"The stench of blood is overwhelming."
"I almost thought we'd entered the Chaotic Zone."
As they drew closer to the Heavenly Sound Temple, the metallic tang of blood grew thicker in the air. It gave Chen Chang'an and Da Huang an eerie sense of déjà vu, as though they’d stepped back into the lawless lands of the Chaotic Zone.
"A sacred Buddhist sanctuary should be pure and holy."
"Then why does this place feel like… a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood?" Da Huang frowned, his expression twisted in disgust.
"Don’t just feel it—look for yourself."
Chen Chang'an’s face remained impassive as he flicked a finger, sending a streak of sword energy slashing across the ground, splitting the earth open in a long fissure.
The moment the crack appeared, the scent of blood intensified, flooding Da Huang’s senses.
"Is that… blood?"
Da Huang watched as a thick, crimson liquid slowly seeped from the crevice—human blood.
"Just how many people had to die for this?"
"Too many."
For the earth to be saturated like this, the death toll must have been staggering. Though the surface seemed undisturbed, the ground beneath was steeped in layers of congealed blood.
"Haven’t you noticed? Ever since we got here, the only people we’ve seen are monks. No one else."
Chen Chang'an’s words struck Da Huang like a revelation. It was true—lately, apart from monks, there had been no trace of ordinary folk.
Did this mean that within the domain of the Heavenly Sound Temple, only monks were allowed to exist? Were all others slaughtered for refusing the cloth?
If so… that was beyond cruel.
And was it even necessary? Couldn’t they have just driven them away?
"Let’s move ahead. There’s movement up ahead."
Chen Chang'an’s senses picked up something unusual hundreds of kilometers away.
"Hurry up!"
"Move faster, all of you!"
"Have you not eaten today?"
"Listen well—you are all sinners!"
"Being allowed to stay and build the Sacred Buddha’s golden statue is an honor!"
"And yet you dare slack off?"
A portly monk glared at the laborers before him, his eyes bulging with fury.
Thud!
One of the workers, exhausted from endless toil, collapsed to the ground. The others barely reacted, their faces blank with indifference.
This was a common sight. What had once stirred concern now only elicited numbness—they all knew what happened to those who fell.
Sure enough, as soon as the man hit the ground, a few monks hurried over to inspect him.
"Looks like he’s done for."
"Dispose of him, then. Useless waste."
"You two—throw him over there."
"Yes."
The monks hauled the unconscious man away and tossed him onto a nearby pile of corpses.
The mound of bodies had nearly reached the height of a small hill, the stench of decay thick in the air. The monks, long desensitized, turned and left without a second glance.
"How many people is this?"
"Damn it, even the Chaotic Zone has never seen something like this!"
The Chaotic Zone had its share of bloodshed and slaughter, but never had corpses been stacked so high.
Da Huang estimated the death count here had to be in the hundreds of thousands.
And that was just the dead. The living—forced into labor—numbered in the millions.
And these were only the ones they could see. What about the rest?
What about those who died even earlier?
Da Huang was someone who held no reverence for life and lacked any emotions, yet even he found the actions of these monks excessive upon witnessing such a scene.
Meanwhile, Chen Chang'an gazed at the towering framework of the giant Buddha statue in the distance, hundreds of meters high, and let out a cold laugh.
"Truly, a Buddha relies on gilded adornment."
"Is the Sacred Buddha of Tianyin Temple trying to erect a golden statue hundreds of meters tall?"
The more he learned, the more disgusted he became. Chen Chang'an now harbored utter contempt for this so-called Buddhist sect.
Not only were they hypocrites, but beneath the surface, they were downright vile.
"Destroy it."
"I despise such falsehood."
Had this Buddhist sect acted with integrity—even if they were outright villains—Chen Chang'an wouldn’t have cared, so long as they didn’t provoke him.
Take the Dragon Emperor Palace, for example. They were just as wicked, but since they didn’t cross Chen Chang'an, he had no reason to seek them out.
Good or evil, their actions meant nothing to him.
Chen Chang'an was never the type to take it upon himself to save the world.
But the sheer duplicity of this Buddhist sect filled him with unbearable revulsion.
"Destroy it. Damn it, I hate these kinds of people too," Da Huang growled.
"Let’s go!"
"Who goes there?"
The moment Chen Chang'an and Da Huang appeared, the leading monk’s expression twisted in alarm.
Such speed! How had they approached without him sensing it?
"Your executioner."
Chen Chang'an wasted no words. He struck instantly, beheading the leader.
At the same time, Da Huang showed no mercy either. His figure blurred as he moved, crushing every supervising monk with a single slap.
The sudden turn of events left all the laborers stunned.
Silence stretched endlessly. In that moment, their eyes were vacant, their minds blank.
"Get back, all of you!"
Chen Chang'an’s sharp command snapped them out of their daze. Though they didn’t understand his intentions, they obediently scrambled away.
Once they had retreated to a safe distance, Chen Chang'an flicked his wrist. A streak of sword energy shot forth, slashing toward the unfinished golden Buddha.
BOOM!
The deafening collapse of the golden statue struck deep into the souls of those present.
It was as though the boulder crushing their hearts and the chains binding their spirits had suddenly shattered.
"The golden Buddha has fallen!"
"Hahahaha! The golden Buddha has fallen!"
"Wuuu… I—I don’t have to work anymore!"
"Those damned monks finally got what they deserved!"
"But what now? The monks are dead, the Buddha is destroyed… Will we all be killed for this?"
Emotions ran wild—some were overjoyed, some exhilarated, some wept uncontrollably, while others feared the inevitable retribution from the Buddhist sect.
"Go. Meeting me was your good fortune."
At Chen Chang'an’s words, many finally remembered that this man before them was their savior.
"Thank you, benefactor, for saving us. But… you’ve made an enemy of the Sacred Buddha of Tianyin Temple."
"The Sacred Buddha’s power is immense, his wrath terrifying. He will never let you go."
"Benefactor, you must flee too."
"Yes, leave quickly! Otherwise, the Sacred Buddha will hunt you down."
Hearing their words, Chen Chang'an smiled. It seemed his efforts weren't wasted on people who still cared for others in such circumstances.
"I never intended to let him go anyway."
"You may leave now."
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
