It seems it's time to show my true strength.
An Yi grinned, revealing a smile.
Ranked 57th on the Hidden Dragon List, yet accused of running away?
This was an insult to him! When had An Yi ever fled?
Seeing An Yi's eerie smile, Qingqing felt a surge of fear rising from within.
She had never experienced such overwhelming pressure before.
"Your life is mine!"
Blood Chef Wang Jietao struck first.
Gripping his cleaver, he dashed toward An Yi like lightning.
An Yi smirked disdainfully, a combat knife appearing in his hand as he slashed forward.
Wang Jietao raised his blade to block—
"Ahh!"
A scream tore from Wang Jietao’s throat.
An Yi hadn’t swung the knife—instead, he had thrown it like a projectile, piercing straight through Wang Jietao’s foot!
Agony surged through him as Wang Jietao clutched his bleeding foot, howling in pain.
Rip!
Wang Jietao yanked the knife from his foot and flung it aside, glaring at An Yi with gritted teeth. "You sneaky bastard!"
The knife suddenly twitched.
Whoosh!
It spun back into An Yi’s hand effortlessly.
The move was so slick it left the onlookers stunned.
"All of you ganging up on a 19-year-old like me, and I’m the sneaky one?"
Holding Shen Muxuan’s hand, An Yi raised the knife again.
Slash!
A blade of compressed air shot toward Wang Jietao!
Wang Jietao barely managed to block with his cleaver, but the force still sent him skidding back five or six meters before he steadied himself.
His face darkened.
His opponent was fighting him one-handed while holding a girl’s hand—and still making it look effortless.
The difference in their strength was painfully clear.
An Yi scoffed. "Pathetic."
"Let’s see what you’re really made of!"
Luo Xuan finally stopped obsessing over the broken glass.
Moving like a rabid jackal, he sprinted along the wall, his short staff whipping through the air.
Shen Muxuan tightened her grip on An Yi’s hand, her ice-blue eyes glowing faintly.
She wouldn’t let him get hurt—not on her watch.
An Yi remained unfazed, grinning as he called out, "Old Bai!"
Whoosh!
A short spear shot through the air like a bolt of lightning!
Clang!
Luo Xuan swung his staff to deflect it, sparks flying as he was forced back two steps.
Bai Xiu yawned lazily, glancing at An Yi. "Why do I keep running into you everywhere?"
An Yi grinned. "Old Bai, I’m counting on you!"
Qingqing stared at Bai Xiu in disbelief.
She had thought he was just a skilled fighter, but that move proved he was no ordinary martial artist.
"Who are you?" Luo Xuan demanded warily.
Bai Xiu smirked. "I’m from the Asura Sect."
Right then—
Crash!
The window shattered.
A cold wind rushed in, fluttering the curtains.
Everyone froze.
An Yi and Shen Muxuan were gone—had they jumped out the window?
"Son of a—"
Bai Xiu’s eye twitched violently.
He’d been sold out just like that?!
As the others closed in on him, Bai Xiu deadpanned, "Look, I barely know that guy. We’ve only met a few times."
No one responded, their hostile gazes locked onto him.
"...Fine."
Bai Xiu sighed, his usual lifeless eyes suddenly sharpening with a bring-it-on intensity.
The two short spears in his hands merged into one—
A long spear, crackling with faint blue-purple lightning.
"You want a fight? Bai Xiu’s happy to oblige!"
The Hillmore Buffet was on the seventh floor.
For someone like An Yi, who was used to jumping off buildings, it was no big deal.
Holding Shen Muxuan tightly, he plummeted toward the ground.
Shen Muxuan clung to his neck, trembling.
Thud!
The pavement cracked under the impact, but An Yi landed smoothly, still cradling her.
"An Yi… what about your friend?" Shen Muxuan asked softly after stepping out of his arms.
An Yi looked at her solemnly. "Muxuan, do you know what’s most important between friends?"
She shook her head.
"Trust!"
An Yi declared righteously. "Why did I leave my back to Old Bai? Because I trust him! I believe he can handle those losers alone. If we don’t even have that basic trust, how can we call ourselves brothers?"
"Oh…"
Shen Muxuan’s eyes shimmered with admiration.
The bond between true men was just that simple yet profound.
An Yi glanced up at the seventh floor and sighed.
What else could he do?
With Shen Muxuan by his side, he couldn’t fight freely.
Her power fluctuated unpredictably—keeping her in a battlefield was too dangerous.
Besides, those clowns were no match for Bai Xiu anyway.
Boom!
Lightning-clad spear strikes tore through the air!
Wang Jietao staggered back, clutching his bleeding shoulder, his expression venomous.
Luo Xuan wasn’t faring much better—his arm was scorched black.
As for Shao Jiao, the electric currents had left her charred, her hair standing on end as she collapsed, unconscious.
No one had expected this unassuming guy to be so ruthless.
Bai Xiu yawned. "Still want more?"
"Let’s end this!"
Wang Jietao hurled his cleaver in a spinning arc!
Bai Xiu deflected it with a flick of his spear.
Luo Xuan bared his teeth in a deranged grin. "You little shit, let’s see how tough you really are!"
Multiple blood-edged daggers shot toward Bai Xiu!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Steel needles intercepted every single one.
Tang Qingqing, who had been silent until now, finally made her move.
"Tang Qingqing, you—?!" Wang Jietao snarled.
She smiled sweetly. "Oops. Did I ever say we were allies?"
Bai Xiu studied her, sensing something off about this woman.
"Two-faced traitor!"
Tang Qingqing shrugged. "Don’t mind me. Carry on."
Wang Jietao raised his cleaver, laughing maniacally. "Some nobody thinks he can face me? Go ahead—try to kill me!"
The next day, the headlines on the Martial Arts App’s hotlist read:
Blood Chef Wang Jietao slain! Shao Jiao critically injured! Spider Luo Xuan escapes with severe wounds! Bai Xiu skyrockets to Rank 45 on the Hidden Dragon List!
But that was tomorrow’s news.
Inside a taxi:
An Yi texted one-handed.
[1.81m Handsome Lad]: Old Bai, you okay? Hold on, I’m coming to save you!
[Night Kicker]: ...
[Night Kicker]: AN YI, BRING ME YOUR HEAD!!!!
Even through the screen, Bai Xiu’s fury was palpable.
Tossing his phone aside, An Yi smiled. "All settled. Let’s go."
"Your friend must be really strong," Shen Muxuan murmured nervously. "Where are we going?"
"You wanted to go shopping, right? Let’s do it."
"Still? Maybe we should just go home..."
"Relax. Once we’re marked, hiding won’t help."
---
Jiangbei City, Yida Plaza.
A woman in a simple dress stood frozen amidst the bustling crowd, her eyes lost as she took in the unfamiliar world around her.
This place was nothing like her immortal sect’s realm.
After a long hesitation, she stopped a passerby.
"Excuse me… do you know a girl named Shen Muxuan?"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
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.
