[Ding! Host has successfully extinguished a mountain fire, saving the lives of over a hundred people across five villages—a truly virtuous deed. Reward: 10,000 Virtue Points.]
Zhou Fan stood atop a charred mountain, his face blackened by smoke, yet his eyes burned with an almost manic intensity.
Ten thousand Virtue Points—just for putting out a single mountain fire!
That’s right. He alone had extinguished a terrifying wildfire that had spread for kilometers across rugged, remote terrain. The situation had seemed hopeless, yet he’d stumbled upon it at just the right moment.
His current cultivation had reached the Half-Step Shattering Heaven realm, allowing his Martial Domain to expand nearly a kilometer. And his Martial Domain was none other than the terrifying Slaughter God Domain!
Wherever his domain spread, icy winds howled and spectral wraiths drifted, plunging temperatures to near freezing. Even warriors of the same level would find themselves suppressed under its influence.
Yet he’d never imagined using the Slaughter God Domain to put out a wildfire.
Combined with an artificial rain technique he’d exchanged from the system, he’d finally managed to quell the flames.
"If putting out a fire earns me 10,000 Virtue Points… why not start the fire myself and then play the hero?"
Zhou Fan’s expression twisted with madness, as if he’d uncovered a loophole in the system.
To him, saving hundreds of lives was no different from saving a colony of ants—just as he could just as easily crush an anthill without batting an eye.
"If this works, I could create a disaster myself, then swoop in as the savior and rake in even more Virtue Points."
But just as quickly, his expression cooled.
"The system awards Virtue Points for good deeds. If I did that… it would surely deduct them. Still, worth testing later~"
As Zhou Fan lost himself in thought, a fleet of fire trucks rushed to the scene.
"Young man, there’s a wildfire here—you need to evacuate— Wait… where’s the fire? It’s already out?"
The lead firefighter scratched his head in confusion. This didn’t make sense. They’d been told the blaze spanned kilometers and had mentally prepared for casualties. But this?
Zhou Fan glanced sideways, his face utterly indifferent.
[Ding! Host has received a mission: Otherworldly warriors have invaded the ancient martial world of Dragon Nation. Host must immediately repel three Shattering Heaven realm warriors from another world.]
[Reward upon completion: 30,000 Virtue Points.]
Zhou Fan’s eyes narrowed instantly.
A system mission?
This was a first.
"The system wants me to kill three Shattering Heaven realm warriors? Is this a setup?"
Admittedly, Zhou Fan was sharp—he’d pieced it together in an instant.
But unfortunately, he was too sharp.
"Probably not. Whoever created this system must be a supreme powerhouse. Even at my peak, I’d likely be no match for them. With that kind of power, they wouldn’t need such convoluted schemes."
"Heh… maybe this is just a casual move by some bored mastermind playing chess."
Zhou Fan smirked self-deprecatingly. Right now, he was indeed a pawn, toyed with by an unseen hand.
"How arrogant," he murmured, his smile frosty. "But if you want to play… then I’ll play along. Let’s see who ends up as the true player."
To an outside observer, Zhou Fan’s behavior would seem like pure chuunibyou—delusions of grandeur.
His overactive imagination couldn’t fathom that the one pulling his strings wasn’t some supreme expert, but someone weaker than himself.
"Hey, hey, young man, stop spacing out! Even if the fire’s out, this place is still dangerous—"
Zhou Fan looked up—and vanished in the next second.
"Holy shit?! What the hell? Did that guy just disappear?!"
"Damn… did we just meet some mountain spirit? I’ve heard that after wildfires, the souls of burned creatures turn into vengeful ghosts…"
"Shut the hell up! Get in the truck. That guy was probably some elite ancient martial artist. Might’ve even helped put out the fire."
...
"Boom—"
At Mount Emei, the trio of Shattering Heaven realm warriors had once again crushed the Emei Sect’s leader with overwhelming force.
"Pathetic. Not even worth the effort."
The White-robed Scholar snapped his fan shut. Despite his gentle, scholarly appearance, he was the most ruthless of the three, a master of hidden weapons and the Tang Clan’s deadly arts.
The Tang Clan was renowned in the cultivation world as a family of assassins—and he was its third young master.
The Emei Sect’s leader, an Elderly Nun in her sixties or seventies, lay severely wounded, teetering on the brink of death.
But then, a furious roar split the sky.
"Chang’er!!!"
"You vile curs—how dare you strike so mercilessly!"
A figure descended like a meteor, his overwhelming Martial Domain exploding outward.
Jiang Yunhuang!
"Chang’er…"
He cradled the Elderly Nun in his arms.
In his youth, Jiang Yunhuang had been a notorious philanderer. Clearly, he and this nun had shared a past.
"You… will die for this."
His rage was palpable, his beard trembling.
The Elderly Nun forced her eyes open. "Run… you’re no match for them! All three are Shattering Heaven realm warriors—go, now!"
Jiang Yunhuang’s voice was eerily calm. "I, too, have reached Shattering Heaven."
...
"Oh? A Shattering Heaven expert? In the Mortal Realm, a world starved of spiritual energy? You must harbor an incredible secret!"
The Red-dressed Woman’s eyes gleamed with greed as she studied Jiang Yunhuang.
Sure, the old man was ancient, but wasn’t there a saying? "An old horse knows the way"—experience counted for something.
"Let’s attack together. We’ll force him to reveal his secrets," the White-robed Scholar said coldly.
"You… will perish here!" Jiang Yunhuang’s fury was volcanic.
His aura surged like a tidal wave. Though he’d only just broken through to Shattering Heaven, his martial will had always been indomitable. What had held him back was the world’s limitations—not his talent!
With a single palm strike, Jiang Yunhuang sent the Mad Blade flying, shocking everyone present.
The Mad Blade spat blood, overwhelmed by the pressure.
"Attack together! Crush this old bastard!"
Though all three were early-stage Shattering Heaven experts, the old man’s martial will was monstrous—like something out of legend.
They struck as one, fighting dirty with underhanded tactics.
Jiang Yunhuang, forced to protect the woman in his arms while fending off three opponents, quickly fell into a disadvantage.
The Mad Blade grinned, eager to uncover the old man’s secrets. Anyone who’d reached Shattering Heaven in this spiritual wasteland had to be hiding something monumental.
Although the Mortal Realm has now entered an Age of Dying Spirit, it was once a place of immense power in ancient times. Who knows what formidable legacies might still lie hidden here?
The thought of such boundless fortune being within reach made the corners of his lips twitch uncontrollably upward.
But just then—
His smile froze.
"Guh—"
Mad Blade looked down in horror to see a pale hand protruding from his chest, having pierced clean through him.
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.”
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...
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?!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
