[In the Hidden World Village, Ji Wuqing was once again pestering Ji Baiming, demanding to be let out.]
“Dad! It’s been thirty years! An entire generation has had children in that time. Let me out!”
Ji Baiming tossed the latest issue of the Heavenly River Gazette at her face.
“Read it yourself!”
Ji Wuqing felt as though she were looking at a mirror when she read the paper.
The wanted posters for you and Ji Baiming had not appeared in a long time, but Ji Wuqing was still making the front page and headlines.
In the early days, the order had been to capture her alive. Now, it was “dead or alive.”
On that very day, strange black mist began drifting over from the distance.
It covered not only the ground, but the sky as well.
The black mist spread across the heavens and earth without end, soon enveloping the entire Hidden World Village.
At first, the village’s experts assumed it was some kind of phenomenon caused by a cultivator nearby.
A group of big shots continued pretending to be ordinary mortals, putting on exaggerated displays of astonishment.
“Oh my, what is this?”
“Wow, how frightening!”
“It scared me to death!”
After a while, everyone—including you—realized that something was wrong.
The black mist could seep into the body through every opening!
Once inside, it would neutralize the primal energy, divine power, immortal power, and other forms of immortal energy within a cultivator’s body.
The neutralization was not particularly fast.
But if one failed to replenish their energy in time, and all the energy in their body was eventually neutralized, no one dared imagine what the consequences would be.
Just as everyone hesitated over whether to circulate their energy and restore their strength, someone stepped forward and revealed what this thing was.
“It’s contamination!”
You and many others still had question marks floating above your heads.
“Contamination?”
Your eyes turned toward the old man at the entrance of the village. He had a head of white hair and a full white beard so thick that only his eyes could be seen.
No one knew whether he was the ancestor of some faction—or perhaps the Ji family’s Immortal King.
“I once saw a passage about it in an ancient family record. It is said that, in the prehistoric era, this kind of black mist appeared throughout our universe on a massive scale.
“No one knows where the black mist came from, but it has two dangers.
“First, as you are experiencing now, it neutralizes a cultivator’s cultivation and ultimately turns them into an ordinary mortal.
“Second, when mortals come into contact with contamination, they become maddened and corrupted!”
There were many mortals in the Hidden World Village as well.
You all observed them for a while and found that the mortals in the village did not seem to be acting strangely.
The white-bearded old man also noticed this.
“The contamination that appeared today seems to be relatively weak. Its effects on mortals are not obvious.”
The Hidden World Village quickly organized a meeting for cultivators at the Immortal Lord realm and above.
Relying on your relationship with Ji Wuqing, you also took part in the meeting.
An important decision was made.
The Hidden World Village would be temporarily disbanded. Each faction would take back the mortals under its protection. If those mortals later became maddened and corrupted, their respective factions would have the resources to contain them.
If these mortals were left outside, inhumane alien factions might simply slaughter them to deal with the problem.
As for people like Zhang Beihai, who had no faction backing them, every faction extended an invitation. He could go wherever he wished.
Everyone present wore solemn expressions.
No one could say for certain what the appearance of this contamination meant.
Only Ji Wuqing was overjoyed.
“Does this mean I can cultivate now?”
Ji Baiming smiled bitterly.
“You silly girl, the Hidden World Village has been temporarily disbanded. Naturally, the village rules no longer apply.”
You raised an eyebrow.
“Does that mean we don’t have to erase our memories anymore?”
Zhang Beihai nodded.
“There’s no need for that now. If the contamination subsides, we’ll find another place and establish a new village.”
You were quite satisfied.
When all was said and done, you simply disliked having someone tamper with your memories.
The households of the Hidden World Village all returned to their own homes and families.
But you, Ji Wuqing, and Ji Baiming were wanted criminals and could not go home.
The Ji family was still under close surveillance. A large number of Peacekeepers were stationed at the Ji family’s ancestral grounds, conducting strict inspections of everyone entering and leaving each day.
Although the three of you had plenty of methods for disguising your identities, there was always someone a step ahead. The Peace Bureau—and even the Sacred Dragon Society—had numerous ways to break through such disguises.
For the sake of the bigger picture, Ji Baiming chose not to return home.
The three of you wanted criminals could only form a temporary group and wander outside.
Over the years, Ji Wuqing had stopped talking about marrying you.
She felt that, as a top-level wanted criminal, she would only bring trouble to anyone she married.
A few days later, through the Heavenly River Gazette, you learned that the contamination had not appeared only on Vermilion Purple Star.
More than half of the Southern Star Realm had been contaminated!
When floating through the vacuum of space, these things could not be observed at all.
Only after entering a planet would they reveal themselves in the form of this pitch-black fog.
At present, the Sacred Dragon Society’s investigation team had personally set out to investigate the source of the contamination.
Multiple organizations under the Sacred Dragon Society were working with the local powers of various planets to search for a way to eliminate it.
So far, the only method available was to use formations, treasures, and similar items to seal away portions of the contamination.
But what left everyone helpless was that, whether formations or magical artifacts and spirit treasures—
although they could seal away some of the contamination, it would not be long before those formations and objects themselves became contaminated, lost their spirituality, and turned into piles of scrap metal.
In other words, these methods could treat only the symptoms, not the root cause.
To truly resolve the problem, it seemed that the only option was to allow the contamination to be passively neutralized through contact with immortal energy.
But no one knew how much contamination there was, or how long the process would take.
“Even the immortal qi has become thinner.”
Under the heavens filled with black mist, you and the father-daughter pair of Ji Wuqing and Ji Baiming walked along a desolate mountain path.
The contamination was constantly depleting the immortal power within your bodies, forcing you to circulate your energy to counteract it.
But with the immortal qi growing thinner, your strength recovered more slowly.
For now, it was best to avoid using immortal techniques unless absolutely necessary, conserving your power whenever possible.
The good news was that the black mist not only impaired your vision, but also obstructed spiritual perception and other extrasensory abilities.
The moment divine sense was extended, the contamination would neutralize it.
For the three of you wanted criminals, this was undoubtedly good news.
It would be much harder for the Peace Bureau to find you.
But you estimated that, with the contamination affecting more than half of the Southern Star Realm, the Peace Bureau was probably already overwhelmed. They likely had no time to hunt you down.
The Myriad Soul Banner was slung across your back. This was something Old Wan had insisted on—he loved the contamination far too much.
“Oh! Brother, look at this! This pitch-black world is perfect for my image!”
“Have you forgotten that you’re glowing golden right now?”
Before your voice had even faded, the golden light surrounding the Myriad Soul Banner suddenly changed into black smoke.
“When you’re out and about, you glow gold for appearances. But I still prefer my original skin!”
Ji Wuqing tugged at the banner.
“Chen Yi, your spirit treasure is really interesting. Let me play with it!”
Ji Wuqing tugged at the Myriad Soul Banner, making it shriek in panic.
“Woman! Don’t manhandle me! Aah! Don’t kiss me! That was my first kiss!”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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.
