Although White Floating Mountain had become a ruin, it was still considered a relic of the immortal sects, so people often came to visit.
On the surface they came to see the ruins, but in fact they were looking for treasures and artifacts.
However, no one seemed to find anything. There was only a middle-aged man in blue clothes living in a small cabin nearby.
Those who had come here several times knew that, in addition to this middle-aged man, there was also a teenage girl here a few years ago.
But now it looked like the girl had left, leaving only this middle-aged man behind.
The visitors didn't bother with the middle-aged man, and just rummaged through the ruins themselves, hoping to find some more treasures and artifacts.
Most of them were disciples from minor sects who had heard the news. They wanted to find some treasures, secret arts, and cultivation methods of White Floating Mountain to increase their own strength.
But the ruins that made up this mountain were so vast, and the treasure seekers who came had little real ability. They could only slowly dig with tools by themselves, while also worrying about having their findings snatched by others.
The middle-aged man in the cabin liked to watch the liveliness. Holding a pot of tea and dragging a dilapidated stool, he sat on the side watching the group of people chisel away at the mountain.
Curious people would often ask him,
"Why have you been guarding this White Floating Mountain for so long?"
"I was a new disciple who had just entered the sect, but unexpectedly the sect crumbled as soon as I entered. With nowhere to go, I naturally stayed here."
Chen Xia answered with a smile, as if talking about someone else's business.
"You really are pitiful." The man sighed and then suddenly asked, "Living on this mountain for so many years, how have you survived?"
He was certain that Chen Xia had dug up treasures from the ruins and sold them.
Sitting on the rickety chair, Chen Xia smiled and said, "I planted my own crops, and didn't need to buy anything. Being frugal, I've been able to get by."
The man's eyes narrowed as he chuckled, "You're so poor, it would be better to go down the mountain and find any job. That's still better than dying here."
"No," Chen Xia shook his head and laughed. "If I left, then my junior sister would really have no home to return to when she comes back."
The man laughed even harder, slapping his thigh repeatedly as he guffawed.
"You... you still have those outdated ideas. Your junior sister was only in her teens or twenties, right? If she went down the mountain, she would have seen the hustle and bustle of the mortal world. How could she still want to come back to this godforsaken mountain?"
"But when people grow old, they want to return to their roots, don't they," Chen Xia smiled as he gently sipped his tea. His head was clearly speckled with white hair.
The man didn't say anything more. He felt Chen Xia was just rambling nonsense. How could someone who left the mountain still want to return?
Let alone this wasn't even really a mountain anymore, just a long dead ruin.
The two didn't have anything more to discuss, and each went their own way, unlikely to meet again.
Chen Xia counted on his fingers and nodded slightly.
This was his 20th year in Small World.
At 25 years old, Xia Chan had taken root in the world below. She hadn't learned any cultivation methods, because cultivators of other sects all said she had no wisdom root and was not suitable for cultivation.
Unwilling to believe them, Xia Chan joined the chaotic Bandit Group, relying on robbery and theft to make a living, hoping that one day she would meet a cultivator who could see her talent.
This had been her dream since childhood. She wanted to cultivate, to be able to control her own life and freedom.
Even at the cost of harming others.
The Bandit Group relied on robbery and theft to survive. During these chaotic times they were especially successful, plundering official envoys and refugees alike.
Because of Xia Chan's viciousness, she gained an important position and status amidst the chaos.
This was very tempting, especially for someone like Xia Chan who had struggled to survive for over twenty years.
She began to raid towns, even ignoring threats from government forces, completely making a name for herself in the chaotic times.
Someone once asked her, "Why does a woman like you join the Bandit Group? That's very rare."
Xia Chan held a blade as tall as herself and recounted as if telling a story, "When I was little I was in a sect and had almost no family. I lived in constant fear and didn't learn any cultivation methods."
"Later the sect collapsed, and I wanted to learn but my only senior brother didn't have any cultivation methods either, so I just struggled on uselessly for many years."
Speaking to here, Xia Chan revealed a mocking smile.
"At that time I was very timid, living in fear every day. People often came to the sect ruins to look for treasures, but I didn't even dare to stop them."
"That was my sect, yet they openly and unscrupulously ransacked it right in front of me, even throwing the unearthed white bones at me."
Xia Chan's mocking smile deepened, "I was useless too, didn't dare resist, had to awkwardly smile along. How embarrassing."
"Did your senior brother really not have any cultivation methods?" The questioner suddenly asked again.
Xia Chan was startled and shook her head slightly, "Senior brother was a new disciple, he probably hadn't learned any methods yet. Besides, senior brother had already given me all the treasures he dug up himself."
"A treasure that can be given away is not much of a treasure," the questioner laughed again.
Xia Chan lowered her head with a distracted look on her face, murmuring, "No, there should be... no way."
The moonlight was getting heavier now, and her thoughts muddled.
The 25th year.
At 30 years old, Xia Chan returned to the mountain, also bringing over a thousand people, killing all the treasure seekers at the ruins.
Flesh and blood sprinkled over the ruins, like a bright red wall.
Xia Chan held her blade, still wet with fresh blood, and slowly walked towards a small cabin.
A middle-aged man sat inside, clearly showing some traces of age, with mottled white hair. He gently spoke as he saw Xia Chan approach.
"You're back."
Xia Chan nodded lightly. "It's been a while, senior brother."
"Not too long, just ten years." Chen Xia smiled and looked Xia Chan over, sighing, "You've changed so much."
"People are bound to change, right?"
"Mm."
After a moment of silence.
"Do you still remember what my childhood dream was?" Xia Chan suddenly asked.
Chen Xia put down his teacup and smiled, "I only remember when you went down the mountain, you said you were going to cultivate."
"No one would teach me to cultivate." Xia Chan put down her bloodstained blade and gave a self-deprecating laugh. "My talent is too low, and I'm already past the best age to start cultivating."
"But people always need dreams, just in case it comes true," Chen Xia replied.
"So can senior brother help me?" Xia Chan asked abruptly.
Chen Xia was startled for a moment. He looked Xia Chan over several times before softly replying,
"You're nothing like your childhood self now."
"I said, people change." Xia Chan's tone was unusually firm.
"Mm." Chen Xia gave a simple reply, not revealing any shift in emotions.
That day, Xia Chan picked up her blade and led over a thousand people. Standing in the sunset, she said to Chen Xia,
"I won't be coming back."
She had completely abandoned the idea of cultivating.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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.
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?!
