"I... I just wanted to steal some money..."
Tian Mao's eyes narrowed slightly as he quickly put on a show of trembling, raising his hands in surrender.
He knew An Yi was strong, and had thought he might put up a fight, but he never expected that in front of him, he wasn't even worth a single exchange.
There was no point in playing this game!
Tian Mao gave up all resistance and just surrendered outright.
"Stealing? Bullshit! This guy is lying!"
Yan Kui tossed the mercenary he'd captured earlier to the ground.
The thud made Tian Mao's heart skip a beat along with it.
They had all come for the bounty on the White Serpent and the head of the Great Demon King An Yi.
If they were discovered, there was no telling whether they'd walk out of this alive.
Tian Mao racked his brain, cold sweat forming on his bald head: "Well, I... I..."
"I see you lot are after Qiansui's beauty! How dare you barge into her room!"
Yan Kui angrily stomped on the mercenary's face on the floor: "Talk! What did you see!"
The mercenary, face covered in blood, wailed miserably: "I... I didn't see a thing!"
"Come on, sneaking into a girl's room in the middle of the night, and you saw nothing? You think I'd believe that?"
"I really didn't see anything! I hadn't even gotten in before you, standing guard at the door, blasted me out!"
"Bullshit! Don't you slander me! I heard your noise and went over!"
"..."
Qiansui watched Yan Kui beat the mercenary and couldn't help but say: "Stop hitting him. I was sleeping in my clothes. He probably isn't lying."
Yan Kui set down the battered mercenary and pounded his chest at Qiansui, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Don't you worry. If any scumbag dares to mess with you, they'll have to get through me first."
"We'll escort these bastards to the City Lord's mansion in Qicheng for judgment tomorrow."
An Yi looked at Tian Mao and the other mercenaries, yawning as he spoke.
Coincidentally, he also had business at the City Lord's mansion.
Liu Yu tied up Tian Mao with rope and grinned: "Then we'll take shifts keeping watch. Instructor Anshu, you go back and rest first."
"Alright, they're in your hands."
An Yi waved his hand and walked away.
But a rare glint of sharpness flashed in his eyes.
Mercenaries at the mid Heavenly Staircase stage... it was hard to believe these people were just ordinary spirit practitioners.
After all, the City Lord of Qicheng was only at the late Heavenly Staircase stage.
In the Eastern Empire, there were three major domains.
Qicheng was the central city of the nine cities in Lingchuan Domain, one of the most prosperous cities in the entire Eastern Empire.
City Lord Qi Hong's strength, looking across the whole empire, was definitely among the top tier.
Yet now, a group of mercenaries from the Dragon Bone Mountains were already at mid Heavenly Staircase.
Spirit practitioners of this caliber, stealing money from their students... who the hell would believe that!
"Is everyone alright?"
Back at the inn, Zi Yun looked at the returning An Yi and asked softly.
An Yi smiled: "I'm fine. It's just that three students got struck by lightning. They'll need a day of rest and they'll be fine."
Zi Yun's beautiful eyes fixed on Tian Mao and the others, thoughtfully: "They're all from the Mercenary Guild. What do you plan to do with them?"
"The Mercenary Guild?"
An Yi was slightly surprised.
The Mercenary Guild, like the Divine Church, was an organization spread across the entire continent.
Though it was a step below the Divine Church, its strength was not to be underestimated.
So the mercenaries who could join the Guild were no pushovers.
Could it be... the Mercenary Guild had taken notice of him?
An Yi frowned, realizing things might not be so simple.
"Could it be about your identity...?" Zi Yun's beautiful eyes gazed at An Yi.
An Yi laughed: "Haha, the name An Yi, even if rumors have twisted it into being called the Demon of Qicheng, it shouldn't be enough for the Mercenary Guild to come after me."
That he was the Great Demon King An Yi who had stirred up chaos across the Eastern Empire had all but become an accepted fact among the special class students.
So An Yi wasn't planning to hide it either.
The moment he spread those shadow wings, his identity was no longer a secret.
Zi Yun looked at him, as if wanting to say more.
She wasn't talking about that name.
She meant the one that could shake the heavens of the ninefold skies!
"My dream's been interrupted, so I can't sleep. If you've got nothing else to do, let's chat."
An Yi leaned on the railing of the inn, looking at the night sky.
Zi Yun gently swept the hair from her forehead behind her ear and said softly: "Alright."
A canned beer was pulled out of An Yi's storage space.
"Want one?"
An Yi raised the beer in offering.
Zi Yun shook her head: "Thanks, but I don't really like alcohol."
"Then try this instead."
Without waiting for a reply, An Yi tossed a can of blood soda to Zi Yun.
Zi Yun caught it resignedly, imitating An Yi as she popped the tab, listening to the fizz of bubbles, gave it a curious glance, and then took a careful sip.
"So sweet!"
Looking at the blood soda in her hands, Zi Yun said in surprise.
She seemed amazed that this clear-as-water drink could have such an indescribably sweet taste.
"Not bad, right?"
A smile tugged at the corner of An Yi's mouth.
Zi Yun took another small sip: "You always manage to pull out the strangest things, but the taste is genuinely good."
An Yi took a sip of his beer, his lips curving upward: "Speaking of which, we've known each other this long, but I still don't know where you're from."
"The west of the continent."
Zi Yun held the soda can in her jade-like hands, gazing at the pitch-black starless night sky, her eyes distant.
It was hard to tell if it was longing or melancholy.
"The Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom?"
An Yi probed.
Zi Yun's body gave a slight tremble, then quickly smoothed over as she shot him a teasing glare: "The Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom is the realm of the demon clans. How could I be from there?"
"Haha, just throwing that out there."
An Yi's long fingers held the can as he took a sip of beer.
Zi Yun's gaze secretly slid his way.
From a woman's perspective, An Yi's looks were indeed flawless.
Handsome yet sunny, and that roguish charm carried a hint of mischief.
If not for the occasional jerk move, he'd be the perfect partner in any girl's dreams.
"Are you into me?"
An Yi turned his head, looking at the ethereally beautiful Zi Yun beside him, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
Zi Yun snapped back to the moment, giving a helpless smile: "What makes you think that?"
"Because you're always looking at me."
An Yi's slightly frivolous demeanor carried a sliver of seriousness.
He wasn't wrong. This woman had been watching him, ever since she entered the academy.
"You're mistaken. It's late, get some rest."
Zi Yun said with a sweet smile, swaying her alluring figure as she calmly walked away.
An Yi's eyes trailed over Zi Yun's tempting waist and hips, muttering to himself: "Weird, why doesn't she have cat ears?"
with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!
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.
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!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
