When the power gap is too vast, this is what happens. Even if the Jialan Empress didn’t intend to kill Jiang Che, in her invincible dream realm, he was nothing more than an extremely fragile existence. A mere sneeze from her could shatter him to pieces.
[Ding! Host successfully tricked the Jialan Empress! Reward: 1.5 billion points.]
A massive windfall!!!
Humiliation!
Utter humiliation!!!
The Jialan Empress was on the verge of collapse. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would be forced to kiss someone—especially a mere ant whose cultivation was far beneath her own!
She was far too proud. To conquer her... one would need strength surpassing hers. Jiang Che had made her feel as though she had suffered an unbearable disgrace!
"Are you satisfied now?" The woman’s voice was practically forced through gritted teeth.
Her phoenix-like eyes burned with fury. The wrath of a half-immortal... The entire dream world, once dim and shadowed, suddenly transformed into a landscape of crimson molten rock, as if a volcanic apocalypse had erupted.
"Very satisfied. But Your Majesty, you’ll need to get used to this. To save Ling'er... you have no other choice, do you?"
"Besides, this is just a fragment of your soul in the dream realm. It’s not even connected to your true body. Just think of it as being bitten by a dog, alright?"
Jiang Che’s skin was thicker than a fortress wall—so thick he’d even insult himself without hesitation!
"No choice..."
Indeed, she truly had no way out now.
She knew exactly what this ant wanted. In the end, to save Ling'er, she would have to yield. Yet, she was powerless to resist.
Ling'er was her everything!!!
The fury on the empress’s face gradually subsided into calm. Then, she released Jia Ling'er.
The poor mermaid girl was already half-petrified—her lower body, waist, and hands had turned to stone. She lay unconscious, her life hanging by a thread.
"Your Majesty, I beg you... don’t tell Ling'er about my crimes. Let her continue loving me as she does now."
"Over my dead body!!!"
Once Ling'er awoke, the empress would use every means at her disposal to project the despicable scene of Jiang Che’s shamelessness into her mind, forcing her to see the true evil behind his charming facade!
He was far more wicked than the demons of the outer realms!
"Tsk tsk, what a shame... Then I suppose my heart’s blood is off the table—"
"I... I agree!"
The Jialan Empress had never known the meaning of helplessness—until now.
She was being led by the nose, completely at his mercy!
Jiang Che had truly backed her into a corner.
"Extracting heart’s blood isn’t easy, you know... But lucky for you, I already prepared it in advance!"
Jiang Che retrieved a small jade vial from his spatial pouch. Inside was a drop of his heart’s blood, extracted with the system’s power.
Did he really expect to endure the agony of the Midnight Heartbreak Curse?
Not a chance!
Gazing at the crimson droplet, Jiang Che smirked.
There were many ways to undo Jia Ling'er’s petrification. The simplest was to spend 300 million points to replace the royal blood in her veins with another lineage’s, nullifying the curse entirely.
But... wouldn’t that be a terrible waste of a golden opportunity?
How else could he use Jia Ling'er to control the esteemed empress?
"Didn’t you say you’d extract the heart’s blood at midnight?" the woman demanded.
"Oh, this drop was taken yesterday. Must be the time difference—you know how it is on Earth. I took a quick trip abroad, and midnight there happened to align with midnight here in Dragon Country now..."
Jialan Empress: "......"
She strongly suspected Jiang Che was lying through his teeth, but she had no proof.
With a slow, deliberate motion, Jiang Che let the droplet fall onto Jia Ling'er’s nearly fully petrified body.
In the next instant—
The stone encasing her shattered away like a shell, revealing flawless skin beneath, smooth as a peeled egg.
At the same time, the girl’s vitality began to surge back!
The mermaid clan’s petrification curse was, at its core, a seal on the life force. Once lifted, it left no lasting harm.
"This—!"
The Jialan Empress’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief!
This was the first time she had ever seen someone survive the ancestral curse after being afflicted.
Which meant... Jiang Che’s method actually worked!
But her astonishment quickly sharpened into suspicion. "No, the curse in Ling'er’s body hasn’t dissipated—it’s only been suppressed! What did you do?!"
"I told you, this is just a temporary fix. It lasts twelve hours at most. Every midnight and noon, she’ll need another drop of my heart’s blood. If even you can’t break this curse, how could I possibly eradicate it completely?"
The empress fell silent. She was certain Jiang Che had a way to fully cure Ling'er but was withholding it deliberately!
Even his so-called "heart’s blood treatment" might be a sham!
His true target was her. This greedy human not only wanted Ling'er—he wanted her as well!!!
[No. Endless concessions will only embolden him further. Today, he demands five cities; tomorrow, ten. And after a night’s peace, you wake to find his armies at your gates once more.]
[I must uncover the mermaid clan’s ancestral secret. Only then can Ling'er be saved without relying on him.]
Jiang Che glanced at her, his gaze unreadable.
A clever woman indeed. Pity about the temper... A woman like her needed to have her pride utterly crushed beneath his heel!
For now, he couldn’t touch her true body. But this fragment of her soul would make for excellent practice...
......
"Mmm... What happened to me?"
Freed from the curse, Jia Ling'er slowly opened her eyes—and immediately locked gazes with the Jialan Empress.
Her entire body froze.
"M-Mother...?"
"Ling'er... You’re safe! That’s all that matters!" The empress pulled her daughter into an embrace, her voice trembling with emotion.
But the next moment, Ling'er shoved her away with startling force!
Horror filled her as she looked down at her hands—the petrification marks were completely gone.
A terrible realization dawned on her.
As far as she knew, the only way to lift the petrification curse... was to kill its source!
Which meant... Jiang Che... was dead?!
Her heart clenched violently!
Memories of her time with Jiang Che flooded her mind. Their acquaintance had been brief, far from pleasant—even outright hostile.
By all logic, Jiang Che should have been nothing more than a despicable scoundrel to her. Yet, for some reason... she had still begun to petrify. The ancestral curse didn’t lie. She had no choice but to confront her own heart!
"Mother!!! You killed Jiang Che!!!"
Jia Ling'er’s scream pierced the air like a blade.
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.”
] [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!"
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
