Jian Yuanjie was the most difficult cultivator for Qin Ran to kill so far in his cultivation journey.
It wasn't because he had cultivated some strange mystic art, or because he was some weird race that was hard to kill. It was purely because he was too cautious and insidious, with too many backup plans.
To be honest, at this moment, even though Qin Ran had already crushed Jian Yuanjie's bones to dust and scattered his soul, he still felt like Jian Yuanjie wasn't actually dead.
Perhaps this guy still had some backup plan, or some remnant soul left somewhere, or he was waiting to be reborn somewhere... Eventually, he would come back to take revenge.
With these complicated feelings, Qin Ran carefully inspected the two major battlefields where he had fought with Jian Yuanjie, and also spread out to check the surrounding area, leaving no stone unturned for two full days before he finally found nothing unusual and stopped.
Dealing with the aftermath was even more tiring than the actual battle. Qin Ran finally returned to the first battlefield looking exhausted.
He broke through the formations set up behind the bushes and released Long Qiqi.
But the first thing after letting her out was: "Two days! Two whole days!!"
Long Qiqi pointed at him in collapse and cursed, "Do you know what I went through these past two days?"
First she was inexplicably kidnapped, then she fought wit and wisdom against the villains, with her life hanging by a thread and danger of sudden death at any moment. Finally when she saw a ray of hope to survive, Qin Ran left her trapped together with the Phoenix Wing Blood Head Bees.
The Phoenix Wing Blood Head Bees were so ferocious... Alright, the bees themselves were not too bad actually. Inside the formations, the bees posed no threat to her. She was mainly unable to bear the fear and anxiety.
On one hand, she worried Qin Ran's formations were unreliable and might not be able to kill the Phoenix Wing Blood Head Bees. On the other hand, she also feared Qin Ran might not beat Jian Yuanjie, and she would ultimately still die by Jian Yuanjie's hands. Finally, she worried Qin Ran might abandon her.
Two days and nights were enough for her to imagine every possible situation, nearly driving herself crazy.
Qin Ran looked at Long Qiqi with exhaustion. Alright, he admitted that he had forgotten about Long Qiqi because he was worried Jian Yuanjie still had some backup plan, and had been carefully searching the vicinity these past two days.
But it really wasn't on purpose.
"Sigh!" He was too mentally drained now to bother with Long Qiqi, and simply gathered up the formation materials and checked himself over before turning back towards the Dao Sword Sect.
Long Qiqi was not actually an unreasonable person. Seeing how tired Qin Ran looked, she didn't say much either.
After all, he came to rescue her this time.
Qin Ran was technically her lifesaver.
As she followed behind Qin Ran, her mind suddenly strangely drifted to how she should repay her lifesaver.
Should it be "in the next life, become an ox or horse to serve you" or "offer my body to you"?
With Qin Ran's conditions, it should be offering her body.
"Offer my body"?
Thinking this, she couldn't help but glance down at her own flat chest and petite body.
According to human years, she should be 9 years old now, but her body still seemed to be 6 or 7.
The provisions at Dan Peak were so good, and she had eaten well for 3 years, only growing a little taller, but gaining a lot more weight.
Alright, "offering her body" was not viable, both subjectively (she could not withstand Li Shiyin's melancholy sword) and objectively (her body was not developed).
It seemed it could only wait until the next life.
With these messy thoughts, she quickly walked up to peek at Qin Ran's side profile, thinking he actually looked quite clean and refined, seeming like a shy and timid boy next door.
Qin Ran...boy next door...
She suddenly shuddered subconsciously, reacting that this boy next door's heart, liver, guts and lungs were all dark, having just sinisterly plotted another old fiend's death.
"Huh? I'm only... 9 years old... is this puberty?" She was puzzled why she paid attention to Qin Ran's looks. Glancing at Qin Ran again, she suddenly noticed something at his waist, frowning and asking, "Is that Jian Yuanjie's Cosmic Bag?"
Qin Ran had been walking and was startled out of his thoughts. He suddenly realized there was still this thing he hadn't dealt with. He hurriedly stopped and took off the Cosmic Bag.
"Didn't you teach Shiyin that one should not take the spoils when killing? What are you doing?" Long Qiqi asked.
Qin Ran crouched down and took out the contents of the Cosmic Bag - it was a bee hive, golden black in color, round like a wash basin.
"Phoenix Wing Blood Head Bees?" Long Qiqi's expression condensed slightly. "This was Jian Yuanjie's trump card. You're taking it away?"
Qin Ran looked at the bee hive, also conflicted.
He said, "This thing seems to have the bloodline of the Phoenix."
"So?"
"Phoenix and Dragon are both innate long-living species..." Qin Ran said. "I want to try using their blood to concoct the elixir of longevity."
"Phoenix blood?" Long Qiqi looked at the bee hive.
Qin Ran nodded.
"The relation of this thing to the Phoenix is probably that its ancestors built their hive in the chinaberry tree where the Phoenix roosted, and fortunately obtained a trace of the Phoenix's aura." Long Qiqi curled her lip. "If you want to extract Phoenix blood from it... You might as well go directly find a Phoenix!"
"Do you know where to find a Phoenix?" Qin Ran asked Long Qiqi.
Long Qiqi went silent. Who knew?
Qin Ran then dissolved the Cosmic Bag with "Cinnabar Water", and put the bee hive into his own Cosmic Bag.
"With Jian Yuanjie's personality, he definitely wouldn't let anyone know about trump cards like the Phoenix Wing Blood Head Bees. So there should be no issues." He said standing up. "And I'm only raising one hive..."
"Anyway if there's any issue it's yours to deal with." Long Qiqi rolled her eyes.
"If there's an issue at Dan Peak, that's also your issue to deal with." Qin Ran said seriously.
"What's that got to do with me?! I'm not someone from Dan Peak!" Long Qiqi flared up.
"Then return the insignia to me..." Qin Ran reached his hand out to Long Qiqi. "And don't follow me back to Dan Peak either."
"The insignia was given to me by you, and now you want it back after giving it? Don't you have any shame?" Long Qiqi hugged herself and turned her body. "When you need someone, you give them the insignia, speak nicely and politely to send a sound transmission, 'Hey, can you preside over the formations later', but when you don't need them, it's 'Return the insignia to me'. How can there be someone like you?"
"Hey! Can we talk reason? I came to rescue you this time, isn't it only right for you to contribute?" Since he couldn't take back the insignia, Qin Ran could only continue walking forward. "And it was me dealing with Jian Yuanjie the entire time, what contribution have you made?"
"If not for the clues I left, could you have found us?"
"You got deceived by the enemies' scheme!" Qin Ran felt indignant remembering this. "All the way here, where was the insignia left? Outside the Hellfire Savage Beast lair, inside the formations, outside the ruins, traps..."
Long Qiqi was left speechless. She followed along for a while more before changing the topic, "Hey! Are we seriously walking back?"
"If you want to fly, fly yourself. I'm definitely not flying!" Qin Ran retorted, speeding up as if in a huff.
"Weren't you flying the whole way here? Why do I not see any fear of heights now?" Long Qiqi looked disdainful, suspecting Qin Ran was pretending to have a fear of heights to give the enemies a seeming flaw.
"Can it be the same as usual in an emergency?" Qin Ran refuted. "And...who said I'm afraid of heights? I'm not afraid of heights..."
"Then fly with me..."
"Not flying..."
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
