"Cheap tricks!"
Hong Yuan shouted, her giant axe smashing into the ground with a howling gust of wind.
The powerful impact shattered all the ground spikes, sending rubble flying in every direction.
She was completely unharmed, though the maneuver delayed her for a brief moment.
"Watch and learn, you brute."
Yin Chen's tone was full of disdain. His figure flickered, and in the blink of an eye, he had already crossed several dozen feet.
Ahead of him, invisible wind blades formed at his fingertips, slicing into the weak points of the mechanisms—not a fraction of an inch off.
The traps disintegrated before they could even be triggered.
One in front and one behind, their teamwork was... well, you couldn't call it flawless. It was more like they were each playing their own game.
Chen Guan walked behind the two of them, his gaze sweeping over every detail of the corridor.
A smile surfaced on his face.
Using his illusions, he outlined the ground spike mechanisms with a faint halo in Hong Yuan's field of vision.
He also delayed their trigger timing by half a beat, giving her plenty of time to react.
Meanwhile, in Yin Chen's perception, the presence of those mechanisms was magnified several times over, exposing their flaws completely.
"Roar!"
The first demonic beast projection charged out. It was massive, resembling a giant ape, and covered entirely in rock.
It roared as it lunged fiercely toward Hong Yuan.
Hong Yuan's breathing grew heavy, battle intent radiating from her body.
She swung her giant axe with the momentum to split mountains and shatter stones.
Left arm, joint.
With a thought from Chen Guan, his illusion quietly took effect.
In Hong Yuan's vision, a red line flashed across the joint of the giant ape's left arm.
Without a moment's hesitation, her giant axe whistled through the air, striking precisely where the red line had marked.
Crack!
The rock ape's left arm snapped off on impact.
It let out a wail, its body losing balance.
Hong Yuan pressed her advantage, cleaving it in half with a single axe strike.
"Haha! I'm in great form today!" Hong Yuan excitedly shook the rubble off her axe, completely forgetting about that strange line exposing the flaw.
Yin Chen's figure turned into a streak of silver light, weaving through the pack of demonic beasts.
His wind blades howled and ice spikes condensed; every strike aimed straight for the beasts' vitals, never missing its mark.
On the right, the third one, center of the brow.
Chen Guan's illusion silently guided him once again.
In the corner of Yin Chen's eye, a faint dot of light lit up right between the brows of a demonic beast attempting a sneak attack.
He flicked his finger, and a wind blade tore through the air, hitting the spot of light dead center and piercing the shadow leopard's skull.
"Cheap tricks."
Yin Chen's tone carried a hint of contempt. He felt that his perception had improved significantly again; no sneaker attacker could hide from his senses.
Chen Guan followed behind the two of them, watching them slaughter everything in their path. He kept a low profile, trailing quietly with zero presence. Even the demonic beasts couldn't detect him, opting instead to go play with his two enforcers.
The higher they went, the stronger and more bizarre the demonic beast projections became. Yet Yin Chen and Hong Yuan also felt themselves growing more powerful, their confidence soaring.
When the trio reached the final floor before the top of the tower, they found that it was no longer a narrow corridor, but a spacious circular hall.
In the center of the hall, a bat-like demonic beast projection with a human face hovered in midair.
Its eyes were tightly shut, yet it radiated invisible psychic ripples outward.
"A spiritual-type demonic beast."
Yin Chen's face darkened, his tone turning serious.
"Careful. It can create illusions and strike directly at the mind."
"Illusions? I'll just chop it with my axe and be done with it!" Hong Yuan scoffed, raising her giant axe once more.
"Roar!"
The bat beast's eyes snapped open.
Waves of invisible psychic shockwaves instantly enveloped the three of them.
Hong Yuan's eyes lost their focus.
The scenes she least wanted to face flashed before her eyes, and the trajectory of her axe swings fell into disarray.
Yin Chen's movements also halted for a moment.
He saw his own arrogance magnified infinitely, culminating in a vision of crushing defeat. Cold sweat seeped from his forehead.
The bat beast let out an ear-piercing shriek.
Its illusions began to erode their minds, attempting to drag them completely into despair.
Just at that moment, an invisible ripple spread outward, with Chen Guan at its center.
Buzz.
The bat beast's illusion collapsed and disintegrated the instant it touched this ripple.
Its eyes bulged wide open, filled with unprecedented terror.
Its shriek caught in its throat, and its body trembled uncontrollably in midair.
The light returned to Hong Yuan and Yin Chen's eyes.
Their vision merely blurred for a second before the illusions plaguing them vanished without a trace.
"What just happened?" Hong Yuan looked around in bewilderment.
Yin Chen quickly turned his head to look at the bat beast.
He could clearly sense that what the beast was giving off was a terror on the verge of total collapse.
"The... the apocalypse?"
The bat beast squeezed a few dry syllables from its mouth, its voice full of despair. It had seen a heaven-piercing blaze and felt that the end of the world was right before its eyes.
It didn't even care about fighting anymore. Its body flipped backward as it flew away, desperately trying to flee the area.
"Trying to run?"
Hong Yuan didn't care about any of that nonsense. Her body reacted faster than her brain; she was not about to let her prey escape.
Her giant axe whistled through the air, directly taking down the terrified bat beast.
The trio successfully reached the top of the tower.
In the center of the tower's peak stood a beacon. Yin Chen stepped ahead and slapped his hand onto it, ending the challenge.
"Mission accomplished."
Hong Yuan excitedly hoisted her axe onto her shoulder, panting heavily, her face brimming with the thrill of conquest.
But Yin Chen's gaze silently drifted toward Chen Guan amidst the faint blue glow of the beacon.
Chen Guan maintained his usual calm and indifferent demeanor, looking as though everything that just happened had nothing to do with him.
"Earlier... was that you?"
Yin Chen's voice was low, his previous flippancy gone, replaced by a serious expression.
He was referring to the spiritual-type beast's bizarre behavior.
Before Chen Guan could answer, Instructor Jing's voice echoed throughout the Myriad Demon Tower via the broadcast system.
"Congratulations to Squad One for completing the mission at record-breaking speed."
Instructor Jing's voice was as gentle as ever, but the implication behind his words was impossible to read.
Outside the Myriad Demon Tower, all the cadets were present. They had gradually finished their trials earlier, and another squad had been sent away for failing to qualify.
Instructor Jing stood on the high platform, his expression as mild and amicable as always.
That perpetually smiling face made it impossible to discern his true emotions.
He led the applause, the clapping echoing exceptionally loud across the empty training ground.
"Let us congratulate Squad One. Not only did they complete the mission, but they also set the fastest clearance record in the Myriad Demon Tower since the Crucible was established."
His gaze swept over the crowd, taking in everyone's reactions.
"We must thank student Hong Yuan. Her fearless valor cleared the most obstacles for the team."
Hearing this, Hong Yuan smugly raised her chin and rested her giant axe heavily onto her shoulder.
"We must likewise thank student Yin Chen. His pinpoint judgment dismantled countless lethal traps."
Yin Chen gave a slight nod, his silver hair flowing with an elegant luster under the lights, but his gaze subtly flicked to his side.
Instructor Jing paused for a moment, the smile lines around his lips deepening slightly.
He focused his eyes on the person who had remained silent all along.
"Of course, the one we should thank the most is student Chen Guan."
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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!
