This temple used to be a proper place of worship, but everything changed after the abbot returned from a trip outside. The monks became lifeless, and the entire temple fell into an eerie silence.
When the wandering monk arrived, the abbot met with him once and told him that enlightenment could be achieved here. This made him uneasy, but he couldn’t leave—his belongings had gone missing. So, he began searching around and soon uncovered the temple’s dark secret: the monks had all been corrupted by ghostly energy. Yet, he couldn’t figure out where this malevolent force came from—until the third day after meeting Fang Zhiyi, when he suddenly sensed an overwhelming surge of ghostly energy, leading to the events that followed.
Fang Zhiyi also realized something: if he had argued with the monk from the start, it would have created animosity. This guy had strength but wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed—he might’ve stormed off in a huff, leaving the challenger doomed. Then Fang Zhiyi would’ve had to help him find his lost belongings, and only after that would the truth be revealed...
Truly a classic Dragon Country move—even in a trial, there’s always a hidden expert.
This time, Fang Zhiyi received a B rating, though the evaluation was still harsh: "Violent maniac, lazy bum." But to his surprise, someone had actually cleared the trial he designed.
As soon as he returned to the real world, Fang Zhiyi rushed to the analysts to review footage from the Eagle Union. When he saw the fast-traveler using finger divination, his expression shifted, though he quickly accepted it.
After traveling through so many worlds, picking up some mystical arts for self-preservation made sense. What he hadn’t expected was that the path he designed also contained hints—yet this guy had deduced it using the Lesser Liuren method. A troublesome opponent.
"Maybe we should just kill him," Xiao Hei suggested. "Take him out in the real world."
"You’re so violent," Fang Zhiyi shot him a glance.
Xiao Hei crossed his arms. "Says the one who has no right to call me out!"
In the Eagle Union, Li Lei was being hailed as a hero after clearing Fang Zhiyi’s trial.
Frowning, Li Lei rewatched the footage of Fang Zhiyi’s playthrough. He had emerged earlier and watched the live broadcast, but now he was meticulously analyzing Fang Zhiyi’s every move, as if piecing something together.
"This man is serious. Tell him—whatever he wants, luxury cars, beautiful women, it’s all his!" A high-ranking official monitoring Li Lei was thoroughly pleased. "Next time, crush the Dragon Country’s people!"
With the new format, this round of competition didn’t take long. But nations that had lost multiple times were already buckling under the strain—natural disasters, crop failures, rising sea levels eroding land, civil unrest, and increasingly severe penalties for failing trials.
The third round began, with the Dragon Country facing off against the Elephant Nation.
The Elephant Nation’s contestant was nervous. By now, the entire world knew Fang Zhiyi was a rule-breaker with "ruthless" methods. His country had crammed him full of advanced training, and after the ancient tomb trial, they added brutal physical conditioning. It wasn’t just him—contestants from other nations were also suffering, waking up to drills and falling asleep with equations swirling in their heads.
If hatred had power, Fang Zhiyi would’ve died a thousand times over.
"Ah San! What are you doing?" The moment the Elephant Nation contestant entered the scenario, a sharp voice scolded him.
Confused, he turned to see a sharp-faced woman from the Dragon Country. After learning the objective was simply survival, Ah San relaxed. Whatever happened, he was confident.
He seemed to be this woman’s lackey.
Something about the setup felt off.
The woman took him to a banquet, and his first task was... to humiliate another woman.
Ah San hesitated, but after eyeing his mistress’s expensive jewelry and comparing it to the other woman’s plain attire, he began calculating. Fang Zhiyi never played by the rules—so maybe this was a test to provoke his sympathy and make him fail. Exactly!
"What are you waiting for? Hit her! If anything happens, my father will handle it. Everyone knows my family is the most powerful here!"
Ah San grew excited. If he just obeyed his mistress, he should clear the trial smoothly. Judging by presence alone, his mistress outclassed the other woman. And when it came to dealing with women, he had plenty of experience.
Meanwhile, in the Dragon Country’s live stream:
"Uh... doesn’t this scene feel familiar?"
"I’ve never seen it, but it does ring a bell."
"This Ah San from the Elephant Nation is actually enjoying himself—he’s really hitting her?"
"I feel like I’ve read this plot somewhere."
In the eerie live stream, the eerie viewers exchanged puzzled looks. Fang Zhiyi’s trial this time seemed painfully ordinary.
"Enough," the woman finally stopped Ah San, who stepped back, smug as he watched the humiliated woman clutch her face in pain.
"Bai Xiaoting, if you keep clinging to Brother Gu, I’ll ruin that pretty face of yours!" The woman crossed her arms, radiating arrogance.
Ah San lifted his chin in agreement.
Bai Xiaoting looked up, tears in her eyes. "I didn’t—"
"You didn’t? Look at yourself. Do you even belong at an event like this?"
Bai Xiaoting glanced between the woman and Ah San. "M-My brother asked me to come."
"Your brother? You’re an orphan with no parents. What brother?" The woman scoffed.
Ah San ran through the possibilities and concluded his mistress was untouchable. He resolved to cling to her coattails.
For the next few minutes, the woman hurled insults at Bai Xiaoting, who could only apologize repeatedly. Ah San’s chest swelled with pride.
"Throw her out!" the woman finally ordered.
Ah San eagerly moved to drag Bai Xiaoting away—but the moment his hand touched her...
"Who dares?!"
Ah San turned in confusion to see a man striding in with bodyguards in tow.
"Who touches my sister, Bai Aotian?!"
Ah San froze. Behind him, his mistress spoke up, panic seeping into her voice.
"Brother Bai, how could this wretch be your sister? There must be some mistake!"
"Wretch? Who are you calling a wretch?"
Ah San barely registered the force before he was sent flying. Struggling to his feet, he was utterly lost. He’d studied all of the Dragon Country’s horror tales—but this? None of them matched. The tales were terrifying, and he could recite them backward. Yet this scenario had nothing to do with any of them.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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.
