At the same time.
Across Great Xia, those ancient Golden Core experts who had just awakened from their self-imposed seals—
before they could even fully step back into their coffins—
once again turned their shocked and suspicious gazes toward the direction of Qihuang Gorge.
Again?
That aura of heavenly tribulation has reappeared?!
Could it be... that the path of Dao in Great Xia has truly reopened?
Ultimately, some could no longer suppress the greed and longing in their hearts.
Love-Longing Sect.
The withered, white-haired Grand Elder stood above the sect, forcibly halting his retreat to the forbidden mountains in the rear.
His eyes burned with struggle and fervor.
Qihuang Gorge was guarded by a true dragon—if he went again, he would only humiliate himself. There was no other outcome.
But this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity...
Should he order his subordinates to investigate?
To track down that duo who had left as Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation cultivators but returned as Foundation Establishment and Golden Core?
He shook his head almost immediately.
Male disciples of the Love-Longing Sect were required to undergo castration upon entry—a rule established five hundred years ago.
He had been in seclusion when it was enacted, but he knew the reason behind it.
So how could there possibly be a "well-endowed" Foundation Establishment cultivator in the sect?
Utterly spear-less nonsense.
Investigating would be a waste of effort.
And yet...
To return to his coffin and sleep again...
He couldn’t bear it.
Not only had breaking free from the coffin already cost him dearly...
Even if he went back, he had only a few years left to live.
What if the path forward for Great Xia had truly opened?
He had been trapped at the peak of Golden Core for too long—so long that his lifespan was nearly exhausted.
Rather than withering away here... why not gamble?
"Boom!"
A surge of spiritual energy, far surpassing that of an ordinary Golden Core great perfection cultivator, erupted from his withered body.
The skies above the Love-Longing Sect churned violently.
"Unworthy disciples! Activate the sect-protecting formation at once!" he roared toward the sect master’s location.
In moments, beams of light shot up from the peaks of the Love-Longing Sect, weaving into a vast, radiant net in the sky. The formation exuded an overwhelming pressure as it enveloped the entire sect.
The Grand Elder took a deep breath, savoring the unprecedented power surging within him. He focused his entire being into his dantian, channeling all his strength to break through the invisible barrier that had confined him for nearly a thousand years.
Back in the day...
He had been a peerless genius...
Unrivaled since his debut, forging a seventh-grade Golden Core in just thirty years!
Yet the path to Nascent Soul had been severed...
Break!
Break for me!
The spiritual energy within the Grand Elder cycled at an unprecedented speed. His Golden Core buzzed violently in his dantian, radiating a blinding light—brighter than ever before, like a miniature sun.
He could feel it—the barrier was loosening!
Just a little more!
Just a little more!
And yet...
"The Grand Elder is breaking through!"
"Heaven blesses the Love-Longing Sect! Our sect will soon have a Nascent Soul mighty one!"
Countless disciples and elders rushed out of their caves, gazing up at the figure atop the mountain peak, stirring the heavens. Their faces were alight with excitement and reverence.
And then...
There was no "then."
The dazzling Golden Core, upon reaching its limit, suddenly dimmed.
No heavenly tribulation descended to temper his body.
The rampaging spiritual energy, like wild horses freed from their reins, surged chaotically through his meridians in reverse.
"No..."
"Why?!"
A desperate roar tore from the Grand Elder’s throat.
His shriveled skin cracked inch by inch, blood seeping from every pore.
Under the horrified gazes of the Love-Longing Sect’s disciples, the once-indomitable figure atop the peak swelled like an overinflated balloon—
"Pop!"
A muffled explosion.
A brilliant mist of blood blossomed under the midday sun.
Body and soul—annihilated.
The Love-Longing Sect fell into dead silence.
After what felt like an eternity, a heart-wrenching wail shattered the stillness.
"Sect Master! The Grand Elder... he exploded!"
——
Su Jiu felt like she was about to explode.
Her Dao Platform, tempered by the heavenly lightning, did not shatter. Instead, it grew more solid and translucent, gleaming like polished crystal.
Then, the red-haired little girl gave another soft command.
"Fire!"
"Come!"
The earthfire of Qihuang Gorge was forcibly ripped from the ground against its nature.
A strand of pure, condensed flame pierced through space, landing precisely on Su Jiu’s Dao Platform.
Thunder and fire intertwined—yin and yang in harmony.
Su Jiu’s Dao Platform began undergoing an unimaginable transformation.
Within her dantian, the phantom of an exquisitely crafted celestial palace slowly took form.
Above it, mist swirled, and cranes cried, as if a miniature world had been born.
Heavenly Palace Golden Core!
As the last wisp of thunderfire merged into the palace, Su Jiu’s aura peaked.
Her eyes snapped open—a flash of golden light flickered in their depths.
Golden Core—success.
Su Jiu savored the unprecedented power surging within her.
Suppressing the excitement in her heart, she rose slowly and bowed deeply toward the red-haired figure lounging lazily on a rock.
"Many thanks for your guardianship, Senior."
The red-haired little girl merely waved a hand dismissively, not even bothering to lift her eyelids.
"Unnecessary."
"If you have time, go to Qingqiu and ask Jiu Yue for me."
She paused, her tone laced with unmistakable disdain.
"Ask her if this is how she treats her descendants now?"
"Did she forget about her clan after running off with that bastard? Too busy rolling around to care?"
"Tch. Even I’m more generous than her."
Su Jiu hesitated, then spoke carefully.
"Senior... I am not a direct descendant of Ancestor Jiu Yue."
"And... Ancestor Jiu Yue... she passed away long ago."
The air froze.
A deafening explosion.
The red-haired girl’s lazy posture stiffened violently.
The chains that had bound her for countless millennia—unchained even by heavenly punishment—shattered under her force.
In the next instant, she leaped down from the rock.
Her golden draconic pupils locked onto Su Jiu, her voice trembling faintly with something even she didn’t recognize.
"What did you say?"
The broken chains crashed to the ground with earth-shaking force, causing the entire space to quake.
"She’s dead?"
Her voice was soft, yet carried a bone-chilling coldness.
"That vixen... died well."
She murmured, yet there was no joy on her face.
"No..."
Her head snapped up, golden pupils blazing with madness.
"Who allowed her to die?!"
"If she’s dead, why hasn’t Feng come to see me?"
"Have you met him?"
"A man who loves wearing green robes, pretentious to the core—you’d remember if you’d seen him."
"That heartless bastard."
"He actually asked me if I liked sleeping with women!"
"Wanted me and Jiu Yue to share a bed and serve him together? Dream on. I told him I’d rather die than sleep with a woman, so he locked me here. And now, after all these years..."
"Did he forget about me?"
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
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?"
