The Scripture Pavilion.
Click.
A shadow loomed over the interior of the pavilion.
"The barrier is set..."
Qin Luo scanned the array of cultivation manuals before him, quickly locking onto several dozen high-tier demonic techniques.
The Scripture Pavilion had three floors.
The first housed low-tier techniques, the second contained mid- to high-tier ones.
As for the third floor...
It was said to hold the forbidden arts of the Profound Demon Sect.
Given Su Muwan's talent...
Qin Luo estimated it would take her about a week to fully comprehend all the techniques he had marked.
"Young Mistress, we can begin."
Qin Luo turned to Su Muwan, who had been standing idly by, and tossed her one of the manuals.
Su Muwan caught it and glanced at the title, raising an eyebrow. "Bone-Corroding Yin Miasma Art?"
After skimming through it briefly, she grasped its essence: "By channeling this technique, the cultivator can imbue their spiritual energy with a corrosive yin aura, inflicting attacks with both decay and frost-poison effects. It invades the opponent's meridians, erodes their organs—causing excruciating pain and loss of strength in mild cases, or complete cultivation collapse in severe ones."
"Interesting."
Su Muwan closed her eyes to meditate.
Qin Luo stood guard nearby, silently noting to himself:
This was one of the sect's elite techniques, reserved only for the winners of the grand martial competition.
Demonic arts were immensely powerful, but equally difficult to master.
An average cultivator wouldn’t grasp it even after prolonged study.
But Su Muwan was different.
Qin Luo watched her intently... She’d probably master it within an hour...
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
Su Muwan opened her eyes, frowning slightly. "How odd. Why is this technique written like this?"
"If it were me..."
She murmured to herself as spiritual energy began surging around her. The once-silent pavilion was suddenly filled with a howling wind, rustling the pages of ancient tomes on the shelves.
Su Muwan raised a hand, tracing lines in the air with her fingertips. Brilliant streaks of light intertwined with her spiritual energy, as if she were disassembling and reassembling an invisible puzzle.
Qin Luo froze, realization dawning. "Is she... modifying the technique?"
No way.
Modifying even a basic technique was nearly impossible, let alone an elite one.
Even the most gifted disciples of any sect would need weeks of study just to comprehend such a manual, much less alter it.
But...
Judging by Su Muwan’s actions...
In mere moments, she hadn’t just understood it—she was attempting to rewrite it?!
The next instant, as Su Muwan adjusted the energy circulation pathways, the originally murky and oppressive aura of the demonic art gradually took on a tinge of her unique spiritual signature.
A few moments later, she clapped her hands together. A radiant burst of light erupted, illuminating the entire pavilion like daylight.
As the glow faded, Su Muwan opened her eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them. She casually flicked a palm toward a nearby shelf of low-tier manuals.
A streak of eerie violet light, laced with biting cold, shot out—several times faster than the original technique’s output.
The shelf instantly melted into a pool of green sludge, and the corrosive effect spread to the floor beneath it.
The sizzling sound lingered in the air.
Su Muwan smirked in satisfaction. "There. Much smoother now."
Clap, clap, clap—
Qin Luo applauded, staring at her in disbelief. "Young Mistress, did you just modify their technique?"
Su Muwan nodded, eyeing the manual with a hint of disdain. "The power is slightly stronger now."
"But the original was so rigid. The energy flow was sluggish, and gathering yin energy was needlessly tedious. In a real fight, who has time to slowly charge up?"
"So I made some adjustments, blending in a wisp of my own frost spiritual energy to balance the corrosive yin. Now, the force strikes precisely without backlash."
She gestured proudly at the spreading sludge. "Faster activation, lower cost, greater power—now it’s worthy of my skills."
"Though this was just a casual flick. If I went all out..."
Su Muwan stamped her foot lightly and smirked. "I could spread this frost-poison across the entire Profound Demon Sect."
Damn.
Qin Luo blinked. The usually ornamental Su Muwan...
When she got serious...
He grinned.
She was downright reassuring!
Perfect—the ultimate villain! We’re saved!
Qin Luo nodded eagerly. "No time to waste. Let’s keep going."
If Su Muwan maintained this pace, they wouldn’t need a week.
She might master all the marked techniques in a single night!
......
......
Late into the night.
Cloud Sky City.
The streets were eerily silent, save for a few flickering lanterns swaying in the wind.
Xu Tun walked calmly along the roadside, carrying two frozen chickens, his shadow stretching and shrinking under the dim light.
He pulled out his phone, staring at the balance displayed: 0.39.
Damn it.
The Devouring Spirit technique required consuming vast amounts of spirit-rich materials to advance.
But in this era, everything demanded Union Credits.
The spirit items he needed cost millions—some even tens of millions.
Were prices this insane?
Xu Tun sighed.
Who knew the biggest obstacle on his path of vengeance would be... money?
For now, he was stuck devouring frozen meat to cultivate.
Whatever. Head back first. Tomorrow, he’d figure out how to make money.
Just as the thought crossed his mind—
"Help!"
A panicked voice echoed from the alley ahead, followed by a woman stumbling into Xu Tun, clutching his sleeve desperately. Tears streamed down her face. "Sir! Please—someone’s following me! That... that thing isn’t human!"
Her voice trembled with terror, her body shaking violently.
Xu Tun frowned, following her trembling finger.
From the darkness, a humanoid figure emerged.
It reeked of decay and malice, its form twisted between human and something else. Its face was indistinct, save for a pair of blood-red eyes gleaming with predatory hunger, locked onto them.
A malevolent spirit?
They existed in this era too?
Xu Tun’s gaze sharpened. Spiritual energy surged within him, his body erupting in a golden radiance like scorching sunlight, instantly dispelling the surrounding darkness.
The light carried a purifying heat—the natural bane of such creatures.
He stepped forward, shielding the woman behind him, and growled:
"Scram."
The command boomed like a bell, reverberating through the silent street, rattling the nearby windows.
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
mance] After transmigrating for eighteen years, Lin Qi lived as an utterly ordinary herbalist in the countryside. One day, he kindly brought home a sickly, beautiful girl covered in blood. They married in a flash and began their blissful, intimate life together. Right then, his long-delayed system finally activated. [Warning! Host detected in contact with the "Crimson Calamity," the world-ending witch!] Lin Qi looked at the adorable wife currently curled in his arms, who couldn't even open a jar lid and trembled at the sight of a mouse. Lin Qi: "System, are you insane? This is clearly just a weak and delicate sickly girl!" Thus, Lin Qi treated the system as a "Contrast System," where taking care of his wife made him stronger. Combing his wife's hair rewarded him with [Free Attribute Points]. Taking his wife out for sunshine rewarded him with [Forbidden Spell: Arcane Explosion]. Lin Qi: "This soft life tastes so good!" ... Yet, in the eyes of outsiders: The strongest Beastkin Assassin: "That man dissected a Beast King with a common skinning knife! That was a show of force towards the powerful!" The Holy Son of the Radiant Church: "I infiltrated his home as a tutor, but he had me babysit the children... He must have seen through my disguise!" The World-Ending Witch, Felucia: "I hid all the way in the countryside. How is it that the husband I married on a whim is stronger than I was at my peak?"
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
