A new year.
An explosive piece of news spread across the entire world.
Information about martial artists was completely declassified.
Everyone became aware of the other side of this world!
Major media outlets rushed to publish reports on martial artists, and martial arts forums officially entered the public eye.
All trending topics on Weibo were replaced, and entertainment news was taken down entirely.
Short video platforms were flooded with official introductions to martial arts by government-affiliated media.
Everyone was stunned.
So the world wasn’t as simple as they had imagined?!
The next morning.
The Leng Family residence.
Gu Yan leisurely sipped his black tea while scrolling through the trending headlines on his phone.
The top one read—[What Are Martial Artists? What Is the Ancient Martial World?]
Right below it were:
[Shocking! Fiction Has Become Reality!]
[Can an Ordinary Person Become a Martial Artist?]
[The Relationships Between Factions in the Martial Arts Department]
...
...
From top to bottom, every single trending topic was related to martial artists.
The world had changed drastically—not just in the Eastern Nation, but even the Western Nation had publicly released information about martial artists.
Gu Yan swiped through a few more short videos.
Countless official accounts posted videos explaining martial arts, making it clear to everyone:
This was no joke. It was real.
He opened the comments section.
[What the—? Did I wake up too early? The government’s saying martial artists exist now?]
[Not just that, dude. There are Demon Creatures too. Check out this "Demon Creature.GIF."]
[Honestly, does this mean we can train to become martial artists too?]
[Hey! That’s a good point!]
[+1]
[+2. The whole world’s evolving, and we’re just left behind? Government, you’re unbelievable.]
[What kind of joke is this? This is way too sudden. Why would the government announce something like this out of nowhere? My kid’s cram school got canceled today! I’m filing a complaint—this isn’t funny!]
[Are you insane? How can you still care about cram school at a time like this?]
[Parent of the year right here, folks.]
[Wait, why have prices at my local grocery store skyrocketed? Feels like the apocalypse is coming.]
[Yikes… I just checked my food delivery app—a bag of salt costs 10 bucks now? A pack of instant noodles is 30? And this isn’t even a tourist area.]
[The government just announced a halt to all social activities today. There’ll be a press conference at noon to explain why martial arts info was kept secret until now. They’ll probably address the price surges too.]
[Hope so.]
[Hope +1]
[Looking forward to it +2]
Closing the video app, Gu Yan had a rough idea of how the public was reacting to the revelation.
First, thanks to the rise of short videos, movies, TV shows, and novels, most people weren’t entirely shocked to learn the world had another side.
But there were still those who refused to accept this new reality.
They believed a peaceful, stable world was the ideal, and introducing unpredictable elements like martial artists and Demon Creatures would disrupt their tranquility.
Their stance was: even if this hidden side of the world existed, they’d rather not know—preferring to live and die in ignorance, safe and sound.
Gu Yan was sure many people felt this way.
The Martial Arts Department’s original intention had been the same.
But… unfortunately, the Night King incident and the Forbidden Zone crisis had left them severely understaffed.
That was why the Martial Arts Department had no choice but to make this decision.
Gu Yan smirked. Good. Everything was going according to plan.
Now, it was time for him to make his move.
With that thought, he spoke softly, a hint of something unreadable in his eyes. "Old Gao, tell Shitou and the others to get ready."
"We’ll make our appearance… at noon today."
Behind him, Old Gao seemed to understand what the young master was planning. He nodded. "Understood, Young Master."
......
......
At noon, a strange phenomenon occurred.
Society ground to a halt.
Everyone gathered in front of TVs or phones, silently awaiting a live broadcast that would determine the future of their world.
Local logistics teams of martial artists patrolled the streets, rounding up those who couldn’t watch the broadcast and bringing them together—ensuring no one remained unaware of the world’s transformation.
The Leng Family residence.
Gu Yan, Leng Ling'er, and Leng Qingqiu sat together in the living room.
"Big sis, I’m so nervous. It’s like the world’s turned upside down. Is it because I started training?"
Leng Ling'er fidgeted anxiously. Was she the protagonist or something?
Did the world change just because she began cultivating?
Did this mean she’d face all the crises only protagonists encountered?
Leng Qingqiu gave an exasperated chuckle. "Confidence is good, but the proposal for universal martial arts was approved a long time ago."
"They just happened to announce it on New Year’s Eve."
"Oh… Huh? So you and brother-in-law already knew about this… and I was the only one left in the dark?"
Leng Ling'er pouted indignantly.
Gu Yan laughed and draped an arm over Leng Qingqiu’s shoulders. "Kids don’t need to know everything."
"We thought having your sister and me to protect you was enough. Who knew you’d get dragged into this mess?"
At that, Leng Ling'er recalled the incident when a mysterious assailant had attacked their home.
Come to think of it…
She glared at Gu Yan and called him out. "Ohhh, brother-in-law! That arm that suddenly appeared on my shoulder back then—that was your ability, wasn’t it?"
Gu Yan shrugged. "Who knows?"
Hah, this kid was sharp.
Meanwhile, Leng Qingqiu thought to herself: So it really was Gu Yan who’d placed a protective measure on Ling'er.
Before Leng Ling'er could press further, the sound of the live broadcast starting came from the TV.
"Ah! It’s starting!"
Leng Ling'er’s attention immediately shifted to the screen.
Gu Yan and Leng Qingqiu also turned to watch.
The broadcast began.
Onscreen, a broad-shouldered man in a white uniform appeared.
A starburst emblem was pinned to his chest.
"Wait, isn’t that the guy from the New Year’s Eve countdown last night?"
Leng Ling'er blinked in surprise.
This time, however, there was an added detail.
A caption appeared beneath him:
[Head of the Martial Arts Department: Long Tianyuan]
Long Tianyuan.
Gu Yan silently reviewed the man’s background in his mind.
In the original storyline, Long Tianyuan was the supreme leader of the Martial Arts Department—a peak Grand Master, just one step away from the legendary realm.
Known as humanity’s ultimate weapon, he was a centuries-old monster teetering on the edge of transcendence.
But…
His lifespan was running out, and the breakthrough to Grand Master remained elusive.
So he chose a different path—one of self-destruction.
He… revived the "Anti-Demon Weapon" experiments.
The very same cruel experiments that had created beings like Lin Yinyin.
He hoped that through this experiment, he could find another way to break through his limits and survive.
In truth, Long Tianyuan's original intention was noble—he wanted to eradicate all Demon Creatures from this world.
This included the Night King as well.
That was why he sought to live indefinitely, wiping out every last Demon Creature and the Night King without exception.
But... after conducting the Anti-Demon Weapon experiment on himself, the essence of the Demon Creatures began to corrupt his heart.
As a result, he lost his sanity and descended into a demonized state, slaughtering countless innocent people during this period.
In the end, he was tragically put down by the protagonist group—Xiao Lin and his companions—who acted with heavy hearts.

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.”

pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"

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?!

rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!