Xu Da snatched the bag, pouring out the bits of silver in his palm and weighing them. He was clearly dissatisfied, but he had no time to dwell on it. He turned and left, then took two steps before looking back.
"My good daughter, if you ask me, you should find a way to trick that silly girl out of all her money. When that's done, your father can come live with you."
Xu Xiaocao said nothing, but Xu Da's words kept echoing in her mind.
Yeah, why did Xu Xiaoya get to live so well? She must have been up to something shady! When Xu Xiaocao had asked her what exactly she had done for the Huang family, she just looked mysterious and refused to say a thing.
Xu Xiaocao's eyes gradually turned ruthless.
She needed money too!
She slipped through the door, deep in thought. Just as she was about to go upstairs, she heard something hit the floor. It startled her. When she focused, she saw the boy with the broken leg sitting in the corner, staring at her, his face full of panic.
Had he seen her go out? Had he seen her give the money to Xu Da?
No, he couldn't walk. He must not have seen anything.
But what if he told Xu Xiaoya about her sneaking out? What if Xu Xiaoya started to suspect her? If it were her, she would definitely kick Xu Xiaoya out...
She stared blankly at the boy, then suddenly walked over.
The boy, thinking he was about to be beaten again, curled up and covered his head.
"Don't worry, big sister isn't going to hit you today. I'll take you out to buy some treats..." Xu Xiaoca squeezed out a stiff smile.
The next morning at breakfast, Xu Xiaoya noticed someone was missing. She asked around, but none of the children had seen their companion.
"He probably ran off. Don't worry, sister. I'll go look for him later," Xu Xiaocao said, her face relaxed.
"His leg is broken. How could he run? Is he trapped somewhere?" Xu Xiaoya wanted to search the house. These children had suffered enough already.
But a shout from outside stopped her in her tracks.
"A child drowned in the river! Come see whose it is! Get him fished out!"
The voice carried no emotion—floating a few dead bodies in the river was all too common.
Xu Xiaoya was terrified and dashed outside. Xu Xiaocao curled her lips and followed behind.
To bury the child, Xu Xiaoya spent a fair amount of money and even bought him a thin coffin. A neighbor said that someone who drowned needed to lie in state for a day before burial. Xu Xiaoya listened and hired people to carry the coffin into the yard. She sat there, dazed, keeping vigil.
Xu Xiaocao frowned. "Sister, this is so unlucky!"
"I brought them out... and now he's dead..." Xu Xiaoya murmured.
"It just wasn't his fate. He probably jumped into the river because he didn't want to be a burden to you," Xu Xiaocao said.
Xu Xiaoya suddenly turned to her. "No, that can't be. When those beggars tormented him, he never tried to kill himself..."
Xu Xiaocoa felt uneasy under her gaze. She hadn't bothered to ask about the children's backgrounds—she just saw them as invaders on her turf.
Luckily, Xu Xiaoya quickly turned back and stared straight at the coffin.
"Could it be that the beggars' gang came back for revenge?" she muttered. "Because Gousheng killed one of their own, they came for revenge..."
Xu Xiaocoa's heart leaped. Fang Zhiyi had killed someone???
Night slowly fell. She urged Xu Xiaoya to go to sleep, but Xu Xiaoya wouldn't listen. To keep up appearances, Xu Xiaocao had to lean against the wall and pretend to doze, her mind full of resentment—but mostly guilt.
After all, no one wanted to spend the night with a dead person she had drowned herself.
Luckily, Xu Xiaoya told her to go to bed. After a bit of fake protest, she went.
Xu Xiaoya glanced back, slowly reached her hand toward the bell Fang Zhiyi had left her, and lightly tapped it with two fingers. A tall, dark figure shot out from the bell.
Looking at the face she once feared, Xu Xiaoya said, "Do you know why this happened? I was trying to help him..."
Gao Mingzhi couldn't understand her words and had no thoughts. It only knew that this person could control it. But when it turned, it saw the coffin and reached inside.
"What are you doing?"
Xu Xiaoya was shocked. She had forgotten that the dark soul’s instinct was to feed. She had summoned Gao Mingzhi just to talk, but now it started devouring the child’s soul!
Just as she was about to forcibly recall Gao Mingzhi, her gaze froze.
"Big sister going to take you to buy some treats."
A girl was struggling to carry a boy with both legs broken. Her face bore a nearly twisted smile, making her look like a madwoman. The boy was too terrified to move. When the girl reached the river, she suddenly threw him in. The boy thrashed desperately, but she knelt by the bank and pressed his head down firmly...
Gao Mingzhi patted its chest contentedly, clearly satisfied with its meal.
As it consumed the child's soul, Xu Xiaoya saw in her mind the truth of his death.
"Why... Xiaocao wouldn't do this..."
Gao Mingzhi still said nothing. Full, it stood quietly, waiting for orders.
The next few days passed as usual. Xu Xiaoya seemed to give up on finding Fang Zhiyi and instead focused on the disabled children's daily needs. The Huang family’s gratitude gift was enough to support them for a long time.
To keep her deeds from being exposed, Xu Xiaocao often volunteered to care for the children, then turned around to threaten and intimidate them. The children, already traumatized by the beggars, cowered whenever they saw her and dared not say a word.
Xu Da came to ask for money a few more times, each time greedier than the last.
Xu Xiaocao played the dutiful daughter.
Finally, when Xu Da complained about only getting some small bits of silver, she suggested he sneak in at night.
"Xu Xiaoya has a lot of money. I can't handle it alone. How about you come with me, Father..."
Xu Da hesitated only a moment before Xu Xiaocao’s persuasion won him over. He nodded on the spot.
That night, he came to the courtyard door. He gave one cough, and the door creaked open. Behind it, Xu Xiaocoa looked both excited and nervous.
They went upstairs, one after the other.
"Father, she's inside."
Xu Da nodded, having no suspicion of his daughter. He tiptoed in through the door.
The person on the bed was sleeping soundly, steady breaths making him nervous. But when he saw the small chest on the cabinet, greed surged in his heart.
Just as he turned to urge his daughter for help, he saw Xu Xiaoca’s eerie smile. It made him freeze.
"You..."
"Thief!!! A thief!!!"
Xu Da's scalp went numb. What the hell was happening?
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!
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?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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!
