Xia Lingxi had barely finished speaking when the swarm of over a hundred Crimson-tailed Venomous Bees descended upon the cave entrance like a crimson storm of death, accompanied by a scalp-numbing, deafening drone.
"We're doomed, we're doomed, we're so doomed..." Xia Lingxi's face drained of all color. Nigh on collapsing, she clutched desperately at Qin Hao's back, her mind going completely blank.
"There's no escape! We're going to be stung full of holes!" Xia Lingxi cried out with a sob, shutting her eyes as tightly as she could.
However, facing a terrifying swarm that would force even an ordinary Nascent Soul stage cultivator to brace themselves, Qin Hao merely took a calm step forward, completely shielding Xia Lingxi behind him.
Hum—
Centered around Qin Hao, an invisible yet soul-shaking aura of coercion quietly rippled outward.
Qin Hao's already profound eyes suddenly underwent a drastic transformation.
"Dual Pupils, awaken!"
The moment his Dual Pupils opened, the depths of his left eye seemed to harbor the endless cycle of Primal Chaos, reflecting the very dawn of the universe. Within his right eye, thousands of phantom sword auras crisscrossed and intertwined, and an ancient, supreme aura that stood above all creation instantly permeated the air.
The phenomena in both eyes resonated in breathtaking harmony.
Pfft, pfft, pfft!
The dozen or so Crimson-tailed Venomous Bees leading the charge breached the domain of Qin Hao's Dual Pupils. In that split second, their steel-like carapaces were shredded into minuscule fragments by the sword aura radiating from his right eye.
Before the monstrous insects could even let out a single shriek, their massive bodies were dismantled into countless pieces, raining straight down from the sky.
The bees trailing behind them seemed to have their throats seized by an invisible terror. Their buzzing abruptly diminished as instinct drove them to veer away and flee.
However, Qin Hao's Dual Pupils had already locked down the entire space.
Wherever his vision extended, the laws of the world followed; wherever his gaze swept, death descended!
Qin Hao did not even lift a finger. He merely cast a tranquil gaze over the swarm, like an autumn breeze sweeping across a wheat field, or the Grim Reaper swinging his scythe.
The despair-inducing crimson storm in the air rapidly disintegrated and withered away amidst a series of heart-stopping ruptures.
One by one, the venomous bees plummeted stiffly to the ground. Before the absolute might of the Dual Pupils, the swarm was utterly powerless to resist.
In the span of a few breaths, the swarm of over a hundred Crimson-tailed Venomous Bees—a force capable of giving even a mighty Nascent Soul expert a severe headache—was entirely annihilated.
Xia Lingxi kept her eyes screwed shut, bracing for a searing agony that never came. Instead, after a flurry of rupturing sounds, the deafening drone of the swarm simply vanished.
Qin Hao turned his head. Seeing Xia Lingxi's cowardly posture, he could not help but shake his head with a chuckle. He reached out and flicked her on the forehead, sighing inwardly. For such a massive amount of Karmic Luck to be tethered to a master like Xia Lingxi was truly a tragic waste.
Caught off guard by the sudden flick, Xia Lingxi thought she had just been stung by a venomous bee and bolted in sheer panic.
Qin Hao completely lost his composure. He grabbed her by the arm and scolded her with a laugh, "What the hell are you running for? The venomous bees are all dead."
Hearing Qin Hao's words, Xia Lingxi's thick eyelashes fluttered. Summoning every ounce of her courage, she slowly cracked her eyes open.
Through her blurred vision, she saw the ground littered with the dismembered, fragmented corpses of the venomous bees.
Xia Lingxi's eyes snapped wide open, overflowing with intense disbelief. "Did... did you do all this?"
Xia Lingxi stared fixedly at Qin Hao, her gaze burning as if trying to pierce through his hideous mask to see exactly what kind of monster was hiding underneath.
Every single one of these Crimson-tailed Venomous Bees possessed the cultivation base of the Golden Core stage. When swarming together, even a Nascent Soul stage cultivator would find them incredibly troublesome to deal with. Yet this person standing before her—who was even slightly younger than she was—had effortlessly wiped them all out?
It had only taken a few breaths of time. The terrifying swarm that had driven her to absolute despair was just dead?
What kind of horrifying strength was this? He was even more formidable than her Big Brother Gong Jun! Could it be that her Seven-Orifice Mystical Heart had made a mistake? Was this guy actually some ancient monster in disguise?
"Duh. If I didn't do it, did you? Let's go. Didn't you want to find your Brother Crown Prince?"
Hearing this, Xia Lingxi jolted awake as if from a dream. She nodded furiously. "That's right! I have to find Brother Crown Prince! To save me, he lured the pursuers away all by himself. If anything happens to him, I'll be consumed by guilt for the rest of my life!"
Qin Hao curled his lip in disdain. Consumed by guilt for the rest of your life? Is that why you hid in this cave for three whole days and nights? Bravo!
Just as the two were about to leave, the surrounding air violently contorted. A crimson silhouette streaked with dark gold tore through the spatial rift like a bolt of lightning, instantly materializing right in front of Qin Hao and Xia Lingxi.
"The—the Bee King! Watch out! This King's strength is equivalent to a human Nascent Soul cultivator!"
This Nascent Soul stage Bee King was several times larger than a standard worker bee. Its entire body exuded a foul, putrid aura of malice. Staring at such a horrifying beast, Xia Lingxi's heart pounded furiously in her chest.
Xia Lingxi's warning had barely left her lips when Qin Hao retrieved his Nine Tribulations Sword from his System Space.
"Great Void Sword Art, First Stance: Nullify!"
Qin Hao casually thrust his sword forward. At the tip of his blade, a faint ripple cascaded through the very fabric of space.
A pale gray arc of sword aura, hovering somewhere between the ethereal and the corporeal, shot forth from the tip of the Nine Tribulations Sword.
In an instant, the pale gray sword aura struck the Bee King's body. There was no sound of piercing, no crash of collision. Struck by this blade, the Bee King seemed to be erased by some higher-dimensional law. Soundlessly, starting from the point of impact, its body began to disintegrate inch by inch.
In mere moments, the Bee King's massive frame was completely annihilated, reduced to the most fundamental particles before dissipating into the surrounding air.
Witnessing this scene, Xia Lingxi's mouth fell open in a perfect O, her amber eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.
Qin Hao obliterating the entire swarm in a matter of breaths had already been shocking enough. But now, seeing him casually and effortlessly slay the Bee King with a single strike, Xia Lingxi stood frozen to the spot, her gaze swimming in absolute disbelief.
That Bee King was the equivalent of a human Nascent Soul stage cultivator! Yet, standing before Qin Hao, it took but a single sword strike to reduce it to ash and smoke.
This... this wasn't a battle at all. This was an absolute massacre! They existed on completely different planes of reality!
At this thought, Xia Lingxi grew even more convinced of her theory. Her Seven-Orifice Mystical Heart must have malfunctioned. There was absolutely no way this guy was younger than her. He had to be some ancient monster in disguise!
Fueled by this realization, Xia Lingxi leaped into the air, reaching out to snatch the mask off Qin Hao's face.
Qin Hao merely tilted his body slightly, effortlessly dodging her ambush. He furrowed his brows, looking at her with genuine bewilderment.
"Why would you jump into the air just to hit my knee?"
Xia Lingxi's face flushed beet red. Jumped into the air to hit his knee?! The humiliation! The absolute audacity!
"Bullshit! I might be on the shorter side, but I'm not so short that I'd have to jump just to reach your knee!"
Xia Lingxi puffed out her cheeks, her chest heaving heavily as she glared at Qin Hao with eyes full of utter resentment.
"Hmph! Wearing a mask and acting all mysterious... you're definitely just some ugly freak! I bet you aren't even half as handsome as my Big Brother Gong Jun! No, you wouldn't even be a tenth as handsome!"
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...
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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!
