Because Jiang Youfu made a point of bringing him a portion of food every day, he never knocked on the door and disturbed him.
Still, whenever the food container appeared outside the door, it would inevitably vanish before long.
Then, at some unknown point, it would reappear outside the door.
Only, whenever it reappeared after disappearing, everything inside would be gone—not even a few drops of oil remained.
Everyone in the Lingxian Sect was left with the illusion that Lin Xiao had gone into seclusion again.
The only difference was that this time, Lin Xiao’s seclusion came with meal service.
While everyone in the Lingxian Sect, from top to bottom, was so busy that they barely had time to set their feet down, far away, on the road linking the cultivation world to the mortal world, a group of people was being ambushed by a pack of spirit-devouring beasts.
The spirit-devouring beasts varied greatly in both size and shape. Some were large, standing ten meters tall, while the smaller ones were no bigger than ordinary wolfhounds.
Their forms were also wildly irregular and inconsistent. Some were round, some flat, and all of them were pitch-black, with viscous liquid dripping from their bodies.
They looked utterly disgusting.
The beasts opened and closed their enormous mouths at the group of people surrounded in their midst, hissing incessantly. Black, sticky strands of liquid stretched between their teeth.
A foul, dark stench erupted from their mouths, making the surrounded people dizzy in waves.
There were ten people in the group, and every one of them possessed cultivation.
The weakest among them was only at the early Golden Core stage, while the strongest had already reached the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage.
Even so, the ten of them were at a loss against the pack of spirit-devouring beasts.
It was not that the spirit-devouring beasts were particularly powerful.
In fact, they were merely a type of low-level demon beast with no intelligence. If there were only one, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have more than enough ability to deal with it.
Not to mention that this group had a cultivator at the great circle of the Nascent Soul stage.
But as the saying went, even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice.
At present, nearly all the cultivators had very little spiritual energy left in their bodies.
The spiritual energy they had remaining was not enough to wipe out the enormous number of spirit-devouring beasts surrounding them.
Perhaps some of them actually had enough spiritual energy.
For example, the Nascent Soul grand completion cultivator.
His name was Yao Yuchang, and he was the Second Elder of Three Phases Peak in the Frostveil Sect of the Profound Extremity Domain.
This time, he was responsible for leading the team to the mortal world to investigate the Jishi incident that had occurred at the Northern and Southern Domains’ Talisman Master Tournament three years ago.
The ten cultivators making this journey to the mortal world all came from major sects in several great spiritual domains.
After all, the matter involved the Jishi. Small sects had no say in the matter, while the major sects did not trust them enough to hand over the investigation.
However, because the level of cultivation in the mortal world was too low, the major sects all felt there was no need to send out elders at the Deity Transformation or Void Refinement stages.
Instead, they dispatched a few trusted individuals who held some status and authority within their sects, but whose cultivation was comparatively lower.
None of the ten had ever been to the mortal world, and everything they knew about it had been gathered only recently.
That was because the regions they came from were different from the Northern and Southern Domains. The Northern and Southern Domains directly bordered the road leading to the mortal world.
From time to time, a few cultivators who had achieved a certain level of cultivation and successfully traveled from the mortal world to the cultivation world would appear there.
As a result, the Northern and Southern Domains knew somewhat more about the mortal world.
For other regions, information could basically only be obtained through Wanwantong’s intelligence channels.
But clearly, no cultivator in the cultivation world would be bored enough to learn about affairs in the mortal world.
Thus, the ten had originally assumed that traveling to the mortal world would be a simple matter.
Of course, they had not failed to make preparations.
They had all spent several hundred spirit stones with Wanwantong to learn the direction in which the mortal world lay, as well as the fact that there was no spiritual energy along the road leading there.
They simply assumed that “no spiritual energy” meant that spiritual energy was scarce and thin.
They had never imagined that it would actually be a completely spiritless land!
And that it would also contain huge numbers of spirit-devouring beasts that hated spiritual energy!
The moment these beasts caught the scent of spiritual energy, they would swarm toward it and devour it all, returning their living environment to its original state of having no spiritual energy.
Thus, the ten cultivators now found themselves in a situation where the little spiritual energy remaining in their bodies would diminish with every use.
Along the way, they had gone from recklessly wasting their spiritual energy at the beginning to carefully calculating every expenditure later on.
The Spirit-Gathering Pills they had brought with them were running low.
But who knew how much farther the road ahead stretched?
Given the present circumstances, none of them dared to use any more of their spiritual energy than absolutely necessary.
After all, they not only had to guard against the spirit-devouring beasts, but also against the other nine members of their own team.
However, the spirit-devouring beasts steadily closing in around them were clearly growing restless. It seemed they were about to launch an attack on the group of cultivators.
With the situation growing urgent, Yao Yuchang glanced over the other nine people before fixing his gaze on the youngest cultivator among them—the one with the lowest cultivation, at the early Golden Core stage.
He spoke up, “This whole matter began with your Talisman Sect. Now that everyone has almost exhausted their spiritual energy, we need to conserve what remains for self-defense. As a disciple of the Talisman Sect, shouldn’t you step forward and think of a solution?”
He Yi, the one who had been singled out, swept his handsome features over Yao Yuchang with an expression of utter indifference.
He let out an almost imperceptible snort, as if mocking him, but no one heard it clearly before it vanished. Then everyone heard him say, “All right. Since Grand Elder Yao has spoken, how could a humble Golden Core disciple of the Talisman Sect dare disobey?”
As he spoke, he raised a hand and swept it through the air. Talisman papers shimmering with golden light floated out one after another, released with elegant, effortless movements.
The talismans were clearly high-grade, yet He Yi sent them flying as if they cost nothing. In the blink of an eye, they had attached themselves to the foreheads of every spirit-devouring beast.
Then He Yi lightly snapped his fingers.
Before the spirit-devouring beasts could react, all the talismans detonated in an instant!
For a moment, dust billowed into the sky.
The soil and stones on the ground were blasted in every direction.
The viscous, pitch-black bodies of the spirit-devouring beasts were blown apart.
The impact of the violent explosions was immense, forcing the other nine cultivators to circulate their spiritual energy to protect themselves.
Several cultivators who reacted a little too slowly were caught off guard and splashed in the face by the liquid from the exploding bodies of the spirit-devouring beasts.
“He Yi! You did that on purpose!”
Someone shouted furiously.
“Did you really need to use so many high-grade explosive flame talismans to kill these spirit-devouring beasts?”
Others said nothing, but they were all grumbling inwardly: Having money doesn’t mean you can waste it like this. They say people from the Talisman Sect are idiots with too much money. It looks like it’s true!
He Yi raised an eyebrow and looked at them with an innocent expression.
“Sorry about that, everyone. These explosive flame talismans are all I have on me.”
Yao Yuchang shot He Yi a sideways glance, full of disdain for this Talisman Sect genius.
Bah!
What prodigy?
He was nothing more than someone from the wealthy Talisman Sect, whose talent had been piled up with spirit stones.
A false prodigy who merely relied on having a sect master for a father and actually believed that he possessed extraordinary potential.
But they had already been traveling for a year. He could not afford to waste any more time on the road. He still had to hurry to the mortal world, complete the investigation, and return to the sect as soon as possible.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
