“Huh? Really? I accidentally fell asleep just now.”
Xu Mu pretended to be surprised.
Hearing him say that, everyone present couldn’t help twitching at the corners of their mouths.
He had broken through from the mid-stage of Transcendence to the late stage in his sleep? Was he even human?
Xu Mu clenched and unclenched his fists several times, feeling the vast power surging through his body, and nodded inwardly.
Sure enough, this realm was completely different from the mid-stage of Transcendence. Combined with his powerful physique, he should now be able to fight a Tier Four expert head-on without relying on a surprise attack with the Boundary-Breaking Sword.
After reaching this realm, his upcoming operations in the Water Spirit Clan would be several times safer.
“Xu Mu, what are you going to the Water Spirit Clan’s royal city for this time?”
The blue-haired woman across from him asked with a bright smile.
Only then did Xu Mu take a careful look at the woman before him. Compared with the others, she was fairly friendly toward him.
He first used the Eye of God to inspect her information.
Name: Shui Miaomiao
Identity: Granddaughter of the Water Spirit Clan Chief; heroine of The Dragon King Descends.
Favorability: 1
Destiny Level: 8 (Maximum Level: 10)
Xu Mu was secretly startled. He hadn’t expected to encounter another heroine. Ye Chen really knew how to gather them around him.
However, he had only read about Ye Chen’s storyline up to the middle and late stages and had never finished the novel.
As he remembered it, he had stopped reading after Ye Chen reached the fourth level of Boundary-Breaking, at which point he was practically invincible.
After that, Ye Chen continued showing off in the Inner Realm while investigating his own origins. Considering how many women he had gathered into his harem in the Inner Realm, it was understandable.
Suddenly, Xu Mu narrowed his eyes.
This woman was the clan chief’s granddaughter.
Didn’t that mean she belonged to the clan chief’s faction?
That would place her in opposition to the so-called pure and aloof elder.
“I’m going to find someone. My friend is in the Water Spirit Clan’s royal city.”
Xu Mu smiled and steered the conversation in a new direction. “My friend has been in the Water Spirit Clan’s royal city for a long time, and I’ve heard quite a few things about the Water Spirit Clan from him.”
“Oh? What kind of things?”
Shui Miaomiao asked with interest. “This is the perfect opportunity for me, an insider, to determine what’s true and what isn’t.”
“The person my friend mentions most often is Shui Shu.”
Xu Mu chuckled.
“That’s normal. Elder Shui Shu is the goddess of countless men. She displayed extraordinary talent from a young age and became the youngest member of the elders. She’s now the Second Elder.”
Shui Miaomiao nodded secretly.
At the mention of that name, the few people present who weren’t members of the Water Spirit Clan also began chatting enthusiastically.
“Shui Shu is my goddess too. I’ve liked her for more than thirty years. She isn’t young anymore, yet she still hasn’t married.”
A middle-aged man with short black hair laughed from the side. “I feel like my goddess is waiting for me to grow stronger.”
“By the time you grow stronger, your goddess may already be buried.”
Another middle-aged man beside him laughed.
“Elder Shui Shu has her own ideas, but she really is getting on in years. She’s already in her eighties or nineties.”
A young man from the Water Spirit Clan spoke calmly.
The others around them showed little reaction. For women of another race, that age truly wasn’t young.
Some might even consider her an old woman.
But this was Shui Shu. If she were actually willing to marry, countless men would fight to be the one who welcomed her into their family.
She had been a genius from childhood, was beautiful, and had made it all the way to her current position while remaining true to herself. Not a single man had ever touched her.
That was Shui Shu’s capital.
“I heard that the Water Spirit Clan is going to choose a new clan chief?”
Xu Mu looked at Shui Miaomiao.
“Oh? It seems your friend really does have well-informed sources.”
Shui Miaomiao smiled. “That’s right. At present, Elder Shui Shu is one of the strongest candidates.”
“I’d say she isn’t merely one of the candidates. As far as I’m concerned, Shui Shu is the most famous person in the Water Spirit Clan. She may even be more well-known than your clan chief. Surely there’s no one within your clan who can compete with her, right?”
An elderly man with a goatee seated to Xu Mu’s left spoke calmly.
“Of course there is!”
One of the Water Spirit Clan’s elders spoke up. “Shui Shu is a genius, but anyone within the specified age range can participate. The current clan chief’s eldest son is also at the eighth level.”
Xu Mu looked at the elder in surprise. It seemed the Council of Elders wasn’t completely united.
“The clan chief’s eldest son? I remember him. His name is Shui Yuanyao, right? He’s old enough to be Shui Shu’s father, isn’t he?”
The old man with the goatee smiled.
“As long as he falls within the rules, he can participate. However, the Second Elder does have the greatest chance of becoming clan chief.”
“By a wide margin. Aside from the Clan Credential, you have virtually no chance of winning in the other two areas.”
The old man lightly stroked his beard.
The Water Spirit Clan elder’s expression turned somewhat unpleasant upon hearing this.
Xu Mu found it strange. He looked at the old man with the goatee and asked, “Senior, what exactly is the Clan Credential you mentioned?”
“When the Water Spirit Clan and the Fire Clan choose their clan chiefs, they do things differently from the other races. For example, among the Flood Dragons, the strongest takes all. As long as you’re stronger than the Old Flood Dragon King, you can seize the position through sheer force.”
The old man spoke in an even tone. “But they’re different. Compared with the other races, the Water Spirit Clan is more civilized. To become clan chief, one must obtain three credentials.”
“What three credentials?”
Xu Mu continued questioning him.
“The Clan Credential, the proof of strength within the clan. To become clan chief, the first requirement is to overpower all competitors within the permitted age range.”
The old man with the goatee smiled. “As the Old Clan Chief’s son, Shui Yuanyao definitely has access to more resources than Shui Shu. Furthermore, he’s already at the peak of the eighth level, while Shui Shu has only just reached the eighth level. The gap between them is enormous.”
Xu Mu nodded inwardly. That was indeed the case. The higher the realm, the greater the gap between each level.
Perhaps at the first level of Boundary-Breaking, someone could cross two levels and fight an opponent at the third level. But at the eighth level, they might only be able to fight someone at the peak of the eighth level.
“Then there’s the Merit Credential and the Leadership Credential. The Merit Credential is based on contributions—whoever has made the greatest contribution to the race. Expanding territory, submitting a Heavenly-grade cultivation technique, or even handing over an artifact all count. In this respect, Shui Shu completely overwhelms him.”
The old man with the long beard explained, “Finally, there’s the Leadership Credential, which tests one’s ability and prestige. The candidates must select young people from inside and outside the clan and lead them into ancient ruins or similar places to search for treasures. The two candidates cannot take action themselves; they must rely entirely on their own judgment and experience to lead their teams and obtain the treasures. In this regard, Shui Shu is certain to win as well.”
“Why?”
Xu Mu asked.
“Because she’s Shui Shu. What does prestige mean? Isn’t it simply a measure of one’s ability to rally others?”
The old man with the goatee smiled. “With a peerless beauty like Shui Shu, recruiting experts from the younger generation would take nothing more than a single word from her.”
Xu Mu suddenly understood. Put that way, it really was true.
If Zidian counted as part of the younger generation, Shui Shu could summon her with a single word.
That would practically guarantee victory.
The Water Spirit Clan elder did not speak again. One had to admit that the old man’s argument made perfect sense.
…
A day passed in the blink of an eye.
Xu Mu and the others finally landed in the Water Spirit Clan’s royal city. There were corresponding flying-car shops here as well.
After reaching their destination, Xu Mu prepared to leave. But Shui Miaomiao suddenly quickened her pace.
“Mr. Xu Mu, please wait.”
Xu Mu turned around and asked, “What is it? Are you planning to kill me?”
“No! I… I want to ask for your help. I’m willing to pay an appropriate price.”
Shui Miaomiao hurried forward and blocked Xu Mu’s path.
Xu Mu smiled. Here it comes—he hadn’t expected the other party to be so proactive.
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
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.
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
