The next day.
The sky was just before dawn, not yet bright.
The paths of the Crown Prince's Palace were still shrouded in the deepest blue-gray hues of pre-dawn. The wind chimes at the eaves made a very light tinkling sound in the morning breeze, like a whispering farewell.
Gu Chengyin stepped out of his bedchamber into the not-yet-dissipated night, his robes fluttering slightly in the morning mist.
The crisp morning mist rushed into his lungs, diluting his chaotic thoughts.
Today was the day the sect inspection tour would depart.
Gu Chengyin boarded his carriage, passing through the silent palace paths and the not-yet-fully-awakened Shendu City, heading towards the south city gate.
On the streets, early-rising peddlers had already started setting up their stalls. White steam billowed from steamer baskets, mixing with the aroma of freshly baked flatbreads, exceptionally tempting in the cold morning breeze.
The sound of horse hooves stepping on the bluestone pavement came from afar; it was the early shift of the city patrol guards changing over.
Everything was in perfect order, as if today were just another ordinary day.
But Gu Chengyin knew it was not ordinary.
At exactly the hour of Chen, the Great Luo imperial court's sect inspection team would depart from Shendu, with their first stop being the Qingjian Sect a thousand miles away.
This team included him, Jingzhe of the Celestial Master's Mansion, elites of the Golden Feather Guards, experts from noble families, and special envoys from the Qingjian Sect...
And in the shadows, who knew how many pairs of eyes were watching.
Every step could lead into a trap.
Every moment could bring an ambush.
Therefore, he had to be cautious.
The camp outside the south city gate gradually became clear in the morning light.
This was a temporarily cleared open space, originally a drill ground outside the city, now requisitioned as the assembly point for the inspection team.
When Gu Chengyin stepped down from the carriage, he could see from afar that quite a few people had already gathered in the camp.
The neatly lined-up armored soldiers of the Golden Feather Guards wore bright armor, their swords and spears gleaming with a cold, hard luster in the morning light.
The noble family experts gathered in twos and threes were mostly dressed in casual clothes, but their auras were deep and heavy, their eyes sharp.
There were also several carriages already hitched to horses. The most striking of them was a large, spacious carriage flying a tall flag with a black background and gold lettering, bearing a flamboyant Luo character.
That was the symbol of the Great Luo imperial court.
Seeing Gu Chengyin appear, Chen Busha immediately came forward to greet him, his movements crisp and neat, without a trace of excess.
Junior Preceptor Gu.
Chen Busha cupped his hands in greeting, his voice steady and powerful:
All personnel have arrived and are ready to depart at any time.
Pausing for a moment, he took a half-step forward and added in a lowered voice:
The people from the Qingjian Sect have arrived and are resting in the third carriage on the left.
Many experts from the noble families have come, and I have broken them up and integrated them into the team.
Gu Chengyin nodded slightly. He was now the leader of the Shendu inspection group.
Chen Busha was now the deputy leader of the Shendu inspection group, which was also the convention for sect inspections.
The Ministry of Rites was responsible for coordination, and the Golden Feather Guards were responsible for escorting. Each performed their own duties without interfering with the other.
With Chen Busha around, it indeed saved him a lot of worry.
Thank you for your hard work,
Gu Chengyin said, his gaze sweeping across the camp.
He saw that although the Golden Feather Guard soldiers were neatly lined up, there was a trace of imperceptible tension in their eyes.
After all, this time they were going deep into the cultivation world. What they faced were no longer mortal bandits and rogues, but real cultivators who could summon the wind and rain.
He saw that although the noble family experts pretended to be relaxed, they faintly maintained a vigilant distance between their positions.
Gu Chengyin's gaze finally landed on the largest carriage.
The curtains of the carriage were drawn, making it impossible to see the situation inside.
But within thirty feet of that carriage, there was no one. It wasn't that no one wanted to get close, but that they didn't dare to.
The aura of a Golden Core cultivator, even if deliberately restrained, would make Foundation Establishment cultivators instinctively feel oppressed.
Lin Qingyan was inside.
Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and looked at Chen Busha:
Pass down the order, we depart exactly at the hour of Chen.
Yes.
Chen Busha complied, turned around, and strode toward the center of the camp, relaying the order in a loud voice:
Everyone listen to my command, we depart exactly at the hour of Chen!
The order was passed down level by level, and the entire camp immediately sprang into action.
The Golden Feather Guard soldiers began checking their equipment and sorting out their horse harnesses.
The drivers checked the wheels and axles, feeding the horses their last bite of forage.
The noble family experts walked out of their resting places and found their assigned positions.
And the curtains of those carriages were also lifted one by one, and the people inside successively revealed themselves.
Gu Chengyin saw Jiang Jianli come out of the third carriage.
After getting out, she first looked around, her gaze lingering on Gu Chengyin for a moment. She nodded slightly in greeting, and then walked towards the group of Qingjian Sect disciples.
Jiang Qingzheng also got out of the carriage.
This Qingjian Sect elder's graying hair was combed meticulously, and he wore a gentle smile on his face.
He walked up to Gu Chengyin and cupped his hands in greeting:
Junior Preceptor Gu, did you rest well last night?
Thanks to Elder Qingzheng's blessing, everything is fine.
Gu Chengyin returned the greeting, his tone polite.
The two exchanged a few pleasantries, nothing more than superficial formalities.
The hour of Chen was approaching.
After ending the pleasantries, Gu Chengyin walked towards the largest carriage.
He raised his hand and gently knocked on the carriage wall:
Aunt?
Enter.
Receiving Lin Qingyan's permission, Gu Chengyin then lifted the curtain and entered the carriage.
Lin Qingyan's gaze swept over Gu Chengyin's face, then moved away to look out the window:
My inner demon is very stable, you don't need to worry.
Good.
Gu Chengyin nodded, and the last bit of doubt in his heart dissipated:
The team will depart exactly at the hour of Chen. I won't disturb you anymore, Aunt.
After exiting the carriage, Gu Chengyin walked around the camp, checking the preparations everywhere.
Everything was ready.
At exactly the hour of Chen, the morning sun leaped out from the eastern horizon.
Golden light sprinkled over the camp, and the morning mist slowly dissipated in the sunlight, revealing the rolling green mountains and the winding official road in the distance.
Gu Chengyin stood on the largest carriage, gave the team one last scan, and then looked at Chen Busha.
General Chen.
Chen Busha strode forward and cupped his hands:
Please give your orders, Junior Preceptor Gu.
We can depart.
Yes!
Chen Busha turned around, faced the team that was packed and ready to go, took a deep breath, and his voice rang out loud as a bell:
The Lord has ordered, depart!
As the order was passed down, the entire team, like a long dragon, slowly drove out of the camp and set foot on the official road.
Gu Chengyin was just preparing to enter the carriage, but at this very moment, he suddenly sensed something.
A feeling of being watched.
It didn't come from the camp, nor from the team, but from a high place.
Gu Chengyin abruptly turned his head and looked up at the wall of the south city gate.
There seemed to be two figures there.
They were very blurry; separated by too great a distance, their faces couldn't be seen clearly.
Gu Chengyin narrowed his eyes, trying to see more clearly.
But just then, a gust of wind blew past, rolling up the banners on the city wall and blocking his line of sight.
By the time the banners fell back down, there was no one left.
It was as if the two figures from just now were merely his hallucination.
Gu Chengyin looked for a moment before withdrawing his gaze, bending down, and slipping into the carriage.
He officially set out on the path of the sect inspection.
What Gu Chengyin didn't know was...
The two figures on the city wall hadn't left.
They had just retreated into the shadows on the inner side of the city wall.
Shangguan Yunying stared at that carriage and said reluctantly:
Your Highness, Gu Chengyin has left.
Luo Zhao's gaze was similarly fixed on the largest carriage in the team. After a long while, she suddenly spoke:
"Yun Ying, do you think my aunt..."
Luo Zhao paused mid-sentence, eventually shaking his head.
"I'm probably just overthinking it."
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.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
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.
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.”
