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Perhaps it was not the best choice to leave the residential area. Sean could only lament his fate; he was destined for misfortune. He had left the residential area for the Wither Peak mountain range, only to be chased by a demonic beast. The one who had saved him now regarded him as her manservant, and had tasked him with retrieving her hairpin, which laid some far distance down at the bottom of a canyon.

Sean sighed as he climbed his way down. The mountain crevice was well below ground level. When Sean looked up, he could make out the bridge that he had passed over. It was now a barely visible thin line. How far down did this crevice in the ground go? Where would it lead him?

The surrounding area grew darker as Sean continued his descent. There was a fog enveloping the place; Sean could not see in the dark, but he could feel condensation gathering on his clothes. Further down, the youth was able to make out what looked to be the shadow of a campfire flickering in the distance. Was there someone down here, in this place, hundreds of meters below ground? Sean slowly made his way over.

The dim, flickering shadows came from the inside of a cave. This cave was protruding off the side of a cliff some hundreds of thousands of meters below ground. Inside this cave was a burning bush and a black kettle. The blanket of flames incasing the bush did not exude any heat. It was though the bush encased in flames did not burn at all, as the shrub still had green leaves and brown bark. Sean removed the lid of the kettle. Inside the black kettle was a small marble. It was brown in color, and swirled with glittering light.

Sean sniffed the marble. It smelled like chocolate. Perhaps it was edible. The young man held the marble between his fingers and took a lick. It tasted like chocolate, perhaps it was edible. Shrugging his shoulders, Sean swallowed the marble without a second thought.

下一章

Forty million years ago, a godlike asura by the name of Dǐn Jiān made his way toward the apex; he was an unparallel force of wrath, a fierce maelstrom of limitless power and will. Dǐn Jiān was a star destined for greatness. From his humble beginnings in a small village in the smallest continent in the smallest universe in the smallest novel that went on hiatus after only twelve chapters, Dǐn Jiān’s will was destined to sweep the nine worlds*.

As Dǐn Jiān underwent a tribulation to ascend into the realm of True Immortal Sovereign, tens of millions of cultivators came at him all at once. His friends, his enemies, and even his previous lovers. All of them came at this moment when Dǐn Jiān was at his weakest. As Dǐn Jiān underwent heavenly tribulation, and his dao protections were down, a myriad of attacks befell his location. Dǐn Jiān may have immortal, but he was not invincible. Even an elephant would fall to an army of ants after so many wounds. Dǐn Jiān could not withstand the endless onslaught of immortal treasures and celestial bodies being thrown at him.

In the midst of it all, an attack had gotten through. Dǐn Jiān looked down. There was a blade in his chest; an ice law was seeping into his wound, freezing over his meridians. Dǐn Jiān looked back up. The face of his best friend, Lèsè Rén stared back at him with a cold expression. Dǐn Jiān closed his eyes. A single tear rolled down Dǐn Jiān’s cheek.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

[Ah, where did it all go wrong?]

Was it his destiny to die here, in this place? To be betrayed by everyone he once knew and loved? No, this cannot be so! Dǐn Jiān opened his eyes! A blinding light resonated across the vastness of space. The immortal sovereign summoned his Divine Scripture of Life and Death. He dared to defy destiny! He dared to defy his fate! Dǐn Jiān refused to die here, in this godforsaken place. As his five senses faded, the immortal sovereign condensed his nascent soul and sea of consciousness into a singular point, forming a small marble. This marble compressed itself into a black hole, sending the sovereign’s will and spirit across space and time.

Now, forty million years later, in a different novel, an idiot a young man by the name of Sean Wu had unknowingly stumbled upon the Nine-Universe Consuming Marble! This was a peerless treasure that contained Dǐn Jiān’s very essence, his entire being. It was supposed to have been picked up a wuxia novel main character whose story would have spanned two thousand chapters of generic, recycled garbage content, however our protagonist got to it first, so too bad.

The presence of a living human had awoken Dǐn Jiān’s consciousness. Finally, after all these years, someone had come to carry on his legacy. The ghost stirred from within the marble. Opening his eyes, Dǐn Jiān smiled and nodded his head upward. So, who is the one to inherit this elder’s supreme martial dao?

Sean’s stomach rumbled as he sat on a makeshift toilet. “Ah, my stomach hurts. If I had known that piece of chocolate was spoiled, I wouldn’t have eaten it.”

下一章

Meanwhile, a girl in a velvet blue dress stood atop a mountain ledge with arms crossed. Three hours had passed since Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ gave Sean Wu the order to retrieve her hairpin. Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ did not mind the wait. For a cultivator, a mere two hours was but a speck of sand in an hourglass. In truth, she had been waiting here for another purpose as well.

For three days and three nights, Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ had stalked a 20,000 year old pericelestial grade mandrake. This herb was a supreme treasure with potent medical properties. Simply smoking a gram of the root could mend small wounds and incisions, consuming a portion of the stem could regrow limbs, and refining the herb into an elixir even allowed an elder to extend their lifespan by six to ten years.

This pericelestial grade herb was crafty, however. It had not lived for this long simply flounder in one place. The 20,000 year old mandrake had a limited sentience, and was able to sense the qi exuded from nearby cultivators. Whenever a living being drew near, the mandrake would dig into the ground at breakneck speed and hide. This made it very difficult to catch.

There was an additional clause to worry about as well. Mandrake herbs tended to have a symbiotic relationship with stone wood parasites. A single bite from one of these parasites injected pure wood qi into the victim, causing them to slowly lose motor functions over time. First, their meridians would woodify and stop working, then their insides would gradually mesh into wood, and finally, they would lose the ability to move or speak. The victim would then have to watch themselves slowly die off over the course of a month, all while in a conscious state. It was a terrifying thought for most cultivators. As such, the act of hunting mandrakes became uncommon.

Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ was not dissuaded. There was no need to count one’s chickens before they hatched. She was concerned with the act of getting to the root in the first place. Dealing with the parasite would after. The question was, how would she draw this root out? Having lived for such a long time, this supreme grade root couldn’t have been fooled by any old bait. Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ had intended to use her hairpin, however that did not work. What she needed was something heaven-defying! Something that could cause the mandrake to drool from the mouth!

But what fool in this desolate place would have something like that on their person? Every other cultivator here was a mortal-grade practitioner trying to take the outer disciple exam. Everyone else on her level was already an inner disciple. Mǔ Lǎo Hǔ sighed, it would be miracle for her to come into contact with someone foolish enough to carry around a high grade treasure in their pocket. Perhaps it had all been for naught.