Ye Qing was suddenly startled. "Who's there?"
As he turned around, a figure clad in black appeared right behind him.
"You again???"
Ye Qing was on the verge of losing his mind. He knew this guy all too well.
The first time he went to the Jiang family, he was beaten to a pulp and had to crawl ten miles alone. And this guy had been tailing him the whole time—a grandmaster-level expert who enjoyed playing dirty, ambushing people from the shadows.
It wasn’t until he joined the Fateweavers' Association that he finally stopped sensing this stalker. But now... this damn shadow lurker was back?
"I-I-I..."
The black-clad puppet hovered in the air, its robes fluttering in the wind, revealing only a pair of eerie crimson pupils.
"I heard you plan to make a move against our young master?"
Ye Qing panicked. This was a grandmaster! Even at his peak, escaping unscathed would’ve been nearly impossible, let alone now when his strength was severely suppressed.
"No, I would never say such a thing!" Ye Qing frantically waved his hands, almost dropping to his knees in surrender.
"Hmph. And you dare covet the young master’s woman? You won’t leave here alive today!" The puppet unleashed its full Skyrending-stage cultivation, its oppressive aura overwhelming.
Ye Qing instantly collapsed to his knees.
This guy was at the Skyrending stage? That level of pressure was something he’d only ever felt from his own master.
"P-please, spare me! I was wrong!"
But it was clear the puppet had already made up its mind—or rather, Jiang Che, who was controlling it, had.
This bastard actually dared to lust after his woman?
Unforgivable! How dare this ugly wretch try to tarnish his reputation while wearing his face?
The Skyrending-stage puppet raised its massive hand, compressing the surrounding air into a pure energy palm strike aimed directly at Ye Qing—this time, with lethal intent!
"No! Master, save me—!" Ye Qing screamed.
At that very moment, a necklace around his neck erupted in a blinding golden light.
The space around him rippled, and within the radiance, a figure gradually materialized.
A white-robed, white-bearded elder with a sword strapped to his back appeared, standing atop a white crane, exuding an immortal-like aura—utterly majestic.
Ye Qing rubbed his eyes, his entire body trembling with excitement.
This was his grandmaster—the Half-Step Transcendent, the White Jade Sword Immortal, Li Changfeng!
"Master! Master, you have to save me!"
But the projection of his master didn’t even glance at him. His gaze remained calm, his sword still sheathed.
"Who are you, sir? Why do you seek to harm my disciple?"
Meanwhile, Jiang Che, controlling the puppet from afar, narrowed his eyes. As expected... a protagonist like Ye Qing wasn’t so easy to kill!
He’d even summoned his master?
Cross-dimensional teleportation? Impossible. If that were feasible, Ye Qing’s masters would’ve arrived long ago.
So this had to be a one-time trump card. But Ye Qing’s grandmaster was, at best, a Half-Step Transcendent—how could he possibly manifest a combat-capable avatar?
Just as Jiang Che was pondering this, Li Changfeng spoke again.
"This humble Daoist is the White Jade Sword Immortal, Li Changfeng, a Transcendent expert. Grant me this face and spare my disciple."
A few seconds later, the projection repeated, "This humble Daoist is the White Jade Sword Immortal... spare my disciple."
Then, every thirty seconds, it repeated the same words. Clearly... this was just a damn recording.
Jiang Che burst out laughing. "Attack! Let’s see what kind of trump card this Half-Step Transcendent master left for Ye Qing!"
The puppet struck again with a killing blow, instantly dispersing the summoned projection.
As the light faded, Ye Qing’s face twisted as if he’d swallowed a fly.
"Master... you’ve doomed me!"
But the next second, the necklace glowed again, and the white-bearded elder reappeared—a second encore!
"It seems you truly wish to make an enemy of Li Changfeng? Do you know I have cultivated for five hundred years—"
Before he could finish, the projection was shattered again.
Hat trick—the projection returned once more.
"Very well! Since you refuse reason, I shall give you one final chance—"
Another palm strike, another dispersal.
"You dare treat this old man as a pushover?"
Jiang Che yawned, bored. This old Daoist clearly had nothing substantial—just bluffing with a fancy projection.
Ye Qing, cowering behind the flickering avatar, was utterly numb.
Once, his master’s presence alone could shield him from all storms. But now, this flimsy projection offered zero security—full of holes!
"Enough!!! Do you truly believe Li Changfeng cannot strike across realms? Witness... Ten Thousand Swords Return to Origin!"
In an instant, an overwhelming sword intent filled the air, carrying an aura of absolute annihilation.
"Oh? Can he actually attack across dimensions? Did I underestimate him?"
Still, Jiang Che wasn’t worried. Even if the puppet was destroyed, he could revive it for just 10,000 system points. Chen Hao had already earned him over a million points from Ye Qing alone.
The white-bearded elder’s aura grew sharper, the pressure of countless swords gathering into a devastating force!
The momentum peaked—
"Disciple, RUN!!!"
Suddenly, the old man’s act collapsed. At the same time, a golden light from the necklace enveloped Ye Qing, and mysterious runes appeared on the ground beneath him.
His body began fading from the top down.
"Now!" Jiang Che commanded.
The puppet unleashed its full power, condensing a blade of pure energy that shot straight at Ye Qing.
Ye Qing’s upper half had already vanished, but his lower half wasn’t so lucky.
His legs were gruesomely shredded, blood splattering everywhere.
Then, Ye Qing was teleported away—to who knows where.
......
"Oh? A teleportation array?"
Jiang Che raised an eyebrow. Ye Qing’s master had some tricks up his sleeve after all.
But it was clear the old man had been bluffing the whole time—he couldn’t actually attack across dimensions. This teleportation array was likely an expensive last resort, only activated in true life-or-death situations.
And before triggering it, Ye Qing’s master had to stall with theatrics, hoping to scare off the enemy rather than waste the trump card.
All that flashy nonsense? Just buying time for the array to activate.
Too bad Jiang Che wasn’t one to play by the rules.
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!
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?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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!
