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’?"
ress Kneels to Admit Wrong] [Dealing with Love-Struck Fools] [Forced to the Throne] Ren Tianye transmigrated into a female-oriented novel world, only to find everyone in it was utterly insane. He risked his life to save a young girl from barbarians, but was accused of arriving too late and branded the real murderer. He held a knife to a military officer's neck, demanding the troop tally, but the officer only cared about questioning his wife: "Do you not love me anymore? All these years of affection and time together, they were all a mistake, a mistake!" After seizing Yunji City, the original defending general, to save face with the Empress, knelt on the ground: "You must give Yunji City back to me, or I'll hang myself at the city gate and let everyone know you're a villain!" The young lord of the Duke's mansion, to please a woman, directly ordered a merchant: "The menstrual pads you buy for her must be studded with diamonds. Loving her means giving her the best." Having become a great general, he was about to marry a merchant's daughter, who set a pre-nuptial rule: "I can divorce you anytime. When that happens, you must give me half of your troops and soldiers!" Even the Empress was a severe love-struck fool, who ordered the execution of 70,000 elite troops simply because they stood in the way of her romance. Ren Tianye was speechless. He was done. Let it all burn! This deranged female-oriented novel world! ...
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)
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?"
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!
