Jiang Wuhen had no idea what a sensation the natural phenomena he’d triggered had caused across the entire Desolate Ancient Continent.
Right now, he was back at his temporary palace, tallying up the spoils of this battle.
This fight hadn’t just awakened the Emperor Devil Tyrant Body. He’d also gained the Invincible Double Pupils and a supreme bone perfectly fused with his own bloodline.
His foundations and heritage had improved by leaps and bounds.
On top of that, he’d obtained a supreme-grade emperor artifact, the Azure Nether Sword Casket, along with the martial skill designed to pair with it: the Nether God Sword Prison.
And his villain points had climbed to a full eighty-eight thousand three hundred fifty-one.
That was a fortune. Time to spend.
【Nine Revolutions Emperor Devil Art: currently at the first revolution. Advancing to the second requires 10,000 Villain Points; to the third, 50,000; to the fourth, 200,000…】
【Invincible Double Pupils. Currently mastered skill: Void Piercing (pierces illusions and deconstructs an opponent’s moves). The following skills may be learned: Divine Light of Destruction, 30,000 Villain Points; Heaven-Bestowed Divine Armor, 40,000; Endless Vitality, 100,000; Chaos Domain, 500,000; Double Pupils Opening Heaven, 2,000,000; Ultimate Profound Meaning (unknown), 5,000,000!】
【Supreme Bone. Currently mastered skill: Heaven’s Calamity Light. The following skill may be learned through advancement: Reincarnation, 1,000,000 Villain Points!】
【Azure Nether Sword Casket. Perfect refinement requires 30,000 Villain Points!】
【Nether God Sword Prison. Initial mastery: 10,000 Villain Points. Perfect mastery up to peak heaven grade: 100,000. Advancement to divine-grade martial skill: 500,000. Reaching the peak: 1,000,000!】
【…】
【Note: Villain Points can be used not only for cultivation but also to redeem items from the shop. All manner of items are available…】
Jiang Wuhen listened patiently to the system’s rundown and couldn’t help breaking into a cold sweat.
He’d thought his eighty-odd thousand villain points were a fortune. Now it was clear they weren’t nearly enough!
Every single line item cost upwards of a million to max out.
After weighing his options three times over, Jiang Wuhen decided to redeem the second revolution of the Nine Revolutions Emperor Devil Art first.
As for the Invincible Double Pupils, he picked Heaven-Bestowed Divine Armor, a skill that maxed out defense and boosted all attributes.
The remaining forty-odd thousand points went toward refining the Azure Nether Sword Casket and achieving initial mastery of the Nether God Sword Prison, maximizing his overall power gains.
In mere moments, eighty thousand villain points were reduced to pocket change.
Jiang Wuhen winced at the sight.
“Good thing there’s a Son of Fortune and a Daughter of Fortune around that I can keep fleecing…”
“But even with fleecing, scraping together a million villain points is still tough.”
“System, is there any way to rake in villain points in bulk?”
Jiang Wuhen asked.
【Ding dong. Completing long-term missions yields generous rewards. Long-term missions are as follows:】
【Mission One: Decisive and Ruthless. Destroy three first-rate clans or sacred ground powers. Reward: 500,000 Villain Points, one drop of Primordial Devil God Essence Blood!】
【Mission Two: Solely Venerated. Slay nine heirs of first-rate clans, sacred sons, saintesses, and the like. Reward: 300,000 Villain Points, Spirit Sealing Catalogue (supreme-grade emperor artifact)】
【Mission Three: Contention for the Great Dao. Utterly destroy a Son of Fortune: shatter his fate, seize his fortune, and sever his legacy. Reward: 800,000 Villain Points. Note: This mission may be submitted multiple times!】
【Mission Four: Nine Dragons Pulling Carriage. Capture nine reincarnation-realm great demons bearing the Divine Dragon Bloodline to serve as carriage beasts. Reward: 2,000,000 Villain Points, Great Destruction Art (divine-grade treasure art)】
【…】
【Ultimate Mission: Destiny Is With Me. Subjugate five Daughters of Fortune (or Sons of Fortune) as servants and guarantee their absolute loyalty and obedience to the host. Reward: Mysterious Item (unknown)】
Reading through the missions one by one, Jiang Wuhen couldn’t help breaking into a cold sweat.
Good grief. Just… good grief.
As expected of a villain system. Truly domineering!
Casual orders to annihilate sacred grounds and slaughter sacred sons and saintesses.
And those were the easy ones!
Slay a Son of Fortune. Capture nine reincarnation-realm great demons with the Divine Dragon Bloodline to pull a carriage.
If Sons of Fortune were really that easy to kill, would they even be called Sons of Fortune?
Throughout the countless villain records, more than nine out of ten died because they tried to kill the protagonist.
As for reincarnation-realm great demons, there were few enough in the Desolate Ancient Continent to begin with. Those bearing the Divine Dragon Bloodline were rarer still.
Such beings were the pillars of the demon race. What gave Jiang Wuhen the right to enslave them into pulling his carriage?
And that ultimate mission was flat-out absurd!
Recruit five Sons or Daughters of Fortune as his servants?
Every one of these Sons of Fortune was born rebellious, screaming about defying the heavens from dawn to dusk.
Taking them as servants would be harder than killing them.
Compared to that, the Daughters of Fortune are easier…
Hadn’t Mu Yunxi, that Daughter of Fortune, been conquered by his charm just a short while ago?
Of course, these were all long-term missions with no time limit. He could take them slowly.
“System, is there any way to quickly raise my realm?”
Jiang Wuhen asked.
Cultivation realm was the foundation of true strength.
Among those long-term mission rewards just now, there hadn’t seemed to be anything cultivation-related.
【Cultivation is inherently an act of defying the heavens, a struggle against the Heavenly Dao. There are no shortcuts. The host must cultivate through personal effort. This system can only provide auxiliary support.】
The system replied.
“Auxiliary support? How?”
Jiang Wuhen pressed.
【The host may spend 100 Villain Points to redeem a one-day ‘Hundredfold Comprehension Halo’ from the shop. Under its effect, the host’s comprehension increases a hundredfold, advancing cultivation by leaps and bounds!】
【Redeem?】
Redeem!
Jiang Wuhen didn’t hesitate for an instant.
Everything else could be cut back. Cultivation realm… absolutely not.
In a flash, a spark of spiritual light flickered before Jiang Wuhen’s eyes, and a profound sensation rose within him.
Faintly, he felt as though he could reach out and touch the very source of the great dao. Bottlenecks that had once seemed impenetrably obscure unraveled in the blink of an eye.
The great dao is simple. Enlightenment struck like a thunderbolt!
In that instant, Jiang Wuhen entered a state of epiphany. Spiritual energy from the world around him rushed madly into his body.
His aura soared!
…
Time flowed on. Night fell.
BOOM!
Gale-force winds howled as wave after wave of aura surged from Jiang Wuhen’s body.
Transcendent realm, eighth stage. A natural progression!
Phew…
Jiang Wuhen let out a long, turbid breath and emerged from his cultivation state.
The instant he opened his eyes, a familiar silhouette came into view.
The Empress, Luo Qingning!
“Shizun, when did you get here?”
Jiang Wuhen started and hurried to his feet.
Luo Qingning smiled mildly.
“I arrived two hours ago. I saw you’d entered a state of epiphany. It was too good an opportunity to disturb.”
“It seems today’s battle brought you quite a harvest. In just half a day, you’ve broken through to the transcendent realm’s eighth stage.”
Luo Qingning was quite pleased.
“Heh heh, Shizun, seeing how hard your disciple has worked, would you consider rewarding him with the honor of warming your bed?”
Jiang Wuhen grinned.
Luo Qingning shot him a look.
“You little rascal. You’re not a child anymore, and you still show no respect for your elders!”
“If the old fogeys in the sect heard you say that, they’d scold you again.”
With this disciple, Luo Qingning was endlessly indulgent.
Jiang Wuhen laughed and scratched his head.
“Isn’t that what I have Shizun protecting me for?”
“Besides, Shizun, coming to find me in the middle of the night like this… you couldn’t actually want your disciple to warm your bed, could you?”
The words landed, and Luo Qingning rapped him lightly on the head.
“You little rascal, stop playing dumb with your Shizun.”
“The ancient double pupils, the emperor devil tyrant body, and… that perfectly fused supreme bone. Just how many more secrets are you hiding from me, child?”
As she spoke, Luo Qingning put on a look of pretended displeasure.
Jiang Wuhen grinned.
“Not many. Just a sword casket…”
As he spoke, Jiang Wuhen waved his hand.
The antique Azure Nether Sword Casket appeared before Luo Qingning.
Luo Qingning was not only his Shizun; she had raised him.
He had no intention of hiding this from her.
The system, of course, was the exception.
Something like that was entirely beyond her frame of reference. Even if he explained it, she’d struggle to understand.
Seeing the Azure Nether Sword Casket, Luo Qingning’s little mouth fell open. For all her power, powerful enough to suppress a great emperor with a wave of her hand, she couldn’t hide her astonishment.
“This is… the divine weapon wielded thirty thousand years ago by the Azure Nether Sword Emperor, whose mastery of the sword dao was unmatched in all the world?”
“Three years ago, word spread that a successor to the Azure Nether Sword Emperor had appeared in the Divine Maiden Sect. To think… the Azure Nether Sword Emperor’s sword is in my disciple’s hands.”
“With so many fortunes gathered upon him, my disciple Wuhen has the bearing of a great emperor!”
Luo Qingning’s face broke into a smile.
Jiang Wuhen was momentarily speechless.
Shizun, you really shouldn’t say things like that!
“So why did you hide this from your Shizun before?”
Luo Qingning’s tone shifted, her beautiful eyes fixed squarely on Jiang Wuhen.
Jiang Wuhen smiled.
“Shizun, you know me. I never keep things from you.”
“I just… wanted to give Shizun a surprise…”
“And besides, you never asked before.”
Luo Qingning gave a helpless laugh.
“Fine. If you don’t wish to say more, your Shizun won’t press.”
“Now to business. The people who came to make trouble today, how do you plan to deal with them?”
Luo Qingning asked.
“Didn’t we agree? Notify the Divine Maiden Sect and have their Divine Maiden pay the ransom.”
Jiang Wuhen answered plainly.
Luo Qingning shook her head.
“Not the Divine Maiden Sect. I’m talking about… Xiao Chen!”
Luo Qingning’s sharp eye had caught the young man’s mettle, even without knowing the meaning of ‘Son of Fortune’.
If this junior was left to grow, the threat he posed would be no less than the Divine Maiden Sect’s.
“This one has real potential. If he can be put to use by our Heavenly One Immortal Sect, or befriended as an ally, all the better. If not…”
As he spoke, Jiang Wuhen’s gaze darkened.
“Then… kill him!”
