Immortal Body, Evil Spirit

"I'm so damn fed up! This so-called 'Chosen One'... does he think Earth isn't chaotic enough? Stirring up trouble everywhere!" Jiang Che paused his work of nurturing the immortal peaches alongside Yao Yao, his brows furrowing deeply.

The calamity caused by Chu Yuan couldn't escape his notice.

"The Heavenly Dao of this mortal realm must be blind, picking such a moron as the Chosen One? Could it be that the Heavenly Dao itself has been corrupted by evil spirits?"

Jiang Che stood up, draping a blanket over Yao Yao. The young girl curled up under the covers, her bright, watery eyes fixed on him.

"Master... what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Go to sleep. I have some matters to attend to."

Jiang Che rubbed his temples and stepped outside.

"Is this so-called Chosen One the source of disaster? Or has the Heavenly Dao itself been tainted, guiding Chu Yuan to break the seals?"

Here was a real Chosen One causing chaos everywhere, while he, the supposed 'villain,' was diligently protecting Earth. What kind of twisted world was this?

The world was falling apart, and Young Master Jiang was the one painstakingly stitching it back together.

If not for Jiang Che guarding Earth, the planet would have long descended into utter chaos and suffering.

"System, can we seal this rift to the alien evil spirits?"

Jiang Che split off an avatar, attaching it to a paper puppet, and used the laws of spatial Dao to teleport to the secret realm Chu Yuan had just left.

[The invasion of evil spirits into the mortal realm is an inevitable process, much like the resurgence of spiritual energy—it is an unstoppable trend. Even if you spend points to seal this rift, other spatial fractures will emerge elsewhere... There is no way to fundamentally prevent the evil spirits' invasion.]

The System's voice was oddly reassuring.

"Oh! So it's not Chu Yuan's fault after all? Then it must be the Heavenly Dao's!"

Jiang Che narrowed his eyes. Back when the Heavenly Dao let him exploit its resources, he had a decent impression of it. But now? He was tempted to raise a banner and declare, 'The old heavens are dead, the new shall rise!'

"ROAR!!!" Just as Jiang Che stood pondering at the rift, a bone-chilling screech erupted from the abyss, followed by tendrils of inky demonic energy surging out.

A withered, black-furred claw reached out, radiating terrifying energy—a Transcendent Realm aura!

Through the thick black mist, a pair of crimson eyes glowed, as if the gates of hell had swung open.

A putrid stench filled the air.

"What the hell is this ugly thing?" Jiang Che tilted his head and casually swatted the evil spirit leader into oblivion.

But the next moment, something bizarre happened.

Even after being annihilated, the spirit's form dispersed into wisps of black smoke, only to instantly reconstitute itself.

"ROAR!!!" Now fully emerged into the mortal realm, the three-meter-tall, black-furred monstrosity lunged at Jiang Che.

"Immortality?" Jiang Che raised an eyebrow.

Here he was, a peak Martial God, unable to kill a mere Transcendent Realm evil spirit?

Another slap reduced the spirit to scattered black mist... which Jiang Che promptly stored in his Subsystem space.

[Beep! Beep! Beep! System under attack! System under attack!]

The Subsystem's interface flashed red like a virus-infected computer.

[Beep! System antivirus activated! Evil entity successfully purged.]

Clearly, the evil spirit was strong, but Jiang Che, the supreme demon king, was stronger.

"Still, that thing was no joke—it actually tried to corrupt my System? Even if it failed, that's a first!"

Jiang Che considered his System superior even to the Heavenly Dao.

If something could attack his System, then it stood to reason... the evil energy could corrupt the Heavenly Dao itself.

"But... looks like my System hard-counters these spirits!"

A faint smirk curled Jiang Che's lips. These evil spirits were confirmed to possess immortality—once they infiltrated the mortal realm, they'd unleash untold calamity.

Yet his System could outright delete them.

"Oh right, almost forgot someone."

A long-neglected "little leek" suddenly came to mind.

"Time to clock in, worker!"

......

Cultivator Academy.

After multiple waves of spiritual energy resurgence, the academy's prodigies had grown immensely powerful, with even the weakest at half-step Transcendent Realm!

Some Chosen Ones had even reached high-tier Transcendent Realm.

Under normal circumstances, so many prodigies would trigger waves of heavenly tribulations. But the mortal realm's Heavenly Dao had been milked dry by Jiang Che—it couldn't even summon tribulation lightning anymore.

At the academy's gates stood an eerie giant tree.

[Beep! Host absorbs trace of spiritual energy, gains 100 evolution points.]

[Beep! Host fully assimilates corpse of Martial God expert, gains 100,000 evolution points...]

The tree swayed its withered branches, an unsettling sight.

This was none other than Lin Mu, the former Chosen One bound to the Tree God Evolution System. His System had been corrupted by eldritch forces, but by sheer luck, he'd crossed paths with Jiang Che.

Now, Lin Mu existed in a half-corrupted state of evolution.

Having absorbed untold amounts of evolution points, his strength had reached terrifying heights—yet he remained hidden, his roots spreading across the globe in hundreds of avatars.

Some avatars lurked in graveyards, others in spiritual ley lines... relentlessly draining energy. Not long ago, one had slain a Western Martial God and devoured his power.

[This is Jiang Che. I have a task for you.]

Just as Lin Mu was reveling in his feast, the voice echoed in his mind.

Disturbed, Lin Mu seethed with rage. Once a cautious man, the corrupted System had twisted him into something bloodthirsty and savage.

But the moment he recognized the voice's owner—

He sobered up instantly.

Jiang Che!!!

He hadn't forgotten the sheer might this man wielded.

His original Tree God Evolution System had been corrupted, and it was Jiang Che who'd purged the taint—without him, Lin Mu would have become a full-fledged evil spirit.

Jiang Che was unfathomably powerful.