Year One of the Eighth Epoch.
[Sealed Library].
The Scholars’ Institute, the Witches, and the various societies had arranged for sixteen high-ranking mystics. Each held a book in hand as they made their way to their designated sealing point.
The last [Reading Day] had taken place in Year 3720 of the Seventh Epoch, only forty-three years ago.
The rooftop of a shopping center.
When only [Cicada] and [Stone Speaker] were together, they usually addressed each other by name rather than by code name.
“Shi Buyi, why did you arrange all those plans for this [Reading Day]? We all know this is the most unusual one, but aside from Lady Chen Pi, no one knows what makes it special. Why are you still refusing to tell me?”
Shi Buyi shook his head. “I don’t know why the [Reading Day], which should have arrived two days from now, came early. I was caught off guard too.”
“You expect me to believe that? If you really didn’t know, would you have chosen this particular [Reading Day] to make your move?”
Only when facing Xia Chong, his childhood friend, did Shi Buyi show even the slightest hint of emotion.
He frowned. “Do you think I had a choice? If I didn’t act this year, I’d have to wait another 120 years. Who could live that long?”
This time, Xia Chong believed him. “Sigh. It is strange. I once asked Teacher Chen Pi about it, since she’s the one who initiates and sets every [Reading Day].”
“Looks like she didn’t give you an answer.”
“Teacher didn’t seem to consider it a secret, but I really couldn’t understand her. She said, ‘Why does there have to be a reason? It’s simply meant to be this way.’”
“Forget it. There’s no need to mention useless information. Let’s prepare to repair the seal.”
“Ah.” Xia Chong sighed again. “I wanted to talk with you a little longer. We might not have another chance after this.”
Shi Buyi’s brow tightened. “What do you mean?”
Xia Chong sat down on the ground and gazed up at the sky.
“Shi Buyi, I came here with you so that you would die here.”
Shi Buyi’s expression remained blank. “You’re the person with the least reason to kill me.”
“Of course. We’ve been best friends since childhood. How could I kill you? I only want you to die here.”
“Xia Chong, time is precious. Stop beating around the bush.”
“Do you think all sixteen seals throughout the city are the same?”
“Of course not. The three beneath the Scholars’ Institute, the Society Alliance, and the City Library are the strongest. They’re the three most important sites.”
Xia Chong shook his head. “There are secrets you don’t know. If you connect the three places you mentioned into a triangle, you’ll find that its center is the shopping center beneath our feet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the other fifteen sites are all the same. Only the one beneath us is the core sealing point of the entire city. More than three thousand years ago, this was the building where Teacher Chen Pi laid out the seal.
“It needs the strongest person to guard it, and that person must pay the greatest price.”
Shi Buyi laughed. “Then I really did come to the right place. Back at the Scholars’ Institute, did you deliberately provoke me into taking this site?”
“Yes. If I hadn’t, you probably would have chosen the seal beneath the Scholars’ Institute.”
“Haha… Xia Chong, Xia Chong. From childhood to adulthood, you’ve used every little trick you know to manipulate me. You tutored me when we were children, deliberately distanced yourself from me after entering the Scholars’ Institute, acted as mediator between me and the witches, and now you’ve tricked me into coming here to die.”
Xia Chong did not smile. “Shi Buyi, give it everything you have, and then… die here.”
Shi Buyi fell silent for a long time. “Die here? I’m not willing to. There’s no point saying more. Let’s begin the restoration ritual. I want to see just how great a price this so-called core requires.”
Xia Chong said nothing more. He took a long look at Shi Buyi, as if he wanted to engrave his friend’s face into his memory, then turned and walked away.
Watching Xia Chong’s back gradually disappear, Shi Buyi smiled again.
“You’re always like this. Thank you for your good intentions.”
Once all sixteen participants had arrived and completed their preparations, signals were sent from every site.
The restoration ritual officially began.
Unlike any ritual recorded in history, something incredibly strange happened this time.
Hundreds of book anomalies flew toward the sixteen sealing points. They did nothing, merely hovering quietly around the sixteen restorers.
[Stone Speaker] held the codex he never allowed to leave his side. Ignoring the countless book anomalies around him, he stood motionless and recited from it while the sealing formation beneath his feet siphoned energy from his body.
[Stone Speaker] was immensely powerful—he could even be called the strongest person in the Sealed Library. The energy within him was vast beyond measure.
Yet no matter how immense that energy was, it seemed insignificant before the seemingly bottomless pull of the core sealing point. Before an hour had passed, he was nearly drained dry.
The first strand of white appeared at his temples.
A book flew out from among the onlookers.
“I am Withering Poems. Scholar, stop. Your restoration is meaningless.”
[Stone Speaker] looked up at it. “I know who you are. You’re one of the leaders among the book anomalies. You want to stop us from repairing the seal?”
Withering Poems swayed gently from side to side.
“We don’t need to stop you. You’re incapable of repairing it.”
“Why not?”
“Because the seal can only be repaired on [Reading Day]. The seal failed two days earlier than expected this time. Today is not [Reading Day].”
Stone Speaker was not the only one to receive this information. The people at several other sites learned of it as well.
The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard. For a moment, the entire command center lost its bearings, unable to decide what to do.
If they couldn’t even repair the seal, how could they stop the nearly nine hundred anomalies?
Just then, [Stone Speaker] issued a command to everyone outside:
“Everyone, continue supplying energy. Repair the seal.”
Another book flew out from beside Withering Poems. Its title read The Book of Tear Stains.
It shouted, “Stupid Stone Man, you don’t even have tears! Hmph! Do you think we’re lying to you? We told you—it isn’t [Reading Day]. The seal can’t be repaired!”
[Stone Speaker] shook his head. “My knowledge comes from books. I believe books do not lie.”
“Then why are you still telling them to continue?”
[Stone Speaker] stood ramrod straight, his black hair fluttering as eight stone gates appeared behind him. He opened his power to maximum output, pushing himself beyond his limits. Veins bulged across his face, and his hair turned completely white.
“Laws and concepts are all defined by human beings. Today, I, [Stone Speaker], declare:
“We who read, so long as we hold a book in our hands and open it with sincere hearts, are granted a [Reading Day] every day.
“Today is [Reading Day]!”
As he finished speaking, the world around him seemed to blur.
The familiar surroundings vanished, and he found himself standing on a rooftop decorated in an entirely different style.
Before him stood an orange-haired woman, positioned in front of a tall, ornate chair. She, too, held a book in her hands and was reading.
The moment their eyes met across the distance, he recalled the records passed down through the Scholars’ Institute and spoke softly:
“On [Reading Day], Year One of the Eighth Epoch, Scholar [Stone Speaker] read the Civil Code.”
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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!
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.
