Feng Yutian's fingertips trembled slightly, sending ripples across the surface of the tea in his cup.
He set the porcelain cup down slowly, the crisp clink against the table piercing the deathly silence of the hall.
"So that's how it is..."
Mo Yuan's pupils contracted to pinpricks, his voice laced with shock. "The Alliance has been the Shadow's puppet all along."
Indeed, how had they not realized it?
Every time the chaos left by the Devouring Spirit Art inheritors subsided, they would inevitably turn to the Alliance.
Because the Alliance possessed cutting-edge technology capable of analyzing and identifying traces of the Devouring Spirit Art.
Yet...
They had forgotten one possibility.
What if the Alliance itself was complicit—or even the mastermind behind it all?
The faces of the gathered sect leaders darkened.
If one counted the years spent in frozen slumber, every elder present was a millennia-old monster.
Naturally, they looked down upon the insects of this era, never imagining these ants could stir up any real trouble.
But...
They had been wrong.
Through the cracks in the shattered dome, the bodies of dozens of minor sect leaders twisted at unnatural angles.
Their skin pulsed with tar-like shadows, their eyes swallowed by inky mist—only the ghostly blue flames flickering deep within their pupils remained visible.
The Skyfire Sect Leader recognized one of them—
That was none other than Sect Leader Zhao of the Crimson Dawn Sect, whom he had toasted with just three days prior!
"Sect Leader Zhao!"
The Skyfire Sect Leader roared, a whip of violet flames coiling in his palm. "How dare you side with these abominations?!"
The man referred to as Sect Leader Zhao turned his head slowly.
Still retaining his consciousness despite the shadow corruption, he spoke calmly, "Hah, ridiculous. In my entire life, my talent only brought me to the threshold of the Domain Realm. But now... I am immortal, with limitless potential for evolution. What could be better?"
As his words faded—
The Skyfire Sect Leader bellowed in fury, "Nonsense!!! Today, I shall eradicate this scourge!!"
CRACK!!
The violet flame whip lashed toward Qin Luo with a vicious snap.
Following his lead—
The other sect leaders surged forward. "Destroy these abominations!"
"What Alliance?! This is just a den of monsters!"
The Beast Mountain Lord leapt into the air, three emerald-scaled flood dragons erupting from his sleeves, charging toward Qin Luo seated upon the throne.
Yet—
Before the dragons could reach him, before the whip could strike, before the other sect leaders' attacks could land—
SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Hundreds of shadowy tendrils burst from the ground, reducing the flood dragons to bloody mist and swallowing the whip whole in an instant.
Hong Ji's Harmony Bell had barely chimed half a note before her entire body froze in place.
————Countless shadowy hands, wreathed in black mist, materialized like tattoos across everyone's skin.
"I... I can't move?"
"How...?"
"What kind of cursed trick is this?!"
Feng Yutian glanced down at the shifting black palm prints now covering his skin.
His voice darkened. "A sealing curse... When did...?"
Qin Luo lazily propped his chin on one hand, shadowy threads glimmering like pearls around his fingers. "Sharp as ever, Sect Leader Feng."
"While you were all enjoying your tea, you’ve been drinking dozens of cups laced with this shadow-infused curse."
[Beep beep, please enjoy your tea.]
Everyone: "......?"
Seriously? That’s just dirty.
How were we supposed to guard against this?!
Who expects to get poisoned at a damn meeting?!
Most importantly...
Feng Yutian sighed inwardly. Qin Luo’s groundwork had been too thorough.
He’d lulled them all into complacency.
Truly an unavoidable trap.
"Shameless!"
The Skyfire Sect Leader, immobilized mid-air, howled at Qin Luo, "Utterly shameless! Shameless! Shame—"
SMACK!!
"Ghk—!"
Silence.
Everyone: "......"
Qin Luo retracted his hand, wiping his face as the weeping ghost mask dissolved into nothingness.
With a snap of his fingers, the shadow-corrupted sect leaders reverted to normal before vanishing into the shadow realm.
Watching this—
Feng Yutian seemed to realize something. Detecting no hostility from Qin Luo, he asked calmly, "Qin Luo, are you being threatened?"
!!
The moment those words left his mouth—
The others froze, then snapped back to reality.
Right!
How could they have forgotten?
Who stood behind Qin Luo?
None other than Su Muwan—a woman whose only difference from the Frostbite Demon of ten thousand years ago was the color of her hair!
A tyrant who drowned dissenters in rivers for her bloodsharks to feast on!
Such cruelty... This scheme had to be her doing!
The Ripple Sect Leader seized the narrative, his voice icy. "Qin Luo, if that venomous witch is coercing you, just blink your—"
SMACK!!
"How dare you!"
Before he could finish—
Qin Luo backhanded him across the face.
The Ripple Sect Leader’s head jerked to the side, his pupils twitching violently.
What the—?
Why hit me?!
Qin Luo was genuinely impressed by their mental gymnastics.
Surveying the hopeful gazes of the sect leaders, he sighed. "I think you’ve misunderstood. No one’s threatening me. I’m doing this willingly."
The moment he said this—
Their eyes burned with greater indignation.
Qin Luo claiming he wasn’t forced into villainy?
Impossible!
Since when do good people insist they’re evil?!
Blinded by their own assumptions, they ignored Qin Luo’s usual demeanor—
That kindness, that sincerity, that effortless charisma radiating from him now.
How could such a man be wicked?
He must be suffering in silence, compelled by some unspeakable torment to play the villain.
"Someone like Master Qin would never do this willingly. Now it all makes sense."
"Exactly. The venomous witch must have blackmailed him into this."
"Hmph, didn’t I say anyone resembling the Frostbite Demon was trouble?"
"Master Qin, don’t worry. We won’t make things difficult for you. When that witch arrives, we’ll cooperate and—"
"ENOUGH!!"
A voice, seething with suppressed fury, exploded through the hall.
Every sect leader’s words died in their throats.
The temperature plunged to absolute zero in a millisecond—CRACK!
Frost spiderwebbed across every glass surface.
As ice engulfed the chamber—
A slender yet imperious figure descended through a rift in the shadows!
The suspended shadow tendrils froze into jagged black icicles, refracting her image in every direction.
All movement ceased.
"Go on."
Su Muwan’s footsteps shattered the void, blooming crystalline roses with each step.
Her fists clenched as her glacial gaze swept over the assembly.
"Who exactly is this ‘venomous witch’?"
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
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.”
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)
【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.)
