I recalled the fellow practitioner I met during the last ghost hunt—a young man who seemed honest and simple-minded. He drew an impressively large array, set up an altar, and performed rituals. I watched the entire process with fascination, as my master had never taught me such methods.
He lured the target ghost into the array and then engaged in a prolonged battle with it using red strings, chicken blood, cinnabar, and other tools. I found it thrilling—it was just like the scenes I’d seen in movies!
The ghost, overwhelmed, tried to flee. It seemed to notice me and rushed in my direction. Annoyed, I felt as if it saw me as the biggest flaw in the array.
So, I punched it square in the face, grabbed its hair, and beat it mercilessly.
The young practitioner stared at me in shock, as if I were the real monster.
He asked for my name before hastily leaving. I felt an indescribable sadness because when I uttered the words "Taiping Dao," his face twisted with shock, disdain, and disgust.
"Master’s orders—do not provoke the... fellow practitioners of Taiping Dao outside," he said, correcting himself mid-sentence, but I knew what he meant.
Ever since my master allowed my senior sister and brothers to lead a horde of ghosts to wreck another sect’s territory, our sect’s name had become something of a taboo.
The car suddenly stopped, interrupting my thoughts. Master stepped out and led us up the mountain. Behind us, an endless procession of ghosts followed. I even started imagining whether Master was planning to wipe out some sect he disliked.
After about half an hour, we arrived at a dilapidated mountain shrine halfway up the slope. It seemed abandoned, but a hunched shrine keeper emerged from a nearby hut. He strained to get a closer look at Master, who then showed him something. The old man silently retreated back inside.
As dusk fell, Master began telling us about the Xuanqing Division.
This was the second time I’d heard the name. The first was when Master extorted those people—the leaders of those sects seemed to fear the Xuanqing Division.
"The Xuanqing Division has existed for centuries. Its members are mostly reclusive experts, incredibly powerful," Master said, glancing at Second Brother as he spoke.
"Of course, your master here is also one of their esteemed figures," Master boasted, his habit unchanged. "But the Xuanqing Division... is nearly finished."
He rambled on—the Xuanqing Division was indeed full of formidable individuals, at least in the past. But the organization had a strange rule: positions were passed down generation after generation. Unless a lineage died out, someone had to inherit the role.
The first generation of the Xuanqing Division made a pact with the underworld, acting as its enforcers in the mortal realm. But those who joined never lived long—some were killed by escaped ghosts, others succumbed early to the yin energy they absorbed. Over centuries, some of the earliest sects had even gone extinct.
Ordinary sects outside chased fame or profit—they were small fry. But most still knew of the Xuanqing Division, which was why my previous incident was resolved smoothly—partly due to Master’s status, partly because he called in favors.
Personally, I thought the most crucial factor was the third: those sects couldn’t handle Master’s ruthless retaliation.
Just as he finished explaining, another figure ascended the mountain—a square-faced man with graying hair. He took one look, strode forward, and grabbed Master by the collar. "Fang Zhiyi, have you lost your mind?" His fury was palpable.
Third Brother nearly lunged, but Master waved us off.
A cold female voice carried from afar: "The underworld envoys have come five times already. They’re growing impatient. Fang Zhiyi, what exactly are you planning?"
I turned to see a woman with a high ponytail, dressed in loose Daoist robes, her expression icy as she approached.
"Let’s talk this through!" Another man darted forward, pulling the square-faced man away. I recognized him—Master Liao, the one who’d taken sides during the last negotiation.
"You’d better explain yourself! Your actions will plunge the mortal realm and the underworld into chaos!" the square-faced man shouted, pointing at Master.
An elderly man with white hair approached, supported by a young girl. Each step seemed to drain him, as if he were on death’s doorstep.
"Enough quarreling. We’re all on the same side."
"Elder Yan." Master bowed respectfully, and the others followed suit. We exchanged glances and copied them.
Elder Yan looked at us and sighed. "The Xuanqing Division is down to just a handful now. Young Kong died in the southern frontier last month."
At this, the others’ expressions darkened.
"Fang Zhiyi, what exactly is your plan?" Elder Yan coughed before addressing Master.
"The Blood Fiend Corpse Fungus has awakened. You all know this," Master said.
Everyone stared at him.
"I’ve tested it. That thing is no easy foe," Master continued, hands clasped behind his back. "So, I intend to negotiate with the underworld."
"What?" The square-faced man was stunned. "Negotiate with the underworld? Are you even thinking straight?"
Master Liao rubbed his hands together, his burly frame resembling a black bear. "Brother Fang, I usually side with you, but this is reckless. The Blood Fiend Corpse Fungus isn’t under the underworld’s jurisdiction. They won’t act outside their rules."
"Which is why the Xuanqing Division has been their lackeys all these years," the woman said coldly, her tone laced with resentment.
Elder Yan raised a hand, but instead of speaking, he exhaled heavily. "Since its founding, the Xuanqing Division has borne the duty of hunting evil spirits and maintaining balance. You know how the underworld operates. To mortals, we may be masters, but before the gods of the underworld, we have no leverage."
Master remained still, gazing at the moon veiled by dark clouds. "Then the rules must change." His voice was calm yet unyielding, as if he were the one in charge of the underworld.
Silence fell over the group.
As if in response to his words, an icy, malevolent aura seeped from the ruined shrine. Everyone tensed. Senior Sister stepped forward, shielding me and my brothers.
"You contacted the underworld envoys?" the square-faced man asked urgently. "This isn’t the time for defiance! Do you want to end up like your master?" In that moment, I realized he still cared for Master deep down.
But I didn’t understand—was the underworld truly so terrifying? From Master’s words, it sounded like the Xuanqing Division was nothing more than their hunting dogs in the mortal realm.
That couldn’t be right.
The master suddenly laughed, turning back to glance at us. He even had the presence of mind to pull a playful face at us before addressing the horde of malevolent spirits, "Run if you want to die." Then he strode boldly into the temple. Without hesitation, my senior sister followed him in. After a brief hesitation, I trailed behind my senior brother. As I listened to the sigh of the square-faced man behind us, it struck me that perhaps today I would finally come to understand the master.
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
