Su Ji naturally couldn’t admit his own shortcomings. "It’s a bit difficult," he said.
Su Jiu grabbed Su Ji’s arm, narrowly avoiding a massive boulder crashing down from above.
Steadying herself, her clear fox-like eyes were filled with confusion.
"Why?" Her voice carried a hint of urgency.
"Last time, when you slew that Nascent Soul remnant soul, your spiritual energy was completely drained."
"But this time, after killing that enchantress, you still had more than half your spiritual energy left."
"With the remaining energy and my immobilization technique, slaying this damned beast should’ve been more than enough!"
Su Jiu spoke rapidly.
She refused to believe Su Ji would hold back at such a life-or-death moment.
There had to be a reason she didn’t know.
Listening to his junior sister’s sharp analysis, Su Ji inwardly marveled at her intelligence.
This little fox wasn’t just beautiful—her mind worked frighteningly fast. She wasn’t easy to fool.
He let out a heavy sigh, his face twisting with an indescribable struggle.
"Junior Sister, you don’t understand…"
"This sword technique of mine…"
He paused, as if carefully choosing his words—or perhaps unwilling to revisit the past.
"It’s a forbidden secret of my clan, with extremely strict limitations."
Su Jiu didn’t press him, simply watching in silence.
The fire wyrm lashed its tail again, shattering a stone pillar beside them. Debris flew, one piece grazing Su Jiu’s cheek with a scorching gust.
Finally, Su Ji seemed to make up his mind, lowering his voice.
"This is the Heartless Sword Path."
Heartless Sword Path?
Su Jiu frowned.
The Heartless Path’s reputation was far from obscure.
Su Ji’s expression grew graver as he stared at the increasingly frenzied wyrm in the distance.
"This sword… is meant to slay only those female cultivators who try to seduce me with their charms and disrupt my Dao heart."
"So…"
He turned to meet Su Jiu’s stunned gaze, enunciating each word clearly.
"It can’t be used against that beast."
Su Jiu’s mind reeled.
So that was it?
Now that she thought about it, it made sense.
The last time, that Nascent Soul remnant soul had indeed offered to possess her body and "let Su Ji try some new tricks."
Then Su Ji had cut it down with a single stroke.
And earlier, that enchantress, disheveled and using seduction arts to control him, had met the same fate.
"ROAR—!!!"
The fire wyrm clearly had no intention of giving them time to reminisce or discuss sword philosophy.
Enraged that these insignificant humans dared to chat so casually in its presence—an outright insult to its future as a True Dragon—it opened its maw wide.
A massive, condensed ball of molten lava gathered in its throat, far larger and more concentrated than any before.
The aura of annihilation pressed down on them.
"Go!"
Snapping out of her thoughts, Su Jiu stopped dwelling on the absurd sword path and dragged Su Ji toward the only passage in the molten cavern not yet submerged in lava.
As Su Jiu pulled him along, Su Ji still found time to flip the wyrm off and shout,
"Eat shit, dumbass! I’m outta here!"
"Senior Brother, why provoke it?!"
Su Ji didn’t look back, sprinting faster than a hare.
"It doesn’t understand anyway!"
"That bastard chased me for ten days!"
"Ten. Whole. Days!"
"If it weren’t for the maze-like tunnels letting me loop around, I’d probably be a pile of dung in its stomach by now!"
His voice dripped with deep-seated resentment.
"If I don’t vent this anger, I’ll develop inner demons and ruin my Dao path!"
"This is called ‘resolving grievances’!"
Su Jiu: "…"
She didn’t even know where to begin refuting that.
Somehow, his nonsense almost sounded logical.
Whatever.
She stopped arguing.
Their figures darted like phantoms through the cavern.
Meanwhile, Su Jiu formed hand seals with her free hand.
Several illusory clones of themselves materialized, sprinting in different directions.
ROAR—!
The wyrm’s intelligence wasn’t fully developed, making it easy to deceive with illusions for a short time.
It spewed molten fire at one of the clones, melting a gaping hole in the cavern wall.
Seizing the chance, Su Jiu and Su Ji slipped into a narrow crevice.
Behind them, the wyrm’s roars and the crumbling of rock gradually faded.
…
Inside a relatively safe stone chamber, the two finally stopped.
Su Jiu released Su Ji’s wrist, scanning their surroundings to confirm they were safe before turning to him.
The frustration she’d suppressed the whole way finally spilled over.
"Senior Brother, why did you come here?"
"Didn’t I tell you to stay put in the sect and behave?"
Her voice held worry, but more than that—an unconscious dread she hadn’t even realized she felt.
This was a Golden Core beast!
And with Su Ji’s sword technique useless against it, they stood no chance.
Su Ji didn’t answer immediately.
First, he leaned against the wall, panting dramatically like a man who’d narrowly escaped death.
Then, slowly, he lifted his head.
The mocking, shameless look he’d given the wyrm was gone, replaced by a mix of guilt and something almost like… grievance.
After fumbling in his robes for a moment, he pulled out a palm-sized, translucent stone radiating pure spiritual energy.
The [Dragon’s Saliva Stone] he’d pocketed earlier.
"Junior Sister… you’ve been running around outside, gathering materials for my Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment."
His voice was low, slightly hoarse.
"If I just sat there, waiting without lifting a finger… I couldn’t live with myself."
He held the stone out to her, his gaze utterly sincere.
"I heard there might be treasures here… thought maybe it could help you forge a Ninth-Grade Golden Core… so I came to try my luck."
Su Jiu froze.
She stared at the [Dragon’s Saliva Stone] in his hand.
Then at his face, plastered with "I did it all for you."
Her mind buzzed.
Every emotion she’d been ready to unleash was instantly stifled by that tiny stone.
He’d risked being crushed into paste by a Golden Core beast.
Ventured into this death trap.
All… to find something that might help her?
Just because he "couldn’t live with himself"?
A warmth she couldn’t describe surged from her chest, washing away all her anxiety and irritation in an instant.
Her nose stung, her eyes growing suspiciously hot.
Snatching the stone from his hand, she clenched it tightly—if only to hide how flustered she was.
"You… you think I’m an idiot?"
Her voice trembled, but she forced it to sound stern.
"Was this worthless thing worth risking your life for?"
Su Ji grinned. "Ah, so you saw through me?"
"Well… there was one other thing."
Su Jiu: ???
Wait—
What?
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers 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?"
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
