Lin Dayou, sleeping soundly in his room, was dreaming about coming home from farm work and finding that brat Lin Xiao itching for a beating again. After giving him a severe thrashing, the boy finally became obedient and well-behaved.
So, feeling extremely satisfied, he went back to his room to rest, only to suddenly hear a loud bang from outside. It sounded like that little brat Lin Xiao had torn the door down!
Lin Dayou was furious, thinking this kid was getting bolder and bolder! The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, so angry that his eyes snapped open and he sat right up.
Only then did he realize he had just been dreaming.
The June weather was incredibly hot. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and was just about to lie back down when he heard Lin Xiao's voice coming from outside.
"Dad! Your precious son is back, aren't you going to come out and welcome me!"
The voice wasn't loud, but it practically begged for a beating.
Following his instincts, Lin Dayou grabbed a shoe from under the bed and walked out.
Arriving in the courtyard, he saw a figure standing in the moonlight. Although he seemed to have grown a bit taller, it was definitely that rebellious son of his.
Lin Xiao, naturally, also saw Lin Dayou coming out of the house wielding a shoe.
He immediately rushed up, gave Lin Dayou a fierce hug, and spoke at lightning speed:
"Dad, I missed you so much! I'm back, I'm going to sleep, bye Dad!"
With that, Lin Xiao swiftly let go of his father, bolted into his own room, and slid the door latch shut.
In the other room, Lin Yun had naturally heard the commotion in the courtyard too.
He smiled but didn't go out.
In the middle of the night, it was better for him not to go out and make noise for the neighbors.
Although he also missed his younger brother, seeing him tomorrow would do.
With this thought, he closed his eyes again and resumed his meditation.
The only one left in the courtyard was Lin Dayou, holding his shoe, having missed his chance to deliver a beating.
He stood in silence under the bright moonlight for a moment.
Then, he secretly made a resolution in his heart.
From now on, he had to cultivate diligently, so that in the future, this little brat would never be able to escape his shoe again!
Lin Dayou carried his shoe back into the house. Setting it down, he lay on the bed, the corners of his mouth curling into an involuntary smile as he drifted off to sleep.
His son had returned safe and sound.
Early the next morning, Lin Xiao got up and greeted his brother Lin Yun, who was also an early riser, with great enthusiasm.
Afterward, he ran over to the Lin family's old estate to greet everyone there, letting them see that he had returned safely.
Seeing the happy smiles of his grandparents, Lin Xiao felt extremely warm and comforted inside.
Only then did he hurry up the mountain.
Most people had already arrived at the sect by this time. They had all heard the news from Little Luan, who had been waiting early under the peach blossom tree, that Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu had returned and had brought back a new member.
As a result, no one rushed to the cultivation rooms to practice as they usually did. Instead, they sat beneath the ten miles of peach blossom trees, waiting for Lin Xiao to come up.
So when Lin Xiao went up the mountain, he saw the crowd waiting under the peach blossom trees.
Lin Xiao knew exactly what was going on.
Everyone waiting here was partly to see him after many days apart, but more importantly, they definitely wanted to hear about his experiences in the cultivation world.
Sure enough.
When they saw him appear, they exchanged pleasantries for a moment before getting straight to the point:
"Brother Xiao, was there anything new and exciting on this trip to the cultivation world?"
"Yeah, yeah, Brother Xiao, tell us quickly and broaden our horizons!"
...
So Lin Xiao had no choice but to act as a storyteller, recounting the ups and downs of his journey to the cultivation world in dramatic detail.
Making everyone gasp in amazement from time to time.
Among them, Mo Yuanjiao and Tietou were the most supportive audience members; the loudest cheers, gasps, and thunderous applause were all contributed by the two of them.
Even Sun Yigao listened with great relish, almost forgetting that today was his second day teaching at the private school and nearly delaying his class time.
Fortunately, Yang Jinshu had been keeping an eye on the time and reminded him.
Afterwards, Lin Xiao introduced Liu Chun to everyone.
Upon learning that he was a talisman master, everyone felt a profound sense of awe despite not fully understanding it.
After all, up until now, apart from Lin Xiao, no one in the sect had been able to perfectly draw the complex, squiggly talismans from the Comprehensive Guide to Basic Talisman Drawing in the talisman crafting room.
Only two people hadn't tried it yet.
Namely, Sun Yigao and Yang Jinshu.
After Sun Yigao returned from his exams, he had been busy with the private school and hadn't attempted it yet.
As for Yang Jinshu, seeing that no one else had been able to draw them, she didn't want to try, afraid of wasting the talisman paper in the crafting room.
After all, this wasn't like carving formations, which only used spiritual energy; if a formation wasn't carved well, it was fine as long as it wasn't imprinted onto the array blueprint paper.
Once drawn on talisman paper, it could not be erased.
This situation, along with other matters within the sect, was reported item by item to Lin Xiao by Liu Yunan, who was holding his little notebook.
Of course, this was after everyone had taken Liu Chun to the cultivation room to practice.
So Lin Xiao instructed him to find a time later to tell everyone that they could all learn talisman crafting from Liu Chun in the crafting room.
However, what they would learn was naturally the talisman patterns from their sect's Comprehensive Guide to Basic Talisman Drawing.
As for the talismans that Liu Chun personally mastered, he didn't make any demands.
He had previously told Liu Chun that he wouldn't require him to provide a certain number of talismans for the sect, nor would he force him to teach everyone his own personal talisman patterns. However, he did need Liu Chun to answer questions and clear up confusion when the sect members were learning to craft talismans.
At the same time, he also told him that if he took a liking to anyone and wanted to take them as a talisman apprentice, that was fine too.
Furthermore, he was free to read and learn any of the mental cultivation methods in their sect's cultivation room.
If he wanted to switch to practicing their sect's mental cultivation methods, he was more than welcome.
At first, upon hearing these conditions, Liu Chun still held some reservations in his heart.
In his view, Lin Xiao was his savior, so before coming here, he had already decided that as long as Lin Xiao's requests weren't too excessive, he would do his best to fulfill them.
For him, not being required to teach his unique talisman crafting methods and only being asked to answer questions for this small number of sect members was an expectation far, far above his bottom line.
Even if Lin Xiao hadn't offered these conditions, he would have agreed without hesitation.
However, the moment he stepped into the cultivation room, he felt a sense of astonishment for what felt like the umpteenth time in the less than a single day since he arrived at this sect.
The density of spiritual energy in this cultivation room was actually nearly double that of the outside!
This level was already much higher than the leased spirit vein branch of the Wu family!
Afterwards, guided by the others, he browsed through the mental cultivation methods packed tightly on the bookshelves at the back of the cultivation room.
He was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator and couldn't quite distinguish the grades of mental cultivation methods yet.
But just by looking at the cultivation content and concepts within, which were completely different from the methods he practiced, he could tell these techniques were far from simple.
Then, he casually picked out one of the manuals named Sunflower Manual and tried practicing it.

young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."

. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"

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.”

e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.