(This chapter has been modified. It depicts the normal process of alchemy, with no inappropriate implications.)
I do not know how long passed.
The violent chaos of spiritual energy within the cave mansion gradually subsided, like retreating tidewaters.
Su Ji sat cross-legged in the midst of the now-ashes of spirit stones and medicinal herbs.
He slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze returned to its usual calm.
Yet beneath that calm lurked a sharpness more piercing than ever before.
He inspected his inner body.
Within his dantian's sea of qi, the previous chaos had vanished entirely.
In its place was a golden core no bigger than a thumb, dark gold in color, with faint threads of purple-black swirling across its surface.
A good thing...
It succeeded.
A bad thing...
He seemed to be starting to look like a demonic cultivator...
Su Ji let out a long sigh.
The crisis had temporarily passed, but exhaustion surged in like a tide.
He looked up at the young girl watching him with a worried expression.
She was crouched in front of him, reaching out as if to help, but afraid to touch his wounds. For a moment, she seemed completely at a loss.
"Senior Brother, how are you feeling...?"
Looking at her small face full of concern, warmth filled his heart. He raised a hand and gently ruffled her hair.
"I'm fine."
He paused, then gave a helpless smile.
"Once I refine another batch of pills, I'll heal your injuries."
"Another batch?"
"Well... since I've used so many of his herbs, I need to come up with some explanation..."
Su Jiu blinked, then caught on.
Su Ji spread his hands. "I'm going to refine a real [Return to Void Pill] for him."
"Then I'll tell him I made five batches, three of which exploded, leaving one for him and one for me."
"That way, the amount of herbs consumed sounds perfectly reasonable."
Listening to his utterly serious nonsense, Su Jiu couldn't help but roll her eyes at him.
So full of tricks.
But...
The heavy stone that had been weighing on her heart finally settled.
"So..." she bit her lip, "before you refine the pills, Senior Brother... do you need to prepare something?"
She looked up at Su Ji, her eyes brimming with affection.
But the faint trembling of her lashes betrayed her nervousness.
Su Ji raised an eyebrow, a half-smile playing on his lips.
"Oh?"
"Indeed, I do need to prepare."
"Refining pills of this grade requires extremely pure alchemical fire. After my previous great battle, I’m carrying too much killing intent, and my fire is impure. Plus, my golden core has just been restored—I truly need to nurture it properly."
As he spoke, he walked over to the alchemy furnace and sat down beside it.
He then signaled for Su Jiu to come assist him at his side.
Su Ji looked at her, and she looked back at him.
She couldn't let Su Ji down.
Her first time doing preparatory alchemy work was a bit clumsy.
But the feeling of being overwhelmed was strikingly similar to when she used to spar with Su Ji!
Reflecting on this, she discovered with wonder that simply performing alchemy prep work could bring a strange sense of accomplishment—no wonder so many people were willing to help alchemists as assistants.
He reached out, gently patted Su Jiu’s little head, and his voice carried sincere admiration.
"Su Jiu, you did well. You did very well indeed."
Receiving Su Ji’s praise made her heart as sweet as honey.
Though her chest was a little tight, she shook her little head joyfully, basking in the praise.
(Deleted passage)
Then, Su Jiu looked at Su Ji with a somewhat resentful gaze. "So Senior Brother, you're already at the point where you can't even be bothered to trigger your Fate's Mandate just to give me some perfunctory comfort?"
Su Ji felt his scalp tingle. "No, that ability can only be used after I make a breakthrough in my cultivation realm."
"So there really isn't any step you need to take?"
Su Ji was beginning to sweat...
No matter how he answered, this seemed like a fatal question...
"No... Junior Sister, listen to what I have to say... let me explain..."
] 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.
+ Slow Paced + Main Character Thrives Together with His Disciples】 Transmigrated into a cultivation world, Chu Xingchen awakens a discipleship system that reveals the tags of his disciples! Starting from scratch, he builds the strongest sect. Disciple One: Li Yingling 【Gold Tag: Genius Cultivator】【Purple Tag: Extremely Lucky】【Blue Tag: Bewitchingly Beautiful】 Disciple Two: Li Hangtian 【Gold Tag: Reincarnated】【Purple Tag: Ruthless and Decisive】【Blue Tag: Loyal and Noble】 Disciple Three: ??? 【Orange Tag: Alluring Demoness】【???】【???】 Thus, in the cultivation world, an unremarkable little sect appears out of nowhere, but little do others know that each member of this sect is a powerhouse in their own right. The book is also known as: Cultivation? It's Exactly Like This!
] [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!"
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!
