Meanwhile, deep beneath the capital city, inside a completely abandoned air-raid shelter.
Dim. Oppressive.
The air was thick with a nauseating stench of decay and blood.
This was a hidden stronghold of the Abyss Cult in the capital.
The Abyss Cult worshipped the Abyss.
They were humans whose minds had been thoroughly corrupted and twisted by Abyssal energy.
They had abandoned their human identity, willingly becoming pawns of the Abyss.
Their only goal—to disrupt the development of humanity.
To assassinate human geniuses!
At this moment.
In the center of the vast underground hall.
Several figures shrouded in wide black robes were gathered before an altar radiating a crimson glow.
Above the altar.
A holographic projection was playing on a loop.
The image showed the dueling arena by the Unnamed Lake.
The moment Su Yu condensed a dark-red manifest spear out of thin air and pierced through Chen Feng's mental defense.
The image froze on that spear radiating terrifying killing intent.
The hall fell into a deathly silence.
After a long pause.
The leading figure in black robes slowly raised his head.
Beneath the hood, a pair of eyes glinting with eerie green light were revealed.
"Genius."
The figure's voice was hoarse and grating, like two rusted iron plates scraping against each other.
"Peerless prodigy!"
His tone carried an undisguised admiration, along with an even more intense killing intent.
"Eighteen years old, one thousand blood Qi."
"And he managed to comprehend a manifest spear intent, turning illusion into reality."
"In the century our Abyss Cult has infiltrated humanity, this is a monster we've never seen before."
Another hunched figure in black robes let out a cold laugh.
"A pity, though!"
"A prodigy who hasn't grown up yet cannot truly be called a prodigy!"
"This kind of freak absolutely cannot be allowed to live long enough to reach the Martial Emperor realm."
"Otherwise, on the future Abyssal battlefield, he will become a major thorn in our side!"
"We must formulate an assassination plan immediately!"
The lead figure nodded.
He swiped his hand through the air, pulling up Su Yu's detailed profile.
"According to the data."
"He's only at the Martial Master level right now, with a thousand blood Qi."
"Although he's comprehended manifest spear intent, his physical body and blood Qi foundation are exceptionally weak."
"Sending a Grandmaster with ten thousand blood Qi to carry out the assassination—that should be more than enough, right?"
As soon as he finished speaking.
A burly figure in black robes immediately shook his head.
"Hard to say!"
"That's spear intent we're talking about—manifest spear intent, no less!"
"The fact that he could one-shot Chen Feng with three thousand blood Qi means his killing power far exceeds the limits of his blood Qi."
"Sending a Grandmaster with ten thousand blood Qi still carries a risk of being killed in return!"
"Then..." the lead figure hesitated for a moment.
"What about a Great Grandmaster with a hundred thousand blood Qi?"
The moment those words left his mouth.
The atmosphere in the hall grew noticeably heavier.
A Great Grandmaster with a hundred thousand blood Qi was considered absolute high-level combat power within the cult.
Losing even one would be a tremendous blow.
"I still feel there's risk," the burly figure said, his brow furrowed, his tone extremely grave.
"That kid is a top-tier genius!"
"If he could comprehend manifest spear intent at eighteen, who knows what other hidden life-saving trump cards he might have?"
"To be safe."
"Let's directly dispatch a Martial Spirit with a million blood Qi!"
"Only with a Martial Spirit intervening can we establish an absolute realm suppression and guarantee perfection!"
Martial Spirit!
Those two words made the gathered figures inhale sharply.
"But!" the hunched figure immediately objected.
"This is the capital!"
"It's humanity's most heavily defended stronghold!"
"On the surface, the Martial Emperor Nie Changkong himself sits within the capital's martial academy."
"Even an old man on the street corner could be a Martial Venerable!"
"Once the assassination begins, whether it succeeds or fails, the unleashed aura of a Martial Spirit will absolutely not escape the perception of top-level martial artists."
"The Martial Spirit carrying out the mission will die, no question!"
He paused, his tone carrying a hint of dismissiveness.
"I don't think it's necessary."
"A Great Grandmaster should be sufficient!"
"Even if he has manifest spear intent, between a thousand blood Qi and a hundred thousand, there lies a gap as wide as the heavens!"
"The protective Qi barrier of a Great Grandmaster can't even be scratched by a thousand blood Qi!"
"No way!" the burly figure insisted.
"Don't forget!"
"That kid was personally designated as a special-grade genius by Nie Changkong!"
"Wouldn't the capital's martial academy go all out to nurture him?"
"What if the academy's higher-ups gave him a massive influx of resources, and he broke through in these past few days?"
"What if his power surges and the Great Grandmaster fails the assassination?"
"By then, we'd have tipped our hand. Humanity would be on full alert, and trying again would be harder than climbing to the heavens!"
Facing the burly figure's concerns.
The hunched figure laughed as if he'd heard the most absurd joke.
"Break through?"
"What could he possibly break through to?"
"With a thousand blood Qi, even if he's gifted beyond measure, even if the academy fed him high-grade spirit herbs like rice every meal—"
"Three days. He'd be lucky to reach two thousand blood Qi at most!"
"In the martial path, accumulating blood Qi requires time and tempering. That's an iron law."
The hunched figure spoke with absolute certainty.
"Two thousand blood Qi. How impressive could that be?"
"In front of a Great Grandmaster with a hundred thousand blood Qi, he's still an ant you can crush with a flick of your finger!"
"A Great Grandmaster is enough! There's absolutely no need to send a Martial Spirit to its death!"
The hall fell into a brief silence.
The lead figure's eyes flickered, as if weighing the pros and cons.
Finally.
He slowly nodded.
"What you say has merit."
"Martial Spirit-level sleeper agents are our cult's most important trump card in the capital. We can't expose them lightly."
"So, we'll send a Great Grandmaster."
A cruel red glint flashed in the lead figure's eyes.
"Send the most powerful one we have."
"The one with six hundred thousand blood Qi."
"'Shadow Blade'!"
Hearing that code name, the other figures all nodded in unison.
Shadow Blade.
The Abyss Cult's ace assassin.
His blood Qi was only six hundred thousand, not yet reaching the million-blood peak Great Grandmaster realm.
But his assassination arts were nothing short of transcendent.
The human Masters and Great Grandmasters who had died by his hand were too many to count.
Sending him to assassinate a freshman with only a thousand blood Qi?
That was like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
Absolutely certain.
"Good!" The lead figure's decision was final.
He stared at Su Yu's calm, deep-set face on the holographic projection.
His voice was cold to the bone.
"Send the order to Shadow Blade."
"Within three days."
"I want to see news of this peerless genius's downfall!"
...
Meanwhile.
Inside an ultra-luxurious penthouse apartment in the capital.
Su Yu sat cross-legged in the center of the spacious living room.
Around him were mountains of crisp new banknotes, their ink scent filling the air.
A full hundred and thirty million in cash!
A sea of red, reflecting dazzling light under the crystal chandelier.
"System."
Su Yu's voice echoed through the quiet living room.
Calm.
Yet burning with an absolute thirst for power.
"Spend it all."
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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.
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.
