Lin Ran: "If you say one more word, I'll kill you."
Little Black: ......?
Lin Ran was about to charge forward.
"Get the hell back here! Someone's coming. Don't get them killed because of your recklessness."
Little Black's voice rang urgently in Lin Ran's mind, stopping him in his tracks.
A closer look confirmed it—someone had indeed arrived.
Deep down, Lin Ran knew Little Black was right. His body trembled faintly, his eyes filled with agony and helplessness, like a beast trapped in a cage, forced to watch its kin suffer beyond reach.
Luo Yao's small figure stood alone, radiating profound loneliness.
Was this the moment of her deepest despair?
A sharp eagle's cry pierced the silent air, echoing through the woods with an imperious authority.
"You've won. One of you may follow me and learn."
A woman's voice cut through—cold, detached, as if stripped of all human emotion.
She appeared without warning, a hawk circling above her head, its gaze razor-sharp, scrutinizing everything below.
"One?" Luo Yao lifted her head, her voice hoarse from prolonged combat.
"Correct. Just one. Today's trial dictates I take only one disciple per group. In other words, out of your six, only one will live."
The woman's expression remained icy, her eyes like abyssal voids, unreadable.
Luo Shuigou, still reeling from his brother's death, choked back sobs.
"But we're teammates... Wasn't this a three-on-three?" Tears streaked his face, his eyes pleading against the brutality of the rule.
The woman's eyes narrowed, a flicker of impatience flashing through them.
Without warning, she struck—too fast to evade. A glint of steel, and Luo Shuigou crumpled like a fallen leaf.
Blood gushed from his severed artery, splattering the ground in a macabre rhythm, each drop a tick of death's clock.
"You don't belong here. Emotion has no place in this world."
Her voice was a frigid gust from hell itself, chilling to the bone.
Luo Shuimao collapsed next, his eyes wide with terror and defiance.
Death found him mid-glare, his gaze locked onto Lin Ran's direction, as if silently screaming his anguish.
His lips trembled, a whisper escaping:
"Sun... Wu... Kong... why... didn't... you... save... me?"
The frail words hung in the air, crushing Lin Ran's heart like a sledgehammer.
The pain was visceral. Lin Ran had known Luo Yao's world was harsh—but never this merciless.
Here, life was disposable as ants, and emotion a fatal luxury.
What kind of world was this?
Why did it feel so alien?
Would that woman harm Luo Yao?
He could abandon the brothers—but not her.
Lin Ran was no saint, but he was human.
Logic screamed that intervening meant suicide, yet how could he stay idle?
He had to fight for Luo Yao's sliver of hope.
Little Black's lazy voice chimed in: "Don't be rash. If Luo Yao dies here, she wouldn't exist in the future. Basic logic, no?"
"But if you alter the past now, who knows if she'll even make it to tomorrow?"
Lin Ran froze.
"Luo Yao, remember—from today, I am your mentor. Incidentally, we're closely related. I'm your grandfather's sister. You may call me Grandaunt."
The woman studied Luo Yao, a trace of approval flickering in her eyes.
Luo Yao stared at Luo Shuimao's corpse—no tears, no outburst. Only a cold question:
"This place... forbids emotion?"
Her quiet voice carried a defiance that prickled the skin, a challenge hurled at the world's cruelty.
Luo Tangji nodded, her face unreadable.
"Emotion is weakness. Only by shedding it can you survive here."
Suddenly, Luo Yao moved.
A dagger flashed in her grip, resolve burning in her eyes. She lunged at Luo Tangji—so fast it startled even the seasoned warrior.
Like lightning, her blade arced through the air, a symbol of rage and rebellion.
Yet Luo Tangji merely sidestepped, amused.
"Impressive. Attacking your own grandaunt? Exactly the ruthlessness I seek. You might surpass even your aunt, Luo Wuyou. Remember—only one survives."
She released Luo Yao, almost... pleased.
This defiance was rare. Potential.
Luo Yao knew resistance was futile—for now.
Patience, too, was power.
She stilled, meeting Luo Tangji's gaze with icy calm.
As Luo Tangji vanished into the woods, her parting words lingered:
"These five corpses will feed my hawk. A fitting end."
The hawk screeched overhead, eager.
Alone, Luo Yao sank to her knees on blood-soaked earth.
Her eyes hollow, fixed on the stains left by fallen comrades.
A laugh escaped her—chilling, broken.
"No emotion... no family... Heh. How... perfect."
The sound was a dirge for a world that had shattered her.
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
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!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
