The higher up one went in the Scripture Pavilion, the fewer the texts it housed. After seven days had passed, Qin Hao had finally memorized and recorded all the cultivation methods and divine abilities.
"This borrowing trip was a massive restock for me. With so many cultivation methods and divine abilities from the Lingxiao Divine Dynasty, the foundation of my Qin family has become even more profound!"
Having recorded all the techniques, the corners of Qin Hao's mouth curled up, his heart filled with irrepressible joy. After shoving the final ancient text back onto the shelf, Qin Hao felt his head throbbing slightly, as if it had been stuffed with too much information, feeling somewhat full and a bit chaotic.
"Have you finished learning everything?" A pleasant voice rang out. It was Ling Shuangshuang. For these past seven days, she had accompanied Qin Hao the entire time, never disturbing him, just quietly watching him from the side.
Qin Hao nodded and voiced his thoughts. "I need to verify some things. Just looking at cultivation methods and divine abilities isn't enough; I want actual combat."
Ling Shuangshuang tilted her head, a look of anticipation flashing in her eyes. "Actual combat? What kind of actual combat? Is it the kind I'm thinking of?"
Hearing this, dark lines formed on Qin Hao's forehead. He reached out and flicked Ling Shuangshuang hard on the forehead. "Can you have some proper thoughts in your head? I am being very serious."
"I need you to help me organize an arena tournament. I will be the arena lord and challenge all cultivators of the Lingxiao Divine Dynasty at or below the Immortal realm."
Ling Shuangshuang was somewhat stunned. She asked uncertainly once more, "What did you say?"
"An arena tournament!" Qin Hao repeated. "I will be the arena lord, challenging all cultivators of the Lingxiao Divine Dynasty at or below the Immortal realm. There will be no limit to the number of matches; I will fight as many as they come."
Ling Shuangshuang stood up from the floor, her bare feet stepping on the black stone slabs. She didn't even bother to dust off her skirt as she walked up to Qin Hao, tilting her face up to look at him, a gleam of excitement flashing in her eyes.
"Are you that confident in your own strength? Your current cultivation is only at the Mahayana realm, yet you want to challenge all cultivators of the Lingxiao Divine Dynasty at or below the Immortal realm?"
Qin Hao smiled. "It's not like I'm asking them to attack all at once. One by one, I still have confidence. Don't forget, you also lost by my hand."
Ling Shuangshuang reached out, her finger landing on Qin Hao's chest and slowly sliding down. "Looking at the result, I did indeed lose. But who told you I used my full strength?"
Qin Hao shrugged noncommittally. "And who told you that I used my full strength?"
Ling Shuangshuang nodded. "Fine, then I will organize an arena tournament for you. However, notifying all the geniuses across the entire Lingxiao Divine Dynasty to come will consume a lot of manpower and resources. How are you going to repay me?"
As Ling Shuangshuang said this, her finger had already slid to the center of Qin Hao's chest. Her fingertip drew circles through the fabric of his clothes, her movements flirtatious. A charming smile curled her lips, and her purple pupils narrowed slightly, like a cat teasing its prey.
"Repay? How do you want me to repay you?" Qin Hao glanced down at the little hand causing trouble on his chest, then looked back up at Ling Shuangshuang's face, which practically had "beg me" written all over it. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
Qin Hao reached out and pinched Ling Shuangshuang's chin. "Don't negotiate terms with me, you are playing with fire."
Qin Hao's action caused Ling Shuangshuang to freeze completely. During the time they had spent together, Qin Hao had either ignored her or told her to get lost. Now, suddenly interacting with her so intimately, Ling Shuangshuang momentarily didn't know how to react.
Ling Shuangshuang's devastatingly beautiful little face turned bright red. She lowered her head, not daring to maintain eye contact with Qin Hao.
Qin Hao smirked. This Ling Shuangshuang was quite bold when she was teasing him normally, but now that the tables were turned, she was actually panicking.
Qin Hao found Ling Shuangshuang's current flustered appearance quite amusing, so he decided to add some fuel to the fire and see just how long she could hold out.
Qin Hao did not let go. Instead, his thumb applied a slight pressure, lifting Ling Shuangshuang's chin half an inch higher, forcing her to tilt her face up and look directly into his eyes.
"Weren't you quite talkative just a moment ago?" Qin Hao's voice was kept very low, carrying a magnetic tone that made one's scalp tingle. "Why aren't you speaking now?"
Ling Shuangshuang opened her mouth, wanting to say something to salvage the situation, but her voice was stuck in her throat and she couldn't make a sound. Her mind had gone completely blank.
Having lived two lives, she had never encountered such a situation before. In her past life, she had been entirely devoted to cultivation and had never experienced romantic feelings. This was even more true in this life; those so-called young talents were simply not worth mentioning in the eyes of someone who had lived two lives, and she looked down on all of them.
As for her flirting techniques and all her little tricks, she had read about them in storybooks. Now that she was genuinely facing this kind of situation, she truly didn't know how to handle it.
The tips of Ling Shuangshuang's ears turned red at a visible rate. The redness spread from the tips of her ears to the roots, and soon, her entire person was blushing fiercely.
Watching Ling Shuangshuang's increasingly red face, the curve of Qin Hao's mouth grew wider. He didn't let go, but instead leaned in slightly, closing the distance between them.
At this distance, Ling Shuangshuang could feel the temperature of Qin Hao's breath and smell the faint, clean scent coming from him.
"Your heart is beating very fast." Qin Hao's voice remained low, his tone carrying a hint of teasing. "Having lived two lives, you couldn't still be a virgin, could you?"
Qin Hao released Ling Shuangshuang's chin, his fingers sliding from her chin to her cheek, the pads of his fingers gently brushing against her burning skin.
Feeling Qin Hao's touch, Ling Shuangshuang's mind went blank. Her heart was pounding like a drum, her face was hot enough to fry an egg, she didn't know where to put her hands and feet, and she especially didn't know where to look.
Right now, she was like a new recruit who had never been on a battlefield, so frightened by a sudden enemy thrust that she threw away her armor and fled in complete defeat.
A phrase suddenly popped into her mind: playing with fire. It was over; she had really brought the fire down upon herself this time.
"You, stay away from me..." Ling Shuangshuang's voice was as small as a mosquito's hum, carrying a weak and powerless tone that even she found embarrassing. She had originally wanted to make her tone sound a bit tougher.
But as soon as the sound left her mouth, she wished she could find a hole to crawl into. How was this a tough tone? It was clearly the tone of a pouting, coquettish girl!
Ling Shuangshuang finally broke down. Using all the strength in her body, she violently took a step back. Covering her burning cheeks with both hands, she threw down a harsh remark at Qin Hao, carrying a trace of grievance and shame:
"You, just you wait!"
After saying that, Ling Shuangshuang fled the tiger's den.
Qin Hao stood in place, his hands tucked into his sleeves, watching Ling Shuangshuang's retreating figure as she fled in a panic. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
"You were so proactive before, I thought you were so formidable. Turns out you're just a woman with high attack but low defense."
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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...
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.
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!
