However, her actions angered Fang Zhiyi, who never expected that the one who seemed most harmless could also strike so viciously.
Hua Nongying was seized by the death-dealing guards and imprisoned in the unused dungeon of You Mountain. There, there was no sound, no people, and no light, a perfect match for a child like Hua Nongying who feared loneliness and suffered from paranoia.
Li Wenyan traveled alone, encountering no great difficulties or dangers, and stealthily made his way back to Tiancheng. Along the journey, he witnessed much and deduced even more.
The weapons held by those rebels were called "guns," terrifying arms that could injure or even kill cultivators, and the source of these weapons was likely the Wanbao Pavilion!
Emperor Tianyan and Prince Xuan were already locked in a fierce struggle. Although Prince Xuan's faction was not large, he stubbornly held on relying on his cultivation.
It was now almost certain that Prince Xuan and the Wanbao Pavilion were in cahoots!
Finally, there was the Li family... The Li family had been imprisoned by Emperor Tianyan. As long as he demonstrated his own talent, he believed he could certainly help the Tian family quell the rebellion, execute Prince Xuan, eradicate the Wanbao Pavilion, and finally rescue his entire family!
Only, he never expected that the moment he entered the city, a beggar by the roadside would hand him a package.
Upon opening it, Li Wenyan stood frozen in place.
Looking at the items the beggar had given him—the second brother's hairpin, the third brother's ring, the fourth and fifth brothers... each of their personal belongings was now in his hands, lying quietly in his palm as if staring back at him.
Scenes from the past flashed before his eyes: how they met, their roughhousing, their kowtows, their oath of brotherhood, their adventures together, roaming the martial world...
"Big brother, next time I'll buy you a hat?"
"Big brother, this is a new medicine I refined."
"Wenyan, when are we going back home for a visit? Our families must be worried."
"Big brother..."
"What are you doing, standing there dumbfounded?"
Those figures gradually blurred, their smiling faces so vivid. And then, before his eyes appeared the Qingyun Lodge. They had once promised that no matter where they were, they would always meet again at Qingyun Lodge.
An immense wave of grief struck him. Even when his whole family met disaster, Li Wenyan had never felt such heart-wrenching pain. In his sorrow, he felt something deep within his heart snap.
His abnormal state immediately caught the attention of the patrolling city cultivators. With just one glance, someone recognized his identity.
Although Li Wenyan was a strategist, his overall strength was the strongest among them all. Now, upon learning the news of his companions' complete annihilation, his mental state was damaged. The spiritual energy within his body raged uncontrollably, and he cast all reason aside, leaving only a heart full of grievance and fury.
Li Wenyan's rampage threw Tiancheng into complete chaos. Prince Xuan, who had been hiding, thought his army had arrived and gleefully showed himself, only to see a lone madman. However, his appearance quickly drew Emperor Tianyan's pursuit. On this day, all factions within Tiancheng emerged. Emperor Tianyan and Prince Xuan battled fiercely, while various sects and noble families began internal strife amidst the chaos. Li Wenyan had been chasing Prince Xuan relentlessly since spotting him. Then he saw Emperor Tianyan and, in his state, came to hate him as well. But with his current strength... he didn't even have a chance for revenge.
Emperor Tianyan and Prince Xuan almost simultaneously struck out at him. The irrational Li Wenyan didn't dodge but charged straight forward. Sent flying, he coughed up blood from his mouth and nose. At that moment, his senses gradually returned. In his daze, he saw his companions once more.
They smiled at him and waved.
Then, a dazzling light came crashing down upon him.
At that moment, everyone in Tiancheng saw a purple lightning bolt as thick as a bucket strike the imperial palace, once, twice, thrice.
All the sects and families were stunned. Was Emperor Tianyan's cultivation so terrifying? Or was Prince Xuan ascending to immortality?
A day later, Prince Xuan's corpse was hung above the city gate, the entire body charred black. Rumors spread privately that Emperor Tianyan was also severely injured, but no one dared to investigate the truth. The internal strife in Tiancheng ceased, but there was no one left to take charge of the overall situation.
Three days later, Tiancheng was besieged. Hundreds of thousands of commoners, holding those magical instruments called guns, stood in confrontation with the cultivators of Tiancheng.
That afternoon, the mastermind behind the righteous army finally revealed himself. Hoisting a flag representing the common people, he led the charge into Tiancheng, followed by tens of thousands of civilians shouting slogans to avenge Prince Xuan.
"And that is the history of our Xuanzhou," said the teacher in the classroom, closing the textbook.
A student asked, "But the cultivators weren't wiped out, right? We even have elective courses on it now."
"In history, after Lord Fang led the common people to victory in the war, he did not propose a plan to exterminate cultivators. Instead, he proposed a plan for co-governance," the teacher paused and smiled. "That's why we have this school. Whatever skills you have can be matched according to your needs."
"Nothing is absolute, and no ability is inherently bad. The key lies in how the user employs it."
The students buried their heads in their notebooks, taking notes.
A few whispered among themselves.
"Honestly, I kind of resent this Lord Fang."
"Why?"
"If he had been a bit more ruthless back then and wiped out all the cultivators, I wouldn't have to write such long papers now! Or learn about cultivation method research and analysis reports!"
"Brave soul, you actually dared to choose a cultivator course."
"You think I wanted to? All the others were full!"
"Look on the bright side. Once you become a cultivator, you can report directly to government departments for work."
"Ah, forget it. Being a cultivator is pretty high-risk, and the income is just average."
One student turned and saw the girl next to him staring blankly at a book in her hands. "What are you looking at?"
The girl snapped back to reality, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm reading an unofficial history."
"What unofficial history?"
"About the Nine Youths of Qingyun."
"What's that?"
"They were nine young wandering heroes who appeared during Emperor Tianyan's reign. They came from all directions, each with different personalities, and just... met, gathered together, roamed the martial world, fought for justice..."
"Sounds interesting. What happened then?"
"Then they died, and died, and died, and died."
"???"
"The unofficial history says two of them didn't die. The archer lost his sight, and the sword prodigy could never wield a sword again. They finally made it back to the place they had promised to meet, only to find the Qingyun Lodge, which held all their happy memories, burned to the ground. Wuwuwu..."
"Who was that cruel? Out of nine, only two came back? And both crippled?"
The girl flipped through the book. "It was that Lord Fang, the one whose full name isn't known."
The boy instantly looked disdainful. "Unofficial histories really are wild. You should read fewer novels."
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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!
