At the same time Su Muwan was crying and making a scene in Qin Luo's arms...
Over at Chu Yu's side...
"Tsk..."
Chu Yu frowned at the blocked passage ahead and said grimly, "It's a dead end."
The two from Qingyan Sect breathed a sigh of relief.
A dead end was still better than running into monsters.
To be honest, among their group, these two were only slightly stronger than Su Bailian.
The masked man silently observed the dead end before stepping forward to inspect it.
After confirming there were no hidden traps or formations—ensuring this was truly a dead end and not some entrance requiring special conditions to unlock—he took two steps back and spoke in a disguised voice, "Alright, let's regroup with the other team."
Chu Yu gave the masked man a strange look.
What was that guy doing just now?
But never mind.
Since they couldn't proceed further, they had no choice but to turn back.
There were no unusual spiritual fluctuations from Ye Qun's side, so that group was likely safe for now.
Just as Chu Yu was about to lead everyone back—
Suddenly!
A bell-like giggle echoed abruptly in their ears.
"Hehe... Sister Chu Yu... I've been looking for you for so long~~"
Chu Yu's expression froze: !!
She whipped her head around.
There, standing at the entrance of the dead end, was a figure they hadn't noticed until now.
But unlike usual...
This person was shrouded in dark mist, her eyes gleaming with a sinister crimson glow.
Chu Yu's heart lurched, her hair standing on end.
"What in the..."
The figure wrapped in dark mist, with those blood-red eyes, was none other than Su Bailian.
Yet her appearance was a far cry from the pitiful, delicate girl they knew.
"Su Bailian?"
Chu Yu asked in shock, her voice trembling with disbelief.
Her hand instinctively tightened around her sword hilt.
Something was wrong. This wasn't right.
Why was Su Bailian here?
Even the two weaker Qingyan Sect disciples could tell something was terribly off. "Chu... Chu-shijie... Isn't that Xiao Lian?"
The masked man's voice turned grave. "No..."
He turned to Chu Yu. "She's your junior sister. What's going on?"
"What's going on?"
Chu Yu clenched her sword hilt, glaring at Su Bailian as she gritted her teeth. "I'd like to know that myself."
She locked eyes with the other girl and demanded, "Where are Ye Qun and Li Yue?"
"Hmm? Them?"
Su Bailian's lips curled into an eerie smile, her laughter like the screech of an owl reverberating through the narrow passage. "They..."
She licked her lips slowly. "Were eaten by me."
Chu Yu and the other three: !!!!
Eaten?!
What did that mean?
No... Wait...
Realization dawned on Chu Yu. Her pupils constricted as she raised her sword at Su Bailian and shouted, "You're... the inheritor of the Devouring Spirit Demon Art?!"
The others gasped.
The inheritor of the Devouring Spirit Demon Art?!
"Correct~"
Su Bailian giggled, her body wreathed in dark mist as she lunged at Chu Yu and the others. "Now that you know... DIE!"
......
......
Time passed.
The various factions within the ancient ruins followed the path laid out by Qin Luo, advancing toward the designated area.
Squelch!
After cutting down yet another shadow creature—
Even the Yu Xu Sword Immortal and Qingyuan Zen Master, both at the Spirit Source Realm, were reaching their limits.
They looked up at the gradually brightening terrain ahead, then back at the dark, oppressive forest behind them.
Finally, a glimmer of hope appeared in their eyes.
The Sword Immortal took a deep breath, gripping his sword tightly as he said solemnly, "We've finally made it out of that forest."
The Zen Master nodded. "The dark mist ends here. It seems unable to affect this place."
As they stepped forward—
A vast plaza stretched before them, paved with massive bluestones that gleamed with an ancient luster.
Tall stone pillars stood at the plaza's perimeter, each engraved with lines of archaic script.
At the far end, a grand palace rose from the ground, its doors sealed shut. A rotating formation hovered at the entrance, suggesting that special means were required to enter.
The Sword Immortal, familiar with ancient texts, instinctively read aloud, "Taigu... Xuan Sect..."
Taigu Xuan Sect?!
The Zen Master's eyes sharpened. He exchanged a glance with the Sword Immortal.
Both saw a flicker of excitement in each other's gaze. "Could this be the entrance to the inheritance hall?"
"Amitabha."
The Zen Master spoke softly, "This humble monk seeks no inheritance—only a pearl known as the Taixuan Pearl."
"My disciple suffers from a flaw in his soul, and the Taixuan Pearl has the power to nurture it."
"Once inside, you may claim everything else."
The Sword Immortal shook his head. "I care not for those things. I seek only the Taigu Xuan Sword."
"Legends say the Taigu Xuan Sword was the supreme treasure of the Taigu Ancestor from the Profound Heaven Realm. But after his demise, the sword was lost forever."
"I just came to try my luck and see if I could find anything."
As he spoke, the Yu Xu Sword Immortal frowned at the formation in the grand hall. "But before that... we might need to break this formation first."
"Makes sense."
A moment later.
Clang! Clang! Clang!!
The Yu Xu Sword Immortal and the Qingyuan Zen Master panted heavily, staring at the unmoving formation before them.
"How could this be..."
"Unbreakable?"
Their eyes filled with frustration. They had finally made it to the inheritance hall, yet...
The Yu Xu Sword Immortal clenched his fists. It was a shame he had never learned how to dismantle formations.
His strength was still too weak to brute-force his way through.
Then—
Noise erupted from behind them.
The two turned to look.
One after another, members of various factions emerged from all directions.
Each of them wore expressions of relief after escaping the forest.
Thud!
One man dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face. "I... I made it out..."
"It was hard... but I did it..."
"Senior Brother... can you see me...?"
"I carried on your will and broke through..."
As his emotions spilled out, the tense atmosphere in the plaza shattered. Some sighed in relief, others wept quietly.
The joy of survival spread through the crowd.
Simply put—this expedition into the ruins had been deadly!
But their relief didn’t last long.
"Madam."
"Look over there."
A few members of the loose cultivators' alliance had also arrived.
An elderly man pointed toward the Yu Xu Sword Immortal and the Qingyuan Zen Master standing at the entrance of the grand hall.
The woman followed his gaze. When her eyes landed on the tightly shut palace doors and the slowly rotating formation, her expression brightened.
"Is this... the Taigu Xuan Sect’s inheritance hall?!"
Her voice wasn’t loud, but everyone present was a martial artist with keen hearing.
In an instant—
All eyes locked onto the hall.
A blazing greed ignited in their gazes.
The Taigu Xuan Sect’s inheritance!
Heavens...
Rumors said the Taigu Xuan Sect was once one of the three great sects, rivaling the Taichu Sacred Land and the Taixuan Demon Sect!
It had only vanished into the river of time after facing the Frostbane Specters.
But!
The value of its legacy was incomparable to any other in the world today!
Wang Yan of the Taichu Sacred Land and the Devouring Sky Spirit Ox were also present.
They scanned the surroundings but found no trace of Su Bailian.
"Xiao Lian..."
Wang Yan’s heart tightened with anxiety. He had promised Elder Gong to protect her.
But... where was she?
The Yu Xu Sword Immortal and the Qingyuan Zen Master exchanged glances, both seeing resignation in each other’s eyes.
This was human nature—or rather, everyone had come to these ruins seeking opportunities.
Now that one lay before them, who would hesitate to take it?
Just as they braced for conflict with the gathered factions—
A panicked scream tore through the air from afar.
"HELP!! SAVE ME!!"
"Senior Sister Chu Yu!! Why are you trying to kill me?!!"
"Shut up!! You’re the inheritor of the Soul-Devouring Demon Art! Stop pretending!!"
"Didn’t you turn black before? Do it again!!"
"Waaah!! I don’t know what you’re talking about!!"
Su Bailian wailed as she sprinted toward the crowd.
What the hell was this?!
She had just been waiting at the tunnel exit like Qin Luo told her to! But after that deafening explosion—
Chu Yu had started chasing her down to kill her!!!
The crowd watched the fleeing Su Bailian, their scalps tingling.
Wait—
What was going on?
The inheritor of the Soul-Devouring Demon Art... was this adorable girl?!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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.”
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
