearl Pavilion, Lan Tian was having sweet dreams.
Her 'golden sponsor' had promised her yesterday that he’d personally cook for the engagement banquet, meaning endless delicacies every day.
"Steamed bear paws, braised deer tail..."
"Roast duck, roast goose..."
"Snow Ginseng stew, royal jelly cake... gulp..."
Lan Tian squirmed, biting into her pillow before blinking awake in confusion.
She wiped her drool, yawned, and a single tear rolled down her cheek—plinking onto the floor as a pearl.
"I’ll gift Sponsor’s wife a pearl necklace later."
She pulled out a small box from under her bed, already filled with pearls, and added the fresh one before heading out.
Stretching lazily under the clear sky, she hugged the box and eagerly knocked on Li Mo’s door.
But after several attempts, no one answered.
"The boss left already. Didn’t he tell you?" a passing worker said.
"Eh?!"
Lan Tian’s beaming smile froze. Her eyes glazed over, her entire body struck by lightning.
---
"News on Li Mo—he’s left the Rare Treasures Bazaar."
Blackwind Mountain, a notorious no-man’s-land between the Eastern Sea and the Eastern Wasteland Domain, was a den of bandits, rogues, and rival factions.
The Lingxi Sect had chosen this place precisely for its lawlessness—to avoid drawing attention.
After all, the Qingyuan Sect’s rise, the engagement of the "Profit-Seeking Sword Hero" and the "Frost Fairy," were all decreed by the Great Yu Emperor. They couldn’t act openly.
But scouting the location wasn’t enough.
Qiao Ziyu pondered, "If we disguise ourselves as horse bandits, the Great Yu will still track us down..."
"If we’re going to disguise ourselves, we must go all the way," the Elder Steward said thoughtfully, as if well-versed in such schemes.
"Why not raise the banner of the Demon-Calling Sect?"
"Oh?"
Qiao Ziyu considered it.
As everyone knew, Li Mo had a blood feud with the Demon-Calling Sect.
Back in the Heavenly City, he’d personally thwarted their ancestral god’s resurrection. So if the cult sought revenge, it would be perfectly logical.
"Good. Then that’s our plan!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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.
