Light.
Very piercing light.
Like countless fine needles stabbing into the eyes, dense and aching.
Chen Xia first opened his eyes.
What entered his eyes was pale light, shooting around chaotically, intersecting vertically and horizontally.
He had arrived at the real Quasi-Saint ruins.
Or maybe not just Quasi-Saint ruins. In the perception of the Inner demon, three Quasi-Saints had died here.
Chen Xia looked up and began to survey his surroundings.
An enormous figure appeared before his eyes, ten thousand yards tall, straight to the sky, like a god standing between heaven and earth, majestic and upright. Even though it had died countless years ago, it was still emanating a terrifying aura.
It was the remains of a Quasi-Saint.
Chen Xia recognized it.
What was even more shocking was that stabbed into the heart of the Quasi-Saint remains was an ancient and simple bronze spear.
The spear was covered all over with mottled rust, carrying an aura from ancient times. It had pierced through the Quasi-Saint remains and was still extending further inside.
Chen Xia followed along the extending spear with his eyes, and they gradually widened.
Impaled on the extending spear were two more sets of Quasi-Saint remains!
A single bronze spear had actually pierced through three Quasi-Saints!
At this moment, not only Chen Xia was astonished, but all the cultivators who saw this scene were dumbstruck. The cultivators at the Heaven Mending Realm twelve levels immediately reacted, shouting loudly,
"This isn't a Quasi-Saint ruin site, it isn't!"
The rest of the cultivators trembled when they heard this.
If not a Quasi-Saint ruin site, then what was it?
The scene behind the bronze spear gave them the answer.
There was a figure seated on a throne that they couldn't see clearly. They could only make out an extremely long and curved pair of horns on its head, like two bolts of lightning. The bronze spear had been shot out from that position, piercing through the three Quasi-Saints.
And the final posture of the figure on the throne was clutching its chest, as if it had suffered some fatal injury and perished here.
Although it was already dead, its body was still emanating an ancient, terrifying aura. The space around its remains trembled occasionally, with the sound of thunder and lightning, as if from antiquity.
"G...Great..." One cultivator stuttered out in a trembling voice.
"The remains of a Great Saint! This is the ruin of a Great Saint!"
The minds of all the cultivators shook when they heard this. They didn't even dare look again at the figure on the throne, afraid that the leftover divine will of the Great Saint would blast them into oblivion.
If Quasi-Saint ruins were the baseline they explored, then the ruins of a Great Saint exceeded that baseline by far. If they encountered an ancient Great Saint that was capable of devouring enemies in life, they might all be tortured and killed by the residual divine will!
Chen Xia lightly exhaled a breath, remaining calm instead of overly nervous. He began looking for Ma Xiaohong.
If everything above had collapsed, then Ma Xiaohong should have fallen down as well.
His divine sense stirred slightly and he soon discovered Ma Xiaohong. She was being protected in the center by over a thousand flying swords, off in the distance.
He had no intention of bringing Ma Xiaohong over either. She was safer over there for the time being.
There might be an earth-shatteringly brutal battle coming up that even he couldn't guarantee life or death in.
It all depended on how much residual divine will was left in this Great Saint.
Everyone was waiting.
Waiting for the Great Saint to make the first move.
A low rumble of thunder preceded it.
The shadowy figure of the Great Saint on the throne had stood up at some unknown point. It stood before everyone even though its eyes weren't open. Yet everyone felt like they were being watched.
"After personally killing three insignificant Quasi-Saint ants, my residual will has awakened for the first time. But once again, swarms of ants appear before me, muddling my intent," it said calmly, yet like the prelude to a clap of thunder.
"Heaven Mending Realm, twelve levels... ten levels... eight levels... seven levels... four levels..."
"Hm?"
At this point, its tone finally changed somewhat, carrying a hint of puzzlement at the peak as it said slowly.
"How is there still someone at the Embryonic Realm here?"
Chen Xia didn't speak. He had a lot of trump cards, but still didn't dare say that victory was assured this time.
The word "Great Saint" still carried too much deterrence.
"Senior, this junior has accidentally disturbed your rest. I truly have no excuse. But now I boldly beg senior to spare my life. This junior is willing to serve you as a horse or a dog, and swear a life oath to guarantee it!" One cultivator at the twelfth level of the Heaven Mending Realm spoke up directly, his attitude extremely humble.
The residual will of the Great Saint didn't reply, only watched him silently.
Tremendous pressure instantly overwhelmed the Heaven Mending Realm twelfth level cultivator. He immediately knelt down and kowtowed as he begged for mercy.
"A dead tree still requires nutrients, not to experience a new spring, but only to barely extend its withered existence," the residual will stated.
The head of the Heaven Mending Realm twelfth level cultivator instantly burst apart, blood splattering out. His soul and spirit scattered into heaven and earth. At the same time, perceptible additional color appeared on the remains of the Great Saint.
The cultivators here were its nutrients!
The residual will of the Great Saint had started killing.
This was true slaughter. The Heaven Mending Realm cultivators basically had no capability to resist and were instantly annihilated. Their souls and spiritual force were absorbed by this bizarre world.
The only ones still able to put up a fight were several peak experts at the twelfth level of the Heaven Mending Realm. Their minds exchanged ideas frantically at this time.
"The residual will of this Great Saint doesn't have the full cultivation level of a Great Saint. At most it's only at the Quasi-Saint level, and very possibly not even that. It's lacking some crucial things."
"If we join forces, we still have a chance to seize an opportunity to survive!"
After the few peak Heaven Mending Realm cultivators finished strategizing, the Great Elder turned and shouted at Chen Xia.
"Lend me that sword of yours to use for now. Afterwards, I can lead you to escape from these ruins. Otherwise, you will only be waiting around to die."
Chen Xia replied, "I can lend it, but who it ends up cutting down is hard to say."
The Great Elder glanced at his severed arm, his expression darkening without asking further. He focused his attention on confronting the residual will instead.
The Great Saint was powerful indeed, but its residual will was uncertain.
The few of them joining forces at the peak of the Heaven Mending Realm still had a thread of hope to survive!
It was a chance.
But it really was only a single thread.
As the head of the first Heaven Mending Realm peak expert exploded, their thread of hope was also thoroughly erased.
The second peak expert of that realm fell, dying horribly as he turned into a splash of bloody pulp.
The third burst apart.
The fourth crumbled...
In the end, only the Great Elder remained. Clutching his severed arm with an expression of madness, he gnashed his teeth tightly now. His eyes were wide open in shock and his aged face was taut. He looked at Chen Xia and cried out loudly,
"I don't want to die! I really don't want to die! Save me..."
"Shh," Chen Xia made a quieting gesture with his finger to his mouth again and responded mildly.
"Don't make noise."
Bang!
The Great Elder's head exploded and his soul was crushed into dust.
"I've always liked to save the least nutritious pieces for last. That way, after the previous buildup, even tastes without much nourishment won't disappoint me too greatly," the residual will of the Great Saint said as its long intersecting horns crackled with fine arcs of lightning.
It still hadn't opened its eyes, yet it watched Chen Xia and continued speaking.
"Two cultivators at the Embryonic Realm stage. I suppose you could consider them a small after-meal snack."
The Embryonic Realm cultivators it referred to naturally included Ma Xiaohong in the distance.
Chen Xia's expression remained indifferent with no visible panic. He slowly extended both hands outward. In his left hand was the bronze sword. In his right hand was the broken half of a sword tip.
The eyes of the residual will paused on the broken sword tip, hesitating briefly without speaking.
Chen Xia stated, "Ever since I started cultivating, I have always been surpassing realms to kill enemies. At the beginning, I surpassed one realm. Later, two realms. And after that, more and more, greater and greater."
"Today, I alone at the ninth layer of the Embryonic Realm will surpass fourteen realms to slay this Great Saint!"
After he spoke these words, silence descended on heaven and earth for a time.
The residual will of the Great Saint asked faintly, "Do you understand what you're saying?"
Surpassing fourteen realms to kill?
If his mental state was stable, there was no way he could utter those words.
Yet Chen Xia's expression remained utterly solemn and serious.
The crimson color in his left eye had already spilled out completely, tainting parts of his face.
Like bizarre markings.
The aura of evil was fierce and cold!
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."
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.
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.
