On the way to the stone pillar with the three companions, Zhong Yi turned on his live stream.
For the past few days, he had been deeply engrossed in studying the villagers. Due to his extremely cruel and twisted methods, he had kept the stream offline.
Now, the moment he reopened it, countless cultivators flocked to watch.
[Finally, Senior Brother Zhong is streaming again!]
[So, how many more villagers have you tormented this time?]
[Ever since Zhong Yi started researching redstone, he’s been acting more and more like a demonic cultivator…]
[I actually enjoy watching him experiment on the villagers—it’s a pursuit of knowledge.]
[Curiosity is good, as long as you don’t lose your humanity.]
[What’s this stone pillar? Why is it built so high?]
……
"Old Zhong, stop keeping us in suspense… How much longer do we have to climb? Can this pillar really generate experience orbs?"
Zhou Yue had been climbing the ladder for a while and was growing impatient.
"Remember the dungeon challenge from a few days ago? I told you the mobs spawn within a 128-block radius."
Zhong Yi climbed onto the final wooden rung and grinned.
"This height from the ground? Exactly 128 blocks."
"You mean… preventing mobs from spawning?"
Zhou Yue caught on quickly, immediately looking up at the sky.
They stood on a small platform now.
Above it loomed an enormous diamond-shaped structure.
"So, you’re making monsters spawn up there? But how do you plan to clear out a whole crowd of mobs?"
Zhou Yue pointed at the diamond platform in realization.
"Simple—make them fall… and get critically injured from the drop."
With that, Zhong Yi pulled a nearby lever.
The torches flickered with a red glow as a beam of crimson energy surged upward.
"Once I pull this lever, the redstone signal transmits to the top, where a dispenser in the enclosed space receives it…"
"Upon activation, the dispenser releases a water bucket. The water spreads infinitely in the space, pushing the mobs into the channel…"
"After they’re funneled in, they’ll plummet and take massive fall damage—just like this."
No sooner had Zhong Yi finished speaking than mobs began raining down into the narrow passage before him.
At the bottom, a one-block gap revealed only their feet.
"Now that they’re all weakened, I just need to make my move, and the experience is mine."
Zhong Yi drew his diamond sword and swung horizontally. A chorus of death cries echoed as waves of mobs perished.
Large experience orbs burst forth, flying straight into Zhong Yi’s body.
The live chat exploded.
[Holy crap, you can farm XP like this?!]
[This feels like studying scriptures for a century and finally achieving enlightenment…]
[Damn, he actually cracked redstone mechanics.]
[This leveling efficiency is insane.]
[Honestly, you’d probably max out just by grinding mobs in the time it took to build this.]
……
After a few cycles, Zhong Yi’s cultivation level skyrocketed, reaching the peak of Qi Refining Ninth Layer in mere moments.
"So? Told you this wasn’t some shady shortcut," Zhong Yi boasted, straightening his posture.
"If you’re so brilliant, why not help me figure out how to swap my spiritual root?" Zhou Yue suggested.
After breaking through to Foundation Establishment, his spiritual root had upgraded from fifth-grade to fourth-grade—but it remained an Earth root.
The passive effect changed from doubling dirt drops to doubling stone drops.
In short, it was utterly useless.
He just wanted a combat-oriented one.
"Spiritual roots? Heh, as it happens, I’ve already been researching that."
Zhong Yi’s lips curled into an eerie smile.
"Among villagers, there’s a chance of encountering those born with spiritual roots. If ordinary villagers breed with them, there’s a fifty percent chance their offspring will inherit a root."
"The attribute and grade are randomized… With enough time, we could cultivate a villager with a supreme-grade root."
"All we need is to figure out how to exploit the rules and extract the root from them—"
Before he could finish, Zhou Yue and the other two lunged forward in horror, clamping their hands over his mouth.
"Stop! Stop!"
"Senior Brother Zhong, we’re live! The Tianxuan Sect is watching!!"
"At this rate, the Lingxiao Sect will be labeled a demonic faction by tomorrow!!"
……
……
Lingxiao Sect, Forbidden Grounds.
Ding Mingcang, clad in black robes, arrived alone at the entrance.
"Elder Ding Mingcang of Linxian Peak seeks an audience with the Sect Master on urgent matters!"
He knelt on one knee, presenting a violet token.
The orange crystal at its center flickered several times before a distant, ethereal voice echoed from the depths:
"Elder Ding, why disturb my seclusion?"
The speaker was the current Sect Master of the Lingxiao Sect, who had been in closed-door cultivation for nearly a decade, striving to break through to the next realm.
Ding Mingcang bowed his head respectfully.
"Esteemed Sect Master…"
"Recently, a vile influence has spread within our sect—a bewitching illusion that ensnares disciples, distracting them from cultivation…"
"The Enforcement Hall sought to rectify this, but Elders Zhao Wendao of Leigong Peak and Nangong Yuan of Lihuo Peak repeatedly obstructed us, indulging in the illusion alongside the disciples. Despite my efforts, I cannot defy the will of two elders alone."
"If this continues, our sect’s prosperity will surely decline!"
"I humbly request the Sect Master’s decree, that I may purge this scourge and restore order!"

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."

world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...

iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.

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.”