The dungeon remained as gloomy as ever; even the brightest light cast here carried a chilling, sinister aura.
The black-clad man opened the cage.
Zhou Jun obediently stepped out, his gaze icy and lifeless, exuding an air of death.
"Heh, who would’ve thought—two years, and you’re still alive. Thanks to you, so many have been spared suffering."
The Gourd Immortal licked his lips as he stared at Zhou Jun, letting out a grating, spine-chilling laugh.
This kid had an unusually strong life force—his vitality alone was worth a hundred ordinary men.
It was precisely because of him that the Gourd Immortal’s thirst for essence and blood had been somewhat sated.
Zhou Jun moved like a walking corpse, his face numb, silent.
The Gourd Immortal grinned and strode toward him.
Suddenly, his robes split open at the back, revealing a bloated, mountain-like body covered in vine-like tentacles that lashed out like striking serpents, piercing toward Zhou Jun.
Nie Qinglan, hiding in a nearby cage, was petrified at the sight, her beautiful eyes filled with terror.
"Ah!"
The tips of the tentacles were razor-sharp, instantly puncturing Zhou Jun’s veins, sinking deep into his flesh and bones—one even drilled straight through his skull.
Zhou Jun let out a tortured, agonized scream, the veins in his neck bulging violently.
The Gourd Immortal cackled with glee.
Under his relentless draining, Zhou Jun’s body visibly withered, his moisture sucked dry until he was nothing but skin and bones, a living skeleton.
Still, the Gourd Immortal refused to stop. His blood-red eyes burned with greed, as if he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had sucked out the very marrow.
"Immortal, stop! If he dies, you’ll have no one left to feed on!"
The burly man, Lie Tao, broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly intervened.
Only then did the Gourd Immortal snap out of it, reluctantly retracting his tentacles. "Such a fine blood thrall… what a shame he can’t last longer!"
Deprived of support, Zhou Jun collapsed to the ground, writhing in unbearable torment.
His eyes were hollow, filled with despair.
Two years. He had truly had enough. What was the point of living in a world like this?
"Zhou Jun… your mother’s coming to visit in a few days, isn’t she?"
Lie Tao remarked casually.
At those words, Zhou Jun’s gaze sharpened.
"A single mother like her… her child is her entire reason for living. As long as you’re alive, she has a purpose."
Lie Tao spoke with deliberate calm.
Surviving two years in a place like this—even a ghost would break.
Zhou Jun had long wanted to die, but he had a weakness.
Back then, to keep him compliant, they had gone to great lengths to track down his mother.
To give him a sliver of hope, they allowed Zhou Jun and his mother to meet once a month.
And they used her as leverage.
If he dared to die, his mother wouldn’t live either.
Unfortunately, Zhou Jun’s mother wasn’t obedient. Every visit, she screamed and fought to free her son. Tired of her defiance, they beat her without hesitation.
A month ago, they had gone too far—beating her unconscious and dumping her on the streets, assuming she’d die.
Yet, against all odds, she survived. And yesterday, she had come back!
Not that they feared her reporting them.
She could try, but with Zhou Jun in their grasp, they could always counter-threaten.
If even a whisper of this got out, they’d make sure Zhou Jun died in this sunless dungeon.
"Kid, eat well, sleep well—don’t you dare die! If you kill yourself, we’ll make sure your mother suffers before she joins you!" Lie Tao sneered coldly.
Zhou Jun said nothing. Emaciated like a skeleton, he was too weak to even speak.
The Gourd Immortal, now satiated, was in high spirits. "This boy is fantastic! What do you humans call it… a ‘treasure boy,’ right?"
Lie Tao’s lip twitched in disgust.
Even after two years, this fat old monster still made his stomach churn.
"Now for the main event!"
Shifting his mountainous bulk, the Gourd Immortal lumbered barefoot toward Nie Qinglan.
Her face drained of color, Nie Qinglan huddled in a corner of the cage, trembling. Tears streaked her cheeks as she whimpered, "Stay away… stay away… please…"
"Tsk tsk, such a stunning beauty—truly a peerless flower!"
The Gourd Immortal grinned, his kindly face twisting with ravenous hunger.
After draining Zhou Jun, he was practically buzzing with excitement, his face flushed red.
The black-clad men around them were equally worked up.
Usually, unruly girls from the Night Blossom Bathhouse were thrown in here for the Gourd Immortal to "handle"—tortured to death.
But a girl this beautiful? This was a first.
Lie Tao frowned.
This girl was Boss Nie’s daughter. If the Gourd Immortal defiled her, the retaliation would be a bloodbath.
But if he tried to stop him…
No need to guess—he’d be the one beaten to death by the Gourd Immortal.
After two years, he knew the monster’s nature.
Killing was as effortless as plucking weeds. He doubted their "bond" would spare him if he interfered.
"Boss Nie… what a headache."
Lie Tao sighed.
This mess would have to be escalated to the higher-ups.
The Gourd Immortal slammed a fist into the iron bars.
The steel cage might as well have been made of wire—under his massive hands, it crumpled like a child’s toy.
Nie Qinglan shuddered, her pupils dilating in terror.
"Let the boss’s daughter go!"
Chengzi gripped the bars of his cage, veins bulging as he slammed against them. "Her father is Boss Nie! Are you insane? He’ll slaughter every last one of you! You’re digging your own graves—"
"Shut him up!"
Lie Tao barked at the black-clad men by the entrance without turning.
But no one moved.
Sensing something wrong, Lie Tao glanced back—and his expression darkened.
A masked figure in black stood at the entrance, holding a combat knife to a guard’s throat.
"Nobody move! Or this one dies!"
A clear, icy voice rang out.
In an instant, every eye in the dungeon snapped toward the elevator—where a young man had appeared.
None other than An Yi, who had slipped in unnoticed.
"Damn it! How’d he get in here?!"
Lie Tao’s face turned grim.
This dungeon was supposed to be an absolute secret.
Yet this kid had waltzed right in!
"I’ve got your man at knifepoint. Want him alive? Then freeze!"
An Yi tightened his grip on the blade.
The Gourd Immortal, his fun interrupted, glared at Lie Tao with bloodshot eyes. "Lie Tao! Kill this brat! Ruining my moment!"
Lie Tao glanced at the hostage, then smirked. "Do what you want with him."
Using a lowly grunt as leverage? Pathetic.
An Yi met Lie Tao’s gaze coolly—then slashed the blade across the guard’s throat.
A crimson line bloomed. Blood sprayed.
The guard’s eyes widened before he crumpled to the ground in a pool of red.
Ding! Quest [Kill Count: 1/10]!
Evil Points: +100!
Mission Reward: [Rampage]!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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!
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?!
