Qi Hong's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Old Tao, his voice low and fierce: "Tao Ye!"
He recognized him immediately. The scruffy, disheveled old man before him was none other than Tao Ye, the dean of the Eastern Ling Empire branch of the Eastern Mystic Academy!
In Old Tao's hand was a bone flute, crackling with purple lightning. He gazed coldly at Qi Hong, striking a protective pose: "Lord Qi, I don’t know what happened between you and An Yi, but if you want to touch him, you’ll have to go through me first!"
The city guard soldiers surrounded them, gripping their spears, watching the ragged old man who seemed to be inserting himself into the drama.
"Uh... Old Tao..."
An Yi coughed lightly, trying to fill him in on the situation.
"Don’t worry. Now that you’re a tutor at the Eastern Mystic Academy, as long as I’m around, no one in Qi City will dare bully you!"
Old Tao tossed a gilded object toward him.
An Yi caught it reflexively and stared in disbelief at what was clearly an official tutor identification badge from the Eastern Mystic Academy.
The name "An Yi" was inscribed on it in bold, flowing script.
What did he need this for?
An Yi had no idea that being a tutor at the Eastern Mystic Academy was an incredibly prestigious status.
In fact, with this badge, he could strut around Qi City without fear of anyone messing with him.
Of course, An Yi could already do that without the badge.
In the end, Qi Hong didn't bring down his heavy hammer.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the rage boiling inside him.
He was no longer young and reckless.
Losing his temper and acting on impulse might feel satisfying in the moment,
but it also made it easy to end up six feet under.
Better to live a humble life than a glorious death—he understood that principle well.
"Lord An, I acted rashly earlier. I am willing to pay 100,000 gold coins as compensation!"
Qi Hong clasped his hands and bowed deeply, all formality.
Old Tao was stunned, almost questioning reality.
Was his influence really that great?
Sure, he was the dean of the Eastern Mystic Academy, but the city lord of Qi City had never given him the time of day.
He’d been bracing for a full-blown battle...
"Where is Ye Tian?" An Yi asked, his voice cold, a hint of killing intent in his eyes.
Qi Hong answered respectfully: "I’ve already sent men to escort Master Ye here. I did not resort to personal torture!"
By now, Old Tao could see that Qi Hong’s submissive attitude had nothing to do with him. Even a fool would figure that out.
"Kid, what did you do?" Old Tao whispered, confused.
No one knew better than him how difficult Qi Hong was to deal with.
For twenty years, they’d been locked in silent struggle.
Ever since Old Tao fell ill seven years ago, Qi Hong had become arrogant and overbearing.
He couldn’t remember the last time he saw Qi Hong bow his head.
An Yi replied casually: "I took care of a few of his underlings, and the big guy suddenly got polite."
Old Tao: "..."
Just that? He didn’t believe it.
He glanced at the bloodied bodies of the so-called "Qi City Twin Terrors" lying on the ground.
Those twin brothers had been Qi Hong’s top enforcers, his city lord mansion’s double-edged swords, handling all his dirty work—robberies, arson, murder.
He never thought they’d meet their end so soon.
"You did that?" Old Tao swallowed hard, his voice trembling.
"The guys on the wall, too," An Yi said, as if it were nothing.
Old Tao followed his gaze and broke out in a cold sweat.
Qi Hong’s three elite death warriors were dead.
So were several experts from the Xu family.
The bald man with the cracked skull was Yu Cang, the infamous butcher.
The bloodied, black-skinned figure was Hu Yong, the top fighter from Yu City.
Old Tao sucked in a sharp breath. Could this masked brat really have done all that?
For a moment, he felt dazed, like he was dreaming.
He knew well—without those strong fighters,
Qi Hong was like a tiger without its fangs. He might still try to act tough, but the old swagger was gone.
As for the Xu family...
Three mid-level Tian Gang spiritualists, all dead. And now they’d fallen out with the city lord’s mansion. How could they defend their position as Qi City’s wealthiest family?
On the ancient continent, wealth was always tied to power.
With no strength, money made you nothing more than a walking piece of fat.
Under the escort of two guards, Ye Tian arrived before An Yi, unharmed but weary.
"Young master!"
Ye Tian looked at An Yi and gave a helpless smile.
The scale of this rescue was beyond anything he’d imagined.
He knew An Yi would come for him, but he never expected him to storm the city lord’s mansion and force Qi Hong to hand him over personally.
"Are you hurt?" An Yi asked.
Glancing at the Fate Value above Ye Tian’s head, An Yi frowned.
Something was off. Being locked in the dungeon had actually increased Ye Tian’s Fate Value by one point!
It was now at eighty!
What had he been doing down there?
Love?
That didn’t make sense either—how would that raise Fate Value?
An Yi rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He still had no clue about the main mission of defying fate. At least getting the Fate Value up would be something.
"Lord An, this is a banknote for 100,000 gold coins. Please accept it as a token of my apology."
Qi Hong extended a box, his face full of forced respect.
It was another gold note worth a thousand gold coins, a thick stack that was quite pleasing to the eye.
"Oh, being the city lord sure brings in some nice perks, huh?"
An Yi pocketed it without any hesitation, chuckling as he said, "This is the only time. Don't let it happen again!"
"Wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare…"
Qi Hong breathed a faint sigh of relief.
He knew that this An Yi was probably someone with significant backing.
Luckily, they had only arrested Ye Tian and hadn't resorted to torture; otherwise, he wasn't sure if his head would still be on his shoulders.
Now that a bunch of his strong enforcers were dead, it was only fitting retribution.
The real challenge ahead was how to maintain the city lord's mansion's authority.
Xu Chun stepped back among the crowd, silently watching An Yi, his fists clenched tightly.
Where would the Xu family go from here…
Thinking of his youngest daughter at the Eastern Mystic Academy, a glint of viciousness flickered in Xu Chun's eyes.
That was his last chance!
Leaving the city lord's mansion.
Old Tao looked at An Yi earnestly and extended an invitation. "How about it? Interested in joining the Eastern Mystic Academy?"
An Yi waved his hand dismissively. "No interest."
"This—this is a position as a mentor at the Eastern Mystic Academy, a glory countless people chase."
Old Tao refused to give up and pressed on.
An Yi patted the ten-thousand-gold note that Qi Hong had handed over and asked pointedly, "Can it bring me this much money?"
"No, no it can't."
Old Tao's face flushed with embarrassment.
Ten thousand gold coins! He'd never even seen that much money!
"Can the Eastern Mystic Academy let me run wild and have my back?"
"It… it can't do that either."
"Then what use is it?" An Yi snorted dismissively.
Wanted him to go be a mentor at the Oriental Mystic Academy?
Hah, what was in it for him?
Old Tao scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said earnestly, "Although the students you'd be in charge of are all young girls, the sense of honor and mission of being a mentor is something any—"
"Hold on!"
An Yi interrupted Old Tao, his expression turning serious. "I'm taking the job."
Old Tao: "…"
He blinked his eyes, bewildered. He hadn't even started his passionate speech yet, so why had this guy agreed?
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.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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)
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
