Boom!
At the brink of life and death, golden blood suddenly trickled from Chen Mo’s right eye.
The True Sight Pupil breached its critical point, and the flow of time slowed to a crawl in his vision.
He saw the shadowy threads coiled around Ye Qingmei’s neck, the pulsating energy veins around the monk’s wrist, the swirling qi vortex in the Taoist nun’s dantian... and the barely perceptible fissure where all the beams of light converged.
He saw it!
He SAW it!!
"Now!"
With his last ounce of strength, he hurled his tactical knife.
Crack!!
The blade pierced the fissure with pinpoint precision, and the entire cage of light trembled violently.
For the first time, Ling Yu’s face twisted with shock and fury.
"Attack!"
The Taoist nun reacted fastest, her lifebound flying sword streaking toward the fissure like a comet.
The others unleashed their deadliest techniques—Buddhist radiance, venomous gu, thunder spells—colliding at the fissure in a dazzling aurora.
Amid the storm of energy, Ling Yu’s body began to disintegrate.
Yet his splitting lips curled into an eerie smile. "Congratulations. You’ve earned the highest honor."
Whoosh!
After uttering those cryptic words, Ling Yu’s form dissipated into the air.
The oppressive pressure vanished.
Thud! Thud!
The dozen or so survivors slumped against walls or collapsed to the ground.
Even the aloof female sword cultivator wore an expression of hard-won relief.
Only those who’d lived through it knew how brutal this battle had been.
The monk cast a Calming Heart Mantra, then eyed Chen Mo—who was checking Ye Qingmei’s injuries—with newfound interest. "Fellow Daoist, you can see through illusions?"
"Care to join our Great Radiance Temple?"
"Uh..."
Chen Mo’s eyelid twitched as he forced a smile. "N-no thanks."
"Heh, that’s the spirit!"
"Not bad, pretty boy."
The Miaojiang girl sauntered over and clapped his back. "Come to our tribe instead!"
"Ahem... What about White Eyebrow Mountain?"
The Taoist nun jerked a thumb at herself. "The whole mountain’s full of nuns!"
The cool-faced sword cultivator watched the scene from her perch, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
For some reason, she felt an unexpected warmth in this moment.
Chen Mo declined each offer, then suddenly frowned. "Wait—why are you all here?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
The Miaojiang girl clasped her hands behind her head. "The Alliance sent a distress signal for this location."
"I came to evacuate people."
"Then I found you fighting that monster."
Thud.
Chen Mo’s heart skipped a beat.
The monk nodded. "Amitabha. Yet the Alliance’s enforcers are conspicuously absent."
The Taoist nun shrugged. "Typical Alliance inefficiency. Could’ve at least sent someone."
No... This is wrong...
While the others complained, Chen Mo stood frozen, his face draining of color.
They didn’t understand what an Alliance distress signal meant.
But he knew.
This... this was the monster’s trap all along!
Now that he thought about it—why had the monster held back against him?
It wasn’t playing with its prey.
It was...
Chen Mo’s hollow gaze swept over the dozen survivors.
Waiting for them to arrive.
And the survivors weren’t random—each was a top genius from their factions.
Why? How?
Then he remembered Ling Yu’s final words:
[Congratulations. You’ve earned the highest honor.]
That phrase...
"Run..."
His voice was a whisper.
Ye Qingmei leaned closer. "Chen Mo? What’s wrong?"
"RUN! NOW!"
Grabbing her wrist, Chen Mo screamed at the group, panic shredding his voice: "IT’S A TRAP! GET OUT!!"
The night-cloaked arena froze mid-breath.
Before his echoes faded, the ground spiderwebbed with cracks—oozing shadowy tar that coiled around ankles.
The Miaojiang girl’s gu insects turned to ash on contact. The Taoist nun’s hovering sword shrieked. The monk’s golden bell shield shattered. Everyone stood paralyzed.
BOOM!
Twenty-four obsidian pillars erupted, their dragon carvings weeping blood from crimson eyes.
The Blood Asura’s colossal blade cleaved through the void, its gore-drenched edge dripping a sealing array.
Hui Ming’s black Buddhist radiance vomited a tide of shadows, imprinting each victim’s terrified face onto the pillars.
Ling Yu’s fragmented mirror-body reassembled, each shard reflecting Qin Luo’s weeping demon mask.
...
...
When the Abyssal Dragon’s roar crushed down from the clouds—its bone-wings hurling survivors like ragdolls—the Shadow Faction’s collective aura had condensed the air into lead.
Every survivor stared, minds blank.
What...
What IS this?
But this wasn’t the most terrifying part.
The most terrifying thing was...
These ferocious, masked humanoid monsters, each wearing differently shaped masks, suddenly...
dropped to one knee in unison, kneeling atop the dark golden pillars.
Their heads bowed low as they knelt in perfect unison, facing one direction as if welcoming a supreme being.
Who... could it be?
The next second.
Boom!
Under the despairing gazes of everyone present.
The void split open with a crimson rift.
Qin Luo stepped forth, treading upon the wailing souls of the dead.
His suit, reshaped by flowing shadowfire, became a long-tailed coat.
His weeping ghost mask bore molten lava-like patterns, cracks running through it—his left eye a light-devouring black hole, his right eye flickering with eerie glacial flames.
Thud!
With every step he took, skeletal hands of tormented souls reached up from beneath to lift him, while the ground beneath him formed screaming faces in relief.
Until he finally took his seat upon the shadow throne that Ling Yu had long prepared for him...
"The farce ends now."
"I... grow weary."
His voice echoed like the whispers of a billion lost souls, dark torrents surging with his words, instantly sealing the movements of all the Chosen Ones.
Absolute rule descended upon this place.
"All hail the Shadow King!"
Amid the unified cries of the shadow faction,
everyone’s consciousness plunged into eternal darkness.
And yet, at the docks, the morning sun rose as scheduled.
Joggers hummed tunes as they stepped over puddles.
As if nothing at all had happened that night.
[Congratulations, Master, for completing the hidden quest]
[Performing the "dog-walking" act on more than 15 Chosen Ones in one go]
[Critical hit reward obtained: Attribute Points—200]
[Title acquired—"Rule-Breaker": When equipped, the wearer can ignore special rules!]
[Item obtained—"Oblivion Scythe": All currently held tools and weapons have been fused into one (details can be [expanded])]
[Reward obtained—"Maybe You’d Like to Try This" (Special Item)]
esick Sect? Well, at least it's considered a respectable orthodox sect. Wait a minute— What kind of vibe are you all giving off? Shouldn’t this be a love-struck, romance-obsessed sect? Why does everyone here sound more like demonic cultivators? "Master, today he’s getting married. This disciple wishes to descend the mountain and crash the wedding, then toy with him to death right in front of his wife..." "Elder, I only got into your sect through connections, so why won’t you teach me anything?" "Because I also became an elder through connections." Thankfully, Su Ji was just an outer sect labor disciple. Surely, nothing too crazy would— "Junior Brother, you’ve broken through to Qi Refining. Once you sever your useless spiritual root, you can officially become an outer sect disciple." "The Great Dao is merciless. Don’t let a worthless spiritual root waste your essence and spirit, hindering your cultivation." Is this really the Lovesick Sect? ... Three years later, Su Ji sat in the seat of the Lovesick Sect’s sect master, sighing with emotion. His rise to this position all started when his junior sister adamantly insisted on preserving his "spiritual root." "Mmm... Senior Brother, what’s our relationship now?" "Stop talking. Keep going." "By the way, that newly promoted top-tier sect—didn’t they come to buy our Love Beans?" "One top-grade spirit stone per Love Bean—is that really so expensive?" "I suspect they’ve eaten too many Love Beans." "Now they’re lovesick." Well, this really is the Lovesick Sect after all.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers NOW!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
