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?
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
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!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
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?!
