Qin Hao leaned against the headboard and swallowed the pill Chen Xiaoyun had tossed over.
The warm medicinal energy slid down his throat into his stomach, intertwining and merging with the purple-gold Dragon Emperor bloodline power flowing through his meridians.
The speed of recovery was a bit faster than before.
Qin Hao sank his mind into his body and began guiding the energy to circulate slowly along the meridian pathways.
About half an hour later, he had fully refined the medicinal power.
By now, he could already accumulate a small amount of spiritual energy within his body. He opened his storage pouch, grabbed another handful of pills, and swallowed them.
Just then, the sound of hurried and panicked footsteps came from outside the door.
The steps were heavy and urgent, and in the next moment, the door was pushed open violently from outside.
It was the old fisherman rushing in.
“Young master, young master, please save us!”
Qin Hao looked at the frantic old fisherman and quickly asked:
“What happened?”
From the old fisherman’s account, Qin Hao learned that the two girls, Xiao Xue and Xiao Fang, had been captured by a bandit lair from a nearby place called Blackwind Fortress.
The bandits had sent someone to deliver a message, demanding that the old fisherman prepare one hundred thousand top-grade spirit stones to ransom them.
They set a time limit of five hours. If the money wasn’t seen after five hours, they would kill the hostages.
Qin Hao frowned slightly, and quickly figured out the reason.
Chen Xiaoyun had just given the two girls a huge sum of spirit stones earlier, and Xiao Xue had been clamoring to buy a magical robe.
They must have shown off their wealth and caught the attention of thieves, leading to this whole mess.
The old fisherman’s face was filled with panic:
“Young master, I beg you to show mercy. Lend me one hundred thousand top-grade spirit stones. Once I rescue them, I will find a way to repay you.”
Hearing this, Qin Hao got off the bed and helped the kneeling old man to his feet:
“Old man, do you really think that if you hand over one hundred thousand top-grade spirit stones to the bandits, they will let them go?”
“If they see you come up with such a huge sum so easily, they’ll definitely try to squeeze even more out of you.”
The old fisherman’s face was full of bitterness:
“I know, but besides gambling and hoping they’ll take the money and release them, what other choice do I have?”
“Young master, you’re new here and don’t know much about Blackcloud Fortress. Their chief is a Mahayana-stage cultivator! I’m just at the Golden Core stage—how could I possibly fight back?”
Qin Hao let out a cold laugh:
“Mahayana stage? Sure, a Mahayana-stage cultivator counts as a major power in the Lower Three Heavens, but in my eyes, they don’t even qualify to be my servant.”
At these words, the old fisherman stared at Qin Hao in shock.
To him, a Mahayana-stage cultivator was already an unattainably lofty existence.
But this young man before him dared to say that a Mahayana-stage cultivator wasn’t even qualified to be his servant?
Just who exactly was this young man he had fished out of the Erosion Bone Sea?
Qin Hao stepped forward and gently patted the old fisherman on the shoulder: “Don’t worry, old man, I won’t let anything happen to Xiao Xue and Xiao Fang.”
“Come on, take me to Blackcloud Fortress.”
The old fisherman looked at Qin Hao, his voice trembling slightly:
“Young master, you mean to storm Blackcloud Fortress and rescue the children?”
Qin Hao nodded: “That’s right. Don’t worry, a Mahayana-stage cultivator is nothing before me—they won’t make any waves.”
Hearing this, the old fisherman’s expression twisted with worry:
“Young master, but Xiao Xue and Xiao Fang are still in the bandits’ hands. Even if you can defeat a Mahayana-stage cultivator, what if they lash out in desperation and hurt the two girls?”
“Haha.” Qin Hao let out a light laugh:
“Relax. Before me, they won’t even have a chance to make a move.”
The old fisherman stared at the young man before him, a storm of complex emotions churning in his cloudy eyes.
In all his life, he had never seen anyone who, upon hearing that their opponent was a Mahayana-stage cultivator, could still wear such an easygoing smile on their face.
And those words— “They won’t even have a chance to make a move” — sounded so arrogant, yet coming from him, they felt as natural as stating something ordinary.
Gazing at Qin Hao, the old fisherman now only wanted to know: just what kind of background did this young man have?
Before setting out, Qin Hao called for Chen Xiaoyun. She had already reached the Earth Immortal realm in her cultivation.
In this Lower Three Heavens, that was an absolute crushing advantage.
…
A quarter of an hour later, under Chen Xiaoyun’s lead, the three arrived at Blackcloud Fortress.
“Who goes there! Halt!”
The bandit guarding Blackcloud Fortress immediately noticed Qin Hao and his party.
He yelled loudly for them to stop while simultaneously signaling to his companion to report to the boss that someone had broken into the stronghold.
These little tricks naturally did not escape Qin Hao’s eyes.
Qin Hao clenched his fingers into a fist and threw an ordinary-looking punch forward.
A visible white shockwave exploded outward from Qin Hao’s fist as its epicenter.
Like a massive, invisible boulder dropped into still water, the shockwave spread in a fan-shaped arc, shredding everything in its path with terrifying force.
“BOOM—!!!”
The entire waist of Blackwind Mountain trembled violently.
Rocks, dirt, and shattered trees tumbled down from the mountainside while dust rose high enough to blot out the sky.
When the smoke finally cleared, everyone saw the scene before them—
Everything from the halfway point upward on Blackwind Mountain had completely vanished, leaving behind only a massive fist-shaped crater.
“Gulp!”
The old fisherman, who had witnessed everything firsthand, couldn’t help but swallow hard. In that moment, the curiosity in his eyes when looking at Qin Hao had vanished completely, replaced by nothing but sheer terror.
Good heavens! What kind of terrifying existence was this young man he had fished out of the sea at random?
Just the sheer force of his punch—without using a shred of spiritual power, relying solely on raw physical strength—had been enough to destroy half a mountain!
Even a Mahayana-stage cultivator couldn’t possibly achieve that, could they!
“Xiaoyun, can you sense Xiao Xue and Xiao Fang?”
Chen Xiaoyun nodded:
“Yes, I can. I’ll go bring them here now.”
As she finished speaking, her figure vanished from the spot.
The next second, she reappeared beside Qin Hao, but this time with two young girls in hand.
“Who dares to cause trouble at my Blackcloud Fortress!!!”
A roar like thunder boomed across the sky from above.
Qin Hao snorted coldly:
“That question should be mine. How many lives do you have to dare and touch the people I protect?”
Seven figures landed before Qin Hao. The man at the front radiated the aura of a Mahayana-stage cultivator.
“Ha! You’re the ones making trouble at my Blackcloud Fortress? Pretty bold, aren’t you? Do you even know who stands behind Blackcloud Fortress?”
“Our backers are the Immortal Court itself! The Immortal Court—do you know what that means?”
The Second Chief sneered coldly: “Brother, why waste words with them? If you ask me, we should just kill them outright.”
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!
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...
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?!
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.
