Squelch!
A sharp, icy pain pierced Dick's chest.
"?!?"
His pupils contracted, his breath seemingly frozen in shock.
Dick looked down in bewilderment at the black sword impaling his chest.
Huh... How?
He stared blankly at the half-smoked cigar in his hand, then at the untouched room around him.
Had he... been in this room the whole time?
Then what about everything that just happened...
His mind went blank as he stiffly turned his head, locking eyes with the ghostly figure behind him.
His voice was hoarse, his gaze shattered, blood trickling from his lips. "This... was all an illusion..."
Squelch!
Gu Yan pulled the black sword from Dick's chest and said indifferently, "Maybe this is still part of the illusion. Why don't you... take a guess?"
At those words, Dick's pupils dilated, his consciousness fading.
Thud!
His body collapsed heavily to the ground.
The leader of the Grim Reaper Organization, a master at the late-stage of the Grandmaster realm... had fallen!
The moment Dick laid eyes on the sword—Illusion's End—he had already been ensnared in Gu Yan's illusion.
The lighter... was merely a small trick to mislead him.
The real goal was to wear down his mental defenses, bit by bit.
With that done, Gu Yan stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze calm as he observed the blood-red formation in the sky.
Under his watchful eyes, the formation gradually dissipated.
And then... a crimson orb appeared at its center.
The Blood Fiend Pearl!
The most treasured artifact of the Grim Reaper Organization.
It seemed Ling Fa had successfully dismantled the Blood Fiend Formation.
Gu Yan raised his hand in a beckoning motion.
Whoosh!
The Blood Fiend Pearl flew toward him.
Crash!
The window shattered as the pearl shot through it. Catching it in one hand, Gu Yan gripped Illusion's End in the other.
Then—Hum!
The Blood Fiend Pearl transformed into a streak of bloody light, merging seamlessly into the crimson vein running through the sword's blade.
[Congratulations! Illusion's End has absorbed the Blood Fiend Pearl. The Blood Qi Blade technique is now available!]
Hmph, Blood Qi... Not a bad ability.
Perfect for dealing with certain people.
With that thought, Gu Yan tightened his grip on Illusion's End and looked outward.
Unnoticed until now, five figures had appeared in the sky.
"Night King!"
"Night King, you ruthless bastard! Not only did you kill Dick, you even took the Grim Reaper Organization's lifeblood treasure!"
Bai Jun stood at the forefront, his expression one of shock as he stared at the familiar figure atop the spire.
But when his eyes landed on the corpse at Gu Yan's feet, horror overtook him. "Dick?! Dead?!"
The other four were all Grandmasters as well.
The man on the far left paled. "Oi oi oi, Bai Jun, this is bad. How the hell did Dick die? There wasn’t even a sound!"
"From the time we were attacked until now, it's barely been fifteen minutes!"
Another warrior hesitated, fear creeping into his voice. "Dick was a late-stage Grandmaster. Even the five of us together might not have been a match for him. This..."
Swish! Swish! Swish!
At that moment, dark figures emerged behind Gu Yan.
"Lord, mission accomplished."
Shitou and the others bowed respectfully, their masks splattered with blood.
Gu Yan gave a slight nod.
His gaze returned to the five in the sky, his voice indifferent. "Come at me together."
Those words sent a chill down Bai Jun's spine.
The Night King, now empowered by the Blood Fiend Pearl, was even stronger than before.
They... stood no chance.
"We have to retreat," Bai Jun muttered under his breath.
But—
"Bullshit!"
A burly man roared, his eyes bloodshot with rage as he glared at the black-clad figure below. "The Night King sent his men to kill my wife! This is an unforgivable grudge! Today, Lei Tian will avenge her, no matter what!!!"
Hearing this, Gu Yan glanced at the man dispassionately.
"Oh? Your wife... was this one?"
He raised his hand, and a spectral figure of a woman materialized in his palm.
It was a soul—one of many Shitou and the others had collected after slaughtering the Grim Reaper Organization's lesser members.
"Lei... Lei Tian... run..."
The woman's spirit sobbed weakly, her voice fragmented.
Then—
Crunch!
Before Lei Tian could react, Gu Yan clenched his fist, crushing the soul into nothingness.
"NO!!!"
Lei Tian's sanity snapped. Teeth gritted, he charged at Gu Yan like a maddened beast.
"Night King!!! I’ll kill you!!!"
"Wait! Lei Tian, don’t be reckless!" Bai Jun shouted, but it was too late.
"To hell with waiting!!"
"If you cowards won’t fight, I’ll do it alone!!"
Lei Tian hurtled toward the Night King, his rage unstoppable.
Then—
Under the watchful eyes of all, Gu Yan merely looked up and uttered a single word.
"Annihilate."
BOOM!!!
A surge of black-and-crimson Blood Qi erupted in Lei Tian's path.
The collision was instantaneous.
BOOM—!!!
Lei Tian's body disintegrated on impact.
"Lei Tian!!!"
Bai Jun screamed in disbelief.
Lei Tian had been a mid-stage Grandmaster, the leader of the Thunder Sect.
And yet... he had been obliterated in one move?!
His face twisted in terror. The remaining Grandmasters panicked.
"Run! RUN!!"
They turned to flee.
But—
As Bai Jun spun around, he saw the black-clad figure slowly raise his sword horizontally.
Then, with a single, effortless swing—
BOOOOOOM!!!
A blinding dark-red sword beam tore across the sky, its sheer power enough to make one's scalp tingle.
It swept forward with unstoppable force, obliterating everything in its path—buildings, terrain, even the fleeing Grandmasters.
Bai Jun and the others were fast, but the sword beam was faster.
"Is that... a sword beam?!"
"You’ve got to be kidding me..."
The slash was so vast it blotted out half the sky, like the scythe of death itself.
Squelch—
Flesh and stone alike were shredded apart. A macabre dance of blood painted the air.
One by one, the Grandmasters were pierced through, their bodies reduced to crimson mist.
"ARGH—!!"
Bai Jun poured every ounce of his energy into escaping, but when he glanced back—
The dark-red slash was already upon him.
No escape.
Despair flooded his heart.
Was this... the end?
Suddenly—
"Bai Jun!"
A black void materialized before him.
A familiar voice echoed in his ears, but before he could process it, he was sucked into the abyss, consciousness fading.
SWOOSH—!!!
The dark-red slash razed everything in its wake, stretching for hundreds of miles before finally dissipating.
Crash...
A supernatural phenomenon altered the weather, gathering dark clouds that unleashed a downpour upon the land.
Patter, patter!
The heavy rain fell upon the ground, relentlessly washing away the bloodstains in the mud.
Gu Yan stood amidst the ruins of a shattered spire, calmly surveying the scorched remains of everything around him.
The Grim Reaper Organization had been annihilated.
Yet another faction responsible for the extermination of the Leng Family had been erased from existence.
With the Thunder Sect's high-tier combatants wiped out, the progress of universal martial cultivation would undoubtedly accelerate once more.
And this time... both the Western Nation and the Eastern Nation ought to recognize the severity of the Night King's threat, uniting to form an alliance.
Hah. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
As for the one who had taken Bai Jun away, Gu Yan had already deduced their identity.
He had long since detected their presence—precisely why he had felt no hesitation in launching his assault on Bai Jun.
Still... he wondered how Bai Jun would react upon learning the truth of his rescuer. Would it be joy... or sorrow?
At that moment.
An umbrella was raised above Gu Yan's head.
"My lord."
Little Bai approached on tiptoe, using her clawed ability to manifest an umbrella, which she held aloft for him.
Gu Yan gave a slight nod, a faint smile curling at the corners of his lips. "Let's return."
"And while we're at it... let the world know the Grim Reaper's final fate."
"Yes!"
Whoosh!
Their figures vanished into the rainy night, as though they had never been there at all.
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.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
