Li Yan looked at the agonized ball of violet light on the ground and sighed softly. “If it wins, the sky is vast and the seas are boundless. If it loses, it turns to dust. This is its own choice—and its own tribulation.”
“You’re its master. What you can do now isn’t bear it for it, but believe in it.”
Believe in it.
Chen Guan’s body trembled faintly.
He looked at Baobao. The last glimmer in those golden pupils was slowly fading.
No.
He had never believed in some vague, ethereal will.
He only believed in himself.
Chen Guan drew a deep breath and closed his eyes once more.
He no longer tried to use his mental power to fight the void energy.
If he couldn’t fight it, then he would guide it.
If the void energy was a flood, he wouldn’t build a dam. Instead, he would carve an entirely new riverbed for it.
A bold idea—one bordering on madness—took shape in his mind.
The ability he had only recently evolved, the one called the Trickster, was founded on deception and substitution.
Since it could exchange reality and illusion, could he temporarily substitute Baobao’s body with a vessel capable of containing this power?
The junk he had gathered earlier finally came in handy.
His invisible mental power was no longer a violent torrent. It transformed into billions of fine, unseen threads, probing into the chaotic storm within Baobao’s body with unprecedented precision.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Chen Guan’s forehead, while his face grew visibly pale.
The strain this time was hundreds, even thousands, of times greater than when he had annihilated the crystal tower guards.
Every strand of mental power trembled on the verge of collapse under the energy’s onslaught, yet he continued to control them with pinpoint precision, weaving a phantom energy circuit inside Baobao’s body.
Using illusion as its foundation, he forcibly recreated the unique energy circulation system of the Void Crystal Turtle within Baobao.
The void energy that had been rampaging wildly suddenly seemed to find an outlet. It began to flow slowly along the channel Chen Guan had laid out.
It was still difficult to control, but it was no longer tearing Baobao apart destructively. At least, it had given him a chance to breathe.
Baobao’s anguished cries gradually subsided, replaced by heavy, suppressed breathing.
The black patterns that had spread across its body stopped expanding. Instead, they began to contract inward. Within the false circulation Chen Guan had woven, they collided and fused for the first time with Baobao’s original violet lightning power.
Crackle!
A bolt of violet lightning veined with black electricity exploded from Baobao and slammed into the wall beside them, leaving behind a bottomless hole. The crystal around its edges silently disintegrated.
“It worked.”
Li Yan’s pupils contracted.
It worked.
Chen Guan also let out a breath of relief, but he knew this was only the beginning.
Boom!
An aura more than ten times stronger than before erupted from Baobao.
Its tiny body was enveloped in a dense cocoon of purple-black light. Countless tiny spatial cracks continuously appeared and vanished across its surface.
Li Yan took one step forward. His mountain-like body shielded Chen Guan from behind, every muscle drawn taut, lightning already dancing across his skin.
This fluctuation had already surpassed the limits of the eighth rank.
Crack!
A fissure split open across the surface of the cocoon.
A claw wrapped in black patterns, a full circle larger than before, reached out from within.
It lightly swiped at the air.
Ssshh!
A half-meter-long black fissure appeared out of nowhere, like a zipper being pulled open.
Space had been torn apart.
The cocoon of light shattered with a thunderous boom.
The new Baobao appeared before them.
It had nearly doubled in size and now stood about half a man tall. Its lines remained elegant and sleek, but every muscle contained explosive power.
Its fur was a deep, shadowy purple, streaked with black patterns that flowed like a galaxy and flickered in rhythm with its breathing.
The most striking feature was its forehead.
A small diamond-shaped crystal formed of pure lightning floated silently above it, radiating a terrifying pressure.
Under the weight of that pressure, its originally harmless face had taken on an air of cold nobility.
It slowly opened its eyes.
Baobao glanced at its brand-new claws, then at the spatial rift that had yet to heal. For the first time, a thoughtful look appeared in its golden pupils.
Then it raised its head. Its gaze passed over Li Yan and landed on Chen Guan.
The majesty of a sovereign melted away in an instant.
“Awoo…?”
It tilted its head and let out a cry tinged with uncertainty and grievance.
Then it began walking toward Chen Guan. Reaching his feet, it rubbed its head—now a full circle larger than before—against his trouser leg with practiced familiarity.
The cry still sounded aggrieved, but the wild beast’s howl was gone.
In its place was something more akin to the voice of an intelligent creature.
In short, it looked like the child had finally gained some intelligence.
Chen Guan crouched down. Only after seeing the large head rubbing against his leg did his suspended heart finally settle back into his chest.
He reached out and carefully examined Baobao’s new form.
It was larger. Its aura was stronger. The pressure radiating from the lightning crystal on its forehead had already surpassed the eighth rank.
But that familiar feeling of complete dependence and trust had not changed.
It was still his Baobao.
Whether this leopard was simply kind-hearted and unwilling to forget its roots, or whether the insurance he had purchased from the system had finally kicked in, he had no idea.
“It’s all right now.” Chen Guan stroked the dark purple fur threaded with flowing black patterns. It felt even smoother than before.
“Awoo…”
Baobao narrowed its eyes in comfort. A satisfied purr rumbled in its throat.
Then it raised its head. Its dignified golden slit pupils reflected Chen Guan’s figure.
A rough, halting syllable forced its way from its throat, yet it entered both men’s ears with startling clarity.
“Chen… Gua.”
Chen Guan’s hand froze in midair.
He looked at Baobao, and Baobao looked back at him, tilting its head as if curious about the sound it had just made.
It tried again, this time much more fluently.
“Chen Gua.”
Chen Guan: “…”
He took back what he had just thought.
It was still a stupid leopard that couldn’t even get its tongue straight.
Beside him, Li Yan’s bronze-colored face was filled with shock.
“It… can talk now?”
This had completely exceeded everything he knew about the mutations of void creatures.
Demon beasts speaking human language was something no void creature had ever been capable of.
Most creatures dragged into the Void Realm were low-level beings. Regardless of their strength, this was a limitation of their species.
Even after mutation, they still could not gain intelligence or speak human words.
Yet this leopard, whose aura was clearly only at the ninth rank, had already accomplished such an incredible feat.
“Awoo?” Hearing Li Yan’s voice, Baobao seemed displeased with the large fellow. A low growl rumbled in its throat, and the lightning crystal on its forehead flashed once.
“Don’t start.” Chen Guan patted it on the head.
Baobao immediately withdrew its hostility and rubbed its head against Chen Guan again. It seemed to want to express the complicated emotions of having survived a near-death experience, yet it had no idea how to convey them. In its anxiety, it began spinning in circles.
As its emotions surged, the power it had only just integrated went out of control once more.
Boom!
An enormous aura, far more powerful than before, shot into the sky from Baobao’s body.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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.”
