Cangzhou.
Two individuals vying to be the most diligent were hard at work.
Li Yingling stood atop the water's surface, her spiritual senses probing deep into the river as she surveyed the water veins while casually remarking,
"Junior Brother, don’t you think our encounter with Senior Uncle Lingyu this time was a bit too coincidental?"
Li Xingtian had been observing the surrounding terrain and sketching a topographic map when he suddenly heard his senior sister’s unmistakably gossipy tone.
Her implication was clear—Li Yingling suspected their so-called "chance meeting" in Cangzhou was anything but accidental. It was likely that their Master and Senior Uncle Xie had coordinated this behind the scenes.
After a brief pause, Li Xingtian decided against indulging in gossip about their Master and replied calmly,
"It’s nothing unusual. Where there’s opportunity, people will naturally gather."
Li Yingling shot him a skeptical look. "You’ve changed after your trip to the Central Continent. You never used to speak so diplomatically. What happened to my straightforward junior brother?"
Li Xingtian ignored her remark, his expression suddenly turning serious as he focused on the eastern sky, his spiritual energy surging.
Li Yingling reacted swiftly, summoning her spiritual sword as she tensed in alert.
Within moments, however, Li Xingtian withdrew his aura, having assessed the situation.
A small figure streaked toward them, accompanied by a familiar voice:
"Not bad, you two youngsters actually sensed me."
Qinghe landed gracefully on the river’s surface, looking at them with an approving smile.
"Though the Tianyan Sect’s concealment techniques are mediocre, it’s rare for someone a whole realm below me to detect me. You’ve cultivated well—no wonder Grandma Bai thinks highly of you."
Li Yingling studied Qinghe’s smug expression, finding it hard to reconcile with the memory of the dragon being thoroughly thrashed by their Master not long ago, pinned at the bottom of the river.
This little flood dragon clearly had a short memory when it came to beatings.
Still, the incident had been somewhat disrespectful to Qinghe, and Li Yingling couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty.
She sheathed her sword and asked, "Weren’t you supposed to be resting? Why come here?"
"Ah, resting was just a joke! Ask anyone in the Tianyan Sect—I’m known for my diligence."
Qinghe thumped his chest proudly, adopting the air of a model worker. At least until these two visited the sect, he could boast with confidence.
"Besides," he continued, "surveying water veins isn’t easy for humans. It’s quite troublesome."
Though Li Yingling didn’t buy a word of it, she nodded understandingly.
"In that case, my junior brother and I will survey eastward while you take the west. We can compare notes later to complete the map."
Qinghe froze. Splitting up meant no slacking off!
He’d only come because he’d teased Xie Lingyu earlier—if he didn’t put in some effort now, there’d be consequences.
And if Xie Lingyu let slip that he’d sold out Grandma Bai’s trip to Yuzhou City…
Knowing Grandma Bai’s temper, he’d be banished from the mountainside to the sect gates.
"Water veins are complex," Qinghe hastily interjected. "Let’s stick together. If you make a mistake, we’d have to backtrack."
Li Yingling saw right through him. This dragon hadn’t changed—he’d clearly been strong-armed into working after crossing their Master and Senior Uncle Xie.
Still, out of lingering guilt, she maintained a convincingly earnest expression and agreed,
"Very well, we’ll work together. Please bear with us if we make any errors."
Qinghe’s heart swelled with relief at her unquestioning acceptance.
This kid was still too naive.
So easy to fool.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
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?!
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
