"Hey, Old Tao, what the hell are you up to!"
An Yi whispered to Old Tao beside him, a look of helplessness on his face.
Peaceful?
Peaceful my ass! What a lousy name.
Old Tao cleared his throat and said slowly, "Use this name for now. You've been put on the wanted list in the Eastern Ling Empire!"
Back then, An Yi had single-handedly killed over a dozen Heavenly Gang experts, making him famous far and wide. In Lingchuan Domain, his name was known to everyone. People were still talking about him in the streets and alleys.
That wouldn't have been a problem normally.
But the issue was that An Yi had asked Old Tao to spread the word about him more, to boost his reputation.
Old Tao was reliable when it came to handling things—he was a solid guy.
He did exactly as asked, but he exaggerated and blew An Yi's achievements out of proportion.
In this era of limited information, the most effective way to spread news was word of mouth, but that had a downside—it was easy to distort reality.
So An Yi blew up in popularity, with wild versions of his story spreading like wildfire.
Stuff like trampling the City Lord's mansion and taking on dozens of Heavenly Gang Spirit Masters single-handedly was considered basic.
Some said he had three heads and six arms, that he massacred an entire city in Qi City, slaughtering everyone without mercy. Others claimed he was already a legendary Nirvana Realm Spirit Master, shattering the City Lord's mansion with one palm, blood splattering everywhere. Some even said he was a criminal who had escaped from the Heavenly Tower.
In just a few days, thanks to Old Tao's relentless promotion, even the capital of the Eastern Ling Empire, with his fearsome notoriety, threw the entire empire into panic.
When the higher-ups saw that their domain had produced a savage monster, they thought, "This won't do!" So they immediately issued a wanted notice for him.
Now, An Yi was a top-tier criminal, with a bounty of 100,000 gold coins on his head!
At that point, Old Tao panicked.
The Eastern Mystic Academy was a cradle for nurturing the pillars of the state. If it got out that they were harboring a criminal as a teacher, they'd be totally screwed.
If that leaked, who would dare send their children there?
It would affect next year's enrollment.
So Old Tao rushed over to settle things for An Yi first. The name had to be hidden—best if he stopped using it entirely.
"Bear with it for now. From now on, temporarily use the name An Xiang. Your identity will be my blood nephew," Old Tao said, half pleading, as he secretly handed over with a newly issued teacher qualification certificate.
Now that An Yi had become a great demon, Old Tao was half responsible.
An Yi took the certificate and looked at it helplessly.
It had gone from a golden certificate to a bronze one—this wasn't just a minor change in status!
He had been hoping to flaunt his status with that certificate!
Clearly, there was no way to show off now.
An Yi put away the certificate and said wearily, "Let me give you a little basic knowledge lesson: your blood nephew would have the surname Tao..."
"You're taking your mother's surname. And that's settled!"
Old Tao said without a second thought.
An Yi: "..."
Now, with a new identity under the name An Xiang, how was he supposed to show off and win a girl's heart? Use the title of the dean's nephew?
Dishonest connections and special privileges—he hated that most of all.
"Cough, I'm An Xiang, the new fire element teacher. As a newcomer, I kindly ask all the veteran teachers for their guidance. Please don't go out of your way to treat me specially just because I'm the dean's nephew," An Yi said casually, hands clasped behind his back.
The teachers all smiled, their faces fawning as they flocked around him.
"Haha, Teacher An is indeed approachable and down-to-earth—a model for us all!"
"We believe Teacher An's arrival will certainly add some brilliance to the fire element college."
The dean was not an ordinary position; he was the head of one of the major colleges in Eastern Mystic Academy and had no children. Since a blood nephew had suddenly appeared, they put forth all the enthusiasm they could muster.
If they could butter up this rich second-generation well, there would be plenty of benefits in the future!
At the back of the crowd, Wu Huan stared at An Yi with venomous eyes, his fists clenched tightly.
Now, his glory was gone. His father, as the former dean, was clearly not as popular as the current dean, and An Yi was now enjoying the treatment that used to be his.
Standing at a distance, Zi Yun watched An Yi, surrounded by a crowd of admirers, a meaningful smile curling at the corner of her lips.
...
Eastern Mystic Academy.
In the special recruitment class.
The noise was deafening, chaotic and loud.
The students were all doing their own thing—none of them were actually training.
The moment Ye Tian walked in carrying the Coiled Dragon Halberd, the entire class fell silent.
In the corner sat a long-haired young man with cyan eyes, giving him a strange and imposing aura.
"Hey, another tough guy's here," said a stocky young man, flashing a grin of white teeth.
Despite his simple appearance, his eyes burned with fighting spirit.
In the front row, a beautiful girl with a doll-like face, delicate like porcelain, crossed her arms and sized up Ye Tian, nodding slightly.
"Not bad looking... Huh? Little Tian!"
Xu Qianqian was shocked.
She wasn't mistaken—the youth carrying the halberd was none other than the abandoned son of the Ye family, Ye Tian! He was also her sister's fiancé.
Why was he at Eastern Mystic Academy!
The others also looked at Ye Tian with a fair amount of wariness.
They all knew that on the surface, this kid was no simple character.
Ye Tian found a seat and sat down calmly.
"Monkey, test him out," the long-haired young man said slowly.
A scrawny young man, fiddling with a dagger in his hand, grinned. "Got it!"
With that, he strolled over to Ye Tian.
"Oh, nice halberd you've got there?" Houzi said, reaching out from behind Ye Tian to touch his halberd, clearly looking for trouble.
"Touch it again, and you'll die," Ye Tian said coldly, fixing his gaze on him.
Suddenly, a chilling killing intent locked onto Houzi.
But Houzi was no ordinary student. With a defiant look, he grinned. "We're all classmates here, no need to be so harsh, right?"
The others, noticing the commotion, turned to watch, smirking.
The students in this class were geniuses among geniuses, and they wanted to see what the newcomer was made of.
Whoosh!
Blue flames instantly ignited on the Coiled Dragon Halberd.
Sharp as blades, they actually cut Houzi's hand, blood seeping out.
"You!"
Houzi's face changed dramatically as he leaped back two steps, his eyes filled with terror.
He had never encountered flames that were as sharp as knives.
Then, without warning, Ye Tian's fist came flying.
He revealed himself to be as an Intermediate Condensed Spirit realm martial artist.
Caught off guard, Houzi could only watch helplessly as Ye Tian's fist came directly toward his face.
Thud!
Ye Tian's fist was caught by the long-haired young man's palm.
Powerful energy exploded outward, forcing everyone in the room back several steps.
Ye Tian's eyes narrowed as he looked at the long-haired youth.
Intermediate Condensed Spirit realm—him being that strong at his age was definitely impressive.
"Not bad, you've got some skills. Let me introduce myself: I'm Zhang Qi, from the Zhang family of Yucheng," Zhang Qi said slowly, his expression full of arrogance.
The Zhang family of Yucheng — not just within the Lingchuan domain but across the entire Dongling Empire — was considered a top-tier aristocratic clan. And Zhang Qi, as a once-in-a-century prodigy of the Zhang family, had every right to be proud.
"Ye Cheng, the Ye family's Ye Tian!"
Ye Tian said slowly.
The moment that name was spoken, the expressions of everyone present turned unnatural.
The Ye family of Ye Cheng...
Hadn't the rumor said they were wiped out by the Divine Spirit Cult?

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?!

ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!

young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."

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!