Xu Xiaoya couldn’t quite follow what was happening. She smiled and said, “Are you hungry? I’ll make you all something to eat.” She stepped forward to take Xiao Gouzi’s hand, but he only grew more anxious.
“That’s not what he means.”
A voice suddenly came from the corner, startling Xu Xiaoya. She turned and saw another little boy sitting there. Both his legs were missing, and he could only move by dragging himself along with his hands.
“What’s that?”
The boy glanced at Xu Xiaoya, then hung his head and fell silent.
Xu Xiaoya didn’t press him further. She knew these children, younger than herself, had all suffered a great deal.
“Anyone home?” came a voice from the still-open door. Xu Xiaoya turned and saw a haggard middle-aged man peering inside. One look at his clothes told her he was either wealthy or powerful.
“Can I help you?”
The man studied her for a moment, looking surprised, then glanced at the other two children. After a brief pause, he said, “I’m looking for a Master Xu...”
“Master Xu?” Xu Xiaoya was taken aback. She looked around. “You must have the wrong place. There’s no master here.”
The man stepped back, checking the door again. “No, this is it... the young master told me it was your home...”
“Young master?”
“Yes, a young man dressed like a Taoist priest. He told me if I had trouble, to come here and find someone named Xu...” The man’s expression darkened. “I was a fool not to listen to him!”
“Could you tell me... what did that young Taoist look like?” A figure flashed through Xu Xiaoya’s mind.
“My good daughter, I didn’t raise you for nothing!” Xu Da’s eyes lit up as he stared at the silver ingot Xu Xiaocao handed him. “Once I win some money, I’ll redeem you for sure!”
Xu Xiaocao’s face flickered with barely concealed disgust. “This is the last time. That fool doesn’t suspect me. If I took more, she might notice.”
Xu Da nodded eagerly. “Didn’t you say the kid who follows her left? What use does a little girl have with so much money?” He suddenly reached out to pat Xu Xiaocao’s head, and she flinched.
Xu Da frowned. “What are you flinching for? I’m not going to beat you. I raised you with all kinds of hardship, so is it wrong for you to help your old man a little now?”
Xu Xiaocao nodded silently, watching as Xu Da left in high spirits. Anger burned in her eyes.
She never thought her father would find her again—let alone have the nerve to come begging for money!
Xu Xiaocao wandered around for a while, cooked up an excuse, and headed home. Xu Xiaoya was so gullible, she told herself, she wouldn’t care if she came back empty-handed.
But when she got home, it wasn’t Xu Xiaoya she found. The disabled children immediately shrank away from her the moment they saw her.
“What are you staring at? A bunch of freaks! I don’t know why she keeps you losers around!” Xu Xiaocao yelled, frustration seething inside her. The memory of Xu Da’s greedy face only stoked her rage. She grabbed a bamboo rod by the corner and strode toward the boy cowering in the shadows.
The rod came down hard on him. The legless boy gritted his teeth, refusing to cry out. Xu Xiaocao had warned them—if they ever tattled, she’d beat them to death.
“She brought you back because she pitied you! Don’t think she’ll pick you over me!”
The front door slowly creaked open, the scraping sound harsh in the stillness.
Xu Xiaocao dropped the bamboo rod, her twisted, furious face shifting instantly. She turned to the door with a smile. “Big sister—” Then she froze. Xu Xiaoya was standing there with several people behind her, carrying items on their shoulders, each face full of reverence.
Xu Xiaoya smiled when she saw her. “Little sister, come lend a hand.”
“Sister... what’s all this?”
Xu Xiaoya seemed genuinely pleased. “Gousheng found me some work,” she said cheerfully. “These are thank-you gifts.”
A steward spoke up from beside her, “Master Xu, our master says that from now on, whatever troubles you may face, feel free to come to him. We will never forget your life-saving kindness!” He waved his hand, and the servants carried the gifts into the courtyard.
“You’re too kind... I only did a small favor...”
Watching the elegantly dressed steward bow respectfully to Xu Xiaoya, Xu Xiaocao’s heart twisted with envy once more.
Why should her life be so good? And again, that favor from Fang Zhiyi? What made her so special?
The Huang family had hired Xu Xiaoya to solve a problem at home. Ever since they discovered that the Wanli Temple was essentially a den of evil, the head of the family wanted to get rid of the Buddha statue they had brought back. But no matter how many times they threw it away, the statue always ended up back in their house.
Meanwhile, his critically ill parents were fading fast, and he himself was beginning to lose his mind.
To his surprise, Xu Xiaoya only came inside, took one look around, and solved everything.
From her perspective, it was simple. She summoned Gao Mingzhi’s restless soul and ordered it to patrol the area. Soon enough, it found several objects heavy with yin energy. Gao Mingzhi didn’t even wait for orders before swallowing them all.
This gave Xu Xiaoya a new idea. If Gousheng could be a Taoist priest, so could she!
If Fang Zhiyi had been there, he would have been speechless.
What kind of proper Taoist priest uses a ghost to exorcise evil? That’s basically a dark practitioner!
But to Xu Xiaoya, as long as she could help people, that was what mattered.
That night, Xu Xiaocao tossed and turned, unable to sleep. She couldn’t understand why Xu Xiaoya, about the same age and also no more than a “worthless girl,” could be so lucky.
Though Xu Xiaoya always called her “little sister,” the neighbors knew perfectly well she was nothing more than a bought maid!
Just as she was stewing over it, a noise came from the window.
Xu Xiaocao jolted up. Then the window scraped again.
She hesitated before opening it, only to hear a low voice from below. “Xiaocao! It’s your dad!”
Xu Xiaocao froze.
“Come down quick! Let your old man see you!”
Within just half a day, Xu Da had gambled away all the silver Xu Xiaocao had given him. Desperate to recoup his losses, he came straight here.
Xu Xiaocao crept downstairs quietly, but a child huddled in the corner caught the whole thing.
“Ah, my girl’s done well for herself, living in such a nice place!” Xu Da said, grinning.
“Dad...”
“I’m out of money. I need more,” he said bluntly.
“But you had some just today—”
Xu Da’s face suddenly darkened. “Getting cocky, are you? Let me tell you, no matter where you are, I’m still your father!” He raised his hand as if to strike.
Xu Xiaocao instinctively cowered, and Xu Da, seeing her reaction, lowered his hand. “How could I hit my own daughter? Go get me a bit more. She lives in a nice place like this—that little girl’s got plenty to spare.”
Xu Xiaocao gritted her teeth, reached into the lining of her clothes, and pulled out a small pouch. Xu Xiaoya had given it to her before bed, asking her to use it to buy extra food for a celebration tomorrow.
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?!
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.
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!
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
