“I never told you this, did I? I had a senior apprentice brother who supported me by hauling heavy loads on his back,” Wang Qianyue said, still muttering to himself as he watched those malevolent spirits closing in. “But later, he disappeared too. Some said the imperial court took him away. I don't know. But from that moment on, I had to survive on my own. I was afraid I'd get taken too, so I could only wander from place to place alone.”
“But my master once said that I could never hold on to money…” He suddenly turned his head and flashed Little Mouse a smile uglier than a cry. “Before I met you, I only had myself to feed. When I botched a job, I'd take a beating and that was that. But later on, that wouldn't do—you were still a little kid. You needed to eat.”
“I was planning to save up enough money to go to the capital and find some high-level expert to figure out what was going on with you.” He swallowed hard. The spirits were getting impatient. “Then I'd formally take you as my disciple, and you'd look after me in my old age. But now it looks like…”
He suddenly shoved Little Mouse. “RUN! Get out of here now!”
The moment he turned around, the spirits could no longer contain themselves. With screeching howls, they pounced.
“Sigh.”
“For a swindler of the Blue Dao, you're not really a bad man.”
Wang Qianyue, who had squeezed his eyes shut, instinctively opened them and looked at Little Mouse before him. The little guy no longer wore that lazy, dazed expression. Instead, his eyes were sharp and fierce.
He clasped his hands together, forming hand seals at blinding speed.
“Five Thunder True Source, gather into my body!”
The spirits that had nearly reached Wang Qianyue all froze, looking up at the roof. A terrible premonition welled up within them.
“Golden Thunder breaks armor, Silver Thunder shatters souls, Copper Thunder pacifies the domain, Iron Thunder sweeps the dust, Tin Thunder seals the demons!”
A blaze of golden light erupted from Little Mouse's eyes.
Wang Qianyue's mind went blank.
“Five Thunder True Art!”
A colossal boom descended from the heavens, tearing straight through the broken shack.
The batch of spirits didn't even manage a scream before they were annihilated in the blaze of lightning.
After who knows how long, a person crawled out of the rubble, covered in dust and soot. Every time he moved, he let out a groan.
“Little Mouse! Little Mouse!” Wang Qianyue hadn't forgotten his fake disciple.
Then a hand patted him on the shoulder.
“I have a name. It's Fang Zhiyi.”
Wang Qianyue turned around and saw that Little Mouse was fine. He let out a huge sigh of relief. “You scared me half to death! You—you said that book was useless! You lied to me?”
Even at a moment like this, he still didn't suspect Little Mouse.
“And Fang Zhiyi? I'm still—huh?” Wang Qianyue suddenly stared at Fang Zhiyi, his brow slowly knitting together. “Fang Zhiyi… that name sounds really familiar…” His gaze drifted to the book tucked into Fang Zhiyi's belt. “I—I remember now! The person who wrote this book was named Fang Zhiyi!”
“Sin, sin! If you want a name, I'll give you one. Don't go around using other people's names!”
Fang Zhiyi looked at him with a hint of helplessness.
“I wrote that book.”
Wang Qianyue looked at him in confusion.
“Ah, brings back memories. Back then, to earn some money for my junior disciples, I had them write a bunch of these books to sell according to my requirements…” Fang Zhiyi flipped through the book. “Just by looking at this crappy handwriting, I can tell Jiang Mubai wrote it. You got unlucky. If you'd gotten the one I wrote myself, dealing with those spirits would've been a piece of cake.”
Wang Qianyue's jaw dropped.
What had he just heard?
Jiang Mubai?
“You—you—you really are that Fang Zhiyi! Impossible! Fang Zhiyi ascended to immortality long ago! Every cultivator in the world knows that!”
Fang Zhiyi whacked him on the head with the book. “Ha? Since when did I ascend to immortality without knowing about it?”
But on second thought, he supposed it made sense that later generations would invent some fantastical ending for him.
“H-he… Jiang Mubai… Jiang Mubai is—is the current Grand Preceptor!” Wang Qianyue stammered. Now, looking at Little Mouse, all his previous casualness was gone.
This was a giant figure from a hundred years ago! The legendary Fang Zhiyi, who could supposedly soar through heaven and earth and was capable of anything!
“Grand Preceptor…” Fang Zhiyi's eyes darkened as he turned to look in a certain direction—toward the capital.
Wang Qianyue wanted to say more, but suddenly Fang Zhiyi crouched down, his face full of panic. “Master! Master! Are you alright, Master?!”
“Hey, cough, cough—my neck, my neck… what are you—?” Wang Qianyue was completely baffled by Fang Zhiyi's antics. But a moment later, he saw a dozen or so people racing toward them.
The man at the lead wore a proper orthodox Daoist robe. His gaze swept over the surrounding wreckage, then he bent down, touched a charred piece of wood, and brought his fingers beneath his nose to sniff. His expression changed instantly.
“Powerful lightning arts!” He looked at the disheveled Wang Qianyue, narrowed his eyes, and gave a slight bow. “Well met, fellow Daoist.”
Wang Qianyue was a swindler after all. He caught on before Fang Zhiyi even gave him a signal.
“Well met, well met. There were too many spirits here, so I had no choice but to…”
Wang Qianyue thought he was done for, because these people took him and Fang Zhiyi back to the city. But they didn't lock him up. Instead, after a short rest, they “escorted” them toward the capital.
No matter what he said along the way, they wouldn't answer, and they even kept their distance from him.
But they were clearly wary of him. The whole journey, they kept him sandwiched between them.
Fang Zhiyi, meanwhile, had reverted to being that little mouse—lost and confused, dull and dim-witted.
Wang Qianyue couldn't figure out what this great master was planning, so he just played along. He was doomed anyway—one prefect's death combined with a hundred innocent lives meant he'd need a hundred heads just to cover the executions.
After a full twenty days on the road, Wang Qianyue arrived in the capital for the first time. It was far more bustling. But he barely had time to look around before he was handed over to a different group of guards in dark armor, and then led into the Grand Preceptor's Hall.
This was the place that governed all the mystical arts of the realm—the very place that sought immortality for the emperor. Along the way in, there were checkpoints upon checkpoints. Unless you had status, you couldn't get in even if you turned into a fly.
Wang Qianyue's heart was full of dread. He had no idea what awaited him until he saw the familiar incense altar and kneeling cushions.
A Taoist who called himself a protector smiled and greeted him, first warmly asking about his master and his background.
Luckily, Wang Qianyue had already crafted his story during the journey. He simply played the part of a reclusive expert. He did have a master, after all—the man was just dead. He tweaked a few details and launched into a string of tall tales and smooth talk. The other man didn't seem suspicious.
What Wang Qianyue couldn't understand was why Fang Zhiyi didn't reveal his identity. After all, the current Grand Preceptor was his own junior disciple—that nearly hundred-year-old Jiang Mubai!
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?!
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..."
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
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!
