Su Jiu clearly didn't believe this excuse.
After all, Su Ji was only somewhat reliable in moments of life and death.
Now, with the sect's major situation settled and him becoming the undisputed sect master, it hardly seemed like a "critical moment."
So, she crossed her arms, looking at him leisurely, her clear eyes holding a scrutinizing gaze.
"How does Senior Brother plan to reorganize the sect?"
Hearing this, Su Ji immediately perked up and began without hesitation.
"It's simple, first..."
However, his words stopped abruptly halfway.
The smug smile on his face seemed wiped away by an invisible hand, replaced by a gloomy expression.
He fell silent, his gaze drifting into the distance as if lost in thought.
"Senior Brother?"
"Senior Brother!"
Su Jiu called out twice before Su Ji slowly snapped out of it, as if waking from a distant dream.
The smile had completely vanished from his face.
"Junior Sister, you handle it as you see fit."
He waved his hand dismissively.
"It's a sect we picked up anyway."
"Do whatever."
"If it breaks, it breaks."
With that, Su Ji turned and walked back to his room without looking back.
Su Jiu watched his somewhat desolate retreating figure, filled with confusion.
This guy?
Just as she was puzzling, Su Ji walked out of his room again, carrying the repaired Liang Ying Spear.
Su Jiu was even more baffled.
What's he doing with a spear in the middle of the night?
Could it be...
Before her imagination could conjure any peculiar scenes, Su Ji was already before her, extending his hand.
"Junior Sister, lend me your storage ring."
Though still utterly confused, seeing his unprecedented seriousness, Su Jiu took off the storage ring Su Ji had given her and tossed it over.
Su Ji put the ring on his own finger before speaking.
"Wait for me to return."
"Within five months."
A clear flash of disappointment and confusion appeared in Su Jiu's eyes: "Where are you going?"
Su Ji answered without thinking: "I'm going to see the orioles dance and the kites fly."
Su Jiu clearly couldn't follow Su Ji's train of thought: "What?"
"The wind does not cease, the mist and smoke disperse of themselves."
Su 'The Riddler' Ji said no more. Carrying the spear, he brushed past Su Jiu, his figure quickly disappearing into the night.
Su Jiu stood still, looking in the direction he left, feeling an emptiness in her heart.
What she didn't know was that moments before, Su Ji's sudden silence was because he had just learned he had been in seclusion for a month.
On a whim, he glanced at his now-cooled-down Heavenly Mandate ability.
[Glimpse of Fate].
He had thought that after dealing with the Xiangsi Sect, he could have at least some peace for a while.
But this casual glance...
He saw... a great terror...
...
In a gray-white world, there were no threads of fate, only chaos.
Within the chaos, a rift tore open.
Su Ji's consciousness was sucked into it by an irresistible force.
The scene before him spun wildly.
When he regained his footing, he found himself standing on a circular high platform made of white jade.
Around the platform, clouds and mist swirled, immortal energy dense, a scene of sublime celestial beauty.
Of course...
The main purpose of this was actually to 'bewilder' the ascendant immediately.
To prevent them from noticing something was wrong with the surroundings, and from risking a fall in cultivation level to escape back through the still-healing ascension rift before it closed.
Su Jiu's figure also appeared beside him.
However, her appearance was now plain and unremarkable, clearly altered by some illusion technique.
Su Ji's appearance had also become similarly ordinary.
Before them stood a simple wooden table. Behind it sat a middle-aged man in gray cloth clothes, yawning listlessly.
"Names?"
The middle-aged man didn't even bother to lift his eyelids, his voice dripping with impatience.
Su Ji's heart stirred.
Is this the receptionist for ascension?
To inject fresh blood into the sect?
Thoughts raced through Su Ji's mind. Suppressing his excitement, he spoke in a hoarse, flat voice.
"Wang San."
Beside him, Su Jiu, her face concealed by illusion, glanced at Su Ji and understood.
"Li Xi."
"Hmm."
The middle-aged man made a few strokes on the jade ledger before him, then waved impatiently.
"Alright, next. Don't block the way."
The two moved aside as instructed.
Behind them, two other figures shrouded in thin mist stepped forward.
One of them seemed around Su Ji's age. He cupped his hands towards the middle-aged man, his tone neither subservient nor arrogant.
"Fellow Daoist, may I ask which sect this place belongs to?"
"And how are the powers distributed on this continent?"
"If suitable, I would be willing to join your esteemed sect and contribute my efforts."
Hearing this, the middle-aged man finally looked up, his expression one of looking at a fool.
"You think you're worthy?"
"Later, find yourself a handy pickaxe and go dig spirit mines obediently."
"Why so much nonsense?"
The young cultivator's pupils contracted sharply.
Mining?
Do upper realm cultivators treat us as slaves?
Suppressing the shock in his heart, his voice remained steady.
"Isn't your action somewhat improper, sir?"
"We are, after all, prodigies from the lower realm, having endured countless hardships to ascend. How can we..."
"Too noisy."
The middle-aged man seemed to have completely lost his patience.
He casually raised his hand and slapped through the air.
"Smack!"
A crisp sound.
The young prodigy who was still arguing his case.
Immediately felt a great terror.
He saw his body erupt with blue light: "Come fight!"
"A Golden Core cultivator cannot be humiliated..."
But before his words finished.
The seemingly light palm imprint instantly crossed a span of space and struck his chest.
Without even time for a scream, his entire body exploded with a "bang" into a mist of blood.
Soul and spirit annihilated.
His companion beside him was also trembling with fear at this sudden turn of events.
Just like that, he's dead?
You must know...
The one beside him was the Great Demon King of the lower realm, whose word was law...
Who suppressed the entire lower realm into silence.
He had even challenged Foundation Establishment while still at late-stage Qi Refining.
Now, having scoured the resources of his entire world, he forged an eighth-grade Golden Core to ascend.
Full of lofty ambition, ready to conquer a new world.
And yet, he was slapped to death like a stray dog by some lackey?
At the same time, another voice drifted up leisurely.
"Old Ghost Li, what are you doing? We hardly get a few black slaves all year, and you just slap one to death?"
"Don't you want to live anymore?"
The receptionist called Old Ghost Li wore a malicious smile.
His gaze passed over Su Ji and landed on Su Jiu behind him, his eyes appraising her like a piece of goods.
"Hehe, just a disobedient black slave. Dead is dead."
"The strongest ant in an anthill is still just an ant."
"Who knows where they get all this drama from."
"A mere Golden Core, and he calls me 'Fellow Daoist'?"
"Over here, I've got a top-grade item."
"Once I offer her up, will I still need to suffer in this godforsaken place?"

ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!

young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."

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.

. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"