Hei Zhuo grabbed it with one hand. The phone was still playing.
He glanced at the screen, and his previously calm expression instantly turned livid.
“Fuck! That bastard, Hei Shen!”
Hei Zhuo was just about to crush the phone when Xu Mu stopped him.
“Don’t destroy it! There’s more.”
Only then did Hei Zhuo continue staring at the screen. The picture had gone black, but the voices of the people in the recording could still be heard.
When he heard Hei Shen say that several of Hei Zhuo’s sons and daughters were actually his descendants, Hei Zhuo was so furious he nearly coughed up blood.
“Fuck! Damn you!”
The phone was crushed to pieces in an instant.
Xu Mu didn’t feel bad about it. Thankfully, it wasn’t his phone.
“Senior, Hei Shen also mentioned some secrets, but they weren’t recorded.”
“What else did he say?”
Hei Zhuo closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.
“He said that as long as I deleted the video, he would let me enter the treasury and use some divine medicine to thank me,” Xu Mu said with a smile.
Some things had to be explained. The elders there all knew that the three of them had entered the treasury. If he said nothing, Hei Zhuo would naturally assume that Xu Mu and the others had stolen everything.
“The treasury? You mean you entered it?”
Hei Zhuo asked calmly.
“That’s right. Under my threat, he told me how to get inside.” Xu Mu shook his head with a smile. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of value in there.”
“Impossible! Are you saying you made it through the formation?”
Hei Zhuo suddenly reached for Xu Mu.
“Leave your spatial ring behind!”
Buzz!
Xu Mu immediately teleported away and vanished.
“Brat! If you dare lie to me, I’ll wipe out your entire clan—even if it costs me my life!”
Hei Zhuo immediately returned and headed into the interior of the Third Tribe.
There were almost no signs of battle around the outer area of the ruins. By compressing space, he reached the palace at the rear in a matter of moments.
Only after stepping inside did he discover the place was in complete disarray. All the women from his harem had gathered there.
“Chief…”
“Someone broke into our territory just now!”
…
The women surged toward him, but Hei Zhuo shoved them aside with one hand.
When he reached the formation where the harem was located, he saw the many injured elders—and the Grand Elder, who had been severed in two.
“Father! You’re finally here! The Grand Elder is dead!”
Upon seeing Hei Zhuo, Hei Shen immediately fell to his knees before him and began to complain bitterly.
“They were too powerful. I fought them for hundreds of rounds and even lost an arm. You have to avenge me!”
Hei Zhuo stared down at Hei Shen, forcibly suppressing the urge to kill him on the spot.
“Who were they?”
“After making some discreet inquiries, I found out who they were. The leader was none other than Tan Tai Quan!” Hei Shen explained. “Besides her, there was also Xu Mu—the Yanhuang man who’s been making waves recently.”
“Tan Tai Quan…”
Hei Zhuo drew a deep breath and immediately went to the formation leading to the treasury’s innermost chamber, stepping inside first.
Naturally, he knew about the formation within.
One of the people who had originally explored the formation was the man who was now the Jiao King. At the time, however, he had not yet become the Jiao King, which was why he had been sent inside.
Later, after Hei Zhuo became the Third Chief, the Jiao King told him the secret of the formation.
Hei Zhuo reached the deepest part without trouble. But when he saw that the treasury contained nothing but the blackened metal frame of a car, he flew into a rage, his face twisting viciously.
“HEI SHEN!”
He let out a furious roar.
His overwhelming power instantly melted the car frame into a pool of molten metal.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Xu Mu. The evidence was right in front of him.
How could only three people—Xu Mu and the others—have carried away so many treasures?
What was more, there had been more than a dozen Flames of Boundary here. The Flames of Boundary could not be stored in a spatial ring, and there had clearly been no trace of them on those three people just now.
This proved one thing: Xu Mu might not have been lying. By the time they entered, most of the treasures here had already been taken away by someone else.
Hei Zhuo exited the formation and discovered that Hei Shen and his other children were all waiting outside.
The elders and the women from the harem were there as well.
“Father! I can’t swallow this insult. We have to get revenge! At worst, we’ll go to the outside world and kill them!”
Hei Shen snarled at Hei Zhuo.
“You’re right. I can’t swallow this insult either.”
Hei Zhuo took a deep breath.
“Hei Shen, confess everything you’ve done behind my back. For the sake of our father-son relationship, I may only cripple you and spare your life.”
At those words, panic immediately appeared in Hei Shen’s eyes. Had Xu Mu already shown Hei Zhuo the phone?
“Father! What are you talking about? I don’t understand. Don’t let them deceive you! Technology in the outside world is so advanced these days. Be careful—you could be fooled by an AI-generated video.”
Terrified, Hei Shen dropped to his knees.
“How do you know I was deceived by a video?”
“I…”
Hei Shen slammed his forehead against the ground.
“That kind of scam is extremely common. I’ve fallen for it before.”
“You’re right. The technology in the outside world is indeed very advanced. So from now on, everyone here will undergo DNA testing.”
Hei Zhuo looked toward the many women standing in the distance.
“If any of your children turns out not to be mine, I’ll chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs. If you confess now, I can spare your life.”
“Please spare me, Chief! Hei Shen threatened me!”
“That’s right! He said that if I refused, he would tell you that I was having an affair with someone else.”
…
Upon hearing this, more than half of the women dropped to their knees and began begging for mercy.
As for those who had never given birth, some still tried to remain composed. After all, there was no evidence against them.
“Fuck! Father, don’t listen to their nonsense! They’re trying to drive a wedge between us!”
Terrified, Hei Shen’s tears poured down uncontrollably as he repeatedly knocked his head against the ground before Hei Zhuo. His voice soon became hoarse.
…
Meanwhile, Xu Mu and the others had already arrived at the Sacred Battlefield.
After arriving, Xu Mu paid a hefty price to purchase one of the illusion-array villas here—the residence where Meng Wanyue and the others lived.
The villas here all required at least a month’s worth of rent or purchase fees. The purpose was to prevent so-called fans from buying access for a single day and camping outside the contestants’ homes.
After successfully obtaining the keys, the three of them entered the villa within the illusion array under the guidance of professional staff.
Using his senses, Xu Mu first checked Meng Wanyue and the others’ villa. He found no one inside, which meant they were probably out fighting.
Xu Mu could only head to his own villa with Chen Xuan and Tan Tai Quan.
“This place is a complete rip-off. It costs that many spirit stones just to stay for a month?”
After entering the living room, Chen Xuan looked around and complained.
“The Sacred Battlefield dares to charge so much mainly because of the premium placed on safety,” Tan Tai Quan said as she sat down on a sofa. “Although this is the Jiao Clan’s territory, even Hei Zhuo has no authority to fight here.”
“Neither of you is seriously injured, are you?”
Xu Mu looked at the two of them with a smile.
“I’m fine. Brother Mu’s pills are incredibly effective.”
Chen Xuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
“But I’ve also figured out where I stand. If I face a sixth-tier expert alone, I’ll definitely die.”
Tan Tai Quan somewhat helplessly took out her jade smoking pipe. Somehow, that statement sounded wrong. She would also die if she faced a sixth-tier expert alone.
Xu Mu suddenly stood up.
“Guoguo is back.”
After saying that, he headed outside. Tong Guoguo was the only one there, though she had a lackey following her.
It was Hathaway’s younger brother, Hesius.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
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.
