Western Bull Continent, Huangliang City.
Time is a curious thing—sometimes it feels like it flies by, and other times it feels like nothing has changed at all.
Chu Xingchen strolled through the city, a faint sense of familiarity stirring within him. The damage here had been severe back then, and though the reconstruction had naturally brought some differences, the overall layout still bore the shadows of its original form.
This time, it wasn't Bai Xuanling accompanying Chu Xingchen by his side.
Xie Lingyu had a longsword at her waist, her steps casual and unhurried as she walked beside Chu Xingchen.
Yuan Kong had gone back to the Tianyan Sect for business, which meant Xie Lingyu was free to tag along.
Li Yingling had sent word that he'd discovered something extraordinary. With fortune guiding him, Chu Xingchen was willing to believe that this "extraordinary" thing was almost certainly the real deal.
As for overseeing the situation in Western Bull Continent, it'd be better for a walking weapon of mass destruction like Bai Xuanling to head over to Li Yingling's side instead.
"Did you grow eyes on your ass or something? Can't watch where you're going—can't you even use your nose? A man that big and you can't smell him coming?"
"Shit, something stinkier than dog crap is what you want my ass to sniff?"
"I'll smack your—
"You smack me and I'll smack you back—
Chu Xingchen overheard this exchange and couldn't help but shake his head with a slight smile—now that's the spirit. This was the real Western Bull Continent.
The street just wasn't the same without a couple of insults flying around.
Xie Lingyu had clearly never been to Western Bull Continent before. She wasn't used to such brutally straightforward, no-filter folk culture, and her expression shifted through a series of subtle reactions—her lips parted as if to speak, but in the end, she said nothing.
Chu Xingchen noticed this and chuckled teasingly:
"Listen to this for six months and then head back to the Tianyan Sect—don't even mention Yanyun, even Sect Leader Lü would take a detour around you. Full of authority and awe."
"Your understanding of the word 'authority' might be a bit off, don't you think?"
"No way, it fits perfectly—you'd radiate a presence that makes people terrified!"
"That's probably just bad breath, you mean?"
"Tsk tsk, this is clearly a place of enlightenment. Too bad your talent isn't sharp enough to grasp its hidden wonders."
"You're talking nonsense…"
"Hmph, if Qinghe stayed here for three years…"
Chu Xingchen paused, leaving the sentence hanging with an air of deliberate ambiguity, then raised an eyebrow slightly.
Xie Lingyu slowed her steps, pondered for a moment, and spoke in a firm tone:
"First chance I get, I'm telling Shifu that there's no way Qinghe's setting foot in Western Bull Continent. If that dragon picks up good habits, she stays a dumb beast, but if she picks up bad ones, she'd become a true menace. Best case for Qinghe here: either we break her legs or we duct-tape her mouth shut."
Chu Xingchen nodded with a smile.
What a pity for Qinghe—looked like she really wouldn't get to experience this dragon-brand path of enlightenment after all.
The street-side cursing varied in intensity.
In Western Bull Continent, defending the one you love was all about how sharp your tongue was.
With enough accumulated practice, their insults had turned into something like a crude art form.
Simple and brutal, yet somehow carrying a rough, pungent aftertaste that slammed straight into your head—the more you thought about it, the more infuriating it got.
Xie Lingyu followed Chu Xingchen down two streets and had passively absorbed countless new swear words and insult techniques. If she learned another two streets' worth, she figured there wouldn't be many decent words left in her vocabulary.
She spoke up, asking: "So who exactly are we here to find?"
"Lizhi," Chu Xingchen replied. "An old acquaintance. One reason is to catch up, and the other is—ask her for info, it might not be fully accurate, but it's bound to come with a fun surprise."
Chu Xingchen turned down another street and spotted a certain Lizhi at a tea stall ahead.
There she was—Lizhi, wearing the uniform of a captain of the Patrol Sky Bureau. One foot was planted on a chair, the other stretched across a table. Her body leaned forward slightly, and around her sat a group of members clad in the same Patrol Sky Bureau attire, their faces burning with irritation and excitement as she declared:
"Damn it, you think Captain Lizhi here is bluffing to you brats?"
"Captain, saying that is definitely bluffing. What do you mean you and Chu Xingchen go way back? Back when demons ran rampant across Western Bull Continent, you met Xu Jin, a core disciple of the Xuantian Qing Sect, Xu Jin passed the message to Chu Xingchen, and then Chu Xingchen brought people from three sects to save Western Bull Continent? The probability of that wild tale being true is about the same as me comprehending the Great Dao tomorrow and ascending through tribulation the day after."
"Exactly, Captain! So by that logic, Western Bull Continent was saved because of you? Captain, your golden core must have been watered down—you ain't even drunk, just had a sip of tea and now you're spitting nonsense?"
Lizhi jabbed a finger at the teammate who'd spoken last:
"If you put it that way—yes! It was me, Lizhi, who saved the entire Western Bull Continent back then! The only reason you sorry whelps are alive to doubt me is because I saved all your sorry little hides!"
No one on her team replied to that. Instead, they all answered with even louder, more raucous laughter.
Hearing these little brats' smug cackling, Lizhi sighed in resignation, waved a hand, and begrudgingly brought her foot down from the table. She wiped off the little stool she'd been stepping on with her other shoe, then sat back down with a sour look on her face.
"Y'all got no brains. Can't recognize plain truths when they're smack in front of your faces."
One of the junior members took a sip of tea, then chuckled lightly:
"We all know that the captain met Chu Xingchen back then. Quite a few people saw it at the time, so there's no faking that. It's just that he's already famous throughout the Five Continents and Ten Thousand Regions now—too far above us."
Lizhi's expression shifted slightly at those words, then she said in a resolute tone:
"But no matter what, back then it was Chu Xingchen who came with the three sects, and he genuinely saved my life and yours as well. I'll remember that kindness."
The young team member saw how serious Lizhi looked, thought for a moment, and then asked curiously:
"Captain, was Chu Xingchen really that fun to talk to? He doesn't seem like someone from Zhongzhou at all—more like someone from our Xiniu Hezhou."
Lizhi seemed to recall something at that, and then laughed:
"Hahaha, of course! Didn't I tell you—the very first thing Chu Xingchen said to me when we met?"
"Heck, if they don't believe it, let me say it myself."
A sudden voice came from behind Lizhi.
Only then did the group look up, and saw Chu Xingchen and Xie Lingyu approaching, dressed in luxurious robes.
Lizhi turned around at once, her gaze landing on Chu Xingchen, who stood right behind her. Her eyes widened, and her mouth—which never stumbled when she was cursing—suddenly stammered:
"Chu... Chu..."
Chu Xingchen crossed his arms:
"Well, well, little Lizhi, long time no see. Have you had your fill of lychees?"
"Not yet..." Lizhi finally answered, then her eyes lit up with joy, and she instinctively wiped her hands. "Senior Chu, what brings you to Xiniu Hezhou?"
"The fake answer is that I had nothing better to do and came for a stroll." Chu Xingchen chuckled. "The real answer is that it's confidential, so I can't tell you."
Lizhi gave a silly laugh at that.
Chu Xingchen raised an eyebrow slightly. "Are you free lately? There's something I'd like to ask you."
"Of course I am!" Lizhi patted the clothes she was wearing. "I don't even need to file a leave request these days—I just approve it myself."
Chu Xingchen nodded with a smile, then walked off to the side.
Lizhi immediately cast aside her dumbstruck, wide-eyed team members and followed Chu Xingchen's steps.
Chu Xingchen glanced at her sideways: "Not bad—you're already at the early Golden Core stage. Truly a genius, Lizhi."
"Of course." Lizhi smiled, then a thought struck her and she said seriously:
"I'm in the Golden Core realm now. That old monk from last time definitely wasn't at Golden Core—you must have been lying to me."
Chu Xingchen replied without even blinking:
"Do you think a Golden Core in Xiniu Hezhou is the same as a Golden Core in Zhongzhou?"
Lizhi froze, and her confidence evaporated in an instant:
"Is... is that so?"
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?!
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.
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!
