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?
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!" "......"
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
