【“Strategist, can we go now?”】
【Although you could tell that He Xiangdong still needed a little more time to recover,】
【you were worried about A-Dou and the others’ safety, so you called for He Xiangdong and urged everyone to leave at once.】
【He Xiangdong managed to recover some of his strength.】
【“Let’s go. Mr. Chen’s combat power is unparalleled. Though he’s only in the Heaven-Connecting Realm, he can overpower Jinhai, a seventh-tier Immortal Lord. Zhong Yanqing needs your protection, so we can escort him to the Secluded Village together.”】
【You transformed into a dragon once again, grabbed He Xiangdong in your jaws, and tossed him onto your back.】
【As you flew, you asked,】
【“You’re taking A-Dou to the Secluded Village?”】
【“Mr. Chen, you know about the Secluded Village?”】
【“Mm… I’m afraid I know it even better than you do. But as far as I know, they aren’t part of the Kindling Society.”】
【“The Secluded Village on Vermilion Purple Star is a place where some powerful human cultivators go to retire and avoid trouble. It indeed doesn’t belong to the Kindling Society, but King Zhou, King Liang, and the others are old acquaintances of several elders in the village. Those elders agreed to let us take shelter there for the time being.”】
【“Those old geezers only know how to play dead. The Kindling Society is facing disaster, yet they actually refuse to help!”】
【“Don’t speak of the elders from the Secluded Village that way. In fact, I suspect that the mysterious human Immortal King who helped King Zhou resist the three Immortal Kings of the Sacred Dragon Society came from the Secluded Village.”】
【There were actually still quite a few people from the Kindling Society who had managed to escape this time.】
【Although the Sacred Dragon Society and several organizations under its direct control had laid an inescapable net, the Kindling Society had existed as an underground force for a long time. When it came to running away, they could be considered experts.】
【It was only because the three groups traveling with Heaven’s Chosen had received special attention that their escape had been so perilous.】
【Two groups had been captured alive, and the third had only narrowly escaped.】
【The fact that some members of the Kindling Society had managed to flee, and even take important records and resources with them, was actually due to secret assistance from people in the Secluded Village.】
【The Secluded Village simply didn’t want its existence exposed, so everything had been done with the utmost discretion.】
【Before long, you caught up with A-Dou.】
【To avoid attracting attention by swaggering through the streets, you ended your dragon transformation and escorted A-Dou in your ordinary human form.】
【The night was dark, and the wind was fierce.】
【Inside a cave, the campfire crackled.】
【A group of weary people sat around the fire, eating the game they had just hunted.】
【You had already been traveling at full speed for five days and five nights.】
【Search teams from the Peace Army occasionally flew overhead, so you had spent the entire journey moving through woods, ditches, ravines, and other secluded places.】
【Those among you with higher cultivation levels could still endure it.】
【But A-Dou was only in the Core Formation Realm. Going five days and five nights without food or water had been sheer torture for him.】
【That was why you had stopped to find a hidden place to rest.】
【You set up several formations around the area for early warning, defense, and traps.】
【By now, only a few of you remained to protect A-Dou and the others on their journey.】
【Lin the Strongman, Ji Wuqing, He Xiangdong, and you.】
【A-Dou only drank a few mouthfuls of water. When he saw the charred roasted chicken you handed him, he had no appetite at all.】
【You knew he was thinking about the Kindling Society brothers who had died, as well as the innocent civilians at the base, so you immediately scolded him.】
【“You little brat, eat! Do you think you’re made of iron? Or have you comprehended the ‘Fasting’ divine ability like I have, so you can go without food or water?”】
【As you spoke, you picked up a beautifully prepared golden-roasted fish, sprinkled some seasoning over it, and began eating it leisurely.】
【“Even though I have the Fasting divine ability, I still enjoy good food.”】
【Ji Wuqing glanced at the fish in your hand, then at the chicken in A-Dou’s hand, and said with drooping eyelids,】
【“Mr. Chen, why don’t you trade with Brother Zhong?”】
【A-Dou didn’t mind. He casually peeled away the charred surface of the chicken and smiled.】
【“It’s fine. I like food with a bit of a burnt flavor.”】
【You looked toward He Xiangdong, who had been busy working nearby the entire time.】
【He was tinkering with a bulky magical artifact. It looked very much like the old-fashioned radio transmitter you had seen in movies back on Earth.】
【The Kindling Society called this artifact the “Neighbor Box.” It was used for short-distance communication.】
【“Strategist, have you heard from anyone else?”】
【He Xiangdong shook his head.】
【“No. But I imagine that even if everyone managed to escape, they wouldn’t be in a position to contact one another right now. That’s why the Neighbor Box hasn’t received any messages.”】
【A-Dou’s voice trembled slightly.】
【“Strategist, could everyone be dead…?”】
【He Xiangdong gave him a reassuring smile.】
【“You’re underestimating the Kindling Society’s ability to stay alive. You’re Heaven’s Chosen, so the people pursuing you are all elite fighters and powerful cultivators. That’s why we’ve had such a difficult time. The brothers fleeing along the other routes may not have faced such overwhelming odds.”】
【“Strategist, the five of us must reach the Secluded Village together.”】
【“We will.”】
【Ji Wuqing’s eyes lit up as an idea came to him.】
【“This place isn’t far from my Ji family’s ancestral lands. How about I go to the Ji family and bring back some people I can trust? They could help us escort Brother Zhong.”】
【He Xiangdong rejected the suggestion.】
【“Wuqing, it’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just that the Ji family’s public position is on the side of the Sacred Dragon Society. The people you believe you can trust may not actually be trustworthy.”】
【You also felt that it wasn’t a good idea.】
【Ji Wuqing sighed.】
【“You can only blame my Ji family for being traitors to humanity…”】
【He Xiangdong smiled.】
【“That was once true. Now, it depends on the circumstances.”】
【Do you remember the “Great Alien Uprising” that He Xiangdong had told you about?】
【It had been mentioned that the success of the alien races’ uprising was due to many different factors.】
【One of those factors was that certain members of the human race had betrayed their own kind and supported the aliens.】
【The Ji family had been one of them.】
【It was a stain that the Ji family could never wash away.】
【But now, the Ji family also had someone like Ji Wuqing, who was willing to devote her entire life to the cause of the Kindling Society.】
【Therefore, when it came down to questions of allegiance, each individual still had to be judged separately.】
【After all, far too much time had passed since the Great Uprising.】
【How many ancestral rules could still be followed to the letter after all this time?】
【The night was silent, and the wind carried a murderous chill.】
【Somewhere in the distant reaches of the starry sky, the battle between the Immortal Kings had already ended.】
【Nothing happened that night.】
【The next day, before dawn, the five of you set out again.】
【Both you and A-Dou possessed tremendous fortune, but this time, it seemed that fortune had taken the enemy’s side.】
【In a dense forest, all five of you came to a simultaneous stop.】
【A force so powerful that it made your hearts tremble suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pressed down upon you. You had no choice but to circulate your divine power to resist it. Otherwise, you would have been crushed to the ground on the spot.】
【“What is this?!”】
【“It’s an Immortal King’s domain pressure!”】
【“An Immortal King from the Sacred Dragon Society?”】
【“It can only be them! It seems King Zhou and the others have lost…”】
【In the sky, white clouds converged from all directions, piecing themselves together into the face of a Sacred Dragonkin. The enormous face looked down upon the earth, blinked, and began to speak.】
“He Xiangdong! There’s nowhere left for you to run!”
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.
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...
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
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?"
