"Money?" The villager looked puzzled. "What money?"
Martial Uncle reached out to stop Eldest Senior Brother, his shoulders slouched. Jiang Mubai had seen this before—sometimes there were street thugs in the market who carried themselves just like Martial Uncle did now.
"Do you know anything about herbs? Huh? No, right? My junior here went through all the trouble of gathering these medicinal herbs, and you just waltz in expecting them for free? Play dumb when money’s mentioned, is that it?"
The villager’s face flushed red. "You people are so money-grubbing! And you call yourselves cultivators? Disgusting!"
Martial Uncle turned his head. "Let me teach you a saying: 'A gentleman who is not stern lacks authority.'"
Jiang Mubai didn’t understand what it meant. Eldest Senior Brother hesitated. "Doesn’t that mean a gentleman should maintain dignity—"
But the villager’s shouting cut him off. In the next moment, Martial Uncle launched a kick, sending the villager sprawling to the ground, followed by a flurry of punches and kicks.
Eldest Senior Brother moved to intervene but froze, unsure what to do. Jiang Mubai, remembering the woodcutter from before, averted his gaze.
After a while, Martial Uncle finally stopped and explained, "The real meaning is: If a gentleman doesn’t hit someone hard enough, he won’t command respect."
"Is that really what it means?" Second Senior Brother sounded doubtful.
Martial Uncle smirked, bent down, and yanked the villager up by his collar. "So, what do you think of my words now?"
The villager, barely regaining his senses, widened his eyes and nodded frantically. "Everything the Daoist says is right!"
But Martial Uncle wasn’t satisfied. He smacked the man again. "Call me 'Dao Master'!"
"Dao Master! Spare me, Dao Master!"
Then Jiang Mubai saw a red glow flicker in Martial Uncle’s hand. "If you dare cause trouble again, I’ll end you. I know where you live and how many mouths you feed."
The villager was terrified, nodding incessantly. Martial Uncle let go, watching as the man scrambled away like a frightened animal. Shaking his head, he muttered, "Still didn’t hit him hard enough, tsk. Hey! Next time, bring money if you want medicine!"
The villager didn’t reply, too busy fleeing for his life.
Eldest Senior Brother, however, bowed respectfully. "Martial Uncle, may I ask about the technique you just used…?"
"Oh, that? Useless. Just for show. It’s called the Soulburn Curse."
Silence fell over them. Martial Uncle looked puzzled. "Your master knows it too, doesn’t he? Didn’t he teach you?"
Eldest Senior Brother shook his head. Second Senior Brother shook his head. Jiang Mubai also shook his head.
"I think… that’s a technique used by demonic cultivators," Eldest Senior Brother added cautiously.
Martial Uncle grew even more confused. "Our sect is demonic cultivation. Didn’t your master tell you?"
An eerie quiet settled over them. Jiang Mubai’s mind went blank. Just like that, he was a demonic cultivator? He’d heard wandering storytellers describe demonic cultivators as blood-drinking, flesh-eating monsters!
Martial Uncle mumbled something to himself, ignoring their shock. Eldest Senior Brother glanced back at the temple gate, then silently followed.
The rest of the journey was filled with Martial Uncle’s idle chatter. Eldest Senior Brother was lost in thought, Second Senior Brother’s gaze was vacant, and Jiang Mubai had already accepted his new identity—at least he wasn’t officially initiated yet, so he wouldn’t have to eat human flesh or drink blood anytime soon.
Martial Uncle paid no mind, rambling about trivial things.
But Jiang Mubai noticed something strange—the fog around them seemed unusually thick.
"Remember, whatever you do, don’t—" He caught Martial Uncle’s warning, but the words faded abruptly.
Jiang Mubai stood frozen. "Martial Uncle? Senior Brothers?" Panic rising, he took a few steps forward but saw nothing. Where Eldest Senior Brother had been standing was now empty. The dense fog swallowed everything, making it impossible to see.
Then a voice called out, "Is anyone there?"
Jiang Mubai turned. A faint figure stood behind him.
"Here!" Relief washed over him. The sudden disappearance of Martial Uncle and his senior brothers had unsettled him, and seeing another person was comforting.
"Come here!" The voice sounded eager. "Quick! I’ll take you out!"
"Okay!" Jiang Mubai replied. But after a few steps, he hesitated. What if Martial Uncle and the others came back looking for him?
"Have you seen my senior brothers?" he asked.
The figure just kept waving, urging him forward.
A chill ran down Jiang Mubai’s spine. Something wasn’t right.
"Come! I can get you out!" The voice grew impatient. "There are tigers in these mountains!"
Jiang Mubai glanced around, fear creeping in. Tigers? He’d heard stories—tigers were terrifying beasts.
He took a few more steps, and the figure became clearer. Finally, they stood face to face. A hand reached for him—and in that instant, Jiang Mubai saw the person’s face. Half of it was gone, leaving only bone. The remaining flesh bore two deep gashes, a horrifying sight.
The hand gripping him had a chunk of flesh barely hanging on by a strip of skin.
"You—!" Jiang Mubai stumbled back, but it was too late. The figure’s grip tightened, an unnatural strength dragging him into the fog. He struggled desperately, but it was useless.
Was this how he’d die? Guess he shouldn’t have eaten so well.
"Dispel!" A familiar voice rang out. Behind the figure, another shadow emerged. Black flames erupted, illuminating Martial Uncle’s face. The creature shrieked, retreating into the fog as fire flickered in the distance, growing fainter.
Slowly, the fog lifted.
"Martial Uncle!" Jiang Mubai cried in relief, only to get smacked on the head the moment he reached him.
"Didn’t I tell you not to move?"
"I didn’t hear you… Martial Uncle, what was that?" Jiang Mubai scanned their surroundings.
Martial Uncle did the same. "A changeling ghost. First time I’ve seen one." He glanced at Jiang Mubai. "Lucky for you, the thing controlling it was weak. Otherwise, you’d be dead."
"A full-fledged changeling is indistinguishable from a living person," Second Senior Brother chimed in, appearing behind them. Eldest Senior Brother stood guard, wary. "They’re controlled by tigers, luring lost travelers to their deaths. Changelings always appear with heavy fog."
"Tigers are that powerful?"
"As beasts, tigers are apex predators. Once they’ve tasted human flesh, they can gain intelligence and become demons. Then they’re no longer just tigers."
"What are they called then?"
"Mountain Lords."
"Martial Uncle, you’re amazing… You could handle a Mountain Lord, right?"
Martial Uncle sighed, looking at his hands with resignation. "I can barely deal with changelings. If we meet a Mountain Lord, just run fast."
"Run fast? Are Mountain Lords slow?" Jiang Mubai asked innocently.
Martial Uncle patted his head. "No. Just faster than you."
"......"
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?!
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.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
