The girl, trapped and unable to move in the sedan chair, stared wide-eyed, her gaze filled with terror. She wanted to scream, wanted to run, but none of that was possible.
Before her eyes, a snake-like thing slowly rose up. It had three heads, each one twisted and malformed, as if deformed from birth.
The girl shook her body desperately, but it did no good, until she watched the thing charge straight at her.
She closed her eyes in despair.
But the pain she imagined never came. Hesitantly, she opened one eye.
She was stunned.
A man in Daoist robes stood in front of her, his bronze sword swinging out, striking the lunging snake head back a good distance. The Daoist glanced back at her, and she was shocked again—how strange was his face? It looked both like weeping and laughing. Was this even a human?
But before she could figure it out, the Daoist swung his bronze sword, and she felt her body become free again.
"...Run!"
The Daoist spat the words through gritted teeth, as if enduring tremendous pain.
The girl bolted and fled.
"Now then, your turn." The Daoist bared his teeth at the bizarre serpent before him.
The creature, seeing its meal escape, flew into a rage. All three heads lunged at the Daoist at once.
The Daoist's body shot backward, dodging the attack. The demon's three heads let out piercing shrieks at the same time, its blood-red vertical pupils locked onto the Daoist. Before he could even steady himself, the beast whipped its tail—a thick, black, rotting limb reeking of decay—sweeping toward him like a massive whip.
"Courting death," the Daoist snorted coldly.
"Primordial origin of heaven and earth, all laws protect this body!" A golden light rose, shielding his body. The demon's tail coiled around him but was blocked by the golden glow.
The beast seemed obsessed with strangling the one who had ruined its scheme.
But the Daoist wasn't panicked. He kept forming hand seals, one after another.
Finally—
"Five thunders smite the gods, purge all evil!"
The gloomy clouds that had hung low in the sky suddenly churned violently. Massive bolts of lightning raced through the cloud layers, sending deafening rumbles across the heavens.
The demon began to panic. All three of its heads burst into piercing shrieks, its tail unwinding from the Daoist as it tried to flee.
But it was too late. Three bolts of lightning, each as thick as a barrel, came crashing down, carrying the force to shatter heaven and earth.
The thunderous light dispelled all the mist.
Anguished roars echoed across the entire mountain forest.
The Daoist watched it all, letting out a long breath, his frame slightly unsteady.
But then, behind him, a commotion arose.
The Daoist slowly turned around, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
The girl who had fled was being carried back by a dozen or so villagers. Her forehead was bleeding, her eyes wide open, pupils already dilated and lifeless.
The villagers saw the Daoist, and they saw the beast charred black by the lightning.
"You—you—you actually killed the mountain god! You madman!" a villager shouted, pointing at the Daoist.
They had been waiting nearby, hoping to collect the rewards the mountain god would bestow. But then they'd seen the sacrifice try to flee, and in a panic, someone had swung a club. They'd carried the sacrifice back, and as they arrived, they heard the terrifying thunder and screams.
Normal people would have run. But these folks, blinded by greed, rushed over to see what had happened.
"Damn Daoist! Who told you to meddle!" The village chief's face twisted. All these years, thanks to their offerings to the mountain god, their village had been wealthy indeed! And now this Daoist, from who knows where, had destroyed it all!
"Niuniu! Niuniu!" Two people rushed over, wailing over the girl who had no breath left.
The chief stared at Old Man Ma and suddenly realized something: "Old Man Ma, it was you, wasn't it? You brought this Daoist here!"
Old Man Ma stared back blankly, then broke into a strange laugh. "So what if I did! You all deserve to die! That demon should have died long ago! Me, I deserve to die too! We all deserve to die!"
He was clearly out of his mind.
In the end, he hadn't even been able to save his granddaughter.
Until his son was struck down by a hoe nearby. Old Man Ma froze, then let out a wild shriek, lunging forward to grab the club, wrestling for it.
"Beat them to death! These traitors looking out only for themselves!"
"And that Daoist!" the chief shouted.
But when he turned, the Daoist was already tilting his head, watching them.
"He—is no good thing," the Daoist said, pointing his bronze sword at Old Man Ma, who lay beaten on the ground. "But he got one thing right. You all deserve to die."
No one saw how the Daoist moved. He simply swayed for a moment, then was instantly before the village chief. Hand raised, blade fell. The chief's head flew off, blood splattering across the faces of the nearby villagers. Their expressions turned to terror.
But not a single one of them escaped.
"All deserving of death." The Daoist held his brow with a free hand, as if weary.
Yet he still staggered onward, heading toward the village.
—
"What? Someone used thunder magic?" the Protector said, his heart full of suspicion.
"Yes. We've sent people to investigate. A thunder spell killed a fei, and... and the entire village was wiped out."
The Protector's expression grew grim. "Send out every available hand. Find this person. No matter what it takes."
"Yes!"
—
"Mother save me! Granny save me! I can't take it anymore!" At this moment, Wang Qianyue lay sprawled on a crude bamboo stretcher, being dragged along by Little Mouse. His face was contorted in agony.
"The hell is this?! Huh? I'm dying of pain here! I've got no strength left at all—Little Mouse, did I break all my limbs?"
Little Mouse didn't look back: "Not that bad. But you lent your body to a deity and suddenly unleashed such powerful Daoist arts—of course your vital energy is drained."
"What deity?! Did you ever see one?! Agh!" Wang Qianyue's face twisted further. "Have you ever seen a deity slaughter a whole village?! When I woke up, I was terrified—nothing but corpses everywhere!"
Little Mouse said nothing.
"More importantly, we didn't even get paid! Did Old Man Ma run off?"
"He's dead."
"You—I got possessed, but you were still fine. Why didn't you think to search them? Didn't you say those people had money?"
Little Mouse turned back with a helpless look. "You think that demon got its money from where? Tombs, graveyards, or off the dead it devoured. You have no idea how much resentment those things carry."
"Resentment? Who's carrying more resentment than me right now? Mother... it hurts so much."
Little Mouse kept dragging him forward. There had been a donkey before, but Wang Qianyue had sold it when they ran out of money. Now Little Mouse was stuck doing the donkey's work.
He slowly looked up at the sky.
But it shouldn't be long now. Stupid as those guys were, they'd be coming soon enough.
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."
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
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.
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
