I always thought people grew old gradually, but no—it happens in an instant.
An Yi recited slowly.
Jiang Cheng found the words familiar. He flipped through his phone to check the works of Murakami Natsuki and confirmed it was indeed the author's original line.
"Don't dwell too much on the present, nor worry excessively about the future. Once you’ve experienced certain things, the scenery before you will never be the same again."
"Everyone has their own forest, and Miss Nako’s is exceptionally lush."
While reminiscing about Ito Jiro’s past, An Yi recounted unfamiliar memories to Jiang Cheng.
After a long while, Jiang Cheng’s hand ached from taking notes. He glanced at An Yi and said, "Enough with the literary quotes. Got anything else?"
An Yi shrugged. "I’ve got Miss Nako’s personal experiences. Want me to share those?"
"Tsk!"
Jiang Cheng sucked in a sharp breath as he reviewed his notes.
Ten fourth-tier spirit cores—just for this measly content!
Boss Nie would beat him to death for this!
By the time An Yi strolled leisurely out of the Law Enforcement Bureau with Hongtian in tow, night had already fallen.
Hongtian kept shaking his dog head, ambling along as faint flickers of light pulsed across his body.
"What’s up? Indigestion?" An Yi asked skeptically.
"Pfft. As if! Back in my prime, I devoured half a human clan without so much as a hiccup."
Suddenly, Hongtian’s fur bristled. Dark flames erupted from his body, swirling violently.
"I... I can’t hold back anymore!"
With a deafening roar—
Boom!
In an instant, Hongtian transformed into a majestic beast, towering ten feet tall. The writhing black flames only amplified his ferocity.
Hummm!
A streak of dark fire streaked across the sky.
In an ordinary residential district of the capital...
Long Aoyun, who had been walking with his wife, abruptly tensed and looked up, his expression grave.
"A-Yun, what’s wrong?" Ting Ting asked curiously.
Long Aoyun gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Nothing. Let’s keep going."
Meanwhile, in Yunzhou City, Southeast Province...
Boss Nie was meticulously trimming a potted plant with a pair of scissors.
He paused, lifting his gaze to the sky. His calm demeanor shattered, replaced by icy hostility.
"How the hell did that thing break free?!"
He set the scissors down slowly.
The once-lush greenery now lay in tatters, shredded beyond recognition.
"Hey, big guy—you good?" An Yi asked warily.
Hongtian bared his fangs in a wild grin. "Good? I’ve never been better! This is fantastic!"
He turned to An Yi, fangs glinting.
Today, the slave would become the master!
He’d make this brat understand—just how untouchable a legendary Three Great Calamity Beast like the Heavenly Hound truly was!
"If you’re fine, let’s head back. No time for nonsense—I’ve got stuff to do."
An Yi tugged the dog chain, its surface shimmering with a faint violet glow.
Instantly, Hongtian’s body stiffened. He couldn’t resist as An Yi effortlessly dragged him along.
"What the—?! What kind of leash is this?!"
Hongtian thrashed, but to his horror, the chain held firm.
"Damn it! Am I really gonna be stuck under this punk’s thumb forever?!"
"System—upgrade the Evil Ghost Mask!" An Yi commanded.
Ding! [Evil Ghost Mask] upgrading... 1%... 2%... 99%... 100%!
Ding! Upgrade complete!
The mask in An Yi’s hand now gleamed faintly, intricate golden patterns etched across its surface, lending it an air of regal menace.
"Not bad."
An Yi smirked—until he checked his Evil Power Value.
"Zero?! Just twenty left?!"
He nearly cursed aloud.
After subduing Bai Xiu, he’d been rewarded with 350 Evil Power Value—and now, a single upgrade had drained 200 of it!
An Yi slipped on the mask and activated its invisibility.
He glanced at his hand.
Hmm. His arm vanished—but his clothes remained visible.
"F!"
Grumbling, he stripped completely. Sure enough, now he was fully invisible.
"Useless piece of junk!"
So to go invisible, he had to be naked?
As if! He was the leader of the Asura Faction now—no way in hell was he running around bare-assed!
Fuming, he switched to the mask’s other ability: Shapeshift.
Channeling his memory, An Yi morphed into the likeness of a burly, bearded middle-aged man.
The mirror reflected a bald, mustachioed figure.
"Perfect."
His grin widened. Thanks to the man’s memories, he knew the locations of several assassin strongholds across the country.
Time for a hunt.
Just then, the door swung open.
Lin Chen stepped inside, froze at the sight of the disguised An Yi—then narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Me! It’s An Yi!"
An Yi yanked off the mask before Lin Chen could strike.
"What the hell are you doing?" Lin Chen frowned.
"Heh. Time to kick off the plan."
An Yi leaned in, whispering words the readers wouldn’t hear.
Lin Chen’s brows shot up. "You’re serious?"
Wiping out the entire Paradise Organization?
This guy’s schemes were ruthless.
"Dead serious."
An Yi’s smirk was razor-sharp.
"Xue and I are heading to Hong Kong."
After a pause, Lin Chen added, "No—take Bai Xiu, Qin Shan, and Liu Dachao too."
He had unfinished business there.
16K was a global syndicate—not something he could handle alone.
"Got it."
An Yi’s eyes glinted. Right now, the Asura Faction was in every assassin’s crosshairs.
His priority was keeping his people safe.
"Be good. Wait for me."
Outside an upscale café in the capital, An Yi ruffled Ziyue’s hair.
Tears welled in her eyes. "Y-You’re abandoning me?"
"Not abandoning. Just handling some business."
He chuckled.
Her sister was the most beautiful woman in the Ancient Continent—not that it mattered to a righteous guy like him!
(Okay, maybe it did. But mostly because Ziyue was the Third Princess of the Ten Thousand Beasts Kingdom. A solid ally.)
Ziyue sniffled, clinging to his sleeve. "But where will I go? I don’t even understand the language here..."
Creak.
The café door opened.
Xiao Ye, dressed in a waiter’s uniform, peered out. "Boss? You called—?"
"Ah, right. Wasn’t sure where to put Ziyue, but you’re from the same world. Easier to communicate."
Lin Chen, Bai Xiu, and the others were all on missions.
Qin Yao was in the Underworld.
The Law Enforcement Bureau couldn’t take her—not with her identity.
Sending her back to Aunt Zhou in Jiangbei? Too risky.
Lan Ruoxi and Nie Qinglan needed protection themselves.
Hongtian was free, but "let the dog babysit" wasn’t a viable plan.
Xiao Ye was the only option.
Strong. Composed.
And most importantly—had nothing better to do.
Ziyue bashfully sidled up to Xiao Ye, waving at An Yi. "Stay safe! I’ll miss you!"
An Yi: "..."
As An Yi walked away, Xiao Ye sighed and gestured inside. "Let’s go."
"Okay!"
Ziyue curled her lips into a faint smile and quickly followed, lowering her voice as she said, "So your name is Xiao Ye? I remember there was a legendary swordmaster by the same name in the Tongtian Tower—what a funny coincidence!"
"Is that so? How amusing."
Xiao Ye replied with an air of effortless calm, his tone light and indifferent.

ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.

ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!

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!

d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!