Mo Yingyue tilted her head and suddenly said, "By the way, Master, I just took a look at those eight city lords. You must have extracted their spiritual sense marks, right?"
Hearing this, Mo Yingluo immediately chimed in, her face showing a hint of smugness. "Yeah, there is actually no need to go through all that trouble. Just let me handle it. Turn them directly into blood thralls, and we will not have to worry about them disobeying."
As she spoke, she puffed out her chest, looking as if to say, "Look how smart I am."
Gu Changyuan could not hold back and raised his hand, lightly flicking her on the forehead.
Thump.
Mo Yingluo clutched her head and pouted in grievance.
"I am looking for normal people to help manage the Outer Realm City, not puppets."
Gu Changyuan withdrew his hand, his tone helpless.
The biggest reason he had no intention of using Mo Yingluo's ability was that the blood thralls she converted through blood pacts would not provide him with even a single trace of cultivation feedback.
Blood thralls were not recognized as disciples by the system's rules.
Just as Gu Changyuan was speaking with the two women, suddenly...
Clang, clang, clang! Clang, clang, clang!
The great bell atop the highest tower in the northern part of the Outer Realm abruptly began to ring urgently.
The bell's toll was deep and sonorous, piercing through the clouds and echoing through every corner of the Outer Realm City. It carried an air of urgency that made everyone's hearts tighten.
With the sounding of the bell, the entire Outer Realm City instantly boiled over.
The cultivators who had been leisurely strolling down the streets experienced a sudden change in expression, scattering and sprinting off in their respective directions.
In particular, the guards within the Outer Realm City looked grave. Moving in a rush with weapons in hand, they quickly gathered and headed toward the city gates.
Their hurried footsteps and faces full of vigilance made it clear that they knew exactly what this bell signified.
Hearing the bell, Gu Changyuan raised an eyebrow slightly. A rule he had just read while flipping through the general rulebook immediately came to mind:
If the first stronghold on the periphery of the Outer Realm is breached by mutated beasts, the cultivators guarding the stronghold must immediately crush their communication tokens to notify the Outer Realm City.
The first stronghold referred to the few small outposts in the Outer Realm that were closest to the Outer Realm City.
The mutated beasts within the vicinity of those strongholds had basically all been cleared out.
Since the beasts in that area had previously been thoroughly eradicated, only a small number of cultivators were stationed there on a normal basis. It was supposed to be the safest place.
If even the first stronghold had been overrun by mutated beasts, there was only one possibility—a beast horde had arrived.
A beast horde was one of the most terrifying disasters in the Outer Realm.
Countless mutated beasts would surge out from the depths of the Outer Realm, blotting out the sky and covering the earth, flooding toward human settlements like a tidal wave.
The Outer Realm City had previously endured ten beast hordes. Although they had safely weathered each one by relying on their sturdy barriers and the combined resistance of the masses, the losses every time were not small. Casualties were disastrously heavy, with many cultivators falling in battle.
It seemed that today, they had arrived right on time for one.
Gu Changyuan's gaze fell on the constantly flowing crowd around them, his expression calm.
"Let us go. We will take a look from atop the city walls."
As soon as he spoke, he brought the two women along, transforming into a streak of light that landed atop the city gates.
The city gates were towering, standing dozens of feet high. They were constructed entirely of massive black stones, engraved with a dense array of defensive formations.
Gu Changyuan stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze passing over the gates and looking out outside the city.
Outside the city lay a vast, expansive wasteland.
At this moment, the wasteland was completely silent. Even the wind had stopped.
It did not look the slightest bit dangerous.
But before long, the earth began to tremble slightly.
The tremor was very slight at first, like someone softly beating a drum in the distance.
But soon, the tremor grew increasingly violent and distinct, until even the city walls began to faintly shudder.
Gu Changyuan's gaze narrowed slightly as he looked into the distance.
On the horizon, sand and stone began to churn.
The dust storm was just a thin line at first, but it quickly merged into a massive expanse, blotting out the sky and covering the sun.
Within the swirling dust, countless massive silhouettes galloped and leaped. Every time they landed, they kicked up clouds of dirt into the air.
As the dust storm grew larger and drew closer, countless bizarrely shaped strange beasts could be seen madly stampeding toward the Outer Realm City.
Some had the bodies of lions but possessed three heads and six arms, their entire forms covered in pitch-black scales. With exposed fangs, they spewed black flames from their mouths.
There were giant wolves wreathed in eerie blue flames; wherever they passed, the ground was left with scorched, blackened trails.
Others were slender and long like snakes, yet possessed eagle claws and bat wings. Moving with extreme speed, they darted through the beast horde, letting out piercing shrieks.
Countless strange beasts, densely packed and overwhelming in number, surged toward the Outer Realm City like a tidal wave.
Not only that, but Gu Changyuan could also clearly see quite a few cultivators fleeing wretchedly toward the Outer Realm City, staying just ahead of the massive beast horde.
Their clothes were in tatters, their bodies covered in wounds, and their auras chaotic. Their faces were filled with terror and despair. It was obvious they had been subjected to a frenzied hunt by the beasts and had long since been routed.
One of the beasts, resembling a wolf but several times larger than a normal one, suddenly accelerated. Pushing off the ground with its four limbs, its body lunged forward like an arrow.
It viciously stomped onto a lagging human cultivator. The cultivator was forcibly crushed into the ground, spewing a large mouthful of fresh blood as his aura instantly withered.
Immediately after, the wolf-like beast lowered its head and took a bite, directly crushing the human cultivator's skull. Blood splattered in all directions.
That Void Refinement Realm cultivator didn't even have time to let out a scream before perishing on the spot, his corpse completely devoured.
In the past, Gu Changyuan might not have stepped in to help them.
The Outer Realm was inherently a place where people lived on the edge of a blade. Life and death were dictated by fate, and he had no obligation to save everyone.
But things were different now.
The Outer Realm City had just changed its rules. Many cultivators would find it hard to adapt and might even resist.
Although he could choose to slaughter them all to establish his dominance, he wasn't here all the time. Moreover, if this kind of situation happened frequently, he simply wouldn't have the time to deal with it.
Therefore, compared to establishing his might through slaughter, it would be better to save this batch of fleeing cultivators. This would let the cultivators of the Outer Realm City witness the strength of their new master and win over their hearts.
This would also save him a lot of trouble when managing the Outer Realm City in the future.
Thinking of this, Gu Changyuan hesitated no longer. He raised his right hand high, his fingertips twitching slightly. A crisp snap exploded from his hand, the sharp sound echoing through the skies above the city gates.
In the next second, a pale golden barrier slowly descended from a point high in the sky. This barrier was several times more massive than the Outer Realm City's original protective array.
The Outer Realm City itself was a circular domain, and the city walls formed a perfect ring. This beast tide, however, was surging in from all directions, originating from hundreds of miles away.
Thus, the barrier Gu Changyuan set up was also a gigantic hemispherical shield, perfectly enveloping the entire Outer Realm City along with a certain distance outside the city gates.
The pale golden barrier landed with pinpoint precision between the fleeing cultivators and the strange beasts. The edge of the barrier cut right in front of the leading edge of the beast horde.
The ferocious beasts still in desperate pursuit slammed headlong into the barrier and were instantly sent flying backward.
A single barrier now completely separated the cultivators from the beasts.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
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!
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...
