Inside the pavilion.
The chess match continued for a while.
First game: Ye Wangchuan narrowly defeated Li Luo.
Li Luo shook her head, not caring much.
After all, he was from a prestigious family, so he must have learned some chess.
She was just a bit rusty.
Second game: Ye Wangchuan narrowly defeated Li Luo again.
Li Luo began to grow impatient, her composure cracking.
So close… just so close!!
If she had changed her strategy, she definitely could have won!
Third game: Ye Wangchuan narrowly lost to Li Luo.
Li Luo was overjoyed. Haha! Finally, a win!
But why didn’t Ye Wangchuan provide any villain emotional points?
Did he not care about winning or losing?
Fourth game: Ye Wangchuan narrowly defeated Li Luo once more.
Li Luo’s frustration boiled over again.
Damn it! If only she hadn’t made that mistake a few moves ago…
At the very least, she needed to win back what she had lost!
Fifth game: Ye Wangchuan made an accidental mistake—and utterly crushed Li Luo.
Li Luo: “…”
“Ye Wangchuan, were you deliberately letting me win by a narrow margin?”
As Li Luo handed the third cultivation pill to Ye Wangchuan,
her remaining villain emotional points dropped to 290.
And finally, Li Luo figured something out.
“I’m done playing…” Li Luo said, biting her lip.
“Come on, one more game. If I lose, I’ll give you three cultivation pills,” Ye Wangchuan said, holding up three fingers.
“No… I’m… I’m done!” Li Luo stammered, decisively standing up and leaving.
Ugh!
Ye Wangchuan, not only is he good at chess,
but he can also control the game!!!
If he hadn’t made that mistake in the fifth game and crushed her, she would’ve been tempted to play a few more rounds!
Seeing Li Luo’s aggrieved expression, Ye Wangchuan chuckled softly and stood up.
He patted Li Luo’s shoulder and comforted her.
“Actually, I lost that game on purpose too.”
“Shut up!!!!!”
And so, the chess game came to an end.
Later.
The two wandered around other parts of the Longevity Palace.
Slacking off, gazing at the moon, admiring flowers.
These romantic scenes…
None of that happened!
The entire time, Li Luo was thinking about how to squeeze out more villain emotional points.
Ye Wangchuan, on the other hand, was thinking about how to squeeze out more pills.
The two aimlessly wandered around together.
Then, Ye Wangchuan suddenly asked,
“Want to go outside for a walk?”
“Huh? Won’t there be wild beasts?”
Li Luo looked up, puzzled.
Ye Wangchuan shook his head and explained,
“This spiritual mountain is where Master Fang Que resides. She must regularly clear out the dangerous beasts.”
“Uh, I don’t think she’s that diligent…”
Li Luo muttered a few words but didn’t refuse.
She figured she’d be staying on this spiritual mountain for a while, so it wouldn’t hurt to familiarize herself with the area.
She tiptoed toward the gates of the Longevity Palace.
Standing in place,
Ye Wangchuan watched Li Luo’s bouncing figure, a faint smile on his lips.
He pulled out a talisman from his pocket and examined it.
On the talisman were four large characters:
“Beast Control Talisman.”
As the name suggested, this talisman was used to control wild beasts.
Previously, the Third Elder of the Ye Family had used this talisman to control the giant turtle.
Ye Wangchuan had specifically requested this talisman from the Third Elder.
As for what Ye Wangchuan planned to do with it…
He was going to use it to squeeze more treasures out of Li Luo.
In the wilderness.
The two walked and stopped, wandering for half an hour.
They saw many rare treasures and friendly animals.
By now, Li Luo’s legs were sore.
After all, she hadn’t even reached the first level of cultivation yet—she was just a little girl with poor physical stamina.
“Ye Wangchuan, carry me,” Li Luo said.
“If you’re tired, go back to your room and sleep,” Ye Wangchuan replied dismissively.
“It’s too far to the Longevity Palace. I’ll give you one cultivation pill,” Li Luo offered.
“One Foundation Building Pill,” Ye Wangchuan countered.
“So expensive! Your back is more costly than a mansion for a day!” Li Luo cursed.
But her legs were indeed sore.
Li Luo looked around, planning to find a rock to sit on and rest.
Hmph, I’m not giving you a Foundation Building Pill!
If Ye Wangchuan squeezes another pill out of me,
I’ll write my name backward!
As Li Luo searched for a rock to rest on,
on the other side,
Ye Wangchuan chuckled softly.
Her legs are sore? Perfect timing.
With that thought, Ye Wangchuan stealthily reached into his pocket.
He then pricked his finger and smeared the blood on the Beast Control Talisman.
As the blood touched the talisman,
in the bushes, a bear was peacefully sleeping.
The next moment, a talisman on the bear’s body lit up.
…
On a rock.
Li Luo sat on the rock, swinging her legs, waiting for her stamina to recover.
Ye Wangchuan stood nearby, leaning on his spear stuck in the ground.
It seemed like the night would pass uneventfully.
But then—
“ROAR!!!”
A deafening roar erupted from the bushes beside Li Luo.
The sound was terrifying, enough to send chills down one’s spine.
Ye Wangchuan was startled!
He immediately reacted, kicking Li Luo aside and pulling his spear in front of him!
Clang—!
A metallic clang rang out!
Along with it came a tremendous force slamming into the spear!
The force pushed Ye Wangchuan back four meters, his feet carving deep grooves into the dirt before he finally stopped.
Only then did Ye Wangchuan and Li Luo see the source of the roar.
It was a creature resembling a polar bear.
But it was much larger, standing at a towering three and a half meters!
It weighed at least one and a half tons!
Its fur wasn’t soft and fluffy but instead resembled countless steel needles densely covering its body.
It was as if it was naturally armored in steel.
Thus, it was known as the Armored Bear!
To Ye Zhentian, Old Man Li, or even Ye Bai, this Armored Bear might have been easy to defeat.
But unfortunately, the only ones present were Ye Wangchuan and Li Luo.
Ye Wangchuan’s eyes narrowed.
This Armored Bear was at least at the late first level of human cultivation.
With that in mind, Ye Wangchuan spoke gravely to Li Luo behind him.
“Li Luo, go find Master Fang Que.”
“Got it!”
Li Luo scrambled to her feet, not wasting any time.
A massive, silver-spiked polar bear had just appeared in front of her—she knew she couldn’t fight it.
Rather than staying and being a burden to Ye Wangchuan, it was better to go get help.
The moment they finished speaking, the Armored Bear attacked again.
“ROAR—!!!”
The Armored Bear plunged its claws into the ground, pulling out a half-meter-wide chunk of dirt and hurling it at Ye Wangchuan.
Whoosh—!
Ye Wangchuan swiftly swung his spear, shattering the dirt chunk.
As the dirt broke apart, a cloud of dust formed, slightly obscuring his vision.
Ye Wangchuan focused intently, and when he saw a flash of silver through the dust, he immediately stepped back!
Boom—!
The Armored Bear, having just thrown the dirt, charged to where Ye Wangchuan had been standing and slammed its fists down with immense force!
The ground trembled, cracks spreading everywhere!
This Armored Bear had a certain level of intelligence!
It knew to use the dust as cover to launch a surprise attack!
If not for Ye Wangchuan’s sharp instincts, he would’ve taken that hit head-on.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
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)
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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.
