A figure with long black hair swung his sword with full force, releasing a terrifying wave of sword energy that rapidly grew hundreds of meters in length as it flew forward.
"Haa!"
However, this terrifying sword energy was met with hundreds of different energy attacks and was instantly destroyed before it could even grow to its full strength.
The remaining energy attacks rained on the figure in golden armour, forcing him to quickly draw a rune in the air with qi and create a huge barrier around himself.
Bang!
The energy attacks struck the barrier, and a deafening explosion sounded, accompanied by colourful flashes that could be seen from miles away.
The air roared as the impact sent strong winds in all directions.
The attacks continued to press against the barrier, but it held for a moment. The black-haired figure under the barrier gritted his teeth as he sent more qi to support the barrier from collapsing.
Alas, it wasn’t enough as cracks started appearing on the surface of the barrier before quickly spreading like spiderwebs. Eventually...
Shatter!!
The barrier collapsed, and the attacks crashed into the figure ruthlessly, causing him to fall from the air like a comet.
Luckily, he didn’t reach the ground and was able to stop his fall just below cloud level.
"Gu Chen, hand over the nine-coloured God pills and we’ll leave you an intact corpse!" A loud voice boomed above the clouds, causing powerful shockwaves to spread for several kilometres in all directions.
Countless figures stood in the air, high above the clouds. All of them wore grand robes and exuded terrifying pressures that were enough to crush anyone below the Saint realm to dust.
In the middle of this encirclement, Gu Chen knelt on one knee in mid-air. His bloodied hand gripped the hilt of his sword, which he used to support himself.
His eyes were red, and his long black hair was soaked in his own blood; his armour had cracks all over, and one could see torn and burnt flesh underneath.
Gu Chen also released a terrifying pressure from his body, even in this position. As a stage 7 Heavenly Immortal cultivator, he wasn’t necessarily weaker than these figures surrounding him. He was even stronger than some of them.
But after fighting for so long, his injuries had accumulated, and his aura had become unstable as qi began to leak from his soul.
Spit!
Gu Chen spat out a mouthful of blood before raising his gaze with some effort. He stared at the figures above him with strong hatred in his eyes.
"So this is the true nature of the righteous sects- how foolish was I to not notice after all these years?!" Gu Chen said with a bitter smirk as he slowly stood upright and rose to their level.
Seeing this, the countless figures became vigilant. They all readied their immortal weapons and prepared to attack.
Although injured, Gu Chen wasn’t someone they could take lightly.
Indifferent to their actions, Gu Chen slowly rose and stopped when he came face to face with an old man who had a dignified air around him.
"Calling so many immortals just for one person- was it really for the pill or because you are afraid of being exposed?" Gu Chen said disdainfully. At the same time, he was secretly gathering the little bit of QI he had left within a specific point in his soul.
The face of the old man didn’t change.
"Does it matter? Both are beneficial to use; you just have to decide how you die."
"And you think I’ll just hand them over? I made those pills, as long as no one gets their hands on them, there’s no hope of getting past the True Immortal rank.
So, why do you think I’ll give the righteous sects a chance to grow stronger? No, I should call you the deceiver sect instead." Gu Chen laughed wildly.
Immediately after his laugh, the air around him changed as qi began to surge around him like a river.
Space cracked like the surface of a mirror all around Gu Chen, a radius of hundreds of kilometres around them suddenly looked like a death zone as reality collapsed.
The expression of the old man changed immediately after seeing this.
"No, stop him! He’s going to..."
But he didn’t get to complete his words as a wicked smile formed on Gu Chen’s lips.
"You want my pills? Go fuck yourself!"
Boom!!
Gu Chen’s dantian exploded after he accumulated enough qi.
A blinding light erupted from his position, swallowing all of the figures from the righteous sects before spreading hundreds of kilometres in all directions.
The sky burned with visible flames, spatial tears formed without warning and sucked everything close by into the void, the earth erupted with violent flames, and the wind roared like the surface of a boiling river.
It looked like the end of the world as the destruction played for hours without end.
Within the destruction, the cultivators from the righteous sects struggled to protect themselves from the destruction brought by Gu Chen’s exploding dantian.
Those who were weaker than Gu Chen were instantly burned to ash by the heat or sucked into the cracks that appeared. The others were burning magical items and talismans just to stay in one piece.
Time passed, and after several hours, the destruction finally stopped.
More than half of the cultivators from the righteous sects had died in the calamity, and Gu Chen was nowhere to be seen; he had obviously died as well after what he did.
The old man whom Gu Chen had spoken to earlier had survived as well; he looked around without any emotions in his eyes.
An area of hundreds of kilometres had turned into a death zone because of Gu Chen. The cracks remained in the air, and the earth had turned into a wasteland; not a single sign of life could be seen for as far as the eyes could see.
"So much loss, and we still didn’t get those pills," the old man mumbled under his breath. The only good thing about this was Gu Chen’s death.
After staring at the new death zone for a bit, the old man turned around and looked at the other cultivators who had survived the explosion.
"Fellow daoists, I’ll return first." He cupped his hands and said before shooting into the distance the next moment.
The other cultivators didn’t stick around either and also flew in different directions, each returning to their respective sects.
........
’Am I dead? It feels different from the last time; this feels warm.’
Gu Chen didn’t know how long it had been since his encounter with the righteous sects, but those were the first thoughts that came across his mind.
A gentle gust of wind blew past, and Gu Chen felt refreshed when it touched him.
’No, wait, that’s not right!’ He screamed in his thoughts upon realising that he could feel the wind.
He had obviously exploded his dantian earlier just to take those sick bastards with him; he should have died for sure. So why, why could he feel the wind on his skin when he shouldn’t even have a body?
Could it be...?
Getting a familiar feeling, Gu Chen tried to open his eyes. He actually did; he could open his eyes!
He had eyes!
However, he was blinded by sunlight and had to close his eyes.
"Gosh, why am I staring at the sun!" He scowled, not in his thoughts this time, he actually spoke!
Blinking a few times to adjust and changing the direction he was looking at, Gu Chen finally opened his eyes and was able to look at his surroundings.
He was lying on a footpath that led up a mountain.
"I transmigrated again?!" Gu Chen almost screamed while sitting up; he was baffled as to why he was here after killing himself.
The first thing he did was check himself; he knew what he had done, but still, he held hopes.
A second later, a sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head.
"I guess it’s only natural," he mumbled. His strength was gone, his dantian was empty without a single sign of qi, and he was really just an ordinary person this time.
Since this wasn’t his first time waking up after obviously dying, Gu Chen wasn’t too shaken and quickly organised his thoughts.
He looked around, wondering where he was. A footpath on a mountain didn’t give much information.
While he was still thinking, a sound exploded in his mind as something appeared in front of him.
.....
(Ding! Conditions met! The Villainess Management System has been activated!
The Villainess Management system!
Host: Gu Chen!
Org: (unnamed)
Org rank: Null (please name the organisation first)
MP: 0/100
Members: 0
...
Inventory/ Store(locked)/ Skills.
....
Gu Chen "..."
He stared at the screen that had suddenly appeared in front of him with wide eyes as his thoughts raced.
As someone who was originally from Earth, how could he not know what a system was?
His system had finally arrived!
Before Gu Chen could recover from his shock, the details on the screen changed.
....
(Ding! A Villainess has been detected!
Mission: Recruit Feng Shuran.
Feng Shuran: Leader of the assassin temple who is currently being chased by members of the Dae Qu righteous sect. She is hiding in a remote cave at the back of this mountain.
Rewards for completion: 200mp. Five super medkits. Gold tier spawn effect. Three teleportation scrolls. Org base unlock.)
...
"..."
Gu Chen was silent for a moment as he stared at the rewards he would get from saving this female top assassin.
Why did the rewards feel like items from a video game?!