Xuan Jizi stared at his chest in disbelief as three black souls pinned his shoulders tightly. Fang Zhiyi sidestepped his hand and pierced his heart with a single thrust of his sword.
Xuan Jizi’s gaze gradually faded. He raised his hand slowly toward the sky.
“Become an immortal…”
Fang Zhiyi paid him no attention. “This sword is really handy. I wonder where he got it.”
He pulled out the blade and turned around. Behind him, the three black souls fumbled to extract Xuan Jizi’s spirit.
“Let’s go,” Fang Zhiyi said lightly as he passed by Xu Xiaoya.
Xu Xiaoya’s body trembled slightly. Gousheng had killed someone.
She had seen Gousheng kill someone!
Fang Zhiyi looked back, a little puzzled. “What? You want to stay a while longer?”
Xu Xiaoya shivered. But just as she stepped forward, something struck her. “What about those houses…”
She had stayed here for a few days and knew all too well what was inside them.
Xuan Jizi had used the abducted “disciples” as test subjects for his elixirs. Some exploded upon swallowing the pills; some bled from every orifice. A few survived, but those who did were clearly no longer normal. In his madness, Xuan Jizi had tried to lecture these living monsters, but when they refused to obey, he simply locked them up in those houses.
Xu Xiaoya had seen one of them once—a person writhing multiple faces sprouting from its chest. It made her scalp crawl.
Fang Zhiyi didn’t even blink. “I understand. All pitiful souls.”
He snapped his fingers. “Get to work.”
The black souls scattered. Soon, the two rows of houses fell silent. Xu Xiaoya watched Gao Mingzhi drift out, stuffing something into his mouth without stopping. She couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but with every bite, Gao Mingzhi’s body seemed to grow larger.
“We can go now,” Fang Zhiyi said, suddenly turning to Xu Xiaoya. “Kindness is a good thing, but in this world, kindness might lead you to a grave without a tomb.” He paused, thinking better of what he was about to say.
Xu Xiaoya followed him with her head down, watching him rummage through everything, nearly cleaning out Xuan Jizi’s belongings.
She didn’t ask what had happened to the other controlled disciples. She had a faint guess, but she only had Gousheng now. Even if Gousheng turned bad, he was still Gousheng.
Fang Zhiyi grinned, shouldering a bulging bundle. “Little Black, when I first made contact with that guy, it didn’t trigger a plot, but it triggered his life memories… So, have you been hiding something from me?”
Xiaoxiaohei shook its head. “Host, no.”
“That bastard had golden merit light? And you call that nothing?”
Xiaoxiaohei nodded. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Play it again for me!” Fang Zhiyi demanded.
Xiaoxiaohei nodded. “Alright.”
Xu Xiaoya had no idea what was wrong with Fang Zhiyi. She pressed herself fearfully against his arm, clinging tightly. After an unknown amount of time, Fang Zhiyi suddenly opened his eyes.
“I get it.”
“Gousheng? What do you get?”
“Never mind that for now. Follow me.”
“Where?”
“I’ll show you the world.” Fang Zhiyi patted the bundle on his chest. “We’ve got money.”
Two unremarkable young Daoists arrived in Huaijiang City, wearing shabby old robes. Their appearance didn’t draw much attention.
Compared to Fang Zhiyi’s carefree attitude, Xu Xiaoya seemed timid and uneasy.
“Chin up! Chest out!” Fang Zhiyi said. “Don’t act like a thief. The more afraid you look, the more people will notice you.”
Xu Xiaoya lowered her voice. “Gousheng, we… we killed someone…”
Fang Zhiyi was taken aback. “I was the one who killed. What’s that got to do with you?”
“Isn’t it the same… How dare you come into the city? And what about Young Master Gao…”
“What? Want to take him down? Want me to call him out for a Thomas spin?”
Xu Xiaoya didn’t understand what a Thomas spin meant, but at the thought of Gao Mingzhi covered in black smoke, she quickly shook her head.
“You’ve been skulking this whole time. Are you trying to ask if Gao Mingzhi is dead?”
Xu Xiaoya stared blankly at Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi shrugged carelessly. “He’s dead. I killed him.”
“Gousheng, you…”
Fang Zhiyi suddenly bumped her. Xu Xiaoya shut her mouth immediately. Up ahead, people on the street scattered to both sides as two figures approached. One was wrapped tightly from head to toe; the other walked on stilts, a mocking grin on his face.
Fang Zhiyi lowered his head, catching only a glimpse. A black wooden tag hung from the stilt-walker’s waist, with three words clearly legible: “Qin Tian Jian” (Imperial Astronomical Bureau).
He frowned, thinking to himself. He could feel the man’s gaze lingering on him deliberately.
“Oh, look—two little Daoists over here.”
“Don’t cause trouble. Let’s go. We’re already behind on business.”
“Tch, I say Grand Preceptor Zhou is making a mountain out of a molehill. Just because some junior in his family ran into trouble, he sends us two brothers out.”
“Cut the chatter. Walls have ears.”
“There are no walls in the street!” The stilt-walker laughed. “So, is that joke funny or what?”
The tightly wrapped man ignored him and kept walking forward.
Fang Zhiyi heard the voices fade and looked up, only to catch the stilt-walker glancing back at him with a grin, revealing two rows of teeth as white as bone.
Fang Zhiyi smiled back with a simple nod as a greeting. The stilt-walker laughed even more, then followed his companion away.
“Imperial Astronomical Bureau…” Fang Zhiyi’s face turned grim. Grand Preceptor Zhou? Looks like something happened to Zhou Lian. It’s good to have a rich family background—even in a broken world like this, cultivators get backers.
He took Xu Xiaoya to an inn. The waiter initially refused to serve two poor Daoists, but when Fang Zhiyi slammed some silver on the counter, the waiter did a complete 180. Xu Xiaoya, who had been about to drag Fang Zhiyi away, was stunned.
“See that? Money makes the world go ’round.”
Xu Xiaoya swallowed hard without saying a word.
So far, Fang Zhiyi hadn’t seen any sign of Xu Xiaoya turning into a villain.
Could it be that he had interfered too early?
But worrying about Xu Xiaoya wasn’t his priority now. With the Gao family wiped out, the incident involving him and Xu Xiaoya had been temporarily shelved. The city was relatively safe for the moment.
Fang Zhiyi washed up quickly and then took Xu Xiaoya out.
Xu Xiaoya had never been in a city before. Previously, she had been locked up or forbidden from going anywhere. Everything was new and fascinating to her.
For the first time, Xu Xiaoya showed the liveliness befitting her age.
“Gousheng, isn’t this pretty?”
“Gousheng, what’s that?”
“Gousheng, look at that person…”
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!
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
